The Night Rainbow A Novel - By Claire King Page 0,43
hears us. Hello, Pea, Claude says. How are you today?
I am fine, I say.
And how is my little Margot?
Margot is pretending to be shy, so I say, Margot is fine too. And how are you?
This is how it is every day now. He says, How are you? And I say, Fine. He always asks if Margot is fine too and she doesn’t answer and I answer for her. But then when we ask Claude how he is he always tells us something different. Today he says, I have the peach! Which is funny and makes us laugh.
Where? I say.
Where what?
Where is your peach?
Claude laughs too. It’s here, he says, and points behind his ear. Claude is funny.
Guess where we have been! I say.
Claude shakes his head. No idea, he says, but it looks like you had fun.
Margot is miming the sea and making a shooshing noise, like the waves.
I’ll give you a clue, I say. Somewhere beginning with ‘S’.
The Sahara? says Claude. Sausages?
Sausages is not a place, I laugh.
Claude reaches over and brushes sand from my leg. Are you sure it’s not the Sahara, he says, you are certainly very sandy. He makes all the ‘S’ sounds hissy, like a snake.
Well, he says, I would say the beach, but that doesn’t begin with ‘S’ . . .
The seaside! I shout. And Margot says, But actually that’s cheating, because seaside is in English.
That’s great, says Claude. But his face isn’t happy.
Don’t you like the seaside? I say.
I used to love it. Claude stops talking because Merlin has interrupted him by nudging his hand with his nose, and licking at his palm as though it were an ice-cream. Claude ruffles the long red hairs on Merlin’s neck and says, Thank you, I know.
Merlin can speak! says Margot.
What is Merlin saying? I ask Claude.
Ah, Merlin likes the beach too, says Claude, but not in the summer. Too hot and too many people.
It’s really hot today.
Yes, it’s the canicule, says Claude.
I know, says Margot.
It’ll be gone soon. Claude pats Merlin’s neck. Merlin will be pleased about that too, won’t you, boy? Merlin yawns. Did you know that canicule means ‘little dog’? Claude says.
Merlin is a big dog, not a little dog, says Margot.
Do little dogs get very hot? I say.
Claude smiles his scrunchy-faced smile. Is your maman feeling better?
I think today she had a good day. I wish it were always like that.
It’s a good sign, says Claude.
It’s because I cleaned the courtyard and Margot hoovered the air.
I see. And what about you? Are you doing OK?
We’re fine, thank you, I say.
Claude smiles.
What?
You remind me of someone, he says.
Do you want to come with us next time? I say.
I can’t, says Claude.
I wish you could.
You wish a lot of things, don’t you? Do you want to go and find lucky clovers to make them come true? Claude asks.
Oh yes, we do! we shout, and we start to run down to the clover patch, but I soon stop and slow down because my leg is still hurting.
Hey! says Claude, noticing me. What happened there?
I look down at my fat foot.
You’re limping, he says.
Just like you, says Margot. You are the pirate twins.
What happened?
You’re limping too, I say, what happened to you?
You first, says Claude.
I was stung by a scorpion, I say.
Truly?
Truly.
Where?
On the kitchen stairs. It got out of the jar.
Oh, Pea, why did you have a scorpion in a jar?
I don’t want him to tell me off.
Margot put it there, I say.
I did not! says Margot.
Yes she did, I say. Margot scowls hard at me but I think she knows why I don’t want to make Claude cross and she shuts up, scuffing the grass with the toes of her pink sandals.
And why did Margot put the scorpion in the jar? says Claude.
I can’t remember.
Where is it now?
Maman killed it with Papa’s boots and a shampoo bottle.
Did she? Claude’s eyebrows are up.
So what happened to you? I say. It wasn’t really a tiger, was it?
I was hit by a car, says Claude.
You should Stop, Look and Listen, says Margot.
Were you crossing the road? I say. Didn’t you look?
Well, actually no, I was driving a car, and another car hit our car. It was going too fast.
Did you have to go to hospital?
Oh yes, for a long time.
For injections?
Claude laughs. Lots of injections, yes. And also they had to mend the broken parts of me.