Swap Over

by Margaret Pearce

  The game was really between Katrina and Bronwin. Linda was neither accurate nor fast. She and Linda were only on the court to handicap them evenly.

  “Fifteen love,” Bronwin jeered, as Maddy missed her nasty serve. “Love thirty,” as Maddy swung for the next ball and sent it out of the court.

  “And deuce,” Katrina’s high-pitched voice rang out as she slid the ball over the net to where Linda wasn’t waiting.

  “Idiot,” Bronwin snarled at her partner.

  Despite Katrina’s efforts, Bronwin and Linda won the first set. During the next set, Maddy started to get the hang of how to handle the racquet. It felt odd to swing at a ball and still miss with such a large area of racquet. She had always thought of herself as pretty good with bat and ball.

  During the second set, Maddy started to connect the racquet with the ball. She became more confident and put more force behind her swing, trying to copy Katrina and aim the ball into the court where Bronwin wasn’t.

  She had three disastrous net balls, which lost them the set. The knack of skidding the ball just over the net was tricky, but she had it by the third set.

  Serving straight and hard was much easier. She threw up the ball and swung the racquet with all her force. She gloated when she was serving to Bronwin. How did Bronwin like being on the receiving end of a fast, hard serve?

  Bronwin missed several of Maddy’s serves. The more sets she lost the nastier she was to Linda. Linda was nearly in tears from Bronwin’s muttered abuse.

  What a poor loser, Maddy thought to herself in disgust. She felt sorry for Linda, though. She could hit a ball accurately enough, but there was no strength behind her swing, so her ball always arrived in their court in a perfect placement for a sneaky shot back. She was clumsy and slow-moving and never managed to arrive at the right place in time to return the ball. Bronwin yelled at her every time she missed a ball.

  “Your serve is something else,” Katrina said as she ran past.

  Maddy glowed. This was high praise indeed, coming from the expert Katrina. There was nothing difficult about playing tennis after all! It was just a matter of having a straight swing and a straight eye, like any other game that connected a bat with a ball.

  She never knew that tennis could be such an enjoyable game. The sun was warm, but there were just enough clouds in the sky to keep it from being too dazzling. The coolness in the air was just right for an energetic game. In fact, it was an absolutely perfect day.

  “Game and set,” Katrina yelled at last.

  They had won! Bronwin and Linda had won the first two sets, and she and Katrina had won the last four. It was a wonderful feeling! Maddy grinned at Katrina. She knew exactly why sporting people hugged each other when they won. She felt like hugging the grinning Katrina until she squeaked.

  “It’s not fair,” Bronwin yelled. “I’m going to complain to the coach. You had no right to win!”

  “Right is on the side of the best players,” Katrina said with a grin.

  “Think you’re smart don’t you, Maddy Walton,” Bronwin almost hissed. “You’re still cheating, keeping quiet about how good you’ve got at tennis. Suppose Mummy and Daddy paid out for a professional coach for their dear little gold-plated Maddy.”

  Maddy stared at Bronwin. She recognized the tone behind that bitter accusation. Bronwin was jealous! Wasn’t she aware of how petty, spiteful, and nasty she sounded as soon as she opened her mouth?

  Bronwin was jealous because nice Jennifer Walton, who was now Jennifer Matson, must have had it all; wealthy parents who cared for her, popularity, and good looks. Bronwin must be the nastiest, most spiteful person she had ever come across, and she was such a bad loser!

  Time seemed to slow and stop. The background noise of the yells and thuds of balls on the next courts faded. The day had stopped being perfect. The warmth and pleasure of winning at tennis was gone as well.

  Something was happening inside herself, but she needed more time to work out exactly what it was. She, Maddy Matson, was as bad as Bronwin! She squirmed. She was a bad loser as well! She had cheated at draughts. Inside herself, it wasn’t just something stupid to forget as quickly as possible. It had become a big deal, because it was herself she had somehow cheated.

  She was just as jealous and nasty as Bronwin! She was nasty to Merry, because she was the baby of the family, and everyone made a fuss of her. Milly always got top marks for her schoolwork because she worked so hard. Maddy, who never worked if she could help it, resented Milly’s good marks, and spent all her time upsetting her when she wanted to study.

