Troubletwisters Page 4

  Jaide and Jack exchanged a glance, remembering the scene they had witnessed in the kitchen earlier, and the letter they had received the day of the explosion. Their grandma talked to cats. Worse, she seemed to think they talked back. That was almost as bad as the house having no television.

  They sat at the table, feeling awkward and out of place. The kitchen was probably the most normal room in the house, but here they were subjected to the scrutiny of the cat, Grandma X and their mother, who was watching to make sure they were on their best behaviour. Neither twin felt inclined to cause trouble at that moment. Apart from the faint sound of a clock from elsewhere in the house, it was suddenly very quiet.

  Tick-tock went the clock. Tick-tock. Then, out of nowhere, tick-tock-tack, as though it had improvised a whole new beat, just because it could.

  ‘Help yourself,’ said Grandma X, and the twins realised that she had been waiting for them to start.

  Jack made himself a particularly thick sandwich with lettuce, ham and tomato, while Jaide made a much neater and more organised version of the same thing. Susan just had bread with butter, while Grandma X made an open sandwich balancing a bit of everything on top of a generous spread of mustard. Ari stuck out his pink tongue as if he could taste it from a distance, and looked as though he was waiting for the first opportunity to pounce.

  ‘You said you wanted to talk to me about something, Susan,’ Grandma X said.

  ‘Well, yes. Hector says – that is, Hector said —’ Again, the twins’ mother glanced at Jaide and Jack, as though wishing they were elsewhere so she could talk to her mother-in-law in private, but simultaneously afraid to let them out of her sight. ‘He doesn’t know how long it will take to fix things, to return everything to normal. I’m hoping it won’t take long, but —’

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you, either,’ said Grandma X, reaching out to pat her daughter-in-law’s hand. ‘You are welcome to stay here as long as it takes.’

  ‘I know, I mean – that’s not quite what —’ Susan’s phone buzzed. She picked it up, but it stopped buzzing even as she looked at the caller ID and pulled a face. ‘Oh, blast. That’s work. I’ve been waiting to hear from them about getting something temporary while we’re up here.’

  ‘That’s a sensible idea.’

  She shook the phone. ‘I’d call back, but I don’t seem to be getting any signal now.’

  ‘You may have to go out to the road,’ said Grandma X. ‘Mobile phones don’t work well in this old house.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll be back in a moment,’ said Susan. She gave the twins a stern behave look and headed off down the hallway.

  There was a minute’s awkward silence, in which Jack’s mouthful of sandwich lost its taste and seemed to swell up like a lump of plaster, so heavy and thick it took three tries to swallow it.

  ‘What does a house being old have to do with Mum’s phone?’ asked Jaide. ‘It’s new, and radio waves either get through things or they don’t.’

  Grandma X beamed at her. ‘You’re a smart girl, Jaidith. I do believe we’re going to get on just fine.’

  Both twins were keenly aware that she hadn’t answered Jaide’s question, but before they could ask again, Susan came back, looking unhappy.

  ‘I have to start work tomorrow,’ she announced.

  ‘So soon?’ asked Grandma X. ‘You’ve only just got here.’

  ‘They’re desperate. Someone suddenly took sick, and there’s a shortage of helicopter-trained paramedics nationwide. I’m all they’ve got.’

  ‘I suppose it is fortunate to have skills that are in demand.’

  ‘Except this job is out of town, with three day shifts,’ replied Susan, running her fingers through her hair.

  ‘That is a shame,’ said Grandma X, glancing at the twins. ‘But we’ll manage, won’t we?’

  Jack thought about being stuck in the big old house with their strange grandma, and his heart seemed to falter inside his chest. He glanced across at Jaide. She was staring down into her lap, a sure sign she was upset. It wasn’t their fault the house had blown up, and they hadn’t chosen to come to Portland. Now they were trapped, without even their mother around for the first few days.

  Jack wished their father would appear and sweep them away to wherever he was, even though he was apparently somewhere incredibly remote, because Susan said he couldn’t even call them for a few weeks. So there was no point wishing for something that could never happen, or arguing, either. Their mother had to work, and it was an important job. She saved people’s lives, after all.

