by Gwyneth Rees
So I went to the bathroom and switched on the light.
‘Wow!’ I whispered as I stared at the new me. I looked older and more sophisticated somehow.
I could have stood staring at myself in that mirror for ages, and I briefly wondered what Mum would think if she could see me.
More to the point, what would Raffy think?
Before I could change my mind, I left the bathroom and went to knock on Rafferty’s bedroom door, remembering how when Lily and I were younger we used to sneak into his room uninvited all the time and giggle hysterically as he yelled at us to get out.
I swallowed hard and tried to stay calm as one sentence kept repeating itself over and over inside my head. You have to act normally. You have to act normally. You have to act normally.
The door opened and Raffy stood there, looking extremely surprised to see me.
‘Sasha?’ He was peering at me with a bit of a frown but he didn’t comment on my makeover.
‘Um … it’s about the party …’ I practically choked out.
‘Oh … right …’ He beckoned me further into his room but didn’t shut the door. I couldn’t help looking around. It was even messier than Sean’s bedroom, and that was saying something.
My eyes locked on to his school clothes, discarded in an untidy heap on the floor by his bed – grey jumper, white shirt, school tie, grey trousers, sweaty-looking socks … thankfully no underpants.
‘So what is it?’ he grunted, self-consciously kicking his dirty clothes further under the bed.
‘Oh, um … it’s just, I was wondering … How are we going to make sure Blossom House doesn’t get trashed on Saturday?’ I asked in a rush.
‘Oh, don’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘You know we’ve only invited half the people we were going to ask before, right?’
‘So … you’ve invited fifty?’
He nodded. ‘Give or take.’
‘I still think fifty is quite a lot,’ I said nervously.
‘They probably won’t all come, Sasha. And they definitely won’t all come at the same time. In fact I reckon there’ll be people coming and going all night!’
I frowned. Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better.
‘But what if … well …’ I trailed off nervously.
‘Is this about the W.C.S.?’
‘Huh?’
He sighed. ‘Sorry. That’s Lily-speak for Worst Case Scenario. Lily said you’d want to know about it.’
‘Oh … well, it’s just … what if anyone, well …’
‘Throws up?’ he supplied for me. ‘Nicks something? Breaks a window? Shakes up all the fizzy drinks bottles and sprays them all over the room?’
‘You really think all that could happen?’ I asked, suddenly feeling a bit ill.
He reached out and calmly patted me on the shoulder. ‘It could happen, Sasha, but I won’t let it. Trust me. You’re gonna have a great time. You just leave everything to me.’
He gave me his biggest, warmest smile, and in those few seconds all my worries melted away.
I got back from Lily’s house just after half past nine (Ellie and I walked back together) to find Leo standing drinking coffee in the kitchen with Mum, who’d just got back from her yoga class.
‘Sasha!’ Mum exclaimed. ‘What happened to my little girl?’ That was a first. Like I said before, Mum’s not usually one to worry about how quickly I’m growing up.
I’d forgotten for a moment that I hadn’t taken off my make-up. Plus my hair was all gelled up and had silver glitter sprinkled in it and I was wearing a mini skirt Lily had given me because it was too small for her.
‘Yikes! You look like a deranged pop star,’ Sean said, coming into the kitchen behind me and handing Leo a book. ‘This is it, Leo. I mean, basically it was really dull and I hated it! Can’t I just write that for the book report? I only chose it because it was the shortest book there. Talking about short …’ Sean was staring pointedly at my skirt.
‘Get lost,’ I said defensively.
‘That skirt is one of Lily’s, isn’t it?’ Mum said. ‘I seem to remember that when Lily wore it she also wore tights.’
‘It’s too warm for tights, Mum! Anyway, Lily says the whole point is to show off my legs.’
‘Sasha, you’re twelve!’
‘Nearly thirteen,’ I said huffily.
‘Let’s leave the ladies alone to discuss this, shall we?’ Leo said, whisking my brother off into the living room.
