Fifty

Welcome to my blog!
When Elen Caldecott wrote a book about me, I thought it would be great to let you know what happened to me AFTER I stole the elephant. So, I wrote this for six months after the book came out.

It turns out that there was a story to tell, so it’s best to read it in order.
Go to the ‘blog archive’ on the right and click on ‘Jun 12’, which is the first post. Then, click on ‘Dec 09’. And just keep on going like that until you reach the end.

You can’t leave comments on the blog, but, if you want to get in touch with Elen Caldecott, you can email her at:

contact@elencaldecott.com

Love from,
Kirsty

Forty-nine

I won!
Well, actually, everyone liked the name Owen. So, everyone won.

Today Mum and Owen are coming home. I move up to the attic room, with Dawn. And Ben and Owen will have my old room.

Everything’s changing.

Part of me feels sad. I’m not the littlest one anymore. There’s a proper baby for Mum and Dad to fuss over. I know it’s going to be difficult to get used to that. The reason that I know it is because the other night, while we were waiting for news, Dawn put her arm around me and cuddled me close and told me how she felt when I was born – pleased and worried and excited and frightened.

So, even though I feel all those things, I know it’s going to be alright because me and Dawn are alright now. I love my big sister, and I love my big brother and I love my little brother.

I called Maya earlier to tell her Owen’s name. She and her mum both said thank you for the party. They loved it. Maya says that her mum is getting stronger every day. Maya is going to come over tomorrow to meet Owen.

But, tonight, it’s just me and my family.
So, I had better leave you too, at least for a while.

It’s been brilliant.
Love and kisses,

Kirsty
Xxx

Forty-eight

Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy!

It’s a boy!
I’ve got a baby brother!

And he’s so cute! I went to the hospital today to meet him. Ben and Dawn came too. We all sat around Mum’s bed while she held him. Then, she gave each of us a go. He’s tiny, tiny, with miniature fingers and toes and a little mouth like a baby bird. And lots of black hair. Mum says it might fall out, but right now he looks gorgeous.

We can help choose a name.
Grandad’s name was Owen. I’m voting for Owen.

Forty-seven

Whoa!

GUESS WHAT?

When I got back to the party, everyone was still having a great time. Except Mum. She was sitting in this deck chair that she couldn’t get out of, holding her massive tummy and saying ‘It’s starting, it’s starting!’

Well, then everything went crazy!
Mum came back to the house with Dad to pick up her overnight stuff. Dad asked Dawn if she was sensible enough to keep an eye on me and Ben until he could sort out a sitter. She just rolled her eyes, which Dad took as a ‘yes’.

Now, we’re at home, waiting for Dad to ring from the hospital.

Sbrother is on the way!

Forty-six

That was brilliant.
I’ve just come back to let you know how Maya and her mum and dad took it. The party is still going on, so I’ll go back soon.
We were all ready, waiting for Miss Price to drive up with Maya and her parents in the car. As soon as we saw them driving up, the steel band started playing and everyone started cheering and clapping.
Maya got out of the car slowly, her mouth hanging open. Her dad had to help her mum out, but once she was out she could stand OK and walked towards us, grinning like a mad thing.
‘What’s going on?’ Maya asked.
‘It’s a tropical beach, for you and your mum and dad just to enjoy for the day,’ I said.
And then Maya burst into tears!
Well, THAT wasn’t the reaction I’d been expecting!

I want up and gave her a hug. And then I saw that even though she was blubbing, she was smiling too. She whispered ‘thank you’, then she grabbed her mum’s hand and rushed towards the beach. Her mum rushed too! And her dad.
They went straight in.
We’d invited people from school, and people from Maya’s street and some of Maya’s relatives too – her gran and grandpa. And everyone was clapping and laughing.

Brilliant.

That was a few hours ago and since then, we’ve been dancing and eating and swimming and lazing around. We even built sandcastles! On the allotment! Dad raked A LOT of sand.

I’d better get back to the party!

Forty-five

Eek! There’s been so much to do! I haven’t had time to post.
We’ve just nipped home to pick up mum (she’s WAY to pregnant to move plants and put up hammocks and things, so she waited at home until it was ready).

The allotment looks FANTASTIC. It’s just like Barbados. Sandy, sunny and covered in lush plants. And the paddling pool is more like a swimming pool! It took HOURS to fill it up last night.

Miss Price will be bringing Maya and her parents in fifteen minutes, so we have to hurry back.

