A Girl Called Blue (7 page)

‘Be a good girl, now,’ said Sister Monica, ‘and reach up and pass me the cocoa tin from the top shelf there.’

Blue stood up and passed down the yellow and red tin.

‘Perhaps I’ll have one myself,’ pondered the nun as she prised open the lid with a spoon. ‘Would you like one too?’

Blue hesitated. She had never tasted hot cocoa before.

‘Yes, please, Sister.’

She watched as the nun added more milk to the pan and then stirred in three large spoons of the chocolate-coloured powder.
‘The trick is not to let it boil over.’

A few minutes later Blue was holding a large mug of the sweet, warm, chocolate drink, savouring each mouthful slowly, with Sister Monica sitting opposite her.

‘Did you see the ladies’ expressions when you gave them your best African whoop?’ the nun laughed. ‘It did my heart good to see those ladies and the rest of the sisters here jump. They didn’t know what to make of you. Little Bo Peep and a bunny rabbit are much safer options for those judges.’

Somehow, sitting there, talking and laughing about it, the day didn’t seem so bad after all, and Blue went to bed feeling less downhearted. Molly waited up to show her the skipping rope she had won as a prize.

But the next night the yellow magazine was gone. Blue searched high and low for it, even taking her mattress off the bed just in case it had slipped under it or into the bed springs. But there was no sign of it. It was gone!

‘Molly, did you see my book?’ she asked anxiously.

‘Book?’

‘My book with the yellow cover, the one I always read.’

Molly shook her head.

‘Molly, I won’t be cross if you borrowed it or pretended it was yours for a while once you give it back to me.’ She tried to keep the panic from her voice, not wanting to make the little girl even more nervous.

‘I don’t have it, Blue. Honest I don’t.’

‘Did you see it?’

‘No.’

Molly was telling the truth.

She went around the room from bed to bed asking everyone about her
National Geographic
, desperate to ascertain which of the girls had stolen it.

‘Are you sure you didn’t see it?’ she asked over and over again.

Even Joan and her friends seemed to have no knowledge of what had happened to her most prized possession.

‘I have to find it!’ she screamed at the rest of the girls. ‘I need it. It’s mine!’

Lil and Mary and Jess reassured her that it would definitely turn up.

Molly sat on Blue’s bed, watching her get undressed. Over and over again, Blue was replaying in her mind what could have happened. Mary and Jess had asked in all the other dormitories if anyone had seen it and so far nobody admitted knowing anything about it. It was a mystery and Blue intended to solve it. She hoped that Sister Regina hadn’t somehow discovered it.

‘Molly, will you go and get into bed. I’m too tired to tell you a story tonight.’

‘Why are you so sad?’ Molly asked.

Blue pulled on her nightdress. ‘That book is very special to me,’ she explained.

‘Why?’ asked the little girl.

‘Because,’ Blue was getting tearful, ‘because when I read my book it makes me think of different things, things you wouldn’t understand yet because you’re too young. I’m afraid that without the pictures, without my book, I’ll forget them’

‘You won’t forget, silly,’ teased Molly, curling up in bed. ‘I never forget my mammy. I still see her in my head all the time even though she’s gone to heaven.’

Blue swallowed hard. She must be the most selfish, stupid girl
in the whole of Dublin, fussing over a tatty old magazine when little Molly was still grieving for her mother.

‘Molly, you’re such a pet. You definitely deserve a story. What about “Cinderella”?’

The little girl cuddled up close as Blue began.

In the midnight hours she closed her eyes and, just as Molly said, the pictures came. She didn’t need the pages, the words, the shiny, glossy photographs. She could create the landscapes in her head. It was a sort of magic that she possessed, a magic that neither Sister Regina nor the Maguires nor anyone else could ever take from her as she left the grey walls and high ceilings behind and saw the glorious colourful pictures in her head.

‘Hooray for the summer holidays,’ they all shouted as the battered green bus drove them down through the countryside. It was August and the children from Larch Hill were going to spend a week at the seaside in Wicklow.

Blue sat beside Jess and Molly on the leatherette seat, squashed against the window. Molly’s face was pale and she had been sick once already.

