Daizy Star and the Pink Guitar Read Online Free PDF Page A

they changed the details this afternoon so I can use the tickets. It’s perfect!’
    ‘You’re going to Malawi?’ Mum asks icily. She is not yelling now, and that’s scarier, somehow. ‘Alone?’
    ‘I thought you’d be pleased!’
    ‘Pleased?’ Mum barks. ‘Pleased? Mike, are you completely mad?’
    Dad blinks. ‘But it’s all organized now! It was a great opportunity. I had to act quickly or I might have missed it! I will be able to see what the place is like, work out where we can live, how we can fit in. I know you need a little more time to come to terms with the idea, Livvi. This will give you that time. I thought that’s what you wanted!’
    ‘I want you to stop this stupid idea, Mike!’ Mum yells, and her eyes brim with tears. ‘I do not want you to go off on your own to the other side of the world without us! It’s … it’s … ridiculous!’
    Then she catches sight of me, with Pixie cowering behind. She slaps a hand over her mouth.
      
    ‘Oh, Daizy, Pixie, I didn’t see you there,’ she whispers. ‘I’m sorry.’
    My heart is thumping, and there is a sick, empty feeling in my stomach that has nothing to do with hunger.
    ‘Is Dad going to Malawi?’ I ask, and my voice sounds wobbly, even to me. ‘Without us?’
    ‘Dad’s leaving?’ Pixie wails.
    Dad scoops the two of us up in a big bear hug.
    ‘It’s nothing to worry about,’ he says. ‘Yes, I am going to Malawi, but just for three weeks, to help with the project in Tatu Mtengo. We’ll be building a school and digging a well. I want to see what it’s really like out there, work out how best we can help …’
    ‘It’s just for a little while,’ Mum says, wiping her eyes. ‘Nothing is settled yet. Your dad will be back before you know it.’
    But this is not a holiday we are talking about, it’s a trip to Africa. Without us. My stomach churns.
    ‘When are you going, Dad?’ I whisper.
    ‘Not yet,’ he says, trying to sound upbeat. ‘Not for another week.’
    And that’s when I start to panic because this nightmare is happening. And it’s happening now.
    It goes from bad to worse. Becca gets home and tells Dad she’s glad he’s going.
    ‘Go by yourself,’ she tells him coldly. ‘See if I care! I’m not coming, that’s for sure. And besides, it might be a bit saner around this place without you!’
    Dad looks dismayed, but what did he expect? That we’d be jumping for joy at the idea? He takes himself off for a run to escape the frosty atmosphere.
      
    Becca, Pixie and Mum curl up on the sofa with a huge bar of chocolate and Pixie’s Little Mermaid DVD. We have all seen that film so many times we know it off by heart. Watching it again is like settling down and wrapping yourself up in a soft, warm blanket – comforting and familiar and somehow calming. The chocolate helps too, but big, fat tears keep rolling down Mum’s cheeks, and Becca mutters ‘He is ruining my life!’ under her breath every now and again. All in all, it’s kind of depressing.
    ‘Aren’t you watching?’ Pixie asks me, with a quivering lip. ‘It might be the last time we ever see it!’ I doubt that, somehow.
    I would love to curl up, eat chocolate and watch mermaids, lobsters and talking fish frolicking about on film, but sadly, that won’t change anything. And I know something that just might …
    I call an emergency band meeting.
    ‘What band?’ Murphy has the cheek to say when I phone him, but as soon as I tell him my life is in tatters and my dad has booked his ticket to Africa, he snaps to attention pretty quick. Soon, he, Beth and Willow are holed up in my bedroom.
    ‘Things are desperate,’ I tell them truthfully. ‘We need to get this band idea moving – now. It’s the only thing that can save me! What if Dad decides to stay in Malawi?’ I wail. ‘What if he just rings and tells us to pack our bags and come out to join him? It just feels so real now!’
    ‘Doesn’t sound as though your mum is too keen,’ Beth