Chapter 28
The day before my fourteenth birthday, with the cast off my leg and my bruises long gone, we officially moved into our new house.
It wasn’t too much hard work. We didn’t have much stuff in the shed and a lot of the furniture had already been dragged in once Dad got the walls up and the roof on, but I was a happy girl to pack my suitcase on my bed for the last time and then walk it across the paddock, up a path and through an actual front door which led into an actual hallway and down to an actual bedroom.
We’d all been able to decorate our rooms ourselves, of course. Josh’s was bog-standard boy kind of stuff. Plain walls and a checked doona cover. As long as he had enough room for his sound equipment and a cupboard to put his gear in for the second hand motorbike he’d bought with his earnings working for Mum and Ness, he didn’t care what else happened.
Charlie’s was brighter than before. All the horse pictures were replaced by photos of Fozzles. Plus, she suddenly decided she liked pop art—you know, those old fashioned strip cartoons and super hero kind of images—so she painted cartoon murals all along her wall along with Superman and Wonder Woman figures and was collecting Campbell’s tomato soup can labels for a collage.
My room? Well, let’s just say I made some changes. I went with Mum one day to the storage container where we had all our old furniture from Sydney, just to remind myself of what was there.
“There’s your bed and your dresser, right in the back,” said Mum, pointing to a mirror glinting in the light of the torch we’d brought with us.
I clambered over a sofa and a dining table to where I could see it more clearly. The mirrored dressing table I’d begged and scrimped and saved for now looked small and, I hated to say it, a bit tacky.
“It doesn’t look right,” I said.
“What, is it broken?” came Mum’s voice. “I didn’t realise. Oh no. The movers must have done it. I knew they weren’t being very careful.”
“No, it’s not broken,” I said. “It’s just, I don’t know. It doesn’t look right. It looks wrong. Wrong for me.”
“What do you mean?” said Mum.
“I think...” I began. I wasn’t sure. “I think I might have outgrown it.” I shone my torch along the surface and saw nothing but a blinding glare that hurt my eyes.
“Do you think I could sell it? And maybe get something different? But not something new. I could get like something cheap on eBay and either rub it back or paint it myself. Would you mind?”
“No,” said Mum. “That sounds fine. Maybe I can help you.”
“Actually, no,” I said. “This is something I think I’d like to do myself.”
I could see it in my head. No more purple satin and gold cushions. I wanted everything around me to be hand-made, hand-painted, recycled and re-loved. I wanted it to be beautiful, of course, but an honest kind of beautiful.
And so I got to work. Dad lent me his sander and we made trips back in to Kangaroo Valley Hardware for paint and brushes (chicken feed or fishing tackle anyone?) While I was there I saw the perfect vintage chair for my recycled-and-repainted-from-eBay desk so I bought that too.
No one was allowed in to see anything until I was done, and I wasn’t done until our birthday.
Charlie sang You are my sunshine to me, of course. In fact, she didn’t really stop singing it all day. It got really old after the fifteenth time and now that my plaster was off I could actually chase her to sit on her.
“I’m still faster than you,” she said, teasing me. “I just let you catch me.”
“You did not. I’m a budding athlete-in-training. I’m going to beat you this year,” I said, laughing. “And if you don’t stop singing I’m going to beat you up.”
“Girls!” said Mum. “Coco, get off her. Come and get your presents.”
Two enormous boxes, identically wrapped and both with big blue bows, sat on the floor.
“Oh yeah!” said Charlie. “Let’s do this.”
We read the tags to find out who’s was whose, then sat in front of them, and with perfect coordination, pulled the bows and ripped the paper to get inside at the same time.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Josh, laughing at us. “You know it’s not going to be the same thing anyway. You could, like, be individuals if you wanted.”
“Josh!” said Dad. “Let them do it the way they like.”
“Anyway,” said Mum. “Maybe you’re wrong...”
Josh was wrong. Our presents were identical. I had assumed that Mum had just found two big boxes to fill up with different things, but not this year.
We pulled open the boxes, jamming our fingers into tape and cardboard and almost forgetting to stay coordinated in our haste to find out what was inside. I got to mine first.
“Oh Mum! Wow!” I shouted. Yes, I know. Shouting about birthday presents is kind of juvenile but some things deserve to be shouted about, and a brand new, gleaming, black leather saddle is one of them.
“Me too!” yelled Charlie. (See? We’re more alike than we think.) “A saddle!”
“This is the coolest thing ever,” I said. “And look, a matching bridle and reins.” I pulled them out and dangled them in front of Charlie’s face. “It’s all sooo gorgeous.”
Mum was smiling and Dad looked pleased.
“We thought you needed a saddle, Charlie, because you’ve been using Tessa’s old one and Coco, I never want to hear about you going bareback riding again!”
