Tao Read Online Free Page A

number,” I said.
    “No, it wasn’t,” said Dad. “Mimi is your sister.”
    Kate jumped up.
    “You can’t just blurt out something like that,” she shouted at Dad, “without explaining a thing.”
    “Well, you explain it then!” Dad shouted back, his eyes blazing.
    “What do you mean – ‘my sister’?” I asked quietly. I suddenly felt dizzy.
    Kate and Dad stopped arguing and looked at me. Kate sat down and put her hand over mine. Dad pulled up his chair and repeated, “You have a sister, Tao. She’s Chinese like you and her name is Mimi. She lives in Ireland.”
    “I know this is a bit of a shock, Tao,” said Kate softly.
    It was more than a bit of a shock. I felt like being sick.
    “She was adopted before you were adopted. By an Irish family. Then they were contacted by the orphanage again—”
    “How old is she?” I asked before Kate finished. I didn’t understand anything of what she was saying anyway.
    “Well…” began Kate, and she looked across at Dad.
    But I had another question before they could explain.
    “How long have you known about this?” My voice was getting louder now. “When were you going to tell me? You should have told me about this!” I shouted at them and stood up so fast that my chair fell backwards onto the floor with a bang. Then I ran out of the room. Dad tried to stop me, but I yanked my arm out of his hand and ran up the stairs and threw myself on my bed. I wasn’t crying, but I was very cross. Very, very cross. My face was in my pillow and my eyes felt so hot that it wouldn’t have surprised me if they had burnt two holes in it.
    Rodent looked at me through the bars, but I was too angry to explain.
    “Well done!” I could hear Kate saying in a sarcastic tone.
    And then Dad’s sharp, angry answer.
    “Well, you handle it then if you’re so bloody clever!” The front door slammed and a minute later Dad’s car pulled away sharply with a screech of tyres.
    Then the phone rang.

Chapter 8
    The phone rang five times before Kate, with a loud sigh, picked it up.
    “Yes?” I heard her say.
    Then, “Oh.”
    Then, “Mimi?”
    I sat up and listened very carefully.
    “I don’t think this is the best moment,” Kate said slowly. “If you give me your number, he’ll ring you back. Is your father there?”
    I jumped up and ran to the top of the stairs. “Don’t hang up!” I shouted down to Kate. “I want to talk to her.” I charged down the stairs two steps at a time.
    “This is Tao now,” Kate managed to say before I grabbed the phone out of her hand.
    “Tao?” said a voice very shyly on the other end. Before I answered, I stared hard at Kate and she understood me well enough because she held up her hands and backed into the kitchen, closing the door behind her.
    “Hello, Mimi,” I said and suddenly I went all shy too. I didn’t know what else to say. Mimi didn’t talk either and there was a long silence. Then I could hear some loud whispering.
    “Say something, Mimi! Don’t just stand there like an eejit with your mouth hanging open.” It was a girl’s voice. “Ask him who he is and why our dad has his number,” she continued.
    “OK, Sally!” Mimi whispered back sharply. “Tao, my sister Sally wants to know, and I want to know too, who you are and why my dad has your phone number and why does he say in a letter that’s all crumpled up in the waste-paper basket that he thinks it’s high time that Mimi and Tao were told the truth?”
    She was talking very fast now, all the words tumbling out. If Mimi had a sister, was she my sister, too? I was getting very confused.
    “My dad says that you are my sister,” I interrupted.
    There was another long silence then.
    “What did he say?” whispered Mimi’s sister in the background.
    “He says he is my sister,” giggled Mimi.
    “That’s not what I said – I said that my dad says that you are my sister, and that I am your brother,” I tried to explain but it was hopeless.
    “Well,