My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece (14 page)

I crouched down and looked him in the eye and told him about commandment six.
Thou shalt not murder
. Roger purred even harder, his tail stuck up proudly. He just didn’t get it and I felt angry with my cat. I let him back in the cottage but I shut my bedroom door in his face and then I tried to sleep. For the first time ever, I dreamed about Rose.

Mrs Farmer has stuck The Ten Commandments on the wall opposite my chair. Even if I wanted to forget all about rule five, it would be impossible. It’s like Dad’s eyeballs are pinned on the display, watching me.

At the start of Maths, Sunya kept whispering
What’s wrong
and I kept saying
Nothing
but I couldn’t look at her without thinking of Rose. Eventually she said
Fine then
and asked me if I had any more ideas for revenge. Sunya’s brothers don’t think it’s right to beat up a ten year old so we need a new plan. She’s desperate to defeat Daniel but I don’t want to do it. She keeps saying
If you let him get away with it then he will just do it again
but I don’t think that’s true. Daniel likes to win and now he has won he’s lost interest. He hasn’t bullied me for ages. He hasn’t kicked me or punched me or called me
Dickhead
for days. It’s over and I lost and that’s okay.

Well, it’s not okay but I can’t win so I am being a good loser. In Wimbledon there is this tennis player who gets to the final a lot but never gets the trophy. Everyone always says things like
He is a gentleman
and
Excellent sportsmanship
’cos he just smiles and shrugs and accepts that he is second best. So I am doing that ’cos if I tried to beat Daniel then I’d lose and get my head kicked in.

Halfway through Maths, Mrs Farmer said she had something Very Important to say. The hairs on her mole started to shake and her chin was all trembly. She said
Ofsted are coming
and glanced at the door as if they were about to charge in. Ofsted sounded like an army or something, and I was just wondering if they’d have guns when Mrs Farmer said
They are Inspectors
. Daniel’s hand shot into the air and he said
My dad’s a Chief Inspector in the police
. Mrs Farmer said
That’s enough boasting
and Sunya laughed out loud on purpose. Mrs Farmer said
These Inspectors are not from the police. They are special men and women who examine schools and give them a grade – Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory or Poor
. Her face was getting whiter and even her colourless eyes seemed to fade.
Next week they’ll watch me teach and it is Very Important to show the Inspectors how well we all work. It is Very Important to behave like good boys and girls. They might ask you questions and it is Very Important to be polite and clever and to say nice things about our class
. Sunya grinned. I knew exactly what she was thinking. I wanted to smile back but I didn’t.

At playtime I spent twelve minutes in the toilets respecting Dad. I put my hands under the dryer, pretending it was a fire-breathing monster. My hands were getting burned and the flames were so hot but I was tough enough to take it and I didn’t even scream. It was a good game but not as good as sitting on the bench or going through the secret door with Sunya. But I can’t do that any more. Just in case there is a Heaven and Rose’s spirit is stuck up there alone, God has to let me in too. So I need to follow The Ten Commandments. All of them. Including number five.

It’s been two days since I spoke to Sunya. Dad has taken us to school and made tea every day since the roast so I think I am doing the right thing. It is hard though and my tummy twisted when I found the Blu-Tack ring in my drawer. It should be easier now we are not friends, but it was better when she kept asking me
What’s wrong
and
Why are you being weird
. At least I could hear her voice, then.

I feel like one of those drug addicts in films that do nothing but think about tablets and the less they have them the more they want them until they go crazy and rob a supermarket to get the money. I’m not saying I will rob the school tuck shop or anything. I don’t think Sunya would be my friend even if I gave her all the chocolate in the receptionist’s cupboard, which is where the tuck shop is held on Wednesday and Friday playtimes.

Leo came over for tea tonight. Dad made pizza. They were ones from the shop but he chopped up bits of ham and poured a tin of pineapple over the top to make them tropical. Mum used to do that. At the table there wasn’t much conversation. Dad was ignoring Leo and Leo looked nervous and I could tell Jas felt awkward too. She kept asking questions she’s asked me before. She said
So how’s football going
, even though I told her last week that there weren’t any matches until after Christmas. And then she said
What’s your Headmaster like
, but she knows better than me ’cos she talked to him on the phone. I answered everything as well as I could though. She was just desperate for some noise other than knives scraping on plates and Dad sighing at Leo’s green hair.

