by Jill Tinker -
The storm was raging outside. Huge raindrops bounced off the roof and flashes of lightning lit up the dark sky. Georgie hid under the pillows. She wanted her Mum… or even her Dad. She had Donna. There was a loud bang. The thunder rolled on and on. Georgie tried to shout out. No sound came.
Donna was downstairs. It was twelve steps away. That was all. Georgie had counted them on her way to bed. She liked numbers. They made her feel better. Counting made her forget what was worrying her. And lots of songs had numbers in them.
Every night her Mum sang ‘There were ten in the bed’. Georgie always fell asleep before the end.
Friday nights were different. Donna looked after her. She lived two doors up and she couldn’t sing. She couldn’t catch a ball. She couldn’t skip. She couldn’t do jigsaws.
There was one thing she was good at. She told great stories. Georgie didn’t know if they were real. They were funny and they always had happy endings. She wanted to believe them. But Donna told lies!
“We had such a good time last week.” She told Georgie’s Mum.
That was a lie.
“Georgie knows lots of games.”
That was true. She knew tons of games. She never got to play them though. Donna sent her to bed.
“You need loads of sleep at your age.” She said.
Was that a lie? Georgie didn’t know.
At Christmas her Mum said
“Santa only comes to girls who are asleep.”
When she lost her first tooth she said
“The tooth fairy waits for you to go to sleep before she swaps the tooth for money.”
Why didn’t they want to see her awake? She wondered.
Maybe the tooth fairy had worse spots than Donna. She must have worse teeth. She took children’s spares. She must have a huge mouth to need so many. It must have enormous gaps waiting to be filled.
Georgie shivered. She was scared. Too scared to be alone...
