End of the Alphabet (11 page)

Mum didn’t say any more about forgetting my birthday. I don’t think she told Calvin, because he didn’t say anything either.

I sighed. I think I’d sort of hoped that when she found out, she’d make a fuss of me — cook a special dinner. Something. She couldn’t very well go out and buy me a huge present, not unless she borrowed the money from me. That would be funny —
Ruby, can you lend me another couple of hundred? I want to buy you the best birthday present ever
.

Oh, get over it, Ruby Yarrow.

Yeah. Good idea. I should think about Max instead. He’d be here mid-afternoon the next day. At dinner, Mum muttered, ‘I can’t believe Hayden. Does he realise Max will be travelling for two whole days to get home? Not that he’d care.’

Calvin gave her a sharp look. ‘Max is very lucky to be coming home at all, Tessie. Concentrate on that.’

She blinked, then rubbed a hand over her face. ‘Yes. You’re right. Of course.’ She smiled at me. ‘He’s very lucky.’

Davey asked, ‘Will he have to be in our room? We don’t want Max in our room. We want Ruby.’

Calvin ruffled his hair. ‘Max will share with you and Theo, buddy. But don’t worry — he’s going to be a much nicer Max this time.’ He looked at Mum as he said it.

She straightened her backbone. ‘Yes, he will be. Much nicer.’

I would believe that when I saw it.

‘Don’t you like us, Ruby?’ Theo asked — and his eyes were huge and tragic.

I jumped off my chair and hugged him. ‘I love you to bits. But I’m a girl and you’re not.’ I frowned at him. ‘At least, I don’t think you are?’

He giggled, but Davey wasn’t happy. ‘Max won’t talk to us. He’s mean.’

‘Max will talk to you. And he will be nice,’ Calvin said, his eyes on Mum.

She nodded. ‘I won’t let him get away with things this time. I really won’t.’

I stood up and cleared my dishes away. ‘I’m off, Mum.’

She looked at me in astonishment. ‘Where, Ruby?’

Okay, so maybe I hadn’t told her. ‘Megan’s. She’s got a couple of DVDs. Tia and Carly are coming too. See you later.’

She smiled. ‘Have a good time. And be home by eleven.’

I paused in the doorway. ‘Eleven-thirty, Mum. Remember? Half an hour longer with every birthday.’

She went a bit red. ‘Oh. Yes. I forgot. Be home by 11.30 then, darling.’

Calvin glanced at her, then at me. He was frowning. I grinned at him and shut the door.

I intended to enjoy my last Max-free moments, but 3.30 Sunday afternoon arrived much too quickly. I didn’t go with Mum and the boys to collect him from the bus station. I made sure I wasn’t home when he got back. I wanted Mum to get over the worst of her excitement before I saw him.

I turned up in time for dinner. She’d cooked his favourite meal — roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, roast vegetables, peas and a pavlova to follow.

‘Hello, Max,’ I said. That sounded a bit bare and unwelcoming. I made an effort. ‘You’ve got a tan. But you’d better not be taller than me.’

He made an attempt at an effort too. ‘I was taller than you before I went. But I reckon the boys are catching me up.’

That made everyone smile. It would be great if the happy family thing could last. I wasn’t holding my breath.

It seemed though, that he was okay with sharing his bedroom. He didn’t say anything about it. I didn’t trust him enough to relax my guard. He wouldn’t catch me again the way he’d done last time.

He said he was too tired to go to school. Mum gave him a hug. ‘It’ll be easier if you do go, Max. It’ll be all right. You’ll see. They’re expecting you.’

He grumbled, but she stayed firm. ‘You have to go, Max. No arguing, please.’

He was surprised. I was surprised. Wow! Maybe things would be different.

In the morning, she made him get up on time. She told him off when he snapped at her. She made him clear away his breakfast things and reminded him to do the dishes.

I kept my mouth shut. Davey and I left the house together.

‘How’s the Crown Prince?’ Tia asked when we met up.

