Contents
1 A Growing Family
2 Back to School
3 Chooky
4 Agnes
5 The Nuisance
6 Agnes in Danger
7 Agnes in Hiding
8 Grandpa’s Bad Spell
9 A Meeting with Tom
10 The Roundtable Meeting
11 Agnes at Home
Marly is finally starting to fit in at Sunshine Primary School. Being a refugee from Vietnam hasn’t made it easy for her, but she now has a best friend, Yousra, who doesn’t care that she looks different, and who sticks up for her when the other kids pick on her.
Marly’s mum is pregnant, and her grandparents are coming to Australia from Vietnam to live with her family and to help look after Marly and the new baby. Marly can’t wait to see them. Having her grandparents here is going to be great, isn’t it? What could possibly go wrong?
MARLY was feeling very excited. Her grandparents were due to arrive any second. She hadn’t seen them since before she left Vietnam for Australia. All she remembered of them was that her grandmother smelled a little bit like liquorice, and her grandpa tied strings to dragonflies to make her helicopters.
Marly poked her head around the two taped-together shower curtains that split the lounge into two rooms. She craned her neck to see past the double bed and the little stool with two glasses and a jug of boiled water on it.
‘Can you see them? Are they here yet?’ Marly’s cousin Jackie asked her.
She looked through the window, searching for her dad’s old white Datsun car. He had gone to the airport with her Uncle Beng to pick up her grandma and grandpa.
‘No,’ Marly said. ‘But I’m sure I heard a car.’
‘Come away from there,’ Marly’s mum snapped. ‘That’s your grandparents’ room now, and you need to respect their privacy.’
Marly let the shower curtain fall back in place and slumped onto the sofa between cousin Rosie and Aunty Tam. Rosie was busy sewing more baby clothes out of the leftover fabric from her mum’s latest sewing job. Marly rolled her eyes. Everyone had gone baby crazy. Everywhere she turned, there was something to do with the baby, and it wasn’t even born yet. It was very, very annoying.
Marly tapped her foot and nodded her head to a silent beat. She was singing Michael Jackson’s latest song, ‘Beat It’, in her head. She couldn’t sit still when she heard his music, and knew all of his dance moves.
Marly heard the front door open. She followed Jackie and raced into the hallway.
Oh no! Marly thought when she saw her grandparents standing there. They’ve arrived wearing their pyjamas!
Her grandpa was in a dark blue set, and her grandmother had on a green pair covered in small grey dots. On their feet were socks and sandals. And instead of suitcases, which Marly was sure most people packed their clothes in, her grandparents were carrying large, stripy, zip-up straw bags.
‘Wah,’ gasped Marly’s grandpa as they all bustled into the lounge. ‘Look at you all . . .’ Then he headed straight for Marly’s mum and patted the bump on her stomach.
‘Such a nice neat bump for six months. Look how low and pointy it is,’ said Grandma. ‘It must be a boy!’
‘Aeroplanes are miraculous objects,’ Grandpa was saying. ‘Who knew that a thing made of tonnes of steel could float across the sky?’
‘Grandma, why are you wearing your pyjamas?’ asked Jackie.
‘What on earth are pyjamas?’ said Grandma.
‘You know, clothes you sleep in,’ explained Marly, pleased that Jackie had asked the question she was dying to know the answer to.
‘No!’ cried Grandma. ‘These aren’t sleeping clothes! These are our best travelling suits!’
Marly hoped they had some different clothes in their bags. She struggled to fit in at school already, without being known as the girl with pyjama-wearing grandparents.
‘Don’t worry, Ma,’ Marly’s mum said. ‘I’ll take you to the Smith family’s secondhand store to get even better things. You should see the clothes they have here in Australia!’
Grandma suddenly turned and peered at Marly. Marly felt her cheeks blush under Grandma’s stare.
‘Wah, so beautiful!’ said Grandma, pinching Marly’s cheeks. Marly ducked her head away because it sort of hurt, but her mum shot her a warning look.
‘Was it a comfortable flight?’ Marly’s father asked her grandparents. Marly knew he was trying to take the attention away from her, and she smiled while pulling away from Grandma.
