Chapter 10 Phoebe

It wasn’t late. So I opened my suitcase and took out a clean shirt, and then went into the bathroom and washed and changed my shirt. While I was changing my shirt I damn near gave my kid sister Phoebe a buzz. But she is only little and she wouldn’t have been up, never mind anywhere near the phone. You never saw a little kid so pretty and smart in you whole life. She’s really smart. She’d had all A’s ever since she started school. I’m the only dumb one in the family. But you ought to see old Phoebe. She has this sort of red hair. A little bit like Allie’s was, that’s very short in the summer. In summertime she sticks it behide her ears. She has nice pretty ears. In wintertime its pretty long though. Sometimes my mother braids it and sometimes she doesn’t. it’s really nice though. She’s only ten. She’s quite skinny, like me but nice skinny. Roller-skate skinny. I mean if you tell old Phoebe sometime she knows exactly what your talking about. I mean you can take her anywhere with you. You take her to a lousy movie and she knows it’s a lousy movie. You take her to good movie and she knows it’s a good movie. I took her to see this French film called The bakers wife, with Raimu in it. It killed her. Her favourite is The 39 steps, though with Robert Donat. She knows the goddam movie by heart. She’s all right, you’d like her. She’s a little to affectionate at times. She’s very emotional for a child. She writes books all the time, with some kid called Hazel Weatherfield in them. But she never finishes them.