Read Dustbin Baby for Free Online Page B

Tanya, sighing. Her eyes meet mine.
    â€˜As if!’
    I laugh sympathetically.
    â€˜Still, I could get lucky. There’s no chance of me being adopted like my little sister, I’m too old for that lark now, but give me another couple of years and I might meet some rich guy who’ll want to set me up somewhere stylish. Then my sister can come and live with me – or maybe my friend Mandy across the road. We play these games together, her and me. Pretend games. Don’t laugh.’
    â€˜I play pretend games too sometimes.’
    â€˜So, your new mum and dad? The ones that adopted you? Something tells me it’s not all Happy Families,’ says Tanya.
    â€˜You got it. Well, we’re not any kind of family any more,’ I say, leaning against the little cot. I fiddle with the bars, lowering them so I can perch on the edge. I fight a mad desire to scrunch up really small and curl up in the cot myself. I smooth the Thomas the Tank Engine quilt.
    â€˜The new mum didn’t dump you in a dustbin too, did she?’ says Tanya.
    â€˜No. She was OK, I suppose,’ I say, pleating the quilt. Thomas the Tank Engine is concertinaed up tight.
    â€˜Was?’ says Tanya. She’s changed her tone. She perches beside me. ‘Is she dead?’
    â€˜Mmm.’
    â€˜What, she got cancer or something?’
    â€˜No, she . . .’
    â€˜I get it,’ Tanya says softly. ‘Yeah,
my
mum topped herself.’
    Neither of us say anything for a minute. I don’t have to pretend with Tanya. I can really talk to her. But there are some things you can’t ever tell.
    â€˜And your dad?’ Tanya says eventually.
    â€˜Him!’
    â€˜Ah,’ says Tanya. ‘So, who are you with now? You’re not in a Children’s Home, are you?’
    â€˜I was for a while. I’ve lived all over. But I’ve got this new foster mother, Marion. She’s OK. But she’s not like a
real
mum.’ I pause, smoothing the quilt out again. Thomas the Tank Engine looks as if he’s been in a bad train crash.
    â€˜Is that why you came to take a deck at Pat?’ Tanya asks.
    â€˜I thought – oh, it’s so daft, I was just a baby, but I wondered if I’d remember her. What’s she like, Tanya? She seems . . . nice.’
    â€˜She
is
nice, I suppose. Well, she nags a bit, but then that’s a mumsie thing, isn’t it? She’s good with all the babies. She never gets rattled even when they’re yelling fit to bust, and she never really loses her rag with me – but maybe that’s because she doesn’t really care, like. I’m just this dodgy girl who’s been foisted on her, like a visitor. She does her best to make me feel welcome but when I go she won’t miss me.’
    I don’t suppose she missed me either. I was here eleven months but I wasn’t ever
her
baby. I was just one of many to be fed and changed and cared for.
    â€˜Where are you going then, Tanya?’
    She shrugs. ‘Don’t ask me. This is just a temporary placement till they can find somewhere else.’ She nibbles a nail, looking at me sideways. ‘This Marion – she doesn’t specialize in teenagers, does she?’
    â€˜Not really. I think I’m just a special case because she knew me before. But I suppose I could ask her—’
    â€˜No, no, I’m OK here for now. And I want to stay pals with Mandy. Like I said, we’re like sisters.’
    â€˜
Her
mum couldn’t foster you?’
    Tanya grins. ‘I don’t think her mum can stick me. I’m a bad influence on her precious little diddums.’
    â€˜They said I was a bad influence once.’
    â€˜You!’ Tanya cracks up laughing. ‘You’re like Goody Goody Two Shoes.’
    I grin too. ‘That’s all part of the act. Hey, where are
your
shoes then?’
    â€˜Oh, right.’ Tanya shows off the most amazing shiny