Something Invisible by Siobhan Parkinson Page B

do?” answered Stella’s dad, looking slightly embarrassed at his own rudeness. “Name’s Brian. This is Rosie.” He nodded toward Stella’s mum. “But it wasn’t our little girl that you rescued.”
    â€œNo, but it might have been,” said Jake stoutly.
    â€œPrecisely my point,” said Brian. “Any one of them might have fallen in and drowned. I don’t think it was very responsible of you to take them all fishing with you, that’s all. They’re very young. But, as I say, we have forgiven you, so let’s forget about it.”
    â€œBut…” Jake was seething. He looked at Stella for support, but Stella was mouthing and making wild gestures that he couldn’t interpret, except for the last one, where she drew her finger dramatically across her throat. He got the message, and shut up.
    â€œEdel is just working out how much spaghetti we will need,” Stella’s mum explained, when she noticed Jake looking curiously at the girl doing the sums.
    â€œYes,” said Brian. “She’s been having a spot of bother in the maths department, don’t you know, so we get her to do all the kitchen sums, just for practice.”
    â€œBut does she not get them wrong?” Jake asked in a whisper, so as not to insult Edel.
    â€œUsually,” said Stella’s dad. “But she’s getting better at working out how it goes. The actual answer is not the important part.”
    â€œExcept that you do need the correct answer if it has to do with how much food to cook,” said Jake practically.
    â€œNot really,” said Brian. “If she gets it wrong by too much, we have leftovers. And if she gets it wrong by too little, we just fill up on bread and butter. The main thing is the working out.”
    â€œTwo and a half kilos,” announced Edel.
    â€œI don’t think so, Dell,” said her dad kindly. “Have another go. Not even this lot could eat two and a half kilos of spaghetti. I mean, I wouldn’t mind letting them try, but we haven’t got a pot big enough to cook it in.”
    Edel scrunched up her forehead and went on calculating.
    â€œHalf a kilo,” she said in a moment.
    Brian went to the kitchen cupboard and took out a packet of spaghetti. “This is half a kilo, Edel,” he said. Then he took out four more packets. “And all together, this is two and a half kilos.”
    She stared, nodded, and stared again.
    â€œNow, Edel, do you think we could eat five whole packets of spaghetti for one meal?”
    â€œNo,” she said.
    â€œRight, so your first answer had to be wrong. Now, what about a single packet? Do you think that would be enough? For all of us? Count Jake in too.”
    â€œNo,” she said again.
    â€œSo what is the right answer to the sum?” Brian asked.
    Edel looked at her piece of paper.
    She looked at the packets of spaghetti.
    â€œTwo packets,” she announced.
    â€œThat’s more like it,” said her dad, and put three packets back in the cupboard
    â€œBut she hasn’t done the sum,” said Jake. “She’s just guessed.”
    â€œTrue,” said Brian. “But it was an intelligent guess. That’s a start.”
    Jake shook his head. He thought two packets was probably still too much, but he didn’t argue.
    â€œHelp me with the onions, Jake,” Stella commanded.
    It was true about their kitchen smelling of onions and raw meat. Today at any rate.
    â€œHuh-way!” screeched Joanne suddenly. “Huh-way!”
    Jake looked up from his onion chopping. Joanne had finished her jigsaw, it seemed, and was having a little celebration. She clapped her hands and cried, “Huh-way!” again.
    â€œGood for you, Joey!” he said, and she beamed at him.
    When the onions were chopped, Stella said it was time to set the table.
    â€œBut the jigsaw!” objected Jake. “What about Joanne’s