Secrets by Nick Sharratt Read Free Book Online Page B

Frank? Did she stay hidden in her secret annexe till the war ended?’
    Mrs Gibbs adjusted her glasses, rubbing the lenses with the bottom of her cardigan. Her eyes looked horribly pink and naked without them.
    â€˜I’m afraid Anne’s story has a sad ending. Her family were caught and sent away to a concentration camp.’
    â€˜
This
is like a concentration camp,’ Alice hissed.
    Maria giggled.
    I stood up, cheeks flaming. ‘How can you be so
stupid
?’ I shouted.
    â€˜India!’ said Mrs Gibbs.
    They were all staring at me. I was living up to my red hair at last. I felt as if I was on fire.
    â€˜The concentration camps were the most terrible places ever. Haven’t you heard of the gas chambers? Nearly everyone
died
there. You were sent in cattle trucks, stuck in the dark for days. People often died on the journey. When you got there they divided up all the families. Anne wasn’t allowed to stay with her father. And you were stripped naked and—’
    â€˜That’s enough, India,’ said Mrs Gibbs.
    â€˜And your head was shaved and then you were kept in terrible, squalid, freezing old huts with hardly any food at all, just rotten scraps, and so everyone got terrible illnesses. Anne’s mother died and then her sister Margot died and so poor Anne was all on her own. And she got typhoid too and then
she
died, in agony—’
    â€˜
India!
’ Mrs Gibbs got hold of me by the shoulders and pushed me down in my seat. ‘Will you be quiet!’
    â€˜But it’s true!’
    â€˜I know it is. But I don’t think we should dwell on things in quite such a ghoulish way. You’re upsetting the other girls.’
    â€˜But we
should
feel upset. Anne died. Six
million
Jews died.’
    â€˜Yes, I know. It was terrible. But it was a long time ago. It’s silly to cry about it now.’
    I wiped my eyes fiercely with the back of my hand. I stuck my chin out to show I wasn’t one little bit ashamed of crying. Mrs Gibbs sighed and then carried on with the lesson. She stopped talking about Anne. She moved hastily on to Samuel Pepys.
    When the bell went for hometime she called me back to have a word with her.
    â€˜I’m sorry you got so upset in class, India,’ she said. ‘I’m very impressed that you know so much about Anne Frank. You’ve obviously been very moved by her story. But I can’t have you shouting like that in the classroom.’
    â€˜But the others were being so stupid. They were laughing and messing about.’
    â€˜I know, India. It’s very annoying. But you mustn’t
mind
so much. You feel things so intensely, dear. It’s a little unnerving.’
    I don’t think I feel too much. I think other people don’t feel enough. But I know this is the reason most people don’t like me. It’s not just Maria and Alice. All the other girls think I’m odd. Even Miranda, who really did use to be my best friend, frequently declared I was seriously weird. Mum is always sighing and telling me not to be such a drama queen. Wanda tells me to lighten up. Dad used to pick me up and shake me until I squealed – it was a game to shake all my worries away. We haven’t played that for ages. Maybe it’s because I’ve got too big. Or maybe even Dad doesn’t like me any more.
    I started crying again in front of Mrs Gibbs. I was remembering another game Dad used to play. He would curl his fingers into a spanner shape and gently touch my eyelids, making little wrenching sounds. ‘We’d better fix the washer on this funny little tear tap,’ he’d say and it would make me stop crying and laugh instead.
    It’s as if that Dad has left home and a grumpy stranger has moved into his body.
    â€˜What is it
now
, India?’ said Mrs Gibbs. ‘Come on, try not to be such a baby. I’m not telling you off, I’m just trying to have a little chat with