Forty-four

It has stopped raining! Well done, weather!
Not only that, but the shed in the allotment is jam-packed full with the most amazing plants. There are ferns and bromeliads and cane palms and Annabel even brought down an avocado tree that she’s been growing in a (big) pot. First thing tomorrow morning, me and Ben and Dawn are going to go and get them out of the shed and arrange them around the allotment.
Patrick’s nephew’s band will be there from noon. Patrick is going to set up a hammock (I don’t know what he’s going to tie it to – hopefully not the avocado tree! – but he says he can do it. Glynn is going to set up and barbeque.

But the best bit is Mr Thomas and his friends from the swimming pool! He says they’ve got an inflatable pool big enough for twenty people! We’re meeting them there in a minute to start filling it up, they say the sun will need all morning to heat up the water.

Dad is already moaning about all the sand he’s been having to rake out – he says it’s got in all his socks and shoes and it’s never going to come out. But he was smiling when he said it.

Tomorrow is going to be the best surprise ever!

Forty-three

It's raining!!!

It cannot rain!!!
On Saturday, we're turning the allotments into a tropical beach. I know that it does sometimes rain on tropical beaches, but it cannot rain on our beach! We are making one of those ones you see in adverts - blue sea, bluer sky, soft white sand and NO rain.

I am going to do an anti-rain dance as soon as I've finished typing.

Everything else is going to plan. Miss Price is going to help get Maya and her mum and dad to the allotments. She's going to tell them that the school need them for an urgent meeting. But, really she'll bring them here.

Maya says her mum seems to be doing a bit better, but it's still too early to know for sure.

I hope they'll like what we're doing for them. I want them all to be smiling again.

Forty-two

It is all systems go for Maya’s tropical beach!!!

I’m so excited! I met Ben at the allotments after school yesterday and we spoke to loads of people. Everyone said they’d help turn the allotments into Maya’s dream. There’s a sort of open space, near the big gate; no one plants anything there because when vans (and elephants!) come in they’d run right over it. Just now, it doesn’t look anything special, but a week on Saturday it’s going to be like Barbados!

Annabel – who has an allotment a few spaces down from us – is going to bring the plants from her conservatory, so is Glynn and Mrs Williams. And Dad said he could get us some sand from a builder friend of his. So, we made some posters about it to put around the allotments, just in case anyone else had any good ideas.

TWO things happened today because of the posters. Patrick said that his nephew is in a steel band, just like a Caribbean one, so he’s going to ask them to come and play for us. And Mr Thomas – who is quite a good friend these days – saw it and said that he could ask some people in the swimming baths if they could provide the sea!! I don’t understand who they can, but he’s going to ask them.

This is going to be the BEST surprise EVER.

Forty-one

I spoke to Maya today.

She hasn't been in school because her whole family have been away - her mum and dad and grandparents too! They went to a cottage somewhere in the countryside. Maya said they went to get fresh air and time together.
It must have been good, because she sounded really happy.

She said that her mum had the last course of chemo. Which means that she's had the last of the medicine the hospital are going to give her. Now they just have to wait to find out if it works.
Maya said that her mum was still ill and tired, but that it was nice to just laze around with her, watching telly and laughing at her dad's bad jokes.

I would hate, hate, hate it if my mum got sick. I was thinking about it after I hung up the phone. Then, thinking about it made me so sad that I rushed around the house until I found her. She was sitting on one of the hard chairs and drinking a cup of tea (she can't sit on the sofa anyone because she can't get out of it again). I gave her a huge hug so that she nearly spilled the tea.

Mum kissed the top of my head and just let me hug her without saying anything or explaining.
I love my mum.

Forty

Maya hasn’t been at school. We’ve been back for three days and she hasn’t been there once! She might be poorly, I suppose. But, I don’t think she is, because today I asked Miss Price where she was.
‘Haven’t you spoken to her?’ Miss Price said.
‘No,’ I said. ‘She hasn’t called me, or anything. And she calls me a lot now. Most days. And I called her three times, but no-one was in.’
Miss Price frowned for a bit, like she was thinking. ‘Well, I hope Maya will be back soon. But she’s staying with her grandparents for a while. I’m sure she’ll ring you when she gets back.’
‘Is she on holiday?’ I asked – because we aren’t supposed to go on holiday when it isn’t the holidays, if you see what I mean.
‘No,’ Miss Price said. ‘It’s more respite than holiday, I think.’
‘What’s respite?’ I asked.
‘Rest. They’re all having a rest.’
‘Oh,’ I said. Because, really, what else could I say?

When I got home, I called Ben. I told him about Maya being away. And he said ‘Good.’
What?
Good!?
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘It’s good, because now we can plan a tropical paradise for her and we won’t have to work so hard at keeping it secret.’
That made me feel better, because, somehow, it helps to be doing things when bad stuff is happening. So, we talked about what we’re going to do.

