Counting Stars

The Middle of the World She started with The Universe. Then she wrote The Galaxy, The Solar System, The Earth, Europe, England, Felling, Our House, The Kitchen, The White Chair With A Hundred Holes Like Stars, then her name, Margaret, and she paused. "What's in the middle of me?" she asked. "Your heart," said Mary. She wrote My Heart. "In the middle of that?" "Your soul," said Catherine. She wrote My Soul. Mam reached down and lifted the front of Margaret's T-shirt and prodded her navel. "That's where your middle is," she said. "That's where you were part of me." Margaret drew a row of stick figures, then drew concentric rings growing out from each of them. "Where's the real middle of the world?" she said. "They used to think the Mediterranean," said Catherine. "Medi means middle. Terra means world. The sea at the middle of the world." Margaret drew a blue sea with a green earth around it. "There was another sea at the edges," said Catherine. "It was filled with monsters and it went right to the end of the world. If you got that far, you just fell off." Margaret drew this sea. She put fangs and fins for monsters. "There's no end, really, is there?" she said. "No," said Catherine. "And there's no middle, is there?" Catherine laughed. "Not really." Mam prodded Margaret's navel again. "That's the middle of the world," she said. Later that day we went to the grave. Colin rushed home from Reyrolle's on his Vespa for lunch. He bolted his food and rattled away again. We heard the scooter taking him on to Felling Bank and down toward the square. When it faded, Mary said, "Should we go to the grave today?" We hadn't been for months. We thought of the dead being in Heaven rather than being in the earth. "Good idea," said Mam. "I'll make some bara brith for when you get home." We were on the rocky path at the foot of the street when Dandy ran after us. He was a little black poodle that was never clipped and had horrible breath. "Go home!" said Mary. "Dandy, go home!" He yapped and growled and whined. "Dandy, go home!" No good. We just had to let him trot along beside us. Margaret fiddled with her navel as she walked. "When I started," she said, "what was I like?" "What do you think you were like?" said Mary. "Like a gorilla? You were very very very little. You were that little, you couldn't even be seen. You were that little, nobody even knew you were blinkin there!" "Daft dog," said Catherine, as Dandy ran madly through a clump of foxgloves and jumped at bees. Soon we saw Auntie Jan and Auntie Mona ahead of us. They wore head scarves and carried shopping bags on their arms. "Bet you can't tell which is which," said Mary. "Even when they're talking to me I can't tell which is which," said Margaret. The two aunts hurried into Ell Dene Crescent. "Did they look the same when nobody knew they were there?" said Margaret. "Of course they did!" said Mary. "Everybody looks the same when they can't be blinkin seen!" The aunts waved and grinned and we all waved and Dandy yapped and then they hurried on again down into Ell Dene Crescent. Mary picked daisies from the verges as we walked. She said, "Dad once said that daisies were the best of all flowers. I think I remember that." "You do," said Catherine. "You do remember. He called them day's eyes. Awake in the day and closed asleep at night.&qAlmond, David is the author of 'Counting Stars' with ISBN 9780385729468 and ISBN 0385729464.