Mimi Read Online Free PDF

having trouble with those windy bottoms, lovey?”
    “No, dear. I’m much better now, thank you. Except for my big toe,” I tell her.
    “Oh dearie, dearie me, that sounds bad. You’d better show it to me.”
    So I sit on the floor and pull off my shoe and sock. My big toe is shiny blue — I colored it with a fluorescent blue marker before I came. “It got stuck in the tap when I was having a bath. What will I do, Dag?”
    “Do you always stick your big toe up the tap when you have a bath, Dig?” asks Emma.
    “Of course.”
    “So do I. But this looks bad, Dig. Will I chop it off, lovey?”
    “If you must, dear. Will it hurt, Dag?” I ask as Emma pulls a big plastic ax from wee Billy’s toy bag.
    “It will hurt a little. Be brave, Dig.” And she starts chopping and I start yelling. Wee Billy hears the racket and wiggles out of Sally’s arms and totters over to us. Then he falls on top of me and tries to eat my toe. Sally runs over and grabs him and she falls on top of Emma and me and soon we are all rolling on the floor, giggling and laughing, and wee Billy thinks it’s a great game.
    When we stop all tired out from laughing and wrestling, I notice that all the adults have stopped talking and are watching us and smiling, and Aunt L. has her arm around Daddy’s shoulder and I don’t know if he is smiling or crying. I think that he is doing both.
    Then Aunt B. claps her hands and tells everybody to come and eat, chop-chop.
    When wee Billy had blown out his candle five or six times (Grandad kept on relighting it and all the children helped wee Billy with the blowing), and everybody had sung “Happy Birthday to You” about five times, and wee Billy had put both his hands in the icing and wiped it all over Sally’s face, Aunt B. made her announcement. “I have got a morning-only job in Besco supermarket, in the meat department,” she said.
    “Chop-chop!” shouted Emmett, who had been finishing off everybody’s wine when they weren’t looking and whose eyes looked all glassy. If Aunt B. found out she would kill him.
    Then Aunt B. looked at me, then at Sally, and then at Conor and said, “Which means I won’t be able to come over to your house in the mornings anymore to put manners on the place.”
    “Chop-chop!” shouted Emmett again, and Aunt B. gave him one of her looks.
    “A toast to Betty the butcher!” called out Uncle Boris, lifting his glass of wine, which distracted Aunt B. and saved Emmett.
    “Chop-chop!” shouted everyone, and lifted whatever glass they were holding, and then wee Billy said his very first words: “Chop-chop!” And everybody clapped and laughed.
    As we were driving home I asked Sally if she would wash our clothes now because she was the oldest girl, and she thumped me on the arm.
    “Yeah, that’s right, Mimi, Sally will have to wash our clothes now,” said Conor from the front seat, just teasing.
    “I hate you, Conor,” snarled Sally. “I hate you both!”
    “Take a joke, Sally!” Conor snapped back, but Sally would not take a joke. She just sat there with her arms folded and her lips thin and stared out of the window.
    Nobody spoke after that. Dad just drove the car.

Monday is Granny’s day. It is usually a good day, but this Monday was a bad day.
    First Bad Thing: I woke up dead late and I couldn’t find my shoes for ages — but they were behind the sofa where I kicked them off last night, so that was OK.
    Second Bad Thing: There was no milk in the house and I had to eat my cornflakes with water on them. Ugh!
    Third Bad Thing: The car ran out of gas on the way to school, and Sally and I had to walk the rest of the way. Sally was raging. “This is so embarrassing!” she shouted at Dad. “You don’t care about us at all, do you?” And then she slammed the car door shut and stormed off without waiting for me.
    “Sorry,” muttered Dad, looking totally fed up.
    Fourth Bad Thing: My new teacher is horrible. Her name is Ms. Hardy, and she is the total