I went over to the curtain and peeped out. A flash immediately blasted off. “Looks like they’re still there.”
“Right, off we go,” Dad handed each of them a scarf as they traipsed past him. “Put these over your heads in case any of the photographers have slipped around the back. You know what a sneaky lot they can be.”
Dr Cronus looked very put out. “This situation is very grave you know. I hope you all realize that this could be the end of our time here and that we may have to leave.”
All the planets regarded me accusingly.
“Don’t look at me. It’s not my fault!”
Selene looked at me sadly. “Sometimes you have to know when to stand up and take the blame.”
“Come on now,” said Dad. “No time to stand around. We need to get you out of here.”
“My head hurts,” groaned Mr O, who was looking extremely pale, even under his tan.
“Every bit of me aches,” said Captain John Dory.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have Zodiac Girls any more,” said Dr Cronus. “More blooming trouble than they’re worth, every one of them.”
“At least you’ll be remembered,” said Mr O gloomily, “as the last Zodiac Girl ever.”
“End of an era,” said Nessa. “We need to go into hiding for a very long time.”
They all trooped out the back like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders. I kept watch and then they were gone. Maybe forever, I thought.
Chapter Eleven
An unexpected visitor
I waited for half an hour then checked out the front again. The press were all still there leaning on the front wall, some of them smoking cigarettes. I opened the door and they all snapped to attention.
“You may as well go,” I said, “because our guests have left.”
“Where’ve they gone?” asked the fat man.
“Back to their planets probably,” I said.
“Oh, she’s a funny one,” said the blonde as she strained to look over my shoulder into the hallway. “Come on lads, we’ll track them down some other way.”
One by one, they began to drift away. I closed the door and went into the kitchen where I plonked myself down at the table and put my head in my hands. Nobody understands me or cares. I try so hard to do everything right and make life nice for people and now it’s all gone and backfired. I wished I’d never been chosen as Zodiac Girl and I wished I’d never met any of the planets. No good had come of it at all. I looked around the kitchen. The dishes hadn’t been washed. Empty glasses were stacked by the sink. Uneaten food still sat in the pans. And I knew that the rest of the house was still a mess from last night – crumbs all over the dining room from the bread fight and cushions scattered in the living room from the pillow fight. Mrs Watson, the housekeeper, never came in on Saturdays, Mum was in bed and no way would Pat or Yasmin help tidy – it was up to me as usual. I began to make a mental list of what needed to be done. I’ll start in a minute, I thought as I picked up a piece of bread from the table and flicked it onto the floor.
Cosmo crawled out of his basket by the door, hopped up onto my knee and nuzzled my nose as if to say that he understood. Tears dripped down my cheeks and splashed on the table, while outside the skies opened and rain began to pour. The kitchen lit up as a flash of lightning followed by the rumble of thunder sounded outside.
“Hi there, Cosmo,” I said as I nuzzled him back. “I’m Zodiac Girl this month. Did you know that? It’s a very special honour you know.”
“Meow,” he replied and put a paw up to my cheek. On hearing a noise in the garden, he suddenly leapt off my lap and ran to the window sill, hopped up, put his paws up and looked out.
“What is it?” I asked as I went and join him.
He seemed to be looking at something or someone intently. I soon spotted what. A tall slim man dressed in an electric-blue jump suit with silver spiky hair and a lightning fork painted on his face was standing on our washing line! He saw Cosmo and I staring and he waved and smiled, then began to walk along the washing line as if it were a tight rope.
“He’s got to be Uranus,” I said to Cosmo. His costume made perfect sense as both the colour electric blue and the lightning symbol were commonly associated with Uranus. I waved back at him but decided not to venture out. It was absolutely throwing it down. “I hope his gear is waterproof,” I said to Cosmo as he began to move along the washing line.
