Popcorn

by Clare Nonhebel

CHAPTER 3

  ‘You know something else about Popcorn?’ Soony said.

  ‘No,’ said June. ‘What?’

  ‘Music,’ said Soony impressively.

  ‘You mean she’s musical?’ suggested June. ‘Does she sing?’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Soony. ‘I sing to her.’

  ‘Perhaps she plays the piano. Or the flute.’

  ‘Don’t be bloody silly!’ Soony laughed.

  ‘Soony dear,’ said Miss Janes. ‘You shouldn’t do that in front of people, you know.’

  ‘I’m humming,’ said Soony impatiently. ‘I always hum.’

  ‘Not the singing,’ Miss Janes said. ‘That.’

  Soony removed her hand and pulled down her skirt. ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘You do it.’

  Miss Janes’s face flushed red. June and Jim smothered a laugh.

  ‘Now, Soony,’ said June. ‘That’s very rude.’

  Soony didn’t know what all the fuss was about. It had only been a suggestion. Miss Janes didn’t have to do it too if she didn’t want to.

  ‘What colour dress do you think we’ll buy you?’ said June when they were on the bus.

  ‘Lupin,’ said Soony firmly. The lady sitting opposite smiled at her.

  ‘Pink lupin or purple lupin?’ asked June.

  ‘Yes,’ Soony agreed. She smiled back. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked.

  ‘Mrs Batchelor,’ said the lady.

  ‘Mine’s Susan Becket,’ said Soony, ‘and I live at Springfields Home, Western Avenue.’

  ‘Not any more, you don’t,’ June reminded her.

  ‘Oh, no,’ Soony said. ‘Not any more.’

  ‘I’m having this one,’ said Soony.

  ‘I think you’d better try it on,’ said June, ‘to make sure it fits.’

  ‘No, it’s all right,’ Soony said.

  ‘It might be too small,’ said June. ‘You’ve put on a little bit of weight.’

  ‘I’ve got a fat tummy,’ Soony agreed. ‘Too many sweeties.’

  ‘That’s right. We’ll have to give you salads for lunch so you’ll get nice and thin. Come in here and try the dress on.’

  ‘No, I don’t want to go in there.’

  ‘It won’t take a minute, Soony. You wouldn’t want...’

  ‘No, I don’t want to!’

  ‘All right. Shush! All right. We’ll ask the lady if we can change it later if it’s not right.’

  ‘I’ll just put tape measure round you, all right?’ said the lady. ‘And then we can see what size you are. What’s her name?’ she asked June.

  ‘The lady wants to know your name,’ June told Soony.

  ‘Soony,’ said Soony. ‘What’s yours?’

  ‘Well, Susie,’ said the lady, ‘I think you’re going to need the bigger...’

  ‘Not Susie!’ Soony bellowed. ‘Soony!’

  ‘Oh, right,’ she said, taking two steps backwards. ‘Well, I think she’s going to need the larger size,’ she told June. ‘It’s round the hips...’

  ‘It’s my bum,’ explained Soony. ‘You know what Keith said once, June? He’s such a dirty bugger...’

  ‘Soony,’ said June, ‘shall we look on the rail and see if they’ve got the next size in this dress?’

  ‘Oh, all right then,’ said Soony.

  ‘What the hell is she doing?’ said Jim, switching on the light. ‘It’s half past four in the morning.’

  ‘Soony,’ said June, knocking on Soony’s door, ‘are you all right?’

  ‘I’ve been sick,’ said Soony. She was tugging the sheets off the bed and had knocked the radio onto the floor.

  ‘Let me help you,’ said June.

  ‘No,’ said Soony, ‘it’s all right.’ She left the clean blanket on the floor and pulled the sicky sheet on top of her. ‘I was sick,’ she repeated. ‘It was the sausages. Good night.’

  She was sick again later in the day. They were in the butcher’s shop.

  ‘I’m going to be sick,’ she told June.

  ‘Oh, quick,’ said June. ‘Outside.’

  ‘No, here,’ said Soony, and was sick on the floor. ‘It was the sausages,’ she told the butcher.

  ‘Will the doctor look at Popcorn too?’ asked Soony.

  ‘I think we’ll leave Popcorn at home,’ said June.

