The Amazing Soul of Alice Tipton (TEN)Ten‘Look; Scary-giant-flying-bug-thing, I am trying to get my homework done so I can get ready for my birthday party and I would really appreciate not having to chop you up with my sword and getting bug juice all over my new dress.’ I glare at the creature for a couple of minutes before realising my speech has had no effect on it, ‘Fly away. Now. Or I swear I will cut you in half before you can eat my face.’The pig-sized beetle with venomous fangs has been hanging around me all day ever since it found me on my walk to school. With every passing hour, it flies closer to me and constantly looks for moments to attack m
The Amazing Soul of Alice Tipton (NINE)NINEI’m standing in the big lake (near Daisy’s house) on the fifth day of the warmest May in over sixty years. The man on the radio said that it was 30°C today and that we should all ‘sunshine while it lasts’. And I am. The water swirls, still too-cold despite the heat, around my toes and washes over the tops of my feet and ankles. The sun shines brightly down and throws sparkles off the gentle ripples created by the wind. The trees in the park are all still oddly bare and point upwards into the sky; like cheese-strings when you first start peeling the cheese strips apart, but they haven’t yet flopped over.
The Amazing Soul of Alice Tipton (EIGHT)EightThere are a few things I know now, as I lie in a hospital bed, that I did not understand this morning. For example, I now know what, and where, my left scapula is and what it feels like to fracture mine and also what a badly broken wrist looks like. I also know that vampires are not only real, but that they can impersonate kids even though they are hundreds of years old. In conclusion: this is the worst birthday I hope I will ever have.Mum and Dad sit at the end of my bed, holding hands, with Mum having dozed off on Dad's shoulder about fifteen minutes ago. My father holds a battered copy of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' in
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