‘Travel sickness,’ announced Sister Carmel, who was in charge of the expedition. She passed them a brown paper bag for Molly to be sick into.

‘Poor thing,’ murmured Jess.

‘We’ll be there soon, Molly, honest we will,’ Blue told her.

An hour later the bus turned into Brittas Bay and the children began to scream and shout as some of them recognised in the distance the roof of the old convent where they would be staying.

‘Sit down, children! Sit down!’ ordered Sister Carmel.

The minute the bus stopped there was a mad stampede into the big convent and up the stairs, Blue and Mary and Lil and Jess racing like lunatics to get a room together. There were no big
dormitories in this convent, just large, four-bedded rooms.

Blue made sure that Molly was in the room beside hers with Sarah’s little sister Roisín and two others her own age. Sarah and herself agreed to share the chore of minding the smaller ones if there were any problems.

‘Look out the window!’ shouted Lil.

‘It’s the sea,’ they chorused, taking in huge galps of salt air as they gazed at the deep blue of the Irish Sea.

They all unpacked as quick as lightning, then pulled out their swimming togs and put them on before grabbing towels and running down to join the throng of children out on the front lawn. Sister Carmel had been joined by Sister Paul, a nun from this seaside convent, and they were organising everyone for a walk to the beach.

‘Stay in line, children! We don’t want to lose anyone,’ they ordered.

Blue loved the feel of the sand between her toes as she carried her shoes and walked barefoot. The sand was warm and tickled her skin. She sat down happily in the sunshine, watching the nuns organise plastic buckets and spades for the smaller ones, who were fighting over the colours.

Molly ran up to show off her red bucket and yellow spade.

‘I’m going to build a big castle,’ she said proudly, crouching down in the sand with a look of concentration on her face.

‘This is the life,’ sighed Lil. She flopped down beside Blue and they watched the waves roll in one after another along the shore, the sun warm on their bodies.

‘Anyone for a paddle or a swim?’ asked Sister Paul. ‘I’ll watch you.’

The four friends jumped up and ran down to the sea, shrieking and jumping and splashing in the freezing water.

‘It’s so cold!’ shouted Jess, throwing herself into the waves, the others watching enviously as she swam parallel to the shore and out deeper than any of the others would dare. She was like a fish in the water.

Mary could doggy-paddle and just about keep her head above water, but she didn’t like to go out of her depth; she’d had a scare in the Iveagh baths one time and was a bit nervous ever since. Blue loved the water and, once she got fully wet and used to the cold, she could float and do a few strokes. She longed to be able to swim like Jess. Lil waded out as far as her waist but refused to get down or put her head near the water.

‘Go on, Lil!’ they coaxed, but their friend would not budge.

‘The water gets warmer once you’re in, honest it does. You’ll feel a hundred times better if you just lie down and swim.’

Lil just laughed and shook her head. She couldn’t swim and, unlike her friends, was nervous of the water, no matter how nice it looked.

Afterwards they dried themselves in their hard towels, their arms and legs pink as they pulled on their skirts and blouses and headed back to the house for a sausage-and-mash tea.

In the dining room everyone was laughing and chatting and telling what they did. It was very different from Larch Hill. No Sister Regina or Sister Agnes to glare at you or reprimand you for a
whole week! Blue looked over to the table where Sister Carmel and Sister Paul were chatting away with the other nuns from the seaside convent. She had never seen nuns laugh and talk so much. She supposed nuns needed a holiday just as much as the rest of them.

The sun shone brightly every day for the week and they went for long walks on the beach and for lots of swims. They clambered on the rocks and watched the occasional boat come in or go out. There were races on the lawn and dances at night, with Sister Paul showing them how to do the twist, her black veil almost falling off her head as she spun around. At Sunday mass all the local people complimented them on their singing and good behaviour as they filed into the small parish church.

Blue felt lazy and relaxed, her extra bead-making and cleaning duties forgotten, as she stretched in the sun and yawned with all the fresh air. At night they slept with their curtains open so they could see the moon shine on the sea, the silvery glow beckoning them to sleep.

Molly built castle after castle like some burrowing creature. She had taken to the sand in a big way.

‘My daddy is a builder,’ she announced.

Blue was dragged off to admire each new venture.

