Awake and Dreaming - Kit Pearson [30]
“There!” said Mum. “With these and Anna’s hand-me-downs you should be set until summer. I hope you don’t mind that some of your clothes are secondhand, Theo.”
Theo was speechless. When they got home, she helped Mum cut off the price tags and hang up the new clothes, plus some that used to belong to Anna, in the space Mum had cleared for her in the closet. Dad had brought up a little dresser just for her. Theo lovingly placed her underwear, T-shirts and sweaters in it.
“I’ve hardly ever had new clothes,” she said.
Mum looked surprised. “Well, it’s about time you did. Why don’t you change out of those baggy jeans and put on something of your own? The others will be home soon.”
Theo took a long time deciding. Finally she picked purple leggings, a purple and yellow top and yellow socks. She tied up the brand new laces on her brand new runners.
The second pair of new shoes she’d had this year! She remembered the ones Rae had bought her.
“Mum …” she said slowly. “Where’s—where’s my real mother? Where’s Rae?”
Then she wished she hadn’t asked. But she didn’t need to worry. Laura kept her back to Theo as she continued to hang up clothes. She either hadn’t heard or didn’t want to answer.
“Theo! You look wonderful!” said Anna, as she and Lisbeth burst into the room. They examined all the new clothes. Anna brushed back Theo’s hair and secured it with two purple barrettes. “There—you’re perfect!”
“You’re beautiful, Theo,” said Lisbeth. She gazed at Theo the way Bingo gazed at Dad.
After lunch Mum took Theo out again, this time to get her hair cut. “What lovely thick curls!” said the hairdresser. When she’d finished, Theo’s hair stood out around her face in a soft dark circle. She gazed at the smiling purple and yellow girl in the mirror and felt more than ever that this must be magic.
WHEN THEY GOT BACK, Mum showed Theo her studio. The small room was crammed with jars of pencils and paints, wide shallow drawers full of paper, and more felt pens than Theo had ever seen at one time. Drawings were pinned all over the walls, of cartoony children playing or animals in clothes. Some of the children looked like the Kaldors.
“Did you do all these?” asked Theo in awe.
Laura nodded. “Here, I’ll draw something for you.” She took out a square of paper and a black pen. Like magic she sketched a picture of Beardsley curled in a ball and handed it to Theo.
“To keep?”
“Of course!” said Mum. “Would you like to draw something while I finish this card?”
She sat Theo down at a little table beside a wide sloping desk. “Each of the children has drawn here while I work, although none of them could sit for long. John was the most patient, but Ben’s impossible—he doesn’t last more than five minutes.”
Theo gazed at the creamy piece of paper in front of her—it seemed too good to mark. She thought a moment, then picked up an orange felt pen and began to draw the arbutus tree in the backyard. It was fun to add brown for the peeling bark and different greens for the leaves.
“That’s wonderful, Theo!” said Mum. “You’ve really looked at that tree!”
“You can keep it,” whispered Theo.
“Thank you! Did you sign it?” Theo wrote her name in the lower right corner, where Mum had in her picture of Beardsley. Then Mum pinned it over her desk.
“I need to finish this design today,” she said. “Will you be all right playing on your own until the others get home?”
Theo nodded; she longed to explore. First she took Mum’s drawing and taped it to the wall beside her bed. Then she began to go over every inch of the house. If this did turn out to be a dream, she wanted to remember it forever.
She had never seen as much luxury. Bedrooms with beds covered in soft quilts, and full of toys, games and clothes. Two bathrooms with soft fluffy towels and many bottles of shampoo and lotions. Four telephones! Soft