Penny Black

Chapter 2

It was drizzly and misty, like someone had left the day out in the rain and it was cold.

Penny's pink legs, exposed by the pleated mini-skirt, shook as she stood as an outcast on the school playing field. She didn't know where to be, except to stand and hope that nothing came her way and to pray that it would soon be over. This was the game of Rounders and it was worse than eating sprouts. Really bad. All she could think about was home-time and Daddy and chips. She at too many chips, or so Mummy said.

And so, the time had come. The teams must change and she had to bat. Rounders was a mystery to her. So far as she had been able to tell, it involved trying to hit a dead-weight ball to some far flung corner of the field. Then they wanted you to run in a big circle while other flailed about trying to find the ball. All this, before you tried to get back to where you started, without falling over. What was the point?

'Penny,' yelled Miss Belcher, the PE teacher. This was it, she was on show and last night's Tummy Turns where in her throat.

She did what she thought she saw the other girls do. She bent her legs, semi-crouched like an injured frog as the bat felt like at tonne weight in her hands. She steadied herself, ready for the ball to hurtle its way towards her. Pointless really because she always missed. But there she was, staring down the field and there was no way out of it. Of course, before she even had a chance to focus, it was too late. The ball was on its way, like a planet hurtling towards the sun in a hopeless collision that would only end badly. She tried to move; to throw herself free of the ball's course. She was supposed to hit the thing but she was terrified of it and she couldn't move, either to hit it or to get away. Before she could give it a moment's more thought, it was upon her. Everything flew past her in a spin; the ground, the horizon, the sky as it turned black with a flight of squalling crows. As she fell backwards, she was propelled by the misty mulch of mud beneath her cheap trainers. The thud in the back of her brain told her that she had landed. She expected it to hurt but it didn't. Well, either it didn't hurt or she didn't notice because of the pain in her mouth.

She lay there for some time. It seemed that way, anyway. And nobody came. It was so quiet and she couldn't see. Was it the misty morning clouding her view? Why were the faces above her blurred? What were they saying? She could see mouths moving as they came into clearer view.

'Owwww,' she cried. As her view cleared so did her other senses. This was unbearable and the strange taste in her mouth said it all. She was bleeding and it hurt. She didn't know where she was bleeding from exactly but there was a LOT of blood and the faces didn't seem to care. One of them was the PE teacher and as Penny's senses heightened more, her ears made no mistake.

'Get up, for goodness sake and get yourself to the office. Tabitha, go with her.' Sympathy was not Miss Belcher's strong point. As Penny rolled herself up from the ground, the blood dripped like a tap and she cupped her chin as it continued to fall. She limped and slipped across the slimy field and cried as her lip hung open. Then she heard, through the mist...

'And YOU,' shouted the teacher. 'Get yourself to Mrs Cane's office, NOW.'

Penny's tummy did another turn. The only thing worse than this pain was being the cause of the Sunshine Girls' troubles and she was in-for-it when this was over.

Melody had been bowling and hit Penny square in the face with the rock-hard bowling ball. She ran past Penny now, with her pony tail bobbing along, not a hair of it out of place despite the drizzle. Melody snarled and glared at Penny.

'I'll get you for this.' As sick as this made Penny feel, she couldn't help notice a flash of fear in Melody's face. Penny felt sure it was the fear of being less than perfect and Penny knew that she was the one would pay.

At last, the school day ended and as Penny collected her coat and bag, Melody shuffled right up close and leaned in, as if to speak. Instead she gripped Penny's wrist until it burned and under her breath Melody sang, 'Nobody loves you, everybody hates you' and with that she skipped away to join her friends as they all turned to Penny and laughed. Penny's bruised and brittle lips tightened as she swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped the sting of a tear from her eye. And so it was, every day after that. A sly dig here, a sly dig there and no-one to tell. The teachers were too busy handing out certificates to the Sunshine Girls while Penny dissolved into the background and waited for each day to end.

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Finally, relief came at 3pm on Friday. That evening, safe at home, Penny tucked into her tea. This was her favourite time of day. Everyone was together at home, in the same place. Bentley sat quietly at her feet, his chin rested on her lap in the hope of a fallen scrap. Those big brown eyes got her every time and she silently let a piece of tasty chicken 'accidentally' fall to the floor. As she ate and secretly supplied the dog with treats, Penny's week of Tummy Turns stopped. Each mouthful was a reminder that she was safe and warm and it was Friday. Monday, and all its usual troubles, was far, far away for now.

'Penny,' said Mum, 'time for jim-jams and you'll be allowed back down to watch a little bit of TV.'

Fridays were the best. As long as she put on those polka dot jim-jams and brushed her teeth, she would be allowed back downstairs to snuggle into Daddy's arms, with the deep blue velvet blanket from her bed. A real treat. She was so excited to be allowed to do this and yet every time, all she did was fall asleep! Every Saturday morning she woke in her own bed but didn't remember a thing about getting there.

It was dark when she woke. It didn't fell like Saturday morning at all. There were no shafts of light through her yellow bedroom curtains and no duvet wrapping her up in its warm folds. As her fuzzy eyes cleared, the living room came into view. Why was she still here? Had she slept at all? Where was Daddy? For that matter, where was Mum? And then she heard it.

The sound of someone being poorly is never a nice one and this sounded like someone being very poorly indeed. She couldn't hear who it was. The sound of being sick doesn't have a particular voice and it was a muffle, carried from upstairs, behind the bathroom door. It could only be Daddy or Mum. She climbed the stairs to the bathroom. Cue the Tummy Turns. Before she could go any further, Mum flew past her with a wet tea towel. She hadn't heard Penny creep out from the living room, in her soft bed-socks but she had heard the creak of the third step from the bottom of the stairs. Mum moved so fast, she was at the bathroom door before Penny could understand what was going on.

'Daddy's a bit poorly,' said Mum, 'don't go in. It's not nice.'

'Yes, sweetie,' she heard Daddy say. 'I'm alright. Just your Mum's cooking but you can go to bed now. There's nothing to worry about.'

Go to bed? She never 'went' to bed on a Friday. On Fridays she fell asleep in a cloud of love, in the crook of Daddy's arm and never had to worry about a thing until she woke, in the safety of her bed.

'But Daddy, I need you to take me to bed.'

It was silent for a moment then she heard him take a breath, ready to speak, except he didn't speak; he made that terrible gut turning sound again. Her eyes felt hot and her knees stopped working as she fell to the landing floor and cried for Daddy.

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She had waited for Daddy to come and say good night. She had waited so long, a whoosh of birds took their early morning flight from the tree outside her bedroom window, before she started to doze. As she fell into her dreams, the sound of creaking timber gave way to a gaping hole in the stairs through which she began to fall and somewhere, in the midst of all of it, she recalled the softly spoken voices of kindness telling her Mum not to worry. She woke with a start. If there was nothing to worry about, where was Daddy and why was Mum downstairs, crying in the kitchen?