Pip and Houdini Page 11

  A loud pop sounded. Grommet came flying out of the kitchen as the champagne frothed from the bottle. He managed to pour three glasses without spilling too much, and when Violet emerged with a glass of orange juice, he added a single drop of champagne to it and handed it to Pip.

  ‘It is a sort of celebration,’ he muttered when his mother frowned at him.

  Thirsty, Pip gulped it down before Violet could snatch it away. ‘Thank you.’

  When Violet disappeared again, Grommet sat down and pointed to the chair opposite. Pip shrugged and sat.

  ‘His name was Tiberius, your dad and my elder brother.’ Grommet winced as he spoke the name and tapped the photo she held. ‘Mum liked ridiculous, old-fashioned names for some reason.’

  ‘What is it now?’ Pip asked, wondering whether her father also had a surfie name like Grommet did. She hoped so. No one deserved a name like Tuberculosis or whatever.

  Grommet’s face fell. ‘No, I mean he died. A long time ago.’

  ‘Oh.’ Pip wasn’t sure what to say. ‘Sorry.’ That’s what people had said to her a lot when Sully died, as if they were personally responsible.

  ‘We can talk about that later,’ Violet said, bustling out to the deck with dishes of hot food. Bill followed with two more plates. ‘Pip might want to tell us what she’s been up to since yesterday.’

  Pip didn’t, so there was a moment or two of silence.

  ‘Where did you sleep last night?’ Bill prompted as he put a plate of bacon, eggs and toast in front of her, and sat down beside her.

  Pip figured she could either talk and eat, or leave and not eat.

  ‘In a kind of cave.’ She looked around at Grommet’s nice but odd house, which was a bit shabby and untidy, as he’d hinted yesterday, but looked clean. She was embarrassed at her dirty T-shirt, stained jeans and faded sneakers. Perhaps he would let her take a shower before she left.

  Violet and Bill exchanged looks, just as she imagined the Brownings would do. ‘That sounds like an adventure.’ Violet said it as though she really thought it sounded like something else completely.

  ‘And a bit scary, I should think,’ Grommet said, picking up his fork. ‘You must have been worried about Houdini.’

  Pip nodded, her mouth too full to speak, but she was glad he understood.

  ‘You must be hungry if you haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon,’ Bill asked.

  Pip swallowed. ‘So hungry I could eat a horse and the jockey.’

  There was a sudden silence, and then Bill and Grommet burst out laughing.

  ‘It was one of Sully’s favourite things to say when we went to the races together,’ she explained. ‘He looked after me until he died a few weeks ago.’

  ‘The races, eh?’ Bill asked, eyes twinkling.

  ‘Yes. The Brownings, who I lived with after Sully died, don’t go to the races, though.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Violet said.

  ‘Well, perhaps Pip could come to the races with me…’ Bill’s voice faltered as Violet glared at him. ‘Um, perhaps when she’s older.’

  ‘I can help you pick the good horses to bet on,’ Pip told him. After all, it was how she’d been able to make the money to survive on her own after Sully died.

  ‘No, you cannot!’ Violet’s voice rose a little.

  ‘Mum, don’t get your knickers in a knot,’ Grommet said softly.

  ‘She’s only ten years old, for goodness’ sake!’

  ‘Ten and a bit,’ Pip pointed out.

  ‘Well, we can talk about that another time too,’ Bill said, as Violet dabbed her eyes.

  ‘Cheers, everyone!’ Grommet lifted his glass and clinked Bill’s, Pip’s and Violet’s in turn.

  ‘Why did he die?’ Pip asked into the silence that followed. ‘Tuberculosis, I mean?’

  ‘Tiberius. Ty. Pip…maybe we should talk about this later,’ said Grommet, glancing towards his mother.

  ‘No, it’s all right.’ Violet patted his hand even though her eyes still looked a bit damp. ‘It’s an obvious question, and Pip deserves to know.’ She put down her knife and fork, and sipped her champagne. ‘He was a bit of a daredevil. One day, he…had a motorbike accident. And he died.’

  ‘Just like that?’ Pip was shocked.

