Queenie Read Online Free

always have to go for an X-ray to prove you haven’t got it.’
    ‘TB means she’s really, really ill, doesn’t it?’ I said, and started crying again.
    ‘Oh God, don’t start that grizzling. My head’s splitting as it is,’ said Mum. ‘What did Nanny do with that Christmas sherry? I need a tot of something to buck me up.’
    ‘I can go and see her tomorrow, can’t I?’ I said urgently.
    ‘What? No, you’ve got school. I’ll go,’ said Mum. ‘I need to see how long this is going to take. I can’t just walk out on my job, you know. I’ve got a pal to cover for me this week, though she doesn’t really fit into the costume – but I have to get back as soon as possible.’ She opened up all the cupboards and found the Bristol Cream.
    I watched as she had first one tot, then another. ‘That’s
Nan’s
sherry, Mum. She’s saving it for Christmas,’ I said.
    ‘Mmm, well, Merry Christmas and ho ho ho,’ said Mum. ‘Now, make yourself useful, Elsie, and run down to the chippy for two fish suppers. I’m starving.’
    I could see there was no point arguing. I kept as quiet as I could all evening. I slipped into Nan’s room and wrapped myself up in her old bobbly dressing gown and then buried my head in her pillow, snuffling up the sweet Nan smell. I found a hankie tucked under the pillow, the one I’d bought last Christmas with N for Nan stitched in one corner. I folded it tight in my hand, fingering the stitches.
    ‘Oh, for God’s sake,’ said Mum when she found me. She sounded horrified. ‘Get up, you stupid girl. Go to your own bed if you’re sleepy. Come on, I need to strip that bed.’
    ‘Why? Don’t take Nan’s sheets off!’ I said as she started pulling them onto the floor.
    ‘They’ll be crawling with germs! I’m sleeping in with you tonight!’ said Mum, pulling at the sheets viciously.
    I hoped she’d leave them in a pile in a corner of the bedroom, but she took them to the bath and put them to soak in soapy water. She even washed Nan’s dressing gown. I clung tightly to the hankie, hiding it as best I could.
    When Mum had scrubbed and pummelled the sheets and gown and strangled the water out of them, she hung them up over all the doors, so that it rained inside for hours, the whole flat a fug of damp that made my nostrils hurt.
    She wasn’t finished even then. She washed all the curtains too, swept all the floors, polished all the windows, moving round the flat like a whirlwind, her beautiful hair tied up in a turban and her dress tucked up out of the way in her knickers as if she were a little girl about to do a handstand.
    She toiled madly far into the night, and then came crawling into my little bed. There was hardly room for one, let alone two, and neither of us slept properly.
    She insisted on me going to school the next day.
    ‘I
can’t
, Mum! I’ve
got
to go and visit Nan!’ I said.
    ‘You’re not staying off school and that’s that. Hospitals are no place for kiddies,’ said Mum.
    ‘Oh Mum, please, I can’t bear it if I can’t see Nan!’ I said, starting to sob.
    ‘Now cut that out! Haven’t I got enough to cope with? Look, I’ll take you to see Nanny on Saturday –
if
you’re a good girl.’
    There was no arguing with her. I trailed to school wishing Mum were in hospital instead of Nan. Marilyn Hide and Susan Bradshaw kept picking on me, mocking my hairstyle and my old tunic and my boy’s shoes, but for once I just stared at them deadpan, not really bothering. Then they started saying horrible things about my mum. I didn’t really care, because I didn’t like Mum that much either, but then they said something about my
daft, smelly old nan
. I kicked them hard with my boy’s shoes and they ran off screaming to tell our teacher, Miss Roberts.
    I did get a bit worried then, because I liked Miss Roberts a lot. I loved her fluffy hair and her even fluffier angora jumpers. She was usually very kind to me, and once she gave me a gold star for one of my