It was like watching a circus performer. He walked the line, did a back flip which made both Cosmo and I gasp, then he got a small silver umbrella out of a pocket, put it up and skipped along to the end of the line. He hopped down onto the grass, went to a rucksack in the corner of the garden and hauled it on to his back. It looked heavy and he stooped under the weight of it. With bent knees, he did a wobbly comedy walk back over to the line, which he hopped back on to, then checked to see that I was still watching him. He stooped even more, grimaced and looked over at me as if for sympathy. Holding his back with one hand, and supporting the rucksack with the other, he began to walk across the line again.
“Wow! That must be difficult,” I said. “Especially if whatever’s in his bag weighs a lot.”
“Meow,” Cosmo agreed.
Every now and then, Uri checked to see that I was watching, nodded when he saw that I was, then he’d pull a parcel out of his rucksack and chuck it onto the grass. Then he went back to walking across the washing line. Then he’d chuck another parcel. Each time he let a package go, his back straightened up a little. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was the strangest sight I had ever seen. It was still raining hard but he didn’t seem bothered. As he reached the end of the line, he let a last parcel go and as he did, he straightened his back up completely so that once more he was upright and seemed as light as a feather. At the exact moment he tossed the last parcel aside, the sun came out from behind the clouds, lighting the drops of rain so they looked like thousands of tiny diamonds, and then he bowed. As he bowed, a rainbow appeared in the sky. It was magical.
I opened the back door and clapped.
“You must be Uri,” I said.
He bowed again and skipped down off the line. “And you’re Zodiac Girl.”
I nodded. “I am but I’m trying to forget all that now. It’s not been a very good time for me or any of your colleagues.”
“I know. And I’m sorry I didn’t make it yesterday to the party. It sounded like fun.”
“You wouldn’t be sorry if you knew what had gone on.”
“But I do know. It was part of the plan.”
“Plan? What plan? I mean… I had a plan but…”
“You’re Zodiac Girl, yes?”
“Yes.”
“So we all knew what needed to happen, more or less, in your month.”
“No. That can’t be. I mean, most of the planets took no notice of me…”
“That was part of the plan,” said Uri and looked up at the sky. “Can I step inside? Bit wet out here.”
Even though I knew who he was, I knew that Mum wouldn’t want me to let a strange man into the house. “I have to check with Mum first. Wait here.”
I ran up the stairs and into the bedroom. Mum was sitting at the window looking brighter than she had earlier.
“Mum, Uri’s here and wants to come in for a moment. Is that okay?”
“I saw him in the garden. Marvellous show,” she said. “Yes, let him in, but be sure to keep him away from the punch if there’s any left.”
“No worries. I poured the rest of it away,” I said, then I raced back down and let Uri in. Apart from his hair that was now plastered against his head and rivulets of rain that dripped down his forehead, he didn’t look too soaked.
He stepped in and looked around the kitchen which was done out in the bright yellow and orange colours of the Sun. He bent down and stroked Cosmo who purred at once and then he sat at the table. His hair seemed to dry out in an instant. It spiked up all by itself.
“Uri, you don’t seem to r
ealize. What’s been happening here, it can’t be part of the plan. The other planets were all off their heads last night. Totally out of control.”
“And isn’t that life? Happens sometimes,” said Uri with a shrug of his shoulders. “You can’t control everything.”
I didn’t understand. He was making so light of it and it was really serious.
“No. It’s all gone wrong. All of it.”
Uri sighed. “Thebe, haven’t you got it yet?”
“Got what?”
He pointed out of the window towards the washing line and the discarded parcels. “What we’ve all been trying to tell you?”
I felt myself go totally blank. “No. I guess I haven’t.”
Uri smiled. “To let go, Thebe. That’s all. Let go. Sometimes things are out of your control. Sometimes you can control things, sometimes you can’t. You have to recognize the difference. Sometimes you have to let go and go with the flow.”
I thought back to his show in the rain and how he was letting go of the parcels and as he did, he became lighter. I looked around at the mess on the floor and on the table. And I thought about the past few weeks and all the odd things that had happened.
