It was the end of term for me and my little sister, Iggy.
Iggy didnât want it to be. We were eating our breakfast and she was quite worried.
âWho will look after the hamsters and the guinea pigs?â she said.
âSomeone will take the hamsters and the guinea pigs home,â said Mum.
âWhat will all the teachers do?â
âSomeone will take the teachers home too,â Dad said. âThe teachers will get some peace and quiet.â
âWhat about us?â Iggy said. âWhat will we do?â
âOh peace and quiet will be off the menu here,â Dad said, âthatâs for sure.â
âWeâll have fun,â I said.
âFlo,â Iggy said, like I was being silly. âSchool is fun.â
âHolidays are fun too,â Mum said. âWeâll have a holiday.â
âWill we?â said Dad.
âWhat will we do on holiday?â Iggy said, and she pulled her shoulders up high and her bottom lip down low.
âWeâll put you in a dark box and let you out again when school starts,â Dad said.
âI donât think so,â said Iggy, and she scowled at him.
âWeâll get up when we want,â I said. âWeâll watch telly and wear our pyjamas all day.â
âOh no you wonât,â said Mum, and Dad said, âSounds like heaven.â
âWeâll go out on our bikes,â I said, âand have picnics and go to the playground and eat ice cream.â
âOK,â Iggy said. âThat sounds good.â
Dad was making coffee and Mum had tea. I ate my toast and Iggy listened to her cereal popping.
âHow long is our holiday?â Iggy said.
âSix weeks,â Mum said, and Iggyâs mouth fell open like a trap door.
âSix weeks,â she said. âThat is forever.â
âNo itâs not,â Mum said. âItâs a month and a half.â
âItâs forty two days,â Dad said, and he looked at us and then at Mum.
âThat is a long time,â Mum said.
âWeâll have a nice long holiday,â I told Iggy. âYouâll see.â
On the way to school, Iggy walked extra fast because she wanted to get there early.
âHurry up,â she said to me and to Mum. âThereâs only one day left, and itâs now.â
Her extra fast walking made her whole body wiggle and she looked very funny from behind. It made us laugh. But Iggy wasnât laughing. She turned to us and pointed. Iggy only points when she is cross.
âHurry,â she said, pointing, âUp.â
So we did.
We got to school very early. I took Iggy to her classroom. We were the first people there apart from Rwaida, her teacher. Rwaida was sharpening pencils.
âDid you know?â Iggy said, âThat this was the last day of school?â
âYes I did,â Rwaida said and she looked happy about it until she saw Iggyâs face.
âWhat will we do for forty-two days and six weeks?â Iggy said.
Rwaida smiled. âWeâll think of something,â she said, and she dropped the sharpened pencils into a cup with a clatter.
âI hope so,â Iggy said. âI hope we do.â
It was a good last day of school. We had lessons in the morning like normal. At lunchtime we had foods of the world. We ate things from India and Morocco and France and Somalia and Poland and Bosnia. Most of them were very tasty.
Then we had Golden Time, which is the same as extra play but with a special name. We could choose football, or aerobics, or making things. I chose making things and so did Iggy. There were jigsaw puzzles and arts and crafts and decorating biscuits. Iggy decorated biscuits. I made a picture for Mum and Dad. I made a beach with blue sea and blue sky, and real sand poured onto glue, and the four of us cut out and stuck there, on holiday.
While I was drawing and cutting and sticking, Iggy came to see what I had made. She had biscuit dust all round her mouth and icing on the ends of her fingers.
âWhat are you doing?â she said, spraying biscuit dust around.
âIâm making a holiday picture.â
âWhoâs that?â she said, and she wiped her mouth on her sleeve.
âThatâs you and me and Mum and Dad,â I said. âBeing on holiday at the seaside.â
âWhat, swimming in the sea and getting shells and making sandcastles?â she said.
âYep.â
âOoh, I think I like doing that,â Iggy said.
âMe too,â I said, and we looked at the picture together for a bit longer.
I said, âIâll draw some shells and sandcastles in a minute.â
âAnd starfish,â Iggy said. âDraw some starfish and a mermaid.â
Mermaids are Iggyâs favourite thing to draw and make up stories about. Sometimes Iggy wishes very hard that she was a mermaid. Sometimes she is quite disappointed to have legs.
âMaybe, this holiday,â I said, âwe could go to the seaside, you and me and Mum and Dad, just like in the picture. Itâs ages since weâve been to the sea.â
Iggy tightened her mouth and shook her head. She looked very serious and solemn.
âIâm not really having a holiday,â she said in a whisper, like when she tells a secret.