Read Online Andie's Moon by Linda Newbery - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Linda Newbery
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Andie developed a face and hairstyle to match – longish sleek hair, and a handsome face that could be either male or female.
On Wednesday, Maria, who was Mrs. Rutherford’s cleaner and came once a week, interrupted Andie and Prune in the kitchen. “Hey!” she said, bending to examine the drawings. “Ought to work for a fashion magazine, you two! I could see myself in that one-piece trouser suit, if I lost a pound or two. Very Space Age.”
“There, you see,” Andie told Prune later. “Even if that stupid agency didn’t want you as a model, that’s not the only way of working in fashion. You could be a designer.”
“Thanks, And. I owe you a favour.” Prune collected up the sheets, and put them into a special folder, which she referred to as her portfolio.
Andie was quick to cash in this favour, before Prune forgot or changed her mind. Next day, she asked Prune to go with her to the National Gallery. Prune managed it with barely a complaint, though she got bored fairly soon and sat reading about “How to be a Switched-on Dolly Bird” in her magazine. “Dolly bird!” Andie scoffed. “Haven’t you had enough of that? Who wants to be a doll ? Something to dress up in pretty clothes, and that’s all?” But it wasn’t worth starting a real argument, not when she was having her own way. They bought sandwiches in the café, then Prune left Andie for an hour and a half while she went to investigate the shops in the nearby Strand. “Nothing like the King’s Road,” was her verdict. “More like Mum’s sort of shops.” But Andie had seen Renoir and Pissarro and Monet, and was happy.
That evening Prune went down to see Sushila. Andie was reading in bed when she came back, bringing with her a book called The New Astronomer. “Ravi said to give you this. What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing!” With great curiosity, Andie took the book and opened it. “It’s…to help with my painting, that’s all.”
Tucked inside the flyleaf was a small, handwritten note. “ ROOF – TONIGHT – MIDNIGHT ” it said, in sloping capitals.
She could so easily have missed it! Or been asleep, and not even opened the book till tomorrow! Now, tingling with excitement, she prepared to stay awake for the next two-and-a-half hours. She turned the pages, looking at diagrams of the constellations. Maybe, if she swotted up now, she could impress Ravi by recognizing some obscure star-pattern, or by mentioning that Galileo Galilei, who’d lived near the Leaning Tower of Pisa, had made a telescope good enough to see the mountains of the moon. In 1610! And it was Galileo who thought the moon had seas, though it didn’t really, and had named the Sea of Tranquillity, where the astronauts would be landing. Of course Ravi would know all that – this was his book – but maybe she could work it casually into the conversation.
Prune got ready for bed, but sat fiddling with her transistor radio; Mum and Dad were still up, watching Wojeck, Dad’s favourite crime drama . Andie kept an anxious eye on the time. Her parents were usually in bed by eleven, but what if they stayed up late? How would she escape then? At one point, in spite of her worry, she almost dozed off – but then snapped her eyelids open and pushed herself up from the pillow. She dreaded being fast asleep in bed, while Ravi waited for her on the roof. Not that he would be waiting, with the night sky for company – Cygnus the Swan, and Sagittarius the archer, and Ursa Major and Minor, which meant Great and Little Bear. It was hard to make herself believe that what looked like scatterings of bright dust was actually made up of distant suns, fixed in their sky-patterns. She flicked back to a coloured picture of the solar system. The diagram made it look as if some observer had stood right outside the Earth, noting distances and orbits and colours. But, she thought, it’s been worked out by people standing just like I did, staring up at the sky – looking and comparing
On Wednesday, Maria, who was Mrs. Rutherford’s cleaner and came once a week, interrupted Andie and Prune in the kitchen. “Hey!” she said, bending to examine the drawings. “Ought to work for a fashion magazine, you two! I could see myself in that one-piece trouser suit, if I lost a pound or two. Very Space Age.”
“There, you see,” Andie told Prune later. “Even if that stupid agency didn’t want you as a model, that’s not the only way of working in fashion. You could be a designer.”
“Thanks, And. I owe you a favour.” Prune collected up the sheets, and put them into a special folder, which she referred to as her portfolio.
Andie was quick to cash in this favour, before Prune forgot or changed her mind. Next day, she asked Prune to go with her to the National Gallery. Prune managed it with barely a complaint, though she got bored fairly soon and sat reading about “How to be a Switched-on Dolly Bird” in her magazine. “Dolly bird!” Andie scoffed. “Haven’t you had enough of that? Who wants to be a doll ? Something to dress up in pretty clothes, and that’s all?” But it wasn’t worth starting a real argument, not when she was having her own way. They bought sandwiches in the café, then Prune left Andie for an hour and a half while she went to investigate the shops in the nearby Strand. “Nothing like the King’s Road,” was her verdict. “More like Mum’s sort of shops.” But Andie had seen Renoir and Pissarro and Monet, and was happy.
That evening Prune went down to see Sushila. Andie was reading in bed when she came back, bringing with her a book called The New Astronomer. “Ravi said to give you this. What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing!” With great curiosity, Andie took the book and opened it. “It’s…to help with my painting, that’s all.”
Tucked inside the flyleaf was a small, handwritten note. “ ROOF – TONIGHT – MIDNIGHT ” it said, in sloping capitals.
She could so easily have missed it! Or been asleep, and not even opened the book till tomorrow! Now, tingling with excitement, she prepared to stay awake for the next two-and-a-half hours. She turned the pages, looking at diagrams of the constellations. Maybe, if she swotted up now, she could impress Ravi by recognizing some obscure star-pattern, or by mentioning that Galileo Galilei, who’d lived near the Leaning Tower of Pisa, had made a telescope good enough to see the mountains of the moon. In 1610! And it was Galileo who thought the moon had seas, though it didn’t really, and had named the Sea of Tranquillity, where the astronauts would be landing. Of course Ravi would know all that – this was his book – but maybe she could work it casually into the conversation.
Prune got ready for bed, but sat fiddling with her transistor radio; Mum and Dad were still up, watching Wojeck, Dad’s favourite crime drama . Andie kept an anxious eye on the time. Her parents were usually in bed by eleven, but what if they stayed up late? How would she escape then? At one point, in spite of her worry, she almost dozed off – but then snapped her eyelids open and pushed herself up from the pillow. She dreaded being fast asleep in bed, while Ravi waited for her on the roof. Not that he would be waiting, with the night sky for company – Cygnus the Swan, and Sagittarius the archer, and Ursa Major and Minor, which meant Great and Little Bear. It was hard to make herself believe that what looked like scatterings of bright dust was actually made up of distant suns, fixed in their sky-patterns. She flicked back to a coloured picture of the solar system. The diagram made it look as if some observer had stood right outside the Earth, noting distances and orbits and colours. But, she thought, it’s been worked out by people standing just like I did, staring up at the sky – looking and comparing
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