The Devil's Serenade Read Online Free Page B

friend, Diane, frowned at her. “You’re mad, you are. You talk to yourself.”
    “I don’t.”
    “Yes you do. I’ve heard you. Your lips move. You were doing it just now. You didn’t know I was watching.”
    “That’s not true.” Lying didn’t come naturally to Maddie. She had been talking to—well, not herself exactly—but Diane would never understand. Diane Fraser, with her freckles and her perfect blonde plaits. Diane with her older sister who wore sheer black tights and looked terribly grown up, even though she was only fourteen. But fourteen did seem grown up to nine-year-old Maddie.
    Diane looked past Maddie. In the school playground, all the other kids were dashing around, playing games, laughing. The boys were kicking footballs and scoring pretend goals. Diane looked bored. Maddie’s spirits plummeted, as they did every time she realized that her best friend didn’t understand her.
    “It’s because you don’t have any brothers and sisters,” Diane said. She always said that. It was her answer for all Maddie’s shortcomings. “I don’t know why your mum and dad didn’t have any more children. My mum says it’s not right to just have the one, and you’re the only one in the class who’s on her own. All the rest of us have got at least one brother or sister.”
    Tears welled into Maddie’s eyes. She turned away, not wanting Diane to see them. If only she could be more like her imaginary self—Kelly. She wouldn’t stand for this nonsense from anyone. She would stand up for herself and tell Diane to get lost. But Kelly had a brother and three sisters. Diane wouldn’t have taunted her about being an only child.
    At home, Maddie’s mother wasn’t sympathetic.
    “What on earth have you two fallen out about now?” she said as she washed up the dishes after dinner and handed them to her daughter for drying.
    No way was Maddie going to tell her mother the real reason. That Diane thought she was strange for talking to herself. Mother was always going on at her about that anyway.
    “She said I was different because I was the only one in the class who didn’t have a brother or a sister. Why don’t I have any brothers or sisters?”
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake. Not that again. I’ve told you before. After I had you I was told I couldn’t have any more. Let’s not have this conversation again, please. It upsets me.”
    Maddie opened her mouth to ask another question but shut it again. Mother would get cross. She always did. Maddie handed her the damp tea towel.
    “I’ve finished,” she said.
    The corners of her mother’s mouth twitched in a hint of a smile. “Good girl. Now you can have your treat.”
    Maddie followed her mother to the tall kitchen cupboard. Her mother reached in and took out a small strawberry-flavored lollipop. Maddie took it from her, eagerly. “Thank you,” she said. It would be her only candy that day. Her parents were strict about her sugar intake—another thing Diane teased her about. Never mind though, Maddie would have the last laugh when her friend’s teeth all dropped out. And they surely would one day. Mother had said so. Not in so many words, of course. But she said that too much sugar made your teeth rot, and they would all fall out, like Tom the cat’s did on the cartoons, when Jerry the mouse hit him in the mouth with a mallet.
    Maddie smiled. Diane had such perfect white teeth, but not for long if she kept eating all those Jelly Babies she liked so much. That’d show her!
    Maddie’s mother rubbed moisturizing lotion into her hands. “Now run along to your room and decide what you would like to take to Aunt Charlotte’s. School finishes on Friday and you’re going down there on Saturday, so there isn’t long if anything needs washing or ironing. Your father and I need to make some final preparations for our safari, so we’ll be busy until your bedtime. Make sure you have a bath and brush your teeth and I’ll come to tuck you up at nine