Penny Black

Chapter 1

Freckle-faced Penny, with her tight red curls, had chosen isolation. Today, alone in the playground with only a book for company, she thought she preferred it that way. Perhaps it was better than being surrounded by the Sunshine Girls, as she liked to think of them; glossy haired creatures, with pony tails that bounced with ease. Their care-free, quick-to-tan Summer fun was a constant and painful reminder that she was a bubbling mess of sunburn, heat rash and snotty tears, excluded from it all. It was better to be lonely, she decided, than be different in a crowd.

In this quiet haven of shade, in the corner of the playground Penny could drown out the other kids' happy squeals of being popular. She wondered what it felt like to be them. With only two months left of Palam Primary they all looked so ready for high school. She felt like she would never keep up. Her fair eyebrows lowered into a thoughtful scowl and her burnt and peeling nose wrinkled like a withered flower. Year 6 had been harder than the years before. She didn't see it getting any better at Caligo Girls. She chewed her pursed and sun-chapped lips in concentration as she dived into her book and lost herself to the world within.

She didn't see them coming; two of the Sunshine Girls had appeared and with their shrill, bright voices they burst her quiet bubble. They were so close now, she could feel their breath on each cheek, as they chimed, 'What have you got there, Bookworm?' and, 'Let's have a look,' as they whisked the book from her hands.

No-one had ever been interested in what she read. Bubbles of excitement sparkled from the bottom of her tummy to the top of her head. This left her a little bit giddy, wondering what to do. Maybe these girls wanted to borrow her book or make up a story with her right now; act it out like a play-time performance they could all call their own. They could each take a part and map out, in their minds-eye, the landscape of their tale across the tree-edged playground. Those trees would be the deep, dark forest where secret creatures lived. The gravel expanse of the playground would be the vast ocean to cross in pursuit of some unknown and undiscovered land. They would track those creatures down, that lived within the dense undergrowth; explorers, all of them. Together. Later, she thought, they would be invited to someone's house for tea. They would write down their playground story and make costumes from old clothes; play her game for a change. Friends!

They were gone before Penny realised the laughter in her day-dream was no more than an echo from the Sunshine Girls. They giggled and squealed as they ran about the playground, launching the book from one to the other, as its pages whipped and ripped in the air, like her dreams.

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'Pennyyyyy,' called Mum from the kitchen. 'Time to get your jim-jams on and come and say goodnight.'

Once her homework was done, Penny was allowed to put on her pyjamas and snuggle up on the sofa where she could tuck herself into the cosy, shirt-cotton crook of Daddy's arm. Bentley the Border Collie took up his position at her feet with a sigh that said his life was complete. She wished that she could stay like this forever, snuggled up in her favourite jim-jams. They were white brushed cotton with enormous multi-coloured polka dots. They were the only ones she would wear and Mum had grumbled at buying so many pairs of the same pattern. This morning's playground problems felt like a million miles away now. Her tummy was full, the memory of fish fingers and chips fighting with bedtime toothpaste in a happy war of taste buds. She closed her eyes and hoped that bed-time would never come; hoped that the morning could be pushed further and further away and out of sight, disappearing like a storm over the horizon. She hated Tuesdays, The weekend before was too much of a happy memory and the weekend to come was just too far away. It was also PE Day at school. This was Monday night blues.

'Come on, Missy,' said Dad. She knew it was time. That full tummy turned upside down and inside out, all at the same time. She hated the Tummy Turns. She wasn't sure if she wanted to cry or be sick. They felt the same sometimes and it made her chin wobble.

'Will you tuck me in, Dad?', she pleaded, with her watery blue eyes as she looked for reassurance. He ruffled her helmet of curls and tickled her until her tummy forgot what day it was, until she was out of breath and tired enough to climb the stairs to bed. Bentley, her very best friend, bolted into the hall to wave her off with his fluffy tail and she did her little hop as Daddy held her, up and above the third step from the bottom of the stairs. That was the creaky step and she couldn't step on it; she wouldn't. It was all wrong and she would dream of falling through a hole in the floor if she didn't miss it out.

She pulled her bedroom curtains tight, to ward off the monsters of morning and in her usual scramble to get under the covers and hide, she knocked her bedside table. Daddy wasn't far behind her and he caught everything before it fell but this time, as she turned to say good night, she noticed something different among the loom bands and books that littered the table-top.

'This...', breathed Daddy, with a magical smile, 'This was Grandma's. It is very, very special and really quite old but, as you're a big girl now, I am going to let you look after it.'

Penny had never seen this thing before and she didn't know where it had been all this time but it was beautiful; a paper-weight as big as a tennis ball, crystal clear with white ribbons dancing inside it, around a galaxy of stars. And then she saw it; a flash of light, like the birth of a tiny universe, right in the centre of the paper-weight. She gasped. She turned to Daddy to tell him but he had already placed a finger to his lips to say 'Hush.'

Tucked safely under the covers with JoJo, the monkey bear and with Daddy reading a story from his usual spot at the end of the bed, Penny counted a million silver stars until she was dancing with ribbons in her dreams, in a crystal ball of light. Through the stars the universe called her name, as softly as a silk ribbon floats in the breeze. In the midst of her dreams she heard Daddy's soft voice.

'Count the stars until you sleep,' he whispered, 'and I'll see you in the morning.'

Penny hadn't even noticed that tonight, Daddy didn't have to sit with her until she slept.