‘Come on Jackie.’ Linda put her arm around her cousin’s neck. ‘You like hopscotch. It’s fun.’
Jacqueline was shivering. ‘Don’t want to.’ She scowled.
‘You will.’ Linda jumped up from her cousin’s Granny Winterbottom’s front doorstep. She windmilled her arms, wishing she could make her cousin smile. She usually felt safe with Jacqueline, but lately it was as though she had to look after her and she didn’t know how to make things better.
Jacqueline saw the yellow donkey stone on the back of Linda’s kilt but said nothing. She was feeling odd, sort of wanting to cry because she thought her dad might be lonely back home and because, try as she might, she didn’t like Granny with her scraggy arms, bony hands and a voice that hurt your ears. ‘Don’t you miss your Grandma Booth?’ she said.
‘No. She was horrid,’ Linda said airily. She twirled round, admiring the way her kilt swirled into a circle.
Jacqueline’s lower lip trembled. She glanced behind her, making sure the door was closed. ‘I don’t think my granny wants us here. She shouts.’ She pulled her knees up under her chin.
‘Come to live with us.’ Linda crouched down to draw the squares for the game of hopscotch with a small piece of brick. ‘Your mummy could make our dinners with mine being poorly?’ Her face brightened when she looked up at Jacqueline. ‘That’d be good. Daddy makes yummy bread but he’s no good at tater hash.’
‘I think they’d still fall out.’ Jacqueline wrapped her arms around her legs. She wished she could make herself as small as William.
‘Hmm, you’re right.’
The two girls looked at one another, cohorts in their opinions of the adult world.
‘Anyway, we might go home soon, we’ve been here a long time.’ Jacqueline tilted her head to think. ‘Two whole weeks.’
Linda twiddled a piece of her hair around her finger, her mouth turned down. ‘I like you living close. I can come here whenever I want. At your house I’m not allowed. It’s too far.’ She stood up.
‘Well, we’ll be big soon and then they can’t stop us.’
‘I don’t know about that. Mummy’s very old and Grandma Booth used to boss her all the time.’ Linda put her hands on her hips. ‘I hated her and I’m glad she’s dead. And I don’t think she’s gone to Heaven either. I don’t think Jesus wants her there.’ When she spoke again she was nonchalant. ‘I think Grandma Booth is in Hell.’
‘Oh, our Linda!’ Jacqueline stood up with her back to the wall of the house. ‘God will hear you.’
‘I don’t care. He knows she was a nasty lady.’ Linda threw the flat piece of red brick on the first square and hopped onto it. ‘Anyway, you used to laugh at her as well.’ She jumped, two-footed onto squares two and three, glancing at Jacqueline. ‘We both did, remember, last Christmas?’
‘When we had to wait for her to come for dinner?’
‘S’right.’ Linda hopped and jumped to the last square. As she turned she said, ‘Cos she was in the lavvy.’ She balanced on one leg, hopped up and down. ‘Then she just sat at the table and started eating without talking to anybody. And she made horrid sloppy noises.’
‘And her chin and nose bumped together when she chewed.’
They giggled and Linda wobbled, her heel turning on the uneven stone flag. ‘Your mummy shouted at us. But I saw my mummy smile. She put her hand over her mouth but I did, I saw her smiling.’ She was glad she’d made Jacqueline laugh, it made her feel good.
‘It was a shame we missed our pudding though.’
‘Yeah.’ Linda made her way back to the start of the hopscotch. ‘Your turn.’ She handed the piece of brick to Jacqueline and flopped down on the step. She wet her finger and rubbed at the donkey stone and then examined her finger. It was satisfyingly yellow. ‘So I’m glad she’s dead. They’re going to put her in a hole in the ground today.’
‘In somebody’s garden?’
‘No, in some gravy yard or something.’ Linda paused. ‘I heard Auntie Mary say. She told the milkman they were burying her this afternoon. So, see, she can’t hurt Mummy anymore.’