Chapter 22: Saturday, Bec and Bec and Bec.

Editor’s Note:
The next page is undated and unsigned but it is written on the hospital stationery in Bec’s distinctive handwriting and context places it here.

I sat on the rug between our beds and played with Lucy, running the tiny brush through her hair. I chatted with her as I brushed, telling her about my day.

The door burst open and a girl stepped through. She slammed the door behind her and leaned against it, panting like she’d just been running.

I looked her up and down. She was wearing plain blue cotton pyjamas and her hair was loose and wild. I looked at her face and then I knew.

“You’re me,” I said.

She blinked and looked down at me like she just noticed me. She looked at me for a moment with her eyes sweeping all over me. “That’s right,” she said, eventually. “I’m you and you’re me.”

“You’re tall,” I said. “You got old.”

She nodded.

“How old are you?” I asked.

“I just turned 13,” she said.

“Wow,” I said with my eyes all big.

“I’m only 6,” I said. “I can’t imagine me being 13. How did that happen?”

She grinned at me. “Slowly. One day at a time. The way getting older always happens.”

“That’s a lot of days,” I said.

She shrugged and nodded. “Yep.”

Then she looked around the bedroom.

“Is it okay if I hang out in here with you?” she asked.

I shrugged. “Okay,” I said. “I’m playing with Lucy.”

She came over to the rug and sat cross-legged in front of me.

Immediately there was a thumping sound from next to me when Percival’s tail started whacking the floor. Percival hauled himself to his feet and went over to greet the older me. I giggled and ducked because his tail kept slapping me in the face with all the wagging.

“Hello Percival,” said older me. “I’ve missed you so much.”

She put her arms around his neck and hugged him, burying her face in his neck.

I frowned. “Why have you missed him? Don’t you see him every day?”

She looked over at me with her big brown eyes and looked sad for a moment. But then she said “I haven’t seen him for a while. Don’t worry about it.”

Then she leaned over and kissed the top of my forehead like Mummy sometimes does.

I could tell she was hiding something from me but she said not to worry about it so I didn’t.

Then Percival tried to lick her face and she cowered away and said, “Eew, stinky breath.”

I giggled cos that’s what I always say when he tries to give me doggy kisses.

Percival lay down on the rug and put his head in her lap. She sat there and fondled his ears and stroked his head the same way I do.

I looked down at myself and over at her. “We’re both wearing pyjamas,” I said. “But these are my spotty flannel ones and you have those plain blue cotton ones.”

She grinned at me. “That’s right,” she said. “Some things don’t change. I still like wearing pyjamas, but those spotty ones got left behind when we moved. Not that they would fit me anymore.”

I tilted my head to the side and looked at her. “Is it scary being so grown up?”

She grinned at me. “Yes,” she said like it was funny. But then she said “Not always.” Then she tilted her head back at me and looked serious. “Sometimes.”

Then she looked embarrassed, “I’m not feeling very grown up at the moment. Hiding in here with you doesn’t seem like a very mature thing to do.”

I shrugged. “Why not? I like hiding in here.”

She looked down at the floor and picked up a doll.

“What’s this?” she said.

I looked at the doll in her hand. It looked like a creature from a movie.

“It’s a zombie doll,” I said.

She frowned. “I don’t remember having a zombie doll when I was six.”

I shrugged. “I don’t. I think that must be one of yours.”

She frowned again. “I don’t have a zombie doll now either.”

I giggled and pointed at Tara’s bed. “Put it on Tara’s bed. It’ll make her scream.”

She looked at me and grinned but then she shook her head. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”

Then she squeezed the zombie doll until it turned into dust and blew away.

Just then the whole house started shuddering and shaking.

I screamed and clutched Lucy to my chest. Percival jumped to his feet and started growling. Older Bec looked fierce and jumped to her feet.

“What’s happening?” I screamed.

She picked up my hockey stick and went to the door.

“Just stay there,” she said. “I’ll keep you safe.”

