Video Rose and Mark Spark

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  VIDEO ROSE, MARK SPARK AND MARK SPARK IN THE DARK

  Jacqueline Wilson writes for children of all ages. The Suitcase Kid won the Children’s Book Award, Double Act won the Smarties Prize, The Illustrated Mum won the Guardian Children’s Book of the Year Award, Lizzie Zipmouth won the Gold Smarties Prize and Girls in Tearswas named Children’s Book of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.

  Jacqueline lives near London in a small house crammed with 10,000 books.

  Books by Jacqueline Wilson

  MARK SPARK IN THE DARK

  TAKE A GOOD LOOK

  VIDEO ROSE

  THE WEREPUPPY

  THE WEREPUPPY ON HOLIDAY

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

  Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), cnr Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.com

  Video Rose first published by Blackie Children’s Books 1992

  Video Rose first published in Puffin Books 1994

  Mark Spark in the Dark first published by Hamish Hamilton 1993

  Mark Spark in the Dark first published in Puffin Books 1994

  First published in one volume 2005

  7

  Video Rose text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 1992, 2005

  Mark Spark in the Dark text copyright © Jacqueline Wilson, 1993, 2005

  Video Rose illustrations copyright © Janet Robertson, 1992, 2005

  Mark Spark in the Dark illustrations copyright © Bethan Matthews, 1993, 2005

  All rights reserved

  The moral right of the author and illustrators has been asserted

  Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  ISBN: 978-0-14-192667-4

  Contents

  Video Rose

  Mark Spark

  Mark Spark in the Dark

  VIDEO ROSE

  Her right hand was glowing like a little electric fire. She was suddenly jolted forward, swooping through the table, through the flat, through time itself. She seemed to be hurtling on forever…

  1…

  ‘You’ll get square eyes watching videos all day long,’ said Mum.

  ‘I don’t care,’ said Rose, juggling her video collection. Did she want to watch The Wizard of Oz for the five hundredth time?

  ‘Square eyes to match her square shape,’ said Rick, tying up his new roller-skates.

  Rose ignored him, mumbling the Munchkin song to herself, but when he tottered past the television she stuck out her leg.

  ‘Rick!’ said Mum as he went sprawling. ‘I’ve told you not to wear those things in the house.’

  ‘It wasn’t my fault, Mum, old Square-Belly stuck her great fat leg out on purpose,’ said Rick.

  ‘Don’t you dare call me Square-Belly!’ Rose shrieked, attacking him with her Tom and Jerry video.

  ‘Rose, stop it! Calm down both of you, you’ll wake your Dad. Rose, did you hear me? Stop bashing your brother. Although really Rick, I absolutely forbid you to call your sister Square-Belly ever again.’

  ‘OK, OK. Ouch!’ said Rick, grabbing one of Mum’s aerobic exercise videos and making it whizz energetically in his defence. ‘Stop it, Rose. I won’t ever call you Square-Belly again. Square-Bum suits you much better!’

  ‘I’ll get you for that!’ Rose roared, picking up Pretty Woman in her other hand and attacking him on both sides.

  ‘Rose, cut it out! That’s not even ours, I hired it from Uncle Frank,’ said Mum, snatching Pretty Woman from Plain Girl.

  Baby Robbie started squawking in his baby chair, flinging his little arms and legs around. It wouldn’t be long before he was joining in the fights too.

  ‘Honestly, you’re like wild animals, all three of you,’ said Mum, separating Rose and Rick and then struggling with Robbie’s straps. ‘Come on, Robbie, we’ve got to get going.’

  Robbie stopped squawking. He went red in the face, concentrating.

  ‘Oh no,’ Mum moaned. ‘Have I got to change your nappy again? I’m going to be late for work.’

  It was the half-term holidays but Mum still had to go out to work in the shop during the day, same as Dad had to go out to the factory at night. Robbie went with Mum and stayed in the crèche while Mum served the customers. Rose and Rick were big enough to look after themselves, and they could always wake Dad in an emergency. Dad worked the night shift and slept right through the morning, so long as there wasn’t too much noise going on in the rest of the flat.

