End of the Alphabet

by Fleur Beale

  Her mother smiled. ‘Stay strong. Kia kaha, Ruby. The hard part’s done now.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ Tia said. ‘I want her to come shopping with me on Saturday.’

  ‘Yes, that’ll be hard,’ her mother agreed. She gave me a huge hug. ‘Don’t worry, Ruby. You’ve done all you can for now.’

  I drank a cup of hot chocolate while Tia got ready. Just before we left, my phone went. I pulled a face. ‘It’s Mum.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Hello.’

  I could hear the kids in the background. They were fighting and Theo was crying. Ouch. I felt so guilty.

  ‘Ruby — you’ve made your point. We’ll talk about it tonight and make a decision. Are you happy now?’

  I stopped feeling guilty. ‘I’ll see you tonight.’ I disconnected before she could ask if I’d pick Davey up.

  Tia stood watching me. ‘You know, I never thought she’d be like that.’

  I sighed. ‘Me neither.’ Mum probably figured I’d give in, Max would be happy and everything would go back to normal.

  The phone went again. ‘Will you pick Davey up?’

  If she’d been asking Max, she’d have said please. ‘Sorry, Mum. Ask Max.’

  Tia slapped a hand over her mouth.

  ‘Ruby!’ Mum said. She sounded like she was nearly crying. ‘I don’t know what’s got into you! For goodness’ sake — you know what Max is like!’ She still hadn’t said please.

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I know what he’s like. Goodbye, Mum.’

  I put the phone down. ‘I feel awful. Mean and guilty.’

  Mrs Manu gave me another hug. ‘Your mum loves you, Ruby. It’ll be all right — you’ll see. Bye girls, have a good day.’

  ‘Don’t say anything to the others,’ I said to Tia as we rode off. ‘I want to forget all about it for a few hours.’

  ‘Okay,’ Tia said. ‘Shall I tell you about Jed?’

  ‘Jed?’ My voice squeaked. ‘Jed as in Watkins?’

  ‘That’s the one,’ she said. She had a smile on her face. Sort of happy and dreamy — a very pleased-with-herself sort of smile.

  ‘Tell!’ I ordered.

  She laughed. ‘Nothing much. We’re going to the movies on Friday night. He’s sent me five texts this morning already.’

  ‘Woohoo!’ I yelled. ‘But when did all this happen?’ I hadn’t seen them together. Carly and Megan hadn’t said anything either.

  ‘He waits for me after kapa haka and we walk back to my house together.’ She grinned. ‘It’s kind of cool. He’s nicer than he is in class.’

  That had to be good. He could be a total dick in class.

  Then she said, ‘Tell me about Brazil. Are you going to hand in your form?’ Her voice had a challenge in it.

  So she had noticed I’d taken a form.

  ‘You know,’ I said, thinking about it, ‘I wasn’t going to. I just took one because Megan wanted me to.’ And wasn’t that the sort of thing I always did? I shook my head. ‘But now — after all this, I’m going to do it. I’m going to try my hardest.’

  We rode the rest of the way without talking. I heard her laughing every now and then. When we got to school, she said, ‘You know, Ruby — it’s great! Backbone suits you.’

  Maybe. But it sure wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t easy either. I didn’t want to go back to being a spineless doormat though. I didn’t want that at all.

  Mr W collected our Brazil forms. Five of us handed them in. Megan said, ‘I’m so glad you’re applying too, Ruby. It’s scary.’

  I didn’t go home after school. I stayed and watched kapa haka. Jed turned up too. He sat down beside me. ‘She’s good,’ he said, never taking his eyes off Tia.

  Yes, she was. It was soothing, sitting there and listening to the beat of feet, watching the girls’ poi swinging. Mr T was tough with them. He made them sing the same verse of the waiata six times before he was satisfied.

  ‘You reckon this’ll scare the kids from Brazil?’ Jed asked as we watched the haka.

  I shrugged. I just hoped it wouldn’t put them off. If they went home and said how scared they were, then that might be the end of the exchange.

  I wondered what to do when the practice ended. I didn’t want to be piggy in the middle between Tia and Jed. I grinned at Tia when she came off the stage. ‘You look hot up there. See you tomorrow.’

  She grabbed my arm. ‘Are you going home?’

