Becky Bananas by Jean Ure Read Free Book Online

could afford one and b) he was scared it might interfere with his career as an actor.
    It is hard not to have feelings of rejection, knowing that your own dad didn’t want you. Mostly I try not to think about it but just now and again it comes back to me and I get a little sad. Mum says she ought not to have told me and that she can’t imagine why she did. She says, “My wretched tongue runs away with me! I always was a blabbermouth. You ask your Uncle Eddy … he’ll tell you!”
    But I expect it is only right that I should know about such things. I can understand my dad thinking they could not afford me as I am sure a baby is quite an expensive thing to run, what with nappies and prams and suchlike. It would have been nice, all the same, to have known him.

8. My Brother Danny

    When you were seven years old, your brother
Danny was born.

I was really jealous of Danny when he was born. I didn’t think it was fair that he should have a dad and I didn’t, especially as he’d sort of, in a way, Danny’s dad I mean, been my dad before Mum went and had Danny.
    I’m sorry now that I was jealous. It wasn’t Danny’s fault. He couldn’t help it. And he’s never minded me sharing. Even after I was mean to him that time and told him he was only my half-brother, he still talked about “Daddy” as if he belonged to both of us. If he’d wanted to be mean back to me he could have started calling him
“My
daddy”. But Danny isn’t like that. He is a truly nice little boy. He’s ever so quiet and gentle. Not like some of them that run around shouting and fighting all the time.
    I wish I’d played with him more! His most favourite game of all is having a teddy bears’ picnic with his soft toys. Danny has loads of soft toys. There’s Bruin theBear and Winnie the Wallaby and a dirty old pink rabbit called Clyde that he used to suck when he was a baby. Then there’s Roly Rat and Dolly the Donkey and Horace, the hand-knitted giraffe. And of course there’s Teddy, who used to be Mum’s and then was Uncle Eddy’s and then was mine and now belongs to Danny. Teddy’s been mended heaps of times. He’s really old and moth-eaten, but if ever you ask Danny which one he likes best he always says “Teddy!”

    I should have played with him. He loves it when I join in. I give all the animals different voices, like high and s-q-u-e-a-k-y for Roly Rat and dark and DEEP for Bruin the Bear. And “Ee-aw ee-aw!” for Dolly the Donkey. And “Bloop bloop” for Winnie and “Woffle woffle” for Clyde. Danny gets all giggly and bunches his hands into little fists and stuffs them in his mouth. He’s so funny!
    Mum took us to a special children’s show last Christmas and afterwards she asked us if we’d enjoyed it and which our favourite bits were. Danny said, “I liked the bit where the man fell over.” Mum said, “But that was an accident! The poor man caught his foot in something. It wasn’t meant to happen!” Danny said, “That was the
funniest
bit. I liked that bit.” And he chuckled away ever so happily. Mum shook her head and said, “I don’t know!” But he’s only four years old. Four is very young.
    That’s why I wish I’d been nicer to him and made more time for him. I wonder if everyone looks back on their life and has regrets or if it’s only me?
    When Danny comes on my programme I’ll make it up to him! I’ll give him an enormous great kiss and tell everyone that’s watching that he is my real,
whole
brother. I will, I promise!
    Danny’s dad is called Alan Martin. He’s quite a nice person, really. I wouldn’t have minded if he’d stayed married to Mum. Mum brought him to our Open Day once and everyone went “Ooh” and “Aah” because they’d seen him acting with her on television.
    He’s in America now, making movies. Maybe when I’m on
This is Your Life
they could do a satellite linkup so that he could say “Hi!” They do that, sometimes,when people are living in another country and