One For The Book

I wouldn’t trade the experience of meeting my favourite author for anything!

KIDS, I have a wonderful surprise for you!” Mum exclaimed. “I’m not sure you understand how surprises work, Mum,” I grumbled.

“If you tell us there’s a surprise coming, then it’s not really a surprise.”

“Oh, Dixie, you’re hard work,” Mum replied.

“Eddie, I’ll tell you instead. You’re more reasonable than your sister.”

I stuck out my lower lip. “Maddox Gray is coming to Bestfield Books in town.

“He’s going to do a reading and sign autographs. I’ve managed to get us three tickets.”

I nearly fell off my seat. Maddox Gray? The author of the Rudy Blaine series?

I’d read my copies so many times that some of the pages had fallen out and had to be stuck back in with tape.

Eddie wasn’t up to reading them himself yet, but I’d read them to him, and sometimes Mum found time to read him a chapter or two in bed, before he went to sleep.

He loved them almost as much as I did.

“Why is he coming to our little town?” I demanded.

“Nobody ever comes here.”

“He’s promoting a new book,” Mum answered. “I expect he’s touring a lot, and we just happened to get lucky.”

“When is all this happening?” I enquired.

Part of me wanted time to prepare everything I would do and say.

A bigger part could hardly wait.

“A week from Saturday. You’d have to miss swimming, and Dad and Penny would have to see you on Sunday.”

I could swim any time. Meeting Maddox Gray was much more important.

And Dad and Penny do an excellent Sunday lunch.

****

“You’re such a lucky duck,” Elsa, my best friend, said again.

She loves Rudy Blaine, too, but she didn’t get a ticket for the reading.

“If you give me your favourite book, I’ll ask Maddox Gray to sign it for you.”

“Oh, would you? Promise not to lose it?”

“I promise.”

In fact, I was the only kid in my class who was going to see the famous author.

Miss Forbes asked me if I would write a report about attending the event and read it to the class on my return.

Try to stop me!

Jamie Hughes, whose dad owns the lighting factory and who is basically Richie Rich, offered to buy my ticket from me.

He said his dad would give me a hundred pounds for it.

A hundred pounds! You might think that’s a lot of money, but I wouldn’t have swapped my ticket for a thousand.

What could I buy with the money that would be worth more than the chance to speak to Maddox Gray?

In the days that followed I reread all the Rudy Blaine books, going right back to the start and fairly flying through them.

On the Friday, the day before the event, Miss Forbes called me up to her desk and quietly told me she wanted to ask me a favour.

A favour? For a teacher? “I know how excited you are to have a ticket for Mr Gray’s reading, tomorrow, Dixie,” she began.

“And you must know how disappointed some of your classmates are that they won’t get to go.

“I wonder, in the circumstances, if you would be willing to take some letters from our class and deliver them to Mr Gray.”

I was already going to be laden with all 10 of my Rudy Blaine books and one of Elsa’s for signing, so I supposed a bundle of letters wouldn’t make much difference.

“Sure,” I agreed.

“Thank you very much, Dixie,” Miss Forbes replied.

And so, that afternoon, instead of writing about “Oliver Twist” in our literacy books, we each got a fresh, new page on which to put our thoughts to Maddox Gray.

****

When Mum saw the two bags of books I was planning on taking to the reading, she sighed.

“Absolutely not, Dixie. They’ll be a nuisance to look after, and we can’t expect Maddox Gray to sign them all.”

I grumbled a bit, but I didn’t want to spoil things, and Mum had come up trumps in getting the tickets in the first place, so I settled for

my favourite three titles, plus Elsa’s book and the folder of letters from our class.

I’ll give Mum credit – she woke us early on Saturday morning so we could race down to Bestfield Books and be right at the front of the queue.

“This way, we’ll get seats in the front row,” she reasoned.

It meant waiting for over an hour for the shop to open, but Mum was right.

An area at the back of the premises had been roped off, and there was a desk stacked with Maddox Gray’s new novel, facing short rows of chairs.

We showed our tickets and dived on the seats in the middle of the front row.

Mum turned to me and winked.

My stomach was doing somersaults.

****

Just as Mum had hoped, we were the very first in the queue for our books to be signed.

