A Midsummer Tight's Dream Read online

  Oh yes, I remembered that.

  She was chattering on.

  “Well, he’s got big plans for knitting the village together for Christmas. Won’t that be fun?”

  I don’t know what to say to that because she hugged me again and my mouth was in her muffler.

  When we got back to Dandelion Cottage the twins’ present turned out to be some bits of feather stuck into a potato.

  Max said, “Fevver man for ooo.”

  Lovely.

  Also there was a postcard addressed to me care of the Dobbinses. It was from Honey! It just said:

  Dear Tallulah,

  Something WEALLY exciting has happened!!!! See you when I get there on Wednesday and tell you all about it!!!

  Honey xxx

  It didn’t really say “weally” on the postcard, but I could hear her voice in my head.

  I wonder what she means?

  Maybe she’s got five boyfriends now?!

  I took my luggage (and “Fevver man”) up into my room while Dibdobs went to make some tea.

  So here I am back in my old squirrel room. Sitting on my wooden bed with the squirrel carved into the bedhead. With my feather potato. I’ve brought back my squirrel slippers, the ones that Dibdobs gave me when I first came. She said they were to make me feel at home.

  Which they would have done, had my home been in an oak tree.

  I put the squirrel slippers into the bed for company. Well, one looks like a squirrel and the other one looks like a hamster. My brother, Connor, set fire to one of the tail bits so it’s just a stump.

  I looked around at the familiar carved wooden wardrobe (acorn theme) and the wooden dressing table (with the carved squirrel legs) and the wooden, well, everything really. You name it, if it was in the room, it was wooden.

  But wood was OK. Everything was OK.

  I put my case on the bed and started to unpack. Georgia and her Ace Gang helped me choose cool things to suit my shape. Like dark tights and bright little skirts. And hats. The Ace Gang said I needed to de-emphasize my bad bits (nobbly knees) and emphasize my good bits (catty eyes and nice swishy black hair). Georgia said to distract boys from my knee area I should swish my hair almost constantly. (Although not to fiddle with my fringe, because she personally thought that was a killing offense.)

  I hung all my stuff in the wooden wardrobe.

  I even have a special underwear drawer. With bras in it. Oh yes!

  Yes, I now officially wear corker holders.

  And what’s more, I have corkers to put in them!!

  I’ve got the tiniest corker appliances you can get (30A), but I have high hopes for a growth spurt when I start tap-dancing my way to the top of the showbiz ladder. Not that I can tap-dance, but I could do something on the ladder, I’m sure. It’s just a question of finding it and not falling off the ladder in the meantime. Even though you can’t see the ladder.

  Ooh, it will be so nice to see little Vaisey again and her cheeky bottom and all my new arty mates.

  I’m putting my new shiny, fruity performance-art notebook under my pillow for when I come up with more whizzo creative projects. I can’t wait to see Dr. Lightowler’s face when she has to hand me my golden slippers of applause.

  She doesn’t like me. I don’t know why. It was after I did my “owl-laying-an-egg” mime in her class. I think she took against me then.

  Maybe she thought I was pretending to be her because she looks like an owl. She said I was silly and shouldn’t be at Dother Hall.

  But Dr. Owly is in for a surprise when she gets to see how unsilly I can be.

  I’m going to put my corker-measuring tape measure in my corker-holder drawer, next to my corker holders.

  I wonder if my corkers have grown since I last measured them?

  I did a sneaky measuring in the lavatory on the train, which is only about three hours ago, but growing could happen any time, couldn’t it?

  It could happen the minute after you took the corker-measuring tape measure away.

  Anyway, I am not going to risk doing a measure. It would be just my luck for the lunatic twins to come barging in.

  Last term, unfortunately I tried my method in front of the window. And Cain Hinchcliff was out there in the undergrowth, snogging some village girl, and he’d seen me, seen me doing my method. He’d seen me rubbing my corkers with my hiking socks on my hands.

  To make them grow.

  My corkers, not the socks.

  The socks were huge.

  Best not to think about it.

  I shivered at the memory.

  Still, that was all in the past.

