‘Okay,’ she agreed. What choice did she have?
Ruth saw that one of her shoelaces had come undone. She bent over to retie it. When she looked up again the rat was already gone.
She settled herself back on the grass to wait for him, hoping for a change of luck.
Please
, she prayed,
I need to at least undo the harm I’ve caused!
While she waited, Ruth watched the sky, and for the first time since she’d arrived at the bridge she felt the stillness around her. There were all kinds of sounds that she hadn’t noticed before – nearby twittering birds and the occasional mournful cries of a crow, the rustling of leaves, the bellow of a cow calling her calf. She thought of Howard and wondered how he was getting on with his fishing. If he’d come with her, things might not have been so bad. Then again, a boy wouldn’t have much chance in a convent! He might not even have been allowed through the gates.
Ruth noticed that the sun had moved round to the west. Would the rest of her family be back from the bike race yet? Would they be worried about her? Would they miss her if she left forever?
She wished that she was home right at that moment and that none of this had happened. The boys weren’t really so bad. Living with a whole bunch of messy, chaotic people might not be the best fun, but it beat a lot of other things. Like having perfect, boring parents breathing down your neck, for example, or being at the mercy of a horrible teacher like Thunder Guts. Or having to feel guilty about causing untold trouble in someone else’s life. That one felt particularly bad.
Ruth’s eyes grew heavy as she waited for the rat but there was no way she would give in to it. She owed it to Bridie to stay awake. She must have dozed off, though, because her whole body jerked to attention with Rodney’s voice.
‘I
can
undo your time there, but … there is a catch.’
‘What?’
‘I’m afraid it is contingent on you making use of your last wish.’
‘Why is that?’ Ruth asked suspiciously.
‘Just the way it works.’
‘But I’ll only get myself into a heap of new trouble!’
‘Up to you,’ the rat shrugged. ‘If you don’t use it, then things stay as they are for Bridie.’
‘But why?’ Ruth wailed.
‘That is just the way this stuff works,’ he said. ‘You heading off again works as a kind of circuit-breaker and
that
means I can undo the previous disaster.’
‘But I don’t want to go anywhere else,’ Ruth moaned. ‘My family isn’t so bad and …’ But the rat wasn’t interested. He held up one paw for her to be quiet.
‘It’s up to you,’ he said sourly, ‘but it beats me why you wouldn’t want to have another go.’
‘I’ll tell you why,’ Ruth fumed, ‘because
you
get it so wrong!’
‘What was so wrong last time?’ the rat muttered.
‘When I said a place with discipline and order, I was thinking of some kind of peaceful retreat somewhere like the Himalayas or some little community in the hills,
not
a Catholic boarding school in the 1950s!’
‘Those places up in the hills are very highly sought after,’ Rodney said defensively. ‘Places are quite limited. It’s the time of the year too. Everyone has the winter blues and they want a quick fix. I told you that I couldn’t promise anything too specific. A Catholic boarding school in the fifties was the best I could do.’
‘That place was a nightmare!’ Ruth grumbled.
‘And yet you’re willing to go back?’
‘I want to go back for the friend I made there,’ Ruth replied hotly.
‘Well?’ Rodney looked at her askance. ‘
Hello?
’ ‘What?’
‘Nothing coming together in that head of yours yet?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Are you telling me that you haven’t realised?’
‘What?’
‘Anywhere is good if you’ve got a friend.’
Ruth sniffed and looked away, absolutely
hating
the fact that he was telling her something that might have a grain of truth in it.
‘What if you’re in jail?’ she mumbled sourly. ‘A friend isn’t going to help there.’
‘It will make things a lot easier,’ the rat chuckled. ‘Last time I was incarcerated I certainly found that the friends I made there …’ He stopped. ‘Never mind.’
‘Go on, Rodney.’
‘No.’
‘Is there something you’re not telling me, Rodney?’
‘Not at all.’
Ruth looked at him severely but the rat wouldn’t meet her eye. She sighed. There was probably a mountain of information she should know about Rodney, but somehow now wasn’t the right time.
‘What about if your house is smashed to bits by a cyclone?’ she said stiffly. ‘A friend won’t put it back together for you.’
‘A true friend will stick out the bad times with you,’ Rodney declared pompously, ‘and that is an enormous help.’
‘If your parents both die horribly in a car accident then –’ ‘Oh, for goodness sake!’ Rodney snapped. ‘Could we please at least stick to the case in hand? Are you telling me that everything apart from your friend was bad about that place?’
‘Not exactly,’ Ruth said in a small voice. ‘Sister Winifred was kind of interesting – a good teacher, anyway. I think I would have got to like her if I’d stayed. And I suppose I did like the fact that there wasn’t chatter all the time. I liked the silent times. And I liked the singing. I was looking forward to learning the words. I would have liked to join in the singing every morning.’
‘See!’ the rat said triumphantly.
‘But some of it was terrible!’
‘Welcome to the real world!’ Rodney said. Ruth frowned and wondered all over again why she’d been so keen to find him.
‘But it’s not the real world, is it?’
‘Well, no.’ Rodney gave one of his dry chuckles and they both started laughing at the same time. ‘Not
exactly
the real world. No.’
‘Okay.’ Ruth felt a little easier after the laugh. ‘I’m willing to have another go if you make things better for Bridie.’
‘Done!’
‘Do you promise?’
‘I promise.’ Rodney was shifting from one foot to the other. ‘So let’s get going quickly, because I’m due back for the races.’
‘
What?
’ Ruth’s mouth fell open.
‘I’ve got a lot riding on a little guy called Pick-Me-Up. He’s –’
‘Is Pick-Me-Up a …
rat?
’ Ruth was trying to imagine a race meeting of rats. Would they have callers and racetracks and judges and ribbons for the winner?