  The timeless unpleasantness of looking inside herself shattered at Katrina’s voice.

  “It just happens that Maddy is having a good day for a change.” Katrina’s grin had gone and there was disgust in her voice. “Everyone knows you’d rather terrorize weak players with your nasty serve than be on the receiving end. Well, tough luck! You’ve lost fairly and squarely, so don’t bother to snivel to the coach about it.”

  Bronwin was certainly a bad loser, Maddy realized, recognizing the familiar expression as she stared at the furious eyes, the thinned lips, and the rage colouring Bronwin’s face.

  “Fairly and squarely!” Bronwin yelled back. “Two good players against me and me, handicapped by this dummy.” She shoved at Linda, sending her staggering. “It’s all the fault of this stupid, moronic idiot, me losing the game like that.”

  Linda started crying. Maddy felt her temper and her guilt rise. Suddenly, it was as if it was her sister, Milly, on the receiving end of her own nasty resentment and that shove, not Linda. She could never make up for all the bad things she had done to Milly, but she wouldn’t let them happen anymore.

  “Poor loser, sore loser,” Maddy chanted as she shoved Bronwin hard.

  Bronwin went staggering. She went red and came rushing back to Maddy with her arm raised. Maddy grinned and raised her clenched fists. She was going to enjoy punching Bronwin hard in the nose and hammering her until she howled.

  Bronwin saw the expression on her face, went white, and stopped. Maddy lowered her fist and decided regretfully not to punch her. She didn’t want to do the wrong thing by Jennifer’s reputation in her posh school. Bronwin turned and walked away without a word.

  Maddy put her arm around Linda. “Don’t cry, Linda. We’re so glad you don’t play like Bronwin.”

  “She’s the best player in the school,” Linda sniffled.

  “She’s not the best sport, which is what counts,” Katrina said. “The tuck shop will still be open. Come on back with us and we’ll shout you a chocolate milk shake. We’ve all earned it after that game.”

  “My shout.” Maddy remembered the coins in the zipped-up purse pinned to her blazer pocket. “Dry your tears. You deserve a chocolate-coated medal for putting up with that pill through six sets.”

  Katrina started to giggle. Maddy realized what she had said and started laughing. Linda looked at them, gave a watery smile, and started laughing as well. They ran across to the tuckshop, and drank their chocolate milkshakes.

  It was Katrina who spotted the chocolate-coated coins among the sweets and bought one for Linda. Only she had three tries at trying to make a proper speech and kept collapsing into giggles.

  This attracted every-one else, curious at what they were all laughing about. The joke spread. It seemed that Bronwin, the best tennis player in the school, was also the most disliked person to play against.

  Everyone bought the chocolate-coated coins and presented them to everyone else. It was Rowena, who at last gave everyone a stern glare, and formally awarded another chocolate-coated medal to Linda for “bravery over and beyond the cause of duty.”

  Linda giggled, her face flushed with happiness, and her eyes soft and large. She was really a pretty girl when she was happy, Maddy decided, despite the dragged–back, tight plait and the overlong school dress. Her eyes didn’t look at all beady or wary and with her mouth curved up in a smile, she actually had dimples.

  And the
warmth that her happy face gave Maddy lasted her all the afternoon. Maybe it was unhappiness that made people go plain and ugly, Maddy thought as she ran for class with everyone else. Maybe it was happiness that made the difference between being the most attractive girl in the district and being the plainest? Was Jennifer the best-looking girl in the district because she was such a happy person?

  She remembered Jennifer as she had seen her this morning, racing paper boats in the gutter. Despite the raggy jumper and the drooping hemline on the school dress, the face Jennifer had lifted up had still been that of the best-looking girl in the district.

  She flushed as she thought of the ragged hem. Her mother had nagged her to sew it up, and she couldn’t be bothered. It was awful that Jennifer was wearing her raggy, uncared-for school clothes.

  Maddy made the decision to go and visit the Matsons as soon as school was over. Jennifer seemed very happy as a Matson sister, despite not enough money in the family and having to do chores all the time.