  Dibdobs shouted up, “Tea’s ready! Boys! Tallulah! Split splat!!!”

  I shook my hair and gave it a bit of a va-va-voom.

  When I opened my door, there they were. The twins. Blinking and sucking on their dodies. As if they knew that I had nearly measured my corkers.

  Perhaps they have a corker-sensing gene.

  Perhaps all boys do.

  What a horrific thought.

  After tea (local eggs and a local sausage), I said, “I’m just going to pop to The Blind Pig to see Ruby and then we might pop and visit the owlets.”

  I’ve entered the “popping zone” again. I like it. It’s very me.

  As I went out the door Dibdobs said, “Put this hat on in case of rain. It’s my camping hat.”

  I said, “I’ll be all ri—”

  But she was ramming the waterproof hat on my head, completely squashing my va-va-voomed hair. I’d have to not take it off now in case of hat hair.

  Dobbins said, “Oooooh, look at you!! You’re gorgeous. You’ve grown! Oooohhhhh.”

  And she hugged me again.

  And so did the boys.

  It’s very hard to walk when you’ve got three people doing hugging.

  Was it going to happen every time I went out?

  Maybe the right thing to do was to hug them back and then they would let me go.

  But that made it worse.

  Dibdobs started hugging more tightly and I think she might have been crying.

  I got away at last by saying, “Bye then!!!”

  I was only going three feet across the green. What if we went on a school trip?

  The sign (a pig in dark glasses with a white stick) was creaking in the cold wind.

  I remembered last sitting here.

  On the wall next to the pub.

  With Alex.

  Dreamy Alex.

  He’d looked at me and smiled his smile. It was the best moment of my life so far. We were so close. I wanted to say so much. I wanted my eyes to speak the words I couldn’t say. (Which actually might have been a bit of a surprise to both of us if they had done.)

  So I had said to him, “My knees are too far up.”

  Why?

  Why would you say that?

  And then he had wanted to look at my knees to see how far up they were, and the whole thing had gone wrong, leaving him thinking I was just a stupid little kid. With out-of-control legs.

  Well, I will not be saying that sort of thing to him again.

  In fact I’m going to make a “normal” list in my performance-art notebook.

  Topics that a normal person would talk about.

  Topics that are not knee-based.

  Like theater.

  Yes, yes, I will tell him about the plays I have seen.

  Well, actually I haven’t seen any plays.

  Books, then. Yes, books.

  I could say, “That Dickens writes a lot, doesn’t he?”

  Ruby came bursting out of the pub door.

  “I saw you through the winder. Ullo ullo. It’s me!!! And Matilda!!!”

  Matilda was barking and throwing herself at me, jumping up. Well, sort of. She was just thudding against my calves to be fair. Her bulldoggy face looks like she is doing a turned-down squashy smile all the time. Maybe she is.

  Ruby was laughing and her pigtails were jiggling about like ears underneath her hat.

/>   She was still yelling, “Ullo ullo!!!”

  It was so nice to see her little freckly face and gappy teeth.

  She was skipping around me and shouting, “She’s back, she’s back!!! Matilda, show Loobylullah how tha can die for England!”

  Matilda stopped leaping and lay on her back with her stumpy bow legs in the air.

  Ruby said, “Do your Irish dancing over her. She likes that. Go on. I’ll do the singing. ‘Hiddly diddly diddly. Hiddly diddly diddly.’”

  As she was bobbing around she said, “You should see the owlets! Shall we go for a wander now? You’ll not believe it. They’ve got right fat. Come on, come on.”

  As she went skipping off, I said, “Should you tell your dad where you’re going? Or … or … Alex?”

  She shouted back, “He’s not in. He’s forming a heavy metal band in Ormskirk.”

  What?

  I caught up with her crossing the green.

  I said, “Alex has formed a heavy metal band in Ormskirk? But—”

  She said, “Not Alex, tha barm pot. Alex has gone off t’college. Me dad. You should see him in his band stuff. He’s got these right tight leather trousers. It’s horrible, and sometimes he can’t get them off. Or walk up stairs in them.”

  As we went down by the side of the sheep field, I said, “I didn’t even know your dad could play a guitar.”