  Susan’s expression was a mixture of hope and desperation. ‘I’ll make it up to both of you when I get back, I promise,’ she told them. ‘We’ll do something fun.’

  ‘They’ll be all right,’ Grandma X assured her. ‘I’ll get them settled in. School starts on Monday anyway, so they’ll have plenty to occupy their minds.’

  Jaide groaned. She’d forgotten all about school! They’d had the last week off, but now it was Saturday, and that was already half over. The prospect of starting at an entirely new school only made things worse. Temporary it might be, but they wouldn’t know anyone. All their friends were so far away, they might as well not exist.

  ‘I’m not hungry,’ she said, pushing her half-eaten sandwich to one side.

  Jack pushed his aside, too, even though he was hungry. He didn’t put what he was thinking into words, because if he said, ‘My life sucks,’ he could say goodbye to any time on his mother’s laptop.

  ‘I guess you had those snacks in the car,’ said Susan with strained goodwill. ‘Let’s get the bags out of the car now and then we can try to relax. We could take a walk along the beach. Would you like that, kids?’

  The prospect of getting out of the house helped restore some of the twins’ energy, even if it meant they had to unload the car first. There was depressingly little to carry, and they had all their bags inside after just a few trips. While Grandma X went upstairs to get changed, Susan took the twins into her arms and hugged them tightly.

  ‘It’s only three days,’ she said, sounding more like she was talking to herself than to them. ‘That might be long enough.’

  ‘Long enough for what?’ asked Jaide.

  ‘You mean for Dad to come back?’ Jack chimed in.

  ‘Long enough for something to happen, certainly,’ said Grandma X as she came down the stairs.

  The humans’ voices faded into the distance. Ari jumped down from the window where he’d been observing their departure, and then up to the table, via a chair, the stove and the fridge, just for fun. With one sharp claw he snared a slice of ham, which he delicately ate and then chased down with several licks of lemonade from Jack’s cup.

  The cat purred to himself as he enjoyed the lemonade. Grandma X was never this distracted – and the children had only just arrived! He could hardly imagine what else might be forthcoming when they settled in and discovered what they were.

  The faintest noise came through the open window – the sound of a mouse rustling through the dry grass near the front steps. Ham and lemonade were forgotten in the twitch of a whisker. The chase was on! With a sudden leap, straight through the window, Ari was gone.

  High above, the weathervane twirled around thirteen times, anticlockwise, in carefree defiance of the prevailing wind.

  SUSAN LEFT VERY EARLY THE next morning and, although she looked in on the twins three times to repeat goodbyes and apologies, Jack was still only half-awake as he watched the car’s tail-lights recede, a mournful red glow bouncing down the lane. So his father was gone, and now, even if it was only for three days, his mother was gone, too.

  Jack grimaced and rolled over. His eyes drifted shut, and within moments he was dreaming about rats. Thousands of rats, lifting him up and carrying him on their backs, kind of like how he imagined crowd-surfing at a concert. Only furry. It was quite nice, really, though even in his dream he knew he should be disturbed by this.

  Jaide was a deeper sleeper than her brother. She
had barely stirred when her mother had said goodbye, but once she was awake, she was wide awake and unable to get back to sleep. The floorboards creaked as she slipped out of bed and put on her father’s old dressing-gown. Surprisingly, it was one of the few things that had survived the explosion. It was brown and the hem had frayed where it dragged behind her, but she wouldn’t wear anything else.

  Tiptoeing lightly, she ran to the bathroom, a cramped arrangement of sink, bench and toilet, all in a sickly yellow next to a white enamelled metal claw-foot bath. Flushing the toilet made pipes bang and shudder seemingly miles underground, and Jaide held her breath until the echoes faded away.

  She left the bathroom and crossed to the stairs, hesitating on the landing as she thought about going up to see what lay on Grandma X’s floor.

  ‘What’re you doing?’ asked a voice from behind her.

  Jaide spun around to see Jack standing in their bedroom doorway, rubbing his eyes.

  ‘You gave me a fright,’ she said, putting a hand to her chest.

