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‘Yes, it was,’ Kyle snapped back.
‘We went fossil-hunting on Mermaid Point three years ago,’ retorted Miralda. ‘Whale-watching was four years ago.’
‘Actually, it was three years ago,’ said one of the other kids, and then all the locals who’d been at the school long enough started arguing about whether they had gone whale-watching four or three years ago, and whether or not the branch had fallen that year, or in fact some other year, when the bus was leaving for some different excursion.
‘I guess you have to find your own excitement in a small town,’ Tara whispered to Jaide.
‘Whatever’s happening on the bridge is enough for me,’ said Jaide. ‘I wish we could see what’s happening.’
‘Can’t be too big, or we’d have to evacuate,’ said Jack. ‘I mean, if it was a gas tanker that was going to explode or something.’
‘There are a lot of sirens,’ said Jaide. ‘And Mum’s helicopter, so someone must be badly hurt. Maybe lots of people.’
‘You know, I thought I heard something before the sirens,’ said Tara. ‘A kind of thudding noise, like when a big truck goes past and shakes everything a bit. Just for a second.’
‘I didn’t hear anything,’ said Jack. ‘I was totally concentrating on the maths questions.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ said Jaide. ‘You were practically asleep. I saw you.’
Jack shrugged. His twin knew him too well. He had finished the problems ages ago and had been daydreaming, imagining himself using his Gift, merging into the shadow by the wall and escaping from school.
‘I suppose we had better do these questions,’ said Tara to Jaide. ‘They won’t go away on their own.’
The students were bent over their papers – all except Jack, who had moved on to imagining increasingly unlikely accidents to explain the unusual events in Portland that morning – when Mr Carver came back into the room a few minutes later. He was talking on his phone.
‘So there is no danger to the school? Good, good. What exactly . . . ? Into the river? Yes, of course I know . . . oh my . . . oh my . . . oh dear!’
Jack and Jaide were not looking up, or they would have seen Mr Carver suddenly stare at them with an expression they all knew well. His forehead had wrinkled and his mouth flattened into a straight, sincere line.
Tara saw it. She nudged Jaide.
‘You just got the Caring Sharing Face from Heath.’
‘What?’ asked Jaide. All of a sudden she felt a stab of fear. The helicopter . . . her mother! But the helicopter had landed fine. Why would they be the object of Mr Carver’s Caring Sharing Face?
Mr Carver put his phone away and carefully walked among the desks, over to where Jack and Jaide sat.
‘Class, continue with your work,’ he said brightly. ‘Jack and Jaide, could you please come with me to my office? There’s something I’d like you to help me with.’
Jack and Jaide stood up and started to gather their books.
‘No, no, leave everything and come along,’ said Mr Carver.
He opened the door and gestured to them to go in front of him. Out in the corridor, Jack stopped and said, ‘What’s going on? Is Mum all right?’
‘Yes, I’m sure she’s fine,’ said Mr Carver quickly. He made some tentative gestures again, as if he was trying to herd ducklings into his office. ‘Just step inside and I’ll tell you when you’re sitting down.’
‘We were sitting down before,’ said Jaide, as she and her brother sat uneasily on the shiny orange-and-yellow lounge.
Mr Carver perched himself on the corner of his desk and fiddled with a small Tibetan prayer wheel, flicking it till the bells began to jangle.
‘Yes, but this is . . . what I have to tell you . . . it’s best not in class. No, I think more suitable that you be sitting together . . . you may even want to, in fact I think it’s a good idea if you hold your brother’s hand, Jaide—’ ‘Just tell us!’ both twins said at once.
‘I’m not sure, I don’t have all the details, but it seems that about twenty minutes ago, a car was forced off the road just before the iron bridge, into the river . . .’
He spun the prayer wheel more forcefully.
‘So?’ asked Jack, now extremely puzzled. ‘What car went into the river . . . ?’
‘A yellow car, an old yellow car,’ whispered Mr Carver.
It felt as if time froze for the twins, as if everything stopped. For a long second, neither of them could move, or think, or speak, and then everything started again, and Mr Carver was gabbling about ‘your wonderful grandmother’ but it was meaningless. All they could think about was Grandma X’s old yellow car going into the river, taking Grandma X down with it, down into the muddy depths . . .
