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Back Stargazing for Beginners Save as PDF
Contents ( 64)
  1. A Letter from the Author
  2. ONE
  3. TWO
  4. THREE
  5. FOUR
  6. FIVE
  7. SIX
  8. SEVEN
  9. EIGHT
  10. NINE
  11. TEN
  12. ELEVEN
  13. TWELVE
  14. THIRTEEN
  15. FOURTEEN
  16. FIFTEEN
  17. SIXTEEN
  18. SEVENTEEN
  19. EIGHTEEN
  20. NINETEEN
  21. TWENTY
  22. TWENTY-ONE
  23. TWENTY-TWO
  24. TWENTY-THREE
  25. TWENTY-FOUR
  26. TWENTY-FIVE
  27. TWENTY-SIX
  28. TWENTY-SEVEN
  29. TWENTY-EIGHT
  30. TWENTY-NINE
  31. THIRTY
  32. THIRTY-ONE
  33. THIRTY-TWO
  34. THIRTY-THREE
  35. THIRTY-FOUR
  36. THIRTY-FIVE
  37. THIRTY-SIX
  38. THIRTY-SEVEN
  39. THIRTY-EIGHT
  40. THIRTY-NINE
  41. FORTY
  42. FORTY-ONE
  43. FORTY-TWO
  44. FORTY-THREE
  45. FORTY-FOUR
  46. FORTY-FIVE
  47. FORTY-SIX
  48. FORTY-SEVEN
  49. FORTY-EIGHT
  50. FORTY-NINE
  51. FIFTY
  52. FIFTY-ONE
  53. FIFTY-TWO
  54. FIFTY-THREE
  55. FIFTY-FOUR
  56. FIFTY-FIVE
  57. FIFTY-SIX
  58. FIFTY-SEVEN
  59. FIFTY-EIGHT
  60. FIFTY-NINE
  61. SIXTY
  62. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  63. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  64. ONE

Elsa’s screams get louder and my head pounds along with my heart. I’m not soothing her. I’m enraging her! A panicky lump forms in my throat, but I am not going to give up. I hold her away from me. ‘Fine,’ I say. ‘If you don’t want me to cuddle you then you can go back to bed!’

I take her into Mum’s room and put her down in the cot. Immediately she’s up on her feet and shaking the rails.

‘Goodnight, Elsa!’ I say firmly, then I walk out of the room and shut the door.

I go straight to my bedroom. My duvet is smooth on the bed, my planet mobile is moving gently and everything is exactly where I left it this morning.

Elsa’s still screaming, but it’s like the volume’s been turned down a notch and now I can think about what Mum’s done. A few things are bothering me, like how come she had her passport on her if she only decided to go to Myanmar on the spur of the moment? And why did she wait until the plane was leaving to ring me? I stare out of the window at the black sky. I guess she didn’t tell me earlier because she knew I’d try to stop her. Or maybe she didn’t think about us at all …

I’m not sure which is worse.

Next door, Elsa is still crying. In a slightly crazy way, I wonder what would happen if she didn’t stop. Can a baby cry for two weeks? For a moment, I consider going online to see if anyone’s done an experiment on babies crying, but then I realise that I’m too tired to open my laptop.

I turn my globe one hundred and eighty degrees, circle today on my homework timetable (I haven’t finished it so I can’t cross it out), then go back into Mum’s room.

Elsa reaches out to me, but I just shake my head and say, ‘It’s time to sleep.’ Then I get on to Mum’s bed and pull a pillow over my head. I shut my eyes and squeeze the pillow tight, muffling Elsa’s screams.

They’re not so bad now. More of a hum than a scream. Almost soothing …

ELEVEN

‘Your Mum’s got a slipped disc?’ Dawn stares at me like she’s never heard anything so bizarre in her life.

‘It’s very common,’ I say, ‘especially when people have to lift heavy things.’ I’m standing on the doorstep of Little Acorns nursery and Elsa’s wriggling in my arms. ‘Mum’s been told to have total bed rest so I’ll be bringing Elsa to nursery and picking her up. Just for a while … Maybe two weeks?’

‘A slipped disc?’ Dawn blinks.

Grandad said this would be the perfect excuse; I wasn’t expecting to have to convince her! I think back to what I read on the NHS website. ‘It’s when pressure is placed on the sciatic nerve causing severe pain in the leg, hip and buttocks.’