The Girl Who Couldn't Smile by Shane Dunphy

Author:Shane Dunphy [Dunphy, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781780335100
Publisher: Constable & Robinson Ltd
Published: 2012-10-30T07:00:00+00:00

Tammy and Arga were fighting like tiny Tasmanian devils. The only thing I could think to do was to scoop the pair of them up and carry them away from the rest of the children – who were not behaving much better that morning: the weekend seemed to have killed some of their ardour for the KB. In fact, the atmosphere in Little Scamps that morning was not one bit pleasant – I feared we were balanced on a knife-edge, but clung to the belief that Milandra’s impending party might set things back on track.

I hauled the two scuffling children down to the reading area, where we had a circle of beanbags, and unceremoniously dumped them on the large, soft cushions. Arga immediately went for Tammy with her hands bared like claws, and I was forced to get between the pair, receiving a nasty scratch across my forehead for my trouble.

‘Okay, you two,’ I said, my voice firm. ‘That is absolutely enough.’

Tammy made a kind of hissing sound and tried to barge past me to get at her antagonist, and Arga screeched something in rapid Polish: ‘Wyrwę sobie oczy, ty suko!’

‘I’ll tear out your eyes, you bitch,’ Lonnie called, from the dress-up corner, where Mitzi was stationed, trying on outfits for the party – she’d said she wanted to look beautiful, and who were we to argue?

‘I don’t want you talking like that, Arga,’ I said.

She snarled at me like a wild dog, then folded her arms in a huge sulk.

‘Look at the pair of you,’ I said, sitting down between them. ‘We’ve got a party coming up later on. You don’t want to be fighting for that, do you?’

Tammy looked at me, wide eyed. I found it interesting that, while Arga seemed genuinely upset by the altercation, she appeared to view it as a sort of science experiment. She seemed interested to see what might happen next.

‘Now I want you both to say sorry,’ I said.

‘Nr!’ Arga bellowed.

‘No,’ Lonnie translated.

‘I think I got that one, Lonnie,’ I called back.

‘What do you need me for?’ my friend retorted. ‘You’re practically fluent.’

Tammy sat watching us.

‘If you apologize, you’ll both feel better. How can we have a party if everyone is trying to kill everyone else? That’s no good.’

‘Uderzyła mnie!’ Arga seethed.

‘She hit me,’ Lonnie interjected. ‘Or had you worked that one out too?’

‘Tammy, did you hit Arga?’ I asked, looking down at the tiny blond child.

She stared at her grimy, scuffed trainers, playing with one of the laces, twirling it about her finger.

‘Did you, Tam?’ I pressed. ‘You know that’s not a good thing to do.’

With lightning speed, Tammy let loose with a remarkably powerful punch to the bridge of my nose. It felt as if I had been kicked by a Shetland pony: tears sprang to my eyes and my hand flew to my face.

‘Oh,’ Arga said, pointing at Tammy, who sat right where she had been, watching my reaction with keen interest. ‘Jesteś teraz w tarapatach! Jesteś zła, zła dziewczyna.

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