There’s nothing in the whole of WA about the Wieliczka Salt Mine. NOTHING. The librarians at Guildford couldn’t even find one book. I told Kay to ask Neil to do some searching for me. She said she did but he couldn’t find anything. I don’t believe her because Neil can find books on anything.
I do some googling and find many pictures of the mine’s statues and chapels. They mined salt up until 2007, though ‘commercial mining’ stopped in 1996, which is ages ago. People can visit and see all the statues. Sometimes they even have concerts and weddings down there. I also find some books online. I write them out in my neatest handwriting and present them to the librarian at Guildford.
‘I would like these please.’
The librarian looks at my list.
‘These are tourist guides. We don’t have things like this.’
‘Yes, you do,’ I say, and point towards the blue books about countries. The book on Poland had a section about Krakow and the salt mine, but it was very small.
The librarian smiles. ‘Those are Lonely Planet guides. What you’ve got on your list are guides you’d buy at an attraction, like a souvenir.’
‘Can I request them?’
‘No, dear, you can’t request books that aren’t in public library stock.’
‘We don’t have them at any of our libraries.’
‘You didn’t even check.’
The librarian sighs. ‘Okay,’ she says. She types for two seconds and then says, ‘Sorry, there really is nothing. Remember, we searched for books on the mine a few days ago. I bet you can do some great internet research. Or you can read some books about Poland, oh, like that one you’ve got in your hand. Well done!’
‘Why can’t you order these? I found them on the computer!’
Kay comes over and says, ‘Keep your voice down.’
‘She’s not even looking properly!’ I yell.
‘Don’t be so rude,’ Kay says. Then she looks up and says, ‘I’m so sorry,’ to the librarian. That makes me even madder.
‘You’re a bad librarian! You didn’t even try!’ I yell at her.
I throw the Poland book and storm out of the library. Kay runs after me and grabs me by the arm.
‘Ow!’
‘That was unacceptable! You don’t treat people like that, especially when they’re trying to help you!’
I try to tug my arm free but Kay grips it really tight.
‘You’re hurting me!’
‘Go and apologise now!’
‘NO!’
Kay snatches my bag and pulls me back to the library. She dumps all the books I renewed, the ones about codices and Alexander and Mulan, in the returns shoot, and then drags me back home. I scream at her the whole way. I tell her to let go, she’s hurting me and I hate her. No one does anything, even the lady walking her dog. She just looks away.
Kay finally lets go of me when we get home. ‘Go to your room!’
‘You’re not the boss of me! You’re not Mum!’
‘Well, Mum’s dead, so go to your fucking room!’
I run to my room and slam the door. I jump on my bed and scream and cry. After a while I feel tired. I just lie in the bed and feel sad.
It’s raining. Raining really hard. The TV’s blaring. Kay hasn’t called me for dinner and it’s past midnight.
I’m hungry. I’m embarrassed. I acted like a baby.
I’m sad about the rain too. Kay used to love the rain. She’d get this look in her eyes, wild and excited. Sometimes she stood outside looking at the sky until someone asked her what she was doing. She’d say, ‘It’s going to rain today.’ And it would.
She loved the sound of it most and would open every window so the house was full of noise. She’d close her eyes, smile and just listen. Mum and Dad never minded. We were a family who loved winter. Mum put us in stupid matching jumpers. On the weekends, Dad made hot chocolate with real chocolate and cream, and we’d watch movies up loud so we could hear them over the heaters. We all sat shoulder to shoulder, even if we’d had a grumpy day.
Sometimes I wish the accident had happened in summer. When it rains now, Kay shuts the house up. She turns the TV on or puts her iPod up so loud I can hear it through her earphones. She doesn’t let us go out when it rains unless it’s school or work, and if it’s really bad she calls in sick and lies in her room all day. I don’t mind the rain so much. It never sounds like it did on that day. Maybe I should tell her that. Maybe then she wouldn’t be so sad.
The TV goes off. Kay goes to the bathroom and then her bedroom. All the lights go out. The rain gets louder. I want to tell her I’m sorry, but I don’t.
The next day, Kay wakes me up and says, ‘I’m sorry I hurt your arm. I was worried about you running onto the road. I’m still really disappointed with how you behaved. It really hurt when you said you hated me. I shouldn’t have said that thing about Mum, but neither should you. It’s not fun for me. I don’t want to do all the Mum and Dad things, but I have to.’