‘Doing as he’s told,’ I said. ‘It’s scary.’ I gave her a full report. ‘And he was doing the dishes when Davey and I left.’

She laughed all the way to school. ‘Way to go, girl! Keep it up.’

I was worried that he’d come home in the middle of my Portuguese lesson with Maria, but he didn’t. He went straight back to his old habit of coming home, getting changed then racing out again. He always managed to come back just in time for dinner. That suited me fine.

Maria and I discussed the whole thing. I learnt quite a few new words during that discussion: fairness, equality, sibling, expectations.

She gave me another book to listen to. This one was a novel about a woman in an arranged marriage.

There was something I wanted to ask Max, but I waited for a few days. On Saturday, when Mum wasn’t around, I asked, ‘Max — what’s Hayden like?’

His face sort of closed down. ‘I don’t want to talk about him.’

I stared at him. Wow! Had our father beaten him up, bashed him or something?

Max shook his head and stormed out of the room.

Damn. That was a mistake. I should have asked him when Mum or Calvin were around. Funny — I’d never wondered before about our father. But now I was curious. I really wanted to know.

I discussed it with Maria on Monday. The word I learnt in that discussion was patience. She reckoned pieces of information would come out sooner or later and all I had to do was wait.

I waited. The good thing was that I had my own room to wait in.

Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, Mum asked, ‘Max, have Hayden and Linda got kids?’

I tried not to look as if I was busting to know too. I kept dishing up the dinner.

‘Yeah. Two girls.’

‘Oh,’ said Mum, all hearty and cheerful, ‘he must’ve liked having another male around the place.’

I sat down and helped Theo cut up his meat.

‘Max?’ Mum prodded.

‘Yeah. He did. At first.’ He put a huge load of food in his mouth.

‘Two girls,’ said Mum. ‘How old are they? And what’s Linda like? She sounded nice on the phone.’

Max chewed for ages. Then he swallowed and said, ‘Lilac’s ten and Shannon’s eight. Linda’s okay.’

Lilac and Shannon. I had two half-sisters. That was weird. Two girls over the sea and I hadn’t even known they existed.

Calvin changed the subject. ‘Tessie, do you know yet what’s happening with the strike? The boss was asking me if I want to do a late shift on Fridays as well. At the service station, I mean.’

Mum shook her head. ‘All the talks have stalled. We have to decide in the next couple of days if we’ll strike again.’

Calvin nodded. ‘Okay. I’ll tell him I’ll do it.’

Mum thumped the table. ‘It’s not fair! You shouldn’t have to work two jobs just so that we can survive.’

He shrugged. ‘There’s people worse off than us.’

I never found that a lot of comfort. And I didn’t think they’d be paying my money back any time soon.

Two half-sisters. How amazing.

I hoped Mum would ask the important question — the one that was driving me crazy:
What made you want to come home?
But she didn’t.

Maria said, ‘Be patient. You’ll find out. I predict that you’ll find out before the end of the holidays.’

Predict was a new word. The holidays were in two weeks. If she was right, I’d find out some time in the next four weeks. I guessed I could wait that long.

I tried to put Hayden out of my mind.

At the end of that week, Mum found out that her work wasn’t going to strike. ‘They’ve reached an agreement. We stay working.’ She wasn’t happy, though. ‘It’s not enough. We shouldn’t have agreed.’

I made her a cup of tea and sat down with her while she drank it. ‘Get another job, Mum. You don’t have to stay there.’

She thumped a fist on the table. ‘Who’d employ me? I’ve got no qualifications. No computer skills. Nothing.’ She sighed, then patted my hand. ‘It’s hard for people like us, Ruby. Max will be fine, and it looks like Davey will be. I worry about Theo though.’

And Ruby will fall in the gutter. Great. How about
a tiny wee little itsy bit of support, Mum?
I jumped up and glared at her. ‘Do you know what I’d do? If it was me?’

She stared at me. I was angry and she wasn’t used to that.

‘I’d
get
qualifications. You can read. Go to night class. There’s nothing stopping you.’ I put my hands over my face and tried to calm down.