  ‘Just like that.’ Bill told her. ‘Over and out.’ His hand trembled a little as he lifted his fork and pointed at the framed photo. ‘It was just after that picture was taken, actually.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Nothing to be sorry for, love. Nothing at all. In fact, it’s we who are sorry – that we didn’t know about you from the start.’

  ‘Except I did.’ Grommet sighed, looking more serious than Pip had ever seen him look. ‘Sort of. After Ty died, Cass disappeared for months. When she came back, she told me she’d lost a baby, a little girl, her’s and Ty’s. I thought…well, I thought she meant the baby had died. I didn’t know what to say or how to help her.’

  Shocked silence reverberated around the table.

  Then, ‘Ignatius! All this time! You never said a word!’ Violet was aghast. ‘I know you were only a boy yourself at the time, but still…’

  The tips of Grommet’s ears turned red, and he stared at his plate as though he were ashamed. ‘Cass didn’t want anyone to know,’ he told his parents. ‘She swore me to secrecy, and I thought telling you would only upset you more after Ty’s death. Cass only stayed a month or two, and then one day when I went to the house at Brilliant Street, she was gone again. No one knew where.’

  Pip watched them, fascinated – and a bit sorry for Grommet. She hadn’t realised that you could get told off by your parents even when you were a grown-up.

  ‘Still, son, if you’d told us, we could have helped Cass. That poor girl, what she must have gone through…’ Bill cleared his throat.

  ‘I’m sorry. At the time I thought it was the right thing to do, that there was no point telling you. It wasn’t until I met Pip yesterday that I realised that the baby hadn’t died. She was alive and well, and had been living in Sydney for the past ten years.’

  Pip understood. ‘If you make a promise not to tell you have to keep it,’ she pointed out in Grommet’s defence before she remembered that grown-ups didn’t approve of speaking and eating at the same time.

  ‘Well, that’s one point of view.’ Violet clearly didn’t share it.

  ‘So that’s the thing I mentioned yesterday, that I wished I’d done differently.’ Grommet turned to Pip. ‘If I’d had any idea you’d been born, I would have tried to find you. But, in any case, I should have been a better friend to Cass. I should have tried to find her. If I had, perhaps she would have trusted me with the truth.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ she told him.

  Bill cleared his throat. ‘Well, enough of the sad talk. This is a celebration, remember.’

  ‘Yes.’ Violet nodded her head although she still looked a bit teary. ‘We should be happy that we’re all together at last. More toast, Pip?’

  All together except for Cass and Ty, Pip thought, as she took another slice of toast.

  When he’d finished eating, Bill went to make coffee for the adults and tea for Pip. Houdini emerged from the kitchen to vacuum up the breakfast crumbs from under the table.

  ‘You really deserve a big juicy bone,’ Grommet said, reaching down to scratch him.

  ‘He hasn’t had a bone since we left the Brownings,’ Pip told him. ‘The Brownings! They’ll never believe everything that’s happened. Grommet, please could I borrow your phone to call them?’

  ‘Sure—’

  ‘As soon as you’ve had a shower, young lady,’ Violet interrupted. ‘Ignatius, I know you never throw anything out. Make yourself useful and find something for Pip to wear. Something vaguely clean.’

  Grommet shuffled off, ears still red.

  ‘You shouldn’t be cranky with him,’ Pip ventured. ‘He only did what he thought was best.’

  ‘You’re certainly not afraid of sharing your opinions, are you?’ Vio
let said, although her eyes twinkled. ‘I wonder who you get that from.’

  ‘I get my hair from you.’

  Pip felt Violet’s hand touch her hair for an instant. ‘Yes, you do.’ Violet’s voice was husky. ‘And your eyes from your mother. And, I dare say your habit of getting into trouble from your father.’

  GROMMET’S GIFT

  Pip wanted to ask Violet more about Ty but she was afraid of making her cry again so she kept quiet. Hopefully, she would be able to find out more about him before she had to leave.

  Unaware of the direction of Pip’s thoughts, Violet continued as she cleared the table. ‘The things they’re saying about you on the news! Ridiculous, the stories those journalists make up. Stowing away, rescuing a man from a burning car, busking in the streets with a TV star. You’re ten years old, for goodness sake. Ten and a bit!’

