Free Tao by John Newman Page B

mother has taken a shine to this Paul chap,” said Willy with a grin, when I dropped into The Happy Pear on the way home from school.
    “Stop that, you!” laughed Kate and waggled her finger at him, but I didn’t see what was so funny.
    “Kate,” Willy said, looking through a book of wise sayings that a customer had given him. “What about this one for over the small window –
Happiness is the china shop. Love is the
bull
. It’s by some chap called Mencken.”
    “I think I’ll put
you
over the small window if you don’t stop your nonsense,” she said, but you could tell she was enjoying being teased. Since Easter, she had been like this. Silly and embarrassing. I just hoped she behaved herself when Mimi and Paul came.
    The week before they arrived was very busy. The whole house had to get a going-over, apparently. Kate had never bothered much with housework before, but now she was like a madwoman. Dusting and hoovering and painting and washing stuff and humming all the time.
    “You do know that Mimi is actually coming to see
me
?” I said to her one day.
    “Of course, love,” she said and grabbed me for a quick hug and kisses. “That’s why the place has to look its best.”
    “Your mum is a serial kisser,” Kalem once told me.
    “Do you mean like a serial killer?” asked David with wide eyes.
    “Yes,” I agreed gloomily, “only worse.” And they both laughed.
    Jo was very curious to meet “the great Mimi in person” as she kept saying, even though Mimi had nothing to do with her. Rachel and Roger had gone completely off their heads with excitement. Charging around shouting, “MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI” was now their favourite game.
    The Head Honcho wanted to know was she any good at football because he was looking for a new centre-half to replace the very distracted one he now had! Of course, he meant me.
    Dad was the only calm one.
    “Mimi will be the nervous one,” he said. “It’s an away game for her this time, but it will all be fine, you’ll see.”
    I wished I was as sure as he was. What if Mimi didn’t like my house or my friends? What if we didn’t know what to say to each other? What if Kate drove her mad with her hugs?
    But Dad just laughed and tousled my hair and called me an old worry-head.

Chapter 19
    The best thing we did when Paul and Mimi were with us was the land yachts. Kate heard about it from one of the customers and although it was quite a long drive to the beach, it was worth it. Kalem came as well. David had to go to visit someone, which was just as well because there wasn’t room in the car for him.
    On the way, Kalem told Mimi all about his latest great invention.
    “Square sausages!” he declared. “What do you think?”
    “Of what?” she said and looked very puzzled.
    “Square sausages are the answer to the age-old problem of the rolling sausage,” said Kalem.
    “The rolling sausage?” I interrupted. I hadn’t a clue what he was talking about.
    “You know the way when you fry sausages in the pan and you try to turn them to cook all the sides evenly all over and they keep rolling back…”
    “Yeah, they do roll!” said Mimi, suddenly excited.
    “Well,” said Kalem, “square sausages wouldn’t roll.”
    “No, they wouldn’t!” said Mimi, and looked at Kalem like he was some kind of genius.
    “Don’t encourage him, Mimi,” I said. “If his head gets any bigger it will burst.”
    Kalem just looked smug.
    The beach was miles long. I couldn’t even see the end of it and the sand was hard. The sea was grey. At the top of the beach was a hut surrounded by yachts on wheels – the ones that sail along the sand.
    Soon we were all sitting in the land yachts with helmets on our heads and the man who rented them out was shouting instructions at us.
    “Keep the sail tight by pulling the left-hand rope and when you reach those yellow cones pull the right rope and let the left go slack. That will turn the yacht. Are you listening to