She laughed. ‘I couldn’t! You don’t understand!’

I leaned on the table and hissed the words into her face. ‘Mum, if I could read and write the way you can, I’d starve and wear rags if that meant I could learn.’ I was crying. I ran from the room, but turned in the doorway and faced her. ‘Do it, Mum. And stop moaning about your work.’

I shut myself in my room and bawled my eyes out. Mum didn’t believe in me. How lucky for her that she had Marvellous Max. I kicked my pillow off the bed. I shouldn’t be upset. I knew she didn’t think I’d do anything good with my life. It was different hearing her say it, though.

I thought about it while I swept and washed Mr Vine’s floor in the morning. I wanted to be able to be more than the girl who cleaned the floors. I dunked the mop up and down in the bucket. I wanted a job where I talked to people. A job where I had to think and that wasn’t the same thing every single day.

Mr Vine yelled, ‘Get on with it. I don’t pay you to stand there doing nothing.’

I got on with it. I didn’t want to have to work for horrible people like him, either.

Tia and I biked to school and talked about the holidays. I was working but so was she. Her Auckland brother was flying her up to help with the kids. ‘They’ll drive me crazy,’ she said. ‘I’m only going for the first week. A girl needs to have some time to herself.’

Megan and Carly were going to be away too. Megan was staying with her grandparents in Masterton, and Carly was going back to the farm where she’d done her work experience. ‘It’s a busy time of year,’ she said. ‘They’re going to pay me.’

Wiremu moaned, ‘The place will be empty. Who can I hang out with?’

‘Me,’ said Niles. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

Wiremu thumped him on the back. ‘We’ll just have to find us some more chicks.’

We laughed, but I didn’t like the idea of Wiremu finding a chick.

That afternoon, when Maria came to pick Cat up, she asked me if I’d come with them to Wellington during the first week of the holidays. ‘We’ll fly down on Thursday night, stay in a hotel in town and fly back on Sunday morning.’ She held up both hands to show her crossed fingers. ‘We’re hoping you can come and that you’ll look after Catarina. We would pay you, of course. We have to go to a dinner party on Friday night and a wedding on Saturday.’

‘Oh, yay!’ I gasped. ‘Yes, please! I’d love to come. A plane! Wellington!’

Cat and Maria both laughed and Cat said, ‘We can go on the cable car and we’ll speak Portuguese and we’ll laugh.’

They left and Davey said, ‘I want to go too.’

I tugged his hair. ‘You can travel when you’re bigger, buddy. Where will you go?’

He bounced around the kitchen. ‘I’ll go to Brazil and I’ll talk Portuguese and everyone will be simply ’stonished.’

‘They will indeed.’ I threw him a potato. ‘Peel that and we’ll get this meal cooking.’

There would be nobody to look after him on Friday. Except Max. Poor Davey. I felt mean, but not enough for it to stop me going.

I told Mum about it at dinner. ‘Ruby — you lucky girl! That’ll be such fun.’ She smiled, then the smile faded. ‘Which days did you say?’

‘Thursday at 4.30 and I’ll be back Sunday.’

Calvin said, ‘If anyone deserves a break, you do, Ruby. I hope you have a great time.’

Mum said, ‘But what about Davey? Who’s going to look after him?’

Davey said, ‘I can stay by myself. I’m big.’ He looked at me and said in Portuguese, ‘I don’t want Max. He doesn’t like us.’

Max snapped back, ‘Don’t talk gibberish. And specially don’t talk gibberish about me.’

I grinned at Davey and replied in ‘gibberish’. ‘It’s only for one day. Ask him to take you to a movie.’

Mum said, ‘That’s enough, you two. It’s a funny game, but that’s enough.’

‘It’s not a game!’ Davey was cross. ‘It’s Portuguese.’

‘Yeah, right!’ Max scoffed.

Mum shushed him with a wave of her hand. She took a deep breath, straightened her backbone and said, ‘Max, please keep that Friday free. And Thursday afternoon. We’ll need you to look after Davey.’

