Water Wings

by Morris Gleitzman

  ‘I don’t really feel like vegies,’ said Pearl quietly, leaning against the freezer door.

  ‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ said Mum.

  Mum stared at the herb tub, mouth open.

  ‘There wasn’t anywhere else to dig,’ said Pearl.

  ‘But … what about my herbs?’ screeched Mum.

  ‘I put them all back in,’ said Pearl. ‘They’ll be fine. Things always grow extra well in graveyards.’

  Mum looked ill.

  For a fleeting second Pearl was tempted to put Mum out of her misery and tell her to look in the freezer.

  She didn’t.

  It’d be suicide.

  Winston would probably end up in the garbage or somewhere.

  ‘You could have buried him at school,’ said Mum, exasperated. ‘Or at Howard’s place. He’s got a big garden.’

  Pearl blinked hard to keep the tears in.

  Mum might have an important job, but she didn’t know much about death.

  Or daughters.

  Pearl had just turned her light out and was about to have a cry when Mum came in and sat on the bed.

  She took Pearl’s hand.

  I don’t believe it, thought Pearl. It’s been years since she did anything like this.

  Despite everything, Pearl felt a warm feeling creep into her chest.

  It didn’t stay long.

  ‘What I’ve decided to do,’ said Mum, ‘is go to Sydney and sign up a Carnival Queen there. A soapie actor or something like that. I’m not risking another town girl.’

  Pearl stared at Mum in the darkness.

  ‘It’ll only be for a few days,’ said Mum. ‘Howard’s getting a locum in to mind the surgery and he’s coming with me cause he’s got a mate who works in telly. So we’ll need to find someone for you to stay with. One of the girls at school.’

  Pearl didn’t say anything.

  She bit her lip to stop herself.

  It wouldn’t be fair saying what she wanted to say to a mother with such a heavy workload.

  But the words came out anyway.

  ‘Mum,’ said Pearl quietly. ‘Don’t go. I’m really sad and I need you.’

  Mum gave an exasperated sigh.

  ‘Love,’ she said, ‘I have to. You know how important the Tobacco Carnival is to this town. And to my job. Don’t do this to me.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Pearl.

  Mum squeezed Pearl’s hand so hard it hurt.

  ‘You choose someone to stay with,’ said Mum, ‘OK?’

  Pearl lay in the darkness for a long time and let thoughts run through her mind and tears run down her cheeks.

  Then she switched on her light and looked for a pen and some paper.

  Dear Grandma, she wrote.

  Hope you don’t mind me calling you that, but as your son and my mum are going out together, I think it’s the legal word.

  Can I come and live with you?

  I know this is a bit sudden, but there’s nothing left for me here.

  My best friend in the whole world died today which just leaves Mum and she’s very busy and doesn’t really have time for me. It’s not her fault, it happens sometimes when you’re a chief executive and sole breadwinner.

  I haven’t got any other grandmas or grandpas and Dad lives overseas somewhere but he won’t tell us where.

  I’m very good at breakfast trays, and am willing to learn embroidery and walking frame maintenance and anything else you might need a hand with.

  Please reply soon and I’ll come straight away.

  Your new grand daughter,

  Pearl Woziak

  PS I can only come if you’ve got a freezer.

  Pearl crept out to the kitchen to show Winston. The ice on his fur made him look old and grey and wise, and even though she knew he couldn’t actually read what she’d written, she was sure he would have approved.

  ‘Howard,’ said Pearl, ‘do you have your mother’s full name and address? I want to invite her to my school open day next year.’

  Mum snorted into her Chinese takeaway.

  Howard grinned through a mouthful of fried rice.

  ‘I can probably remember it,’ he said. ‘Don’t hold your breath for a reply, though. Sometimes she takes months.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Pearl. ‘OK, have you got her number? I’ll give her a ring.’

  ‘You probably won’t get through at the moment,’ said Howard. ‘They were flooded out up there last week and the phone lines are still affected. You could fax my brother-in-law. He’s with the bank up there and they can use the army line.’

