a twin was not always as much fun as you might think.
Hi, Katie!
Thank you for writing to me so quickly. And for writing such a lovely long letter. I am SO glad you want to be my pen pal! I am writing back at once as I know what it is like when you are waiting and waiting for something to come, and thinking that it never will and worrying to yourself in case you have said something to upset the person.
First of all I will try to answer your questions! The girl at the end of the row that you thought looked like me is my sister, Lily. We are twins but NOT IDENTICAL. In fact we are just about as different as two people can be! You mum is right, it is not always fun to be a twin, although sometimes of course it can be. Like for instance if you dress the same and pretend to people that you are each other. We used to do this quite a lot when we were little but we don’t do it so often now as we are so completely different that it probably wouldn’t work. And anyway Lily wouldn’t want people to think that she was me and I wouldn’t want them to think that I was her. No way!
What I would really, really like would be if it was just me on my own, but if Mum was to have another baby I would love a little brother! But this unfortunately is not very likely to happen as Mum says two children are quite enough for one family what with the world being over-populated and people starving, etc., and in any case they are both so busy they probably wouldn’t have time for one. A baby, I mean.
You asked me to tell you about my mum and dad. My mum is called Emma and my dad is called Steve. They both work all the time, which is why they are too busy to have another baby. (Plus over-population, etc.) Dad does things with computers and Mum has a flower shop, where sometimes I help on a Saturday. Lily doesn’t help. She has lots of posh friends and thinks it is beneath her to have a mum who works in a shop, even if the shop is her own one. You can see it is true that we are not at all alike.
Another thing you ask is what I will be when I grow up. I haven’t yet decided! But it will not be anything to do with computers, I don’t think. Maybe I could be a flower artist and make flower arrangements for weddings and parties, etc. But if I cannot do that (as I may not be artistic enough) then perhaps I will be something to do with writing. I really love to write stories! But I cannot do the pictures to go with them. You are so lucky that you can draw! I wish wish WISH that I could. All I can do is stick figures.
I expect you will say that this is utterly pathetic and the sort of stuff you would do in Reception, but it is just one of those things. I can see pictures in my head, but when I pick up my pen my hand won’t do what I want it to. This is probably something that you will not understand, as I expect when you pick up a pen it does exactly what you tell it to.
It would be just SO brilliant if I could write stories and you could illustrate them! But only if you want to, of course. You might not want to. You would most probably be too busy doing drawings of your own.
I just loved the pictures you did of your cats! It is so nice that you are a cat person. One of my nans has a cat allergy, which means that whenever she comes to stay poor Horatio is banished. He has to go to a cattery for what Mum calls “a little holiday”. But I am sure he hates it and thinks we have abandoned him. He probably wonders what he has done wrong when in fact he hasn’t done anything. It is just my nan, wheezing and sneezing and complaining of cat hair on the furniture.
My school is called Lavendar House. It is very titchy and tiny. We have sixteen people in my class but on the day when the photograph was taken two of them were away. It is all girls. No boys! Do you have boys at your school? Most people do. Sometimes I wish that we had but on the other hand they can be a pain. A girl called Francine Church had some at her birthday party last term and they ruined everything by rushing about, shouting and showing off and spoiling all our games.
Do you have a uniform at your school? We have to wear:
Mauve blouses
Purple skirts Brown shoes Plum-coloured coats and BERETS! (also plum coloured)
It is SO naff! Some rude boys in our road call us the Plum Puddings. Dad calls us the Lavendar Hill mob, which is the name of an old movie that he loves.
Do you like to watch TV? I don’t watch a lot, except for wild life programmes (where I always make ready to shut my eyes TIGHT if there is any killing as it upsets me to see animals torn to pieces) and also the soaps, which I am a big fan of, and especially Riverside. Do you watch Riverside? If so, who is your favourite character? Mine is Tony. Last year I wrote him a letter and he wrote back and sent me a signed photograph.“To Violet XXX Tony”. it is on my bedroom wall, right opposite my bed, where I can see it first thing when I wake up in the morning. As you will probably guess, I am in love!!!
Besotted, is what my dad calls it. He loves to tease me, and I always go bright scarlet! It is for this reason that when I watch Riverside I like it best if my dad is not there. Otherwise I spend the whole time all boiled up like a beetroot!
You know I said I don’t like to see animals torn to pieces? It is one of my things and is why I am against fox hunting. I have a badge that says BAN BLOOD SPORTS. I got it off an animal stall at a summer fete and I signed a petition to the Government asking them to get it stopped.
I hope you are not a hunting person but if you are then I am sorry but I have to say what is the truth even if it makes you decide that you don’t want to be my pen pal after all. I will understand if you don’t only it is something I feel quite strongly about. I just felt that I had to say it. I hope you will not be offended as I don’t mean to be rude or anything.
I must go now as Lily has just got out of the bath and Mum is yelling at me that it is my turn. What time do you have to go to bed? I have to go at nine thirty in the week and half-past ten on Fridays and Saturdays. It is too early, if you ask me, but Mum says I will thank her for it when I am older. She says if you don’t get enough sleep you start to LOOK YOUR AGE. I don’t know about you but I would quite like to look my age. One of Mum’s friends the other day asked me when my birthday was. She said, “And how old will you be? Ten?” It is SO insulting!
I do hope you will write back to me and not be angry at what I said about fox hunting. But please don’t feel you have to do it immediately! (Though it would be lovely if you did.) I am sure you are very busy, especially if you have lots of homework. We have OCEANS. I don’t really mind, except if it takes too long when I would rather be writing to you!
Love from your pen pal, Violet
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PS Someone told me this joke at school the other day.
Question: What is green and Slithers and goes “hith”?
Answer: A thnake with a lithp!
PPS Here is a photo of my cat Horatio: You can keep it if you like.
I posted the letter on my way to school next day. The very minute that it plopped into the box I started to worry! Dad says I am a regular worry guts and I know that he is right. I don’t only make mountains out of molehills,
