Chapter 3:
·
Main Events:
o
Anita approaches Meena who is sitting outside
eating sweets. Anita asks Meena to join her, making Meena feel proud.
o
Outside Mr and Mrs Christmas’s house, Anita
encourages Meena to run up an alley way, shouting. Mr Christmas comes out of
the house and shouts at them for making a noise. Whilst Meena is apologetic, Anita
says ‘Tell me mom. I don’t care’. Anita is shocked and impressed by her
attitude.
o
Back at Anita’s house, Anita asks her sister
Tracey where her mum is but Tracey doesn’t know. Upset by this, Tracey bursts
into tears and Hairy Neddy invites the girls in for food. Anita is about to hit
Neddy with a stick when his back is turned but Deirdre, her mother appears.
o
Deirdre tells Anita and Tracey to come in for
fish fingers. Meena is at first excited at being invited in too but then
surprised when Deirdre says goodbye to her instead and shuts the door.
o
At home, Meena finds her mother getting a vase
out of their outhouse for Mrs Worrall, whose husband has knocked hers over.
o
Meena begs her mother for some English food. Her
mother confronts her about stealing the money that morning.
o
Mrs Worrall asks Meena to come and help her make
jam tarts. After, Mrs Worrall introduces Meena to Mr Worrall, an invalid who
was seriously wounded in the war. Meena feels sympathy for Mrs Worrall but runs
out, taking her jam tarts with her.
·
Background Stories:
o
Meena comments on Anita’s friends, Sherrie and
Fat Sally.
o
Meena recalls that she last saw Mrs Christmas a
long time ago when she was collecting things for the Christmas Fayre. She also
mentions that it is known around the yard that Mrs Christmas is ill with
cancer.
o
Meena talks about Uncle Alan – a friendly man in
his twenties who encourages the children to get involved in various activities
for the church. She refers to him as a ‘sex symbol’.
o
Meena remembers the clothes that Mrs Christmas
gave her as being very colourful, which contrasted with her knowledge of Mrs
Christmas as an old lady.
o
Meena talks about Hairy Neddy who plays in a
band. She recalls a time his car broke down and his organ (old fashioned
keyboard) turned on and started playing music. Neddy was rescued by Sandy who
lent him some stockings to tie the organ on the car. After this, Meena saw
Sandy change her appearance and make excuses to speak to Neddy. After a while
however, Sandy goes back to wearing her old clothes, much to Meena’s confusion.
o
Meena tells a short story of two mothers
fighting and compares them to her own, placid and calm mother.
o
Meena introduces Sam Lowbridge, a local teenage
troublemaker, and his mother Glenys.
o
Meena mentions asking her mother about Mrs
Worrall, who has children who live in Wolverhampton who never visit. Meena’s
mother tries to hide her disgust at this fact.
Chapter 4:
·
Main Events:
o
Meena’s parents are waiting for her and ask he
to come and speak to them. Meena’s father tells her an Indian version of ‘The
Boy Who Cried Wolf’ although Meena is disappointed by the story.
o
Meena asks her father about being in a war and
he tells her a story about how he was asked to deliver a package which turned
out to be a bomb. She is very grateful for this story and her mother brings her
out some fish and chips for dinner.
o
That night, Meena is woken by ambulance sirens. Looking
outside, she watches as Mrs Christmas is taken off on a stretcher, dead, and Mr
Christmas is led away by police. Meena overhears Deirdre explaining that she’d
gone to speak to Mr Christmas about Anita’s behaviour earlier and had found Mrs
Christmas who had been dead for weeks.
o
Mr Christmas dies three weeks later and Meena’s
mother attends his funeral. Afterwards, her parents sit talking about their
grandparents in Punjabi.
o
Meena’s parents then decide to tell her that
they are expecting a baby. Meena makes it clear that this is not something she
wants.
·
Background Stories:
o
Meena recalls her parents mehfils, parties with
the Aunties and Uncles. On one occasion, Meena wakes up to hear shouting during
one of these parties. She overhears her Aunties and Uncles talking about the
horrors of Partition.
o
Meena talks about her grandparents who she has
never met. She also talks about her parents relationship and their way of
constantly showing affection, uncommon amongst other families in Tollington.
She compares them to the Ballbearings women, who drink and shout about their
partners in the streets.
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