Eva's Holiday
By Judi Curtin
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About this ebook
Judi Curtin
Judi Curtin is the best-selling author of the ‘Alice and Megan’ series, the 'Eva' series and the 'Time After Time' series, about Beth and Molly, time-travelling best friends. Judi won the Children's Book of the Year (Senior) at the Irish Book Awards in 2017 for Stand By Me. Her 'Lily' series is set in Lissadell House, Sligo in the early twentieth century, while the 'Sally' series is set among the Irish emigrant community in New York of the same era. Sally in the City of Dreams was shortlisted for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2023
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Eva's Holiday - Judi Curtin
For Dan, Brian, Ellen and Annie
Chapter One
‘This is so totally unfair. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.’
I punched the pillow I was holding, but it didn’t make me feel any better. Nothing could make me feel any better.
I was in my bedroom, with my friends, Victoria, Ella and Ruby. I’d just told them about my mum and dad’s great plans for the summer.
I punched the pillow again. ‘Well?’ I said.
‘Maybe it won’t be too bad,’ said Victoria. ‘And you might even enjoy it. You—’
‘I am so not going to enjoy it,’ I said, interrupting her. ‘Remember, I’m used to spending my holidays in a villa in Tuscany. How am I supposed to enjoy a trip to a stupid old cottage, in a stupid old village in the middle of nowhere? What am I supposed to do all day long? I won’t have any friends. There won’t be any shops or a cinema. There’s nothing there – a big fat nothing! I might as well just sit inside and wait for summer to be over.’
Victoria ignored me. ‘Maybe I can come and visit you for a while.’
‘Yeah right. If you can fit it in between all your fun pony camps and holidays to cool places that a normal human being would actually want to visit.’
‘Maybe Ella—’ she began.
Ella shook her head.
‘Sorry, Eva. I’d love to visit you, but I’ll be spending most of the summer helping my dad run his summer camp. Maybe Ruby?’
I knew exactly what Ella was thinking. Ruby doesn’t really like the same kind of stuff as Victoria, Ella and I do. She wasn’t likely to have big plans for the summer.
We all looked at her.
Ruby went red.
‘Actually, I haven’t got much free time this summer,’ she said. ‘I did kind of well in my last gala, so I’ve got scholarships to a few swimming camps.’
‘That’s brilliant!’ Victoria and I said together as Ella leaned over to hug her.
Ruby wriggled free, embarrassed – she totally hates being the centre of attention.
‘Let’s get back to talking about Eva’s summer,’ she said.
‘Don’t bother,’ I said. ‘It’s too boring. This summer, I’m going to be the biggest loser in the whole country.’
Victoria patted my arm like I was a baby. ‘I’ll lend you my blue hoodie that you like so much, and I bet if you’re really lucky, Ella will lend you one of her totally cool summer tops.’
Ella nodded from where she was perched at the end of my bed.
‘Sure I will, Eva,’ she said. ‘You can borrow anything you want.’
‘And I’ll ask my mum to make you a special bracelet,’ said Ruby.
Ella sighed.
‘I think I’d endure a summer in the country for one of your mum’s amazing bracelets, Ruby,’ she said.
‘Want to swap?’ I said.
Ella shook her head quickly, ‘Er … maybe not.’
‘Anyway, thanks for your kind offers,’ I said. ‘But you’ll all be wasting your time. What’s the point in wearing cool stuff when there’s no one cool around to see you?’
Once again, Victoria ignored me.
‘The summer isn’t all that long, really,’ she said I was fed up of punching the pillow. Now I felt like punching my so-called friend.
Couldn’t she see that a summer in a cottage in the country was like a life sentence?
Why did she always have to see the bright side?
Didn’t she understand that I wanted her to feel sorry for me?
I turned to Ella. She usually has less to say than Victoria has, but mostly she makes a lot of sense.
‘What do you think, Ella?’ I asked.
Ella thought for a while before speaking.
‘Well,’ she said slowly. ‘There is one really good thing.’
‘What’s that?’ I asked.
‘I’m just glad it’s not me.’
The next day, Ruby had a swimming gala, and Ella and I went to Victoria’s place.
‘Things have got even worse again,’ I said, as soon as we were settled on the huge, squashy couch in Victoria’s bedroom.
‘Is that possible?’ asked Victoria.
I nodded grimly. ‘You see, the whole holiday thing came about because Dad did an attic conversion for Mum’s friend Monica. Monica was so pleased with his work that she said we can go and stay in the cottage she bought a few months ago. We don’t have to pay or anything. Dad just has to do any odd jobs that need doing while we’re there.’
‘That was nice of Monica,’ said Victoria.
‘Was it?’ I said.
‘And the bad news is?’ prompted Ella.
‘Monica has to go to hospital soon for a hip operation.’
