‘I suppose so,’ sighs Hilary, knowing what is coming next.
‘Poor Colette with no sisters or brothers, and not many friends either. And no mammy to have her dinner ready after school like I do for you, pet. You’re so lucky with the family and friends you have. You always have someone to play with when you come home from school, so wouldn’t it be a kindness to invite Colette to your party? Because I know that you are a very kind little girl. Now go and play with her and I’ll bring some lemonade and banana sandwiches out into the garden for the two of you, and you can have a picnic for tea,’ her mother says briskly.
But I don’t want to be a very kind little girl, Hilary wants to shout at her mother. But she knows she can’t. Sally has high expectations of her children. Kindness to others is mandatory in the Kinsella household. Whether she likes it or not, Hilary has to be kind to Colette O’Mahony and, yet again, endure her unwanted presence at her much anticipated birthday party.
Tears smart Colette O’Mahony’s eyes as she scurries away from the door where she has been listening to Hilary and Mrs Kinsella discussing whether or not she should be invited to Hilary’s crummy birthday party. Colette’s heart feels as though a thousand, no a million nettles have stung it. Mrs Kinsella has said ‘poor Colette’ in a pitying sort of voice. She is not poor. She has her own bedroom and doesn’t have to share with an older sister. She has loads of good dresses and other clothes. Hilary Kinsella only has one good dress for Sundays. And most important of all, Colette has a servant at home to make her dinner when she comes home from school.
Mummy calls her ‘the housekeeper’, but Colette tells all the girls in her class that Mrs Boyle is her ‘servant’.
Mrs Boyle will make jelly and ice cream and many delicious fairy cakes and chocolate Rice Krispie buns and a huge chocolate birthday cake for her birthday. Hilary will only have a cream sponge and Toytown biscuits and lemonade and crisps. This thought comforts Colette. It is only through her supreme sense of superiority that she is able to process the enormous envy she has for all that Hilary has. She hates that her mother works four days a week and Mrs Boyle – who is quite strict for a servant – looks after her three days, and Mrs Kinsella minds her on Thursdays.
How she longs to spend a summer in a caravan and play on the beach all day. How she longs to join the Secret Six Gang that Hilary and her sister and cousins are part of every summer in Bettystown. It sounds even more exciting than the Five Find-Outers stories that Mrs Boyle sometimes reads to her. Well she is going to start her own secret gang and Hilary is not going to be allowed to be part of it, Colette vows.
The nettle stings in her heart are soothed somewhat at this promise to herself as she observes Hilary marching out of the kitchen with a cross look on her face. ‘We have to go and play outside and then we’re having our tea in the garden,’ she announces with a deep sigh.
‘My servant gives me a push on my swing before my picnic in my garden,’ Colette declares, eyeballing her best friend. ‘It’s a pity you don’t have a servant or a swing,’ she adds haughtily before sashaying out into Hilary’s back garden.
‘Get me twenty Player’s, and ten Carrolls for your ma and get yourself a few sweets.’ Gus Higgins hands Jonathan a pound note and pats him on the shoulder. ‘Don’t be long, now,’ says Gus. ‘I’m gaspin’ for a fag!’
‘OK, Mr Higgins,’ Jonathan says, looking forward to the Trigger Bar he’s going to buy as his treat. The fastest way to the shop is through the lane, halfway down his road, but he decides against it. The lane is a gathering place for some of the boys in his class to play marbles or football. It is no place for him. ‘Nancy boy’ and ‘poofter’ they call him, and while he does not know what ‘poofter’ means, he knows it’s a nasty and spiteful taunt. He takes the longer route, and crosses the small village green to Nolan’s Supermarket. ‘Hi, Jon,’ he hears Alice Walsh call, and smiles as his best friend catches up with him.
‘Guess what? My daddy gave me six empty shoeboxes from his shop so we can make a three-storey doll’s house with them. Can you come over tomorrow?’
‘Deadly.’ Jonathan feels a great buzz of excitement. ‘Mam has some material from curtains she is making for Mrs Doyle; we can use it for our windows. And we’ll make some ice-pop-stick chairs and tables. But I have to clean out the fire and set it and do some other jobs for Mam first and then I’ll come over. See ya.’
‘See ya!’ she echoes cheerfully before he opens the door to the shop and hears the bell give its distinctive ping. Mr Nolan is stacking shelves and he takes his time before serving Jonathan. ‘Don’t smoke all those at the one go,’ he says, giving him a wink as he hands over the change. All the big boys buy Woodbines after school. Jonathan tried smoking once and it made him sick and dizzy, so Mr Higgins’s
