Contents
Title Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Copyright
It is summer break—Dani’s first! Dani who lives in the yellow house on Home Street. But she hasn’t been there for a long time.
Last time was just before school finished for the year.
When she left home that morning it was raining, and worms were squirming on the road where they could get run over.
So Dani picked them up and moved them out of the way.
That day she saved the lives of nine worms and four snails.
But only a couple of hours later an unbelievable thing happened: her own father was run over.
Why hadn’t someone turned up to save him? Why didn’t the driver toot or something?
He was all right, but he has to stay in the hospital for several months.
Dani ended up spending the summer break with Ella, her best friend in the world. She went with her to an island in the sea.
On the island they played all day long and built huts and fished and swam.
They spend all their time playing when they get together. It starts as soon as they see each other.
They were having so much fun on the island that Dani hardly had time to miss her father. They went swimming five, six, or seven times a day.
Their swimsuits were always wet and having to be hung on the washing line.
Sometimes they didn’t bother with swimsuits and went skinny-dipping.
Like the water sprite in old stories, who sits naked on a stone playing the violin.
Anyone who hears him goes a bit crazy and starts dancing.
Ella also plays the violin.
Her mother usually makes her work on her pieces half an hour a day, but how could she when Dani was there and they had so many games to play! Playing was their most important thing.
They watched wild animals too—like the fox that sat on the cliff sometimes, looking out to sea.
Or they spied on the moose swimming through the water.
Sometimes eagles circled over the island—sea eagles.
As soon as they got close, the other birds started to shriek.
Their wings were enormous. And their claws!
If an eagle turned up, they ran with Roy and Partyboy into the house. They’re Ella’s hamsters.
It was only when Dani thought about her own hamsters that she got homesick. She missed Snow and Flake.
The poor things weren’t allowed to come, and had to stay with Grandma and Grandpa.
Otherwise the whole island would soon be full of hamsters, Ella’s mother said, because they were bound to have babies.
Roy and Partyboy happen to be boys and Snow and Flake are girls.
Sometimes Dani missed her cat too.
A little.
But most of all she missed her dad.
Every evening he called Dani and asked what she’d been up to.
As soon as they’d talked to each other Dani felt better.
But one morning when Dani woke up she remembered that her father hadn’t called her the night before.
She was very worried.
Ella was fast asleep. When Dani poked her she just smiled and turned over.
And Miranda, Ella’s little sister, who slept in the same room, was in with her grandmother.
So there was no one to talk to.
Dani tiptoed into the kitchen, where Ella’s mother and her extra father Paddy sat drinking coffee.
“You’re awake early,” said Paddy.
“You look a bit worried,” said Ella’s mother.
“Yes, I think something’s happened to my dad again,” said Dani.
“Why do you think that?” asked Paddy.
“He didn’t call yesterday.”
“He was probably busy.” Ella’s mother made Dani a salami sandwich.
Paddy poured her a glass of milk.
But Dani was so worried she couldn’t eat or drink a thing.
Luckily, it wasn’t long before Ella woke up and came into the kitchen.
She understood immediately that something was the matter.
“What is it?” she asked.
Dani swallowed.
Ella sat down at the table and looked at her.
“Dani’s a little worried,” said Ella’s mother.
Dani sniffed.
“My dad didn’t call yesterday!”
“That is strange,” Ella agreed.
“He’ll be in touch soon.” Paddy was sure. “Why don’t you go out and see if you can find the fox?”
“Not today,” said Ella. “Today we’ll do something different. I know! Let’s make a BAKING BOOK! Shall we, Dani?”
And soon they were under way.
They began with a recipe for coconut peaks.
Ella wrote down how to do it.
Buy a packet of dried coconut and do what it says on the back.
Dani drew the pictures. She drew coconut peaks that looked like small knobbly mountains and she filled them in with a yellow crayon.
Then Ella added a little brown.
They looked good.
The first page in their baking book was good.
But suddenly a dark shadow fell on Dani.
She had thought about her father again.
“If only I knew why he didn’t call,” she sighed, looking out the window.
Ella followed her gaze anxiously.
Far away on the water a lone ferry was coming towards the jetty.
Ella pushed away the paper and crayons.
“Look, Dani, the boat’s coming! And we haven’t even started the basket!”
Every morning at nine, Dani and Ella prepared a basket with coffee, juice, and buns. Then they ran with it down to the jetty.
