Molly and Pim and the Millions of Stars by Martine Murray Page B

her mama’s notebooks, which were smeared with milk sap, and as
she shook one dry, a piece of paper fell out. She picked it up and read it. It was
in her mama’s handwriting.
    Uses for petty spurge, also known as milkweed, wart weed, radium weed: sap burns
off sunspots, warts, corns and some skin cancers. Active ingredient: ingenol mebutale.
The sap is toxic and should not be used internally.
    ‘Oh, wow,’ said Molly out loud. Claudine glanced slyly back towards her. Molly had
got it wrong. The sap from spurge was used for removing things, not for nourishing.
Molly shuddered as she imagined what might have happened if Claudine hadn’t knocked
it over. She squatted next to Claudine, who turned her head away huffily.

    Molly patted her under her chin, just where she liked it. ‘Okay, Claudine. I’m sorry
for being mean. You were right. You even saved the day. And I will try to get you
some milk.’

    It was some time before Molly set to work again on the green oil. First she began
reading her mama’s books about plants. But she knew she was avoiding the oil because
she’d almost lost her nerve. And, even worse, she was waiting for Pim to show up.
Molly didn’t like to admit this to herself, because she didn’t like to feel she could
possibly be depending on Pim Wilder. She was the one who knew about plants, not Pim.
It wasn’t as if he would know what to do. And even if he did make suggestions, it
wasn’t his best friend who was ill, so he wouldn’t put the right feeling into it.
    And yet, Molly did like having someone to talk things over with, and she liked it
when Pim was there because he always had a way of seeing things that made her look
at them from another side. He was so different from Ellen. Ellen was like a nice
warm home: she was safe and sure and always the same. Pim was like a walk in the
woods at dusk: full of darkness and brightness both at once, he was restless and
unfitting, pouncing on ideas and lifting them out of the dark. Pim’s world was the
mysterious world of owls, stars, animals and earth. And Ellen’s world was close by
and welcoming, a place you could burrow into.
    Where did Molly’s world fit alongside these? Was she betraying Ellen if she became
friends with Pim?
    Her head spun. She went back to the green oil. She chopped and pummelled the weeds,
her mind full of wonder and resolve. She had a job to do and some thoughts to think.
It seemed that everything in her was expanding, straining to become large enough
to hold all that at once, all the worlds, weeds and wonder spinning within her.
    And now it was already the afternoon. Molly would have to hurry if she wanted to
make it to Ellen’s and back again before dark.
    But where was Pim? Molly stifled a pang of worry. Had he got tired of helping her?
Had something else come along that was more interesting? It couldn’t have; nothing
could be more interesting. Perhaps he just didn’t want to come anymore? What if this
was true? Would she be able to do this all on her own? Molly felt torn. She wanted
to help Ellen, but she wanted Pim to help her. Could she have both?
    Right now she couldn’t imagine life without either of them. But she had promised
herself she would be strong today. Today was not a day for her to get stuck in her
own fears. She would go to Ellen’s now, and she would leave a note on the tree for
Pim, just in case he did come.



CHAPTER 20
    Spaghetti
    Ellen Palmer’s mother was surprised to see Molly at the door again. Not only because
she wasn’t expecting a visit, but also because this time she noticed that Molly looked
quite dishevelled. Her hair stood out from her head, and she had slept in her dress,
which was full of creases and covered in dirt and green blotchy stains from the juices
of the tree fruit. Molly clasped her mama’s sunhat in one hand and in the other a
dark bottle with a white lid. Around her wrist was a red ribbon and she wore short
boots with no socks. None of this Molly had taken any notice