Read Online Dustbin Baby by Jacqueline Wilson - Free Book Online Page A

school. I think the other children had been warned not to mention my mother. They played safe and didn’t talk to me at all, not even my best friend Betsy. She acted as if maternal suicide was catching. We still had to sit next to each other but she edged as far away as possible and charged out every playtime so as not to get stuck with me. She started going round with another little girl called Charmaine. They circled the playground arm in arm whispering secrets. I tried bribing Betsy back by giving her my new Barbie doll but she said witheringly that dolls were for babies – though I knew she had a big girly gang of Barbies back at home because I’d played with them when I went to tea at her house.
    I couldn’t ask her back to our house any more because we didn’t live in it.
    But then we did. Daddy moved us back – and Sylvia came too.
    â€˜But it’s Mummy’s house!’ I said. ‘She won’t let Sylvia in.’
    â€˜Don’t be silly, April. You know Mummy’s passed away. It’s
my
house and so of course I’m going to live in it. With Sylvia. She’s your new mummy.’
    I wasn’t having it. Sylvia didn’t seem keen on the idea either.
    â€˜I hate this house. I hate the way everyone round here looks at me,’ she shouted. ‘I don’t want to live here. I don’t want to look after your creepy little kid. I want to have fun! I’m out of here.’
    So she went. So then there was just Daddy and me. He didn’t know what to do with me. He asked Mrs Stevenson if she could fetch me from school and look after me till he got home from work . Mrs Stevenson made it plain that she didn’t want to, except in emergencies. I begged Daddy to ask Betsy’s mum, seeing it as a brilliant way of making Betsy be friends again, but she turned me down too, saying she didn’t want the responsibility.
    â€˜One well-behaved quiet little girl?’ said Daddy impatiently.
    I tried hard to be well-behaved around Daddy then because he was very bad-tempered, and I was very, very quiet in the real world. Inside my head I shouted all sorts of stuff with Rose and Violet and Daffodil and Bluebell. We played all day and danced all night. We could look after ourselves. We didn’t need mothers or fathers.
    Daddy employed an old lady to ferry me backwards and forwards. She came into our house and settled herself down in front of the television as if it was her place. I couldn’t bear her to sit in Mummy’s chair. I didn’t want her big bottom squashing Mummy’s pale lilac cushions. I raced to sit on Mummy’s chair myself and wouldn’t get up when she asked me. She smacked me hard on the back of my skinny legs. I kicked her. She walked out there and then.
    So Daddy employed a young woman student instead. Jennifer. She was pink and plump and gentle and showed me how to paste my frail paper girls onto cardboard cornflake packets so they became reassuringly sturdy. I liked Jennifer a lot. Unfortunately Daddy did too. She showed him a lot more than cardboard cut-outs. Jennifer moved in. She didn’t just commandeer Mummy’s chair. She moved in on Mummy’s bed.
    I wasn’t allowed into the bedroom now. I slumped outside in the hall, feeling lonely. For once Rose and Violet and Bluebell and Daffodil failed to keep me company.
    I went into the bathroom and stared where the bath had been. Daddy had changed it into a shower stall because Sylvia said the bath gave her the creeps. It was one change too many. I wanted the bath back. I wanted to lie down in it and pretend I was cuddled up to Mummy. I wanted to prise open her eyelids so she would stay awake for ever.
    I wanted her so badly.
    I started whispering her name. The whispers got louder and louder until I was screaming. There was a lot of knocking at the door. I thought I’d locked it but Daddy’s full weight made the lock burst open and then there were