Mum said both Eddie and I could have a copy of the new book, since it was a special occasion, and since the author was on hand to write us each a personal message.

“Dixie – and that’s your real name?” Maddox Gray checked before he put pen to paper.

“Yes, it’s my real name,” I confirmed.

“I love it. I don’t believe I’ve signed for a Dixie before,” he replied. “I bet it suits you, too.”

He looked up at Mum. “I agonise over naming just about every character. I want to capture something essential of them, and it’s always a struggle.

“I can’t imagine the responsibility of naming a real child,” he added.

Mum laughed.

“Poor Dixie had to wait an age for her name.

Luckily it just came to us one day.

“I think it’s worked out all right, hasn’t it, Dixie?”

“It’s OK, I suppose,” I replied. “We have four Sophias in my year, so that would be worse.”

Even though there was a long snake of people behind us, Maddox Gray didn’t rush us.

He said he’d be delighted to sign the other books I’d brought, including Elsa’s, in which he put a little note about hoping to meet her next time he came to town.

I bet he’d have signed all 10 of my books if Mum had let me bring them, too.

When I produced the folder of letters from my class, he seemed delighted.

“That’s very gratifying,” was what he actually said. “I’ll read them back at my hotel tonight.”

While he didn’t say he’d reply to them, he did produce a stack of 30 postcards, with a colour picture of Rudy Blaine on one side and his signature on the other.

“Just a very small token of my appreciation for your classmates.”

I thought they’d like that.

****

As it was such a special day, Mum took us across the road to the little café for lunch.

I couldn’t wait to start reading the new Rudy Blaine book, so I had my nose buried deep in the pages as I ate.

I was vaguely aware of Mum saying, “Oh, hello, again”, to someone, but I was so engrossed that I almost didn’t look up.

Just as well I did, though. It was Maddox Gray, and he was looking for somewhere to sit.

All the tables were taken. “You’re welcome to join us,” Mum suggested, kicking her handbag under her chair and out of his way.

“Thanks. I will,” Maddox agreed.

****

It’s easy for kids to take their parents for granted and only notice the negative stuff, like nagging you to tidy your room or help with the dishes.

But I have to hand it to Mum – she chatted away to Maddox Gray like she’d known him all her life.

She included Eddie and me in the conversation as if what we had to say was just as interesting as anybody else’s contribution.

In honesty, I didn’t actually say that much – I was a bit awestruck.

I was happy just to watch Maddox Gray and listen.

Eventually he said he must call a cab, as he was supposed to be having an interview in the afternoon at his hotel in the next town.

“There’s just one cab company round here. I can give you their number,” Mum proposed.

When he rang the number, his face fell.

“No cabs available,” he said, setting down his phone.

“Apparently it’s the Murphy wedding today, and all their cars are tied up with that.”

“Oh, is that today?” Mum asked. “That’ll be a big do, all right.

“Tell you what, why don’t the kids and I give you a lift to your hotel?”

“Would you? That would be incredibly helpful,” Maddox Gray replied with a smile.

Eddie and I looked at each other. This day was turning out quite unexpectedly.

****

In my report for Miss Forbes, I related my experience of queuing up with butterflies in my stomach, and of getting seats in the front row and speaking to Maddox Gray and passing on the letters.

I even included the bit about him sitting at our table in the café to eat our lunch.

I didn’t mention Mum driving him to his hotel, or about him ringing her later on Saturday night to invite us to Sunday lunch with him at that same hotel. Mum had asked me not to mention the hotel lunch, or the walk in the gardens afterwards, or Granny and Grandad coming over to collect us and Mum staying to spend some time with Maddox Gray on her own. When Mum came home we were already in bed, but she popped in to give us a cuddle before we went to sleep.

“Are you and Maddox Gray friends now?” I asked her drowsily.

“I think I can say we definitely are,” Mum replied.

“The kind of friends who kiss each other?” I went on, folding my hands under my cheek. “On the lips?”

“That’s one question too many. Now go to sleep.” “Mum?”

“Yes, Dixie?”

I gave a long yawn; it had been such a day.

“I was wrong,” I told her. “Actually you are very good at surprises.” ■