“It was just after I moved into the flat. I heard voices downstairs and thought someone had broken into the shop.”
“Weren’t you scared?”
“I was terrified. I called the police, but when they arrived the characters disappeared.”
“Because it was dawn?”
“No, because no one else can see them but us.”
“What about Oliver?”
“Nope. They disappear as soon as he walks into the shop.”
“But Biscuit can see them. What about Fezz?”
“Fezz, too, though he never gets as excited about them as Biscuit does.”
“No one gets as excited as Biscuit about anything,” Julia deadpanned. “Does Oliver mind you visiting them?”
“I don’t know, actually,” Aurelia said, her holiday mood slightly deflating. “I haven’t told him about them yet.”
Julia dropped her jaw dramatically, as though it had suddenly become unhinged.
“Wait, seriously?”
“I’m going to tell him soon. I just… haven’t done it yet.”
“Then who else knows? Mum? Granddad?”
“No one but you and me. If I ran around telling people I could see and talk to fictional characters at night, people would think something was wrong with me. That’s why I lied to you, before. And I need to apologize for that. I’m sorry.”
“I knew it seemed too real to be a dream,” Julia said triumphantly. Then her brow furrowed before she added, “But now I can see them, too. We can tell people.”
“We can’t tell anyone.”
“Why not?”
They carried their plates and mugs to the table and Aurelia sighed, trying to muster up the many reasons why not, and deciding on one she thought would be the most compelling for a teenager who probably had some experience with how quickly stories could spread.
“The more people you tell, the more people they’ll tell, and then it gets too big to control. If people heard there’s a shop where characters come alive at night, they’d want to see it for themselves. Then, when they couldn’t see anything, they’d probably get annoyed and upset with us, thinking we were putting them on or having a laugh at their expense.”
“But Mum and Dad, and Oliver, we could tell them. They know us. They’d have to trust us.”
“I’m going to tell Oliver—soon. But that’s it.” At a pleading look from her niece, she added, “This is a pretty incredible story, Julia. If you hadn’t seen it for yourself, would you really believe me? You’d worry something was wrong with me and that I was seeing things. And that’s exactly what people would think about you if you told them.”
“Then it’s sort of like we’re wizards and we can’t tell people about our magical powers?”
Aurelia laughed. “Something like that.”
“Oh! Speaking of magic, let’s putShadow and Boneon the table!”
“You know Ben Barnes won’t appear, right?”
“I know,” Julia said, though she looked a little disappointed.
“There are lots of villains and dark magic in that book,” Aurelia added. “I’ll never putThe Strange Case ofDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydeon there, orFrankenstein. Characters can’t touch us or hurt us, but they could hurt the other characters that appear with them. Besides, there are loads of other great characters for you to meet. Like… I met Marmee a few years ago.”
“Oohhh! What was she like?”
