Really Weird Removals.com Read Online Free PDF Page A

now–”
    â€œCan you be my brother instead? I didn’t have any brothers or sisters when I was alive…”
    â€œCan I be your sister too?” asks Valentina eagerly.
    â€œOf course! My brother Luca. My sister Valentina.” She laughs, a faraway sound, coming from somewhere else, some time else.
    â€œSo what I wanted to ask you is–” I try to continue.
    â€œChildren! What on earth are you doing awake at this hour!” A wedge of light seeps in from the door,and Mum’s face appears in it. My heart stops. How are we going to explain this?
    â€œWhat’s wrong?” she adds, looking suspiciously from Valentina to me.
    â€œI… we…”
    â€œI heard you talking… Valentina, what are you doing in Luca’s room in the middle of the night?” Then I realise: Mum can’t see Camilla, still floating in mid-air, perfectly still. I start breathing again.
    â€œI had a nightmare,” gabbles Valentina.
    â€œOh, wee soul!” Mum sits down on my bed and puts her arms around Valentina. “Are you ok now?”
    She nods. We look at each other.
    â€œCome on tesoro , I’ll take you to bed. Night Luca, thanks for looking after your sister.”
    â€œNight Mum, night Valentina.”
    Valentina throws me one last wide-eyed look before disappearing out my bedroom door, followed by Camilla.
    My question will just have to wait. The house quietens down again, the lights go off. There’s no way I can go back to sleep. Not with a ghost in the house. I am lying in the darkness, thinking, when a faint glow starts lighting up the room again. Camilla materialises slowly, sitting cross-legged at the foot of my bed.
    â€œSo what did you want to ask me?”
    â€œWell, you know the way Alistair and Valentina and me, we can see you, but my mum and dad can’t?” I’m talking as if having a little ghostly girl sitting on my bed was perfectly normal .
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhy is that, do you think?”
    â€œI don’t know. Some people see us, most people don’t. It’s just the way it is. I could make myself visible to other people if I wanted to. I tried a few times… I was lonely and I wanted a family. But I stopped doing it because they always got really scared. They screamed and went all pale. Nobody wanted to speak to me,” she adds sadly.
    â€œThat’s a shame. I’m sorry…”
    â€œI have Alistair and the two of you now!” Camilla looks so happy, it makes me smile.
    â€œSo you can make yourself visible to anyone, if you want to?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œIn that case, would you do something for me?”
    â€œSure!”
    â€œWould you… would you scare someone for me? Appear to them and scare them? I know it sounds like a mean thing to do, but this boy has been awful to me for ages, he says horrible things about my mum and dad, and he hits me when we play shinty, and…”
    â€œShint what?”
    â€œShinty. It’s a sport we play up here in the islands. It’s a bit like hockey. But better. This boy on the team, he makes my life miserable. He’s a lot bigger than me.”
    â€œHe sounds horrible. A bit like Rupert Cleaver, only Rupert is dead! What’s his name?”
    â€œGary.”
    â€œI’ll terrify him for you. Where will I find him?”
    I think for a moment.
    â€œAt shinty practice. Next week. I’ll find a way you can catch him alone.”
    I feel a bit guilty. Not much, just a little.
    â€œAll sorted then. Goodnight Luca. I’m going for a floatabout. Bye bye.” Camilla disappears through the window. I watch her flying down the street and over the roofs, towards the beach, her little shape glowing blue-green like a St Elmo’s fire.
    â€œ Night, Camilla ,” I whisper, more to myself really.
    My life is getting weirder by the minute. But a good sort of weird. 

5. THE OCTOPUS IN THE LUNCH BOX
    Alistair