As soon as they were gone, Mum said, ‘Well, you’d better not let Granny see it. She’ll probably start looking for a hem to let down.’
‘Is Granny still coming?’ I asked. I’d almost forgotten, so much had been going on since we got back to school. My stomach lurched a bit at the thought of Granny arriving in the middle of our party plans. She’s always the first to sniff out any hint of trouble.
She nodded. ‘Tomorrow. I can’t say I’m looking forward to introducing her to Leo.’
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I said. ‘We’ve told Leo what she’s like. He’s not going to blame you, no matter how rude she is to him.’
Mum sighed. ‘Did I ever tell you about the day I first introduced her to your dad?’
‘No,’ I said, my ears instantly pricking up. I love it when she talks about our dad. ‘What happened?’
‘We were both only twenty-one. We’d been putting off the whole meet-the-parents thing while we were still students, but then we decided to go travelling together and we knew we couldn’t postpone it any longer.’ She paused. ‘He was the first boyfriend I’d been really serious about and your granny gave him the Spanish Inquisition of course. She asked him how he planned to pay the bills and look after me – and we weren’t even engaged or anything! I was terrified he’d run away and never come back. My father did his best to help us, bless him. He took your dad up to the spare room and showed him his magician’s trunk. Not that that pleased your granny when she found out!’
‘Granny still hates the fact that Grandpa was a magician, doesn’t she?’ I said. ‘Last time she was here Sean asked her whether she ever acted as his assistant and let Grandpa cut her in half. You should’ve seen her face!’
Mum said with a little laugh, ‘I wish I had.’
‘But why is she so ashamed of it, Mum? Being a magician is cool!’
‘That’s what I always thought.’ Mum gave a rueful smile.
‘She doesn’t even have any photos of him up in her house.’
Mum sighed. ‘I know. It’s as if she’s ashamed of him as a person, not just the magician part. I don’t understand it either. The trouble is Granny can be such a snob about certain things.’ She sighed. ‘Poor Leo has no idea what he’s letting himself in for. I just hope she doesn’t scare him off.’
I didn’t say anything, but I thought back to how Granny had rescued us time and again, especially after Dad died and after Married Michael. And I thought about what would happen if Leo ever changed his mind about us.
Granny wasn’t so bad, not really. And anyway, the fact was, like it or not, our lives would be way scarier if she wasn’t around.
After school the next day, Sean and I had to go and meet Granny at the train station.
As usual our grandmother was the first passenger to disembark and she was instantly recognisable in her bright purple coat and green hat. Granny likes to stand out from the crowd and she always wears colourful scarves, big floppy hats and huge sparkly brooches. (Mum once accused her of standing out a bit too much and Granny snapped back, ‘Well, why ever not? After all, you’re a long time dead!’ Which is true, I guess, though only Granny would actually come out and say it.)
‘Granny!’ Sean called the second we spotted her.
My brother always seems to regress by several years whenever our grandmother comes to stay, and this time was no exception. As soon as Granny stepped out through the ticket barrier he immediately started jumping around her like a five-year-old, trying to sneak a look inside her large canvas sho
pping bag for the Easter eggs he knew she’d have brought with her since we hadn’t seen her at all over the holiday. Granny immediately smacked his hand away and ordered him to stop being so silly and to give her a proper hug.
Mum wasn’t due home from work for another hour and we had orders to take Granny back to the house and to make sure we carried her bags. So we set off, with me dragging her little wheelie suitcase and Sean carrying her shopping bag.
‘So,’ Granny said as she took out a crumpled paper bag of Murray mints and popped one in her mouth before offering them to us. ‘How is your mother? Has she seen sense yet and broken off her engagement to that … that … ridiculously young man?’
‘Leo isn’t ridiculously young, Granny,’ I said. ‘And he’s really nice. I bet you’ll like him when you get to know him.’
‘Yeah, Granny. Leo’s cool,’ Sean backed me up.
‘Cool?’ Granny repeated crisply. ‘Well, yes … that’s what I was afraid of.’