  ‘Not yet. I have plans.’ I said it grandly. She believed me and let my arm go.

  We picked up our bikes. Tia and Jed wheeled theirs. I jumped on mine and rode off.

  I realised I did have a plan after all. I needed to earn four thousand dollars for the Brazil trip. I would look for a job.

  Chapter Six

  I rode to the little shopping centre five minutes from my house. I wished I could change out of my uniform, but no way was I going home yet. I went into the first shop and asked the guy at the checkout, ‘Excuse me, but I was wondering — do you have any jobs?’

  I blushed. That sounded so stupid. He stared at me like he knew I was dumb. ‘How would I know?’

  That made me mad. ‘I thought you might have a brain in your head,’ I snapped. ‘Sorry for being wrong.’ I walked out.

  I stood on the footpath to calm down. It was hot. Rude guy. I didn’t want to work in a nuts and bolts shop anyway.

  Time to try the next place. Another guy at the check-out. ‘Excuse me, but could I speak to the boss?’

  The boss was out the back. I knocked on the door. The boss said, ‘No jobs.’ He sounded fed up with people asking.

  I kept going. The people got more polite as I worked my way along the shops, but the answer was always no, sorry.

  The superette was the last and biggest place. I came in here often and I knew who the owner was. He joked with the customers and always had a smile on his face. I found him filling a freezer at the back of the shop. ‘Excuse me, Mr Vine, but I was wondering if you had a part-time job that I could do?’

  He stood up. No smile today. ‘The sign on the window is big enough. Can’t you read?’ He was holding a big bag of frozen peas. He threw it back. ‘That damn notice has been on the window long enough. It doesn’t suit you, eh? You want to sit on your bum and file your nails. Well, bugger off and don’t waste my time.’

  This was Mr Vine? Nice Mr Vine who always joked and laughed? I turned and walked out. Who would want to work for him anyway? I looked at the window when I got outside. There was a notice — A3 size. It would take me ages to work out what it said. I didn’t want to try, not with Mr Vine glaring at me from inside the shop.

  What now? I looked at my watch. 4.45. Mum would get home at five. My gut cramped. Her day would have been so bad. What about Davey? Who had picked him up from school? I hoped somebody had. What about that little girl, Cat? Her mother might have been late again. I was an idiot. I didn’t have to worry about Cat. The teachers would look after her. But she was so little. I picked up my bike.

  I wanted to go home and check to make sure Davey was okay. I wanted to ask him about Cat. I didn’t. Instead, I went to the park and sat on a swing.

  It was peaceful, swinging backwards and forwards. I thought about Brazil. I didn’t know anything about it. It would be so amazing to go there. The kids from Brazil would be here in a couple of weeks. Would they speak English?

  My phone went. It was Mum. ‘Ruby — this is beyond a joke! I’ve missed so much work today and all because of you. Where are you? I need you home. Right now.’

  I was shaking. She never yelled at me. Never.

  ‘Ruby? D’you hear me?’

  I could hear her and I could hear Theo grizzling, and Davey whining. He was hungry. He needed food right now.

  I sucked in a breath and asked the big question. ‘What have you decided about the room?’

  She screeched at me. ‘Max keeps it. At least he doesn’t give me all this grief!’

  Fine! I cut her off.

  Let the kids yell. Let her get stressed. It served her r
ight. I jumped on my bike and rode to Tia’s house.

  They gave me dinner.

  Mum didn’t ring again. She didn’t seem to worry about where I was.

  At about eight, the landline rang. Mrs Manu answered it. When she came back, she said, ‘Your mum’s coming over, Ruby.’

  I jumped up.

  ‘Sit down a minute. I’ll try and talk to her. If you’d like me to?’

  I nodded. ‘Oh, yes — please. But I don’t want to be here. She’ll just go on and on at me.’

  Tia grabbed my hand and hauled me up. ‘We’ll go to Frank and Jenny’s.’ Frank was her oldest brother and they lived a couple of blocks away.

  They were sitting outside when we arrived. Jenny put drinks in our hands and told us to sit. The lemonade gave me hiccups. It seemed to help settle my nerves though. My gut didn’t hurt so much.

  The minutes crept past. Tia yawned. ‘Go home,’ I told her. She shook her head.

  We’d been there for ages by the time my phone went. I snatched it up. ‘Mum?’