“Oh, this is so great,” I said. “Look how beautiful it is. Hopefully it’ll fit Cupcake.”
“Well, that’s another thing,” said Mum. She looked at Dad. They both looked out the shed door. “Oh, here they come.”
“What?” said Charlie. “What’s out there?”
I ran to the door and nearly fell over. Walking up the paddock were Tessa, James and Ness, and behind them were two horses.
One of which was Cupcake.
“Are we going for a ride?” I said. “Testing out the new saddles?”
“More like testing out your new horses, really,” said Mum.
“What?” I yelled. (Again with the yelling.) “Are you kidding? Cupcake is my horse now? My very own?”
“Well, I didn’t think Charlie would want her,” Mum said smiling.
“You. Are. Kidding. Me.” I whooped, jumping around the floor. “This is unbelievable. I have a horse!”
I stopped to look at Charlie but she was already halfway down the paddock with her arms around Fozzles’ neck. Tessa was smiling and Ness was laughing and James was standing back, looking at everything like he always does, but I like that about him. He’s thoughtful and he doesn’t need to be in the spotlight and he says what he thinks and it’s usually right. But then he looked up at me and he smiled, a big wide smile, and I smiled back and I ran down to see him and I wanted to hug him and even kiss him but his mum and Tessa were right there and I knew Josh would never let me live it down if I did anything, so instead I shyly took Cupcake’s lead rope from him, but he didn’t let go, and the two of us walked Cupcake up to the shed together.
“Happy birthday,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said.
“It’s a nice day for it,” he said.
“Yes,” I said, looking around. The sun was playing in a velvet blue sky with white fluffy clouds and air that smelt real and fresh, and rays of light were bouncing on grass so green that it looked like it came straight out of a child’s paint set. “It really, really is.”
Mum’s idea was to have our birthday dinner in the new house but I asked if we could have it outside instead, picnic style. The evening was perfect and I was starting to find that I needed to be outside more and more or I felt like I’d been missing out.
“Plus, this way the horses can join in,” I said. “Cupcake is a birthday horse now. She needs to be there.”
Mum raised her eyebrows. “I am not feeding a horse Thai green chicken curry and tiramisu cake,” she said. “Cu
pcake can watch from the other side of the fence.” She relented when she saw my pretend sad face. “Okay, I’ll let you give her a carrot. But she’s not getting near the food.”
We didn’t have all our things unpacked yet so Mum had bought temporary red plastic plates for Charlie and me.
“It’s our celebration thing,” Charlie explained to Tessa who looked confused. “The birthday person always gets the red plate.”
“You guys have the most amazing view,” said Ness, sitting herself down on the picnic rug and stretching her arms in front of her. “You’ve built the house in the perfect spot. Those morning sunrises are going to be fantastic.”
Dad looked modest. “Well, it’ll be good when we get the verandas built. It’s still not finished...”
“But it’s great, sweetheart,” said Mum. “You know it is.”
“Yeah, and I think we should build some stables next,” said Charlie.
“And what about a course for motor bikes too, and maybe even some jumps?” said Josh. He looked at James, whose face lit up.
“No!” said Mum and Dad and Ness, together. Josh and James looked back, surprised.
“We’ve already had one accident,” said Dad. “One broken leg is enough. Definitely no bike jumps. Two wheels on the ground at all times.” He raised his eyes at Josh who shrugged and rolled his eyes.
“I don’t need the face,” said Dad. “Deal with it. Anyway, it’s cake time.”
Mum brought out the tiramisu decorated with 28 lighted candles and put it down carefully in front of Charlie and me. The breeze made the flames dance.
“Happy birthday, girls,” she said, laughing and trying to guard the fire with her hands. “We hope you have a great year.”
We blew out the candles together and then picked up a knife each, ready to cut it when Dad said something.
“Before you do that, I have an announcement to make.”
My heart skipped a beat and my hand froze up. Was Dad for real? Didn’t he know I wanted to actually eat my birthday cake this year? Surely he couldn’t have another bombshell to drop on us. I hardly wanted to look at him just in case he wasn’t joking.
“This time last year we started our big move. Now we’ve got a new house, new friends, new interests and new possibilities. You guys have all been great and it’s been so fun to do this with you, but...” and here he stopped.
I hadn’t breathed yet and I was about to topple over so I quickly gulped some air and went back to my frozen state.
“... but I’m guessing you might like to get back to normal a bit now,” he said.
“What do you mean?” said Josh.
“Aren’t we normal?” said Charlie, looking pretend-offended. “I’m normal, right?”
“You don’t mean go back to Sydney do you?” I said, horrified. “I can’t do that!”
“Yes, Charlie, you’re normal. And no, Coco, I’m not talking about going back to Sydney. I’m talking about going back to school. I’m sure you’re sick of being at home by now, and the house is built, so what do you think?”