We’re going to turn the allotment into a tropical paradise for a day!
Ben says that everyone there will help. They’ll bring potted plants and exotic flowers from home. All we need to do is find the sand and the sea!

Thirty-nine

Boo!
Back to school tomorrow.

Ben and Dawn have been staying for the last few days. It’s been loads of fun. Mum has still been crying off and on – she says it’s way too hot to be eight months pregnant. She soaked her feet in a bucket of water this afternoon and watched tennis on the telly. So, she wasn’t too bad today.

I told Ben and Dawn about how I want to make Maya’s dream about a tropical beach come true. They said they’d help me. All we need is a truck-full of sand and some big potted plants and we’re practically there! Ben said he’d think about what we could do and then call me.

And now I have to go and finish my homework. I wish I hadn’t left it ‘til the last minute!

Thirty-eight

I love the school holidays! It’s half-term and the weather has been lovely! So, I’ve been playing out in the garden a lot and we even had a barbecue on Sunday. Mum fussed a bit, she’s all hot and bothered because the baby is getting big now. Dad says she’s got hormones running all around her body and that’s why she cries for no reason sometimes. This week she cried because the sausages got burned on the barbecue. We told her that sausages are supposed to be burned, but it didn’t help.

The best bit of the holidays, so far, was last night. Maya came over to stay. We took sleeping bags up into the attic and some cushions and books and torches. It was just like camping. When we lay under the skylight, we could look up and see the stars. It was lovely.

We didn’t go to sleep until really late. We lay on our backs, looking up at the night, and we talked. Maya and I told each other our deepest darkest secrets – which, of course, I can’t write here because then they wouldn’t be secret. But, she did say something that wasn’t a secret. She told me about what she really, really wants – she said she wants her mum to be well and for all three of them to be lying on a sandy beach under palm trees, drinking pink drinks with umbrellas in them, without anything to worry about.
It sounded lovely.
I was planning an adventure for them – canoeing down rapids, or driving huskies across the Arctic. But, of course, they don’t want that kind of adventure. They just want to feel safe and happy together.

I wonder if I can make that happen for them?

Thirty-seven

Dawn RANG me today. She’s coming over tomorrow, like normal. But she just RANG for a CHAT. Like she does with her friends all the time.

It was weird.
It was weird AND nice.

She’s much easier to talk to that she was last year. She asked questions and I really feel that she’s listening to the answers. Before, she just bit your head off all the time just for looking at her. She was like an evil witch-spider.
But these days she’s better, more of a witch-kitten – still dangerous, but quite nice to have around all the same.

Anyway, I told her about Maya and her mum. And how nice they were to me last weekend. And Dawn said that I should do something nice back. I think it’s a GREAT idea. But I don’t know what. Dawn said a present or a party, or something like that. But I think it should be something MUCH MORE fun. I think it should be An Adventure.

Now I just have to come up with an idea for what the adventure will be!

Thirty-six

Maya’s house was lovely!

I feel silly for being so scared. There was no need. I went straight to Maya’s after school on Friday. I had my pyjamas and toothbrush and everything in a backpack. We talked all the way there. Maya said she really likes pony books. I don’t read much – I prefer films. But I have seen a few horse films. We found out that Black Beauty made us both cry. But I cried at the film and she cried at the book. So we talked about that and before I knew it we were in her kitchen having glasses of juice.
Her mum was there. And she does look a bit poorly. She had circles under her eyes and her hair looked kind of wispy and thin. But then, Mum can look a bit like that too after a weekend with all of us in the house.

She was lovely to us. She had a really nice smile and she laughed when I told her all about the elephant and Grandad and the allotment over dinner.
We had quorn sausages and mash and peas for tea, but the mash was a mix of ordinary potato and sweet potato, because Maya’s mum says we have to eat lots of different veggies to stay healthy.

But after dinner wasn’t so healthy! Maya’s dad made cup-cakes with us. We got to put icing on the top with sprinkles and stars. It was great! And then we all sat on the sofa and ate cakes and watched a film. It was quite good – the newish Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp. Maya’s mum said Johnny Depp was sexy and we all giggled. But I don’t think he is, he was too weird!

But I had a lovely time and I hope I’m allowed to go again.

Thirty-five

Maya has invited me to stay over at her house at the weekend. I’ve said yes. I want to go. But there is a small part of me that feels a bit scared about it.
If her mum is really ill, it might be like going to visit Grandad at the hospital. When he was so ill, the whole place seemed sick. As though even the walls had caught it too. And I wanted to kidnap Grandad and take him out of there, because who could get better in a place like that?
Maya’s house might be like that.
I think it might make me a bad person, but I can’t help it.
I’m going on Friday. So, I’ll let you know.

