The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson

Author:Jacqueline Wilson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Psychopathology, Art, Psychology, Mothers, Popular Culture, Children's Stories, Manic-Depressive Illness, Families
ISBN: 9781407045177
Publisher: RHCB
Published: 1999-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

I found my silk scarf and got into bed with Marigold. We didn’t bother to get up in the morning. I fixed us some cornflakes and toast about midday and then she huddled back down again while I drifted round the flat.

I drew for a bit. I tried to do a picture of Natasha on the back of the empty cornflake packet. I coloured her and cut her out so that I could hold her in my hand. Then I stole a sheet of paper out of Star’s school book and invented all these new outfits for Natasha. I drew big tags on the shoulders and cut them all out slowly, careful not to snip off a single tag. But the dresses and the coat and the frilly nightie didn’t fit. The arms were in the wrong place so that Natasha’s own pink cardboard arms waved about behind the empty sleeves and even the necks weren’t right, so the clothes hung stiffly at odd angles.

I realized I should have lain the cardboard Natasha down on paper and drawn round her to get an exact fit for the clothes but I was too disheartened to give it another go. I tried to pretend Natasha instead, inventing all sorts of games for us. Marigold must have heard me muttering because she came into the room rubbing her eyes.

‘Is Star back?’

‘No.’

‘She didn’t say when she was coming?’

‘No.’

‘It could be any time, I suppose,’ said Marigold. ‘Micky might drive her back. And come up. Hey, we’d better get the place tidied up a bit, Dol. Oh God, I look such a sight – bath time! You come too. You look a bit grubby round the edges.’

I loved sharing a bath with Marigold because her body looked so bright in the water, a living picture book to gaze at. I liked seeing all the tattoos that usually got covered up. There was a green and blue serpent that wiggled all the way down her spine, twisting first this way and then that, its long forked tongue flickering between her shoulder blades, the tip of its tail way down at the crease where her bottom began.

I traced the first few coils, and Marigold wriggled her shoulders so that the serpent writhed convincingly. I’d never been all that sure about the serpent. It had tiny hooded eyes that looked sly and scary. Suddenly the serpent seemed too real, as if it was about to wriggle right off Marigold’s back and slide up my own skin. I got out of the bath quick.

Marigold took ages. She was even longer getting dressed, trying on and discarding practically all her clothes. She ended up choosing an oldish pair of jeans and a pale pink T-shirt that belonged to Star. She wore pale pink lipstick too, and brushed her hair back behind her ears which didn’t suit her. If she hadn’t had her vivid tattoos she’d have looked almost ordinary. I got it. She was trying to show Micky she wasn’t crazy.

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