  ‘We can’t,’ said Soony. ‘She has to come with me!’

  ‘Oh, all right then,’ said June.

  ‘You have to ask the doctor to look at her,’ Soony insisted. ‘Or I’m not going.’

  ‘Oh, Soony,’ said June, ‘I’ve just thought of something. We’re going in a taxi, not on the bus, so there won’t be room for Popcorn. Do you think she’d mind staying here in the garden?’

  Soony roared with laughter. ‘Won’t be room for Popcorn!’ she spluttered. She held up her finger. ‘Popcorn’s only this big!’

  ‘We have to sit here and wait till we’re called,’ explained June.

  Soony surveyed the people around her. What’s your name?’ she asked the man across the room. ‘Hey, you. What’s your name?’ The man held his newspaper up to his face. Soony was hurt.

  ‘I think perhaps he’s deaf,’ whispered June. ‘Shall we look at this magazine?’

  Soony went across the room and crouched down in front of the man, pushing her head under the newspaper, between his knees. ‘Can you hear me?’ she bellowed. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘For Christ’s sake!’ said the man, leaping to his feet. He flung down the paper and ran from the room.

  Soony stood stock still. She had that angry, sore feeling again. She felt quite – what was that word that Beatrice used? Quite deficient.

  ‘We went to see the doctor. He gave me some medicine,’ Soony told Jim. ‘I was sick on his floor.’

  ‘On his feet,’ said June. ‘It was an extra quick visit.’

  ‘I’ll bet it was,’ Jim agreed.

  ‘Do me a favour tomorrow?’ June asked. ‘Go to the butcher’s for me?’

  Jim cleared his throat. ‘Is there another butcher’s we can go to?’ he said.

  Soony was in the garden with June. June was weeding the flower beds and Soony was sitting, thinking, on the grass.

  ‘Popcorn is very quiet you know,’ said Soony.

  ‘Perhaps she’s in a bad mood,’ suggested June.

  ‘No!’ said Soony. ‘She’s always quiet.’

  ‘Some people don’t say very much,’ June agreed.

  ‘Popcorn never says anything,’ said Soony.

  ‘But how does she tell you things?’ asked June.

  ‘I have to listen,’ said Soony, ‘very hard. I have to be very quiet and not make a noise and not do any thinking.’

  ‘That must be hard,’ said June.

  ‘No,’ said Soony. ‘It’s very easy.’

  ‘Does Popcorn live in the garden now?’ June asked.

  ‘No!’ shouted Soony. ‘In my room!’

  ‘Oh, I see,’ said June.

  ‘No you don’t,’ said Soony.

  ‘No,’ June confessed. ‘Not really.’

  ‘Normals don’t understand some things,’ said Soony kindly.

  ‘I’ll check with Mrs Hobgrass for you’, said Miss Janes, ‘and phone you back.’

  She rang back in half an hour. ‘Mrs Hobgrass says that Soony was never all that regular,’ she reported. ‘I’d leave it a week or two if I were you.’

  ‘Actually, I tried to ring you back,’ said June. ‘Just after I spoke to you I went upstairs and found Soony using the Tampax.’

  ‘Oh, so it’s all right.’

  ‘Yes. I’m sorry to have bothered you for nothing. It’s just that I was a bit worried...’

  ‘Oh, not at all,’ said Miss Janes. ‘Don’t hesitate to ring, any time.’

  Soony found a baby in a buggy outside the chemist’s shop. ‘Is it Ben?’ she asked June.

  ‘No, it’s another baby. It looks a bit like Ben. Are you coming in?’

  ‘No,’ Soony decided. ‘I’ll st
ay and talk to Ben.’

  Soony leant on the handle of the pram. ‘Hello,’ she said. ‘I’m Soony. Your name’s Ben.’

  The baby wore a pink dress and sat propped against lace-edged pillows. He smiled.

  ‘There you are: you like me,’ said Soony happily. She knew he would like her; bens always did.

  The baby smiled and said, ‘Da!’

  ‘Da,’ said Soony back.

  ‘Dada!’

  ‘Da da,’ said Soony obligingly. ‘Da da da!’

  She jiggled the handle of the pram and made the ben bounce up and down. He laughed and banged his hands on his little pink dress.

  ‘Da!’ he shouted.