  Pearl thought about soldiers and loans officers reading her letter to Grandma.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, ‘but I’ll post it.’

  Mum snapped her fingers.

  ‘Here’s an idea,’ she said to Howard. ‘Your mother could come and babysit Pearl while we’re away.’

  Pearl thought about this.

  It’d be a good way to get to know Grandma before actually moving in with her.

  Then she realised Howard was choking on a prawn.

  ‘No chance,’ he spluttered. ‘Wouldn’t get her down here with a bulldozer. She hates this town. Reckons she won’t ever set foot here again.’

  Pity, thought Pearl. Still, probably for the best. I’m looking for a permanent relationship and a new life, not a babysitter.

  ‘Pity,’ said Mum. ‘We’re not exactly being flooded with offers of accommodation from Pearl’s friends.’

  ‘OK Winston,’ whispered Pearl, ‘this is it.’

  She looked up to make sure nobody was coming out of the post office, then lifted Winston out of her schoolbag and touched his nose onto the letter for good luck.

  ‘Thanks Winston,’ she said.

  Winston had always liked to touch things with his warm nose for luck, and Pearl didn’t see why this should change just because his nose was minus four degrees centigrade.

  She took a step towards the post box.

  ‘G’day Pearl, whatcha got there?’

  Pearl’s guts dropped to minus four degrees centigrade.

  It was Craigette and some of the girls from school.

  Pearl tried to slip Winston back into her schoolbag.

  Too late.

  They’d seen him.

  ‘Jeez,’ said Craigette, coming over, ‘look at the size of that icypole.’

  The girls crowded round.

  ‘That’s not an icypole.’

  ‘It’s hairy.’

  ‘Give us a look.’

  Then Craigette recognised Winston and screamed

  The rest of the girls stopped dead, eyes wide with horror.

  Pearl was glad Winston couldn’t see them.

  ‘It’s a perfectly normal scientific process,’ she said indignantly. ‘Heaps of people are frozen until medical science works out how to cure them in the future. You can pat him if you like.’

  The girls backed away.

  ‘You’re sick,’ said Craigette.

  ‘Yuk,’ said one of the other girls to Craigette, ‘and you let her into your house.’

  ‘Never again,’ said Craigette.

  Pearl watched them hurry away down the street making loud retching noises and giving her disgusted looks.

  Then she touched Winston’s nose on the letter again for double luck.

  ‘We’re going to need it,’ said Pearl. ‘Grandma’s our last hope.’

  5

  ‘I been a week and still no reply,’ said Pearl miserably. ‘I guess she doesn’t want me.’

  She stroked the frost off Winston’s eyebrows.

  She knew he’d give her a sympathetic look if he could.

  And a cheery squeak.

  Pearl tried to cheer herself up.

  Perhaps Grandma never got the letter, she thought. Perhaps her postman was swept away by a mud slide.

  It didn’t work.

  She still felt miserable.

  ‘If she was going to answer she’d have done it by now,’ Pearl said gloomil
y.

  For a sec she thought she saw a glint in Winston’s eye.

  The old glint he used to give her when he thought she was being a pain in the guts.

  Then she realised it was just the reflection of the frozen peas and sweet corn.

  ‘Sorry to go on like this, Winston,’ she said, removing a small icicle from his ear, ‘but you’re the only one I can talk to. None of the kids at school are speaking to me. Not since Craigette spread the rumour I’m a vampire.’

  Pearl heard the front door bang.

  She froze.

  Mum was home.

  ‘Pearl,’ called Mum, ‘what are you doing with your head in the freezer?’

  Pearl quickly kissed Winston goodbye and slipped him under the bags of frozen peas and sweet corn.

  She closed the freezer door just as Mum came in.

  Pearl started to explain that she’d just been trying to cheer herself up, hoping that Mum would think she’d been looking for icypoles.

  Then she saw Mum wasn’t listening.

  ‘… Howard couldn’t believe it,’ Mum was saying.

  Couldn’t believe what, thought Pearl, that some cages are called hutches?

