Poking Seaweed with a Stick and Running Away from the Smell by Alison Whitelock

Author:Alison Whitelock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: book, BM, BIO026000
ISBN: 9781862549883
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Published: 2013-08-27T04:00:00+00:00

21

Rona fills her lungs at the caravan

My da came home one day and told us we were getting a new sister. And then he told us he was going to the children’s home at Cathkin to pick up Rona and she was going to stay with us on the weekends from now on and he told us we’d better all be on our best behaviour and not be showing him up, else there’d be trouble. I asked my da why she was coming to stay with us and where was her own da and my da said I was to never fucking mind where her own da was, that her own da had put her in a children’s home and that’s why she was coming to spend time with us, in a normal family environment.

And so I asked my da what a normal family environment was when it was at home and that’s when he told me, ‘Less of your fuckin’ cheek mi’ lady.’ He told me to go and get my room tidied up and that he’d better not see me back out till it was done. And I walked off to my room and all the while I was thinking about this Rona and ­wondering who she thinks she is and why should we have to put up with somebody we don’t even know just so she can spend time in a normal family environment. I tidied my room and by the time I’d finished my da had already left to go and get this Rona. I asked Mum what was going on and she said my da had taken it into his head to befriend a child from the children’s home ’cause Jimmy at the pub was doing the same thing—as if we didn’t have enough problems with my da’s drinking and his womanising, now we had another mouth to feed.

So my da went to the children’s home at Cathkin that day and brought back Rona and Rona had nine brothers and sisters and they were all in the home, too. Rona was twelve years old, one year older than me, and she had pale white skin and long black hair and she was skinny like a long drink of water, at least that’s what Nanny used to say.

Rona arrived with a blue vinyl suitcase. My da told her she’d be sharing my bedroom and so I showed Rona my tidy bedroom and her side of the bed and then we all sat in the living room and had a cup of tea and a toasted soda scone from Joe Black’s bakery on the Glasgow Road.

Mum made us a mince and onion curry that night for our tea and it was our way of making Rona feel special, ’cause it’s not every day you get a mince and onion curry. When we finished eating I told Mum I hoped the electricity would get cut off again like that last time when we couldn’t pay the bill so

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