Read Lemonade Sky for Free Online Page A

Mum explains that they were only together for a few short months.
    “We were just students. Far too young to have a baby.”
    Then she hugs me and says, “But I’m very glad we did!”
    I do remember Tizz’s dad. He was called Andy, and he was small and thin, like Tizz, and had a nasty temper. He wasn’t there for very long, either. Tizz feels really bitter that I can remember her dad but she can’t, just like we can both remember Sammy’s dad but Sammy can’t. Not that it seems to bother Sammy, though it probably will when she is older.
    Sammy’s dad was OK, I guess. At least he didn’t just walk out. He got killed in a fight, which in some ways is even worse. Mum was really upset as she always thought that he was The One. The one that was going to last. Poor Mum! She hasn’t had much luck with her boyfriends. I think maybe she hasn’t always chosen them very well.
    Apart from Cal. Cal was different. He was lovely! We always wished that he could have stayed, but unfortunately he had itchy feet. Least that’s what Mum told us. Couldn’t bear to be tied down. We missed him horribly after he’d gone.
    But Cal was the only one. The rest were all total rubbish. Tizz’s dad used to throw things and shout, and Sammy’s was too handsome for his own good. That is what Mum’s friend Nikki always said. Mum’s so-called friend. The friend that egged her on to spend money she didn’t have. That took her clubbing and didn’t even bother to ring and find out if she’d got home safely. Cos she must have seen that Mum was hyper. She knows Mum has bipolar. She knows what it does to her!
    Bipolar is what Mum’s illness is called. It’s the thing that makes her seesaw up and down. One minute over the moon, the next sunk in depression. I don’t think Tizz has it, in spite of her mood swings. I think Tizz is the sort of person that is just naturally impatient. It doesn’t take much to get her going. Like she’d been OK in Tesco, just for a short while, but then she’d convinced herself that she was going to find Mum waiting for us when we got home and when Mum wasn’t there it flipped her back into her normal aggression. Rather like her dad, come to think of it. Not like Mum! Mum is never aggressive. She is never impatient, either. Not even when she’s super-hyped and is zipping about at a thousand miles per hour while the rest of us are all moving like slugs.
    “Hey! Hey!”
    I suddenly became aware that Tizz was leaning across the table, poking at me.
    “What?” I said. “What?”
    “She’s not eating anything.”
    I looked at Sammy. She had taken one bite out of her bread and jam, chewed it to a pulp, and spat it out again on her plate.
    “Don’t want it,” she said.
    She was just playing up. Seeing how far she could go. I knew it was frightening for her, Mum disappearing, but I was just so sick of having to make excuses for them both. Her and Tizz. It was frightening for all of us!
    “If you don‘t want it,” I said, “then don’t eat it. Go hungry.”
    I could see she was a bit thrown by that. She’d obviously thought I was going to plead with her.
    “She’ll get faint if she doesn’t eat,” said Tizz.
    “So what?” I turned on her, angrily. “What am I supposed to do about it?”
    “You’re supposed to be looking after her!”
    I said, “Why me?”
    “Cos you’re the oldest,” said Tizz. “And this is all your fault! You’re the one that’s responsible for making sure Mum takes her meds!”
    I could have come back at her. I could have said that we were both responsible. But deep inside me there was this nagging voice that said it was my fault. I couldn’t put all the blame on Nikki. Or Tizz. Suddenly I just felt really tired.
    “If she wants something else you’d better go and find something,” I said.
    “Like what?” said Tizz.
    “I don’t know! Anything.”
    Tizz narrowed her eyes. “We can’t just eat anything ,” she said. “We’ve got to make sure there’s enough