Fiddleback

1 Churr! I can't believe I am actually sitting down to write a book! I must be mad! My first book was a total sellout--all eleven copies gone! (Actually, I gave them away.) But what a story I have to tell! Bits of it may be shocking to some people. I bet they'll say, That sort of thing is better left unsaid. But we all live our lives in different ways, and this is the way we live ours. Good writing is true, and this will be as true as I can make it--the way I see it. Anyway, nobody is making you read this story. I'll call it fiddleback. Strange word, bumpy like a knuckle. We didn't know what it meant, but we sure found out. I'll write it for Donna and Little Jim and the fiddleback. 2 My Sister, Danielle Before I tell you what happened I will introduce myself. I'm Henni. I'm tall, I want to be a writer, and I'm going to junior high school in two days' time. At my old school, there were twenty-five kids in sixth grade. At junior high school, there will be about a hundred and eighty in seventh grade! Then I was a big (tall) fish in a small pond. Now I'll be a small (tall) fish in a big pond. (Zev calls me the Human Bookmark.) This year I'm the proud flasher of a fabulous travel pass. With it I can go anywhere in zone 1 on trams, buses, or trains! It's very expensive and has my photo on it, and I bet I lose it. My little laminated magic carpet. I told Frank it was my driver's license, and he believed me! We're getting organized for school, buying all the new things I need. I think this time of order is extra cool because it's such a contrast to our wild vacation, which wasn't meant to be so primitive, it just happened that way. Circumstances beyond our control. The crowning glory of my new uniform--my blazer! With shoulders! It looks so grown-up. My blazer has a lining. My first lining. My arms slip down the cool sleeves. And in the lining over my heart is a secret inside pocket. If I ever get a letter from my beloved (if I ever get a beloved), that's where I'll put it, close to my heart. "Don't you love it? It's silk," I told Mum. "It is not silk," said Danielle. "It's something made out of petroleum." Danielle is watching all this fuss about me. Of course, she has new things for school, too, but they're not totally new and different like mine. When Dad came home from work, I got all dressed up in my new uniform, did my hair, and made the big entrance. "Well, look at you," said Dad, putting his arm around Mum. "Clothes maketh the woman." "And breasts!" said Danielle. For nine long embarrassing years, Danielle has been my sister. Her motto is "Go forth and embarrass Henni," but now she is reaching more embarrassing heights than EVER!!!!! "Danielle, don't be so rude!" said Mum in a resigned voice. "Go and slip on your new Windcheater to show Dad." "You're just trying to make me feel better because Henni's getting everything. I know, 'when I get my blazer, it'll be special,' but it won't be so special because Henni wore it first and everything happens to Henni first. So what! Who cares! I don't!" And she stomped out. A bit later, I went out into the backyard and Danielle was lying in the hammock breaking a stick into little bits and flicking them at a tea towel on the clothesline. "Don't be such a pain," I said. "You're the lucky one!" "Oh yeah?" "YES!" I said, then I let her have it. I'd been storing up the ammunition. "I had to sit at the table till I'd eaten everything and wait until everybody else had finished before I could leave the table. I had to be in bed at exactly eight-thirty. I didn't get pocket money until I was seven. You get more pocket money than I ever got." "So?" SHoney, Elizabeth is the author of 'Fiddleback' with ISBN 9780440417132 and ISBN 0440417139.