Читать книгу How to be a Good Veronica - Michael K Freundt - Страница 6

Jack looked up as she entered. He was sitting on his bed with a hand-held computer game.

“What’s the matter?” he asked defensively.

“Nothing, I...” but she was halted by what she saw. She had expected tidiness but not this, this fastidious tidiness. The room looked like a window display in David Jones; an ad in a furniture magazine. She was taken aback. There was a little pile of books on his bedside cabinet, arranged in order of size, largest on the bottom, smallest on the top; and the left edges of all the books were level with the edge of the cabinet. His bed was made and his old stuffed teddy bear, with a Sydney Swans, red and white, jumper, sat on the pillow. There was a little bud vase containing a fern leaf sitting on his desk. His laptop was open and on and showing a colourful aquatic scene: fish swimming and air bubbles in thin wavy lines, like in champagne.

“Does Mrs. Danuta clean in here?”

“No. I like to know where things are, not where they were.”

“There are many things here I don’t recognise. Where did you get that bud vase?”

“I bought it at Vinnies Op Shop.”

“How did you pay for it?”

“With my pocket money.” But Veronica could see on his face that this was not true, or not the whole truth.

“Jack?” she asked enquiringly and endeavoured to keep her voice calm.

He put down his computer game and looked at her with the resigned face of a caught-out boy. “Mrs. Danuta gives me money each week out of her pay because she doesn’t have to clean in here anymore.”

“How much money?”

“Ten dollars.”

“Ten dollars!?”

“I save most of it,” said Jack.

“And whose idea was this?”

“Mine. But Mrs. Danuta seems happy about it.”

“And what are you saving for?” Running away from home flashed alarmingly through her mind. “Jack?”

He didn’t answer.

“Jack?!”

He gave a huge exasperated sigh. “For your birthday present.”

She was suddenly very wary. Jack was very intelligent but ‘intelligent’ can sometimes mean ‘cunning’. Or was he telling the truth? Veronica thought for a moment and decided the warmth she felt from his reply was reason enough, and she chided herself for thinking ill of him. “Jack, that’s very sweet. But I wish you had told me.”

“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“I still don’t know what you’re going to buy for me. It’s still a surprise. It’s just that when it comes to money we all have to be very careful. Dealing with money is very tricky. It takes time and energy to deal with it. I still don’t think I’ve got the knack of it.”

“Really?”

“Not completely.” He looked at her as if she was incompetent, lacking a skill that he finds easy. He looked away and back to his computer game as if this was the only way to deal with disappointment at this particular time and in this particular situation.

“Well, please don’t say anything to Mrs. Danuta,” he said as an afterthought.

“She should’ve told me.”

“I made her agree not to say anything.”

“I see”. And she suddenly felt as if she was intruding. Perhaps he was right about his oft announced maturity. But he still wasn’t even ten yet. “Well, your room looks very nice,” she said as she backed out and closed the door. She had forgotten why she wanted to speak to him in the first place.