Awake and Dreaming - Kit Pearson [42]
Theo almost smiled; that sounded like Rae.
“I’ll show you our old house now,” said Sharon. They walked a few blocks in the other direction until Sharon stopped in front of a blue cottage with forsythia blooming beside its front door.
“It looks much nicer now than when we rented it. It was brown then. A couple owns it—they’ve done a great job of renovating it.” She gazed at the little house sadly. “What a lot happened here! You were born, and Dad and Ma both died. I remember the awful night Rae told them she was pregnant. She …” But then she looked at Theo and blushed.
“What?” prompted Theo.
“Nothing,” sighed Sharon. “There’s no point wishing the past was different. It’s all water under the bridge, as Ma used to say.”
Theo stared at the house, trying to remember living here and playing in its tiny yard. It was all a blank. This house seemed much more like a dream than the Kaldors’ house.
“SEVEN-THIRTY, time to get up!” called Sharon. Theo put on the red sweater and jeans Ms. Sunter had given her and sat down for breakfast.
Sharon looked worried. “I think you should wear a skirt, Theo. The other girls will be wearing tunics. You’ll have a uniform too, but I can’t get it until Saturday.”
Theo went back to her room. The only skirt she could find was a thin cotton one stained with ketchup down one side. It was too long and its bright orange pattern clashed with the red sweater.
“Haven’t you got anything nicer than that?” asked Sharon.
“This is my only skirt.”
“Really? Mary Rae didn’t dress you very well. Oh, I’m sorry, Theo, I didn’t mean to criticize your mother. But why don’t you have more clothes?”
“Because we were always broke,” said Theo through a mouthful of cereal.
“Broke? But Mary Rae told me she had a good job!”
“She’s a waitress. Before that she worked in a factory and a car wash. And sometimes we lived on welfare, especially when I was little.”
“Welfare!” Sharon looked horrified. “But why didn’t she tell us? We could have helped her, or she could have come home and lived with us.”
“I don’t know why,” said Theo.
“If only she’d gone back to school. You can’t get much of a job when you only have grade ten. I thought she was doing all right, though. She said on the phone she’d send money for you every week!”
Sharon looked dismayed. Then she sighed and put on the resigned, everything-will-be-all-right look Theo was getting used to. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it. At least I’m not broke. I don’t make much money, but I can afford to get you some decent clothes. I’ll nip out to Eaton’s at noon and pick you up a skirt you can wear for the rest of the week. And when we buy your uniform on Saturday we’ll get you some other clothes too.”
“Thank you,” said Theo wearily. She was tired of adults fussing about her clothes.
SHARON TOOK THEO to the school office, kissed her goodbye, and left her. Theo once again followed a principal down the hall to a classroom. Counting the dream, this was the third time this year she’d started a new school.
She tried to armour herself with the warmth of the dream school to push out the chilly memories of the real ones. To her surprise, it worked. When the friendly kids smiled at her, she smiled back, pretending they were Elise and Jasmin. When some of the girls gave sneering looks at the orange skirt, she pretended it was one of the new skirts Mum had bought for her. She met their eyes steadily until they turned away.
The teacher was a tired-looking woman called Mrs. Corelli. She smiled at Theo the way teachers always smiled at new kids and suggested she sit beside a girl called Skye.
Skye immediately began asking questions. When she found out where Theo lived, she clapped her hands. “That’s only a few blocks away from my house!”
Skye told Theo she and her mother had moved to Victoria last fall. “We used to live up island, in the country near Duncan. I really miss it. We had a donkey and chickens and it was near a lake. But then my mum left my dad to live with Carol.”
Skye’s narrow face was dominated by thick glasses