Secrets and lies, p.1
Secrets and Lies, page 1
part #5 of The Morley Stories Series Series
Secrets and
Lies
Jacquelyn Johnson
©2020 Crimson Hill Books/Crimson Hill Products Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book, including words and illustrations may be copied, lent, excerpted or quoted except in very brief passages by a reviewer.
Cataloguing in Publication Data
Jacquelyn Johnson
Secrets and Lies
Description: Crimson Hill Books trade ebook edition | Nova Scotia, Canada
ISBN: 978-1-990291-62-3 (eBook – Draft2Digital)
BISAC: YAF000000 Young Adult Fiction: General
YAF022000 Young Adult Fiction: Girls & Women
YAF058020 Young Adult Fiction: Social Themes – Bullying
THEMA: FXB – Narrative Theme: Coming of age
YXO -- Children’s / Teenage personal & social issues:
Bullying, violence, abuse & peer pressure
YXHB -- Children’s / Teenage personal & social issues:
Friends & friendship issues
Record available at https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx
Front Cover Image: Cristina Zabolotnii
Book Design & Formatting: Jesse Johnson
Gus sings a few lines from Octopus’s Garden by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) ©Starling Music Ltd.
Crimson Hill Books
(a division of)
Crimson Hill Products Inc.
Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Canada
Sam Park, Morley’s best friend, has suddenly moved away without a word of warning. She’s just – gone.
A long-awaited vacation with her favourite aunt is cancelled at the last minute. No one will say why.
And where is her real father? Why is everything about him still such a mystery? Why won’t her mother tell her anything at all about the Dad she longs to know?
Morley Star isn’t just disappointed. She feels angry, lied to, left out and betrayed.
As she searches for answers, secrets are, at last, revealed. But could it be that the biggest lies are the ones Morley is telling herself?
Fifth in the Morley Stories series of novels for girls ages 10 to 13. While this book is part of a series, it is also a complete, standalone story.
Also In
The Morley Stories
Series:
Just Me. Morley
Feather’s Girl
Gifted
Rules for Flying
Secrets and Lies
Sisters
Find them all at www.CrimsonHillBooks.com
Is your glass half-empty, or half-full? Only you can decide.
Gus Ferguson
A Little Note on Names:
Irish names don’t look anything like you might think they sound unless you’re Irish. Here’s how to say these names correctly for all the rest of us who just wish we could sound like we’re Irish:
Aoife is a very popular name in Ireland. It means beautiful and joyful. It sounds like this: EEEE-fa
Sorcha means bright. Say it like this: SUR-ka
Eire, short for Eireann, means Ireland. Say it like this: EYE-ra
one
I race down the stairs just in time to see the ride-share car pulling away.
“Good-bye,” Sam shouts from the back seat, her words grabbed right out of her mouth by the winter wind.
Call me I gesture as they drive away.
Until just a few minutes ago, we were sitting on the rug in the living room with beads and findings, wire and silk cord spread all around us, making bracelets, snacking on treats and laughing.
I knew Sam’s mother was coming. I just hoped it would take Ms. Park longer to get here. Or, even better, maybe she’d never show up at all.
Shivering, I follow Aunt Eira back into the house. When I’ve got the jewellery stuff put away, I head out to the kitchen with our empty treat plates and glasses. Green for Sam, her favourite colour. Red for me.
Sam and Umma, that’s what she calls her mother, are headed for New York City. That’s where Sam goes this time every year to get a lesson with Madame Belanger. Madame is a famous music teacher from Paris. You need to be brilliant to get to work with Madame.
Sam plays piano and violin. Not like the way most kids who take music lessons can play. More like a real musician that you would see at a symphony concert. Gifted, is what they call Sam. I just call her my best friend who likes music. And school. And pets. And just hanging out together with me and, sometimes, our other best friend, Jayden. This doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.
Sam could’ve waited just one more minute until I got downstairs to say good-bye. That’s what I thought she’d do. I wanted to hug her. Wish her Good Luck. Say, “Have a great time in New York and I’ll see you really soon.”
But no. Her mother has suddenly turned up and swept her off to the airport.
It’s not as if I didn’t know our holiday together was going to end. I can’t ever remember a time when I felt so free to just be myself, the real me. Like life is exactly the way it's supposed to be, which is happy.
I get how lucky I am. I do. This crazy, accidental Christmas has been the very best week of my life. Now, it feels like it’s over.
Soon my mother will get home with our new baby sister. Danny will get here to pick up Daisy, who’s my little sister. Then Aunt Eira and Dom will go back to their own place.
Life will be back to pretty much the way it always is, with Uncle Gus, me and my mother, except Daisy will be in the city with her dad and we’ll have a new little baby.
Lily Holly Noelle Star was born on Christmas Eve. Because of the big winter storm that knocked out the power, I haven’t even met her yet, but I’m not expecting much. New little babies sleep all the time. That’s what I’ve heard. They sleep and drink milk and fill up their diapers. That’s all they know how to do. Maybe Lily will get more interesting when she turns into an actual kid. I don’t know. I’ve never been where there’s a baby before.
