Read Mad Joy for Free Online Page A

road.
    It’s all a bit foggy after that. I think the bus stopped, but I can’t remember if the nun was badly hurt or not, whether she continued her journey or was helped into a nearby house or what. I don’t know to this day whether she told anyone I’d pushed her, whether any of the passengers saw me push her, or if Gracie saw. Gracie didn’t say anything to me. I often caught her studying me after that. I would look up and she’d have a face filled with curiosity. But if she had seen me do it, she didn’t say. She never said a thing. Just kept on loving me.

10
    Miss Wallock was the one who first made me realize that Gracie had a secret too.
    If Swallockelder was as batty as a fruitcake, the younger Miss Wallock was perfectly sane. When I was a little older, Gracie started sending me a few doors down to Miss Wallock’s for piano lessons on Tuesdays. I went straight from school, which meant Gracie had a bit more time at the dress agency where she worked, or else could catch the bus back a bit later from shopping in town.
    Miss Wallock was something of a rival to Gracie, it always seemed. They had known each other from girlhood and took pains to compare every detail of their lives.
    ‘You’ve got a linen tablecloth, I suppose,’ Miss Wallock might say.
    ‘Yes, I think we have one – for best, though.’
    ‘Ah! For best. Of course. Now is that embroidered?’
    ‘I think so – maybe lace-edged.’
    ‘By Gracie, is it?’
    ‘I’m not sure.’
    ‘Probably not. She knows her sewing, doesn’t she? She never was much at lace-making, though. Tried, of course. Always did work hard.’
    And whenever I got back home, rather than questions about my lesson, there would always be a little inquest.
    ‘Were those new lace curtains I thought I saw in Ivy’s front window?’
    ‘Don’t know.’
    ‘Hmm. Ask her next time.’
    Or ‘Sherbet lemon, is it, for doing well? Where would she’ve got them from, I wonder. Thomson’s, is it?’
    I was well aware of my position between the two of them, and over time I learnt to play the situation better than the piano. If I wanted more attention off Gracie, I would give her a little tweak, and if I was fed up with Miss Wallock for over-working me on the scales I would feed her a little nugget of jealousy to last the rest of the lesson.
    I realized now, of course, that she would be a prime source of information, and fed her compliments to get her in the mood.
    ‘What an exquisite vase,’ I said, admiring a dull-looking clod of ceramic on the sideboard. ‘We’ve got nothing like that at home.’
    ‘Really? No vases?’
    I sighed, ruefully. ‘Oh, we just put flowers in jars. I wish we had beautiful vases like you.’
    Miss Wallock simpered in an over-modest fashion.
    ‘I’m surprised Gracie isn’t more like you. You must’ve known each other since you were young, back in olden days.’
    Miss Wallock smiled. ‘We’ve known each other since I can remember. We went to school together.’
    ‘I bet you both had a string of boys after you. And men.’
    Miss Wallock gave a high-pitched giggle, and sounded just like a girl.
    ‘Heavens above! We had no such thing. Mind you, I had my fair share – I was quite a beauty, some say, when I was young.’ She sighed, got up from the piano stool, and wandered over to the sideboard.
    ‘And what about Gracie? I don’t suppose she had any young men, did she?’
    I knew she would respond to this provocation. She took something out of the sideboard drawer and turned bright eyes on me. ‘Gracie? Lord, no! She never had any luck … look …’
    She stood next to me and showed me a dog-eared photograph . A row of girls were standing dressed in white and in the centre was a girl wearing a crown.
    ‘Is that you?’ I pointed at the May Queen.
    ‘No, that’s me.’ She pointed to a passably fine-looking girl, and I responded ecstatically.
    ‘How beautiful!’
    Miss Wallock inhaled a deep lungful of satisfaction.
    ‘Which one is