The Changeover by Margaret Mahy Read Free Book Online Page B

reactions are very slow — you haven't given him any medication, have you?"
    "None!" said Kate. "I didn't think he needed anything this morning."
    The doctor looked thoughtful but not worried.
    "If he isn't any better by tomorrow, bring him in again. Who's your regular doctor? I won't prescribe anything for him just now and we'll see how he gets on. I'll leave a note for Doctor Bligh attached to Jonathan's card."
    Laura forgot for long stretches at a time that Jacko's real name was Jonathan and only remembered it when places like the Health Centre remembered it for her, being too serious for playful names.
    "Do you have to go out with this American?" asked Laura as they sat over a rushed and awkward supper of canned soup and toast.
    "He's Canadian," Kate said defensively as if being American was somehow a little disreputable.
    "Well, it amounts to the same thing, doesn't it?" Laura replied. "Canadians are Americans with no Disneyland."
    "It's not at all the same thing," Kate replied calmly, "and anyway I'm interested in Chris as a person, not as a nationality. He's not on the 'phone either, so I can't ring him."
    "You actually want to go out with him!" Laura said accusingly.
    "Actually I do," Kate said, and succeeded in smiling, though Laura's voice was not friendly. "Oh, Lolly, don't be cross with me. It's over a year since I went out with anyone even vaguely romantic and I enjoyed having my hair done at 'Hair Today'. Peggy came and watched the shop for me, and it only took a few minutes with the heated rollers."
    "Suppose Mr Bradley had come in?" Laura said sternly.
    "Well, he didn't," said Kate.
    "You wouldn't do that for Jacko and me," Laura said in a cruel voice. "All right! Go then! I expect you'll have such a good time you'll find it easy to forget about Jacko."
    Kate looked over the family table with a clear, cold expression.
    "Laura, you're not to speak to me like that," she said. "You've got too much good sense to imagine I'd have arranged to go out if I had known that Jacko was going to be sick, but the doctor did say it wasn't anything to be seriously worried about, and you're going to be home, and Sally's mother is right next door. I'll leave you the number of the Town Hall— it's in the phone book anyway, but it's a council number— and, if Chris has booked the seats, I'll leave the seat numbers, too. If there's an emergency I can be back here in twenty minutes. You're not to worry— and you're not to be mad at me for taking one evening off."
    She sounded firm and, on the whole, Laura had to admit, reasonable. She felt confused at her own resent- merit and somehow mean-spirited, so she half apologized with a look, and later, when Kate was dressed in her best dress, and stockings without mends, told her as warmly as she could how nice she looked. In spite of good intentions she was astonished to hear how grudging her voice sounded, as if it were acting on hidden ideas of its own.
    Nevertheless, Laura was even more astonished a little later to hear Kate say to Chris, when he came rather earlier than he needed to, that she could not go out after all because Jacko was ill and she would only worry about him and not enjoy herself properly. It would be a waste of a ticket, she said, because she would probably spoil things for Chris too. Kate had been thinking about Laura's protest and had changed her mind yet again. Chris, who had come in smiling and ebullient, was now uncertain whether to be sporting and hide his disappointment or honest and revengeful and display it openly.
    "That's quite a blow!" he said in a gentle voice, but what he did not say was, "That's quite all right, Kate. I know Jacko has to come first."
    "He's so much worse than I thought he'd be," cried Kate apologetically. "I was looking at him just a moment ago and he looks — well, I think he looks dreadful. Have you collected the tickets and all that, or did you leave it to chance?"
    "For once in my life, I didn't leave it to chance." Chris