Jonesy has always been in my life. Apparently, we used to walk around hand in hand everywhere as toddlers, and while other children our age wouldn’t share with each other we would always share, though not with others, we would only share between ourselves. They called us ‘the twins’ even though she had ginger hair and was much thinner than me. I had blonde hair at the time but it’s since gone darker.
There are one or two photos of us from when we were really little but not many. In the two that I’ve seen we look happy together, and in both we are holding hands, but Jonesy looks as though she was up to something, even back then.
People say I’m the clever one and she’s not, but that’s not strictly true, we are just different in the things we are clever in. She will see things that I would never notice; she will see socks that don’t match on a girl from twenty yards, she’ll notice a teacher is not wearing a wedding ring, or alcohol on a grown-up’s breath. She’s paying attention all the time; her mind doesn’t switch off. It isn’t always paying attention to what it should be aware of as she’s too busy watching everything else, but it’s never not switched on.
I really like school but it’s never suited Jonesy. They used to separate us in the lessons as I would work and she would want to talk to me, then I would give in and talk. ‘See her hair?’ she would say, pointing at another girl. ‘Never washes it, that one.’ I would start laughing and then we would both be in trouble. At ten we ended up getting separated as they moved me and a few others up a year and I ended up taking my qualification exam a year early with Shona.
Her family background is a little clearer than mine but no less bad. She has a mum and dad, she must have to be born, but she’s never met them. She was taken away from them in the first three months; she has been told they were ‘incapable of responsibly looking after her’. She heard that her mum has tried to get her back but that they won’t let her. Her mum doesn’t know where Jonesy is, so she shouldn’t be able to turn up here, but there’s always a chance. I think her mum has been locked up before, there was a rumour about that, but in the loony bin rather than prison.
Sometimes Jonesy wonders aloud about her mum, wondering what she does for a job, what she’s like, if she talks as much as she does. I’ve never heard her talk about her dad.
I don’t know if it’s better to have a family that don’t want you, but which you occasionally get to see and a grandmother who likes you, or one that can’t have you and never gets to see you. Neither is great. After a while you don’t worry about it, you just get on with your life. I’ve never heard Jonesy really complain about it. I might sometimes complain but Jonesy never does, she just endlessly wonders. She doesn’t even complain when she gets a thrashing. Perhaps she should wonder about the thrashings; maybe she should wonder why she gets so many.
Here’s a few things to know about Jonesy:
I’ve never woken before her.
I’ve never said the last word before we go to sleep.
I’ve never beat her into the bathroom in the morning.
I’ve never seen her go a day without smiling.
She is a joy to be with. The first thing she ever does in the morning is come over to my bed to wake me. I usually tell her to get away, then I’ll check the time and if I don’t have to get up I’ll tell her to go back to sleep. Sometimes she wakes at 4 a.m. and is ready to go; when that happens she goes back to bed and stares at the ceiling until it’s acceptable for her to get up again. The other girls in our room sometimes complain, but deep down they love her – she’s Jonesy. They’d miss her if she wasn’t in the room.
In The House at Pooh Corner, there’s a character called Tigger, and that is who Jonesy is, she’s our Tigger, always up and raring to go, nothing gets her down.
We have to worry about her around Christmas. She’s always so excited we have to be careful her head doesn’t go pop. From December the first she just has this look in her eyes that we are all living in a wonderland and everything will be perfect as Christmas is nearly here.
Anyway, me and Jonesy, we are a team, we are one. Some people say to me, especially some of the teachers back when we were at school together, ‘Why do you hang round with her?’ They don’t know her like I do, and how great she is, and, yes, she can be a bit annoying at times but I wouldn’t swap her for the world.