‘Oh yes,’ sighed Grandpa. ‘The seat was as soft as a pillow. I fell asleep for most of the journey, only waking up to eat.’
‘Well I didn’t!’ said Marly’s grandma, jabbing her husband with her elbow. ‘Not since this old man put the thought into my head that we were inside a hundred tonnes of steel floating through the sky. I didn’t sleep a wink! But we’re here now. And, it seems, you live in a mansion.’
Marly giggled as Grandma opened her arms wide in the cramped room and nearly knocked Jackie over.
Marly’s mum laughed as she showed them their room behind the shower curtain. ‘Mother, this is just a concrete Commission house. It is one of the cheapest houses in the neighbourhood. Why don’t you and Dad have a little rest? And then we’ll have dinner.’
Marly sat at the table on her mum’s sewing stool from the garage, squeezed in between Grandpa and Uncle Beng. She felt her tummy do a little rumble. A huge feast was spread before her, all laid out on the red plastic tablecloth. There was roast duck and suckling pig with crunchy crackling, spring rolls, noodles and sour fish soup. There were buns and flying-dragon vegetables, and lots of rice.
Marly felt Grandpa’s body shake next to her as he chuckled.
‘Hee hee.’ He turned to Marly. ‘Do you want to know what made your grandma sick on the plane?’
Marly looked up at Grandpa as he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a little yellow block. ‘We found this on our food tray. Your grandmother didn’t open hers, but I opened mine, and it stank of vomit. Yuk. The smell made your grandma hurl into a paper bag. Could you tell me what this foul substance is?’
‘Oh, Grandpa,’ laughed Marly. ‘That’s just COON cheese.’
‘Erggh,’ said Grandpa. ‘It is vile. What madman came up with the idea you could eat something that smelled like vomit?’
Wow, Marly thought. My grandparents have never had cheese before. She found them very strange, but fascinating, and she wondered what other things she could show them that would be new.
MARLY’S grandparents had only been living with them a week, but already Marly could tell that Grandma was a bit of a nag.
Marly sat at the kitchen table, writing a shopping list from the words Grandma fired out as she went through the kitchen cupboards. Blocking the doorway was the baby high chair that Marly’s dad had brought home, given to him by a friend at work. Marly sighed. Baby stuff was sticking out of every spare corner. It’s taking over the house already, she thought.
Marly’s mum rushed into the kitchen through the back door, letting in the wet air from outside. She went to the fridge and grabbed a carton of coconut water. Even though it was a rainy winter’s day, Marly knew it was still stuffy in the garage where her mum and Aunty Tam worked, sewing for big clothing companies. Her mum was just about to drink when Grandma snatched the carton from her.
‘No! You can’t drink iced coconut water. It’s too cold for the baby,’ Grandma said.
Marly’s mum sighed and poured herself a glass of water from the tap instead. Marly watched her drink it in one go, before making a move towards the high chair.
‘You shouldn’t lift heavy things when you are pregnant, Diep,’ Grandma scolded her. ‘Get your husband to move th
at for you!’
‘Ma! I carried one healthy baby! I can do it again!’ Marly’s mum shouted before lifting the high chair into the far corner and storming back across the garden into the garage.
Marly tapped her pen on the table and shuffled in her seat while she waited for Grandma to call out the next thing to go on the shopping list. Grandma was taking ages, muttering to herself as she started going through the same cupboards all over again. And so Marly jumped from her seat and ran out into the garden. But before she could even start looking for worms in the wet soil, her grandma was at the door calling her back.
‘You, MyLinh, are you a girl or a fox? Always darting about chasing after things. Why can’t you sit still like your cousin Rosie?’
No one ever called Marly by her Chinese name, MyLinh, anymore, except Grandma, who watched her every move. Grandma did not seem to mind if Marly sat all day on her bum watching television, because that was, apparently, appropriate behaviour for a girl. But if Marly so much as skipped around the house or picked up a ping pong bat, she got a lecture from Grandma.
