Read Online The Sky is Changing by Zoë Jenny - Free Book Online

completely stifle her curiosity – it was also fascinating being in a stranger’s house unobserved. Nora smiled at her, completely at ease, waving her into her room. It was spacious for a child’s room, with a little dressing table and a desk with a little wooden chair.
    Stuffed animals guarded Nora’s bed like an army. “These are my friends,” she said proudly. “I can only sleep with my animals around me.” An array of teddy bears, birds and reptiles sat neatly lined up on the bed; there was even a snake curled up at the foot of the bed. A huge chimpanzee sat enthroned on top of the pillow like a guardian.
    Nora told Claire their names, and she was intrigued by the girl’s vivid imagination. Every animal had its set place in the hierarchy of Nora’s Kingdom. She had even made up stories for every toy – she told her that she had found them on the bus or the tube, even in the garbage on the street, and that they had all been abandoned by their previous owners. Claire didn’t believe that – they looked much too nice – but Nora seemed to believe her own made-up story. It was real to her, and there was something touchingly good-natured about the fact she saw herself as the saviour of the lost toys of London.
    â€œThat’s very good of you, that you look after them, and give them your own bed as a home.”
    â€œLast winter he almost froze to death,” she said, taking one of the numerous teddy bears in her arms. “Mummy said I have to get rid of half of them; she says I have no space in the bed for myself anymore, but I won’t give them away. Not a single one!” she said decisively, clutching the teddy bear to her chest.
    â€œOf course not,” Claire agreed. “You have to look after them.” She immediately felt devious taking the same line and undermining her mother’s decision. Nora nodded, pleased with her reaction – she was a loyal friend, staying by her.
    Claire could imagine Nora alone in her room, talking to her toys, playing games with the stuffed animals, mimicking their voices. That was the genius of children, the ability to bring everything to life, even a stupid mute teddy bear. What a shame, Claire thought, that she would lose this gift eventually, when she could read labels like ‘made in Taiwan’ and discover that the eyes of a teddy bear are nothing but hard plastic.
    â€œI have something for you,” Nora said, opening the drawer of her little desk. It was a crayon drawing of two stick-figures and an out-of-proportion angel with spiky wings.
    â€œThat’s us,” Nora said. Just as she was about to close the drawer, Claire saw something in there that was familiar – the golden dragonfly necklace that Sadie had worn at the barbecue. Claire reached out and took it from the drawer to have a closer look. It was without doubt the exact same necklace. “Where did you get that from?” she asked.
    â€œI borrowed it from Mummy. I took it out of her jewellery box. I have to give it back, though,” she said, looking down as if she had been caught red-handed.
    â€œGive it back now,” Claire said suddenly, in a commanding tone. As Nora left to do so, for a brief moment she was alone in the room. It was as if the stuffed animals with their dull empty eyes were disapprovingly staring at her, a stranger and intruder, standing there in the child’s room, in the inner sanctum of the house, giving orders. It was then that she felt queasy and had nothing else in mind but leaving the house.
    â€œWe are going,” she said, much too loudly. “We are going now!”
    On the way home Claire almost had an accident. Driving from the gym in Essex Road back to Remington Street on a daily basis, she knew the route blindly. Lost in thought, she drove past the pub on the corner into Duncan Terrace, a line of grand Georgian town houses with bits of greenery in front. She always looked