Jean Ure - Lemonade Sky

Hastily, I seized a tablespoon out of the drawer, scooped up as much as I could and poured it back into the bag. It probably wasn’t very hygienic cos I didn’t know when Mum had last had a cleaning session, but the way I saw it, flour was used for cooking and cooking killed germs. Anyhow, it was only Her Upstairs.

I went back into the sitting room. Her Upstairs was standing there, with her arms folded. Tizz was looking defiant. Sammy had rushed off to hide behind the sofa.

“I found it,” I said. “There’s still some left.”

I held out the bag. Her Upstairs took it, rather grimly. She removed the elastic band, looked in the bag and went, “Huh!” Then she looked at my top and went, “Hmph!”

“Mum was going to give it back,” I said.

“Not before she managed to get through three quarters of it, I see. What on earth was she making?”

I looked helplessly at Tizz.

“Can’t remember,” said Tizz.

“I was under the impression she merely wanted a sprinkle. Perhaps you would be kind enough to inform her, when she gets back, that I should appreciate it, in future, if she would not come to me when she runs out of something.”

“I will,” I said. “I’ll tell her.”

“Thank you. I should be grateful.”

Her Upstairs moved off, towards the door. I followed her, anxiously. Please, just let her go.

As she passed the table, where we’d laid out the stuff we’d found in the cupboard, she paused for a moment. I could almost hear her nosy parker brain ticking over.

What are they doing with all those tins? Where is their mother? What is going on?

It was Tizz, again, who came to the rescue.

“We’re tidying up the cupboard,” she said.

“Hm!” Her Upstairs gave a sniff. “Not before time, I dare say.”

I resented that! It was criticism of Mum. Like saying she wasn’t good at keeping things in order. Maybe she wasn’t, but so what? She was our mum and we loved her! We didn’t mind if the cupboards were in a mess. And what was it to do with Her Upstairs anyway?

“I hate that woman,” said Tizz, when the door was safely closed.

I didn’t like her very much either, especially when she was so mean about Mum, though I could sort of understand why she didn’t want Mum asking for stuff any more. Cos I didn’t think, really, that Mum had been going to give the flour back. Not that she would have kept it on purpose; just that it would have slipped her mind.

I said this to Tizz, but she got all angry and snapped, “Don’t defend her, she’s horrible! And you—” she whizzed round on Sammy, crawling out from behind the sofa. “Don’t go running off to answer the door when you don’t know who it is! You don’t want us all to be split up, do you? Cos that’s what’ll happen if Her Upstairs finds out!”

Sammy’s lower lip started to wobble. Tears came into her eyes. “I thought it was Mum!”

“If it had been Mum, she’d have used her key.”

I thought, yes, if she hadn’t lost it or had her bag stolen. I told Sammy to cheer up.

“We’ll go shopping in a minute. That’ll be fun!”

“Buy nice things?” said Sammy.

“We’ll see.”

“Fishy fingers!”

“Maybe.”

Sammy glanced slyly at Tizz. “– Fishy fingers! We want fishy fingers!”

But Tizz wasn’t playing any more. “Don’t keep on,” she said. “It’s a question of what we can afford.”

At last! She was beginning to give me some support. She didn’t even grumble when I insisted on finding a new hiding place for our emergency fund.

“I’m just scared,” I said, “that if we take it with us we might be tempted to spend it, and then we’ll be left with nothing.”

Tizz said, “Right.”

“I mean, I know Mum could be back at any moment—”

She could! She really could! She could be there waiting for us when we got back from Tesco.

“It’s just… you know! In case she isn’t.”

“This is it,” said Tizz. “Got to be prepared.”

Life was so much easier when Tizz decided to cooperate.

“We’ve absolutely got to watch what we’re spending,” I said, as we wheeled our trolley into Tesco. It did make me feel a bit important, being in charge of the shopping. I told Tizz that she was to add things up as we went round.

“Make sure we don’t overspend.”

Tizz said, “OK.”

“We’ve got £9.75. So when we get up to £9 you’ve got to let me know.”

“OK,” said Tizz.

We set off down the first aisle, heading for the bread counter. We’d been to Tesco loads of times with Mum, which was just as well cos otherwise it would have been really confusing. I picked up two large loaves and put them in the trolley.

“That’s two at 55p,” I said.

“Got it,” said Tizz.

Sammy’s hand was already reaching out towards the cakes. She likes the little squishy ones covered in green and pink goo. Mum sometimes lets her have one as a treat.

“Rubeee!” She tugged at my arm. “Cakies!”

“Not now,” I said.

“Mum would let me!”

“Mum’s not here,” said Tizz.

“And anyway,” I said, “they’re not good for you.”

Sammy’s face crumpled. A woman walking past smiled, sympathetically.

“They are nice, though,” she said, “aren’t they?”

Well! That wasn’t a very helpful remark. I hastily hauled Sammy off towards the milk and eggs. I reached out for two cartons of milk and stared in outrage.

“£1.18?” Just for a carton of milk?

“That’s £3.36,” said Tizz.

“Just for milk?”

Tizz shrugged.

“That’ll only leave us…” I did some frantic finger work.

“£6.39,” said Tizz.

I was beginning to understand how it was that Mum kept running out of money and having to buy things on tick and borrow stuff from Her Upstairs. Rather grimly, I marched on down the aisle.

“Marge.”

Sammy opened her mouth and let out a wail. “Don’t like marge!”

“Nobody does,” said Tizz. “We’ve all just got to put up with it.”

I was so thankful that Tizz was being supportive at last. It was like the reality of the situation had suddenly hit her. Mum had disappeared and we were on our own. And if we didn’t want to be split up, we had to learn how to take care of ourselves. It wasn’t any use splurging on pink cakes and chocolate biscuits, then being forced to throw ourselves on the mercy of Her Upstairs cos we’d run out of money and there wasn’t any food left.

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