At ten past nine the boat pulled in and stayed only a few minutes, so you had to be there on time if you wanted to do business.
And they did. Selling to the passengers was their summer job, said Ella.
This morning they arrived at the very last minute. The boat was just coming in.
“Coffee, juice, and buns!” yelled Ella when the passengers came ashore.
“Extra cheap today!” Dani shouted, even though it cost the same every day. It was a business trick.
Soon they were flat out making sales.
By the time the boat left, there was nothing in their basket.
Except for silver and gold coins and even a twenty-dollar note!
Ella counted how much they had.
“We’re stinking rich!” she said happily.
“What shall we do with all the money?” asked Dani.
“I thought we might go to Iceland and ride Iceland ponies,” said Ella.
“You’ve never told me that!”
“I thought about it last night while you were asleep. Good idea, don’t you think?”
Dani didn’t answer. She’s a bit scared of horses. They can kick.
But at that moment there was nothing to worry about. She was thinking what a great summer job they had!
Somebody not so excited about their business was Ella’s mother.
She was the one who made the coffee and baked the buns.
She has to bake all the time. On the island there’s no bakery where you can buy bread and buns and cakes.
When they came back from the jetty she was busy making coconut peaks.
“Aha, so you sneaked a look at our baking book,” said Ella.
“No,” said her mother. “I didn�
�t need to. I know how to make them.”
“Can I taste?”
“No, you’ll have to wait.”
“Wait for what?”
“I’m not telling! It’s a surprise.”
Ella went into a sulk. She can get like that sometimes. Really sulky. And it takes a while to blow over.
But her mother pretended not to notice.
“Now, Ella, you can take your violin down to the boathouse and play your pieces again,” she said tartly.
Ella sighed all the way to the cupboard where her violin lives on a special shelf.
Only she and her mother are allowed to touch it because it’s so special.
“What will Dani be doing?” she asked.
“Dani can pick up all the things you’ve been throwing around. It’ll be nice and tidy in here!”
“What good is that?” muttered Ella.
But she took the violin case and trudged off to the boathouse.
And Dani picked up all the soft toys, books, crayons, pens, cards, and clothes that were scattered all over the floor, and threw them into a cupboard.
Then she ran down to the boathouse too.
From quite a long way off she could hear the wail of the violin.
Dani knocked hard on the door and peeped in through the window. The violin went quiet and Ella opened the door.
“You took ages tidying up,” she complained.
“Yes, it was hard work,” said Dani.
“Come on, let’s go for a swim,” said Ella.
“But you’re supposed to be playing your violin,” Dani reminded her.
“I can do that too,” Ella explained. “We’ll pretend I’m the water sprite!”
They hurried down to the beach and pulled off their clothes.
Soon Ella was in the water sawing wildly at the violin, while Dani danced around her like a crazy thing.
She threw her head about, twirled, and yelled at the top of her voice.
But then she stopped mid-leap. Someone was running down the beach.
Dani squinted to see in the sharp sunlight.
It was her cousin Sven! Behind Sven came Grandma, with Ella’s mother and Paddy. So this was the surprise.
Dani sat down with a splash.
Ella was facing out to sea and didn’t notice a thing. She went on playing.
“Ella!” her mother shrieked when she saw what she was doing. “Have you gone completely crazy?”
“No!” Dani hurried to answer. “Ella’s the water sprite. I’m the crazy one!”
When Ella turned and saw the others, she sank into the water, too, but kept her arms up.
Only her head, the violin, and the bow could be seen.
“Come up here at once!” her mother commanded.
But Ella did the opposite. She went backwards.
Ella’s mother plunged after her, not minding about her dress getting wet.
“Ella! Stay where you are!” called Paddy.
“Only if you do what I say!” shouted Ella. “Everyone must leave immediately!”
“Why?”
“Because otherwise it’s embarrassing! We’re skinny-dipping!”
The little group backed up and headed for the house.
Sven peeked but Dani yelled: “Don’t look!”
Only when everyone had gone did they hurry out of the water and dry themselves and get dressed.
Soon they were sitting on the veranda drinking juice and munching on coconut peaks. Then they had cake.
Grandma had brought good news. Dani’s dad would soon be leaving the hospital.
“Won’t that be nice?” She smiled at Dani.
Dani looked away.
“What is it?” asked Grandma.
“My father doesn’t miss me any more,” said Dani.