‘This is Cinderella’s castle,’ Molly boasted, showing Blue the stairs where the famous glass slipper had been lost. Overnight the tide would roll in and wash away her work, but, unperturbed, Molly would go down to the beach next morning and begin again.

Sister Paul and Sister Carmel organised a huge treasure hunt along the beach and the surrounding area.

‘The clues are everywhere,’ Sister Paul told them. ‘And are spread over the beach, and the dunes behind us and over towards the grassy sandbanks. There are no clues on the roadway, so you don’t need to go there. Finding each clue will lead you on to the next. If you get badly stuck you may come to Sister Clare or myself for enlightenment.’ She smiled. ‘And the good news is that the first pair home will win a big prize. Now, all get into pairs!’

Blue grabbed hold of Jess immediately, the two of them hopping up and down, determined they were going to win. Mary and Lil began plotting and planning too.

‘Are you all ready, girls?’ asked Sister Paul, her face looking serious. ‘Now, listen well! The first clue is:
I might save your life.’

Everyone stood totally still for a few seconds, then they took off, running along the beach in different directions.

‘It’s the life preserver, the ring!’ shouted Jess, racing ahead of everyone down the sand to where the white and red wooden pole held the ring and the rope, a few others following them. But they got there first.

‘Quick, Jess, see what the next clue is!’ said Blue.

A big piece of paper had been stuck in behind the ring.

‘I carry my house on my back but be careful or I might pinch you.’

Blue and Jess ran up the beach away from the others, considering the clue. It could be a crab or something like that.

‘What about the pool over there?’ suggested Jess.

They ran towards it. There were small little crabs hiding in the
seaweed and in the sand, but there was no sign of a clue. Disappointed, they looked around trying to think where else it could be.

‘What about over there!’ suggested Blue, pointing to the far side of the beach. ‘Remember, Sister Paul took Molly and the younger kids down there the other day with their nets.’

Looking around to make sure no one was watching them, they set off. The pools were smaller, and surrounded by seaweed, but there were plenty of tiny crabs here too. Beside a piece of driftwood was a white card with another clue:
‘Sailors loved me.’

What in heaven’s name could that be? The sea, the waves, a boat? Giddy with excitement, the two girls chased way down to the opposite end of the beach where the wreck of an old boat lay overturned, delighted there was no sign of any of the other treasure hunters catching them up.

The new clue puzzled them totally: ‘
A dunce without the sea
.’

They just couldn’t figure it out. They sat in the sand looking around at everything.

‘I’ve no idea what it is,’ admitted Jess.

‘Let’s go up into the dunes,’ suggested Blue. ‘From there we can see everything.’

They trudged up over the warm golden sand, climbing the steep slope of the dune, the sand shifting beneath their feet.

‘Hey!’ said Jess, doing two cartwheels in the sand. ‘You could get lost up here and no one would ever find you.’

They stretched out in the sunlight, the sand forming a wind barrier as they rested. It was magic up there, hidden from the
world, safe in the long grass. Blue scanned the horizon, trying to see if anything could help jog their minds.

‘I don’t know what it is!’ she said, annoyed. ‘Dunce – sea? Where’s the link? Maybe we’ll have to go ask them!’

‘No!’ Jess was adamant they would solve it themselves.

‘This hunt is going to take hours.’

‘D’ye think?’

‘Yeah, I can see Mary and Lil, and a whole gang of others way down the far side of the beach. They haven’t even found the clue for the boat yet.’

‘I’m queen of the dune,’ Jess announced, surveying all before her. ‘This is my dune,’ she yelled.

Blue shrieked. ‘I’ve got it, Jess. Where are we? In a dune. A D.U.N.E.! A dunce without the C! Very clever, Sister Paul!’

They scrambled over the dunes until they came across a wooden post with a card nailed onto it. The card said
Winners
in large letters. Grabbing the card, they raced back to Sister Paul.

‘Well done, girls!’ she congratulated them. ‘You’re first back.’

They sat in the sand watching as the others came back in dribs and drabs after them. Mary and Lil were disgusted. They just couldn’t figure out the last clue. Sister Paul gave Blue and Jess a shell picture each and a big box of Lemons sweets, everyone clapping for the best treasure hunters.