It was just as well Leo had decided not to spend that evening with us, I thought with a sigh. Though on the other hand, there was something to be said for getting stressful things over and done with. As it was, the big event wouldn’t happen until Saturday, when we were all going out for lunch together to ‘break the ice’, as Mum had put it.
Just then my phone rang. It was Mum asking if we’d collected Granny yet. Then she explained that Miranda wanted Blossom House completely cleared of all remaining personal items and rubbish. Miranda was doing it as a favour to the owner, and since Mum owed her a few favours she had agreed to help. They were going there straight after work to get started.
When I related what she’d said to the others, Granny frowned and I thought she was going to complain that Mum wasn’t giving her much of a welcome. Instead she said, ‘Did you just say this place was named Blossom House?’
‘That’s right.’
‘And where is it?’
‘It’s in the street just behind ours – the one with all the trees and the big Victorian houses.’
Granny narrowed her eyes. ‘Which street exactly?’
I told her the street name and Granny scowled even more.
‘Do you know it then?’ Sean asked curiously. Granny had never mentioned knowing anyone who lived there. Of course she had old friends from before she moved away, but they were mostly on the other side of town where her house used to be.
‘What? No, of course not!’ Granny replied fiercely.
Like I’ve said before, I’ve always been good at guessing what other people are thinking, and I’m also pretty good at picking up when they’re lying to me. And I was definitely getting the feeling that Granny was hiding something.
‘I know,’ I said. ‘Let’s go round to Blossom House to help Mum and Miranda. Granny, you can come too, if you want.’
‘Why on earth would I want to do that?’ Granny replied sharply. ‘I shall go home and start preparing our dinner since your mother clearly hasn’t given it any thought. You two go if you want to, and tell your mother not to be too late back unless she wants a totally ruined supper.’
I looked at Sean, who quickly nodded. It was definitely in our interests to be at Blossom House when the place was being cleared. We could have another look for Monty and hopefully spot him before anyone else did if he came out of hiding. We could also remove anything that we didn’t want to be found – like Monty’s box and heat mat for instance.
‘We’ll walk you home first, Granny,’ I said quickly. And I found myself wondering what my chances were of being allowed to take home those beautiful 1950s dresses if I pretended to discover them while we were helping to clear the place out.
Much to my surprise it was Leo who greeted us when we arrived at Blossom House. He quickly explained that Mum had recruited him to help out too, and that Mum and Miranda had been delayed at work.
After enquiring (rather nervously) about Granny, Leo assigned us the task of emptying out the rickety old shed at the bottom of the garden. The shed had always been locked before, but that week Miranda had finally found the key to the padlock.
‘I just need to go and use the loo first,’ Sean said, and while I kept Leo talking he went upstairs where I knew he was going to look for Monty. We were both worried in case Monty showed himself to one of the adults while the house was being cleared.
Sean joined me in the back garden after Leo had gone to sort out the garage. He was holding Monty’s box and heat pad. ‘No sign of him,’ he muttered glumly.
‘What about the dresses?’
‘They’re still there. You’d better grab them now if you want them.’
‘I’ll have to check with Miranda first,’ I said. ‘Come on. Let’s go and get started on the shed.’
Inside the shed we found a lot of discarded junk, including an old birdcage and a large box covered with an old sheet. When Sean pulled off the sheet an old dark-blue metal trunk was revealed.
‘That looks a bit like the one in Mum’s photograph,’ I said. ‘You know – the magician’s trunk.’
Sean nodded but he was clearly more concerned with what was inside the box, which was locked with a chunky padlock.
‘I’m going to fetch those old tools from under the stairs and see if I can get it open,’ he told me.
While he was gone I squatted down beside the box to examine the sides more closely. That’s when I spotted the gold stars. They were very faded and it was difficult to make them out in the dim light inside the shed, but they were definitely there.
This box was exactly like the one our grandfather had owned!