‘But . . . but it couldn’t . . . it couldn’t happen,’ Jaide said finally.
‘No,’ agreed Jack. ‘No way.’
‘I know it is difficult to comprehend,’ said Mr Carver. ‘Fate is fickle, and in accidents such as these, anything can occur—’ ‘No,’ said Jaide. ‘You don’t understand. Grandma X is . . . is special.’
She couldn’t say what she really wanted to say. That Grandma X had magical Gifts, and wisdom, and . . .
There was the clatter of boots in the hall, and then all of a sudden the twins’ mother was in the doorway. Mr Carver stood up nervously, but she ignored him and dashed to the children.
‘Jack, Jaide!’
The twins moved into Susan’s hug as if she was a lifebelt thrown to them at sea. She hugged them just as tightly for a moment, then eased them back.
‘Is . . . is she dead?’ asked Jaide. She could hardly get the words out, or keep back the tears that were suddenly welling up in her eyes.
‘No,’ said Susan. ‘But the car was in the river for some time, and they’ve just got it out and she’s still inside. She is conscious, which is a very good sign. We’ll be flying her to the hospital as soon as they can . . . get her free. I just ran over to tell you that Rodeo Dave is on his way, and he’ll drive you to the hospital. I’ll be there, of course.’
‘Which hospital?’ asked Jack. He looked at Jaide, and she knew what he was thinking: Grandma X might have to be taken beyond the wards, and neither of them knew what effect that might have.
Grandma X was the Warden of Portland, charged with secretly protecting the world from The Evil, a terrible force from another dimension. If it hadn’t have been for the Wardens, the world would have been taken over long ago. Jack and Jaide were going to be Wardens one day, but for now they were troubletwisters, young Wardens whose Gifts were unreliable and occasionally dangerous, despite the best efforts of their grandmother to teach them how to use them. The first time their Gifts had appeared, the twins had accidentally blown up their house in the city and been forced to move away from the life they had always known.
Their grandmother was strict and knew a lot more about everything than she ever let on, including her name. They just called her Grandma X, while everyone else mumbled when they had to call her anything. The twins had been in Portland for months now, constantly learning about their Gifts and their new responsibilities, but sometimes it seemed as though they had barely begun. There was still so much they didn’t understand.
Would the four wards of Portland, which kept The Evil from breaking into the world, still work if the Warden in charge of them left?
What would happen if she died?
‘She’ll go to Scarborough, of course,’ said Susan, ignorant of their concerns. She didn’t like being reminded of the legacy the twins had inherited from their father, and Grandma X had ‘encouraged’ her ability to forget. ‘Better facilities. Not to demean Portland Hospital, but—’
Her walkie-talkie crackled and a voice said, ‘Sue! Almost there. Three minutes.’
‘On my way!’ Susan replied. She hugged the twins again. ‘I have to go. She’ll be okay, I’m sure of it. She’s the toughest person I know!’
She turned quickly to Mr Carver. ‘Dave Smeaton from the Book Herd is authorised t
o pick the children up. He’ll be here in a moment.’
With one last hug and one last look to the twins, she was gone.
The next five minutes were very long. Mr Carver spun the prayer wheel one more time, then put it down and picked up his nose flute, but he put that down again without playing anything. He opened his mouth to say something, and nothing came out. Finally, he got up and slid through the door, pausing to mutter something about ‘leaving you to your thoughts’ and ‘must get back to class’.
As soon as he was gone, Jack and Jaide started whispering furiously to each other.
‘She’ll be okay,’ said Jack. ‘She probably wasn’t even really hurt. Right?’
‘But a hospital, Jack. They’re flying her to Scarborough! Shouldn’t we do something?’
‘We should call Dad,’ they said together.
‘But we don’t know where he is,’ Jack pointed out.
‘Custer!’ said Jaide, thinking of their father’s old friend. ‘Custer will know.’
‘We don’t know how to get in touch with him, either. Or the other Wardens. Grandma X does all that.’
