Free Me Myself Milly by Penelope Bush

like it much on the farm. She soon got bored with feeding the pigs and the chickens and hated it when we were asked to do the weeding between the rows of vegetables. There
were other kids on the farm but they were all younger than us, except for Mark, who was fourteen. I liked Mark. He didn’t say much to start with. I think he was shy, like me. But when he
realised I was interested in the animals and liked the work, he was a lot more friendly. He didn’t live in the main house where we were staying. He lived above the old stables with his mum
and dad and little brother. I always tried to get the jobs where I could work with Mark and of course Lily noticed. She started teasing me. ‘Mark and Milly sitting in a tree,’
she’d chant if she saw me looking for him. It wasn’t like that at all. I was only twelve and I didn’t really fancy him, I just liked him. Maybe that’s what annoyed Lily. I
don’t know. Maybe she did fancy him and was annoyed that he obviously preferred me.
    That holiday was the first time that Lily tried to be different. I mean, look different. Up until then we’d always been proud that we were identical, but that summer Lily got one of the
women living in the house to braid her hair and told me I couldn’t have any in mine. It was only two thin braids at the front, done in coloured cotton with beads on the end. Mum said it
looked lovely and certainly made it easier for everyone to tell us apart. I pretended not to care.
    On the last day of our holiday Mark asked me if I wanted to go badger-watching with him that evening. We were in the barn, sitting on the hay because we’d run in there to escape a rain
shower. Mark told me that he knew about a badger sett in the woods and if we went up there at dusk we’d get a good view of them. I love badgers and said I definitely wanted to go.
    ‘Shall I bring Lily?’I asked Mark.
    ‘Best not,’ said Mark. ‘We’ll have to be quiet or we’ll scare them off.’
    ‘I might not be able to stop her from coming if she finds out about it.’
    ‘Well, don’t tell her, then. I’ll meet you by the gate at half-past seven, which should give us plenty of time to get to the hide and settle in before the badgers come
out.’
    It was easier than I thought it would be because I didn’t see much of Lily for the rest of the day. Thinking about it now I think she was avoiding me. After tea I said I’d help
with putting the younger children to bed because I knew Lily hated doing that.
    When I was running a bath for them Lily came into the bathroom and said, ‘I’ve got a message for you from your precious Mark. He says make it eight o’clock,’ and then
she disappeared. I should have been suspicious at that point. Why didn’t she ask me what was happening at eight o’clock? But I was just glad that I didn’t have to explain. When I
was reading the kids a story I kept looking at the clock; I was getting really excited. I’d never seen a badger in the wild. In fact, thinking about it, I’d only ever seen dead ones by
the side of the road.
    At eight o’clock I went to the gate but Mark wasn’t there. I waited about fifteen minutes, wondering what could be holding him up, then I went to the stable block and knocked on
the door. Mark’s mum came to the door and I asked her if Mark was there.
    ‘I think he’s taken your sister up to the woods to look at the badgers,’ she said.
    I thought about going to the woods to look for them but I had no idea where the hide was and I could hardly go blundering about calling them; I’d scare the badgers for certain.
    I went back to the house. I couldn’t understand why Mark had gone with Lily. Lily wasn’t even interested in badgers and why had he gone without me? It wasn’t until I got
back to our bedroom that I began to understand. Lying coiled up on the bedside cabinet were two braids.
    Lily got back two hours later. She flung herself onto the bed, laughing uncontrollably.
    ‘You will never