Emily's Penny Dreadful by Bill Nagelkerke Page B

Auntie
Dot?”
      “ If you’ve asked me
that question once, you’ve asked me a hundred times,” said Mum. “As
long as they want. As long as they need. It takes time to build a
new house.”
      “ Why can’t they go
and stay with someone else? They don’t even normally live in the
same town as us.”
      “ Well, they’ve
pretty much decided to shift up here,” said Mum, “so they can be
closer to us all the time. Cheaper to build here, too,
apparently.”
      “ Why do they want to
be closer to us?”
    “ Why not?” said Mum. “Isn’t
it nice to have family around?”
      “ I guess so,” said
Emily. “But Uncle Raymond . . . he’s so grumpy most of the
time.”
      “ You seem to have
had lots of conversations with Uncle Raymond since he and Auntie
Dot arrived.”
    “ Yes, but sometimes that’s
because Sibbie gets tired of talking to me,” said Emily. “And Uncle
Raymond’s
    a writer as well - well, he
used to be - so he could help me if he wanted to, except he
doesn’t. He just sits around in my room. He doesn’t mind if I talk
to him. Well, he doesn’t always not mind. Sometimes he does mind. A lot. Actually, I
think I might be
getting tired of talking to him. The other day I asked him to help
me with my story because I’m stuck but he wouldn’t. And, one time
before that, he made me disappear. I would have laughed if he’d
meant it to be funny but he didn’t. He just wanted me to go. Why
did he turn out so grumpy,” she said, “when you’re hardly ever
grumpy at all?”
      “ When he’s thinking
about his next book his mind goes off to some other place,” said
Mum. “It’s hard to come back to earth after living in your
imagination.”
      “ Is it like going to
another planet?” said Emily.
      “ I’ve never been to
another planet,” said Mum, “but I suppose it is.”
      “ I’ve been to
another planet,” said Emily. “In my imagination. So I know what
it’s like.”
      “ Hard to come back
from?”
    “ Very hard,” said Emily.
“Unless you have a space ship with warp speed. Then it’s
faster.”
      “ Raymond’s space
ship is more of an old-fashioned
    sort, I think,” said Mum. “It travels
slowly.”
      “ I think Uncle
Raymond’s grumpy because he’s sad as well,” said Emily. “Not just
because he’s on another planet.”
      Mum stopped what she
was doing. “What makes you think that?”
      “ He makes faces,”
said Emily. “Mostly they’re grumpy faces, but sometimes they’re sad
faces. He doesn’t think I notice, but I do.”
      “ Well, he is still
sad, of course,” said Mum.
      “ Sad about his house
burning down?” asked Emily. “Or sad about not writing anymore?
Or.  . .”
    “ Both of those things,”
said Mum. “But I thought he was writing again.  Now that he’s
got his new computer.”
      Emily shook her
head. “I looked at it,” she said. “The screen’s always empty. Or
it’s turned off. Uncle Raymond said he was writing the story in his
head first . . . “
      “ That makes sense,”
said Mum.
      Emily shook her head again. “ . . . but he still hasn’t written
down a single word. And he wouldn’t help me
    at all with my story.”
      “ Hmm,” said
Mum.
      “ You sound like Uncle Raymond,” said Emily. “He hmms . So does
Sibbie.”
      “ Well, he’s my
brother, after all,” said Mum.
      “ What was he like,
when he was little? You and Dad said I’m not like him, but was he
like me when he was my age?”
      “ Definitely not,’
said Mum. “He was quiet. He didn’t like sport much, although he was
a good walker. I used to feel a bit sorry for him. I thought he was
missing out on the fun the rest of us kids were having. But he
never seemed to mind. He seemed happy enough doing what he was
doing. Reading and walking and watching.”
      “ Watching is what
writers have to do,’ Emily said. “Watch and listen and make
notes.”
      “ I guess that’s
true,” said Mum.