Lullaby Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

another, an’ another. At the end they sing ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, an’ I’m so surprised to hear it that I sing along with ’em. Rhona smiles at me, an’ I smile back. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all. When the singin’ is over, Mr Duff reads some words out from a little book. Ev’ryone puts their faces down. ‘Amen,’ says Mr Duff. Then he goes out of the room. People start talkin’.
    ‘It’s dancing time now,’ says Rhona, an’ helps me to my feet. Mrs Laird wheels in a gramophone on a wooden trolley an’ fiddles with it while Caroline moves the chairs into the corner. People start dancin’ to the music, but no matter how much Rhona nags me I won’t join in. She sits with me a while, watchin’ the others whirl round the room. Then Joyce comes in, sayin’ thur’s a telephone call, an’ they both disappear. The Mary girl whirls over, lookin’ happier than I’ve ever seen, an’ grabs my hand without askin’. I don’t want to hurt her feelin’s, so I dance with her an’ it ends up bein’ tons of fun. We fall over a lot an’ bump into people an’ jump over chairs that’ve been knocked over. By the time Mrs Laird turns off the music, I’m out of breath.
    ‘That’s right, Kathy!’ calls Mrs Laird. ‘Shake a leg!’
    When I see Rhona later, I tell her I had fun at music therapy. I’d thought that’d make her happy, but instead she hardly looks at me. Her eyes an’ nose are all pink-lookin’.
    ‘Are you sad?’ I ask.
    ‘My mother is very sick,’ she tells me, after a pause. Then tears come out of her eyes, an’ she goes across the room for some tissues. I tell her I like dancin’ now, an’ she says, ‘Oh that’s nice.’ She doesn’t say more about her mother, an I’m glad about that. I don’t like Rhona bein’ sad. When she wipes her eyes I look the other way.
    ‘I danced with Mary,’ I say.
    ‘Oh? That’s nice, that you two should make friends. Being the youngest and all.’
    ‘Mary’s the youngest?’
    ‘Well … She was until you showed up. But we still don’t know for sure how old you are. So, you see, you’re both competing for the crown.’
    ‘How old’s Mary?’
    ‘Twenty-eight.’
    ‘So … I’m twenty-eight too?’
    ‘No, hon. I just told you. We’ve got to guess. The doctor said he thought you were thirty years old.’
    I think about this. Thirty is a terribly big number. It doesn’t seem fair.
    ‘Why do I have to be thirty?’
    ‘Well, there were several factors to consider. Your skin, your hair, the state of your tee—’
    ‘I want to be twenty-eight!’
    Rhona sighs a big sigh. Stuffs her tissue up her sleeve.
    ‘Well, who knows, sweets. Maybe you’ll get to be. All you’ve got to do is remember.’
    I scowl. Rhona tries to pat my arm, but I hop off the bed an’ move to the window. For a while, she doesn’t speak. Then, right when I don’t expect it, she says, ‘ Have you remembered anything?’
    I turn an’ look at her.
    ‘If I do … you’ll send me away. Won’t you?’
    ‘You’ll get to go home.’
    ‘Hmm.’
    ‘So have you? Remembered anything?’
    My mind is full of fuzzy shapes. Iss been like that for a while, but there is one new thing. One very big, very scary new thing, an’ that is the man from my dreams. I’ve never seen his face, an’ he hasn’t popped up much, but I know he’s important. Somehow, deep down in my heart, I’ve come to know the dream man’s really out there. He’s real, an’ he knows who I am. Thur’s a badness round him that scares me. I don’t think anyone could protect me from badness that big.
    ‘No!’ I say, louder than I meant to. I think Rhona gets a shock. Her eyes go big for a second.
    ‘Sure?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Rhona’s eyes shrink an’ go back to bein’ puffy. She stands up from her chair.
    ‘Well,’ she says, ‘when you do … I’ll be here.’
    That night I dream of the man again. When I wake up the bed is full of sweat. Thur’s a warm cup of tea by my