  ‘You two have got to behave,’ said Mum, laying Robbie on the floor and hurriedly unpopping his dungarees.

  ‘Yuck,’ said Rick, holding his nose. He’d been longing for a little brother but he didn’t rate him very highly so far. ‘I’m going out.’

  ‘Don’t roller-skate up and down the balconies, you go to the playground, do you hear me?’ said Mum. ‘Why don’t you go to the playground too, Rose?’

  ‘I don’t like it down that playground, it’s boring,’ said Rose. ‘I’d sooner stay in and watch videos.’

  ‘You’ll turn into a video yourself one day,’ said Mum. ‘Here, will you take Pretty Woman back for me?’

  ‘Can I hire a new video, Mum? Oh go on, Mum please. Give us two pounds, eh?’ Rose wheedled.

  ‘Look, this is ridiculous, I’m not made of money,’ said Mum, swabbing at Robbie’s bottom. ‘Hold still, you silly little sausage. Oh no! Rose, run and see if you can find a clean pair of dungarees for him, eh?’

  ‘OK Mum. And I’ll fetch the nappies. And I’ll get all the clothes out the washing machine and fold them ready for ironing. Gosh, I’m such a help to you, aren’t I, Mum? I don’t know what you’d do without me. So how about showing a little gratitude, eh? Two weeny teeny little pound coins for a video?’ said Rose, going down on her knees, pretending to beg.

  ‘You’re a shocker, you are,’ said Mum, swabbing at Robbie. ‘All right then, get the money out of my purse.’

  Rick was halfway out the front door, but he came zooming back indignantly.

  ‘That’s not fair, Mum! Why can’t I have two pounds too? Everyone else goes down to Macdonalds for their lunch so why can’t I have the money to go and all? Oh Mum, please, don’t be mean.’

  Poor Mum wasn’t a bit mean. She ended up being extremely generous before rushing off to work with a freshly-changed Robbie. Rick skated happily up and down the balconies, jingling the coins in his pocket. And Rose had a long happy browse in Uncle Frank’s video shop, sorting out her selection for the day. She was in luck. Uncle Frank was running a special promotion. All the children’s videos were down to one pound fifty per hire. Of course these were really babyish films. They weren’t meant for sophisticated girls like Rose. But no one need know. And th
en she’d have fifty pence extra to spend. She could afford a bag of salt and vinegar crisps and a pack of pink and white marshmallows as well. Mum was always going on at her about a balanced diet. Well, she was balancing salty and sweet.

  She went back to the flat clutching her chosen video and her bonus snacks, dodging the demon roller skater on the way. She popped her head round the door of Dad’s bedroom. He was sleeping like a baby. Rose giggled. Robbie was a real baby but he hadn’t done much sleeping at all yet. Mum was generally up and down all night. Maybe Dad was on to a good thing working on the night shift.

  Rose shut the door on Dad, went into the living room and slotted the video into the machine. She loved the little whirring noise it made, the click and then the hiss as it started spooling round when she pressed the play button. She settled herself comfortably on the sofa, using her tummy as a table for the bag of crisps and the marshmallows. Dumbo flickered into action.

  ‘B-1-i-s-s,’ said Rose, taking a mouthful of crisps and then another mouthful of marshmallows.

  It was going to be fun seeing dear old Dumbo again. If Rick came barging back he’d scoff at her choice. He never watched baby cartoons. He said they were just for little kiddiewinks. Rick and his mates all watched horror videos. Rose had watched some too. Well she hadn’t exactly watched. She’d had her hands over her eyes most of the time. She had begged Rick to fast forward through the really gruesome parts but Rick said they were the best bits. Mum had eventually caught them both scrunched up on the sofa watching a monster movie where a head exploded in slow motion. Mum had exploded in very fast motion and thrown the video in the rubbish bin. She had acted like she wanted to throw Rick in the rubbish bin too.