  Maddy’s pen stopped moving as she thought. What if it did need two wishes to be wished together for her to return home? What if Jennifer wasn’t interested in swapping back? Maddy bent her head back to her work. She wasn’t going to know anything that was happening until she actually talked to Jennifer.

  She was surprised how fast the afternoon passed. She hadn’t realized how fast time passed when you concentrated on working hard. It was weird that you could shorten the school day by working hard. Maybe she would try it when she went back to her own school.

  After class, she headed towards the back street where all the parent’s cars lined up to collect students. Selina came hurrying over to meet her.

  “I heard you nearly disgraced the school by flattening Bronwin,” she said, but she grinned as she said it.

  “She was giving Linda a hard time.”

  “Well, she sure won’t anymore,” Selina said in that dry way she had.

  Maddy started to giggle. She had forgotten how funny Selina was all the time. She hadn’t been aware of how upset she had been by Selina not talking to her. It was odd, because she had never spoken to Selina before her first day at this school on Friday.

  Selina must have been a very close friend of Jennifer’s, for the feeling of warmth and liking to overlap into Maddy. It was a relief to know that she hadn’t broken up Jennifer’s close friendship over her stupid actions. The red car pulled up.

  “See you tomorrow,” Selina called and ran off.

  “Have a nice day, my darling?” Mrs. Walton asked.

  “Terrific,” Maddy said.

  “I thought I’d go and visit the Matsons,” Maddy said as soon as they reached home.

  “Get changed and do your half an hour piano practice first.”

  “I can do it later,” Maddy grumbled.

  “The Matson girls won’t be home for another half hour at least,” Mrs. Walton pointed out. “You have plenty of time to fit in piano practice right now.”

  Maddy shrugged, got changed, and hung up her school uniform. She was sitting in the kitchen over her afternoon tea--sliced cantaloupe, ice cream and orange juice--thinking. It was really odd the way nobody seemed to have noticed that she and Jennifer didn’t look as if they belonged in the swapped-over families.

  “I look more as if I belong in the Matson family than Jennifer,” she pointed out at last. “I’ve got the same colouring as Milly and Merry.”

  “You get your colouring from my father,” Mrs. Walton said. She smiled as she remembered. “He had this jet black hair and black eyes. He was very intrigued when you were born with his colouring.”

  Maddy sat at the piano and thumped through her warm-up of scales. She was feeling worse and worse. Adults were so odd. They could talk themselves into anything. Even if she and Jennifer did want to swap over, no one was going to believe them anyway!

  She stopped playing. What if the granted wish had something to do with a vanished, mysterious white rabbit and nothing to do with Jennifer? Would she be marooned as Maddy Walton forever?

  She put her head down on the piano. She felt physically sick. What was worse was that because of her nasty, piggy selfishness, poor Jennifer might be marooned in time as the oldest Matson sister. Jennifer had always been so nice to her, and this was how she had repaid her!

  “What’s the matter?” Mrs. Walton asked, coming into the room.

  “I feel awful,” Maddy said and promptly burst into tears.

  Chapter Eleven

  Maddy came out of the bathroom shaking. She had been sick and felt awful. Her head throbbed, and every part of her body ached and ached.

  “Think I’ve got flu’ or something.”

  “Did you buy anything at the tuckshop?”

  “I had one glass of lemonade.”

  “What else?”

  “Nothing.” Then Maddy remembered. Everyone was buying chocolate medals and sharing them out. “Just a few mouthfuls of chocolate that’s all.”

  “Did it have a filling?”

  “Mint flavoured cream or something.”

  “Really, Maddy,” Mrs. Walton said with a sigh. “You know how allergic you are to chocolate and anything could have been in the filling!”

  “I only had a mouthful,” Maddy protested.

  The only thing the Matson girls were allergic to was being hungry. According to their mother, they all had the healthy digestive system of goats. Did ordinary food make poor Jennifer sick all the time?

  “Off to bed.”

  “But I want to visit the Matsons. I'll be all right in a little while.”

  Mrs. Walton ignored Maddy’s protests and bundled her into bed in her tracksuit. She came back a few seconds later with a bucket and a towel and produced a small glass of mixture of a thick, chalky-looking mixture.

