The Homestead by Quintus H Gould

Author:Quintus H Gould
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ancile Press

Twenty-Four

Nanny told them that a man with a red suit and a big white beard had done it. ‘Came down the chimney,’ she had explained, wafting one of her fat arms at the gold and silver plates that had appeared on the table overnight. Cherub had wanted to ask what a chimney was, but the other girls were already swarming over the food and she didn’t want to miss out.

Squares of pink and yellow held together with a sweet and sticky orange-coloured jam. A spongy, cream-stuffed brown log, decorated with multi-coloured sprinkles and vanilla swirls. Little men wearing red hats, jelly buttons and chocolate boots. Stars that twinkled with sugar.

‘I like these best,’ Filly said as she bit off a chocolate-coated gingerbread leg.

Cherub nodded. She liked them too. In fact, she liked them all. Her fingers were already sticky and covered in cake.

‘Why’d he give us this?’ Cherub eventually asked her friend.

Filly looked up from the plate she was studying. ‘Who?’ she asked.

‘What Nanny said — the man with the beard and the red suit,’ Cherub explained between mouthfuls. ‘Why’d he give us all this stuff?’

Filly shrugged and toyed with another gingerbread man.

‘Remember when we had those little fruits,’ Cherub said. ‘Do you think that was him, too?’

The other girl shook her head. ‘What little fruits?’

‘The multi-coloured ones. Apples and pears and little, bitty oranges.’ Cherub licked her fingers and said, ‘You thought they tasted funny.’

‘Oh, I remember.’ Filly wrinkled her nose at the memory. ‘They were yuck!’

Cherub laughed. She was sitting on the end of her bed, swinging her legs back and forth so that the metal squeaked. Across her lap, tucked in front of her ragdoll Rosie, a plate loaded with sugary delights made her already full tummy grumble for more. Filly moved from her bed to Cherub’s and took a square of cake from her plate.

‘So, you think that man really brought them, then?’ the blotchy-skinned girl asked, offering the first bite to her friend. Cherub took it and shook her head.

‘Sounds weird.’

‘Yeah,’ Filly agreed, also taking a bite. ‘Perhaps Nanny did it.’

Cherub shook her head again, then leant closer to Filly and whispered, ‘Nanny’d just eat them all herself.’ Filly giggled, clapping her hand over her mouth to stop crumbs of cake from falling out. Cherub shared in her laughter, leaning her head on her friend’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around her skinny middle.

‘You should eat more,’ Cherub said when they had finished laughing. ‘Here—’ she passed the plate to Filly, ‘eat mine. I have too much chub.’ She poked her own belly and grimaced.

Filly shook her head and nudged the plate back. ‘No, I like it when we share,’ she said. Cherub pulled a face and so she nudged the plate some more. ‘You shouldn’t listen to the others,’ Filly said, her voice soft.

‘They’re right though,’ Cherub responded. ‘I am chubby.’

Filly turned, her brown eyes full of expression. ‘I’ve said before,’ she said. ‘They’re just jealous.’

‘Yeah, yeah, I know,’ her friend huffed.

Across the room, a girl with two thick plaits was munching on a piece of chocolate cake.

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