The Bed and Breakfast Star Read Online Free PDF Page A

quickly.
    ‘Not me either,’ said Pippa. ‘He wets right out of his nappies.’
    Hank went on crying.
    ‘He’s hungry,’ said Mum. ‘We could all do with a drink and a bite to eat. I’m going to go and find this communal kitchen. Here Hank, go to Daddy. And you girls, you get all our stuff unpacked from those bags, right?’
    Yes, everything was all right again. Mum rolled up her sleeves and got the cardboard box with our kettle and our pots and pans and some tins of food and went off to find the kitchen. Mack romped on the bed with Hank, and he stopped crying and started chuckling. Pippa said Baby Pillow was still crying though, and she insisted she had to tuck him up in the duck cot and put him to sleep.
    So I got lumbered doing most of the unpacking. There were two bags full of Pippa’s clothes and Hank’s baby stuff. There was an old suitcase stuffed with Mum and Mack’s clothes and Mum’s hairdryer and her make-up and her precious china crinoline lady. And there was my carrier bag. I don’t have that many clothes because I always get them mucked up anyway. I’ve got T-shirts and shorts for the summer, and jumpers and jeans for the winter, and some knickers and socks and stuff. I’ve got a Minnie Mouse hairbrush though it doesn’t ever get all the tangles out of my mane of hair. I’ve got a green marble that I used to pretend was magic. I’ve got my box of felt-tip pens. Most of the colours have run out and Pippa mucked up some of the points when she was little, but I don’t feel like throwing them away yet. Sometimes I colour a ghost picture, pretending the colours in my head. Then there are my joke books. They are a bit torn and tatty because I thumb through them so often.

    I hoped Mum would be ever so pleased with me getting all our stuff sorted out and the room all neat and tidy but she came back so flaming mad she hardly noticed.
    ‘This is ridiculous,’ she said, dumping the cardboard box so violently that all the pots and pans played a tune. ‘I had to queue up for ages just to get into this crummy little kitchen, and then when some of these other women were finished and I got my chance, I realized that it was all a waste of time anyway. You should see the state of that stove! It’s filthy. I’d have to scrub at it for a week before I’d set my saucepans on it. Even the floor’s so slimy with grease I nearly slipped and fell. What are we going to do, Mack?’
    ‘You’re asking Big Mack, right?’ said Mack, throwing Hank up in the air so he shrieked with delight. ‘Big Mack says let’s go and eat Big Macs at McDonald’s.’
    Pippa and I shrieked with delight too. Mum didn’t look so thrilled.
    ‘And what are we going to live on for the rest of the week, eh?’ she said. ‘We can’t eat out all the time, Mack.’
    ‘Come on now, hen, give it a rest. You just now said we can’t eat in. So we’ll eat out today. Tomorrow will just have to take care of itself.’
    ‘The sun will come out tooomorrow . . .’ I sang. I maybe don’t have a very sweet voice but it is strong.
    ‘Elsa! Keep your voice down!’ Mum hissed.
    Mack pulled a silly face and covered up his ears, pretending to be deafened.
    We sang the Tomorrow song at school. It comes from a musical about a little orphan girl called Annie. Occasionally I think I’d rather like to be Little Orphan Elsa.
    Still, I cheered up considerably because McDonald’s is one of my all-time favourite places. Mum changed Hank and we all got ready to go out. It was odd using the little loo in the bedroom. Pippa didn’t like it with everybody listening so I trekked down the corridor with her to find a proper ladies’ toilet. If Mum saw it she’d get flaming mad again. Pippa got even more upset, hopping about agitatedly, so I ended up trailing her down six flights of stairs and down the corridor to the toilet where we met Naomi. I hoped she might still be there, but she’d gone. The boys weren’t hanging around any more either. The