  She sounded dead tired. ‘Come back to Tia’s, will you, Ruby? Please?’

  ‘Okay.’ I pulled a face. I didn’t know if it would be okay.

  We left. Tia didn’t say much. I didn’t say anything. I was too worried.

  Mum’s eyes were red. She had a plastic bag full of used tissues beside her. Mrs Manu smiled at me, and gave me a small nod.

  I sank onto the couch. ‘Mum?’

  She managed a wobbly smile. Then she leaned over and hugged the breath out of me. ‘I’m so sorry, Ruby. You’re right. The room thing — it’s so unfair.’ She let me go and wiped her eyes again.

  ‘We’re going to have the big room?’ I couldn’t quite believe it.

  She sighed. ‘That’s right. I should never have put all three of you in your room. Sorry, darling.’

  I still didn’t really believe it would happen. ‘Ah — when? When will we do the change-over?’

  She leaned back. ‘Calvin’s doing it now. He was so mad with me.’ She shook her head. ‘Sorry, darling. Very sorry.’

  Mrs Manu patted her knee. ‘There, there, Tessie. It’s all right. Don’t cry any more.’

  Mum stood up. ‘Thanks, Netta. You’re such a good friend.’

  They hugged and we left. Tia mouthed, Yay!

  Chapter Seven

  Tia turned up at my house in the morning just as Davey and I were leaving.

  ‘I’m not going to believe it till I see it. Show me the room.’

  Davey towed her into the house. ‘We’ve got the big room and it’s good cos Ruby’s nice.’

  She looked at it. ‘Better. Not perfect, but better.’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘His highness didn’t like it, then?’

  ‘You could say that.’

  Max was still in a mood. He didn’t speak to Mum and he especially didn’t say anything to me. I got a bucketful of evil looks though.

  Tia and I dropped Davey off, then I said, ‘Come past the superette.’ I told her about Mr Vine and the notice.

  She said, ‘I can tell you what it says — it’s been up there for ages. He wants a cleaner from six to seven each morning. Six days a week. Nine bucks an hour.’

  I got out my calculator. That would earn me about two thousand, eight hundred dollars. ‘That would get me about halfway to Brazil.’

  We got on our bikes and rode off. ‘You’re serious about Brazil?’ she asked. ‘You really want to go?’

  It was too good a chance to miss. I shook my head. ‘I’d like to go. But they need me at home. It’s a whole month, Tia.’

  She yelled at me before she saw that I was laughing so hard I could hardly pedal. ‘Bitch,’ she said cheerfully.

  As we were chaining our bikes up, she said, ‘You haven’t forgotten about the shopping trip on Saturday?’

  ‘Looking forward to it.’ I glanced at her. ‘You can wear the new gear when you go out with Jed next.’

  She shook her head. ‘Nah — it’s the old stuff for him.’

  That didn’t sound like a girl who was crazy about her boyfriend. She just laughed and wouldn’t say anything more.

  We went into our form room with Megan and Carly.

  Mr W called the roll. He got to the end — and Ruby Yarrow. Weird, it didn’t bother me today.

  Tia lifted her eyebrows and looked at me. I shook my head. ‘I’ll do it if it bothers me, and not until then.’

  She rolled her eyes and shrugged.

  Then Mr W read out the notices. The interviews to choose who would get to go on the Brazil trip were next week.

  Megan shivered. ‘I’m nervous already.’

  I was too, even though I knew they wouldn’t pick me. I wished they would. If I worked for Mr Vine I could earn the money. That would be a start.

  I made up my mind. I’d go and see him as soon as I could after school.

  When Calvin got home at five, I told him I had to go out. ‘Back soon.’

  Mr Vine was serving a woman. He joked with her and his eyes sank into the laugh lines around them. I waited, then I stepped back while he served a kid not much older than Davey. When there was nobody else at the counter, the jokes stopped. ‘You again. What this time?’

  ‘I’ve come about the job,’ I said. I kept my voice polite.

  ‘Huh. Learned to read between now and yesterday, did you?’ But he said it quietly so the others in the shop wouldn’t hear.

  I held my head high. ‘No, Mr Vine. I can’t read. Not very well. But I can work. I’d like to apply for the cleaning job.’

  He scrunched his eyes into slits. ‘Can’t read, eh? Stupid, are you? All right, you can have the job. One week’s trial. Start tomorrow. Don’t be late.’

