On Sunday, Victoria came to spend the day at my place.
‘Wow,’ she said when she came inside. ‘Did you get a new kitchen put in?’
Dad smiled.
‘No,’ he said, puffing up with pride. ‘That’s the old kitchen. A friend gave me a few cans of paint he didn’t need, and I used it to paint the units. Nice aren’t they?’
‘Totally,’ said Victoria.
I wondered if she was being sincere. I couldn’t help comparing Dad’s handiwork with the very flashy maple and steel kitchen that Victoria’s parents had had fitted in their house a few months earlier.
‘I’m doing the bathroom next,’ said Dad. ‘First I’m going to re-grout the tiles, and then I’m going to sand the floorboards, and then—’
‘Dad,’ I wailed. ‘Victoria isn’t here for a DIY lesson.’
‘Oh,’ said Dad, disappointed.
I grabbed Victoria’s arm and pulled her towards the hall.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Before he gets started again.’
Victoria laughed, and followed me.
‘Your dad’s changed,’ she said as we went upstairs.’
‘Tell me about it!’ I said.
‘Don’t knock it. Some changes are good you know. And your mum – she seems kind of different these days too.’
I smiled.
‘Yes she is, isn’t she? She always used to go out to lunch and coffee mornings and stuff – but she never had any real friends. Now that’s all changed though. She’s forever having the neighbours in for cups of tea. They’re always teaching her these weird recycled craft things, and talking about allotments and stuff. Sometimes I can’t concentrate on my homework, they’re laughing so much.’
‘That’s good isn’t it?’
I shrugged.
‘I suppose so,’ I conceded.
‘So, any real news?’ said Victoria when we were settled in my room.
Before I could answer, she noticed my new bracelet on my wrist. She leaned over and touched it, running her fingers along the tiny, shimmering beads.
‘That is so, so beautiful,’ she said. ‘Where did you get it?’
‘You mean “where did a poor girl like me get such a beautiful bracelet”?’ I snapped.
Victoria shook her head.
‘Stop being so defensive, Eva. I mean it’s a beautiful bracelet, and I’ve never seen it before and I’m wondering where you got it.’
‘Sorry,’ I said.
‘And?’
I hesitated.
I so didn’t want to tell Victoria about Ruby and the market.
I didn’t know how to say it without making myself sound like a loser.
But Victoria was my best friend in the whole world, and how could I be proper friends with someone I kept telling lies to?
So I took a deep breath, and told Victoria all about Ruby, and how I’d started to help her in the market on Saturdays.
Victoria listened to my story with a puzzled expression on her face.
‘That’s really nice of you, and everything, but … er … why?’ she said in the end.
‘Why what?’
Victoria sighed.
‘This is what I’m hearing. There’s this girl, that you don’t seem to like very much, and she doesn’t seem to like you – or anyone else – that much.’
‘I wouldn’t exactly say that I don’t like her,’ I corrected Victoria. ‘It’s just that she’s different to anyone I’ve ever known before.’
‘Whatever. She’s in your class, but she doesn’t talk to you at school, and you don’t talk to her?’
‘Well…yes.’
‘And yet you spend all of your Saturday mornings helping her to sell cabbages in the market.’
I giggled.
‘Pay attention. It’s not just cabbages. We sell carrots, broccoli, apples, oranges. We have a very wide range of produce!’
Victoria giggled too.
‘Well you know what I’m trying to say. I mean, you’ve always been a nice girl and everything, but you’re not a saint. So why are you doing this?’
I hesitated again.
It was one thing telling Victoria about Ruby.
Did I really want to tell her about Madam Margarita as well?
But Victoria was smiling at me, and I knew that if anyone in the whole world was going to understand this crazy story, it had to be Victoria. So I took another deep breath, and told her all about what Madam Margarita had said.
When I had finished, Victoria was silent for a long time.
I figured that silence was better than laughter, but it still wasn’t exactly the reaction I had hoped for.
‘Well?’ I said when I couldn’t take any more.
‘So this fortune-teller woman, that I was stupid enough to let you talk to, tells you to do loads of good deeds, and then you’ll get what you want?’
I nodded.
‘And you believe her?’ she asked.
‘Wouldn’t you?’
She shook her head.
‘Sorry, Eva, but I don’t think I would.’
Why was I surprised?
‘It’s easy for you,’ I said. ‘You already have everything you want. You don’t know what it’s like to want something as badly as I do.’
‘So what exactly is it that you want?’
‘I’m not greedy,’ I answered. ‘I only want one thing.’
‘And that is?’
‘I want my old life back.’
Victoria giggled.
‘It might only be one thing, but it’s a very big one thing, don’t you think?’
I sighed.
‘I know. But it’s all I want. I want my old house, my old life – the whole lot. I might not have appreciated it properly at the time, but I’d sure appreciate it now.’
‘But in your old life, you didn’t know Ella, and now she’s a really good friend.’
‘That’s true,’ I conceded. ‘So I’ll change my wish. I wish I had my old life back, just with Ella in it. How does that sound?’
‘Complicated.’
She was right, but I didn’t acknowledge that.
I sighed, again.
‘My biggest wish is that one day I’ll wake up and realise that these last few months have been a very long, very bad dream.’
Victoria shook her head.
‘Sorry to disappoint you, Eva, but this isn’t a dream.’
‘I know,’ I said quickly. ‘And that’s why I have to believe in Madam Margarita.’
Even as I said the last words, I knew they weren’t true. I’d never really, really truly believed in her. I had just wanted to believe in her. And now, after weeks of doing as she suggested, nothing had changed.
Madam Margarita had to be a fraud.
Why hadn’t I been able to see it before?
I felt a sick feeling in my stomach as the last strands of hope vanished, like the string of a runaway balloon slipping through my fingers. My dream was disappearing before my eyes.
I sighed again.
‘You’re right. It’s not going to work. I was crazy to ever think that it would.’
Victoria came over and hugged me. I could smell the expensive fabric conditioner on her hoodie. It was the kind my mum used to use – back when we could still afford it.
‘I’m so sorry, Eva,’ said Victoria, when I finally, reluctantly let her go.
I tried to smile. ‘Maybe the first twenty years of being poor are the hardest. It’ll probably be OK after that.’
She smiled. ‘I’m sure things aren’t that bad. And, look on the bright side, now that you know Madam Margarita was talking rubbish, you can forget all about her advice. You can forget about helping people. You can forget all about working in the market.’
I started to smile, but then changed my mind.
‘No, Victoria,’ I said. ‘I can’t stop working in the market.’
Victoria shook her head in frustration.
‘I don’t get you sometimes, Eva. I really don’t.’
I wrinkled up my face as I tried to explain.
‘You see, at first, I only helped Ruby because of what Madam Margarita said. I was helping her because I stupidly believed that it would somehow end up helping me. But now things are different. I know Ruby is a bit weird – well actually she’s very weird – but she’s nice too, and she needs help, and if I don’t help her, who else will?’
Victoria hugged me again.
‘You’re the kindest girl I’ve ever met,’ she said, and I was embarrassed, but very, very pleased.