Marsh & Me by Martine Murray

Author:Martine Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2019-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

Marsh takes me to the supermarket. This isn’t what I was expecting. I thought she would take me somewhere a bit wild and secret, somewhere a bit hidden and unusual. I was not expecting the supermarket.

But in we go with no explanation. Marsh just smiles mysteriously.

I hope no one I know will see me here with a girl in a yellow dress embroidered with lilac-and-green flowers, a girl who looks like someone from the cover of one of my mum’s old psychedelic records. Marsh doesn’t appear to care who sees us. She seems almost unaware that there are other people in the supermarket, even in the world.

I know it will ruin the mystery, but I ask anyway. “Marsh, why are we here?”

“What is a special treat for you?” she says. “Ice cream? Doughnuts?”

It’s hard to imagine she has money to spend on this kind of stuff.

I shrug.

“Golden Gaytimes, actually. But you can’t buy them here, and even if you could, I haven’t got any money.”

She snorts. “I like doughnuts. In Serbia they are called krofne. And I like salted chocolate too.”

I am still confused. We go to the chocolate section. We look at the flavors. I suggest cherry. Unsurprisingly, Marsh takes the salted one.

“Come on,” she says. I think she is about to take me to the doughnuts, but she heads for the cash registers. She picks up a newspaper, turns to me and says, “For my dad.”

Pim Wilder is in the queue, holding a can of dog food. Of all people to see, Pim is the best and the worst. He isn’t the type to snigger, but he is the person I least want to shame myself in front of. He sees me. There is no avoiding him.

“Hiya, Joe,” he says.

“Hi, Pim.” I turn toward Marsh. How should I introduce her? I don’t even know her real name. “This is Marsh,” I say.

“Hi,” says Pim.

“Hi,” she says. She seems shy for once. Maybe because Pim is so relentlessly relaxed.

If he thinks she looks funny, he doesn’t show it. He just says, “I’ve got a friend with a hungry dog,” and he holds up the can.

“We’re here for chocolate,” I explain, but as soon as I say it, I realize we haven’t got any chocolate; we only have a newspaper. I glance at Marsh to check, in case she does happen to still be holding the chocolate and can make sense of my claim, but all she has is the newspaper wedged under one arm.

“What’s the dog’s name?” she asks. At least she turns the attention away.

“Maude,” says Pim, smiling. Marsh has that dog tag with Maude’s name on it. She doesn’t flinch, though. If she realizes it, she doesn’t let on.

“Good name,” she declares. I catch myself hoping she won’t show her wild-girl side, and then I feel ashamed for having been so small.

Pim nods. “Yeah, she’s a cool dog.” He smiles at Marsh. Maybe he likes her. It’s his turn to go through the checkout. “See ya,” he says.

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