  Rose giggled again, scrunching crisps and sucking marshmallows. She kept jumping up and down off the sofa to press the rewind button so she could watch her favourite scenes over and over again. Rose never watched a video straight though. Well, she did when Mum was around, because Mum kept nagging at her that she was going to break their video machine if she didn’t watch out. It was an ancient old thing and one day they’d have a brand new video recorder with all sorts of interesting controls and Rose could barely wait — but just now there wasn’t any spare cash so they had to make do with this old junky video that looked positively Victorian. Only they didn’t have videos in Victorian times. Not even televisions. Rose couldn’t work out what they did with themselves in those long-ago days. Mum said they went out to play and got a bit of exercise. Well, Rose got her exercise bounding up from the sofa and back again to press the rewind button.

  She swallowed the last of the crisps and licked the inside of the bag. Then she experimented with the marshmallows, seeing if she could tell the pink taste from the white. It was interesting seeing how many marshmallows she could cram into her mouth at one time. But then they were gone in a gulp. Rose sighed sadly.

  Poor Dumbo looked down-hearted too. It was getting to the bit where Mrs Jumbo is shut up and Dumbo can’t get at her. Rose always got a bit sniffly when they twined trunks. She leapt up to fast forward through this bit. Her fingers were sticky and salty and slipped on the video controls. She pressed both the fast forward and the rewind buttons by accident. The video buzzed in protest and then Dumbo and Mrs Jumbo and their twining trunks disappeared.

  ‘Oh crumbs,’ said Rose, her heart beating fast. She tried pressing the play button. Nothing happened. She took the video out the machine. At least it wasn’t all mangled up with the tape flapping. She tried slotting it back and pressing the play button again. No, it wouldn’t work. She tried The Wizard of Oz. ‘Please play for me,’ she said, in a good witch Glinda voice. But it wouldn’t play.

  ‘Oh crumbs,’ Rose repeated, kneeling in front of the video. ‘Oh more than crumbs. Oh slices of bread. Oh zonking great loaves.’

  She stood up on trembling legs, trying not to cry. She staggered out of the living room and into Mum and Dad’s bedroom.

  ‘Dad. Oh Dad. Wake up, Dad.’

  Dad was snuggled right down under the duvet, just a few tufts of his hair showing. He snuggled further down at the sound of her voice.

  ‘Dad, please! Dad! DAD!’

  Dad peered out with one eye open. His face was screwed up. He looked rumpled and cross.

  ‘What is it?’ he mumbled.

  ‘Oh Dad, it’s so awful,’ said Rose, tears starting to dribble down her cheeks.

  Dad sat straight up in bed, blinking.

  ‘What’s awful? What’s happened, Rose? Have you hurt yourself? Is it Rick? Quick, love, tell me!’

  ‘It’s broken,’ Rose wailed.

  ‘What’s broken? Rick’s arm, Rick’s leg? I knew those stupid skates were a mistake,’ said Dad scrambling out of bed.

  ‘It’s not Rick, it’s not me, it’s the video,’ said Rose.

  ‘The video?’ said Dad, pausing.

  ‘Yes, the video’s broken, I’ve tried and tried, but it won’t work, and it’s not my fault, I swear it isn’t, it just went sort of phut and —’

  Dad seemed to be going sort of phut too. He sighed several times. He took a very deep breath. Then he got back into bed and pulled the duvet over his head.

  ‘Dad?’ said Rose.

  ‘Go away,’ said Dad. It sounded as if his teeth were clenched.

  ‘But Dad —’

  ‘Rose. Let me get back to sleep. Look, I thought you knew by now. You mustn’t ever wake me up unless there’s a terrible emergency.’

  Rose stared at Dad under the duvet, utterly amazed. She didn’t understand. Rose thought the video breaking was the worst emergency ever.

  2…

  Dad wouldn’t wake up properly and get someone to come to fix the video.

  ‘But we’ve got to get it fixed,’ said Rose desperately.