Suddenly I did get it.
I smiled at Uri, he smiled back, then got up, bowed and went out the door back into the garden and a second later, he had disappeared.
I looked around the kitchen and laughed. “Sometimes, you just have to let go,” I said to Cosmo. I walked into the hall, into the study where as always, there were books and papers piled everywhere. “Lovely,” I said. Next I went into the dining room which looked as if a bomb had hit it. “Marvellous,” I said.
Finally, I went into the front room, scuffed aside some crumbs on the floor then lay out on the sofa. I think I’ll have a little snooze, I thought. So the house is a mess? So? No biggie. It’s the weekend. Time to chill.
In moments, I was in a lovely deep sleep.
Chapter Twelve
Chaos
Thebe’s list of things to do
Chill.
“Mum, there’s nothing to eat,” moaned Pat as she looked in the fridge a few days later.
Cosmo looked down at his empty bowl then looked over at me. “Meow-ow,” he said.
“Estella baby, this kitchen is in need of a good clean,” said Dad pinching his nose. “It’s beginning to smell.” He lifted the lid on the bin. “Pooee! No wonder! This thing needs emptying.”
Mum looked around in despair. “I know, the place is in a real mess. Let’s have a cup of tea and decide what we’re going to do.” She looked hopefully over at me but I didn’t budge.
“Good idea,” I said. “I’d love a cup of tea. Thank you very much.”
Mum sighed and went to the tea caddy. It was empty as I knew it would be. She sighed again and looked over at me with sad eyes.
Did I care? Not a bit. I was the new me. The chilled me. I was mastering the art of letting go. So far, I’d let go of making my bed in the morning, doing the groceries, cleaning up, making lists. Okay, so the house was a tip, but I was letting go of that too.
A gentle thud came from the hall announcing that the post had arrived. Dad went out to get it and came back moments later sifting through it. “One for you, Thebe,” he said and chucked me a postcard.
It showed a white beach and a turquoise sea. I glanced at the sender. “It’s from Hermie.”
Dad nodded. “That would be right. The retrograde period for Mercury is over the day after tomorrow so I guessed that he’d be back in contact some time soon.”
“What does it say?” asked Mum.
I read: Hello Thebe,
Hope you’ve been having a groovy time as Zodiac Girl. Back soon, will be in touch soon.
Love Hermie. PS: Been hanging out with your uncle Norrece over here.
Yet another of my relatives who had been hanging out with one of the planet people! I wasn’t going to let it bother me though. So my guardian had spent the large part of my zodiac month on a Greek island. Cool. So he hadn’t bothered to try and contact me until now, so what? He was going with the flow and now, so was I. It wasn’t up to me to tell him what he should or shouldn’t be doing. Nor anyone else for that matter. From now on, I was going to mind my own business and not ever try and organize anyone else’s life again.
“Where’s the card from?” asked Mum.
I looked at the postmark and stamp. “Greece.”
“Of course, that’s where Norrece was,” said Mum.
“Greece! So that’s where Mercury goes when he goes retrograde,” said Dad. “I’d always wondered.”
“And that’s nice he’s been hanging with Norrece,” said Mum. “He’ll be back soon. He and Maggie are getting back together thanks to the talks they’ve been having with Selene.”
I should have done the same as Hermie, I should have followed his example and just relaxed these past weeks instead of getting myself into a frenzy, I thought, as I put my feet up on the table. “So. What’s everyone doing today?” I asked.
“Well, clearly getting things organized around here,” said Mum stiffly. “What time’s the housekeeper coming? It is her day, isn’t it?”
I shrugged. “Dunno. Has anyone contacted her?”
Dad, Mum and Pat shook their heads.
I glanced at my watch. “She probably came earlier this morning as always but… did anyone leave the keys in the usual place for her?”
“What’s the usual place?” asked Dad.
“I didn’t know that there was a usual place,” said Mum.