He shoved his chair back and stood up. ‘I don’t do that.’

Calvin kept quiet but his eyes never left Mum’s face. She said, ‘Yes. You do. You belong in this family. You help.’

Max headed for the door.

‘Max! Stop,’ she said, and it was in her
I mean it
voice. ‘You have the dishes to do. And you will be responsible for Davey next Friday.’

Davey whimpered, ‘I don’t like Max. He’ll be mean. I want Ruby!’

Max kicked the door. ‘Ruby. Ruby. It’s all
Ruby
since I got home. She gets her own room. She doesn’t have to do the dishes. And now she’s swanning off to Wellington and I get to do her work. Again.’

Theo burst into tears. ‘I want Max to go away.’

Calvin picked him up and cuddled him. He stood up, still holding Theo. ‘Ruby will be working while she’s away, Max.’

‘So what?’ he snarled. ‘That’s her problem. It’s got nothing to do with me.’

Mum said, ‘It was her money — that she earned from working — that paid for you to come home. Now do the dishes and behave yourself. I’m ashamed of you.’

I got out of there. I went to my room that I didn’t have to share with anyone, and sat on the bed to think. Max hadn’t known about the money. That meant he hadn’t asked, but it also meant Mum hadn’t told him. He needed to know. She should stop protecting him.

I thought about the Portuguese stuff — now that was interesting. None of them believed Davey.
Yeah, right
Max had said, and what he’d meant was
Dumb Ruby couldn’t learn to say boo in Portuguese or any other language.

I shrugged. He was wrong, which made him the stupid one. I had more important things to worry about, like what clothes I’d take to Wellington. I did a flick through my wardrobe. I’d wear my jeans and boots. The tops were trickier but in the end I decided to take a warm jersey and the long-sleeved T-shirt I’d got from the same garage sale as the boots. It had a stain on the front but I’d covered it with a bright green button, then sewn other buttons on to make it look as if it had been designed that way for an expensive shop. There was a smaller pink button with a sparkly edge, a square black one and two blue ones in different shades and shapes.

I’d ask Mrs Tapiri, my fabrics teacher, if I could finish my jacket at home. She might let me if I told her why I needed it.

In the morning I told Mr Vine I’d be away for three days. He glared at me. ‘You’re so unreliable.’

I smiled. ‘Feel free to find somebody else.’ I didn’t care if he did, but I was one hundred per cent certain that he wouldn’t even try.

There was a week of school to get through before the holidays. Max kept his head down. He was quiet but not sulky. He didn’t make any attempt to be nice to the kids, but he wasn’t horrible either.

I asked Mrs Tapiri about the jacket on Wednesday to give her time to think about it, but she just nodded. ‘You’ve nearly finished it anyway, Ruby. Take it into town to get the buttonholes done.’

I grinned at her. ‘I won’t need to — I’m going to do bound ones.’

She laughed. ‘You’re a tiger for punishment.’

But my real reason was that I didn’t want to trust somebody I didn’t know. They might muck it up and wreck the whole thing.

I showed Mum the jacket when she got home on Friday. She took it and looked at it carefully, then she smiled at me. ‘You could be a fashion designer, Ruby. This is fantastic.’ She gave it back and hugged me. ‘I’d love it if you could have a good career.’

‘I’ll think about it, Mum.’ But I only said that to make her happy. I didn’t want to be a fashion designer, the designs just weren’t in my head. I could make clothes and I could alter old ones that I bought, but I couldn’t design them and I didn’t want to. I grinned at her. ‘Have you thought about night class? They’ll be starting again next term.’

She frowned and swished her hand at me. ‘For goodness’ sake, Ruby! Don’t go on about it. It’s not possible.’

‘Why isn’t it possible?’

‘We can’t afford it, for a start. Leave it.’ She stomped off to change out of her work clothes. ‘Let’s eat. I’m starving.’

