Tiger Moth by Suzi Moore

Author:Suzi Moore [Moore, Suzi]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780857075116
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

20

Zack

Yesterday Mum went to work and I got to stay in the house all by myself. Well, almost all by myself because Mum had arranged for this woman she’s known for years to keep checking up on me. She said that she wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to let me hang around all day by myself. ‘Who knows what you’ll get up to?’ she’d said when I asked her why.

‘This is Pippa,’ she said to me on Tuesday morning. Pippa wore the sort of clothes that a man would wear: a pair of dark blue shorts with lots of pockets, a sort of big black belt that had a purse at the front and a pair of heavy-looking sandals that showed all her toes were kind of muddled up and sticking out. I didn’t like the look of her at all so I stared at her with my ‘I don’t like you already’ face. And she peered over her glasses at me in a ‘you look like trouble’ kind of way. She chatted to Mum for a while so I went upstairs to clean my teeth. I was just thinking about when I could sneak out and down to the beach when Mum came barging into the bathroom.

‘Leapfrogging over gravestones is NOT ON at all, Zack!’

Oh, I thought, remembering the short cut I’d taken through the churchyard the other night. Oops. Then she went off on one about how it was a really disrespectful thing to do and that Granddad was buried there and how unkindly I was behaving. She said how lucky we were to live here and how I needed to make an effort.

‘“Centre of the universe,” my dad used to say! And you know what, Zack? Being here again makes me realise that this is a much better place for you to grow up. It’s safer. People look out for each other. People care about each other.’ I heard a tremble in her voice and I felt bad.

When Mum left for work, Pippa sort of hung around for a bit, asking lots of stupid questions. I looked up at her from the sofa and sort of grunted back at her.

‘Hmm,’ she said, peering over her glasses. ‘My grandson is about your age. He’s football mad. I bet you’re like that too?’

I thought of Lou and the hours of football we’d played together in our old garden. It made me think of Dad and his ability to save just about any goal we tried. I’m not very good really.

‘My dad played for his school and stuff, but I’m not . . .’ I drifted off, but Pippa just smiled down at me kindly.

‘Well, my husband says I’m a pretty bad cook, but I’ve not poisoned anyone yet. I left a casserole in the oven last year and forgot all about it. Came back from the beach and the thing was a lump of black bones in the bottom of the pan. Stunk the whole house out for weeks.

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