Thirty-four

The loft is finished!
We have a whole new, brand new room in the house! It’s brilliant. It’s got a floor and walls and a skylight and light switches. It’s even got a little sink in the corner so you don’t have to go all the way downstairs to clean your teeth at night.
But we still don’t know whose room it’s going to be.
It all depends on whether Sbrother is a boy or a girl.
Are you concentrating? Coz this is like Hard Maths!
If Sbrother is a girl, then I stay in my room, with Sbrother. Dawn will sleep up here when she’s around and Ben will stay in the front room. I bet Dawn won’t let me sleep up here in the week when she’s at her Mum’s.
If Sbrother is a boy, then Dawn and I will sleep up here. Ben and Sbrother will share my old room.
So, now I really want a little brother!!!

Thirty-three

I spoke to Miss Price today. I wanted to ask her about Maya’s mum. And what I should do. I went to school early so that I could get a chance to see her when it was quiet.
I knocked on the staff room door and Miss Price opened it. She had make-up on one eye, but not the other and she was holding an eyeliner. I guess she can be as rushed as I am some mornings!
‘Hello, Kirsty,’ she said. ‘What can I do for you?’
‘I sort of need some advice,’ I said.
She looked serious for a second, then said ‘then you’d best come in. I hope you don’t mind me doing my other eye while we chat. My alarm didn’t go off!’
She sat on the squidgy sofa and did her make-up while I chatted. It was weird, but it made it easier somehow, it felt like talking to Mum. I think if she had been staring at me and nodding in a teacherly way then I would have felt scared.
I told her about what Maya had said, about her Mum being worse. And then, I said, ‘I don’t know what to do. I can’t make her Mum better, and I don’t know how to make Maya feel better.’
Miss Price smiled. ‘Yes, you do. You just carry on doing what you’re doing. Talk to her, listen to her, eat ice creams and do the gardening. She needs someone to treat her like a friend. That’s all. You can do that, can’t you?’
I nodded. Then, when Miss Price had finished doing her eyeliner, I asked, ‘Will Maya’s Mum be OK?’
Miss Price pressed her lips together. ‘I don’t know the answer to that. She’ll probably be fine, they caught it early. But there’s a chance she might not recover. Maya will need you then.’
It made me feel cold inside.

Thirty-two

It was a funny day today.
Maya came with me after school to the allotment. We spend a while clearing weeds and things that have started to come up because of the sunshine. We didn’t talk much, but it was nice just working away and getting hot and grubby.
She’s stopped squealing whenever she finds a worm, which is good because there are loads of worms all the time. Last time she did it, she sounded like she was watching a horror film not weeding a veggie patch.
We worked for a bit, then sat down with our backs against the shed. The sun was nice and warm, so we were kind of sunbathing.
‘It’s nice here,’ she said.
‘I know,’ I said.
‘Yes, but. I mean, it’s nicer than at home. I wish I could stay here all the time.’
I knew she had to be talking about her mum.
I didn’t really know what to say. But, I remember from last year, that the worst thing about when Grandad died was that no-one talked about it. Dad acted like it hadn’t happened and that made him ill.
So I knew I had to say something. But it felt like clouds had rolled over the sun, even though it was still as warm as ever.
‘How is she?’ I asked.
Maya looked at me. I thought she wasn’t going to speak. She looked so sad, but she wasn’t crying. She just looked tired. ‘Worse,’ she said in the end.
What does that mean?
But Maya didn’t say anything else. She stood up and said, ‘let’s go and buy an ice lolly. It’s too hot to do any work.’
So we did.

Thirty-one

Maya rang me!
It’s funny, because I didn’t know what to say at the beginning. I mean, I don’t know her very well and I wasn’t sure that I liked the bits I did know. It’s only really because of Miss Price that we’re talking at all.
So, we didn’t have much to say at the start. I asked how she was and she said ‘fine’. And then she asked how I was and I said ‘fine’. And then neither of us said anything.
But then Mum started shouting because Martin had been doing some painting and he’d left the lid, paint-up, on the floor. And Mum stepped in it. And she had no shoes on (which was stupid because she is always telling us to wear shoes because of the builders). And she yelled because she was making lilac footprints on the landing carpet.
I was quiet while all this was going on, because sometimes it’s just better to keep your ears open and your mouth shut.
But, on the other end of the phone, Maya could hear the screaming and she said ‘What’s that? A herd of elephants?’. So I told her what was happening and we laughed.
After that, it was quite easy.
We just talked about stuff, school and telly and nothing much really, but it was nice.
She’s going to come to the allotment with me later.