Maynard must have been talking to me but I didn’t hear him. All I could think was, How did this happen? Was she alive when Mr Johnson put her in the box, and then died because she couldn’t breathe? Did he kill her and put her in the box to teach me a lesson? Why would anyone do such a thing? Did she know what was happening to her? Was she frightened? Why? Why? No!

Then I realised Mr Driver was squatting down near me. Maynard must have gone in next door to fetch him. Mr Driver was talking quietly to me. He helped me stand up but he didn’t try to take Sixpence away from me. He led us both into his house and sat me in his reading chair in the corner of his kitchen. He made me a cup of instant coffee with lots of sugar and even though I shook my head no thank you, he made me have a few sips.

He asked me to tell him exactly what had happened when I got home. I tried to tell him but I was hiccupping too hard. Maynard filled him in and then said he had to go because his mum would be worrying, and Mr Driver shook him by the hand and asked if he would like him to ring his mother to explain. I don’t know what Maynard said. I sort of went away from the kitchen for a while in my mind, just trying to talk to Sixpence and stroking her and telling her it would be okay, even though I knew she was dead and wouldn’t ever play with me again.

CHAPTER 8

Dad came in to take me home about teatime. They had brought Caleb home but he was still very sick. I heard them talking at the kitchen door, but then Mr Driver took Dad outside so I don’t know what was said. When he came back in, Dad wasn’t with him, and Mr Driver asked if I’d like to stay with him for tea and I said thank you I wasn’t very hungry but could I stay anyway.

He didn’t make me put Sixpence down, and I knew if I went home, they would take her away from me. He let me stay in his chair in the kitchen with her and went about making mashed potatoes and chops in the griller of his stove. He wasn’t worried about a dead animal in his kitchen, and I guessed this was because he’d seen dead things and people in the war, so it didn’t make him flip out. He put the radio on quietly and didn’t make me talk to him.

After a while he sat next to me. He said Sixpence was a very pretty guinea pig, and he knew I would miss her. He said animals have a very strong sense about who cares about them, and he was sure she knew how much I loved her, and that would have made her happy at the end. He said when I was ready, he would put her back in the box, and we could bury her anywhere I liked in his garden, so I could come to visit her grave whenever I wanted to. He asked if I would like to make a bed in the box for her and I nodded. He said I could come in after school tomorrow and he would help me make a little cross for her grave. I said I didn’t think our church let us have crosses or angels on graves because that was considered idolatry, and he sort of snorted and said we’d work something out. He put a pile of old socks and rags and scissors and magazines and glue on the table and asked me to help myself when I was ready. After a while I put her on the table and started to cut up some nice old soft socks to make a bed for her.