BooksBarbecue
Back The Lollipop Shoes
Chapters (96)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Book
  3. The Lollipop Shoes
  4. Dedication
  5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  6. PART ONE
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. PART TWO
  13. 1
  14. 2
  15. 3
  16. 4
  17. 5
  18. 6
  19. 7
  20. 8
  21. PART THREE
  22. 1
  23. 2
  24. 3
  25. 4
  26. 5
  27. 6
  28. PART FOUR
  29. 1
  30. 2
  31. 3
  32. 4
  33. 5
  34. 6
  35. 7
  36. 8
  37. 9
  38. PART FIVE
  39. 1
  40. 2
  41. 3
  42. 4
  43. 5
  44. 6
  45. 7
  46. 8
  47. 9
  48. 10
  49. 11
  50. 12
  51. PART SIX
  52. 1
  53. 2
  54. 3
  55. 4
  56. 5
  57. 6
  58. 7
  59. 8
  60. 9
  61. 10
  62. 11
  63. 12
  64. PART SEVEN
  65. 1
  66. 2
  67. 3
  68. 4
  69. 5
  70. 6
  71. 7
  72. 8
  73. 9
  74. PART EIGHT
  75. 1
  76. 2
  77. 3
  78. 4
  79. 5
  80. 6
  81. 7
  82. 8
  83. 9
  84. 10
  85. 11
  86. 12
  87. 13
  88. 14
  89. 15
  90. 16
  91. 17
  92. 18
  93. 19
  94. Epilogue
  95. About the Author
  96. Also by Joanne Harris

And there is something else, too. A spiral symbol in the sugar snow, drawn with the tip of a small finger. I’ve seen it before, in Anouk’s room, chalked up on her noticeboard; drawn in crayon on a pad; reproduced a hundred times with buttons and jigsaw-pieces on this floor, now lustrous with that undeniable glamour—

And now I begin to understand. Those signs scratched under the counter-top. The medicine bags hanging over the door. The new influx of customers; the friends we have made; all the changes that have occurred here over the past few weeks. This is far more than a child’s game. This is more like a secret campaign over a territory I was not even aware was in dispute.

And the general behind this campaign?

Do I even need to ask?

4

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Friday, 21st December
Winter Solstice

IT’S ALWAYS MAD on the last day of term. Lessons are mostly games and tidying up; there are form parties, cakes and Christmas cards; teachers who haven’t smiled all year go around wearing novelty Christmas bauble earrings and Santa hats and sometimes even giving out sweets.

Chantal and Co. have been keeping their distance. Since they got back some time last week, they haven’t been half as popular as they used to be. Maybe it’s a ringworm thing. Suze’s hair is coming back, though she still wears her beanie all the time. Chantal looks OK, I guess, but Danielle, who was the first to call Rosette those names, has lost most of her hair and her eyebrows as well. They can’t possibly know that I did that – but all the same, they keep out of my way, like sheep around an electric fence. No more It games. No more pranks. No more jokes about my hair, or visits to the chocolaterie. Mathilde heard Chantal tell Suze I was ‘creepy’. Jean-Loup and I just laughed like drains. ‘Creepy.’ I mean, how lame can you get?

But now there’s only three days to go, and there’s still no sign at all of Roux. I’ve been looking out for him all week, but he hasn’t been seen by anyone. I even went round to the hostel today, but there was no sign of anyone there at all, and Rue de Clichy isn’t somewhere you’d want to hang around – especially not now when it’s getting dark, with sick splattered on the pavements and sleeping drunks bundled into the steel-shuttered doorways.