  ‘Yeah, you really jumped!’ Jack grinned. ‘What are you up to?’

  ‘Just looking around.’

  Jaide glanced up at the next landing, the gateway to their grandmother’s domain, but instead of going that way they went down the stairs together.

  ‘Remember the blue door?’ Jaide asked. ‘It must lead somewhere.’

  ‘I bet it goes to a cellar.’ Jack shivered as he thought of what unknown terrors they could encounter down there.

  ‘There might be another way in, from inside the house,’ Jaide said. ‘Let’s see if we can find it.’

  First they went into the lounge. It was crowded with three well-worn leather couches, two long, glass-fronted bookcases, and no fewer than four coffee tables. If there was a cellar entrance there, it was hidden by a thick rug that could not be lifted without completely removing all the furniture, which was beyond the twins’ strength and inclination.

  A connecting door of etched and coloured glass led into the drawing room, which contained a locked roll-top desk, more bookcases and an antique globe of the world that sat in one corner on three scaly, reptilian bronze legs that ended in silver-washed talons. The twins pressed various countries on the globe in the hope that there might be a secret switch to a door leading to the cellar below, and Jack pulled at every talon, but they were solid metal, not hidden levers. The twins even stamped on the floor, but heard no telltale echoes or loose boards.

  The study door was tightly locked. The kitchen’s floorboards stretched unbroken from wall to wall, with no faint lines to indicate a hidden trapdoor. The walls were solid, without interesting echoes when they knocked, even on the side facing the study.

  There was a cupboard under the stairs, but that held only mops, brooms and buckets.

  Momentarily frustrated, the twins stood in the hallway, surrounded by their grandmother’s odd collection of trinkets and portraits. Blank eyes stared at them, making Jack feel faintly queasy. That could have been hunger, though, and he pushed the thought firmly from his mind.

  ‘Looking for something?’

  The amused voice came echoing from the very summit of the house. Grandma X was watching them, looking down the centre of the stairwell. Her grey hair hadn’t been brushed and stuck out in odd clumps and streamers.

  ‘We’re just exploring,’ said Jack, hoping that was okay.

  ‘Very good. I’ll be down in a second to make us some breakfast.’

  The wild-haired head disappeared.

  ‘Quick,’ said Jaide, tugging at her brother’s arm, ‘while we still have the chance.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Outside! We’ll try the door itself and see if we can get in that way.’

  The door was exactly as it had been when she’d seen it the day before: bright blue and three steps down from ground level. Or perhaps not exactly as it had been, for she thought it had possessed a handle or doorknob, but now it was completely featureless, solid wood. And the sign they had seen, which had said something about antiques, was gone.

  The twins went down the three stone steps side by side and pressed their hands against the door, dislodging some remnant drops of dew. They pushed as hard as they could, but the door didn’t move. Jaide ran her hands around the edges, feeling for the hinges, while Jack pressed every faint whorl or discolouration in the timber, hoping for a secret catch. Neither approach worked. The door wouldn’t give up its secrets.

  ‘I think it’s going to rain today,’ said Grandma X.

  Jaide and Jack spun around, but their grandmother wasn’t visible. It sounded as though her voice had come from the front door, just out of sight.

  Instead of replying, Jaide put a finger to her lips and pulled Jack away from the door.

  ‘Where —?’

  ‘Shhhh!’

  They ran around the house a second time, this time peering at every vent and chink in the house’s brickwork. There was no other hatch or entrance to any underground spaces, but there was a shuttered window on the southern wall that certainly hadn’t been there before. Unfortunately it was too high up for even Jaide to get to without a ladder or a convenient drainpipe to climb. They stared up at it, trying to see through. The glass reflected thickening clouds and revealed nothing of what lay within.

  ‘There must be a way inside,’ hissed Jaide. She didn’t like mysteries she couldn’t solve.

  ‘In where, dear?’

  This time Grandma X’s voice came from right behind them, impossibly close. Jaide jumped again, and for an instant it seemed like she was literally airborne, she felt so startled. She hadn’t heard her grandmother’s boots on the gravel. How could an old woman move so quietly?

