I’m Sorry You Feel That Way

by Rebecca Wait

‘What goes up but never comes down?’ Celia agonizes over all the different choices, and finally says, ‘That man who climbed Everest and died at the top.’

‘I was fond of my Sindy doll,’ she ventures after a moment. ‘Yes,’ Paul says, taking this up enthusiastically. ‘I bet she was like a best friend to you, wasn’t she, or even a sister? And you’d chat to her and tell her your secrets.’ This strikes Celia as an extraordinary suggestion. She studies Paul carefully for a few moments, wondering if he goes round the supermarket confiding in cans of beans and lentils, imagining them to be his friends or cousins.

Alice particularly likes Margot, who is tomboyish and funny and plays the violin to Grade 8, which Margot says is basically the law because she’s Chinese.