The Night Rainbow A Novel - By Claire King Page 0,52

it is my turn.

Margot takes the scissors and says, Now, Madame, what will you be having today?

I will have it nice and short, I say. And a tiara, please.

When it is all done I look at all the cut-offs and scatterings. I’m not sure how to tidy them up so I push all of it except one perfect curl under my pillow. I put the scissors under there too for safekeeping.

I am going to take this one up to the girl-nest, I tell Margot, showing her my curl.

Margot looks down at my pillow. I wonder if we’ll come back and find we are very rich because the hair fairy has been?

I doubt there is a hair fairy. If there were then everyone would be very rich, just cutting off one piece of hair at a time.

But what if there is?

We decide it is better to only leave a little under the pillow for the hair fairy as an experiment, and the rest under the rug. Then if she comes tonight we will leave a little out every night and soon we will have enough money to buy Maman a really nice present.

What do you think she would like? I ask Margot.

Maybe a puppy? she says.

Maybe. Or some pink lipstick with glittery bits?

Like Sylvie? I don’t think so.

Or a yellow hat to match her yellow dress.

Or some more cushions and pillows for her bed?

I close my hand around my one last curl. Come on, let’s go.

We are trying not to giggle very loudly.

While he is hunting for us, Claude’s hand keeps reaching down to have a scratch. In the hairy gap between the top of his socks and the bottom of his shorts, I can see the criss-cross of cuts on his legs.

Don’t scratch them! hisses Margot and I shush her.

Claude is underneath the tree where the girl-nest is. He is looking upwards, and looking left and right for us; he is being very noisy.

Where do you think they are? he says to Merlin. Merlin wags his tail, swooshy through the air.

Not over here . . . Claude shakes his head. Not over there . . . Maybe they’re not here today.

I poke my head out and shout BOO!

Claude doesn’t jump, but he laughs. Hello, Pea, he says.

Boo! says Margot.

Hello, Margot, says Claude, squinting up at the tree and waving in the wrong direction. How are you both today?

I am fine and Margot is fine. Are you fine?

I am fine, yes. I see you had a haircut, he says.

It is because of the challenge, I say. Mami Lafont was cross with Maman because I haven’t had a haircut. But Maman is busy. So I have done it myself with the chicken scissors. It’s a surprise.

And the tiara is because she is a princess, says Margot.

You’ve scratched your legs, I say.

Again, says Claude. But tell me more about the scissors.

We just borrowed them, I say.

We were extremely careful, says Margot.

Hmm, says Claude. And where are they now? Have you got them up there with you?

They’re under my pillow.

Don’t you think your maman will be worried when she finds them missing?

I don’t think she will notice.

And if she does?

Claude is right. Maman worries a lot and if she can’t find the scissors or me she will probably worry about the trouble we could be getting into together.

OK, I say, climbing down out of the nest. I will go and put them back.

Good girl, says Claude.

It is the roast chicken that makes me forget. When we get in the house is quiet, but the chicken can’t have been out of the oven very long because the whole kitchen smells of butter and tarragon. The chicken pieces are in a china bowl under a fly screen. My tummy thunders so loudly I think it might wake Maman up. So I get out two plates, and we help ourselves to some of the meat. We eat it with our fingers and it is salty and delicious. Afterwards I take the bones and bits of fat out to the courtyard for any cat-visitors, so they will fill up their tummies on that and not wait for baby swallows to fall out of the sky.

In the middle of the night, in the dark, I realise that my head is very uncomfortable. At first I think that the hair fairy has been and that there is a pile of coins under my bed. But it is not that. The chicken scissors are still under my pillow where I left