  A hand came down on both twins’ shoulders, pinning them to the earth.

  ‘Uh, nothing?’ said Jack, glancing in disbelief at his sister. When she had jumped it seemed she had really jumped, higher than was possible without a trampoline.

  Jaide felt light-headed but recovered quickly.

  ‘Do you have a cellar?’ she asked, turning to face her grandmother, who had her hair back under control and looked quite severe.

  ‘A house this size,’ said Grandma X, ‘you’d expect so, wouldn’t you?’ She smiled, but it wasn’t a comforting smile. ‘Come on in and get dressed. I’ll make you some breakfast.’

  She pushed the twins ahead of her with irresistible strength. They stamped reluctantly up the stairs to their room while she banged and crashed in the kitchen.

  ‘She doesn’t answer any questions,’ Jaide whispered. ‘Have you noticed?’

  ‘I know. Not much we can do about it now, though.’

  Jaide went to the tiny bathroom, slipped out of her father’s dressing-gown, and got into some of the new clothes their mum had bought her before leaving for Portland. Meanwhile, back in their room, Jack put on the same clothes he’d worn through the long road trip. He liked them; they felt reassuringly familiar.

  ‘You probably want to explore Portland,’ said Grandma X when they reluctantly traipsed downstairs, ‘but I fear we’ll be stuck inside today, once it starts raining. Do you know how to play cards?’

  The twins nodded slowly, even though the thought of playing cards with her didn’t fill them with overwhelming excitement.

  ‘What about the cellar, Grandma?’ pressed Jack.

  ‘What cellar is that, then?’ she said, bustling past them. ‘How about toast, or cereal? Or both?’

  Jack’s stomach rumbled, making him miss Jaide’s frustrated look.

  ‘Toast and cereal, please,’ he said.

  ‘Just cereal, I guess,’ said Jaide. ‘What about the cellar, though?’

  ‘Let’s sit down and eat our breakfast,’ said Grandma X.

  Jaide frowned in a way she normally only used with her mother.

  Jack sat with his sister at the table and watched Grandma X’s back as she put the kettle on the stove and lit the gas with a very long match that he wasn’t entirely sure he saw her strike. As he stuffed cereal
in his face, he could tell that Jaide wasn’t going to be distracted by anything as trivial as food.

  ‘Grandma,’ Jaide started to ask, her cereal sitting ignored in front of her, ‘I really need to know about the —’

  ‘The blue door,’ said Grandma X. She turned back from the stove and looked at Jaide. ‘You can see it, can you?’

  ‘Yes! So can Jack. But is it really there?’

  ‘Of course, dear. If you can see it, it must be.’

  ‘I knew it!’

  Jaide thumped her fist on the table, sending the milk slopping from side to side in her bowl. ‘But why can’t Mum see it? When we pointed it out to her, she just told us off.’

  ‘That’s one of the mysteries, dear,’ said Grandma X, and blew out the match. The smoke from it wound once around her head and then went out the window.

  ‘One of what mysteries?’ Jaide persisted. Grandma X’s lack of straight answers was utterly infuriating her.

  ‘You’ll have to be patient, Jaidith. There is a time for the telling of these things, and a natural order to be maintained. Some doors are not meant to be opened before their time. Rushing things would be . . . ill-advised. Here, have a cup of hot chocolate. The day doesn’t start until I’ve had one, and I love the smell it gives the place. What do you think?’

  Jack looked up from his cereal. Grandma X had a cup of hot chocolate in each hand. But she’d only just lit the stove for the kettle, and she hadn’t even got out any milk or anything. Or had she?

  Steam swirled up from the mugs into the twins’ nostrils, and they breathed in its velvety scent. It filled Jaide’s mind with a warm, caressing breeze, and Jack’s with a comforting, companionable darkness. Breeze and darkness did their work, and all the twins’ thoughts ceased for an instant.

  When they started again, neither Jaide nor Jack could remember what they had just been talking about.

  ‘CARDS,’ SAID GRANDMA X FIRMLY. ‘You said you can play. How about you show me after breakfast? I have a deck I save for special guests. We can have a game or two in here, then see if the weather is going to clear.’