Max almost vanished for the weekend, and for the first few days of the holidays. I didn’t care. I’d be out of there on Thursday evening.

Mum told him to be home by four on Thursday. Maria and Lucas were picking me up at 4.30. He showed up at 4.15. I didn’t talk to him. I had my bag packed and I couldn’t keep still. I opened the bag and checked my gear — for the third time. Max made himself a huge sandwich and watched me. I was zipping the bag up again when he said, ‘Dad laughed at me when I did that.’

I closed the zip the rest of the way at half the speed, and looked up at him. ‘He did? Why?’
Keep talking, Max. Tell me things!

He shrugged. ‘It’s what he does. Makes you feel stupid.’ He flicked the telly on.

Davey sat beside him on the couch. They didn’t notice when I left. I jumped into Maria and Lucas’s car. Cat held out the seatbelt. ‘Put it on, Ruby.’

I grabbed it from her. ‘Okay, bossy britches.’ I leaned forward, ignoring her chant of
Bossy britches
. ‘Maria — you were right about patience.’ I told her what Max had just said.

She smiled at me over her shoulder. ‘So the picture builds. And you will find out more.’

‘With patience,’ I said, but right now we were heading for the airport, and a plane that would take us to Wellington. ‘I’m so excited!’

‘Mama’s not,’ Cat said. ‘She doesn’t like flying in to Wellington. She says if she wants to ride a roller coaster she’ll go to Disneyland.’

Lucas laughed. ‘Don’t be alarmed, Ruby. Maria gets dramatic when she flies.’

But the flight was smooth and the few bumps as we came into Wellington didn’t worry her. As for me, I was too excited to talk and too busy looking at everything. ‘This is one huge airport!’ I stared at the miles of corridor, the bustle of suit-wearing people all going somewhere fast.

Maria and Lucas just smiled and kept quiet. I saw Lucas shake his head at Cat as well. Okay, so I’d never seen a really big airport, but I would. I definitely would.

I’d never stayed in a hotel either. I thought we’d all be in the same room, but Cat and I had a room, and Maria and Lucas had one of their own.

‘We’re going out to eat,’ Maria called from the lounge. ‘Put something warm on, Ruby. It’s colder here than in Napier.’

She was right. The wind slapped at us but the night was bright with lights and busy with people. We ate at a Japanese restaurant. Maria smiled at the waiter. ‘What do you recommend?’

I could ask that instead of asking somebody to read the whole menu to me.
What do you recommend?
I would remember that.

They laughed at my attempts to use chopsticks, but it was kind laughter and they showed me how to do it. I wriggled my shoulders. We were lucky, Max and I, that Hayden had run away to Australia when we were little. I wondered if he laughed at Lilac and Shannon too.

I watched people as they came into the
restaurant
. Some had frumpy coats that kept them warm. Some had elegant coats of sleek, dark wool. A couple of men had jackets and scarves. They all shed their coats before they sat down and that’s when you could see what they were really like. The woman at the next table wore a charcoal skirt with layered tops of pink and grey, and she had
knee-length
boots. The girl behind her wore trousers with a shirt under a v-necked sweater. A necklace glinted when she moved. Everyone looked as if they’d come from working somewhere important.

‘Right,’ Lucas said. ‘We need to plan what we’ll do tomorrow.’ He smiled at me. ‘What do you want to do, Ruby?’

‘Anything,’ I said. ‘Everything. Parliament. I’d like to see that. And Te Papa and the cable car and lots and lots of clothes shops.’

He groaned and shook his head. ‘Count me out on that one! The rest of it — yes. Clothes shops — no.’

We chatted and laughed, and all the time, my eyes were busy watching people. I looked at their clothes, I watched how they behaved in a restaurant. I thought about my own clothes. They weren’t smart enough — not really, but I looked okay. I bet I was the only person in the whole place who was wearing an outfit that had cost less than ten bucks. Well, the fabric for the jacket had cost more than that, but still a lot less than any of the jackets around me.

We walked back to the hotel. Lucas carried Cat and she was asleep before we got there.