I want to apologise but I don’t say anything. I can’t even look at her. Kay sighs.
‘I’ve got a day off today. Some tradies are coming to put bars on the windows and doors. They’re going to make our house really safe. And pretty too.’
I don’t think I can say sorry now because she’s talking about something else.
‘Anyway, let’s get ready.’
I get up without making a fuss.
‘What have you got on at school today?’ Kay asks as she gives me a bowl of cornflakes.
I don’t answer. I don’t know how to say what I want to say. I just eat my breakfast, have a shower and get dressed. Kay walks me to school. When we get to the school gates, I run to the library.
It’s Wednesday. Dance again. Mrs Lornazak makes everyone dance to ‘Poker Face’ by Lady Gaga.
‘You do realise what she’s talking about when she refers to her “muffin”, don’t you, Audrey?’ Mrs Armstrong says to Mrs Lornazak when she tries to make me join in.
Mrs Lornazak goes red.
‘It’s interesting what kids learn from pop music these days,’ Mrs Armstrong continues. She takes a big sip of her coffee.
Mrs Lornazak changes the song to something else. Everyone complains. Theodore asks if they can dance to it again. He asks eight times before she threatens to send him to the principal (he asks two more times but she doesn’t send him).
Theodore sings the chorus all the way back to class, especially the na-na-na-naaaa! part. Miss Sparrow does send him to the principal’s office for disrupting silent reading.
I still feel bad. I wish I’d apologised when Kay said sorry. I get funny with this stuff.
At lunch, Theodore teaches me how to make an origami box, so I make two. Then I make two little cranes and put one in each box. I write the word SORRY on the box lids and FROM A. MISCHIEF on the bottom.
When Kay picks me up, I give her one of the boxes. She smiles as she reads the lid. She doesn’t look on the bottom. Adults never look at things properly. Maybe she’ll find it later and it’ll be a nice surprise.
‘It’s okay,’ she says. Then she opens it. ‘This is … cute. Looks like the paper birds from Mrs Moran’s garden.’
I don’t say anything.
‘Anyway, thank you.’
‘That’s okay,’ I say. I look at the ground. ‘I don’t hate you.’
She strokes my cat ears beanie. ‘I know.’
She says it softly, just like Mum.
‘Can we go to the library so I can apologise to the librarian?’
‘Really?’
‘I made her a box too.’
‘Okay, sure.’
We walk to Guildford Library and I go straight to the desk. I hand the librarian the box and say, ‘I’m sorry I was rude yesterday.’
The librarian smiles. She also doesn’t look at the bottom. ‘This is very sweet. Did you make it?’
‘Yes. There’s a bird inside.’
She opens it. ‘How charming! Thank you,’ she says, holding it up to her face. Then she looks at me. ‘I hope this means we won’t have another episode like yesterday.’
‘No throwing books?’
‘No throwing books.’
‘Good,’ the librarian says. ‘By the way, I found something you might like. When you threw that book at me, I noticed you’d put a Post-it note on the page about the Dragon of Wawel Hill.’
‘Kay says it’s okay to put Post-it notes in books because they don’t leave a mark.’
‘You’re not in trouble!’ she says. She ducks under her desk and comes back with the Poland book and another small book with a picture of a dragon on it. ‘It just made me think that maybe you were interested in the dragon. And would you believe it, we have a book called The Dragon of Krakow and other Polish Stories right here at Guildford. Krakow is the city of Wawel Hill. It’s the same story.’
She hands it to me. The dragon on the front is green and there’s a castle ablaze in the background.
‘I know you read lots of adult books but this one’s for kids.’
I don’t know what to say. I flip through the book.
‘You can borrow it if you like,’ the librarian says. Then she goes behind her desk again and brings out a pile of books. ‘I also saved those inter-library loans you wanted to renew yesterday.’ The librarian looks at Kay. ‘If it’s okay with you.’
Kay nods. The librarian takes my library card, scans all the books and puts them in my giant red library bag. There are so many it’s almost full.
‘There you go,’ she says. ‘The inter-library loans are due back sooner than the two Poland books, so make sure you keep your docket with the due dates.’
I look at the dragon book and then at her and say, ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re very welcome.’
I want to say more. I want to say how I don’t deserve this, how I don’t deserve Kay, how I’ve been grumpy and mean and I’m so sorry. I just feel so angry and sad all the time, but I love the mischief, I love the books and I love the library.
I can’t say any of this, but I do smile.
She smiles right back.