As soon as she arrived she went straight to the kitchen to see if the monkey was there. It was, what a relief! She wouldn't have liked to admit that her Mother had been right. Monkeys at a birthday? Her mother had sneered.
“Get away with you, believing any nonsense you're told!” She was cross, but not because of the monkey, the girl thought; it's just because of the party.
"I don't like you going," she told her. "It's a rich people's party."
"Rich people go to Heaven too," said the girl, who studied religion at school.
"Get away with Heaven," said the mother.
"I’m going because I’ve been invited," she said. "And I’ve been invited because Luciana is my friend.
So there."
"Ah yes, your friend," her mother grumbled. She paused. "Listen, Rosaura," she said at last. "That
one’s not your friend. You know what you are to them? The maid’s daughter, that’s what."
Rosaura blinked hard: she wasn't going to cry. Then she yelled, "Shut up! You know anything about
being friends!"
Every afternoon she used to go to Luciana's house and they would both finish their homework while
Rosaura's mother did the cleaning. They had their tea in the kitchen and they told each other secrets. Rosaura loved everything in the big house, and she also loved the people who lived there.
"I'm going because it will be the most lovely party in the whole world, Luciana told me it would. There will be a magician and he will bring a monkey and everything."
The mother swung around to take a good look at her child, and pompously put her hands on her hips. "Monkeys at a birthday?" she said. "Get away with you, believing any nonsense you're told!"
Rosaura was deeply offended. She thought it unfair of her mother to accuse other people of being liars simply because they were rich. Rosaura too wanted to be rich, of course. If one day she managed to live in a beautiful palace, would her mother stop loving her? She felt very sad. She wanted to go to that party more than anything else in the world.