AllFreeNovel
Share Us
To the twins’ surprise, Grandma X didn’t explode, or turn him into a cockroach. She just smiled back. But if smiles could be warning shots, this would have whizzed over his left ear and taken his cap with it.
‘Tell me, Mr McAndrew, why were you asking the children about their school?’
‘Because they might know my daughter, Tara. She just started.’
‘And what do you want with poor Rennie?’
‘I hired her a fortnight ago to help with the renovations here.’ He waved at the empty, fire-blackened house behind him, his smile faltering for just a moment. ‘My company, MMM Holdings, still deeply regrets that terrible accident with the bulldozer, and we want you to know that our offer for your house still stands, Mrs – uh –’
‘Thank you. Lastly, what do you think you just saw in the sky?’
‘Just then? It was an eclipse of course.’
‘An eclipse?’ echoed Jack in surprise.
Martin McAndrew turned his attention back to the twins. ‘What else could it have been? The sun going out like that, then coming back again. Remarkable!’
Jack hastily nodded. ‘Yes, it really was.’
‘I’m surprised it wasn’t on the news, but I’ve been very busy lately . . . distracted. I’m rebuilding this house here as a personal thing, just a sideline, but you might have heard of my latest big project – Riverview House. There are still some retirement units left, you know, and we’ll be back at work on them very soon. Perhaps we could arrange some kind of swap . . .?’
‘I really don’t think so,’ said Grandma X. ‘Jack, Jaide, come inside now. Your mother has made you a . . . treat.’
The twins backed away towards the house, not quite ready to turn away from Martin M McAndrew.
‘Nice to meet you, kids,’ he said with a jokey salute. Once he dropped down behind the fence, the twins hurried inside, ushered into the laundry room by their grandmother while the cats ran after McAndrew, as though to see him off.
The twins conducted a hurried conversation entirely in whispers, so Susan wouldn’t hear.
‘That’s Tara’s dad?’
‘He doesn’t look a bit like her!’
‘He’s so creepy.’
‘And did you see the way he smiled at us?’
‘I thought we were dead for sure!’
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Jackaran and Jaidith,’ said their grandmother, doing her best to interject herself into their excitable exchange. ‘He’s just a property developer. An insidious and unlikeable breed, but not actually dangerous.’
‘But it was his bulldozer that almost flattened us!’
‘And he was looking for Rennie –’
‘And he wants your house –’
‘And he saw what happened when we –’
Jaide elbowed Jack firmly in the ribs, but it was too late.
‘What did he see, troubletwisters?’ asked Grandma X sternly.
Jack lowered his gaze and looked at the floor. Jaide met her grandmother’s eye squarely and said, ‘We used our Gifts, and something went wrong. We don’t know what. It was like something interfered with us.’
‘It was the ball,’ said Jack, raising his head. ‘Tara’s dad did something to it – I’m sure of it. He rigged it so we would reveal ourselves, and he was right there to catch us when we did.’
‘That’s an interesting theory,’ said Grandma X. ‘It’s a shame the facts don’t support it.’
She raised her right hand, which held the deflated remains of the ball. Clearly written on the limp rubber were three letters written in a childish hand.
HJS. Their father’s initials.
‘I don’t need to ask you where you found this,’ she said. ‘It’s been mouldering away in that box ever since your father was a teenager – but time doesn’t change the fact that it was once owned by a Warden. A troubletwister then of course, but his Gift is what matters. The ball has some of his power in it, and it reacted to you when you used your Gifts near it. You must be careful what you play with around here – just as you must be wary of strangers, but not to the point of imagining things that simply aren’t there. A person of dubious morals and practices he may be, but Mr McAndrew is not The Evil.’
‘You said that some people ally themselves with The Evil even though they’re not taken over,’ said Jaide, not yet willing to let go of the theory. Martin McAndrew was definitely guilty of something.
‘And he’s working on a big development,’ said Jack. ‘What if he digs up one of the wards or . . . or pours concrete over one of them!’