  “That looks like the stuff you fed me the other night. I think I would rather throw up.”

  “Drink up,” Mrs. Walton said.

  Maddy had to admit that her stomach did settle down after the mixture, but not the rest of her. The thudding headache, the shivering because she was too cold and the sweating because she was too hot, stayed. Then the headache moved through all her joints and everything hurt.

  “So what did you do today at school?” Mrs. Walton asked as she sponged down her hot forehead.

  “Nothing much. Played tennis at lunchtime, and Katrina and I beat Bronwin and Linda. I can serve as fast as Bronwin.”

  “The understanding is that you only play tennis gently and don’t exert yourself.”

  “Huh!” Maddy said. She sneaked a look at Mrs. Walton. What weird idea did Mrs. Walton have about sport? Did she think winning was unladylike or something?

  “You oughtta be on the receiving end of Bronwin’s serves. Nothing gentle about her game.”

  “Bronwin is not a very nice little girl.”

  “She’s also a bully and a sore loser.”

  “We have had this discussion before,” Mrs. Walton said gently. “You have to accept there are limits on how far you can extend yourself without overdoing it.”

  “Beating Bronwin at tennis was worth it,” Maddy said.

  Maddy was sure that she should know the next part of this conversation, but she couldn’t quite remember. She had an idea that the next part always made her feel hateful and resentful.

  “The medication is only keeping your juvenile arthritis under control. It can’t cure it,” Mrs. Walton said.

  Juvenile arthritis! Wasn’t it only very old people who got arthritis? Jennifer was much too young and healthy to have an old person’s illness! Suddenly, Jennifer’s mysterious absences from school and all the afternoons she was never around to play made sense. It was because Jennifer was sick with this nasty, weakening, painful disease!

  “It is not important,” Maddy insisted. “It’s just an inconvenience.”

  “Very inconvenient.” Mrs. Walton sponged Maddy’s aching head. “All we can hope for is it to go into remission, but you must never push yourself.”

  �
��It’s a secret, right!” Maddy said, staring at Mrs. Walton.

  “Yes, my darling, a secret,” Mrs. Walton agreed.

  Maddy was silent. No wonder Jennifer had nice, pink, round cheeks as a Matson. She had swapped into the Matson good health and she Maddy, had swapped into Jennifer’s terrible secret.

  After a while, Maddy drifted off to sleep. It was the nightmare that woke her. She was stretched on a rack and there were demons pushing red-hot iron bars into all her joints. She woke up crying. The rack and the demons were gone, but the sensation of red-hot iron bars in her joints remained. She hurt everywhere and was too scared to move.

  Mrs. Walton bent over her. She had an old dressing gown pulled around her, and her normally neat, fair hair was tangled around her face. In the faint glow of the night-light, she looked tired. She lifted Maddy and propped her upright against the pillows. She held out a glass of water and a large pill.

  “Not even an ostrich could get something down that size,” Maddy protested.

  “Come on, my darling,” Mrs. Walton coaxed. “It will help.”

  Maddy put the pill in her mouth and gulped it down with a full mouthful of water. She had the vague idea that she was pretty good at swallowing very large pills, but she couldn’t remember when. The Matson household certainly had no practice at pill taking. None of them ever got sick enough to need medicines or pills.

  Mrs. Walton stayed by her bed, smoothing her forehead and holding her hand until she drifted back to sleep. It wasn’t a nice, restful sleep though. She kept having worse and worse nightmares about demons with red-hot needles and pincers torturing her.

  When Maddy woke again, there was light filtering through the heavy drapes. She stretched her body carefully. Nothing hurt or ached or even twinged. She was all right! It was like she had been having a dreadful nightmare that lasted all night.

  She looked at the bedside clock. It couldn’t possibly be midday! The clock must have stopped or something. She swung out of bed and pushed open the drapes across the window. The sun streamed brightly through the windows, making her blink.

  The appetizing smell of soup drifted into her bedroom. She went down to the kitchen. The small table in the breakfast nook was set with fresh, crusty bread and butter and soup plates. Mrs. Walton looked up and smiled.