Free Swap Over by Margaret Pearce Page B

ordinary food make poor Jennifer sick all the time?
    â€œOff to bed.”
    â€œBut I want to visit the Matsons. I'll be all right in a little while.”
    Mrs. Walton ignored Maddy’s protests and bundled her into bed in her tracksuit. She came back a few seconds later with a bucket and a towel and produced a small glass of mixture of a thick, chalky-looking mixture.
    â€œThat looks like the stuff you fed me the other night. I think I would rather throw up.”
    â€œDrink up,” Mrs. Walton said.
    Maddy had to admit that her stomach did settle down after the mixture, but not the rest of her. The thudding headache, the shivering because she was too cold and the sweating because she was too hot, stayed. Then the headache moved through all her joints and everything hurt.
    â€œSo what did you do today at school?” Mrs. Walton asked as she sponged down her hot forehead.
    â€œNothing much. Played tennis at lunchtime, and Katrina and I beat Bronwin and Linda. I can serve as fast as Bronwin.”
    â€œThe understanding is that you only play tennis gently and don’t exert yourself.”
    â€œHuh!” Maddy said. She sneaked a look at Mrs. Walton. What weird idea did Mrs. Walton have about sport? Did she think winning was unladylike or something?
    â€œYou oughtta be on the receiving end of Bronwin’s serves. Nothing gentle about her game.”
    â€œBronwin is not a very nice little girl.”
    â€œShe’s also a bully and a sore loser.”
    â€œWe have had this discussion before,” Mrs. Walton said gently. “You have to accept there are limits on how far you can extend yourself without overdoing it.”
    â€œBeating Bronwin at tennis was worth it,” Maddy said.
    Maddy was sure that she should know the next part of this conversation, but she couldn’t quite remember. She had an idea that the next part always made her feel hateful and resentful.
    â€œThe medication is only keeping your juvenile arthritis under control. It can’t cure it,” Mrs. Walton said.
    Juvenile arthritis! Wasn’t it only very old people who got arthritis? Jennifer was much too young and healthy to have an old person’s illness! Suddenly, Jennifer’s mysterious absences from school and all the afternoons she was never around to play made sense. It was because Jennifer was sick with this nasty, weakening, painful disease!
    â€œIt is not important,” Maddy insisted. “It’s just an inconvenience.”
    â€œVery inconvenient.” Mrs. Walton sponged Maddy’s aching head. “All we can hope for is it to go into remission, but you must never push yourself.”
    â€œIt’s a secret, right!” Maddy said, staring at Mrs. Walton.
    â€œYes, my darling, a secret,” Mrs. Walton agreed.
    Maddy was silent. No wonder Jennifer had nice, pink, round cheeks as a Matson. She had swapped into the Matson good health and she Maddy, had swapped into Jennifer’s terrible secret.
    After a while, Maddy drifted off to sleep. It was the nightmare that woke her. She was stretched on a rack and there were demons pushing red-hot iron bars into all her joints. She woke up crying. The rack and the demons were gone, but the sensation of red-hot iron bars in her joints remained. She hurt everywhere and was too scared to move.
    Mrs. Walton bent over her. She had an old dressing gown pulled around her, and her normally neat, fair hair was tangled around her face. In the faint glow of the night-light, she looked tired. She lifted Maddy and propped her upright against the pillows. She held out a glass of water and a large pill.
    â€œNot even an ostrich could get something down that size,” Maddy protested.
    â€œCome on, my darling,” Mrs. Walton coaxed. “It will help.”
    Maddy put the pill in her mouth and gulped it down with a full mouthful of water. She had the vague idea that she was pretty good at swallowing very large pills, but she