No, that’s not quite true. I was five when Daisy was born, but I remember hardly anything about way back then except that Danny was with us. He used to be Mom’s boyfriend. He’s Daisy’s father. Lily’s, too. Not mine.
Danny moved back to the city last winter, just after Christmas. Mom says they decided they didn’t want to be together anymore. I don’t think that’s the real reason, but in our family there are so many secrets. It’s hard to find out anything for sure.
Another big thing that happened is we got rid of the horrible renter people who used to live upstairs. They were always screaming and fighting. Now, upstairs is all fixed up and turned into a bed and breakfast. So that’s more work, looking after the guests. I still don’t get to have my bedroom back, with my own desk to do art and write stories, because now it’s a room for the guests.
A bed and breakfast, if you’ve never stayed in one, is kind of like an inn. Tourists come to stay overnight, or maybe for a few nights. It’s like staying at a hotel. Only nicer, as my Aunt Eira says, because the guests get to be in a real home. They also get breakfast made by Mom. She’s amazing at baking things like cranberry scones and cherry Danishes and all sorts of cookies and cakes. The guests go crazy for her baking.
Mom used to be the secretary at our school, but now her job is looking after the bed and breakfast guests and baking cookies and cakes for some of the restaurants around here and to sell at the Saturday market. I help with our market booth and sell what I make. That’s bead jewellery and pet portraits.
A couple of months ago, after his house burnt down, Uncle Gus moved in as one of our guests. He also has most of his meals with us. He’s not really our uncle, just a friend who likes to think that we’re his family. I like that, too.
Now, I’m trying to think about some things to cheer myself up. Making a list in my head.
A few months ago, I got Feather, our little black cat. I started selling my jewellery and drawings of pets, mostly dogs and cats. I got permission to start the Pet Club at school. I started teaching Daisy how to draw. I did a presentation to the pet rescue shelter people about how to get more kids like me involved in helping pets. Those are good things that have happened this year. Most of them.
Christmas, this Christmas, with just my favourite people at our house, was the very best thing to happen this year. So far. There’s only a few more days before it turns into next year, so I think probably that’s going to stay true, but you never know. That’s what Gus is always saying.
“Anything could happen,” is one of his favourite old-timey sayings. I guess that’s right. Anything could happen, even in boring old Seabright, where we live. Even something that’s a total surprise. Just look at this Christmas and how different it turned out to be than anybody could have expected.
Christmas vacation always starts with my sleepover. It’s always on the very last day of school before vacation. Except this year, on that night, there was this crazy huge winter storm.
If you live on the seashore, or close, like we do, storms that come roaring up the coast, ripping up houses and boats and tossing everything around, are nothing new. Nor’easters happen just about every year.
On the news they said the Nor’easter was coming, but everyone was surprised by how fast it got here and how fierce it was. We had to stop my sleepover party only a couple hours after it got started. Everybody had to go home because their parents were worried about them.
Sam was the only one who didn’t leave. I guess her mother got stuck in the city or somewhere. Their housekeeper, Margaret, had already left to spend Christmas with her own family down in Mexico. Margaret got on her plane and was far away and safe when the storm hit here. I know Sam was relieved about that, but it also meant she didn’t have anyone to come pick her up.
I’m not sure why her mother was the only parent who didn’t turn up to get their daughter on sleepover night. Sam didn’t want to say, but I also know that her mom didn’t even answer her phone or texts. Sam and I ended up having our own besties sleepover, just the two of us, which was fun. After that, we still didn’t hear from her mom, so she stayed with us for all of Christmas week, up til today. December 27.
Yesterday morning, the power knocked out by the storm finally came back on. After the storm stopped blowing and headed out to sea, like it usually does, all the neighbours got out with their chain saws to clear the trees that came crashing down. We helped. It was kind of fun, like a street party.
On the news they reported that everywhere, from New York to here, everyone was doing the same thing. That is getting broken trees and damaged cars out of the way, working along with the emergency crews. Once the trees and downed power lines and the rest of the wreckage were gone, it was possible to open the roads again.
Christmas at our house wasn’t a huge crowd of family, like it is most other years. It was just three adults and three kids. Uncle Gus, Aunt Eira and her fiancé, Dom and Daisy, Sam and me. Oh, and the cats, my Feather and Eira’s little gray Bengal who’s called Pixel.
Cats can’t eat turkey or any other Christmas food. They liked playing with the gift wrap, though, and batting at the ornaments on the tree. And trying to climb up it.
Our other aunt, Sorcha, and her husband and their two little boys were supposed to be here for Christmas, too, but the storm meant they stayed home. Aunt Eira and Dom were already here. They came to help with my sleepover party. Then, they stayed to look after Daisy and me while Mom was in hospital having Lily. Mom thought she and Lily would be back home way before Christmas day, but that didn’t happen.
Aunt Sorcha is a nurse. One of the things she told me is babies are born when they’re ready to be born. Usually that’s at night. It might not be the exact night you think they’ll arrive. Good to know, I guess, if I ever decide to be a mother. Maybe I will, but not for a long time. After I’ve gotten to travel and study art. And maybe live in some other countries. Just to see what that would be like.