‘He won’t, trust me. I have taken steps. And don’t you worry about the wards. It’s dangerous for you to go anywhere near them. And it’s dangerous for them too.’
‘How can we avoid them if we don’t know what all of them are?’
‘First of all, don’t practise your Gifts unless you’re under my supervision. Secondly, if you do find something strange happening, immediately back away and come home. Thirdly, don’t even think about the wards. Do you understand?’
Both twins thought of the promise they had made their father – to do anything their grandmother asked them, no matter how strange or annoying.
‘Yes, Grandma,’ Jaide said.
‘Can you fix the ball?’ asked Jack. ‘So we can play with it?’
‘I think it would be best if I bought you a new one.’ Grandma X smiled.
‘Thanks, Grandma!’ said Jack. ‘You’re the best.’
Grandma X’s smile widened. She tousled Jack’s hair, then looked piercingly at Jaide.
‘Is there something else I can do for you, Jaidith?’
‘Uh, yes,’ said Jaide. ‘I . . . we . . . wanted to ask you about the Monster of Portland.’
‘Is it real?’ Jack asked. ‘Is it some creature of The Evil?’
Grandma X’s smile faded, though there was still a slight twinkle in her eyes. She knelt down and gathered both children into a quick hug.
‘People in Portland have been talking about their monster since your grandfather was a boy. Probably longer. But none of them have ever seen such a thing. All I can say is that if there was a creature of The Evil stalking about the streets, I would certainly tell you about it. Now come into the kitchen and see what your mother has made – and then I have something for you that I hope will help you burn off some of your restless energy, so it is not directed into your Gifts.’
The twins obeyed, torn between their reluctance to eat their mother’s cooking and the rewards that would follow. Sure enough, when they entered the kitchen, they found the air thick with smoke and their mother trying to put on a brave face.
‘Here we are, kids,’ she said as she unveiled the charred lump sitting on a wire tray in the centre of the table. ‘I was missing a couple of ingredients, and that oven still has a mind of its own, but I think this’ll be delicious. Shall I cut you the corner piece, Jack? I know that’s your favourite.’
‘Go out the window,’ yowled Ari from
the sill, his tail lashing. ‘It’s not too late.’
‘Don’t listen to him,’ said Kleo, sitting prim and upright on the sideboard. ‘He just wants more for himself.’
‘Not me,’ Ari said, with a shiver that ran from nose to tail. ‘I’m off to find something more edible, like a three-days-dead mouse.’
With that, he followed his own advice, leaping out of the window and running off into the garden.
‘He really does have the most abominable manners,’ sniffed Kleo.
‘Listen to those cats meow,’ said Susan. ‘If only we could understand what they’re saying.’
‘I expect they’d only talk about food,’ Grandma X said. ‘And perhaps the benefits of a good scratch under the collar.’
She looked at each of the twins and winked. That was just one of many secrets they had to keep from their mother, along with the Blue Room, their Gifts and everything to do with The Evil. Jack and Jaide really wanted to ask Kleo where the cats had got to that afternoon, but they had to pretend that they heard only mews and yowls.
Grandma X produced antique tea plates from a cupboard while Susan carved the cobbler into pieces, with some difficulty. Jack did indeed like the corner piece of fresh cakes because they were the crunchiest bits, but he struggled to get his teeth through the burned crust that had formed over this one. Inside, he found lumps of fruit and nuts in a doughy paste that hadn’t quite cooked through.
‘Deliffoush,’ said Jaide through a mouthful that proved to be particularly difficult to swallow.
‘Yes,’ said Grandma X. ‘Very good, dear. But don’t eat it all, children. It will be dinner time soon.’
Jack gratefully put his slice back on the plate, only half eaten. Even Susan herself looked relieved as she did the same.
‘I suppose it’s later than I thought,’ she said. ‘It’s easy to get distracted, cooking. Are we going to have those . . . um . . . Chinese greens you’ve been steaming?’
‘Greens?’ said Grandma X with an eyebrow raised. ‘I thought we’d just have fish and chips. I’m quite busy and, well, I think you’ve done enough cooking for one day.’