  ‘His mother announcing that she’s coming down, just like that,’ said Mum. ‘She hasn’t been down here for years.’

  Pearl stared at Mum, heart thumping.

  ‘She must have liked your letter, or whatever you sent her,’ said Mum. ‘She arrives on Saturday.’

  Pearl struggled to control herself.

  ‘So,’ said Mum, ‘you’ve got a babysitter. Look happy, if it’s not too much effort.’

  Pearl looked happy.

  It wasn’t any effort at all.

  The effort was in stopping herself from flinging the freezer open, grabbing Winston and dancing round the house with him.

  ‘Pearl,’ shouted Mum, ‘where’s my red bra?’ Pearl sighed.

  She stuck her head out of her room and yelled ‘In the dryer’.

  Then she went back to her Grandma Check List.

  Rocking chair with comfy embroidered cushion.

  Check.

  Crocheted blanket with roses on it.

  Pearl looked at the roses more closely and decided they were brussel sprouts.

  Never mind.

  Check.

  Fluffy slippers.

  Check.

  China tea pot with matching cups and almost-matching saucers.

  Check.

  Pearl sighed happily.

  It was everything a grandma could want.

  She felt like running back down to the Salvation Army depot and hugging everyone there for giving all this stuff to a poor frail old woman they hadn’t even met.

  She didn’t, because she couldn’t take her eyes off the rocking chair.

  It was perfect, even though the varnish was a bit chipped.

  She imagined Grandma in it, blanket over her knees, fluffy slippers snug on her feet, sipping tea, her kind old face beaming at Pearl.

  Pearl would sit at Grandma’s feet and put her head on Grandma’s lap and Grandma would stroke her hair.

  They’d be sitting by the window in a ray of warm sunlight.

  Not too warm, in case Winston melted.

  ‘Pearl,’ yelled Mum, ‘the red bra was in the drawer. I can’t trust you with anything.’

  Pearl hadn’t been to the airport since arriving in town two years earlier.

  She’d forgotten how noisy it could get when there was a plane on the tarmac revving its propellers.

  ‘You watch out for Howard’s mother while we check in,’ shouted Mum, pushing Howard towards the counter. ‘She’s getting off the plane we’re getting on.’

  Pearl went and stood by the Arrivals/Departures door.

  Her guts were scrabbling so fast and her heart was booming so loud she couldn’t think straight.

  This is ridiculous, she thought after a bit, I don’t know what she looks like.

  She decided to greet every kind-faced little old lady just in case.

  Except none of the people coming through the door were kind-faced little old ladies.

  Relax, Pearl said to herself. Frail old folk always wait till last to get off a plane so they can be helped down the steps.

  She glanced over at the check-in counter to see if the airline had wheelchairs for really old and frail grandmas.

  While Pearl’s head was turned, a loud rasping noise echoed through the terminal. It sounded like one of the propellers had come off the plane and was skidding across the tarmac.

  Towards her.

  Pearl spun round.

  The noise wasn’t coming from skidding metal, it was coming from an elderly woman.

  A broad-shouldered elderly woman with the sleeves of her dress rolled up and a large suitcase in each hand and a cigarette in her mouth which sprayed ash each time she coughed.

  There was a skinny boy standing behind the woman, slapping her on the back. He was whacking her as hard as he could, but it didn’t seem to be making much difference.

  Poor bloke, thought Pearl, having a grandma like that. She wouldn’t fit into fluffy slippers. She probably wouldn’t even fit into a rocking chair. If she tried to stroke your hair she’d probably set it on fire.

  The boy’s grandma finally stopped coughing.

  She put her suitcases down, adjusted her bosom and pushed the sleeves of her dress up over her biceps.

  Then she grinned at Pearl.

  ‘G’day,’ she said, ‘you must be Pearl. I’m Gran.’

  They sat in the back of the taxi waiting for the driver to heave the bags into the boot.

  Pearl tried not to look like she was sulking.

  It wasn’t easy.

  Just my luck, she thought bitterly. Instead of a grandma I get a retired wrestler. Plus she brings her real grandkid with her so I won’t even get a look in.

