Careful What You Wish For

by Maureen McCarthy

  Ruth saw that one of her shoelaces had come undone. She bent over to retie it. When she looked up again the rat was already gone.

  She settled herself back on the grass to wait for him, hoping for a change of luck. Please, she prayed, I need to at least undo the harm I’ve caused!

  While she waited, Ruth watched the sky, and for the first time since she’d arrived at the bridge she felt the stillness around her. There were all kinds of sounds that she hadn’t noticed before – nearby twittering birds and the occasional mournful cries of a crow, the rustling of leaves, the bellow of a cow calling her calf. She thought of Howard and wondered how he was getting on with his fishing. If he’d come with her, things might not have been so bad. Then again, a boy wouldn’t have much chance in a convent! He might not even have been allowed through the gates.

  Ruth noticed that the sun had moved round to the west. Would the rest of her family be back from the bike race yet? Would they be worried about her? Would they miss her if she left forever?

  She wished that she was home right at that moment and that none of this had happened. The boys weren’t really so bad. Living with a whole bunch of messy, chaotic people might not be the best fun, but it beat a lot of other things. Like having perfect, boring parents breathing down your neck, for example, or being at the mercy of a horrible teacher like Thunder Guts. Or having to feel guilty about causing untold trouble in someone else’s life. That one felt particularly bad.

  Ruth’s eyes grew heavy as she waited for the rat but there was no way she would give in to it. She owed it to Bridie to stay awake. She must have dozed off, though, because her whole body jerked to attention with Rodney’s voice.

  ‘I can undo your time there, but … there is a catch.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’m afraid it is contingent on you making use of your last wish.’

  ‘Why is that?’ Ruth asked suspiciously.

  ‘Just the way it works.’

  ‘But I’ll only get myself into a heap of new trouble!’

  ‘Up to you,’ the rat shrugged. ‘If you don’t use it, then things stay as they are for Bridie.’

  ‘But why?’ Ruth wailed.

  ‘That is just the way this stuff works,’ he said. ‘You heading off again works as a kind of circuit-breaker and that means I can undo the previous disaster.’

  ‘But I don’t want to go anywhere else,’ Ruth moaned. ‘My family isn’t so bad and …’ But the rat wasn’t interested. He held up one paw for her to be quiet.

  ‘It’s up to you,’ he said sourly, ‘but it beats me why you wouldn’t want to have another go.’

  ‘I’ll tell you why,’ Ruth fumed, ‘because you get it so wrong!’

  ‘What was so wrong last time?’ the rat muttered.

  ‘When I said a place with discipline and order, I was thinking of some kind of peaceful retreat somewhere like the Himalayas or some little community in the hills, not a Catholic boarding school in the 1950s!’

  ‘Those places up in the hills are very highly sought after,’ Rodney said defensively. ‘Places are quite limited. It’s the time of the year too. Everyone has the winter blues and they want a quick fix. I told you that I couldn’t promise anything too specific. A Catholic boarding school in the fifties was the best I could do.’

  ‘That place was a nightmare!’ Ruth grumbled.

  ‘And yet you’re willing to go back?’

  ‘I want to go back for the friend I made there,’ Ruth replied hotly.

  ‘Well?’ Rodney looked at her askance. ‘Hello? ’ ‘What?’

  ‘Nothing coming together in that head of yours yet?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Are you telling me that you haven’t realised?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Anywhere is good if you’ve got a friend.’

  Ruth sniffed and looked away, absolutely hating the fact that he was telling her something that might have a grain of truth in it.

  ‘What if you’re in jail?’ she mumbled sourly. ‘A friend isn’t going to help there.’

  ‘It will make things a lot easier,’ the rat chuckled. ‘Last time I was incarcerated I certainly found that the friends I made there …’ He stopped. ‘Never mind.’

  ‘Go on, Rodney.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Is there something you’re not telling me, Rodney?’

  ‘Not at all.’

  Ruth looked at him severely but the rat wouldn’t meet her eye. She sighed. There was probably a mountain of information she should know about Rodney, but somehow now wasn’t the right time.