She went out the door and shut it behind her. A moment later, the house stopped jerking and shaking but I still felt scared. Percival stopped growling but he still stood all tense and everything and stared at the door with his teeth showing. I clutched Lucy and whimpered to myself.

Then suddenly I felt okay. I relaxed and started playing with Lucy’s hair. Percival sat down and started panting with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. He was still staring at the door but now it was like he was waiting for the older me to come back through the door.

A moment later she came back in and shut the door behind her. She put my hockey stick back where it belonged and came back to sit down on the rug with me. Percy wagged his tail and lay down again with his head in her lap.

“What happened?” I asked.

“A friend thought I was sleeping,” said older me. “She grabbed my shoulder and was shaking me to wake me up.”

“I thought we were being attacked,” I said.

“So did I, for a moment,” she said. “But everything is okay now. I put Rebecca Louise in charge.”

“Can I look?” I asked.

She shrugged and pointed at the door. I got up and walked over with Lucy hanging from one hand. The door had a little sliding hatch in it like you see in prison doors in movies. I slid the hatch to the side and peered out.

After a moment I giggled. “Rebecca Louise isn’t doing that good of a job. I don’t think she’ll fool anyone.”

Older Bec shrugged. “She’s not supposed to fool anyone. She’s there to keep people away from me. She does enough to keep them happy so they leave me alone.”

“There’s a skinny girl leading her around by the hand,” I said. “She looks like a skeleton.”

“That’s Mischa,” said older Bec. “She’s my new friend.”

I opened my mouth wide in wonder. “You have a new friend?”

She grinned at me and nodded. “I have a bunch of friends now.”

“Wow.” I said.

“Yeah, wow,” she said with her eyes wide to show how surprising that was.

I looked out at Mischa again.

“Is she...” I had to stop and break up the word, “an – or – ex – ic?”

Older Bec looked over at the door and nodded. “Kind of.”

“We should help her,” I said.

She nodded. “We are. We are helping her.”

I gave her a pleased smile. “Good.”

I looked out through the hole in the door again.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“In a hospital,” she said.

“Why are we in a hospital?” I asked. “Are we sick?”

She shook her head. “Not really.”

Then she tapped her head. “We went a bit crazy.”

I looked at her with wide eyes. “No!”

She shrugged. “Yeah.”

I leaned my back against the door and stared at her.

“Wow,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said. “Wow.”

Then she looked around. “I gave you something to look after. Have you still got it?”

I slid my eyes sideways to my toy chest. “Yes. It’s pretty nasty. What is it?”

“Never mind,” she said. “Just keep it safe until I’m ready for it. Okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

Suddenly she squeaked and jumped to her feet. She was naked and dripping wet.

“What happened?” I went over to her.

“I guess I’m under a shower,” she said.

I looked at her and giggled at her nakedness.

Then I gasped and pointed. “You got little boobies.”

She pulled her wet hair out of her eyes and grinned at me.

“I know,” she said. “It’s exciting isn’t it? I waited for such a long time and now they’re finally starting to grow. They’ve only just started though. They still have more growing to do.”

“Meryl Lucknow is in my class and she has boobies,” I said.

“Well yours won’t start growing until you’re 13,” she said. “So you’ll have to wait for a long, long time before you get your own.”

I scowled and pouted. “That sucks.”

She grinned at me. “It totally sucks.”

I pointed down. “You’re dripping on my rug.”

She shrugged. “Sorry.”

I went over and looked through the hole. “That girl Mischa is in the shower too. She hasn’t got any boobies at all. Her chest is totally flat like mine is.”

I lost interest and went back to stand with Older Bec. She was still naked and dripping on my rug. Percival was licking the water off her leg.

“You’re so brave,” I said. “You’re just standing there. If that was me all naked and everything, I’d probably be hiding in the corner by now.”

She looked down at herself and shrugged. “I’m getting better at that. A little bit better anyway. Also I’m in here with you so what happens out there doesn’t bother me so much. Your door keeps it all away from me so nothing worries me while I’m in here with you.”

Then she looked at me. “Besides, you’re me. I don’t have to be embarrassed about me seeing me naked.”