Sean soon came back with the tools, including a metal saw that he thought might cut through the padlock. (I should probably mention that Married Michael was a DIY buff and he’d spent loads of time with my brother, showing him how to do stuff around the house using his impressive collection of tools.)
‘Right, then. Here goes.’ Sean set to work with confidence but after less than a minute the saw flew out of his hands and landed on the floor. ‘Stupid thing!’ he hissed.
‘Do you want some help? Leo might be able to do it,’ I suggested. Not that Leo’s DIY skills are anything to celebrate. Once he’d tried to put up a new curtain rail in my bedroom and I’d had to scream for Mum to come and stop him as he started his sixth attempt at drilling a hole in my wall.
‘No, I can do it.’ Sean picked up the saw and started again, really leaning on the thing now. This time when the blade slipped, it nicked his other hand, making him yelp.
‘Let me see.’ I grabbed his hand to examine the cut, dragging him back outside where the light was better. Since Sean is used to me fussing over him whenever he hurts himself he gave in to my examination without too much protest.
He didn’t speak until I pulled out a tissue from my pocket to dab at the wound, which didn’t appear to be too deep, thank goodness.
‘I hope that’s a clean tissue,’ he grunted sourly.
‘Nah, it’s covered in snot!’
Just then we heard Leo calling and we looked up to see him coming towards us through the trees.
Straight away Leo homed in on the bloodied tissue Sean was holding. ‘What happened?’
‘It’s OK. Sasha already checked it and … hey!’
Leo had taken hold of his wrist and now he was inspecting the wound, which was still oozing blood at a steady rate. ‘How did you do it?’ he asked when he’d satisfied himself that the cut wasn’t deep enough for stitches. As he spoke he replaced the tissue and began pressing down on it himself.
‘It was an accident,’ Sean mumbled. ‘The saw slipped.’
‘Saw?’
Seeing his frown, Sean immediately went on the defensive. ‘Michael always let me use his tools!’
‘Michael?’ Leo looked confused (possibly because Mum only ever refers to Michael as ‘that two-timing rat’ or ‘that utter snake-in-the-grass’).
‘Married Michael,’ I explained quickly, hoping that would jog his memory.
‘Oh …
right.’ Leo gave my brother a serious look. ‘Listen, Sean, I don’t really care what Michael did or didn’t let you do … In future I don’t want you doing stuff like this without asking me or your mother first.’
‘Right … like you’d be any help,’ Sean muttered snippily.
‘Oh, I don’t know … I might be useful for driving you and your finger to A&E if you accidentally cut it off,’ Leo retorted. ‘What were you trying to saw through in any case?’
We took him inside the shed to show him.
‘Those hinges look almost completely rusted through,’ I told Sean. ‘It might be easier to break them off, don’t you think?’
‘Any more wielding of tools can wait,’ Leo said firmly as he pushed my brother out of the shed towards the house. ‘Come on. Let’s get your hand sorted.’
As we stood in the kitchen (where Sean was obediently holding his injured hand under the cold running water), I asked, ‘So how long do you think it’ll take to finish clearing everything out?’
‘Well, if we spend the whole evening here again tomorrow, I’m hoping that should do it,’ Leo said. ‘The big pieces of furniture are going to stay in any case.’
‘I can’t wait to show Mum that trunk,’ Sean said as he turned off the tap with his good hand.
‘Here. Use this.’ Leo handed him a wad of dry kitchen towel to stop him dripping watery blood all over the draining board.
As Leo applied a large plaster to Sean’s injured hand, my brother gave him a smug look. ‘Leo …’
‘What?’
‘You do realise, don’t you, that Mum’s going to be desperate to open that trunk as soon as she gets here?’
Sean was right about Mum being just as keen as we were to open the trunk. In fact she was practically bouncing off the walls in her excitement once she saw it. She knew straight away that it was a magician’s trunk.
‘It’s really funny,’ she said. ‘It’s just like my dad’s – your grandpa’s. He stored all his props in it and used it in his act. I haven’t seen one like it since he died.’
