Lemonade Sky

“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.

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“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.”