  “Believe me—he can’t—but he can shout bloody loud and he’s got his own Viking helmet. It’s a tribute band.”

  I said, “What to? Vikings?”

  And she said, “No, it’s a tribute band to pies. They’re called ‘The Iron Pies.’”

  I hope I never have to see them.

  So no Alex around then.

  I sighed.

  No Mr. Darcy to look at and try out my new boy skills on.

  As we walked along I said, “Rubes, do you think my knees have got less nobblier?”

  Ruby stopped hopping and looked at them. Then she bent down and knocked my knee with her fist. Quite hard. I said, “Owww.”

  She said, “Aye, I think they av a bit.”

  Then she looked up at me.

  “I tell thee what, that corker rubbing has worked a bit too. Tha looks like you’ve got two walnuts down your jumper. You haven’t, have you?”

  I tried not to smirk. Walnuts now but maybe coconuts soon.

  We were passing by the back of the Dobbinses’ house. It seemed so familiar to be back here, but so much had changed. I was a woman now with womanly bits. And womanly bits’ holders. In various colors.

  Ruby said, “Ay up, what did tha mean in your letter? You know, you said you would tell me abaht Charlie when you saw me. Yes, you thought he thought you were a long lanky twit and that, didn’t you?”

  I said, “Er, Ruby. No, I didn’t think he thought I was a long lanky twit, actually. I’m not a long lanky tw—”

  At which point I caught my head a glancing blow on a low-lying branch.

  Ruby tried not to laugh. I rubbed my head as we walked on through the dark woods and crouched a bit.

  Ruby said, “Go on then.”

  I wasn’t her plaything. I was a sensitive human being. I said, “I think you’re too young … I don’t think you’d understand.”

  She said, “Well, I understood about Ben, when you said kissing him were like having a little bat trapped in your mouth.”

  She was going on, toddling around in front of me.

  “Some boys are so useless at snogging. I don’t know why they don’t practice before they come bothering you. They could practice on … balloons or, or potatoes or a … melon or summat.”

  Balloons? There was a whole world of snogging I knew nothing about and Ruby was only eleven.

  Actually, it was making me feel sad thinking about Charlie. I’d really liked him. He made me laugh. And I thought he sort of liked me.

  We were at the barn by now. I wanted to make sure that Connie had gone off. I said to Rube, “I don’t want my head pecked off by an enormous angry barn owl. It’s not even as though she would peck it off at once and get it over and done with. I saw her eat a mouse, head first, bit by bit. Till only its tail was hanging out of her beak.”

  So Ruby crept off and opened the barn door while I crouched behind a bush.

  I noticed Matilda sat down behind me. Clearly she didn’t want her head pecked off either.

  Ruby came back skipping and said, “They’re on their own, come in!!!”

  I went into the barn and when my eyes adjusted to the dark I could see them. Little Ruby and Little Lullah. Our little owlets.

  Little owlets? They were HUGE! We spent an hour with the furry freaks. They can flutter about now, although they do crash into the walls. And they swooped down onto our hats. I think they love us and think we are their stupid friends who don’t even know how to fly. Well, maybe I can’t fly but I don’t poo myself all the time. I said to Ruby, “Look, they are pooing while they are eating.”

  Ruby said, “Ah know, sometimes you can see little mouse claws in the poo pellets.”

  It was getting cold and late, so Ruby put them back on their hay pile. I didn’t want to handle them in case I was involved in a poo situation. But they were so sweet and they fluffed their feathers up to make themselves look bigger. And did head swiveling, to show off how far they could swivel. I feel proud of them.

  I said to Ruby as we left them, cheeping away in the dark, “Little Lullah looks like me, don’t you think?”

  As she pulled her hat down she said, “Don’t make me have to go say owt to me dad about you saying an owlet looks like you.”

  It was spooky down the dark lane with the noises in the fields and the rain and moaning wind. There were strange rustlings in the trees and a far-off hooting.

  Ruby huddled into her jacket and threw a stick for Matilda. Matilda looked at the stick as it flew over her head. Then she just went on toddling along. She knows that it’s not a biscuit, so why would she bother to go and get it?