  ‘Da!’ shouted Soony. ‘Da Da!’

  A woman came running out of the shop. ‘Leave her alone!’ she screamed. She pushed Soony hard. ‘Get away! Shoo!’ She pulled the baby out of its pram and clasped it to her chest. The baby started to cry. ‘There, Emma, Mummy’s got you,’ she soothed. ‘Go away!’ she shouted at Soony again, giving her another push.

  Soony pushed her back. ‘Fuck off!’ she screamed.

  ‘Soony!’ cried June, running out of the shop. ‘What’s going on?’

  ‘Keep that... creature away from my baby!’ the woman screamed. ‘She ought to be locked up!’

  ‘Now wait a minute!’ June began. ‘Soony... stop!’

  But Soony was running away down the street as fast as she could go. She ran right out of one of the new flip-flops that June had bought her. She didn’t stop to pick it up, although she was proud of wearing flip-flops, but left it lying there on the pavement. Because right now she had to get home; she felt so deficient.

  ‘Come and see what I’ve made us for tea,’ said June. ‘A special treat.’

  ‘I’m busy,’ said Soony from behind the compost heap. She was banging her head against the garden fence.

  ‘It’s chocolate cake,’ said June. ‘Come and see if it tastes all right.’

  ‘Soony,’ she said, after a silence. ‘Will you ask your friend Popcorn if she’d like a piece of your cake?’

  ‘She doesn’t eat cake,’ Soony said.

  ‘What does she eat?’

  ‘Don’t know.’

  ‘Why don’t you ask her?’

  Soony stopped banging her head. ‘What do you eat?’ she said. She sat perfectly still for a minute, her eyes staring vacantly ahead. ‘Popcorn’, she said, ‘doesn’t eat anything.’

  ‘Soony,’ said June, ‘I do love you.’

  She sat down beside her, between the fence and the compost heap, and put her arm around her. ‘For some reason,’ she said, ‘I feel terribly tired. Soony?’

  ‘Uh.’

  ‘Would you come in and make me a cup of tea?’

  ‘Oh, all right then,’ Soony said.

  ‘The shops will be closing soon,’ said June, when they had drunk their tea, ‘and we haven’t got anything for supper. We’ll have to go out again, I’m afraid.’

  ‘I’m not going,’ said Soony.

  ‘That woman will have gone,’ June said. ‘I promise. It’ll be all right. Shall we go now?’

  ‘No,’ Soony said.

  ‘It won’t take a minute,’ June said. ‘Just to buy some fish.’

  ‘No,’ said Soony. ‘You go.’

  ‘I can’t leave you here on your own,’ said June, exasperated.

  ‘No Soony today?’ asked the woman in the fish shop.

  ‘I’ve left her sitting in the garden. She should be all right. I hope. She often stays there for hours.’

  ‘How are you coping? You look a bit tired.’

  ‘Yes,’ confessed June. ‘I am tired.’

  Soony was in the garden, listening to Popcorn. It was really amazing what Popcorn knew. Soony could listen to her for hours. Suddenly Popcorn did something even more amazing, something she had never done before.

  ‘My God!’ cried Soony, jumping up. ‘Fucking hell!’

  June was feeling so tired she thought she might take the bus instead of walking the short distance home. She only had a few minutes to wait, but just as she stepped on to the bus and it started to move she saw a sight that made her heart turn over.

  ‘Stop!’ she cried desperately, ringing the bell.

  Soony was hurtling down the pavement, running as she had run this morning. She ran straight off the kerb and into the road. A car hooted frantically and screeched to a halt. The bus screeched to a halt. The passengers lurched in their seats.

  ‘Soony!’ screamed June. ‘Soony, come here!’

  ‘June!’ shouted Soony. ‘June! Listen, June!’ She ran in front of a bicycle, which swerved. ‘Listen, June! Something amazing! Popcorn has started to sing!’

  ‘It’s not that I don’t want her,’ wept June. ‘I love her dearly, I really do. It’s just that I’m so tired. I don’t feel well.’

  ‘Look,’ said Jim. ‘Why don’t I have a word with Miss Janes and see if Springfields can take Soony for a weekend, just to give you a break?’

  ‘Oh, no. It might upset her, just when she’s got settled in. I don’t want that. I’m all right really.’