‘Well of course he’s a rat!’ Rodney waved the question away irritably. ‘So annoying, the way humans think they are the only ones who do anything interesting!’
‘Okay, okay,’ Ruth sighed, ‘let’s keep our minds on the job.’
* * *
An hour later they were still discussing Ruth’s options. It was her last chance; she didn’t want to get it wrong.
‘You’re smart,’ the rat was saying. ‘Maybe we could try and get you into the NASA space program.’
‘I’m only twelve,’ Ruth reminded him.
‘Wouldn’t you like to be the first kid in space?’
Ruth thought for a while.
‘Not that much,’ she said. ‘I’ve always thought it would be kind of boring being up there and having to eat out of tubes and … how would you go to the toilet?’
‘There are plastic bags inside your bodysuit.’
‘Yuk! And it would be so hard to get back if I hated it.’
‘True, but not … impossible.’
‘Not space,’ Ruth said decisively. ‘Thanks all the same.’
‘Well, what about being part of an exploration team? Deep in the heart of Africa?’
‘Now you’re talking!’ Ruth was delighted. ‘I wouldn’t mind that.’
‘Going to places that no one has seen before,’ Rodney said enthusiastically. ‘There are still places like that on the planet, you know, Ruth.’
‘Hmmm.’ Ruth tried to imagine what it would be like. She was excited by the idea until a mental image came to her out of the blue. There she was in the intense heat, trudging along behind a group of adults. She was thirsty, her feet were sore and they were about to walk through crocodile-infested waters. She shuddered. ‘Actually, Rodney, I don’t think so. I don’t like really hot weather, and what about those weird insects that give you exotic diseases? I haven’t been inoculated. What if I got really sick? I might die.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to think of something!’ the rat snapped. ‘I told you before, I don’t have all day.’ He flung what was left of his apple core into the river.
Ruth noticed that his stomach was as enormous as a duck egg. He was shifting about trying to get comfortable and she wanted to ask him if all rats were greedy or if it was just him.
‘You’re going to have to make a decision soon. What would you really like?’
Ruth closed her eyes and tried to think.
‘Remember, this isn’t only about you.’
Ruth opened her eyes. ‘How do you mean?’
‘My career is going off the rails,’ the rat sniffed.
‘Really?’
Rodney gave a deep sigh. ‘I’ve simply got to get this one right or I’m … custard.’
‘Okay.’ Ruth closed her eyes again. The pressure was on now.
‘Have you got a secret desire?’ he said slyly. ‘Right at the bottom of your heart?’
Still with her eyes closed, Ruth threw away her core and lay back on the grass. ‘Well, I suppose I do,’ she said after a while, beginning to blush furiously. If only it was something more interesting! But there was nothing for it. This was her last chance at the life she’d really like, so she’d better come clean.
‘So what is it?’ Rodney was looking at her intently.
‘I want to
be somebody
.’ Ruth’s face was bright red.
‘
Somebody?
’ the rat repeated, frowning.
‘I want to stand out from the crowd.’
‘Oh.’ Rodney’s mouth twitched. ‘I see. Have you got a field in mind? Where you’d like to excel?’
‘Not really,’ she mumbled.
‘Sport?’
‘No!’ She shook her head. ‘Definitely not.’
‘Music?’
‘No.’
‘What about performing, then? Acting, theatre or circus?’
‘No way!’ Ruth exclaimed. ‘Marcus is good at sport and music and my little brother is a born actor. He’ll end up a performer of some sort for sure. I want my
own
thing that I’m really good at.’
‘Hmmm.’ The rat shook his head. ‘So … what
are
you good at?’
‘I don’t know,’ Ruth said glumly. ‘Not much except spelling and general knowledge, Maths and Geography and History.’ She sighed. ‘You can’t really
be somebody
with any of that, can you?’
‘Well, that remains to be seen,’ the rat muttered. ‘Just give me a few minutes will you?’
Ruth watched him walk down towards the river, both paws behind his back, head lowered; he was frowning and obviously thinking hard.
She doubted he’d be able to do anything good with what she wanted, but with a bit of luck it wouldn’t be quite as bad as the other two wishes.
Remember
, she told herself sternly,
this is all about getting Bridie out of a very big hole
.
‘What sort of family do you want this time?’ Rodney called.
‘My old one will do,’ Ruth said.
‘Really?’ Rodney stared at her in surprise. Ruth thought of the dead eyes of her mum and dad in the perfect version and nodded.
‘What about the laptop and the swimming pool?’ the rat asked, genuinely incredulous.
Ruth sighed. ‘I suppose there’s no chance of having the
old
family with the good house, laptop and swimming pool … and without the friends?’
She knew she was pushing things, but it might be worth a try.
‘I don’t do mix and match,’ the rat said crossly. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes! How many times do I have to say it?’
‘Okay. So the old family,’ the rat shook his head, ‘in the old house with all the mess and … and the rest of it?’
‘Yes,’ Ruth sighed.
‘Well, well, there is no accounting for –’
‘Just shut up, okay?’
‘Very well.’
‘By the way, have you got any paper and a pencil? I want to write Howard a note.’
‘A note?’ Rodney was suspicious.
‘I want to tell him to go back on his own if I’m away too long.’
Rodney produced a blank page from his trouser pocket and then a pencil from his boot.
Ruth wrote a quick note to Howard and put it under a rock near where he’d been lying asleep. She didn’t want him to wait for her and get into more trouble than he needed to with his father.
‘I think I might have something,’ Rodney said after a few moments of silent thought.
‘Really?’ Ruth was excited, until she remembered how wrong things could get. ‘Is it possible for you to run through some details with me first?’
‘No, it isn’t!’ Rodney said angrily. ‘That
isn’t
how this works!’