The sound of Mam putting together brekkie wakes me up. The frying pan clunks down upon the hob and I hear four eggs being cracked against the metal rim; then a gentle sizzle. My back aches like I slept on it funny. I pull the covers over my head and pretend I’m inside a cloud, like where Mam said Thumper lives. She said he will be eating dandelions and carrots all day long. If I lived in a cloud I would eat Wagon Wheels and Tunnock’s Teacakes for brekkie, lunch and tea. ‘Duck you’ll be late for school!’ I hear Mam shout up to me. ‘O’rate Mam I’ll be down in a sec’, I reply while pushing myself out of the cloud.
From my window I can see the marsh. Mam said I cannot play there as I’d sink into the mud and not be able to get out. Sometimes Tommy sneaks out the backdoor and goes out onto the marsh with his mates. I watch them from my window, tapping the glass to get their attention.
‘Down now!’ I put on my freshly washed uniform and put my books in the satchel Dad got me. Mam says I’m going to miss the bus so I have to scoff down my scrambled eggs, which makes me feel sick. I hate getting the school bus. Jim Doherty always teases me and kicks the back of my seat. Today when Jim kicks my seat my back stings. I put my hand under my shirt to feel where it hurts and I feel a graze near the top of my back that spreads right across. I don’t know how I got it but Mam says I’m clumsy, always full of cuts and bruises. When I pull my hand out from under my shirt I notice a little blood under my fingernails. I suck on each finger trying to clean the blood away, it tastes like the lead in pencils.
Tommy once had an accident while on the marsh. He fell off a tire swing and cut his forehead on a rock. He came running to Mam and she had to take him to hospital. She said the bus driver wasn’t happy about Tommy bleedin’ all over the place. I had to wait at home though. Mam said I wouldn’t like hospitals because they’re full of hurt people.