I was so relieved that I dropped the knife right into the tiramisu. Amazingly, it fell straight, made a perfect cut and stopped just before it hit the cake board.
“Wow, look at that,” said Tessa. “That’s cool.”
“I think that means yes,” I said. “School sounds excellent.”
Tessa clapped her hands. “Yay! You can come with us.”
I smiled at her and then looked back down at my knife.
“You can make a wish,” said James. “It didn’t touch the plate.”
“Yeah, I can,” I said. But instead of closing my eyes to wish I opened them up wide and looked around at the house and the paddocks, at Cupcake hanging her head over the fence wanting to come up, and at the sky and the clouds turning all orange-pink.
I wish for beauty just like this, I said to myself. I wish for good friends at school. And I wish for James to kiss me.
Yes, I know. It was more than one wish. But I think the wish fairies, wherever they live, will be able to cope. And anyway, I’m not so sure that wishes are really very reliable. I think it’s more about what you make of what you’ve got. I mean, I was hoping for popularity last year and I got a whole lot of muddy puddles instead. But when it all got sorted out, it turned out it was better to get covered in mud than to be part of a group that did nothing but throw mud at other people.
(By the way, at least one of my wishes came true later that evening. You’ll have to guess which one, of course. And later, another of the wishes came true as well. But all of that is for a whole other story.)
THE END
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the Banks family for the inspiration for the story, especially to the real Coco, who is nothing like the book Coco and certainly hasn’t suffered through nearly as many embarrassing, muddy or vomit-filled situations. She’s also incredibly generous and not selfish at all and has excellent taste in footwear (although she doesn’t wear ballet flats much). And I’m sure she’s never had such big fights with her sister, the real Charlie, who is also lovely, funny and very talented.
Thanks to the real Ness for the horse advice. I learned a lot about round yards and body language and horse whispering. I also will probably never ever use the word ‘whinny’ again. (Apparently horses are much quieter animals than I thought.)
Thanks to the kind test readers who gave me useful feedback: Shelley A, Jessy L, Jenny S, Joana H (who got into trouble with her mum because she was reading it when she was supposed to be going to sleep... sorry Mum!), Rebecca A, Linda T, Myra, Heaven A, Gillian E, Ashton S, Nicole P, Heather Y, Lynne S who suggested some first chapter revisions and others.
Thanks always to my husband who is always supportive and to our local preschool staff who entertain and educate my own little Coco while I’m writing.
This story is fictional. I made up everything Coco did, said and thought. But it is based on real life circumstances, people and places. Yes, Budgong and Kangaroo Valley really exist. You can get a coffee at Charlie’s cafe, you can check out rocking horses at the Wood Shop and you can buy fishing tackle at the hardware place.
You can also go for a horse ride through the amazing Aussie bush (and maybe even meet some familiar characters) if you look here.
To read more about the background and inspiration for Love and Muddy Puddles, check out Cecily’s blog here.
About the Author
Cecily Anne Paterson has given up sugar in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle more times than she can count. She prefers dogs over cats, acoustic guitar over electric and tea over coffee. She’d be very happy to never have to cook again in her life, although it’s not looking likely that that particular miracle will ever occur. She lives with her husband, four children and two dogs in small town New South Wales, Australia. Her literary aim is to write two books a year for the next ten years. Read more about her here.
Now. This bit is super important.
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New authors depend on word of mouth. We seriously do. The more reviews we have, the more people will want to read our books. The more they read, the more we can keep food on our table and keep writing.
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Missing Coco and Charlie already?
The sequel to Love and Muddy Puddles is here.
Charlie Franks is A-OK
Unlike her drama-queen twin sister, Charlie Franks is always fine. At least she is until she has to start a new school, finds out she can’t ride her new horse, and gets told that her Mum has something totally weird wrong with her. Cha
rlie’s not A-OK. Not at all. And she can’t see how things are ever going to get better.
Now available at your favourite e-book store.
Go here to find out about new books from Cecily Anne Paterson
Also by Cecily Anne Paterson
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~ Cathy Cassidy
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Invisible was a semi-finalist in the 2014 Amazon Book of the Year Award.
“An exquisitely written story… a stunning account of the reinvention of a compelling and sympathetic character.” ~ Publisher’s Weekly
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Invincible
(the sequel to Invisible)
“When I was smaller I thought that at some point in my life I’d reach the top of the mountain. You know, the place where you’re finally happy. The night I got a standing ovation in the school play was the night I got to the top. The trouble was, no one ever told me that I’d have to hike back down.”
Finally, everything is going right for 13 year-old Jazmine Crawford. After years of being invisible, she’s making friends, talking to her mum and hanging out with Liam. But what happens when everyone around her changes? Will getting back in touch with her grandma help her cope or just make things worse? And who’s going to finally give arrogant Angela what she deserves?
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