Brigid Lucy Needs A Best Friend by Leonie Norrington Page B

her belly is too fat. So she puts Ellen on the floor and sits down to pick up the toys and put them in the toy box.
    ‘Mum,’ Biddy says, jumping down from the top bunk. ‘You’re ruining my games.’ She holds Mum’s hand. ‘Everything is perfect . This is the palace garden. Those are the cliffs of Bittangabee Bay. I am a best friend pirate.’
    ‘Biddy, darling,’ Mum says, ‘when you finish a game you have to put your toys away.’
    ‘But I’m not finished,’ Biddy says. ‘None of these games are finished.’
    ‘A game is finished when you stop playing,’ Mum says.
    Which is totally ridiculous . Games are like stories. They are never finished. But Mum doesn’t care. She changes the subject.
    ‘You can’t have a friend stay over if your room is messy,’ she says.
    ‘A friend stay over?’ Biddy says, her eyes bright with excitement. ‘Could I really have a friend stay over?’
    ‘Of course you can, darling,’ Mum says.
    ‘Biddy, don’t listen to her,’ I say. ‘You can’t have a friend stay over if you don’t even have a friend.’
    But Biddy ignores me and helps Mum pick up the toys and tidy the room.
    ‘Look, Mum, I’m good helping,’ Matilda says picking up Biddy’s magic silver wand.
    ‘Matilda, you are not allowed to play with my special things,’ Biddy says, trying to take the wand off her.
    ‘I am so,’ Matilda screams, snatching the wand behind her back. ‘I’m allowed to help! Hey, Mum!? ’ really loud.
    This makes little Ellen start to cry.
    Even though Ellen can walk and doesn’t need a nappy, she still cries all the time.
    Mum cuddles little Ellen and says, ‘Shhh, shhh,’ while she picks up the rest of the toys. Then she stands up and says, ‘Come on, Matilda, time for a rest.’
    ‘I’m not tired ,’ Matilda yells.
    Mum picks up Matilda in her spare arm and tells Biddy, ‘You are to play quietly in your room. You can read. You can have a rest. But you are not to pull your toys out and mess this room up again. Do you understand?’
    ‘Don’t worry, Mum,’ Biddy says, ‘I’m keeping my room spotless for my best friend girlfriend to come over.’
    ‘Good girl,’ Mum says and walks out.
    We can hear Matilda yelling, ‘I’m not even tired.’ And, ‘I’m a big girl,’ all the way down the hall.

    Biddy lies down on her bed and smiles around her sucking thumb. ‘I’m going to have a best friend stay over,’ she whispers.
    ‘Come on, Biddy. Let’s do something,’ I say. ‘Let’s… Let’s…’ I look around. Up on the shelf is a crystal ball. It used to be a goldfish bowl, but the goldfish ate too much and got sick. It is round and glass just like a crystal ball. I run onto Biddy’s sucking thumb and tell her, ‘Let’s play with the crystal ball. You can be a wicked wizard looking into the future.’

Chapter two
    wizards in trouble
    Biddy’s eyes look straight past me to the goldfish bowl. ‘What a splendiferous idea,’ she says jumping up. She gets the goldfish bowl down and puts it on the floor.
    ‘I will look into the future and find my best girlfriend in this magic crystal ball.’
    She gets her torch, a bottle of glitter and her magic silver wand. Then she pulls the sheet off her bed to make a cape and closes the curtains so no sunlight gets through. Her bedroom is as dark as a scoriak cave.
    Scoriaks come from the Great Bushland where I come from. They are older than the earth and they know magical Incantation Songs that can turn you into a piece of infinity .
    But this is not a real scoriak’s cave. So I am not scared. Not one little bit.
    I stand on Biddy’s shoulder. She sits down beside the crystal ball and puts the torch in her lap so it shines up under her chin. The light makes her face go old and wrinkly. She waves her silver wand above the bowl, then drops glitter to sparkle like lights of electricity above the crystal ball.
    ‘Brigid Lucy,’ Biddy says, glaring into the bowl with her eyes big and round, ‘you are a