Skinny Melon and Me by Jean Ure Page B

“Can I choose?” and Mum said, “Yes, but you know the rules.” So I chose
Strictly Ballroom
and I was right, Mum loved it! So did Slime. Mum said it was a “good old-fashioned moviewith no sex and no violence” and Slime surprised everyone – well, he surprised me, but I think Mum as well – by saying that he used to be a champion tango dancer, and to prove it he jumped up and pulled me into the middle of the room and taught me how to do it! He was really good. And so now I know how to tango!

Saturday
    He’s still shoving cards under my door and I still don’t like it but I suppose he is only doing it to try and be friendly. It is rather pathetic, really. Imagine being so desperate to be liked!
    After breakfast I rang the Melon and we arranged to meet at the top of my road and go round the shops together. She wanted to know what it was like at Dad’sso I said the same as I said to Mum, that it was brilliant. I told her all the things I’d done and then asked her what she’d done.
    Skinny said she hadn’t done anything at all. She sounded a bit down in the dumps so I asked her what the matter was and at first she said nothing was the matter but then she said that her mum had met this man at the place where she works and he was called Melvyn and he was dire. I was going to say that he couldn’t possibly be any more dire than Slime but then for some reason I didn’t. I don’t know why. I said, “Maybe she just has bad taste in men but it doesn’t really matter so long as she’s not going to marry him.” Skinny said rather fiercely that of course she wasn’t going to marry him, he was just a boyfriend. I said, “So what’s the problem?” and she said there wasn’t one except that she couldn’t stand the sight of him. Then she cheered up and said she wanted to go and buy a new pair of leggings with some money that he’d given her. I said, “Dire Melvyn?” and she giggled and said, “He’s trying to worm his way into my good books!”
    I really don’t know what she’s got to complain about.
    When I got home I found that Slime had finished the pond. I have to say that it is quite nice. It will be very pretty in summer, with water lilies and bullrushes. It is not quite ready for the fish but next week we are going to go and buy some. I am refusing to be too enthusiastic because if I am it will make Mum think I have forgivenher for breaking her promise about the dog, which I most certainly have not.
    I would still like a dog more than anything else in the world. Far more than a personal computer, though naturally I wouldn’t say this to Dad. A computer will help me not to end up living in a cardboard box (maybe – maybe not) but a dog would bring immense cheer and comfort into my gloomy life. I could play with it and take it for walks and feed it and brush it and cuddle it and talk to it and it could even sleep in bed with me. Oh, why can’t I have one? Trust Slimey Roland to go and suffer from stupid allergies!
    141 Arethusa Road
London W5
    30 October
    My dear Carol,
    Your Texan sounds more divine every time you write! Photo, please. I picture him as being a sort of cross between Steve McQueen and the Incredible Hulk… my poor Roly cannot even begin to compete but I don’t care! I love him to death!
    Well, Cherry has come back from Southampton and just as I feared, they have spoilt her rotten. She informs me that, “Dad took me out to dinner every single night.” Dad took her to have an Indian meal, Dad took her to have a Chinese meal, Dad took her to have a pizza, Dad took her to have oysters and champagne (so she says), Dad took her to see the
Victory,
Dad took her to the New Forest. I swear I shall scream if she tells me once more of the wonderful time she had with Dad!
    Dad is a rat. He obviously had a guilty conscience because when she got there he informed her that she could stay on till Friday, but then I got a call early Friday morning saying that he was sending her home by train as