‘Make some coffee, please.’ Her mother picked up the book on the table, To Kill a Mockingbird. ‘This was mine, or more correctly, I made it mine.’ She turned it over in her hands and opened it. There in childish print it read

This book belongs to Diana Trewin of Boskenna

July 1962

‘I knew I had a copy.’ She ran her fingers over the cover then at Gran. ‘I wonder what she thought when she saw the inscription?’

Lottie tilted her head to the side. ‘Why?’

‘I was very young to be reading this.’ She flipped it over in her hands.

‘True.’ Lottie frowned, thinking of the diary. ‘I’ll go and make coffee but promise me you will be gentle with Gran.’

Her mother pursed her mouth.

‘Mum, promise.’

‘Fine.’

Lottie didn’t like the word fine – it had too many connotations – but on this occasion, it would have to do because she wasn’t getting anything further from her mother. Her nose was in the book. Lottie sighed.

25

Diana

4 August 1962, 6.30 a.m.

Diana hummed as she walked down the stairs. It was the song about night and day that Mummy was dancing to last night. Diana took a spin around at the bottom of the stairs. The sun was out and no one else was up. But that was not true. She must pay more attention to things if she wanted to become a journalist. The front door was open. Someone else was awake. Looking around, she saw the newspapers were on the hall table. She must read articles to learn how to report.

She skipped to the table where three papers were laid out. The front pages didn’t look very interesting. She kept flipping pages until she saw the words that she had heard mentioned in quiet voices . . . nuclear threat, Khrushchev, President Kennedy, Cold War. Goosebumps rose on her arms. Her glance stopped at the headline, Keeping a Goat in the House. That sounded fun, but she frowned. It was described as a parable. Jesus told parables in the Bible. Mr Khrushchev told them in the paper. Her nose wrinkled when she read about getting used to the smell. Mr Khrushchev called the goat imperialism. That was strange. She would need to ask what imperialism was. It didn’t sound like a name. He also mentioned war and at that, Diana stepped away from the table. She didn’t like reading that there had been more nuclear tests. She had asked Daddy what that meant, and she hadn’t liked the answer. Mummy had made a serious face at Daddy and muttered that he shouldn’t be telling her things like that because it would scare her.

Mummy would make more faces when she found out Diana was reading the papers. She studied the article again. It was confusing. But somehow the goat made the nuclear thermal weapons necessary. She sighed and decided she wouldn’t ask Mummy about it, but would ask Daddy or Uncle Tom.