  ‘She’d probably enjoy it,’ said Jim. ‘It would give her a chance to see all her friends. There’d be no harm in asking...’

  ‘No,’ said June. ‘I don’t want Miss Janes to think I can’t cope.’

  ‘She won’t think that! She said you’d done wonders over the past two months. You heard her yourself.’

  June was listening to Soony bumping about in her room. She sometimes moved the furniture at night, just for a change.

  ‘It’s not that she’s difficult or anything,’ she said. ‘In fact, since she’s had this Popcorn thing she’s been very quiet. But I never know what she’s going to do next.’

  ‘About the popcorn,’ said Jim. ‘While we’re on the subject. Don’t take this wrong, but I don’t think you should let her have so much; she’s getting fat.’

  ‘Not popcorn!’ hissed June. ‘Popcorn! Her imaginary friend!’

  ‘June,’ said Jim. ‘You’re starting to sound like Soony. I really do think you should have that weekend.’

  ‘Soony,’ said Miss Janes, edging her deckchair into the shade. ‘Mrs Hobgrass asked me to invite you to Springfields, to stay the weekend.’

  Soony sat on the lawn, humming, her hand inside her knickers.

  ‘All your friends want to see you again,’ said Miss Janes. ‘Doris and Alice and Jason and Sue.’

  After a while she said, ‘Soony, stop humming for a second, could you, and listen to me?’

  Soony took her hand out of her knickers and went on singing.

  ‘Wouldn’t you like to see your friends?’ asked Miss Janes.

  ‘I’ve got a friend,’ said Soony.

  ‘Yes, I know you’ve got June and Jim,’ said Miss Janes, ‘but...’

  ‘No!’ said Soony. ‘My friend’

  ‘Popcorn,’ said June. Soony smiled.

  ‘Soony,’ said Jim, ‘when do we get to meet this friend of yours? After all, if we’re living in the same house...’

  ‘She doesn’t live in the house,’ said Soony crossly.

  ‘In the garden then.’

  ‘Not in the garden!’ said Soony. ‘In my room.’

  ‘Well, if I came into your room would you introduce her to me?’

  Soony laughed so uproariously that they all joined in. ‘You dirty bugger!’ she cried.

  June was thinking. ‘Soony,’ she said, ‘if you spent the weekend at Springfields do you think Keith would be pleased to see you again?’

  Soony looked at her. ‘Oh, all right then,’ she said.

  June refused to go away. ‘Just in case she’s not happy,’ she said. ‘I’d like them to feel they could phone us up and we’d go and fetch her home.’

  ‘She’ll be fine,’ Jim said. ‘After all, it was her home for a year. We could go to Brighton for the weekend. What d’you say?’

  But June would not be persuaded. ‘We’ll have a quiet weekend at home,’ she
said. ‘With a couple of early nights. And a couple of lie-ins in the morning.’

  Jim patted her on the bottom. ‘Oh, all right then,’ he said.

  They were surprised to find how much they missed her. ‘And Popcorn,’ said June.

  When she returned, driven home by Keith, they gave her a rapturous welcome.

  ‘Come in for a cup of tea?’ Jim invited Keith, while June was hugging Soony.

  ‘Thanks, but I’ll have to get back. So long, Soony.’

  ‘Bye,’ she said, without looking back.

  ‘Did you have a nice time, Soony?’ June asked anxiously.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did you see all your friends? Doris and Alice and Sue?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Did Popcorn enjoy herself?’

  ‘Don’t know,’ said Soony. ‘I forgot to ask.’

  ‘I get the feeling’, said Jim, ‘that we’ve seen the last of Popcorn.’

  ‘Oh?’ said June. ‘Why?’

  ‘She hasn’t mentioned her since she came back from Springfields. I think she was lonely here, without her friends.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ said June.

  ‘We can’t be everything to her, you know,’ said Jim. ‘She needs some friends of her own kind. That’s why she invented Popcorn when she left Springfields.’

  ‘You could be right,’ said June. ‘In a way I hope you’re not. I’d got quite fond of Popcorn.’

  Jim shot her a quick glance. ‘I think I am right,’ he said, quite sharply for him. ‘I’m pretty sure we can forget Popcorn.’