I snorted. “Sometimes I blush if I see myself in the mirror,” I said. “When I’m changing or whatever.”

She smiled at me with a warm smile. “I remember. Like I said, I’m getting better about things like that.”

Then she closed her eyes and rolled her head on her neck and said, “Mmmm. I’m getting my hair washed. I love getting my hair washed.”

I wanted to sit down on the rug but it was wet so I sat on my bed and tucked my feet up under me. I watched her as she relaxed and enjoyed the feelings of having someone massage shampoo into her hair.

Then she just stood there and swayed back and forth.

“What’s happening now?” I asked.

“I’m standing in the shower and letting the water play little drumbeats on my skin,” she said. “It’s such an awesome feeling.”

I nodded because I understood that. I haven’t had that many showers but I always love feeling the water beat down on me.

I watched her with my head tilted over.

“You talk funny,” I said.

“I know,” she said with a laugh. “When we move away, we get surrounded by people who talk funny and they do things backwards and they can’t spell properly and it’s a terribly confusing time. So now I have to talk a bit funny like they do so they can understand me because otherwise they stare at me like I’m talking a foreign language.”

Then she giggled. “It’s not so bad with me but they have real problems understanding Nana.”

I giggled too but then I stopped.

“Daddy said we’re going to em – i – grate to Australia,” I said. “I’m doing a project on kangaroos.”

Now Older Bec was wearing a towel wrapped around her chest and another one wrapped around her head. That was good because it meant she wasn’t dripping on my floor anymore. My rug was dry again.

“The biggest of the kangaroos is the Red Kangaroo,” I said. “They can be taller than a man and jump more than 8 metres in a single leap. That’s more than the length of my room. It takes me 5 big jumps to get from one end of my room to the other.”

I looked at older me. You’re bigger now. I bet it would take you less than 5 jumps. But you still couldn’t jump 8 metres.

I walked over to the desk I share with Tara and pointed at the poster I was making about kangaroos. She came over and looked at it and listened to me explaining what I’d found out.

Then she said, “I remember doing this. It’s a shame it was all a waste of time.”

I looked at her and scowled. “What? Why?”

“Daddy lied. We didn’t go to Australia.”

I pouted and stared down at my poster. “Why would he lie?”

She sighed. “He wanted to confuse somebody who was looking for us. We changed our name and everything.”

“So where did we go?”

“America.”

I scowled. “They don’t have kangaroos there.”

She grinned. “Not in the wild, no. But they have them in zoos. I got to see a kangaroo in a zoo.”

I blew a raspberry. “They have kangaroos in the zoos here. If I wanted to see a kangaroo in a zoo, we could’ve gone to Blackpool. I don’t need to go all the way to America to see a kangaroo.”

She shrugged at me. “That’s true. But we do – did – will – go to America and you will get to see a kangaroo in a zoo in America.”

I rolled my eyes at her. “Okay then.”

That’s when I noticed that she was now wearing really short, really tight lycra shorts and a lycra strap around her chest that was so tight it compressed her little boobies down into nothing.

“What are you wearing?”

She looked down at herself and brushed at the shorts. “Oh! These are like Mischa’s clothes. I wonder why I’m wearing these.”

I giggled. “It looks like you just have your underwear on.”

She was still looking down but she didn’t seem to be that bothered. “It does, doesn’t it? Oh well. I’m sure Rebecca Louise has everything under control. It’s weird. If I was out there, I’d probably be freaking out but I’m in here so it doesn’t worry me.”

Then she shrugged and took my hand. Together we went over to look out the window at our back yard. We sat on the window seat and talked about what we could see. She seemed to ignore what she was wearing so I did too. We giggled and laughed and told stories about the garden and things that had happened out there that we both remembered.

We were having fun. But then the door burst open and Rebecca Louise came in. She looked frazzled. She was 13 too and she was wearing the original blue pjs. I s’pose Rebecca Louise doesn’t notice what she’s wearing. She put her hands on her hips and glared at us.