Читать книгу The Styx - Patricia Holland - Страница 31

The sea is still, the sky invisible—opaque, but invisible.

My school exercise books were all covered in poo-brown paper. My father’s latest “friend” covered them all in one crinkled batch with her stinkin’ horrible son’s stinkin’ school books. I am sooooooo glad he doesn’t go to Mango Downs State School. He used to pinch me or flick up my skirt when my father wasn’t looking. I swear his mother saw him do it, and did nothing. Her son is never ever at fault. I taunted him, she’d say. Or maybe she thinks I should feel grateful for his attention.

I didn’t want poo-brown paper. I wanted the flying-unicorn contact covering and all the other school stuff my mother bought for me. I wanted the poppy pink pencil case with the letters S O P H I E in plastic slots. I wanted my cat, dog and bird exercise book labels. My father’s latest “friend” knew I had this stuff.

“Ridiculous,” she said to my father when he gave her Mum’s bag of school stuff, to “help” me get ready.

“What is she going to do with that?” my father’s latest “friend” said. “Contact covering is messy fiddly stuff. I had brown paper on my books at school. It’s much easier to cover them with. That’s all we ever use. Ridiculous nonsense turning books into a circus, and what’s she going to use them for anyway? Rose always overdid everything. Never knew when to stop.”

My father’s latest “friend” had been my mother’s closest friend. Or so my mother thought.