  ‘Thank you.’ I was just about out of the shop when he came after me.

  He muttered, ‘Five bucks an hour for you, and lucky to get that if you can’t read.’

  My heart went whoomph! right down into my feet. Five dollars an hour. That wouldn’t be enough to get me anywhere near Brazil.

  I rode home. It was a job and I could do it without turning my family upside down. That was good. I couldn’t face another fight. I should be happy. But I was almost crying. If you couldn’t read, you weren’t worth nine dollars an hour.

  I wanted to go home, lie on my bed and bawl my eyes out. I couldn’t. Theo and Davey would be all over me.

  I got off my bike and walked. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair. I was a good worker, I knew I was. You didn’t need to be a good reader to be a good cleaner. That’s about when my brain started to work. Or maybe I started using some backbone.

  He couldn’t do that! He couldn’t pay me less because I couldn’t read. Mum would yell when I told her.

  I was right, she did. ‘Bastard!’ she said. ‘You know, Ruby, it’s lucky we’ve got unions. I’d be working for four dollars an hour if we didn’t have the union.’

  It was great to have her on my side again, but I didn’t want her lecture on unions. ‘Are you going on strike?’ Ouch! Shouldn’t have said that. I thought strike would be a dirty word with her right now.

  But she just shrugged. ‘The bosses are still talking. While there’s talk, there’s hope. We don’t want to strike.’

  She told me what to say to Mr Vine. ‘And don’t work for five dollars, Ruby. That’s outrageous.’

  The afternoon turned into evening. Max stayed in his room — the small room. Calvin played rugby outside with the kids. I cooked the dinner and Mum vacuumed the lounge. Max had left the remains of his after-school snack on the bench.

  I thought about that while I worked. In the end, I cleaned it up. As soon as I’d done it, I wished I hadn’t. Ruby Yarrow — servant to her brother Max.

  He was still giving us all the silent treatment. Calvin ignored him. Mum did too, which surprised me. Mum and Calvin were good again. Thank goodness.

  I set the alarm on my phone for 5.30. I was going to work in the morning. I was on my way to Brazil.

  I managed to shut the phone up bef
ore it woke the kids. Five-thirty in the morning is a stupid time to be awake. I lay there for a bit. Should I go to work?

  Brazil. I really wanted to be on that trip. None of the other kids would be able to read once we got to Brazil. I’d be the same as everybody else.

  I got out of bed.

  I arrived at the superette at one minute to six. Old Grumble-guts let me in. ‘There’s the broom. There’s the mop and bucket. The toilet’s through here. Get started.’

  I felt sick. I couldn’t argue with him about the money. I just couldn’t. It’d be all right — he’d probably pay me more when he saw that I was a good worker.

  I picked up the broom. And heard Tia’s voice in my head: You let them walk all over you, and you cave every time.

  Mr Vine wouldn’t change his mind. He’d take everything he could.

  ‘Get moving!’ he growled. ‘I haven’t got all day, and I’m not paying you to stand around like an idiot.’

  I looked straight at him. What did it matter if he told me to get out? I’d find another job. ‘Mr Vine, five dollars an hour isn’t enough. You have to pay the legal youth rate.’ Which was what Mum had told me to say.

  His face went red. ‘Five bucks and that’s it. Take it or leave it.’

  ‘I’ll leave it.’ I tapped my foot on the floor. ‘Clean your own floor. It sure needs it.’ I turned and walked away.

  It was sunny outside. I stopped to breathe in the clean morning air. Stupid man.

  Chapter Eight

  The interview list for the Brazil trip was in the morning notices. ‘Girls are on Monday,’ Megan said. ‘I’m in the morning and you’re at 2.50 after Amanda Trask.’

  There were twenty-two girls on the list, and twenty-eight boys. They would choose fifteen girls and fifteen boys. ‘I’m glad there aren’t as many girls,’ Megan said. ‘We’ve got a better chance of being picked.’

  I looked at Wiremu. They’d pick him for sure. I’d pick him. He was good at sport, good at art, he won prizes for public speaking. He looked pretty cool too. He winked at me. ‘Let’s make sure they choose all five of us!’ He did a strong-man pose. ‘The fantastic five from 10JW take on Brazil!’