  ‘I’ll fix it for you, no bother,’ said Rick, limping in with torn jeans and bloody knees.

  ‘Are they your new jeans? Mum’s going to do her nut,’ said Rose.

  ‘Well, wait till she knows you’ve busted the video,’ said Rick, taking off his roller skates and dabbing gingerly at his knees. ‘Ouch!’

  ‘I didn’t bust it. It bust itself. Oh Rick, do you really think you could mend it?’ said Rose.

  Rick might fancy himself as a Mr Fix-It but he didn’t often have much luck. He was good at taking things to bits to find out why they were broken. He wasn’t always so great at putting things back together, mended. But he had once managed to slot the legs back on a Barbie doll, and he had very nearly mended an alarm clock, though it rattled rather than rang. Perhaps he could somehow get the video working again. Rose decided it didn’t matter too much about the fast forward and the rewind button. She’d learn to live without them. Just so long as she could press the play button and get the video running then she’d rest content.

  Rick knelt on his sore knee and unscrewed little bits of the video and peered at them, muttering to himself.

  ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’ Rose asked anxiously.

  ‘Of course I’m sure,’ said Rick, but he didn’t sound it. He twiddled and fiddled. He pressed the fast forward button. He pressed the rewind button. He pressed the play button. Nothing happened.

  ‘This video’s busted,’ said Rick.

  ‘I know that!’ said Rose. ‘That’s why you’re mending it.’

  But Rick couldn’t mend it. He couldn’t even get all the bits to go back properly. The slot for the video slanted alarmingly, and several screws stuck out.

  ‘Oh, Rick! Look what you’ve done!’ said Rose.

  ‘It’s not my fault,’ said Rick. ‘I didn’t bust it in the first place.’

  They were still arguing about it when Dad got up in the afternoon. He was a bit grumpy, and he got grumpier still when reminded about the broken video. He had a look at it himself and shook his head.

  ‘Can’t you mend it, Dad?’ said Rose.

  ‘Sorry, pal. It’s been on its last legs for ages.’

  Rose looked at the broken old video. She imagined it
on a pair of bandy old legs, tottering, stumbling, falling flat. Then far away in the distance she pictured a new modern video running about athletically on sleek muscled legs.

  ‘Could we buy a new video then?’ Rose asked desperately.

  Dad shook his head again. ‘What with? Peanuts?’

  ‘But we could pay it off monthly,’ Rose said, while the imaginary video ran right past her.

  ‘We’re paying off too much as it is,’ said Dad. He sounded miserable. He’d been out of work for a while before he got the night shift job at the factory. Mum had had to go back to work full time after Robbie was born. Rose knew Dad always got touchy when they talked about money, but she was feeling frantic.

  ‘Couldn’t we get a new video and pay off just a bit more?’ she said.

  ‘No! You kids, you never stop. You’ve got to have all these silly trendy clothes and trainers that cost a fortune and blooming roller skates for your birthday —’

  ‘I didn’t get roller-skates for my birthday,’ said Rose, although she knew it wasn’t wise to argue with Dad right this minute.

  Dad got cross. There was a bit of a row. Rick cleared off to do some more roller-skating though he was limping worse than ever. Rose sat hunched in a corner of the sofa. The television itself was still working but there was nothing she felt like watching. She kept looking mournfully at the poor broken-down video.

  Dad sighed. He phoned up one of his mates who was also on the night shift and asked him if his father-in-law still did television and video repairs. The mate said yes, but he had such a lot of sets in his garage waiting to be mended that it would be weeks before he could get round to it. Maybe months.

  ‘Still, he’ll maybe be able to fix it, and he won’t charge very much,’ said Dad.

  ‘He said it would take weeks, Dad. Maybe months,’ said Rose, who had sharp ears. ‘I can’t wait months!’

  Dad felt she was being ungrateful and got tetchy again. Rick came back rubbing his elbows with a tear in his sweatshirt. Mum came home from the shop with Robbie yelling his head off for his feed.