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Next she turned to address Kleo. ‘You were also rather late. I asked you for a mouse hours ago.’
Kleo’s only answer was to raise a paw, lick it, and begin cleaning her face. This was clearly the equivalent of a shrug.
Jack had forgotten that Grandma X had asked Kleo to catch a mouse. Jaide had to be right, he thought. The cats were Grandma X’s familiars, and that meant she really was a witch. He looked at Jaide. She lowered one eyelid slightly, a sign to be cautious.
The ring of Grandma X’s phone sounded from the drawing room. She marched out to get it, and they heard her answer with a brisk, ‘Hello?’
‘I’m not frightened of mice,’ whispered Jaide. ‘I just don’t like the cats playing with them.’
‘I know. What do you think that was about? Do you think she’s going to send an army of mice to get us?’
Before Jaide could speculate, Grandma X returned, holding the telephone handset out to them.
‘It’s your mother, troubletwisters.’
They scrabbled for the phone, each wanting to be the one to tell her what had been going on and each wondering how to do it without making themselves sound crazy.
Jaide won. ‘Mum!’
‘Hello, dear girl. How are things going? Your grandma tells me it’s been raining.’
‘Is that really all she said?’
‘She said she took you for a drive and that you’ve been playing all evening. It sounds like you’re having fun.’
Of course Grandma X would make it sound like that, Jaide thought. ‘You have to come back, Mum —’
‘I can’t, Jaide. One of the helicopters is out for heavy maintenance, we’re short two paramedics, and it’s a very busy time. But I’ll be back on Wednesday, I promise. Is Jack there?’
Jack was bouncing around Jaide, trying to get at the phone. His sister reluctantly handed it to him. Maybe he would have better luck.
‘Hello, dear boy. I just want to say a quick hello before you go to bed. Are you being good for your grandma?’
‘Yes, but . . .’ Jack wanted nothing more than to tell her everything that had been happening, but Grandma X was in earshot. He moved up the hallway and whispered into the phone, ‘Mum, everything is weird here.’
‘Don’t worry, Jack. You’ll get used to it soon enough.’
‘That’s not what I —’ Jack stopped. Kleo had come out and was stalking toward him, her ears rotated forward to catch everything he was saying. He retreated to the kitchen.
‘If you get a good night’s sleep, everything will seem better in the morning.’
‘But —’ Jack stopped again as Ari came out from under the kitchen table and Kleo appeared at the door. Jack despaired of finding anywhere he could talk unheard.
‘Jack, I really need you and your sister to —’
A chattering bell in the background of the call drowned out whatever his mother was saying, and Jack heard someone shouting, ‘Sue! We’re rolling!’
‘I have to go now,’ said Susan very quickly. ‘Lots of love to you and your sister.’
‘No, don’t —’ shouted Jack.
But it was too late. There was only the dial tone in answer. Despondently, Jack took the phone back to his grandmother, who returned it to its cradle.
‘How nice to hear from your mother,’ she said. ‘Now, it’s getting late. There’s time to read in bed, if you like.’
‘Late?’ said Jaide. ‘It’s not even eight-thirty.’
‘It’s a school night, and you’ve had a long day. I have some work to do. If you go to your room, I’ll come and turn the light out in half an hour.’
For a moment, Jaide thought about refusing to obey, just flat out rebelling against her grandmother. But there was something in the old woman’s gaze that said this would be a very big mistake.
The twins had no choice but to trudge up the stairs and do as they were told. They both had reading lamps on flexible metal arms that snaked out from behind their beds, lamps that cast misshapen shadows across the walls and ceiling when they were switched on. Jack settled back to an adventure novel with a plot he had trouble paying attention to, while Jaide picked up her illustrated book on whales. She was very interested in marine life, but now, with the events of that day turning over and over in her mind, and the thought of school on top of all that, she could barely concentrate.
The strange sounds coming from the ground floor didn’t help. There were clicking footsteps, doors opening and shutting, and clanks and clunks, as if Grandma X was moving furniture back and forth. Whatever she was up to, it kept her so busy, she didn’t come to say goodnight until almost ten o’clock.
Jaide was already asleep, and Jack wasn’t far off. He closed the book he hadn’t really been reading and switched out the light. Grandma X stood in the doorway for a moment, her face hidden. He thought she might be about to say something, but then she left and pulled the door shut behind her.
It was very dark in Portland compared to the city, but after a minute or two his eyes adjusted, and Jack found that he could see pretty well. He looked out his window and counted the regular flashes of the lighthouse’s beacon, warning ships away from the perils of Dagger Reef. Twenty-three was the last number he remembered before he slipped into a dream about giant spiders swarming out of the cactus garden and tying a dog up in their webs. He twitched restlessly, but didn’t wake up.
Jaide was dreaming about spiders, too, only she was the one in danger from them. She had been flying and had blundered into a giant web. The sticky strands wrapped themselves around her face and hands. No matter how she tugged she couldn’t get free, and she couldn’t call for help because her mouth was glued shut. At the far edge of the web, something dark and red-eyed moved closer . . .
A roaring sound woke both twins at precisely the same moment. Their beds were shaking and their sheets were whipping around them. It sounded like a storm had burst through the windows and was turning the room inside out, but there was no rain, just wind. Jaide fumbled for the switch of her reading light. It didn’t come on the way it was supposed to. The filament glowed feebly, as though something was sucking the light out of the wire.
By the faint, flickering glow, Jack saw a whirling funnel of dusty air spinning in the centre of the room, sucking up all their clothes and books and whipping the chandelier around in tight circles. The wind was so strong that he had to hang on with both hands to stop himself from being sucked in as well. Frenzied eddies swirled around the room, dropping books and clothes on every horizontal surface, including the twins. The curtains flapped like sails, and the noise they made was so deafening, he couldn’t hear himself or his sister shouting for help.
Then the darkness came. The feeble electric light was snuffed out, and the window went dark. The howling, tortured air began to smash things, and all of it was much too much like the terrible day the twins’ house had exploded.
Only the awful, staring eyes were missing, and Jack found himself whimpering at the thought that they would soon be there. He could almost see one already —
With a bright, metallic ping, both lamps and the overhead light suddenly flashed back into full life. The darkness was whipped away like a magician’s cape, revealing Grandma X in the doorway, her arms upraised and the sleeves of her white dressing gown bunched up over her elbows. She brought her hands together, and as her palms touched, the crack of their meeting resounded through the room. Instantly the tornado collapsed like a water balloon that had been squeezed too hard. A few whiplike wisps of wind scattered around the walls, like snakes trying to escape from a barrel, and vanished.
When the air was still, Grandma X surveyed the mess with a severe eye.
‘You should be asleep,’ she said sternly. ‘All aspects of you.’
She seemed to be talking to someone else in addition to the twins.
‘What was it?’ asked Jaide. ‘Where did it come from?’
‘Is it going to come back?’ Jack added. ‘Will . . . will the eyes come?’
Grandma X looked directly at Jack and Jaide and continued in gentler tones.
‘There’s nothing you need to worry about, troubletwisters. Go back to sleep.’
She accompanied the instruction with a wave of her hand, like someone smoothing down a sheet. With her words and the wave, the twins felt suddenly tired again, the adrenaline of waking in fright entirely dissipating. They lay back on their pillows and shut their eyes.