“Nonsense,” said Grandma. “Of course he does. Your dad misses you to bits!”
“Why doesn’t he call then?”
“Doesn’t he?” said Grandma. “That’s strange.”
“No, it’s not,” said Sven.
Grandma looked sternly at Sven and Sven was quiet.
But as soon as Grandma started talking to the others, he leaned forward.
“I know a secret,” he whispered. “Something I’m not supposed to tell, according to her.”
He nodded furtively at Grandma.
“Well, don’t tell then,” said Ella. “We’re not interested in your little secrets. Are we, Dani?”
“It’s not a little secret,” said Sven.
“We’re not even interested in your partly big secrets,” interrupted Ella.
Sven pretended not to hear.
“But I can say the first letter!” he continued. “Do you want me to?”
“Only if you must,” said Ella.
Sven leaned close.
“S,” he said. “The secret starts with S.”
Dani and Ella looked at each other.
“Shall I say another letter?”
Dani nodded hesitantly.
“A…” said Sven.
“S-A?”
“S-A-D…” Sven said.
Ella started to laugh. “You mean wretched and miserable?”
“No, because then comes I and E!”
Grandma whipped around to face him.
“Sven! Have you forgotten what you promised me? You’re not to say a word to Dani about that! Not a single word!”
“I haven’t,” Sven protested. “I’ve only said five letters!”
“S-A-D-I-E.” Dani sounded out the letters. “Who’s that?”
“Your dad’s girlfriend!” whispered Sven.
Dani felt a knife in her chest.
Grandma was fuming, but Sven took no notice.
“Grandma and Grandpa have already met her,” he chattered. “She’s very sweet, Grandpa says. Sweet as marzipan. And she laughs all the time!”
“Laughs?” echoed Dani. “Why does she laugh?”
“Because Gianni tells such funny stories!”
That’s what he’s called, Dani’s dad. Giovanni is his name, but he gets called Gianni.
“I thought he was sick!” said Ella sharply.
“Yeah, but you can still tell funny stories when you’re sick. By the way, Grandpa says Gianni looks much better now he has a girl.”
“Sorry,” he said, seeing his grandmother’s furious look. “I mean girlfriend. Grandma says you’re supposed to say girlfriend.”
That was what had happened: Dani’s father had got a girlfriend. Dani felt as if the eagle had its claws into her.
As the others talked, she turned white under her suntan.
Grandma tried to reassure her: “Take no notice of what Sven says.”
Ella stood up and drilled her eyes into Sven: “You’re lying!”
Sven flared up. “I’m not lying! I’ve never lied in my whole life!”
“Now you’re lying again,” said Ella.
Sven was so angry he was almost crying.
“Grandma,” he shouted, “tell them it’s true! You’ve even met Sadie!”
Just then Paddy’s phone rang. Paddy’s ringtone sounds like a dog barking.
“Woof! Woof!” barked the phone.
He quickly took it out of his pocket and put it to his ear.
“That’s great,” he said enthusiastically. “You’re very welcome. I’ll be at the jetty in ten minutes.”
He ended the call and turned to Dani.
“That was your father. Didn’t I tell you he’d call? He has permission to leave the hospital for a few days and is on his way here in a taxi boat. I’ll go and meet him with the motorbike.”
“Come on, let’s run to the lookout and wave,” said Ella, rushing off.
Sven ran after her, but Dani sat still and stared at a fly buzzing round the empty cake plate.
She had been right after all. This was exactly what she’d sensed all morning. Something terrible had happened.
Soon Ella and Sven were back.
“He’s coming!” shouted Sve
n. “Now you can see for yourselves if I was lying!”
“That’s just what we were thinking,” said Ella. “Isn’t it, Dani?”
She stopped talking and looked at Dani, who sat as if she was paralyzed.
“And if what Sven says is true then we’ll talk some sense into your father. Won’t we, Dani?”
“What would you say to him?” Sven wondered.
“Never you mind,” said Ella. “I’ll take care of the talking. I’ll tell him he doesn’t need a girlfriend because he has one already. Both girl and friend. All in one. When you have Dani you don’t need anyone else.”
“And will that help?”
“Of course it will. I’ll start by giving him a little welcome flower!”
Ella looked around and picked a bluebell.
“You can give him a flower too, Dani.”
But Dani still sat as if she was stunned.
Life According to Dani Page 1
