By P. Johnson

Little Jenny Jones came skipping into the kitchen, grabbed her glass of orange juice and drank it down in one.

"Jenny, darling, you really shouldn't drink like that. Now you've got nothing left to have with your dinner", her mother chided. "I know, I'm sorry, but I'm just so thirsty. I've been talking and talking all afternoon with Claire and our new friend and my throat was so dry and we didn't have anything to drink." Jenny spoke quickly but clearly, and her mother wasn't really cross anyway. She was glad that Jenny and Claire were playing again. They had fallen out at school over a month ago and it was starting to look like they would never make friends again. Both were shy girls and the other children would leave them on their own in some quiet corner talking about castles, handsome princes and beautiful princesses. Mother worried who Jenny could talk to when Claire wasn't around.

Jenny ate all her dinner for the first time in weeks and went to bed on time with no arguments. She cleaned her teeth properly and listened to her bedtime story without interruption. Then she slept like a child wth a busy day behind her and nothing to fear before her. Mother felt a welcome release as the worries of the recent weeks drifted away. It was nice to see the world putting itself right again and equilibrium returning. She would tell Father later, when he had wound down after work. He would say he told her it would all work out in the end, but she knew he worried about it as much as she did. Everyone remembers the harsh cruelties that children play on each other, they were no different. It seemed so untrue that the child's mind could cope with situations that would break the adult. Mother wished she could remeber how she coped then - she could use it to cope now.

In the morning, Jenny was keen to see Claire again. The usual routine for Saturdays had been for one of the Mums to take the two girls swimming, but Mother could tell that it was too soon for the arrangement to start again. "What are you going to do today then?", Mother asked. Jenny was more than keen to tell her. "We're going to play with our new friend again. He's called Christian and he used to be just Claire's friend but now he's my friend too. He was in our class at school and he used to chase us and say horrid things but now he's our friend." Jenny took a mouthful of toast and continued, "He's done a lot of exciting things, he's been a sailor and a pirate, a wizard, a prince and today he's going to be a fireman. But I've got to give him my fireman's hat because he can't get his and Claire doesn't have one."

"Oh he sounds like a very brave boy," mother said. "When little boys say horrid things they're just joking, and I'm sure he just wanted to play with you but didn't know how to ask you. I just hope the fireman's hat will fit. We got that for your 5th birthday and you're nearly 7. I don't think it would even fit you now. Does he live on the estate?"

"Oh yes, he lives in Claire's garage. He was lying on the road outside Claire's house after school and she pulled him into her garage. But she couldn't put him in the old chair because he was too heavy and her dad has gone away. That's when she asked me to come and play because it was easier for us to pick him up. He was very heavy though. We carried his bike in too but it was all squashed by a car so we can't ride it. It's nice to have a boy to play with because we needed someone to be the boy in our stories. That's why we broke friends. He put Claire's pirate hat on yesterday and that was a bit small too, but we stuck it on with Claire's grandma's knitting needles from her big box. We'll probably do that if my fireman's hat is too small."

Jenny's mother sat and stared at the wall all morning, long after Jenny had left. Barely aware of the ringing of the telephone on the hall table, under the photograph of the family on holiday at Cromer...