Hunky Dory (10 page)

“Don't worry,” I said. “I'll tell her it was my fault.”

“She'll never believe you!”

“She will, I'll make her. I'll say it was all my idea, we had to come and dig before Dad took his bit of garden back. They'll go for that. They all think I'm mad and geeky. Everybody does.”

“I don't,” said the Herb. “I sometimes think you're a bit
mad
, but I've never thought you were geeky. If you were geeky you wouldn't be offering to sacrifice yourself.”

Sacrifice
. That was a good word.

“Deeje, you can't,” said the Herb. “I won't let you!”

“Got no choice,” I said. “Gonna do it whether you let me or not.”

In my dream I'd rescued her from rampaging beetles. Now I was rescuing her from the wrath of Auntie Jess—which I reckon was just as heroic, in its own way, cos Mum had a right go at me later. “How could you?” and “Totally inconsiderate!” and “So ashamed of you,” etc. She was pretty damn mad.

Carelessly I told the Herb it was no big deal. “Just leave it to me. I'll sort things out.”

“You're serious,” said the Herb. “You really mean it!” Suddenly, without any warning, she lunged forward and squashed my face between her hands. Before I knew what she was doing, she had planted a big kiss on my lips—well, partly on my lips. I think I must have moved at the wrong moment, cos part of it went on my nose. “Oh, Deeje, that is so sweet of you!” she said.

No one has ever told me that I'm sweet before; it kind of knocked me out. Specially coming from the Herb, cos she's not into soppy talk. I think it knocked her out a bit, too. We stood there together in the hole, like wondering what had hit us. In the end I said rather gruffly that maybe we ought to be getting back now. I don't know why I said it gruffly; it's just the way it came out.

“I mean, we
could
stay on a bit,” I said, “'cept I don't
want them getting any madder than they're already gonna be.”

The Herb said, “No.

Absolutely not!” As we were walking back up the Crescent, she took my hand.
The Herb.
Holding my hand! I always thought she'd be angrier than a hornet if I tried doing that.

“I'm really sorry we didn't find any trib'lites,” she said.

I told her that it really didn't matter. And it really didn't; not at that moment.

I'm thinking now that I still would like to find some. But maybe Dad will let me dig under the compost heap—and the Herb will be there to help me. cos she enjoys it! She said she did.

We won't dig all of the time, of course. I mean, there are other things in life, such as going up the park, for instance. I reckon we'll probably be going up the park quite a lot. If the Herb wants to, that is. But I think she will! That is definitely the feeling I have.

I'm glad I didn't let Auntie Jess get mad at her, even if it did mean suffering the cruel lash of Mum's tongue. It's made me feel a lot less geeky.

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins
Children's Books
in 2007 HarperCollins
Children's Books
is a division of HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd, 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

The HarperCollins
Children's Books
website address is www.harpercollinschildrensbooks.co.uk

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Text © Jean Ure 2007

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

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This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

EPub Edition © AUGUST 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-34360-7

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