Pip wanted to ask Violet more about Ty but she was afraid of making her cry again so she kept quiet. Hopefully, she would be able to find out more about him before she had to leave.
Unaware of the direction of Pip’s thoughts, Violet continued as she cleared the table. ‘The things they’re saying about you on the news! Ridiculous, the stories those journalists make up. Stowing away, rescuing a man from a burning car, busking in the streets with a TV star. You’re ten years old, for goodness sake. Ten and a bit!’
Pip was about to say that it wasn’t so far from the truth, when Grommet re-emerged with an old Star Wars T-shirt and a pair of long, skinny shorts.
Violet didn’t look impressed. ‘I remember your dad giving you this T-shirt for Christmas when you were about twelve,’ she said. ‘Why you’ve kept it, I don’t know.’
‘It’s Star Wars, Mum!’ Grommet said, as if that explained it all.
‘Well, I suppose it will have to do,’ Violet sniffed.
‘Bathroom’s up the stairs on the right,’ Grommet told Pip. ‘Use anything you want. There are clean towels in the cupboard.’ Then he added too low for his mother to hear, ‘Cleanish.’
‘And while Pip does that, you can give her dog a bath,’ his mother told him, wrinkling her nose.
Pip left them to it and made her way through the kitchen, where Bill was loading the dishwasher, and out into a hall cluttered with discarded shoes, surfing magazines and mail. A colourful surfboard was propped up against one wall. Upstairs, she forced herself not to peer inside all the rooms along the landing to the left, but instead went straight into the bathroom.
When she came out, she felt like a million dollars after a hot shower, a good scrub and a change of clothes. Her old, grimy ones she rinsed in the sink, and carried them downstairs in the towel she’d used to avoid dripping everywhere.
‘Bless you, sweetheart,’ Violet said when Pip explained. ‘Ignatius will put these in the washing machine, assuming he knows how it works.’
‘I heard that and I do, Mum!’ Grommet called from the garden where he was hosing down Houdini, who thought it was a game and kept running away. ‘And it’s Grommet.’
‘I should know what your name is, as I was the one who gave it to you,’ Violet replied with a sting in her voice.
Pip grinned, enjoying their banter. Bill seemed to be quieter, clattering away in the kitchen where there was the smell of something tasty cooking. Her mouth watered even though she’d only just had breakfast, and wondered if they might invite her to stay for lunch.
‘My phone’s on the table,’ Grommet nodded towards the outdoor setting where they’d had breakfast. ‘Do you know your friends’ number?’
Pip nodded and dialled as she watched Houdini prancing around and barking with delight every time the hose spray hit him. Then he shook himself dry all over Violet, who told him off, although she smiled as she did it.
‘Ignatius, the washing machine, please.’
‘This is my home, Mum. Please don’t order me about like I’m six.’
‘Then don’t behave like it.’ Her eyes fixed on Pip. ‘And you can stop smiling, young lady.’
‘Okay.’ Pip tried but it was hard when she’d found a family she never even knew she had.
Mrs Browning’s voice came on the line but it was a voicemail message again. Pip felt relieved. At least they weren’t gathered around the phone waiting, worried the worst had happened. She told them that she had found some of her family in Byron Bay, and that she and Houdini were fine.
‘Not there?’ Bill asked, when she put the phone down.
Pip shook her head. ‘Can I help with anything?’ Before he could say anything, Grommet reappeared with a badly wrapped package in his arms and said, ‘Got something for you.’
Pip stared at him and the parcel. ‘For me?’
‘It’s not new, but I think you might like it.’
‘What is it?’
He grinned at her as he handed it over. ‘Open it and find out.’
Pip turned it over in her hands. She had no idea what it was.
‘An early Christmas present?’ Violet asked.
‘Yes,’ Grommet said. ‘Rip in,’ he told Pip.
‘Okay.’ Pip did just that and a second later something that looked like half a surfboard was in her hands.