Marly found herself counting down the days for the holidays to be over. Two weeks had felt like such an awfully long time. She couldn’t wait to be back at school so she could see her best friend, Yousra, again.
Finally, the first day back at school arrived. Marly skipped downstairs and into the lounge. Her school dress was laid out on the sofa.
‘Hurry up and get changed,’ Grandma said, appearing from behind the shower curtain. ‘And then I will brush your hair for you.’
As Grandma ran the brush through Marly’s shoulder-length hair, Marly felt great. No one ever brushed her hair for her anymore, not since she could do it for herself, and she’d forgotten how it tickled in a nice way.
Marly frowned as the brushing stopped and she felt her hair being pulled.
‘Ouch! What are you doing, Grandma?’
‘I’m making you pretty,’ said Grandma. ‘Stay still.’
Marly felt a tight tug on one side of her head, and then on the other.
‘There,’ said Grandma. ‘Go have a look.’
Marly looked at herself in the bathroom mirror and felt her stomach drop. Grandma had tied Marly’s hair up into two pigtails, using tight elastic bands that were already uncomfortable, and covered each band with a red hair ribbon. I look like a six year old! Marly thought.
‘No one wears their hair like this anymore, Grandma,’ protested Marly.
Marly’s mum stuck her head into the bathroom. ‘How lovely you look!’ she said to Marly. Then she gave her a look that said, Don’t you dare take them out.
‘Now time for breakfast!’ said Grandma, leading Marly to the kitchen where a soft-boiled egg was waiting for her, next to a little dish of salt and pepper.
‘Well, aren’t you spoiled?’ said Marly’s mum.
Marly didn’t reply, unable to forgive her mum for taking Grandma’s side over her pigtails. She started eating, but heard her mum speaking to Grandma behind her.
‘Ma, I’ll take Marly to school today. You have a rest since you’ve been up so early.’
‘Nonsense! No need to rest. Besides, I want to learn the directions so I can take her when you’re too big to walk,’ said Marly’s grandmother as she walked out the room.
Great, thought Marly. Embarrassing hair and an embarrassing grandparent taking me to school.
‘I thought I could take you to school so you could pull the ribbons out,’ Mum whispered. ‘But now Grandma is coming with us, we don’t want to hurt her feelings.’
‘What about my feelings?’ protested Marly. ‘I look ridiculous! I’m going to get teased!’
‘Shh, Marly,’ Mum said as Grandma returned.
Marly’s eyes bulged in her head as she took in Grandma’s socks and yellow plastic sandals.
‘Ma, you can’t wear those! Your feet will get wet,’ Marly’s mum told her.
‘But these are the only shoes I have,’ Grandma said.
‘Come on, I’ll give you a pair of my shoes.’
While Marly’s mum led Grandma away to change shoes, Marly grabbed her school bag and waited in the hallway. She really didn’t want to be late, as then she wouldn’t get to see Yousra until recess. Yousra wasn’t in Marly’s class – she was in the grade above, and so Marly only got to see her best friend during break times or before school.
Grandma appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing some lace-up, waterproof runners.
‘Let’s go!’ said Marly, dashing out the door and down the path. But unfortunately, the runners didn’t make Grandma go any faster. She shuffled down the footpath, commenting on the houses as they went past.
‘What big windows that one has! Everyone can see inside. Thieves will know exactly what there is to steal!’
‘Yes, Grandma,’ Marly sighed.
‘Wah, what are those little gods all standing in the grass?’
‘They’re not gods, they’re gnomes,’ Marly’s mum explained, before loud barking drowned her out. Marly looked across at the two terrifying dogs that were snarling at the gate next door to the house of gnomes. Marly held on to Grandma’s arm, pulling her along the path, when the gnome house’s door flung open. Marly saw their neighbour standing in the doorway. She looked as if she had only just woken up. She was wearing a yellow terry-towelling robe, and her hair was sticking out in all directions.
‘Oi! Youse chinks! Leave my gnomes alone! I saw you gawking at them. Don’t think you’re gonna pinch one!’
