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‘What I mean is,’ Susan said, ‘we’ll have to make do as best we can. And this,’ she added, looking gloomily at the big old house, ‘is what’s best.’
‘I didn’t know Grandma ran an antique shop,’ said Jaide, pointing out the window.
‘What?’ asked Susan. ‘What are you pointing at?’
‘The sign, about the antiques,’ Jaide replied. ‘Over the blue door, there.’
The house had two front entrances. There was one with four broad stone steps leading up to a big door, right where they were parked, but there was also another one further along, consisting of three small steps that led down to a sunken door that was painted a lovely cornflower blue. An old, hand-painted wooden sign above the door read: Antiques and Choice Articles for the Discerning.
‘Where?’ asked Susan. ‘Honestly, I don’t have time for this, and I doubt Grandma X will appreciate you making jokes about her being an antique or whatever it is you’re thinking.’
Susan got out of the car and slammed the door behind her.
‘You can see it, can’t you?’ Jaide asked Jack.
Jack narrowed his eyes. He was looking straight at it as far as Jaide could tell, but his face screwed up uncertainly.
‘Not really,’ he said. ‘At least, I don’t think so . . . ’
For a moment everything that had happened in their old home crashed back into Jaide’s mind: the darkness, the wind, the glowing eyes, their father fighting to save them from forces she didn’t understand. It felt like a dream, a nightmare, and she didn’t like the feeling that the nightmare might be more real than the reality before her.
‘Are you coming or not?’ called their mother from the front steps.
‘Like we have a choice,’ Jaide murmured. She threw open the door. Her feet crunched down onto gravel, and Jack’s followed a second later.
He was glad to stretch his legs. It had been a long and boring drive. The house loomed over them, no doubt full of their grandmother’s rules and regulations. He couldn’t bear the thought of staying still a moment longer.
‘Race you around,’ he said.
‘On three,’ Jaide told him, then started running immediately, heading anticlockwise along the front of the house.
Jack concentrated on catching up, barely hearing their mother’s tsk of exasperation behind them. The earth was loose underfoot, even when he crossed the edge of the gravel and hit the garden proper. There was no lawn, just lots of wood chips and twigs and dead-looking weeds. He turned left, hot on Jaide’s heels, and saw that there was a proper garden behind the house, including a broad lawn that was dominated by a Douglas fir tree that had to be three times the height of the house. Jack wondered why it hadn’t been visible as they’d driven in.
Jack had almost caught up with Jaide, as he usually did unless she had a really huge headstart, and was about to grab her hoodie and pull her back when a sudden, stern voice above their heads made him stumble.
‘You’ll be on your very best behaviour. I expect nothing less!’
The voice came from a half-open window midway along the side of the house. Jaide skidded to a halt, assuming the telling-off was directed at them. Jack crashed into her back and they both fell over.
‘Are you arguing with me?’ the voice continued.
The twins disentangled themselves from each other and looked nervously up at the window. But there was no one leaning out, and they realised that whoever the woman above was telling off, it wasn’t them.
‘Do you think that’s —?’ whispered Jack.
Jaide shushed her brother even as she jumped up and tried to see inside, hoping for a glimpse of whoever was talking, presumably Grandma X. Jaide was a great jumper and climber, better than Jack. He had the edge in a straight sprint on level ground, but if there was any climbing or scrambling up something involved, Jaide always left him behind.
‘I’ll keep my side of the compact if you’ll keep yours,’ said the unseen woman.
A deep-toned bell chime resonated through the house. Something clattered inside the kitchen.
‘Shhh, they’re here.’
Jaide managed to pull herself up enough to see over the sill just in time to catch a glimpse of a tall, elderly woman with silvery hair disappearing through a doorway. She wore a long-sleeved black shirt tucked into the top of blue jeans, a belt that sparkled as though it had metal threaded through it, and cowboy boots with silver heels and tips. The sound of those boots on the polished floorboards ricocheted after her, brisk and no-nonsense.
