The Girl Who Couldn't Smile Read Online Free PDF

‘Let’s talk about what’s going to happen today.’
    ‘Why you here?’ Ross asked, punching Gilbert, who immediately began to wail.
    ‘Me don’ like you,’ Rufus chimed in over the resulting ruckus. ‘You go ’way.’
    ‘I’m here because you need some extra grown-ups at Little Scamps,’ I said, as Tush tried to hush Gilbert. ‘If you don’t have more staff, the place will have to close. There are laws about how many grown-ups have to be in a crèche with the children – it’s called “ratios”. If the ratio is wrong, the place is shut down. Would you like that, Rufus?’
    He had bright red hair and his nose ran constantly. He eyed me with unconcealed distaste, his mouth full of toast. Then he spat at least half of it at Julie, who started to whinge as she picked gobs from her hair. Rufus was oblivious. He continued, ‘You go an’ we get somebobby else.’
    ‘We’ve tried to get several other people to work here,’ Tush said gently, moving around to help Julie clean herself up. ‘Do you remember Mary, the blond lady who was here three weeks ago?’
    ‘She smelt nice.’ Mitzi sighed.
    ‘Well, she stayed for just one morning, and then wouldn’t come back,’ Susan said.
    ‘M’landra hitted her on the head with my lunchbox,’ Gus said, smiling at the memory. ‘It maked a pop, so it did.’
    ‘And do you remember Dorotia?’ Tush said. ‘She was Polish, just like Arga.’
    ‘ Arrrrga ,’ the child said. She grabbed Milandra’s hair and tugged enthusiastically. Milandra squealed at an alarming pitch – I’d had no idea a human being could make a noise like it. Arga didn’t either, it seems, for she let go immediately and gawked at her victim in amazement.
    ‘She was pretty. So pretty,’ Mitzi purred, apparently unfazed.
    ‘Yes, she was,’ Susan said. ‘Do you remember she had that lovely long plait, right down her back?’
    ‘She was a long-haired Polack motherfucker,’ Milandra growled, picking up her plastic mug and pouring its contents over Ross’s head. He did not flinch – he picked up a slice of toast, spread with butter and jam, and stuck it firmly to his attacker’s cornrowed hair.
    ‘Well, why do you think Dorotia stopped coming here after two days?’ Tush asked, deciding to ignore this latest assault – Milandra didn’t appear too concerned about it.
    ‘Me,’ Jeffrey said, raising his hand.
    ‘Go on, Jeff,’ Tush said.
    He pointed at Julie, who was looking angelic – if that’s possible when one is covered with semi-masticated toast.
    ‘What did Julie do, Jeffrey?’ I asked.
    ‘Pull – her – hair –’ he blurted, just before Gus smacked him in the back of the head with a roll of kitchen towel we had left on the table for the children to wipe their hands. It didn’t hurt so much as surprise Jeffrey, but he wailed anyway. Susan tutted at Gus, who hooted with laughter.
    ‘Julie decided that it might be a good idea to use Dorotia’s plait as a swing,’ Susan said to me. ‘That last day, every time the poor girl turned her back, Julie would leap from a table or chair and launch herself at it. I know Julie’s tiny, but it must have hurt.’
    ‘We suspect she was put up to it,’ Tush said, glaring at Ross, ‘but obviously Julie’s not talking.’
    Julie made a kind of bubbling sound and smiled at me. It was hard to imagine this delicate little creature as anything other than sweet and docile. There was obviously another side to her.
    ‘Then there was Una,’ Susan said, rocking the still inconsolable Jeffrey on her knee. ‘Lasted an hour. She was a rather … um … well-endowed lady, and Tammy kept punching her breasts. No warning, she would just run over and wallop her in the boob. Freaked Una out completely.’
    ‘You forgot Ruth,’ Tush said. ‘The kids kept puking on her.’
    ‘Puking?’ I asked, amazed.
    ‘We pukeded on her,’ Gus said, mimicking someone being sick.
    ‘I don’t know how they did it, but they took turns throwing up