Unexpected Turns: The Painted Bear

Kasia searched the room. She looked in the cupboards, and under the mat, in the cardboard boxes of her wardrobe, under the tangled sheets of her bed.

"I'm over here!"

"I see you! You're in the corner of the room!"

Panda stepped out of the shadows and smiled at Kasia.

"We can be friends now!" he said.

The door swung open. Kasia had not heard the key turning in the lock. Now her mother was there, gaunt and skeletal.

"Who were you talking to?"

Kasia clamped her mouth shut.

"Tell me!"

Kasia would not speak. Panda was there, standing beside the bed. Her mother must be able to see him, surely? Why didn't she ask Panda what he was talking about? He would tell her.

"Listen, you sniveling little . . . you speak to me or else!"

Kasia slumped to the floor and sat on her legs. She drooped her head and looked at her knees.

"Do you want your lunch? I'll give it to you if you answer me."

Kasia wanted to eat. She was hungry, but Panda was there. She was ashamed of her mother in front of him. What would he think of her? He might be too polite to say how rude he thought Kasia's mother was. When her mother was gone, she would apologize to Panda for her mother's rudeness.

"Not talking to me?" said her mother sharply, "Right. No food until to do!"

She slammed the door shut again and locked it. The smell of cigarette smoke lingered in the air and faded.

"I'm sorry Panda," said Kasia, "That's my mummy. She will be friendly to you one day. I think she will. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not a bit!" said Panda with a big bear smile.

Kasia's mother went down the hall and dropped the food