Saffy's Angel by Hilary McKay

Author:Hilary McKay [McKay, Hilary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781444903447
Publisher: Hachette Children
Published: 2011-05-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Caddy’s exams were spread out over a whole month, the week before the summer half term holiday at the end of May, and the two weeks after it. Before they started she had the written part of her driving test, which she passed with no trouble at all.

‘Told you so!’ said Michael.

Caddy hardly noticed she had done it. She had begun to spend her time in a trance of exam papers and revision, trekking from room to room in the Banana House in search of ever more knowledge. It became a sort of safari. She hunted down facts and theories, and was mildly astonished to find that once she had found them they stayed in her brain.

Occasionally the safari was not successful and she stuck in a bog. English literature was a terrible bog, especially Shakespeare, especially, especially Hamlet, the play. For three years Caddy had owned a copy of Hamlet. Somehow, she could not read it. It numbed her brain. She still had not got through it the day before the English literature exam.

‘I will just have to skip all the Shakespeare questions,’ she told Indigo.

‘Like you did last time?’

‘Um. Yes.’

‘You’d better read it,’ said Indigo.

‘There isn’t time. I’ve got a driving lesson.’

‘Cancel it,’ said Indigo austerely.

Caddy rang up Michael.

‘I have to read this totally boring play,’ she explained. ‘Hamlet. By Shakespeare. Droopy Di probably loves it.’

‘You are quite right,’ agreed Michael cordially. ‘Shakespeare. Oh yes. Reads it in the bath.’

‘How do you know? No, don’t tell me! Anyway, Michael darling, because of this terrible Hamlet that I have to know all about before tomorrow I’m afraid I won’t be able to come out with you today.’

‘Who was he, then?’ asked Michael. ‘I think I have a right to know. Since you are cancelling at such short notice, Cadmium dear!’

‘He was a Prince,’ said Caddy. ‘Of Denmark.’

‘I’ve been there,’ said Michael, sounding very pleased with himself. ‘I went to a concert in Denmark, years ago! In a sea of mud. Never stopped raining for three days. Terrible place, Denmark!’

‘Hamlet went mad.’

‘So did a lot of us.’

‘And his girlfriend drowned.’

‘Not surprised at all. Wettest place I’ve ever seen.’

‘She was called Ophelia.’

‘And she couldn’t swim?’

‘No.’

‘Poor old Oph.’

‘Yes,’ agreed Caddy, beginning to feel a bit better, ‘and poor old Ham, in all that mud.’

‘Think of me, when you read it,’ said Michael. ‘My tent was pinched and my two best mates got food poisoning.’

‘Hamlet’s two best mates got murdered.’

‘Dear, oh dear,’ said Michael. ‘I’ll see you next week then.’

That got Caddy out of the Hamlet bog quite nicely. She substituted Michael for Hamlet, and herself for Ophelia, and she added the two best mates whenever the action got very slow, and somehow she got through the whole play in time to discuss it, quite intelligently, in the examination the next day. Still, it was a great relief to go back to Chemistry, which was written in plain English and full of familiar names from the colour chart, still pinned on the kitchen wall.

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