Betsey Biggalow Is Here! (5 page)

“But Mum, I didn’t put my trainer there . . .” Betsey said, puzzled.

“It didn’t crawl under there by itself, Betsey. What has got into you this morning?” Mum sighed. “Now, put on your trainer and let’s go.”

At last they left the house. Desmond walked with Gran’ma Liz and Sherena walked with Mum. Betsey walked by herself behind everyone else. They were all talking and laughing. Everyone except Betsey.

“I might as well call today My-Bad-Day instead of Saturday,” Betsey muttered to herself. “Seems like everything I touch is going wrong and nothing I do is going right.”

Betsey sighed and sighed some more. Gran’ma Liz turned around.

“Betsey, we’re off to town.” Gran’ma Liz smiled. “So put your face straight before the wind changes direction and your face is stuck with that gloomy look on it. We’ll get our shopping and when we’ve finished we can all go for an ice-cream.”

Ice-cream! Scrumptious! Double Scrumptious! That was more like it!

The bus came along and juddered to a halt just as they all reached the bus stop.

“Jump up! Jump up!” laughed Gran’ma Liz. “We’re off to town!”

And they all scrambled aboard. Soon they’d reached the market in town.

The town was even busier and better than Betsey remembered. They didn’t come to town too often as there were plenty of small shops locally. But about once a month, they all climbed aboard a bus and went shopping for the things they couldn’t buy from the local shops. Betsey sniffed the air. She could smell plantain cooking and fried fish and all different kinds of fruit like freshly picked bananas and mangoes and paw-paws and coconuts. Yumptious-scrumptious!

Betsey grinned. Saturday felt better already. Then Betsey saw something that made her eyes open wide as plates and made her mouth drop open and made her heart beat faster than fast. There, across the street. Dad!

“Dad! DAD!” Betsey yelled out.

Dad heard Betsey’s voice and turned. He grinned and waved and once the road was clear, ran across it. Dad! There followed such huggings and cuddlings.

“I wasn’t expecting you for another week.” Mum smiled happily.

“My last exam wasn’t meant to be until the end of next week but they brought it forward so I’ve finished all my exams now.” Dad grinned. “I decided not to tell you all but to surprise you. My plane landed about an hour ago.”

“Are you a doctor yet?” Betsey asked eagerly.

“Not yet, Betsey.” Dad shook his head. “I’ve got one more year of studying to do first.”

“So how long are you going to be home for?” asked Gran’ma Liz.

“A few weeks.” Dad grinned. “The exams are over and I’m on holiday.”

“Yippee!” Sherena and Desmond shouted.

“I knew it.” Betsey smiled. “I knew today was going to be a good day!”

And she was right.

Malorie Blackman
has written over sixty books and is acknowledged as one of today’s most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. Malorie has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005 she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to children’s books, and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature. She has been described by
The Times
as ‘a national treasure’. Malorie Blackman is the Children’s Laureate 2013–15.

The NOUGHTS & CROSSES sequence:

NOUGHTS & CROSSES

KNIFE EDGE

CHECKMATE

DOUBLE CROSS

NOBLE CONFLICT

BOYS DON’T CRY

HEART BREAK GIRL

THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES

TRUST ME

PIG-HEART BOY

HACKER

A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E.

THIEF!

DANGEROUS REALITY

THE DEADLY DARE MYSTERIES

DEAD GORGEOUS

UNHEARD VOICES

(A collection of short stories and poems, collected by Malorie Blackman)

For younger readers:

CLOUD BUSTING

OPERATION GADGETMAN!

WHIZZIWIG and WHIZZIWIG RETURNS

GIRL WONDER AND THE TERRIFIC TWINS

GIRL WONDER’S WINTER ADVENTURES

GIRL WONDER TO THE RESCUE

BETSEY BIGGALOW THE DETECTIVE

BETSEY’S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

MAGIC BETSEY

HURRICANE BETSEY

For beginner readers:

JACK SWEETTOOTH

SNOW DOG

SPACE RACE

THE MONSTER CRISP-GUZZLER

BETSEY BIGGALOW IS HERE!
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 19303 5

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company

First Published by Piccadilly Press, 1992
Red Fox edition published 2014
This ebook edition published 2014

Text copyright © Oneta Malorie Blackman, 1992
Illustrations copyright © Jamie Smith, 2014

The right of Malorie Blackman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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