‘It’s a body board,’ Grommet explained. ‘I had it before I learned to surf. I thought we could hit the beach for a while, get out of your grandma’s hair.’
A grandma, Pip realised. She had a grandma, and a grandfather. And she had the coolest uncle she could have imagined, one who surfed and laughed at sharks who tried to eat him. She turned to Grommet. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘It’s the best early Christmas present I ever had.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘Ignatius, I hope you’re not running off to surf,’ Violet said. ‘I really think you and Pip should stay here.’
‘Just an hour,’ he said. ‘We’ll be back before you know it.’
‘An hour,’ Violet said. ‘Strictly an hour.’
‘Let’s go before she changes her mind,’ Grommet muttered to Pip. ‘Bring the dog and the board!’
Pip could not remember a more brilliant morning in her life. She had uncovered important secrets, eaten a good breakfast, taken a hot shower, opened her first Christmas present in as long as she could remember, and surfed with her dog and her new uncle.
Well, not new. He had always been her uncle. She just hadn’t known it.
And Houdini had done more dog-paddling than surfing. But he had done his best.
Pip, though, had ridden the waves with her body board beneath her, shooting in like an arrow shot from a bow, skinny arms paddling like mad as the surf went up her nose and in her ears.
Grommet had even let her see what real surfing was like, plucking her up and onto his board so they could ride in together, skimming over the waves as though they were flying.
Pip turned to him as they picked up their things to make their way back to the ute. ‘That was the most amazing thing ever!’
‘It was, wasn’t it?’
Pip nodded enthusiastically.
‘We can come back another time, but we’ve already been nearly two hours and Mum will be mad as h…mad as a hornet. Especially if we traipse sand through the house and dump wet towels on the floor. Even though it’s my house and my floor!’
Pip giggled. He was the most fun grown-up she’d ever met. ‘We could hose each other down, and Houdini, before we go in the house.’
But when they got in the ute, he made no move to drive off, just sat looking into the distance with a faint frown on his face.
Suddenly, a cloud of fear appeared on Pip’s perfectly blue horizon. He was going to tell her that she and Houdini would have to go, that he was going to call Constable Payne to pick them up immediately and throw them in jail for being so troublesome. That there would be no hosing down, no more surfing lessons.
‘Don’t—’ she started to say, just as Grommet spoke.
‘Pip, I know we’ve known each other less than a day, but I thought…how do you feel about going back to live with the Brownings?’
Pip stared straight and swallowed. ‘It would be okay, I think, now that I know a bit about where I came from. About Cass and Ty. But I don’t think I really belong with the Brownings, even though they’re very nice.’
‘The thing is,’ Grommet continued, ‘if you wanted to and everyone said it was okay and we thought we could make it work, I thought you might want to come and live with me, in Byron.’
Pip didn’t move. She thought that if she did, she might realise she was dreaming. She could hardly think of anything more perfect.
‘In your house?’
Grommet looked at her and nodded. ‘Just something to think about. You don’t have to answer now. In any case, the Brownings and the police might have—’
‘Is it to make up for what happened with Cass?’ she interrupted.
‘No, not really. I think I’d just like you to stay, if you want to. You could see a lot of Violet and Bill too.’
‘Okay,’ Pip said, turning to him with hope in her eyes. ‘If Houdini can stay too.’
‘Always wanted a dog.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. Ready to go?’
Pip was too dazed to answer. Instead she wrapped her arms around her belly and held on tight as though if she let go, she would burst wide open with happiness.
She didn’t realise until the ute stopped that there was a new car parked in the driveway when they arrived back at the birdhouse. For an instant, Pip panicked, but it wasn’t a cop car.
‘Someone must have dropped in,’ Grommet said, letting Houdini out.
They went around the back, following the hum of voices.
As she turned the corner, Pip came face to face with five people she’d thought were 770 kilometres away in Sydney.
‘Surprise!’ cried Matilda, beaming.