Dizzy by Cathy Cassidy

Author:Cathy Cassidy
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Social Issues - General, Divorce, New Age movement, Children: Grades 4-6, Fiction, Great Britain, Parents, Parental kidnapping, New Age persons, Ages 9-12 Fiction, Social Issues - Friendship, Social Issues, Girls & Women, Juvenile Fiction, Family - Parents, Social Issues - New Experience, Friendship, Action & Adventure, Family, Children's Books, General, New Experience, Mothers and daughters, Festivals
ISBN: 9780142404744
Publisher: PUFFIN
Published: 2005-09-08T08:45:18.757000+00:00

Dear Dad,

There’s loads going on here! I’ve done workshops in paper-making and felt-making and drumming! I’ve eaten falafel in pitta bread and deep-fried tofu fritters and sushi rolls with sour pickled vegetables and seaweed. I’ve had my hands painted with henna, helped to carve a giant totem pole and learnt to weave friendship bracelets. Come soon or you’ll miss all the fun!

Big hugs,

Dizzy xxxx

It’s a great festival.

There are stalls selling hats from Nepal, itchy jumpers from Peru, tin mirrors from Tunisia. You can buy wind chimes made of seashells and bracelets made from old silver forks, the prongs curled round in little spirals. There’s soap made from dandelions and shampoo brewed from boiled-up twigs.

Everyone’s doing something.

Storm puts a sign on the patchwork van, advertising tarot readings. A steady stream of hippies drift by each day and part with cash to hear her tell the future. She tells them about tall, dark strangers, travel overseas, a new baby, a new career, a dream come true. One day, I hear her telling Amber that she’s at a crossroads in her life, that she’ll take the path that’s least expected.

‘The tarot never lie,’ she tells Amber.

I frown, trying to remember the things she told me.

‘Can Storm see into the future?’ I ask Tess later. ‘Is it real, the stuff she says? Do the tarot ever lie?’

Tess laughs.

‘The tarot’s a great way to make money,’ she says. ‘Everyone wants to know the future. Will we be happy or sad, rich or poor, loved or lonely? I don’t know, pet, I’m the wrong person to ask. I gave up on fairy-tale endings a long time ago. You have to make your own luck in this life.’

‘Does Storm believe it?’ I ask.

Tess shrugs. ‘Hard to tell, with Storm. Mostly, she tells you what you want to hear. She doesn’t mean any harm – it’s just the way she is.’

‘Just a way to make money,’ I repeat.

‘Pretty much,’ Tess says.

Did Storm really see adventure and travel in my cards, or did she just say it because it suited her plans? I have to trust her, don’t I? Like Amber does, and all the others who queue up to part from their fivers in return for a little bit of future.

Anyone foolish enough to hand over their cash to Zak, however, deserves everything they get – and what they get, in my opinion, is fleeced. The tepee is out of bounds between midday and four each day, when Zak has his crystal-healing sessions. Big deal. I mean, it’s not like we’d want to watch, is it?

Every night there’s music and dancing and drinking. Every night the tepee is crammed with crusties, thick with smoke, awash with cider.

Mouse and Leggit and I start sleeping in the patchwork van. It’s quieter, it’s got mattresses and you don’t get drunken revellers stumbling over you in the middle of the night. Every night, Mouse and I crash out on separate bunks, formal and polite. Every night, when it’s still and dark and quiet, Mouse burrows in under my quilt and we snuggle up.

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