  ‘What about if your house is smashed to bits by a cyclone?’ she said stiffly. ‘A friend won’t put it back together for you.’

  ‘A true friend will stick out the bad times with you,’ Rodney declared pompously, ‘and that is an enormous help.’

  ‘If your parents both die horribly in a car accident then –’ ‘Oh, for goodness sake!’ Rodney snapped. ‘Could we please at least stick to the case in hand? Are you telling me that everything apart from your friend was bad about that place?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ Ruth said in a small voice. ‘Sister Winifred was kind of interesting – a good teacher, anyway. I think I would have got to like her if I’d stayed. And I suppose I did like the fact that there wasn’t chatter all the time. I liked the silent times. And I liked the singing. I was looking forward to learning the words. I would have liked to join in the singing every morning.’

  ‘See!’ the rat said triumphantly.

  ‘But some of it was terrible!’

  ‘Welcome to the real world!’ Rodney said. Ruth frowned and wondered all over again why she’d been so keen to find him.

  ‘But it’s not the real world, is it?’

  ‘Well, no.’ Rodney gave one of his dry chuckles and they both started laughing at the same time. ‘Not exactly the real world. No.’

  ‘Okay.’ Ruth felt a little easier after the laugh. ‘I’m willing to have another go if you make things better for Bridie.’

  ‘Done!’

  ‘Do you promise?’

  ‘I promise.’ Rodney was shifting from one foot to the other. ‘So let’s get going quickly, because I’m due back for the races.’

  ‘What? ’ Ruth’s mouth fell open.

  ‘I’ve got a lot riding on a little guy called Pick-Me-Up. He’s –’

  ‘Is Pick-Me-Up a … rat? ’ Ruth was trying to imagine a race meeting of rats. Would they have callers and racetracks and judges and ribbons for the winner?

  ‘Well of course he’s a rat!’ Rodney waved the question away irritably. ‘So annoying, the way humans think they are the only ones who do anything interesting!’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ Ruth sighed, ‘let’s keep our minds on the job.’

  * * *

  An hour later they were still discussing Ruth’s options. It was her last chance; she didn’t want to get it wrong.

  ‘You’re smart,’ the rat was saying. ‘Maybe we could try and get you into the NASA space program.’

  ‘I’m only twelve,’ Ruth reminded him.

  ‘Wouldn’t you like to be the first kid in space?’

  Ruth thought for a while.

  ‘Not that much,’ she said. ‘I’ve always thought it would be kind of boring being up there and having to eat out of tubes and … how would you go to the toilet?’

  ‘There are plastic bags inside your bodysuit.’

  ‘Yuk! And it would be so hard to get back if I hated it.’

  ‘True, but not … impossible.’

  ‘Not space,’ Ruth said decisively. ‘Thanks all the same.’

  ‘Well, what about being part of an exploration team? Deep in the heart of Africa?’

  ‘Now you’re talking!’ Ruth was delighted. ‘I wouldn’t mind that.’

  ‘Going to places that no one has seen before,’ Rodney said enthusiastically. ‘There are still places like that on the planet, you know, Ruth.’

  ‘Hmmm.’ Ruth tried t
o imagine what it would be like. She was excited by the idea until a mental image came to her out of the blue. There she was in the intense heat, trudging along behind a group of adults. She was thirsty, her feet were sore and they were about to walk through crocodile-infested waters. She shuddered. ‘Actually, Rodney, I don’t think so. I don’t like really hot weather, and what about those weird insects that give you exotic diseases? I haven’t been inoculated. What if I got really sick? I might die.’

  ‘Well, you’re going to have to think of something!’ the rat snapped. ‘I told you before, I don’t have all day.’ He flung what was left of his apple core into the river.

  Ruth noticed that his stomach was as enormous as a duck egg. He was shifting about trying to get comfortable and she wanted to ask him if all rats were greedy or if it was just him.

  ‘You’re going to have to make a decision soon. What would you really like?’

  Ruth closed her eyes and tried to think.

  ‘Remember, this isn’t only about you.’

  Ruth opened her eyes. ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘My career is going off the rails,’ the rat sniffed.

  ‘Really?’

