LITMIR.BIZ

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did you survive.

       Your maze that you sent me was HEAPS harder than the first one. I had to start it three times before I could find the way in. It was a really good one and I wish I could do one for you but I have tried and I can’t. So here is another word game. Can you find which flowers these are:

      Uptil Sore Drogmail

      foglevox Shopytalun

       I think the last one is quite difficult!

       Next weekend we are going to visit Little Nan and Popsy. (Popsy is what we call my granddad James.) It is Little Nan’s birthday. She will be the big six-oh. Sixty! All the family are going to be there. All my aunties and uncles and cousins. I will tell you about it.

       I have been trying to think of a joke but I can’t so here are some book titles I have made up.

       DOG’S DINNER by Nora Bone HOLE IN THE BUCKET by Lee King HOW TO GET RICH by Robin Banks (this one is my favourite!)

       Now I have to go because Mum is calling that tea is ready. Bye for now! xxxxxxxx Violet

       PS The Lily that Lily is named after is not a droopy one but a big Spotty thing about 5 metres tall!

      Friday morning, Lily came home from visiting Francine. Just in time for us all to go down to Nan and Popsy’s. Mum and Dad were both taking the day off work. Daphne, who looks after the shop when Mum is not there, was left in charge of Flora Green. I worried that without me and Mum she wouldn’t be able to manage, as weekends are really busy, but Mum told me to just relax and enjoy myself.

      “Talk about an old head on young shoulders,” she said.

      “She just has a strongly developed sense of duty,” said Dad, as we piled into the car. “Which is more than I can say for some people,” he added, glancing over his shoulder at Lily.

      Lily was in a sulk. Francine’s mum had brought her home, but Francine’s mum was then driving back down to the country because tomorrow there was some big horsy show or something that Francine was taking part in and Lily was dead resentful.

      “I could have taken part! I could have ridden Cobbie! Francie said I could. She was going to let me borrow him! I don’t see why I had to come to Nan’s birthday. I went last year! Why do I have to come again?”

      Mum said, “Because it’s a family thing and Nan’s going to be sixty and she would be very disappointed if you weren’t there.”

      “But all we do is play stupid games! That’s all we ever do. I could have been riding Cobbie! I bet I’d have got a rosette!”

      She went on and on about it. She said it was all right for me: “She likes playing stupid games.”

      I do like playing games, it is true, and so does Lily when she’s actually there. But she’d had such a good time with Francine I could sort of sympathise with her. She’d been riding every day. She’d helped out at the stables; she’d gone to a Pony Club meet; she’d made heaps of new friends; she’d taken Cobbie over a jump that nobody else had been able to manage; she’d only come off once – “And even then I remembered to hang on to the reins!” – and now she was thinking that instead of becoming a PA when she grew up she would enter the horsy world and ride for Britain in the Olympics.

      She told us all this in the car as we drove to Nan’s. Nobody else got a word in edgeways! It’s always the same when Lily gets obsessed. Like the time she was going to be an ice skater, and the time she was going to be a pop star. I think to be fair to her she probably will be something. I mean something with a great big capital S. It just depends which particular enthusiasm she’s got going when it comes time to leave school.

      “Francie’s mum says I have a really good seat!” bawled Lily, bouncing up and down in the back of the car and making me feel sick. “She says I can ride Cobbie whenever I want. She says I can go down there again at Easter if I like. She says I could even go h —”

      Lily stopped.

      “Go what?” I said.

      “Oh!” Lily waved a hand. “ Just… you know!”

      “Go what?” screeched it at her. Lily cringed back against the seat. “Go hunting?”

      “ didn’t say that,” said Lily.

      “You were going to!”

      “I was not!”

      “You were too!”

      “I was n —”

      “Lily and Violet!” Mum turned in her seat and thundered it at us. “Stop that! Right this minute! I don’t want to hear another word. Have you got that? Not another word!”

      Lily and I glared at each other. We sat the rest of the way in simmering silence. A few minutes ago I’d been half wishing that I’d told Katie it was me going to stay with Francine. I would have had so much to report! The only reason I hadn’t, really, was ‘cos she was just staying at home with her mum and I wouldn’t have wanted it to seem like I was boasting or anything. Now I was glad! Katie felt the same way I did about fox hunting. I’d always thought Lily did, too, but she obviously didn’t. Because she had been going to say fox hunting! She was a TURNCOAT.

      I think she must have felt a bit ashamed of herself ‘cos she was nice as pie to me all weekend, and when we went to bed that first night she whispered, “You know I wouldn’t really go hunting.” I was glad that she wouldn’t but I did think she should have said something to Francine and her mum. I’d said something to Katie! And that was before I knew she was on my side. She might not have been. She might have got into a huff and never written to me again. So I just, like, grunted at Lily and pulled the duvet over my head and pretended to go to sleep. I didn’t want to hear any more about her and her horsy friends!

      When we got home on Sunday I looked eagerly at the front door mat to see if there was a letter for me, but there wasn’t. Lily said, “Are you expecting something from the Blob? Don’t tell me you’re still snail mailing?”

      “She hasn’t got a computer,” I said. “I did ask her!” I said this for Dad’s benefit. “I said we could e-mail but she said her mum’s got a lot of bills to pay and they can’t afford a computer just at the moment.”

      Lily looked at me like she wasn’t hearing right. “Can’t afford a computer!”

      “She hasn’t got a dad,” I said.

      “Why not? Where is he?”

      “I don’t know. She hasn’t told me.”

      “You mean, you haven’t asked? I would ask!”

      “That would be a personal question,” I said. “You can’t ask people personal questions. Her mum and dad might be divorced.”

      “So what? Lots of people’s mums and dads are divorced. Francie’s mum and dad are divorced. She doesn’t care who knows. I’d say straight out,” boasted Lily. “Are your mum and dad divorced? That’s what I’d say. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. I mean, it’s nothing odd. Not like not having a computer. That is just so weird! How do they live?”

      “They live just the same as anybody else,” I said, crossly.

      Lily looked over at Dad and made her eyes go big. I know she was expecting him to be on her side, what with him being a computer person and all, but Dad just laughed and said, “You could do with a spell on a desert island, my girl!”

      Hooray!

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