Swap Over by Margaret Pearce Read Free Book Online Page B

around like a merry-go-round.
    â€œI feel sick,” she said, and ran for the bathroom.
    Mrs. Walton followed her in. Maddy felt too ill to care. She had never felt so sick over something as simple as throwing up. Usually, if she threw up, that was all she did, and she felt better immediately. She had never got a thumping headache or shivered and sweated the way she was doing right now.
    Mrs. Walton got her out of the stained velvet dress, no longer beautiful, and Mr. Walton carried her to bed, where Mrs. Walton sponged her down and put towels and a bucket beside her.
    â€œThat chocolate ice-cream cake was too much,” she heard Mrs. Walton say. “You know her system can’t cope with preservatives.”
    â€œThey assured me that it was all natural ingredients,” Mr. Walton protested. “And she’s been so good lately.”
    â€œIt wasn’t worth risking this on their assurances,” Mrs. Walton said crisply.
    Maddy wondered what they were talking about. Then she lost interest in why Jennifer couldn’t cope with preservatives. It didn’t matter anyway. She knew she had brought up all of her chocolate ice-cream cake and everything else she had ever eaten in her whole life.
    She spent the night shivering or sweating. Mrs. Walton sponged her and occasionally coaxed her to sip water, which she threw straight up again. Mrs. Walton was very caring and endlessly patient, but having someone else look after you when you felt this bad didn’t help at all.
    â€œWhere’s Mum. I want my own mum right now,” Maddy cried.
    â€œDelirious, my poor darling,” Mrs. Walton said and tried to get her to sip more water.
    Maddy tried to wish her life back to normal, but Mrs. Walton was holding her hands away from her face as she sponged her and somehow she couldn’t!
    Maddy eventually drifted off to sleep. When she woke, she felt rested and much better. Her stomach was sore, but it wasn’t churning around anymore. The thudding headache, the dizziness, the shivering, and sweating were gone.
    The room was very dark, and the bedside clock said five o’clock. Was it early morning or late afternoon? She felt as if she had been sleeping for days! She slid out of bed, staggered across the room to the window, and opened the drapes.
    It was actually afternoon! Everything was darkened to greyness by the heavy rain. She had slept right through Sunday! She had never done that in her life before. She pulled on her warm tracksuit and opened the bedroom door.
    The house seemed very quiet. Surely Mr. and Mrs. Walton hadn’t gone off and left her by herself? Feeling a bit scared; Maddy tiptoed down the passage. Her own mother and father never left them alone in an empty house.
    She sighed with relief as she looked into the study. Mrs. Walton was sitting at the desk, working on the computer with account books strewn around her. She smiled when she saw Maddy.
    â€œFeeling better, my darling?”
    â€œMuch better, but I’ve slept all day.” Maddy’s bottom lip quivered as she remembered. “And I’ve missed pony club.”
    â€œIt hasn’t stopped raining all day. Pony club was probably cancelled anyway,” Mrs. Walton pointed out.
    â€œI’ve missed pony club,” Maddy repeated.
    â€œIt’s not a tragedy,” Mrs. Walton soothed. “There’s always next month.”
    Except I only hung in as Maddy Walton so I could go to pony club today, Maddy thought, staring at Mrs. Walton. I can’t hang around for another month of that posh school, after school programs, and all the kids who hate me just for another chance at pony club.
    â€œYou all right, Maddy?” Mrs. Walton asked as she stood up and rushed to support Maddy. “You had better go back to bed straight away. You’re as white as a sheet.”
    â€œI have to visit the Matson’s,” Maddy wailed and burst into tears.
    â€œNot today,” Mrs. Walton said