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Jem and Skye. Mum was in the front room putting the finishing touches to something green and glittery. Getting a bit sidetracked, I said, “That’s pretty!”
    â€œIt is, isn’t it?” said Mum. She shook it out and held it up for me to see. All the spangles twinkled and shone.
    â€œWhat is it?” I said.
    â€œIt’s for Emilia… Mrs Duffy’s little girl. For her Book Week. She’s going as a dewdrop.”
    I said, “Blimey!”
    An expression of annoyance crossed Mum’s face. “What do you mean, blimey ? What is that supposed to mean?”
    I backed off, hastily. “It’s what Dad says.”
    â€œWell, there’s no call for you to say it.”
    â€œIt’s not rude,” I said.
    Mum tightened her lips.
    â€œIt’s not! Honestly! I asked Dad. It just means, God blind me if I tell a lie… or something. It got shortened. But that’s all it means!”
    â€œWhat it means,” said Mum, “is that you’re being snotty about poor little Emilia dressing up as a dewdrop.”
    â€œMum, she’s thirteen. She has learning difficulties. ”
    â€œYes, and this is what she’s set her heart on. Just let her have her moment.”
    â€œBut people will laugh at her!”
    â€œNobody is going to laugh at her.”
    â€œB—”
    â€œFrankie, I do know what I’m doing! I’ve been at this a long time. Just let it be.”
    Honestly! She didn’t have to get all offended. I was only trying to help.
    â€œWhat’s this pilgrimage you’re going on?”
    â€œWe’re going to the Arcade.” I tugged at a bit of twig that was tangled in Rags’s fur. “Down Old Town.”
    â€œGood heavens,” said Mum. “That’s a trip down memory lane. I wonder if the children’s playground is still there?”
    â€œDunno,” I said. “We’re not going for that. We’re going to look at a church… St Peter’s. We’re going to look at the steps.” I yanked at another bit of twig. Rags seemed to have brought half the park home with him.
    â€œWhy would you want to look at steps?” said Mum.
    I’d been hoping she’d ask me that.
    â€œCos Jem’s just discovered,” I said, “that that’s where she was found… wrapped in a shawl, on the steps of the church. Abandoned . All those years ago!”
    â€œReally?” said Mum. “Who told her that?”
    â€œShe read it in this old newspaper cutting. She was looking through some papers in her mum and dad’s desk and she came across it.”
    Mum paused. “It was you,” she said, “wasn’t it? You put her up to it!”
    I was indignant. “I so didn’t!”
    â€œThen why was she looking through her mum and dad’s papers?”
    â€œWell, cos she was hoping to find out about her birth mum. It was her idea!” I said. “Sort of.”
    â€œ Sort of.” Mum snipped off a bit of thread between her teeth. “You just couldn’t resist it, could you? You had to go and meddle!”
    â€œShe’s very unhappy,” I said. “She reckons her life has been blighted.”
    â€œAll because she’s not allowed to join a modelling agency?”
    â€œIt means a lot to her.”
    â€œSo now she’s trying to trace her birth mother?” Mum shook her head. “I just hope it doesn’t all end in disaster.”
    Honestly! Mum was as bad as Skye. Why did they always have to look on the black side? Why couldn’t they imagine nice things happening?
    â€œHer mum doesn’t have to have been someone bad,” I said. “She could turn out to be rich and famous!”
    â€œAnd Jem could end up feeling resentful and dissatisfied.”
    I said, “She already does.”
    â€œShe’d get over it. Really, Frankie, I don’t know why you just can’t leave well alone. Why must