to ask you to identify these two short stories for me - girl with mercury / boxcart racer with only one lung?

[jimmyhill]

I've been trying for ages to identify two short stories I read as a child in the 1990s. AIBU to imagine that someone will recognise these?

I can only remember the slightest details. I think these were short stories from collections or anthologies, but they could have been chapters from children's novels.

One was about a girl who kept some mercury in a drawer. There was a vivid description of the way in which she enjoyed playing with the mercury.

The other was about a boy who took part in a soapbox / box-cart race down a big hill. I think it was set in Britain. Perhaps he had only one lung. At the end of the story he was involved in a big crash and I think he died.

I've no idea when these stories were written but probably some time between the 1960s and 1990s.

Ring any bells!?

Oh I recognise the second one - did he give the cart a girl's name?

Actually I think it was the name of a girl he liked but written backwards...

@timeforakinderworld yes! that rings a bell. something short like Nola...?!

Boxcar Mollie? I can't remember the story, but I'm sure it exists!

No, not Boxcar Mollie. Published too late, and the subject of the soapbox racer is definitely a boy.

The second one sounds like Spit Nolan by Bill Naughton - the cart in that was called Egdam, after a girl called Madge.

Spit Nolan.

Now that I think of it, the boy could possibly have been racing downhill on a bike of some sort. But I remember it as a soapbox racer type thing!

What is more vivid is that he had only one lung, and is killed in a crash at the end of the story

I think I remember the second one. No idea what it was called. The boy wasn't able to go to school, so had lots of time to make his cart the best. Then another boy had a shop bought cart and challenged him to race.

When it ended badly the other boy wanted to let him think he had won the race, but his last words were to reveal he knew he had been beaten. I can't remember if it actually stated he had died or just implied it.

SPIT NOLAN

Boom! That's it. Thank you @shumway and @SpinsterOfArts

Isn't it amazing how the brain works. As soon as @timeforakinderworld said something about a name backwards, I remembered Nola, which wasn't the name of the cart, but was most of the name of the book.

Now. Girl with the mercury. What are the odds that's a story from the same collection....

The Goalkeeper's Revenge and Other Stories by Bill Naughton.