On a Clear Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ellie and Sam were not the only victims to be brought to the hospital during the last week. There had been no other deaths as yet but if the rate of admission continued to increase as it had in the last week, then it was only a matter of time before there were.
    ‘Did you think William and I would get the fever too? Was that why we had to stay indoors?’ she persisted.
    ‘Yes, it was. But you’re both all right now,’ she said reassuringly.
    The small forehead was wrinkled in thought. It was clear that her reassurance had been irrelevant. Whatever was shaping in the child’s mind it had clearly moved beyond the question of being ill.
    ‘Will William and I have to go to Dr Barnardo’s?’ she asked politely.
    Matron smiled in spite of herself.
    ‘No, I shouldn’t think so. Dr Barnardo’s is for children who have no family, but you have lots of aunts and uncles, haven’t you?’
    ‘Oh yes, lots and lots, but we could only go for a week. When we go to Granny Hamilton or Auntie Polly for a holiday Mummy always says that a week is quite long enough. She said you can’t go imposing on people just because they are your own family. It’s just not fair.’
    ‘But I’m sure some of your aunts and uncles would like to have you, Clare. Has Mummy got any sisters?’
    ‘Oh yes, but they have their own troubles,’ she replied promptly.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    Clare tried to remember which aunts were real aunts and which were just Mummy’s girlfriends.Sometimes she got a bit mixed up and once at school she’d had a very embarrassing time when she said she had six grannies. One of the other girls in her class said you couldn’t possibly have more than two, so Clare had recited off the names of all six.
    ‘Oh you are silly,’ said the girl who had challenged her. ‘It’s only your mother’s mother and your father’s mother that are proper grannies.’
    This time she would be more careful. Mummy had three sisters and two brothers, but Daddy had nine brothers and sisters altogether and she couldn’t even remember all their names.
    She looked up at Matron and decided that she must be thinking one of her aunts would come and collect her with William and take them away to a new home. That was what usually happened with orphans in books unless they went into an orphanage like Anne of Green Gables. Then you got sent out as a servant to work on a farm when people like Marilla and Matthew needed a boy to help. Anne had been so lucky to get sent to them by mistake. She wouldn’t mind helping people like Marilla and Matthew.
    She took a deep breath and began counting on her fingers; ‘Well, Auntie Polly has a heart of gold, but Uncle Jimmy has a bad back since he fell off the scaffolding at the aircraft factory. He’s on the Boru most of the time and Auntie Polly has towork very hard to pay all the bills. She has three big sons but two of them only think about number one. That’s why she can’t get up to see us very often and we only see her when Daddy borrows Uncle Harold’s car. Auntie Mary is in Michigan and has four children of her own and Auntie Florence is a glamour girl. Auntie Polly says she’s great fun but she lives in London and she says she’s never going to marry.’
    Matron listened, fascinated as Clare continued to list the various members of her family. She discovered that Clare’s Granda Scott was a real gentleman but he had no hands. This might have been alarming had not Clare immediately explained that it meant outside his forge he was no use at all and couldn’t even fry bread without it sticking to the pan. He did his best to help Granny with her jobs because she had bad legs and her chest had never been right after all those years at the Ring Spinners, but he wasn’t much good at it and Mummy worried about the bed linen and the curtains.
    ‘I could go and help to look after Granny Scott,’ she went on, ‘but William wouldn’t like it. There’d be no one to play with him while I was busy