A couple of hours ago, Mom called and said she’ll be allowed home today with Lily. Our special Christmas present is what Mom calls our new baby sister, but I already know what my special Christmas present was. It was that feeling of being really, truly happy and not worried about anything. I think about this and sort of try to hug that feeling to me, not ever wanting to let it go.
I guess Mom really means Lily is HER special gift, because I know Daisy didn’t ask for another kid in our family. Neither did I.
What my mother doesn’t know, yet, but I guess she’s going to notice soon, is that Aunt Eira and Dom gave me a laptop AND a phone for Christmas. And not only that – they paid for my phone service for a whole year and for a year of WIFI. I was just about the only kid in grade 6 who didn’t have a phone. Or a computer at home. Really fantastic gifts, I was totally surprised! Especially since there’s a no-computers-for-kids rule in our house and my mother said I couldn’t have a phone until I pay for it myself. So, I don’t know if she’s going to take my phone and laptop away. At least I’ve got them right now. For as long as it takes before she finds out. I’ve told her about needing a phone to stay in touch and be safe and I need a laptop to do my schoolwork, but she just doesn’t listen.
Maybe she’ll be so busy with the baby, she won’t even notice. Hope so.
I pull my new phone out of my back pocket and send a text to Sam: Sorry. Wanted to say bye. For now. And Good Luck! I give it a smiley.
Then I text my other best friend, Jayden: Sam just left. I add a face with big fat tears.
Jayden texts back in seconds. Yeah, but back soon. Aren’t you going away 2, this weeknd? He’s added a happy face.
Yes. Just 4 more days. How r you? How was Christmas? I text back.
Awesome. Totally. Gotta go. Patrick waiting. Catch ya latr.
Patrick is 18 and Jayden’s favourite brother. He’s the one who breeds and trains horses and the one who taught Sam and me how to ride.
I wait a bit, but there’s no reply from Sam. Then I go find my aunt, who must think I look kind of droopy, because she says, “It was a great Christmas we had together, wasn’t it? And soon, it will be you and me leaving for the airport! Aren’t you excited? I am!”
She’s right. Just a few days from now, I’ll give Gus and then Feather a big hug good-bye. Then it’ll be my turn to get in a taxi going to the airport and towards an adventure in a big city. One of the biggest – New York! Mom tried to say I couldn’t go, but Aunt Eira talked her into it and I’m grateful.
When I close my eyes, I can almost hear the city traffic sounds and feel what it’s going to be like to walk into Wicked, the show we’re going to see. Or order absolutely anything I want to eat with no mother rules. Or just hang out with Eira. She’s my aunt and my mother’s youngest sister. The fun one.
I like to pretend Eira is my mother, not my aunt. Maybe there was some kind of mix up. Or, I don’t know, just a mistake. Even if that would be a strange kind of mistake. I wish it wasn’t just a story I like to tell myself, that Eira is my mum, and the mother I live with is just my aunt. Or not even related to me.
If there was anything I could do to make this true, I would. But you don’t get to pick your family. Just your friends.
We’ll be going shopping and to restaurants and parks and museums and on a boat tour and a city tour. They’re all the cool things Sam gets to do, when she goes to New York City every year with her mother. She always tells me all about it when she gets back, right before school starts up again. I hear about restaurants with all kinds of different foods to try out. Art galleries with so many rooms on so many floors, you can’t possibly see everything. Museums that are the same, full of amazing stuff. Travelling on the subway, going to the top of the Empire State Building, riding on the ferry or taking an evening boat tour around Manhattan, going to stores that have every single thing you could dream of wanting in every size and every colour…and, even better, all the different kinds of people there are.
It always makes me jealous, hearing about all the fun things Sam gets to see and do while I’m just back home doing all the same old stupid boring stuff. I always hoped I’d get invited to go to New York with Sam and her mother. I did a LOT of hinting, but they never invited me.
I finally get to go there and see all that. With just Aunt Eira and me. It will be the very first time I’ve ever been that far away from home. The very first time I’ve been in a place that large. It’s going to be almost five whole glorious days with just the two of us, my favourite adult in the whole world and me, doing whatever we feel like doing. And seeing. And eating.
We might even meet up with Sam and her mother there. That would be cool.
I can hardly wait!
two
Here’s a secret I know about my little sister, Daisy. When she goes to the city with her dad this week, one of the things that’s going to happen is she’s getting a hearing test. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to like somebody poking around in her ears and figuring out if something’s wrong. She doesn’t usually like anyone touching her, especially strangers like a doctor or nurse. Danny made the appointment with the ear specialist, Aunt Eira told me. It’s going to happen.
I never even thought that maybe Daisy’s hearing isn’t just like everyone else’s. I just thought she’s a really LOUD little kid, always making some kind of stupid noise. She never really notices what you say to her unless you’re looking right at her, and she can’t ignore you.
Mom says Daisy “only hears things when she wants to.” I guess that’s what we all thought.
I feel bad about it now. I’m sorry about the times I wasn’t very nice to her. If she really can’t hear, it isn’t her fault.