  ‘Mitch was that excited on the plane,’ said Gran, ‘I thought he was gunna poop himself.’

  ‘Gran,’ said Mitch, sounding embarrassed.

  Pearl snuck a look at him round Gran’s broad chest.

  He was the thinnest kid she’d ever seen.

  Pearl realised he was giving her a friendly grin.

  At that moment Gran leant forward for a cough, so Pearl didn’t have to grin back.

  The driver got in and Pearl opened her mouth to tell him the address. Before she could, Gran slapped a big hand on the driver’s shoulder.

  ‘The lake,’ she said.

  She grinned at Pearl.

  ‘Bit of sightseeing on the way.’

  Pearl’s guts tightened.

  That’s all I need, she thought. A grandma with no concept of how expensive taxis are.

  ‘Mum only gave me five dollars,’ she said.

  Gran didn’t hear.

  She was squeezing one of Mitch’s spindly knees.

  ‘Only joshing,’ she said to him. ‘Sorry if I embarrassed you.’

  Mitch grinned.

  Gran grinned back and punched him in the shoulder.

  Pearl sighed.

  6

  Gran stood at the edge of the lake and stared out over the water.

  ‘Hasn’t changed a bit,’ she said.

  She stood lost in thought, puffing on a cigarette.

  In the back of the taxi Pearl stared too.

  At the meter.

  Eleven dollars thirty.

  She took a deep breath and wondered how she could get Gran and Mitch back in the cab.

  Set fire to their suitcases?

  From the look of Mitch he wouldn’t care.

  He was running excitedly through the lakeside mud and reeds towards a small beach.

  When he reached it he pulled off most of his clothes and ran into the water.

  ‘Hope he’s got a towel,’ said the driver, going back to his newspaper.

  Pearl sighed and looked at the meter.

  Eleven dollars fifty.

  She wondered what the extra charge would be for dripping on a taxi se
at.

  Her calculation was interrupted by a loud rasping noise.

  Gran was doubled over, coughing.

  ‘Hope she’s got a hanky,’ said the driver, not looking up from his newspaper.

  When Gran finally stopped coughing, the meter said twelve dollars twenty.

  This is ridiculous, thought Pearl. At this rate we’ll use up all the money Mum left for takeaway and we’ll have to survive on guinea pig grain.

  She peered across the lake.

  Mitch wasn’t to be seen.

  Must be seeing how long he can hold his breath under water, thought Pearl wearily.

  Won’t be long, with his skinny lungs.

  She waited.

  Any second now he’d be popping up, blue in the face and gasping.

  She waited some more.

  Then she got out of the taxi, starting to feel uneasy.

  ‘Gran,’ she said.

  Gran was gazing out over the water again.

  Must be remembering the floods, thought Pearl. Probably wishing she’d had lino instead of carpet.

  ‘Gran,’ shouted Pearl.

  Gran looked round.

  Pearl pointed to Mitch’s clothes on the beach.

  Gran squinted at them.

  Then she dropped her cigarette and dashed through the reeds.

  Pearl ran after her.

  ‘Mitch,’ Gran was shouting. ‘You can’t swim, you stupid bugger.’

  She doubled up with another coughing fit.

  Pearl sprinted past her and without stopping to take off any clothes, dived in.

  She could tell the water was deep because it was freezing.

  She opened her eyes and waited for them to get used to the murkiness.

  Suddenly she saw movement.

  She couldn’t tell how far away it was, or even what it was.

  Something thrashing around.

  Please, she thought, let it be Mitch’s arms and legs.

  And if not, an old rotary clothes hoist in a swarm of mullet rather than a giant octopus.

  Teeth chattering, Pearl tried to swim over for a closer look, but each time she kicked her legs they snapped straight, jarring her whole body.

  Something was wrapped round her ankles.

  She pushed herself deeper to shake it off.

  Slimy tendrils brushed her face and cut into her armpit.

  Then she remembered.

  Chest weed.

  She’d heard people talking about it.