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‘Hello, puppy,’ Jaide said. She tried to sound the way her father had taught her to talk to dogs, without fear or submission. Like a friend. An out-of-breath friend. ‘You don’t want to eat us, do you?’
The dog turned its head toward her, and all of a sudden the milky cloud left its eyes, like a mist being blown away by a sudden breeze. It yawned and licked its chops with a great lolling tongue and then, with one all-over shake, it turned and trotted off.
‘How did you do that?’ asked Jack. ‘I mean, with its eyes and everything?’
‘I didn’t do anything,’ said Jaide. ‘As far as I know —’
Something dropped to the ground behind them, and Jack whirled around in fright, thinking of the spiders.
‘Ari!’ he exclaimed in relief as the ginger tom slid up to him and did a quick back-scratching circle of his leg. ‘Was it you who scared the dog away?’
Ari looked up the lane and performed a very humanlike shrug. ‘Me? Scare that great beast away? I was hiding up the tree, like anyone sensible should have been.’
Jack stared at him, unable to believe what his ears told him. Cats didn’t talk. It simply wasn’t possible.
‘Did you . . . did you hear that?’ he asked Jaide.
‘Hear what?’
Jaide hadn’t reacted to the cat at all. Perhaps he had imagined it.
‘Uh, nothing, I guess,’ he said.
Ari stared at him, and gave one slow, deliberate wink.
‘If you can hear me, that ugly mutt is the least of your problems.’
With that, the cat sniffed and began to lick his paw.
Jack opened his mouth to ask Ari another question, but before he could talk, Jaide grabbed his arm.
‘The blue door,’ she said, pointing excitedly. ‘It’s still there – and the sign, too! Let’s check it out!’
Jack wasn’t so keen. He looked around again, but there was no sign of any further attentions from the insect or animal world. Even the wind had dropped away.
‘I guess we’re safe here,’ he said tentatively.
‘To a certain degree,’ said Ari quietly. He stopped licking his paw and stalked off toward the front entrance.
Jack stared after the cat and wondered if he was going mad.
‘I’m sure we’re safe,’ said Jaide. She was sure, though she couldn’t have said why she felt so confident. There was something about the house itself, looming over them, that gave her a sense of protection. ‘Come on!’
‘I really don’t know,’ said Jack. He just wanted to go inside and stick his head under a pillow until all the rampaging insects and talking cats went away.
‘Come on!’ repeated Jaide.
She dragged him over to the blue door. It was as solid as it had been that morning, and as they hammered on it they slowly remembered their earlier efforts to get it open, the memories drifting back like a forgotten dream recaptured days later.
With a strong feeling of déjà vu, Jaide ran her fingers around the jamb, looking for a hidden catch. When that failed, she stepped back to peer up at the hand-painted sign. The words had changed since yesterday. Now it said Temporarily Closed for Business.
‘How could we just forget?’ she asked her brother. ‘And how could the sign be there, then not be there, then come back later saying something different?’
‘It didn’t go anywhere,’ said Grandma X.
The twins jumped, their hearts pounding again, and backed up against the door. She was standing right behind them, and once again they hadn’t heard her boots on the gravel. It was like she had materialised there, out of thin air.
‘Maybe you’re seeing it differently now, don’t you think?’
Grandma X smiled and tilted her head, waiting for them to answer.
‘But . . . but . . . Mum couldn’t see it, either,’ Jaide said, just to say something, to try to get everything back to a more normal situation.
‘She sees what she wants to see, and understands what she can see entirely her own way.’ Grandma X bent down and peered closely at Jaide’s head. ‘You have dead crickets in your hair, green-backed fly bites all over you, and mashed cockroaches do not make a tasteful addition to even modern footwear. What happened? Tell me everything.’
There was no resisting that tone. Jaide stammered out an explanation, with Jack filling in details she had forgotten. Talking about it made it all seem unreal, like a story they had made up. The panicked horror she had felt was becoming distant, as though it had happened to someone else.
When they had finished, Grandma X’s eyes narrowed and she looked past the twins. First she gazed toward the town, then she turned completely around and looked toward the lighthouse. The twins shifted nervously during this strange rotation. Finally she stopped and, facing them again, took Jack’s hand and sniffed it.
‘That wretched handmade soap I put out for you,’ she said. ‘I thought your mother would like it, but it must have honey in it, and perhaps some of the more unusual herbs. That’s what attracted the bugs.’ Her words sounded forced. ‘I’ll get you some store-bought stuff and clean you off before you go out again. And I’ll talk to Old Mac about that dreadful dog of his, too: Luger is not normally unchained. What a terrible scare he must’ve given you!’
Under other circumstances, Jack and Jaide might have been satisfied with Grandma X’s explanation – or satisfied enough to leave it alone. But there were too many mysteries mounting at once, and too many questions that needed answers. There was something in her eyes that told them both there was a lot more to worry about than she was letting on.
Which reminded Jack that this was what Ari the cat had said.
‘What’s really happening, Grandma?’ he demanded. ‘And why is it happening to us?’
Grandma X put her left hand on his head and smoothed down his hair, a delaying tactic they were familiar with from their father. Hector must have learned all his shillyshallying and covering-up techniques from his mother.
‘I promise you, Jack, when the time is right, I’ll tell you. For now, let’s just go inside and get you cleaned up. Then you can finish unpacking and we’ll talk about dinner. Would you like a hot chocolate to warm you up?’
Jaide and Jack both shook their heads firmly. Every time they pressed Grandma X for an explanation, that hot chocolate made an appearance.
Not this time. A quick, shared glance confirmed that the twins were thinking the same thoughts. They knew each other’s faces better than anyone else, and right now they had exactly the same expression: a look of deep suspicion coupled with a determination that they would discover what they needed to know.
If Grandma X wasn’t going to tell them the truth, they would find another way to discover it. Later that night, perhaps, when everything was quiet. There were probably all kinds of clues hidden inside the house.
‘I think you can leave your shoes outside,’ said Grandma X. Her attempt to sound casual was spoiled by her looking around again, scanning every part of the horizon, her eyes narrowed and her face anxious. When she led them inside, it was at a pace so fast, they almost ran up the steps.
GRANDMA X INSISTED THEY BOTH have another shower and thoroughly wash their hair. Jaide could still feel a thousand little legs tickling her skin, so despite her reservations, she didn’t put up much of a fight. When she was done, she slipped out of the hot water, smelling of soap and shampoo, and wound herself up in a thick, prickly towel that was still slightly damp from earlier. The bathroom was dense with mist. There was no sign of Grandma X.
‘Where is she?’ Jaide whispered to Jack, who rushed into the bathroom as soon as she was done with it.
‘Washing our clothes,’ he reported.
Jaide remembered seeing an ancient washing machine in the laundry downstairs. She could hear it through the floor, rattling and thumping like it was a cage
with a wild creature inside.
The second-floor landing was empty. Only the blank eyes of the photographs and paintings watched her as she ran to her room. There she found new clothes waiting for both of them on their beds and all their mess cleaned away.
Jack followed suspiciously quickly, looking as though he had barely washed his hair beyond wetting it and giving it a bit of a shake.
‘What’s she doing in our stuff?’ he whispered, taking everything Grandma X had put away and pushing it back into his suitcase. He felt happier with it in there, and less trapped.
Jaide put a finger to her lips, listening. A moment later, silver-tipped cowboy boots thudded across the kitchen floorboards below. She nodded, and the twins had a hurried, whispered conversation while they had the chance.
‘Is this really happening?’ asked Jack, thinking not just of mad swarms of bugs and rabid dogs, but talking cats as well. Either he was going crazy, or Portland was.
