Awake and Dreaming - Kit Pearson [49]
Laura came into the room, followed by Anna. “Stop that awful noise, Lisbeth! Tell me how Anna’s horse got broken.”
“It was an accident,” cried Lisbeth. “It fell off the shelf!”
“She’s a dingle-brain!” fumed Anna.
“I am not!” Lisbeth shoved her sister.
“That’s enough!” Laura’s voice was stern. “I don’t want to hear another word! How can you be so rude when you have a guest? If you don’t stop arguing this minute, Theo will have to go home. Do you understand?”
They both sniffed and nodded.
“That’s better. I’m sure I can mend the horse. Help me find the leg.” They all got down on the floor and Laura found it under the bookshelf.
Anna looked embarrassed after Laura took the horse downstairs to glue it. “Sorry, Theo. It’s just that Lisbeth’s such an—”
“If you say that word I’ll scream. Then Mum will come up again,” warned Lisbeth.
Theo watched each of them pull back her anger. Before, they had seemed so close. Didn’t they like each other any more?
“Theo, come and see my room,” called Ben from the hall. Theo was glad to get away from the feud. She followed him into his familiar, smelly room. “Where’s your iguana?” she asked him fondly.
Ben looked puzzled. “What’s a gwana?”
“You know—you used to have an iguana called Mortimer. You fed him flies and bees and kept him in a cage. Sometimes you and I took him for a walk in the cemetery, remember?”
Ben stared. “You’re silly!” He ran into the girls’ room. “Theo’s silly! She’s making things up about me!”
“Don’t be rude, Ben,” said Anna crossly. “Theo can say anything she likes. You’re the one who’s silly. You’re always pretending things, so why can’t she?”
“I’m not silly!” shouted Ben. “I don’t like you and I don’t like Theo!” He ran out, slamming their door.
Theo’s eyelids pricked. How could he say that? Sweet Ben, whom she’d spent so many happy times with before …
“Do you want to go outside, Theo?” asked Anna. Lisbeth followed them, but she was sulking so much she’d stopped speaking.
The three of them climbed up the mountain, ran along the beach and explored the cemetery. Every time Anna told her about something, Theo wanted to say she had been here before. But the longer she put it off, the harder it was to begin.
Lisbeth was so silent Theo wondered if she was mad at her as well. But when they finally rested on the grass underneath the angel, Lisbeth asked Theo a question. “Why do you live with your aunt instead of your parents?”
“Don’t pry, Lisbeth,” said Anna, but she looked curious, too.
They had never asked her questions before. Theo took a deep breath; she may as well tell them. “I used to live in Vancouver with my mother,” she began, “but she lives with her boyfriend now and he doesn’t want me, so I came over here to live with my aunt.”
“That must have been really hard,” said Anna.
“Are you going to stay living here?” Lisbeth asked.
“I don’t know,” said Theo. “Nobody says.”
There was an awkward silence. Theo squirmed at the girls’ pity. She could tell they thought she was strange.
Before, she had never felt this uncomfortable. Then they had just accepted her, with no questions about her past. Then she had been their sister. That was getting harder and harder to believe.
Finally Lisbeth spoke. “I’ve been to Vancouver—lots and lots of times. We go on the ferry to visit Grannie and Gramps. They live on the North Shore. It’s really pretty there. Was it pretty where you lived, Theo?”
Theo shook her head. “No. It was all grey. Not like here.”
She was thinking of what Lisbeth had just said. “Do you like going on the ferry?” she asked carefully.
“Oh, yes!” said Lisbeth. “We run up and down the deck and pretend to fly in the wind.”
“I like the way all the kids play at the front of the lounge,” said Anna. “We always meet new people there.”
Theo shivered inside. “Did you—did you go on the ferry in February?” Her voice was so low she had to repeat her question.
“February? No, we haven’t been to Vancouver since Christmas, but we’re going for Easter,” said Anna.
“Oh.” It was too much