Free Mira in the Present Tense by Sita Brahmachari Page B

name or the personality?” asks Pat Print. It’s one of those questions she’s not expecting us to answer.
    Ben looks down at his feet and tries hard not to show he’s smiling underneath his copper glinting curls.
    â€œNow, who’s next?” Pat’s sharp eyes settle on me. “Mira?”
    â€œI’m sorry, Miss Print, I didn’t do the name bit. I wrote the diary though.” There it is again, that thin little voice of mine.
    â€œOK! I’ll hear that later. Call me Pat, please. Now, Millie, what have you got for me?”
    Millie needs no encouragement.
    â€œMy ancestors are Scottish and, further back, originally from France, dating right back to 1066. Dad’s told me all about it, but it’s a bit complicated. Apparently, one of my ancestors had Robert the Crusader or Marauder’s heart locked up in a box.”
    â€œWhich was it? A crusader or a marauder?” Pat Print asks, looking amused.
    â€œWhat’s the difference?” asks Ben.
    â€œGood question,” Pat laughs. “Sorry, Millie, I interrupted your flow.”
    â€œWell, my ancestor’s job was to keep Robert the Something’s heart locked up in a box. That’s why I’m called ‘Lockhart.’”
    â€œWhy would he have to keep the heart locked up?” butts in Jidé, forgetting again his own rule that he’s not supposed to be this interested.
    Millie sighs, fed up with being interrupted.
    â€œFascinating, Millie.” Pat smiles. “It’s a great name, Lockhart—beautifully iconic. The heart is the subject of so many wonderful stories. I bet if I asked you, you could all write a different story about love. Now you’ve given me an idea.”
    Ben and Jidé groan at the same time…back to their double act again.
    â€œWrite down as many words as come to mind when I say the word ‘heart.’ Just make a list. I’m giving you fifteen seconds so don’t think about it too hard, just scribble down whatever springs to mind…starting NOW! The word is ‘heart.’”
    artichoke
    blood
    love
    layers
    break
    pig
    blood
    black pudding
    brave
    stop beating
    That’s all I write in fifteen seconds.
    â€œNow STOP! Swap papers and have a read of each other’s,” orders Pat.
    I was going to swap with Millie, like I always do, but before I can, Jidé Jackson has swapped papers with me. In fact, he’s sitting shoulder to shoulder with me, and just that closeness makes me turn my most impressive crimson color. At least I can keep my head down while I read his list.
    love
    hate
    murder
    blood
    machete
    lost
    scar
    mother
    father
    sister
    cloth
    empty
    river
    â€œNow see what words you have in common and choose one word from the list that you would like to ask your partner about,” Pat instructs us.
    I look sideways at Jidé and for a second I do what I can never usually do…look him in the eye. Jidé makes a tiny movement with his head that tells me not to ask him anything about his words, so we talk about black pudding and pig’s blood and how my Nana Kath’s friend tricked me into eating it by telling me it was a vegetable.
    â€œAnd you believed her!” Jidé laughs.
    Then he asks me about the artichoke, so I tell him about Nana Josie’s artichoke-heart charm and what she told me about it, and all the time I’m talking I’m thinking of what his story might be behind those words.
    â€œLet’s have a couple of examples then,” calls out Pat Print as Jidé and I go back to avoiding eye contact with each other and her. For a moment I forgot we were even in class. Now that I’ve actually looked into them, I realize that Jidé’s eyes have a hazel light in them.
    It takes me a while to get my head back into the room, and by the time I do Millie’s reading out the word “transplant,” from Ben’s list, because what he didn’t tell us