  Rodney gave a deep sigh. ‘I’ve simply got to get this one right or I’m … custard.’

  ‘Okay.’ Ruth closed her eyes again. The pressure was on now.

  ‘Have you got a secret desire?’ he said slyly. ‘Right at the bottom of your heart?’

  Still with her eyes closed, Ruth threw away her core and lay back on the grass. ‘Well, I suppose I do,’ she said after a while, beginning to blush furiously. If only it was something more interesting! But there was nothing for it. This was her last chance at the life she’d really like, so she’d better come clean.

  ‘So what is it?’ Rodney was looking at her intently.

  ‘I want to be somebody.’ Ruth’s face was bright red.

  ‘Somebody? ’ the rat repeated, frowning.

  ‘I want to stand out from the crowd.’

  ‘Oh.’ Rodney’s mouth twitched. ‘I see. Have you got a field in mind? Where you’d like to excel?’

  ‘Not really,’ she mumbled.

  ‘Sport?’

  ‘No!’ She shook her head. ‘Definitely not.’

  ‘Music?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘What about performing, then? Acting, theatre or circus?’

  ‘No way!’ Ruth exclaimed. ‘Marcus is good at sport and music and my little brother is a born actor. He’ll end up a performer of some sort for sure. I want my own thing that I’m really good at.’

  ‘Hmmm.’ The rat shook his head. ‘So … what are you good at?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Ruth said glumly. ‘Not much except spelling and general knowledge, Maths and Geography and History.’ She sighed. ‘You can’t really be somebody with any of that, can you?’

  ‘Well, that remains to be seen,’ the rat muttered. ‘Just give me a few minutes will you?’

  Ruth watched him walk down towards the river, both paws behind his back, head lowered; he was frowning and obviously thinking hard.

  She doubted he’d be able to do anything good with what she wanted, but with a bit of luck it wouldn’t be quite as bad as the other two wishes. Remember, she told herself sternly, this is all about getting Bridie out of a very big hole.

  ‘What sort of family do you want this time?’ Rodney called.

  ‘My old one will do,’ Ruth said.

  ‘Really?’ Rodney stared at her in surprise. Ruth thought of the dead eyes of her mum and dad in the perfect version and nodded.

  ‘What about the laptop and the swimming pool?’ the rat asked, genuinely incredulous.

  Ruth sighed. ‘I suppose there’s no chance of having the old family with the good house, laptop and swimming pool … and without the friends?’

  She knew she was pushing things, but it might be worth a try.

  ‘I don’t do mix and match,’ the rat said crossly. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes! How many times do I have to say it?’

  ‘Okay. So the old family,’ the rat shook his head, ‘in the old house with all the mess and … and the rest of it?’

  ‘Yes,’ Ruth sighed.

  ‘Well, well, there is no accounting for –’

  ‘Just shut up, okay?’

  ‘Very well.’

  ‘By the way, have you got any paper and a pencil? I want to write Howard a note.’

  ‘A note?’ Rodney was suspicious.

  ‘I want to tell him to go back on his own if I’m away too long.’

  Rodney produced a blank page from his trouser pocket and then a pencil from his boot.

  Ruth wrote a quick note to Howard and put it under a rock near where he’d been lying asleep. She didn’t want him to wait for her and get into more trouble than he needed to with his father.

  ‘I think I might have something,’ Rodney said after a few moments of silent thought.

  ‘Really?’ Ruth was excited, until she remembered how wrong things could get. ‘Is it possible for you to run through some details with me first?’

  ‘No, it isn’t!’ Rodney said angrily. ‘That isn’t how this works!’

  ‘Okay! Keep your shirt on. I didn’t mean to insult you.’

  ‘My work involves very sophisticated skills.’

  ‘I’m sure it does,’ Ruth muttered apologetically. ‘I didn’t mean to imply …’ ‘Believe me, I want this one to work just as much as you do. You’re going to have to trust me.’

  19

  ‘Crunch time, ladies and gentlemen! Whoever wins this round of Brain Box will be Victorian state champion and will go on to compete in the national final next week.’

  There was a loud rolling drumbeat followed by a bouncy guitar riff.

  ‘Please give our two contestants a hand!’