After tea, Leo kept saying
Thank you
and
That was great, really great
like we’d had a feast instead of supermarket pizzas. And Dad grunted something I couldn’t hear and it made me cross ’cos Granny says
Manners cost nothing
. Jas took Leo by the hand and Dad’s eyes popped out of his head when she pulled him towards the stairs. He said
I don’t think so
and pointed to the lounge. Jas’s face was like one of those cooked tomatoes you get in Full English Breakfasts in Spain. I felt sorry for her but I was being respectful so I didn’t say a word and just helped Dad do the dishes. He washed everything too hard and bubbles slopped over the sink. I wanted to ask why he was cross but I didn’t dare. So instead I told him about Moses and the stone, but he walked off before I’d finished and went to get a beer.

L
AST NIGHT I
dreamed about Sunya. I kept asking to see her hair and I tried to touch the hijab but she ducked out of the way and pulled it around her head. I asked again. And again. Begging and begging and more and more desperate, but every time I asked, the hijab got tighter and her face got smaller until it covered everything except one of her eyes. Her eye didn’t sparkle but just stared and stared and then turned into a mouth that said
Go back to London
. When I woke up, my body was sweaty and my hair was sticky and I missed Sunya so much my heart ached.

In the car on the way to school, Dad was saying
No
and Jas was sulking. She kept saying
But you said Okay
and Dad said
To having a boyfriend, not to going on dates
. She said
We just want to go to the cinema
and he said
Leo’s got green hair
. And Jas said
So what
and Dad said
It’s strange
and Jas replied
It’s not
and I agreed but kept my mouth shut. Dad said
Boys who dye their hair are a bit
– and then he paused. Jas glared.
Are a bit WHAT exactly
she shouted and I prayed to God to throw down another rock to knock Dad out and shut him up. He said
They’re a bit girly
and she said
You mean GAY
and Dad replied
You said it, not me
.

Then there was silence and it went on and on until Jas said
Stop the car
. And Dad said
Don’t be ridiculous
and Jas screamed
Stop the EFFING car
. Dad pulled up and someone beeped. Jas jumped out. She slammed the door and she was crying and Dad was shouting and the windows were getting all steamy. Someone beeped again. Dad looked in his rear view mirror and said
Don’t tell me what to do in my own country
. I wiped the glass and looked behind to see Sunya in the car with her mum. Dad drove off too fast leaving Jas in the rain and he was going on and on about Pakis, about how they don’t work and just sit at home all day taking money off the Government before blowing up the country that’s keeping them alive.

And all of a sudden as we swerved around a sheep eating grass by the road, the ninth commandment boomed in my brain.
You must not give false evidence against your neighbour
. Yesterday when Mrs Farmer asked what this meant, Daniel put up his hand and said
Don’t tell lies about your neighbours
.

I sat up in my seat.
Don’t tell lies
. My heart beat a lot faster.
About your neighbours
. The radio came on and the music was loud but all I could hear were the lies that Dad told.
All Muslims are murderers
.
Too lazy to learn English
.
Make bombs in their bedroom
. My heart suddenly stopped. Dad’s been giving False Evidence. And Sunya only lives two miles away. So he broke the commandment ’cos it says
Don’t tell lies about your neighbours
not
Don’t tell lies about your next-door neighbours
, which would have been different.

The car pulled up outside school and Dad said
You getting out then
and I nodded but my body did not move. Dad’s been giving False Evidence.
Hurry up
he snapped, watching the windscreen wipers slosh rain from side to side. I unfastened my seat belt. Climbed out of the car. Dad drove off without saying goodbye. And as the car sped down the lane, I raised my middle finger towards the sky. Two rings were wrapped around it instead of one, the white and brown stones almost touching. I swore at God and I swore at Moses. Then I tilted my hand and swore at Dad and broke rule five and it felt good. The car disappeared around a corner as I ran into school to find Sunya.

Mrs Farmer said
Because it’s nearly Christmas, we will be starting work on the birth of Jesus
. Everyone groaned and I could tell that this school was the same as my last one. In London we did Jesus every December and we acted out the stable bit for all the mums and dads who must’ve got bored of seeing the same play over and over again. So far I have been a sheep and the back end of a donkey and the star of Bethlehem, but never ever a person. Mrs Farmer said
It is important to understand The True Meaning Of Christmas
and I quietly sang
We three kings of Leicester Square, Selling ladies underwear, It’s fantastic, Loads of elastic, Why dont you buy a pair
. Sunya didn’t even smile.