There was no one else there. Grandma X might as well have been talking to the air, or to herself.
Jack pulled himself up next to Jaide just as something leaped onto the windowsill from inside. The twins both fell back in surprise, ending up in a tangle on the ground again.
‘Meow?’ asked a sturdy ginger tomcat, looking down at them with a quizzical expression.
Jack felt his elbow, which hurt, and laughed in relief. ‘You gave me a fright.’
The cat turned its head to one side, sniffed, and began to lick its paws, totally ignoring the twins.
‘Kids? Where are you?’
Susan’s voice travelled through the house and around it, ambushing them from all sides.
‘On three,’ said Jack, but he was already moving.
He was well in the lead by the time he reached the next corner. The trunk of the mighty fir flashed by, and he almost stumbled on its roots, which rose like the coils of a serpent out of the earth all around the tree. Those roots were making short work of the yard’s stone walls, which stood cracked and tumbled on all three sides. Over the fallen walls, Jaide caught a quick glimpse of the neighbouring house. Its windows were smashed and doors boarded up, and there were black marks all up one wall that looked like they were from a fire. It had clearly not been lived in for a long time.
The southern side of Grandma X’s house was a featureless, smooth brick wall with no windows below the third floor. As they skidded around the last corner and came back to the front door, Jack slowed slightly to let his sister catch up, but not enough that she could win.
‘There you are.’ Susan was waiting at the top of the stone steps, speaking cheerfully but with a forced edge that told the twins not to push their luck. ‘Come meet your grandma.’
Jaide joined Jack, breathing heavily. Standing so close they touched shoulders, they walked together up the steps. The door at the top led into a hallway so dark and gloomy that Jack could only make out shapes and Jaide couldn’t see anything at all.
‘The twins, at last,’ said the same voice they had heard through the window. Grandma X stepped out of the gloom, her hands outstretched, reaching for the twins as if to grab them and pull them back into the darkness. Jack flinched away, but Jaide didn’t move, struck at once by how much Grandma X looked like their father, especially in the eyes. Though hers were as grey as granite and their father’s a more kindly brown, they both had the same bright, piercing gaze.
Jack didn’t notice her eyes. He was just shocked at how fast she was, as she gripped him by the shoulder and Jaide by her hand and drew them both in to kiss their foreheads before letting them go.
‘I knew you’d come one day,’ she said. ‘And look at how grown up you are! Already twelve, already troubletwisters.’
‘What is a troubletwister?’ asked Jaide.
‘That’s a story for another time,’ Grandma X said, putting her arms around their shoulders. ‘Won’t you come inside and see your new home?’
‘We won’t be staying long,’ said Susan, following closely behind. ‘Just until everything’s fixed.’
Grandma X sniffed. ‘You are welcome for as long as you need. I have plenty of room.’
Grandma X took the twins with her through the door. Jaide stepped hesitantly across the threshold, eyes adjusting slowl
y to the darkness. Four tall chestnut and mahogany cabinets lined the sides of the front hall, all of them latched shut, the latches fastened with heavy old bronze padlocks. The air smelled odd, a mixture of the thick, damp smell of old wood and something else, something that neither Jack nor Jaide could identify, but made them think of ancient things. This reminded Jaide of the blue door and the weird antique shop sign. She had been so busy chasing Jack that she hadn’t seen it when they’d run around the house, and for some reason it had gone right out of her mind. Now the smell brought back that lost memory, and she wanted to check it out.
‘Hang on,’ Jaide said, pulling free. ‘I want to get something from the car.’
‘Hang on yourself,’ protested Jack. He made a grab at her arm, and she was unable to shrug him off. Together they stumbled back out into daylight. There, Jaide turned to look at the front of the house.
For an instant, both the sign and the blue door were nowhere to be seen. There was only an expanse of weathered, pinkish brick where she thought they’d been.
Then she blinked, and they were back.