  Enthusiastic clapping and catcalling, along with a few whistles, drowned out the music.

  Ruth blinked as her eyes adjusted. There was a sea of strange faces in front of her. She looked around and felt herself go a little woozy.

  She was sitting in a kind of booth and the lights were so bright she could hardly see. A man in a snappy suit with silver hair and his face covered in make-up was standing about a metre away from her; on the other side of him sat a boy roughly her age dressed in a white shirt and tie. The boy’s hair was combed up into spikes. Her own long hair had been set into tight curls that fell to her shoulders and were stiff with lacquer. It felt a little like having an animal on her head. What was she doing in front of all these people? Where on earth was she?

  She looked up. Huge lights were beaming down from the ceiling. A couple of enormous black swivel cameras pointed at the three of them on the stage. She must be in a television studio! Ruth was overcome with an intense desire to get up and run. A shy person wanting to be somebody! And that idiot rat thought she meant in the actual spotlight and famous– that wasn’t what she’d meant at all. What could she have been thinking to trust him again?

  ‘So in case you’ve just joined us at home.’ The man with the silver hair was looking directly into the camera with a wide, oily smile. ‘We have Leon and Ruth and they are slogging it out to make it to our final!’ He turned to them. ‘Tell me, are you guys ready?’

  ‘Yes, sir!’ Leon said with a confident grin, and the audience clapped wildly.

  ‘And Ruth?’

  ‘Yes … sir,’ Ruth said nervously.

  The applause for her was more subdued.

  ‘Okay, this is the big one!’ the man said.

  The drumbeat rolled again and the audience went quiet.

  ‘First on the buzzer gets the chance to answer.’

  Ruth looked down at the button in front of her. As though on autopilot, she positioned her hand above it.

  ‘In what year did man first walk on the moon?’

  He had to be kidding. That was way too easy. But maybe it was a trick question? The boy was frowning, probably trying to work out the same thing. Ruth decided to go wit
h what she knew. If it was a trick question, then she might as well get it over with. She pressed the buzzer and the man invited her to answer.

  ‘1969,’ she said, then added, ‘sir.’

  ‘And you are absolutely right!’ the man shouted, and the crowd went wild. ‘Go, Ruth! Go!’

  In spite of her nerves Ruth felt a buzz of excitement. If the questions were all this easy, she might actually win!

  ‘Spell accommodation’ was the next question. Of course Ruth knew how to spell that, but the boy beat her to the buzzer. Annoyed with herself for being slow, Ruth decided to really concentrate. The drumbeat started rolling again. This must be it. She tensed up in anticipation. She wouldn’t let him beat her again!

  ‘Who was the first Queen Elizabeth’s father?’ the man asked.

  There was a hushed silence, but not for long. Ruth pushed her buzzer, just beating Leon.

  ‘Henry VIII,’ she said matter-of-factly.

  ‘And Ruth is absolutely correct. Henry VIII was Queen Elizabeth’s father. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Will you all please go ballistic for Ruth Craze!’

  The applause began and built quickly to a crescendo. It flooded Ruth’s ears and swirled around her head like a barrage of thunderclaps.

  The man came over, took her hand, and pulled her up out of her seat. ‘The winner, ladies and gentlemen: Ruth Craze! Take a bow, Ruth!’

  Ruth stood holding hands with the man in front of the huge crowd, thinking that just maybe … Rodney had got it right.

  ‘Here is your cheque for … ten thousand dollars!’

  More drums, and two pretty blonde girls brought out an enormous signed cheque.

  Ten thousand dollars! To think it was now actually hers! She was … a winner.

  ‘Good night, ladies and gentlemen, and don’t forget to tune in next week. Ruth will be competing against all the other state finalists. Next week we will find out who the national Brain Box champion is! Good luck, Ruth!’ the man yelled. ‘We’re all behind you.’

  ‘Good luck, Ruth!’ the crowd echoed as the show closed. ‘Good luck!’

  The lights went down and the cameras backed away and everyone relaxed. About to step off the stage, Ruth was intercepted by hugs and whoops of congratulation from members of the crew.

  ‘Fantastic, girl.’