Aunt Maria Read Online Free PDF Page B

being so awful, I was coughing my way to the back door to get right away like Chris had, when it shot open and Elaine strode in, black mac and all.
    â€œI’ll have to have a word with that brother of yours,” she said. “Where is he?”
    All I can think of is that she has a radio link between her house and this one. How could she have known? I mean, she may have heard the noise, but how could she have known it was Chris? I stared at her clean, stern face. She has awfully fanatical eyes, I couldn’t help noticing. “I don’t know,” I said. “Outside somewhere, probably.”
    â€œThen I’ll go and look for him,” Elaine said. She went out through the door and said over her shoulder, “If I can’t find him, tell him from me he’s riding for a fall. Really. It’s serious.”
    I wish she hadn’t said, “riding for a fall.” Not those words.
    When the noise quieted down, I went back to the dining room. Both the Mrs. Urs patted my arm and said, “There, there, dear.” They seem to think it was Chris who upset me.

Three
    N ow I feel as guilty as Mum. It got dark, and Chris still hadn’t come back. Aunt Maria was really worried about him. “Suppose he’s gone down on the beach and slipped on a rock!” she kept saying. “If he’s broken his leg or twisted his ankle, nobody will know. I think you ought to ring the police, dear, and not bother about getting supper.”
    Who needs the police, I thought, with Elaine after him? And Mum said, in the special high, cheerful voice she always uses to Aunt Maria, “Oh, he’ll be all right, Auntie. Boys will be boys.”
    Aunt Maria refused to be comforted. She went on, low and direful, “And the pier is dangerous in the dark. Suppose the current took him. Thank goodness little Naomi is safe!”
    â€œThat makes me want to say I’m going out for a swim,” I said to Mum.
    â€œDon’t you dare!” said Mum. “Chris is bad enough without you starting, too.”
    â€œThen shut her up,” I said.
    â€œWhat’s that, dear?” said Aunt Maria. “Who’s shut up?”
    It went on like that until the back door crashed open and Elaine marched Chris in, swinging her torch. She had hold of Chris by his shoulder, just as if she had arrested him. “Here he is,” she said to Mum. “I’ve given him a talking to.”
    â€œReally? How very helpful you are!” Mum said, and took a quick anxious look at Chris’s face. He looked almost as if he was trying not to laugh, and I could see Mum was relieved.
    By then Aunt Maria cottoned on. “Oh, Elaine!” she shouted. “I’ve been ill with worry! Have you brought him? Where did you find him? Is he all right?”
    â€œIn the street,” said Elaine. “He was on his way back here. He’s fine. Aren’t you, my lad?”
    â€œYes, apart from a squeezed shoulder,” Chris retorted.
    Elaine let go of Chris and pretended to hit him with her torch. “Don’t let him do that again,” she said to Mum. “You know how she worries.”
    â€œStay with me, Elaine,” Aunt Maria bawled. “I’ve had such a shock!”
    â€œSorry!” Elaine bawled back. “I have to get Larry his supper.” And she went.
    It was ages before I could ask Chris what Elaine had said to him. Aunt Maria made him sit down next to her and told him over and over again how worried she had been. She kept asking him where he had been and not giving him time to answer. Chris took it all in a humorous sort of way, so different from the way he had been before that I thought Elaine must have hit him on the head with her torch or something.
    â€œNo, she just grabbed me,” Chris said. “And I said, ‘Do you arrest me in the name of the law?’ And she said, ‘You can be as rude as you like to me, my lad. I don’t mind. But