“Oh there is. It’s under the Japanese pot on the shed porch, round the back for future reference. I usually leave it out for her when I bring the milk in on my way out to school but as it’s half term this week, I haven’t been out yet. Talking of the milk, has anyone remembered to bring it in this morning?”
“Look, Thebe, you’ve made your point,” said Pat. “You ran the household. Fine. But you loved doing it. You know you did. You loved being in control and organizing us all.”
“I know. But I’ve changed. I’ve realized that I have to let go. Let go of being a control freak. So that’s what I’m doing. Letting go of running all your lives.”
“But why, munchkin?” asked Dad. “You were so good at it.”
“Ah but the planet people showed me that I was trying to control things too much and actually, it’s okay if things get out of hand. It’s not the end of the world if things go crazy.”
“I’m not sure about that any more,” said Mum as she looked at the pile of unwashed dishes in the sink.
“You have to go with the flow, Mum, and it will all work out just fine. Trust me. Like the other night when our guests got arrested, I thought it was the end and when the press came the next day, I wanted to die. I thought I’d ruined it for Zodiac Girls for the rest of eternity – but hey, things worked out, the press moved on to another story and lost interest in us. The planet people are fine with it, in fact, according to Uri, it was all part of their master plan for my month as Zodiac Girl to teach me a lesson. And my lesson was to let go. So yeah, hey, let’s go with the flow.”
Pat, Mum, Dad and Cosmo looked at me unhappily.
I got up, found some cat food at the back of the cupboard and put it out for Cosmo. I couldn’t let him be neglected in any way.
The others were still standing around as if they didn’t know what to do with themselves. Finally Mum sighed, “Okay. Pat, you start on the dishes, Benjamin, you can clean the bathroom and I’ll call Mrs Watson and see if she’ll come out again. In the meantime, Thebe, do you think that you could do the internet shop? Get us some groceries in?”
“Maybe later if I’m not too tired. For now, I’m going to go and listen to some music.”
I got up and went up to my room where Yasmin was lying on her bed with her headphones on. She barely registered my appearance. Like the rest of the house, the room was a mess, the bed unmade, clothes and socks on the floor. Instinctively, I went to pick up a pair of
socks and put them in the laundry basket but I stopped myself. Leave it, let go, I told myself. Stop being a control freak. I lay back on the bed and chuckled to myself. It was all so clear to me now. I hadn’t been ignored or abandoned by the planets. From the beginning, they had been trying to tell me to relax. Selene by trying to get me to let my feelings out, Nessa by demonstrating what it was like to have some girlie fun, Mr O with his chill out CD – all of them had been trying to show me how to chill by coming around and hanging out with Dad. I put the CD that Mr O had left on his visit into the player, put my headphones on and lay back on my bed to listen. It was nice music but I felt myself getting fidgety and my mind kept doing lists despite my trying not to. Old habits die hard, I told myself. I lay there for another five minutes. Part of me was itching to get up and tidy my room. It was like a force inside of me and I was having a hard time keeping it down. In the end, I couldn’t stay there any more. I knew that if I did, I’d have to give in and tidy the room. I went downstairs to see how Mum and Dad were getting on.
“Hi baby,” said Mum as she found a pair of Marigold gloves under the sink and put them on.
“Did you have a nice rest?” asked Dad as he put on the Homer Simpson apron that was hanging on the back door and started to empty the bin.
Pat looked at me sulkily as she swept the floor, then she flounced out and clomped up the stairs.
“I hope you don’t think I’m being selfish not helping out, it’s just that I am trying to make the most of my zodiac month and for the first three weeks, I didn’t get that they were trying to tell me that I have to let go.”
“Baby,” said Mum. “We only want what makes you happy. Really we do. And if you want to chill, then you chill, girl.”
“Amen to that,” said Dad. “Hey, Estella, let’s boogie while we work.”
Mum’s face lit up. “Put on some salsa,” she said.
Zodiac Girls: Star Child Page 9
