Poor Missus Lillicrap,

Though I could never tell why,

But still I’m called Lillicrap – poor Missus Lillicrap,

Stinky old Lillicrap I.’

She pulled me aside and said she hoped she had misheard what we were singing, and that if she heard one word that didn’t match the songbook, it would be down to the headmistress’s office for me. Actually it was just as well she hadn’t heard what I’d done with ‘We sail the Ocean Blue’ …

But it wasn’t that after all. Miss Lillicrap called me in and told me Caleb had been taken to the children’s hospital with an asthma attack. She said it was serious. His teacher had rung Dad who had come to pick him up, and Mum and Dad had also taken Ruthy with them. I didn’t know why they hadn’t asked me to go too, but I guessed it might have been because Ruthy told them I was mean to him on the way to school. She said he was stable but very unwell, and that I was to go to Mr Driver’s house if they were not home when school was over. Then she sent me back to class.

The bell had rung so I couldn’t tell Maynard what had happened, but he was waiting for me when home time came and walked home with me even though it was in the opposite direction from his own house, which was very nice of him. I was worried Mum and Dad might have asked Mr Johnson not to bring Sixpence over today because Caleb was sick, but Maynard suggested I didn’t raise this with anyone because they would think I didn’t care about Caleb, which wasn’t true, but in a little way was true. I was still very cross with him for telling Dad about the potato masher and now it seemed he had taken all the attention again by being sick. Aunty Maisie said he was a sensitive child and that, in her opinion, half of the asthma was in his mind. There were days I thought this might the case, although I had sat with him when he couldn’t breathe, and I don’t think you can make that up. Certainly when he coughed up lots of green and yellow stuff, that wasn’t anyone’s imagination.

When we reached our place, Maynard said he’d come in with me to make sure everything was okay. We walked down the side path to our back door. On the step was a little cardboard box. I wondered what it was and we both crouched down to take a look. Sometimes the local chemist left medicine for Caleb in a box at the back, so I thought this might be something he needed in hospital and was wondering how I could get it to him.

We lifted the lid.

And there was my Sixpence. My dear little baby. And I knew straight away she was dead. She was just lying there in that little brown box with nothing else in it. It was just a bit bigger than she was. There was no bedding or food or water or air holes or anything. I screamed out and took her out of the box and cuddled her to me. She wasn’t warm and she didn’t come back to life. Maynard said, ‘Oh no,’ and put his arm around my shoulders. I cried and cried and cried. I rocked my baby and cried. My mouth formed a wide O but I couldn’t speak. My Sixpence was dead.