  Ruby said, “The Hinchcliffs have had a reight big fight. They smashed the Bottomlys’ outdoor lavatory when they fell into it.”

  I tutted.

  Typical.

  “What were they fighting about this time? Who was the stupidest?”

  Ruby said, “No, Ruben found out that Cain had been laiking around with his girlfriend.”

  I tutted again.

  Ruby went on. “Cain made it worse by saying he was only doing Ruben a favor because she was a real mardy bum. And thick.”

  Charming.

  As we got back to the Dobbinses’ gate Ruby said, “Oh, I forgot, Alex gi’ me a letter for thee but I left it in my room. I’ll gi’ it thee tomorrow.”

  I tried not to leap in the air or do Irish dancing. I said, “Oh, well. You know I had better … er, walk you to your door because of the … night … er, stuff.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes at me. “Come on then, soft lass.”

  We went across the green to The Blind Pig and Ruby ran up the back stairs to her room.

  I was hovering around by the door. With a bit of luck, I wouldn’t have to bump into Ted … at which point Ted Barraclough, Ruby’s dad, came out of the front bar.

  I couldn’t help noticing he had a Viking helmet on.

  And a guitar in his hand.

  And was wearing a very tight pair of leather trousers. He was walking with small steps.

  His whole big face lit up when he saw me. Oh dear.

  “Well, what a lovely surprise—the thespian is back at last. Thank the Lord. Now then. Don’t tell me, let me guess what you are pretending to be this time.”

  I said politely, “Hello, Mr. Barraclough, I—”

  He waved his helmet about.

  “No, dun’t tell me, dun’t tell me … Are you a historic figure? I’m thinking the woolly tights. Your rain hat, the slight roll as you walk. Are you Nelson? I’m right, aren’t I?”

  I said, “I’m not doing mime. I’m just collecting—”

  “Ah, the good
days are back again. I’ve missed you. I really have. You and your friends, the STUDENTS. Monday, I will once more hear the sound of you cantering to Dither Hall on your imaginary ponies.”

  Actually, Vaisey did have an imaginary pony. Black Beauty.

  Had he been spying on us?

  Ruby came back and handed a letter to me.

  She said, “Don’t go daft.”

  I took the letter and said to her, “Heeee-heee, why should I go daft, it’s only a letter from, you know, a mate to another mate, heeee, I don’t know what you mean.”

  She just looked at me and shook her hair.

  Then she said to her dad, “How did The Iron Pies rehearsal go?”

  He said, “Bloody marvelous. The Iron Pies are going to be the biggest thing this side of Grimbottom. We are quite literally a sound sensation.”

  Ruby said, “Oh yeah? How many songs have you got?”

  “Well, fust of all, we’ve done some belters for the mums and dads. All with the original pie theme.”

  Ruby said, “Like what?”

  Mr. Barraclough said, “The well-known James Bond themes, ‘For Your Pies Only,’ ‘Golden Pie,’ and ‘From Russia with a Pie.’ Then a bit of a classic for the rockers, ‘Rock Around the Pie.’ And a few standard Beatles numbers, ‘The Long and Winding Pie,’ ‘All You Need Is Pies,’ ‘Lucy in the Pie with Diamonds.’ We’ll be cracking. I’ll have groupies trying to get hold of my pies.”

  I didn’t know what to say, and I also didn’t want to think about his pies anymore … I was dying to read my letter. So I said I had to go because Dibdobs was waiting for me.

  I ran across the green and into Dandelion Cottage. Harold was back from his knitting workshop and I had to do more hugging duties with him. Then I started yawning to give him the idea of beddy-byes, but he said, “Tallulah, before you go up the wooden stairs to Noddsville, let me just show you my new cloak. It’s hand-knitted, and as you can see it has shell buttons.”

  As he was swishing around modeling it for me, he said, “You see, the shells show man’s connection with the earth or, in this case, Skegness beach.”

  At last I was in my squirrel room. I have my squirrel lamp switched on by my bed, and outside the wind is howling across the moors. But I am snug inside with my letter.

  My letter from the Dream Boy.

  I paused before I opened it.