Free See If I Care by Judi Curtin Page A

His Christmas dinner sounded really good.
    But she wished he wouldn’t keep going on about gravy. What had she been thinking of, telling him her mum was writing a book about gravy? The book her mum should have written was How to Turn your Back on your Family and Pretend not to Notice that it was Falling Apart .
    Elma struggled to read a bit that for some reason Luke had crossed out. Something about a surprise for his mum. She wondered why he’d crossed it out. Then she looked around and noticed that everyone else had already started their letters, so she pulled out a sheet of paper and began to write.
    Dear Luke,
    I had a really awful Christmas. My mum and dad were fighting all the time, and my brothers spent most of the time hiding in their bedroom. My mum is the worst cook in the world, and I was glad when she went back to work so we didn’t have to  eat lumpy gravy any more. Snowball is really a–
    Just then Elma heard Mrs Lawrence coming up behind her desk. She jumped up, ran to the waste paper basket, and shredded her letter into tiny, fluttery little pieces. She smiled at Mrs Lawrence as she went back to her seat. ‘I made a spelling mistake,’ she said. Then she got a new piece of paper, and began again.
    Dear Luke,
    I had the best Christmas ever. I got an Ipod with a cool pink skin, and a big box of make-up, and great new jeans and a jumper and loads of other things. Me and my family did the coolest stuff. We went ice-skating and bowling, and to a panto. (That was a bit boring but Jessica seemed to love it – she kept clapping even when she was meant to be quiet, and the woman in front of us was very cross.)
    Snowball loves her new bed, and she spends most of her day lying in it, purring.
    In our house we have plum pudding on Christmas Day. Dad pours brandy on it, and sets it on fire, and then we all sing ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ until the flames go out. It’s great  fun. (But not as much fun as eating the pudding. It’s always totally yummy.)
    I hope you got nice presents. Did you get a new horse to replace Rocket yet? I suppose Santa would find it hard to get a horse down the chimney (ha ha).
    Why didn’t you put your stamp on upside down this time?
     
    Bye and Happy New Year,
    Elma

LUKE
    One bit of sky was still missing. Luke pointed to the gap.
    ‘Look, Dad, we need a blue piece here, OK?’
    His father looked down at the half-finished scene on the table. ‘We need a blue piece here, OK,’ he said. He scanned the scattered jigsaw pieces. ‘We need a blue piece here, OK.’ He picked up a piece that was mostly green with a tiny bit of blue in one corner and held it out to Luke. ‘OK?’
    It was clearly not the bit they needed, but Luke took it and tried to fit it in. ‘No, that’s not it. We need another one.’ But just then a dog began to bark outside, and his father’s head swung towards the window.
    Luke found another three pieces and fitted them into their places, and then he pushed back his chair and stood up. ‘Let’s do some more later, OK?’ As if the two of them were doing it together.
    His father nodded, still turned towards the window. ‘Do some more later, OK?’
    In the kitchen Luke’s mother finished loading the two-week-old washing machine and straightened up. ‘OK, love?’
    ‘Yeah.’ Luke watched her pressing the buttons, twirling the temperature knob. A second later he heard the gush of water as the cycle began. Funny how he thought something like a new washing machine could make anyone happy. It hadn’t changed things at all, this shiny new thing in the corner of the kitchen. His mother still looked tired and sad most of the time. Helen still went around with what Granny called a face as long as a wet week. His father – well, of course his father hadn’t changed. And Anne was still bringing her bundled-up sheets downstairs at least twice a week.
    And the worst thing of all was that they didn’t even own the washing machine, not properly. They