Marly felt angry. How dare this woman shout at them like this? Marly could ignore the idiots at school when they called her a chink, but it shocked her when an adult said it.
‘Come on, we have to walk faster otherwise Marly will be late,’ said Marly’s mum.
‘Wah!’ exclaimed Grandma. ‘What did that angry woman say to us?’
‘She thought we were going to steal her gnomes,’ replied Marly, pulling her away.
‘Ha! Why would we want to steal their fat little gods when we have our own Buddhas?’
Marly wondered the same thing, but she knew deep down that their neighbour looked for any excuse to shout at Marly’s family. It had been the same when Rosie and Jackie were staying at their house. She shouted something at them whenever they walked past.
When they arrived at school, it was deserted. Everyone’s already in class, Marly realised, annoyed that Grandma had made her late.
‘Thank Grandma for walking you to school today,’ Marly’s mum told her.
‘Thanks, Grandma,’ Marly called over her shoulder as she ran across the schoolyard. But in her head she was thinking, Great, I’m going to get detentions every day if Grandma keeps walking me to school.
Marly fast realised that her lateness was a blessing, because no one was around to see her ridiculous hairstyle. She ran into the girls’ toilets and quickly pulled out the ribbons and elastic bands, wincing as the rubbery elastic caught on her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror. There were big lumps on either side of her head from where the pigtails had been. She tried wetting her hair and smoothing it down, but the kinks stayed put. She didn’t dare waste more time putting it right, and so shoved the ribbons in her dress pocket and ran.
Marly realised that her teacher, Mrs Louden, wasn’t there yet, as she could hear the other kids inside the classroom, still shouting and chatting about their holidays.
‘Marly! Hey! You’re late, too!’
Marly turned and saw Yousra grinning at her from down the corridor.
‘Gotta go or else we’ll both get detentions. But see you at recess!’ Yousra said.
‘You bet!’ Marly said, and walked into class.
At recess, Marly found Yousra at their usual spot, on the green bench on the school field. Marly had been looking forward to telling Yousra all about her grandparents, but she didn’t get a chance. As break time ticked by, Yousra talked and talked and talked. Marly was used to her friend’s loudness, and usually enjoyed all the funny stories about her naught
y little brother, Awi. But today, she wasn’t finding Yousra’s stories funny at all.
Marly was sick of all the baby talk. She heard enough of it at home, without Yousra joining in as well. It already felt like her parents had forgotten about her and didn’t listen to anything she had to say. And now Yousra, too.
Marly couldn’t sit still when she thought about the baby. It made her anxious and jittery. She swung her legs forwards and backwards as she sat on the bench next to Yousra. But Yousra wasn’t paying her any attention. She just kept talking about Awi. Some friend, Marly thought. She felt a surge of anger take over her. She wasn’t sure why, but she was feeling so annoyed.
‘Can’t you talk about anything else?’ she snapped at Yousra. ‘You used to be interesting!’
Marly could tell from Yousra’s face that she was shocked by Marly’s outburst.
‘But Awi is interesting!’ Yousra protested.
Marly knew she was being unfair, but she couldn’t help herself. ‘No he’s not. He’s just another stupid, dribbling, poo-pants baby. No one wants to hear about him every day, all right?’
‘Fine!’ said Yousra. ‘If you think I’m boring, then I’ll just go and find someone else to talk to. You’re not so great yourself. You can’t even sit still enough to have a chat with someone.’
Marly sat, still as can be, as she watched her best friend storm off. She couldn’t believe Yousra had just said that. Yousra knew that everyone else in Marly’s life was always telling her to sit still. Yousra was the only person in the world who Marly could be herself around.
The first day back at school turned out to be a total drag. Marly was relieved when it was home time. She found Grandma waiting for her at the school gate, holding Marly’s yellow umbrella over her head and wearing a triangular straw hat with an elastic around the chin.
How embarrassing! thought Marly. ‘Grandma, what are you doing here?’
‘I’ve come to pick you up!’ said Grandma. ‘Pretty smart, huh? I only walked here once, and I already know the way.’
Marly and the Goat Page 1