  Pip was about to say that it wasn’t so far from the truth, when Grommet re-emerged with an old Star Wars T-shirt and a pair of long, skinny shorts.

  Violet didn’t look impressed. ‘I remember your dad giving you this T-shirt for Christmas when you were about twelve,’ she said. ‘Why you’ve kept it, I don’t know.’

  ‘It’s Star Wars, Mum!’ Grommet said, as if that explained it all.

  ‘Well, I suppose it will have to do,’ Violet sniffed.

  ‘Bathroom’s up the stairs on the right,’ Grommet told Pip. ‘Use anything you want. There are clean towels in the cupboard.’ Then he added too low for his mother to hear, ‘Cleanish.’

  ‘And while Pip does that, you can give her dog a bath,’ his mother told him, wrinkling her nose.

  Pip left them to it and made her way through the kitchen, where Bill was loading the dishwasher, and out into a hall cluttered with discarded shoes, surfing magazines and mail. A colourful surfboard was propped up against one wall. Upstairs, she forced herself not to peer inside all the rooms along the landing to the left, but instead went straight into the bathroom.

  When she came out, she felt like a million dollars after a hot shower, a good scrub and a change of clothes. Her old, grimy ones she rinsed in the sink, and carried them downstairs in the towel she’d used to avoid dripping everywhere.

  ‘Bless you, sweetheart,’ Violet said when Pip explained. ‘Ignatius will put these in the washing machine, assuming he knows how it works.’

  ‘I heard that and I do, Mum!’ Grommet called from the garden where he was hosing down Houdini, who thought it was a game and kept running away. ‘And it’s Grommet.’

  ‘I should know what your name is, as I was the one who gave it to you,’ Violet replied with a sting in her voice.

  Pip grinned, enjoying their banter. Bill seemed to be quieter, clattering away in the kitchen where there was the smell of something tasty cooking. Her mouth watered even though she’d only just had breakfast, and wondered if they might invite her to stay for lunch.

  ‘My phone’s on the table,’ Grommet nodded towards the outdoor setting where they’d had breakfast. ‘Do you know your friends’ number?’

  Pip nodded and dialled as she watched Houdini prancing around and barking with delight every time the hose spray hit him. Then he shook himself dry all over Violet, who told him off, although she smiled as she did it.

  ‘Ignatius, the washing machine, please.’

  ‘This is my home, Mum. Please don’t order me about like I’m six.’

  ‘Then don’t behave like it.’ Her eyes fixed on Pip. ‘And you can stop smiling, young lady.’

  ‘Okay.’ Pip tried but it was hard when she’d found a family she never even knew she had.

  Mrs Browning’s voice came on the line but it was a voicemail message again. Pip felt relieved. At least they weren’t gathered around the phone waiting, worried the worst had happened. She told them that she had found some of her family in Byron Bay, and that she and Houdini were fine.

  ‘Not there?’ Bill asked, when she put the phone down.

  Pip shook her head. ‘Can I help with anything?’ Before he could say anything, Grommet reappeared with a badly wrapped package in his arms and said, ‘Got something for you.’

  Pip stared at him and the parcel. ‘For me?’

  ‘It’s not new, but I think you might like it.’

  ‘What is it?’

  He grinned at her as he handed it over. ‘Open it and find out.’

  Pip turned it over in her hands. She had no idea what it was.

  ‘An early Christmas present?’ Violet asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Grommet said. ‘Rip in,’ he told Pip.

  ‘Okay.’ Pip did just that and a second later something that looked like half a surfboard was in her hands.

  ‘It’s a body board,’ Grommet explained. ‘I had it before I learned to surf. I thought we could hit the beach for a while, get out of your grandma’s hair.’

  A grandma, Pip realised. She had a grandma, and a grandfather. And she had the coolest uncle she could have imagined, one who surfed and laughed at sharks who tried to eat him. She turned to Grommet. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘It’s the best early Christmas present I ever had.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘Ignatius, I hope you’re not running off to surf,’ Violet said. ‘I really think you and Pip should stay here.’

  ‘Just an hour,’ he said. ‘We’ll be back before you know it.’

  ‘An hour,’ Violet said. ‘Strictly an hour.’

  ‘Let’s go before she changes her mind,’ Grommet muttered to Pip. ‘Bring the dog and the board!’