‘Ouch,’ said Ella. ‘I can see why that makes things bad for her, but how does it change things for you?’
‘Monica has an eight-year-old son, and there won’t be anyone to mind him during the day, while his dad’s at work, so he’s coming to the cottage with us. We get the house and we get the son – it’s turned into a package deal!’
‘Maybe it won’t be so bad,’ said Victoria. ‘You’re always saying that you’d like a little brother or sister.’
‘I know,’ I said. ‘But that was before I met Joey. He’s a total pain. A summer with him will be a complete nightmare.’
‘And how come your mum didn’t tell you this yesterday?’
Ella giggled. ‘Maybe she thought you couldn’t cope with all that good news at once,’ she said.
I sighed. ‘Who cares anyway? Joey’s coming with us, and nothing I say or do is going to change that. Summer is now officially spoiled.’
Chapter Two
Afew weeks later, we were packed up in Dad’s van and on our way – Mum, Dad, Joey and me. Even though Victoria and Ella had been really nice, and had lent me lots of their cool clothes, and Ruby’s mum had made me the most amazing bracelet, I still felt like this was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.
Mum was happy because she was getting her own way (as usual).
Joey was happy because he’s only a stupid eight-year-old and it’s easy to make him happy.
And Dad was happy because he knew that if he got a call to do an attic conversion, he’d be able to escape back to the real world.
As we drove along, Mum kept going on and on about how excited she was.
‘We’re so lucky to be able to stay in Monica’s house,’ she said. ‘If it weren’t for Monica, we’d have no holiday at all this year. We’d be stuck at home for the whole summer.’
Right then, being stuck at home sounded like a great option.
Suddenly I had a brilliant idea.
‘Dad, if you get a call to go back to work, can I come with you?’
‘No way!’ said Mum.
Why did she have to get involved? I hadn’t been asking her.
‘Please, Dad? I’d be really good while you are at work. I could clean the house every day, and I’d make you lovely breakfasts and dinners and everything.’
I was sure I’d be the perfect housewife.
Joey interrupted, ‘My mum told me that you cooked dinner last week and your whole family had to go to Supermac’s afterwards because no one could eat the stuff you made.’
Why couldn’t he just mind his own business? I leaned over and made a face at him. He wailed like a total baby, ‘Paulaaaa, Eva’s threatening me!’
Mum turned around and waved her finger at me.
‘Now, Eva,’ she said. ‘That’s exactly why you couldn’t go back home with Dad. You’re not mature enough yet.’
Then she sighed.
‘Come on, Eva,’ she said. ‘Help us out here. You know we’ve all had a difficult time recently, with Dad’s old business closing down, and us having to sell our lovely house. And you were so good and helpful when all of that happened. Why are you being so difficult now?’ ‘Did you ever hear of the last straw?’ I muttered. ‘Well, this is it. This is the last straw.’
‘Lucky you’re not a camel, so,’ said Dad, thinking he was very funny.
Everyone laughed then, except for me. I just folded my arms and sat in silence while Dad kept on driving towards the end of the world.
After another half an hour I was totally fed up. Joey had fallen asleep with his head on my shoulder, and every time I tried to move him away, he wailed loudly, making Mum cross with me all over again.
Suddenly I had an idea. I took Joey’s notebook and pencil out of his rucksack. I found a blank page, and wrote in capital letters – ‘PLEASE HELP ME. I AM BEING KIDNAPPED.’ Then I held the page against the side window of the van so that everyone who passed by could see what total losers my parents were.
I thought it was kind of a funny thing to do, but I didn’t feel one bit like laughing when a police motor-bike with flashing lights came past and made Dad pull in to the edge of the road.
The policeman got off his bike and walked very slowly towards us. I shoved Joey’s notebook under my seat. Joey woke up.
‘Wow………Coooool,’ he said when he saw the flashing lights.
‘Have you been speeding again?’ Mum asked Dad.
Before Dad could answer, the policeman was tapping on the side window of the van. Dad wound down the window.
‘What can I do for you, officer?’ he said, like someone from a very bad film.
The policeman didn’t smile.
‘We’ve had a very strange report from a woman in the town a few miles back,’ he said.
I tried to shrink back into my seat, wondering if there was any way of making myself invisible.
The policeman leaned closer to Dad. ‘Can you tell me who you are, and please also identify your passengers.’
I felt like screaming.
What kind of a stupid woman with no sense of humour would think I was really being kidnapped?
And what kind of a policeman with no sense of humour would have to get sent to investigate?
And what kind of parents would have so little sense of humour that they would totally fail to see the funny side of what I’d done?
It took twenty minutes of explanations before we were allowed to continue on our journey. By then, Mum had my phone in her handbag, and I had a feeling I wouldn’t be seeing it again for a very long time.
If there was a funny side to that, then I’m afraid I was the one who couldn’t see it.
Chapter Three
After another half hour of