  Pip could not remember a more brilliant morning in her life. She had uncovered important secrets, eaten a good breakfast, taken a hot shower, opened her first Christmas present in as long as she could remember, and surfed with her dog and her new uncle.

  Well, not new. He had always been her uncle. She just hadn’t known it.

  And Houdini had done more dog-paddling than surfing. But he had done his best.

  Pip, though, had ridden the waves with her body board beneath her, shooting in like an arrow shot from a bow, skinny arms paddling like mad as the surf went up her nose and in her ears.

  Grommet had even let her see what real surfing was like, plucking her up and onto his board so they could ride in together, skimming over the waves as though they were flying.

  Pip turned to him as they picked up their things to make their way back to the ute. ‘That was the most amazing thing ever!’

  ‘It was, wasn’t it?’

  Pip nodded enthusiastically.

  ‘We can come back another time, but we’ve already been nearly two hours and Mum will be mad as h…mad as a hornet. Especially if we traipse sand through the house and dump wet towels on the floor. Even though it’s my house and my floor!’

  Pip giggled. He was the most fun grown-up she’d ever met. ‘We could hose each other down, and Houdini, before we go in the house.’

  But when they got in the ute, he made no move to drive off, just sat looking into the distance with a faint frown on his face.

  Suddenly, a cloud of fear appeared on Pip’s perfectly blue horizon. He was going to tell her that she and Houdini would have to go, that he was going to call Constable Payne to pick them up immediately and throw them in jail for being so troublesome. That there would be no hosing down, no more surfing lessons.

  ‘Don’t—’ she started to say, just as Grommet spoke.

  ‘Pip, I know we’ve known each other less than a day, but I thought…how do you feel about going back to live with the Brownings?’

  Pip stared straight and swallowed. ‘It would be okay, I think, now that I know a bit about where I came from. About Cass and Ty. But I don’t think I really belong with the Brownings, even though they’re very nice.’

  ‘The thing is,’ Grommet continued, ‘if you wanted to and everyone said it was okay and we thought we could make it work, I thought you might want to come and live with me, in Byron.’

  Pip didn’t move. She thought that if she did, she might realise she was dreaming. Sh
e could hardly think of anything more perfect.

  ‘In your house?’

  Grommet looked at her and nodded. ‘Just something to think about. You don’t have to answer now. In any case, the Brownings and the police might have—’

  ‘Is it to make up for what happened with Cass?’ she interrupted.

  ‘No, not really. I think I’d just like you to stay, if you want to. You could see a lot of Violet and Bill too.’

  ‘Okay,’ Pip said, turning to him with hope in her eyes. ‘If Houdini can stay too.’

  ‘Always wanted a dog.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Really. Ready to go?’

  Pip was too dazed to answer. Instead she wrapped her arms around her belly and held on tight as though if she let go, she would burst wide open with happiness.

  She didn’t realise until the ute stopped that there was a new car parked in the driveway when they arrived back at the birdhouse. For an instant, Pip panicked, but it wasn’t a cop car.

  ‘Someone must have dropped in,’ Grommet said, letting Houdini out.

  They went around the back, following the hum of voices.

  As she turned the corner, Pip came face to face with five people she’d thought were 770 kilometres away in Sydney.

  ‘Surprise!’ cried Matilda, beaming.

  PIP GOES VIRAL

  Stunned, Pip stuttered, ‘H-hi.’

  ‘Are you surprised to see us?’ Matilda asked.

  ‘Yes. Wow, um, this is Grommet,’ she told Matilda and her parents, Molly Dunlop and Mr Blair.

  ‘Ignatius,’ corrected Violet.

  ‘Grommet,’ Grommet said firmly, holding out a hand. ‘Pleased to meet you all.’

  ‘A police officer called Constable Payne called us last night and said you were in the Byron Bay area but you’d vanished again,’ Mrs Browning told them once the introductions were over, drinks had been poured and everyone sat around the table, except Bill, who was in the kitchen. ‘We flew up first thing this morning.’

  ‘But how did you know…?’ Grommet stopped and turned to glare at his mother. ‘This was why you didn’t want us to go to the beach, isn’t it, Mum?’