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caused certain people to wake up and refuse to go back to sleep.
    And then the last lights went out in Middle Street and everyone settled down to their statistically normal amount of sleep.
    Some hours later, the currawongs woke and began calling as first light crept into Middle Street, and then the sun eased its way up over an horizon made jagged by the roofs which lined it.
    As the sun’s first rays hit the Harrison house, Sally woke, then dressed and crept from her bedroom intending to wake Bobby, at the same time as Bobby was waking, dressing and creeping from his bedroom intending to wake Sally. This meant that they ran into each other in the hallway, ‘shssshed’ each other loudly, and then crept toward the living room where they knew they would find their presents.
    The ‘shssshing’ had woken Maria and Jim, who now lay there in their bed, knowing it was hopeless to try getting back to sleep again. The next thing they heard was the tearing of paper as the twins opened their presents. Jim and Maria looked at each other. They knew bed was over for the day, and they rolled out, and started putting on dressing gowns as they heard cries of ‘Wow!’ ‘Yeayyy!’ ‘Unreal!’ ‘Radical’ and ‘Street cred here I come!’
    ‘Sounds like a success,’ murmured Maria.
    ‘Your idea,’ said Jim.
    ‘It was not, it was your idea, and you can cope with the broken legs,’ said Maria, only half meaning it, as she led the way out of the bedroom.
    In the living room, the twins were sitting on the floor, lacing up brand new sets of rollerblades. Both looked up with wide smiles as their parents entered.
    ‘Great!’ said Bobby.
    ‘Radical!’ said Sally.
    ‘The wrist guards, the knee guards, the head guards …’ began Maria.
    ‘Are in the other boxes,’ finished Jim.
    The twins climbed to their feet, thumped across the room in their new rollerblades, and hugged their parents. ‘Thank you! Thank you!’
    ‘Just watch it, uh?’ Jim told them. ‘I’ve been made responsible for any mayhem you commit.’
    ‘Promise. No mayhem,’ Sally said, raising one hand.
    ‘Only on Kavarshes,’ added Bobby.
    Maria and Jim exchanged a look. ‘More Mrs Webster stories last night.’
    ‘We learned about delaying battle till you have superior numbers,’ Bobby told him, and made for the front door. Having pestered friends for short term loans of their rollerblades, he was already getting the hang of it.
    ‘I must try that on Mr Flannery some time,’ Jim said to Maria as Sally coasted past them. Because Sally did not believe in pestering friends for loans of their rollerblades, this was her first time on them, and she was more awkward than Bobby.
    ‘Stay on the footpath!’ yelled Maria. Then the front door slammed, ending the conversation.

chapter ten
    A few hours later Sally and Bobby were whizzing up and down the footpath of Middle Street, both now more confident on their rollerblades. Maria and Jim were working in their front garden, but only partly because it needed work, the other reason being to keep an eye on Bobby and Sally as they got accustomed to their blades.
    Sometimes Sally and Bobby had to speak quite severely to Jim and Maria about their tendency to be over-protective. They always apologized and promised to be less protective next time, but somehow it never turned out that way.
    Mrs Webster made her appearance, coming out of her house with two gift-wrapped parcels and her special weeding device. No one in Middle Street had ever seen anything quite like this device, which in appearance was very like her walking cane, and no one had ever been able to buy one like it. Mrs Webster used to say she got it ‘where she used to live’ (and even Sally and Bobby had never been able to discover where that was, except that it was a long way away from Middle Street). When pressed, Mrs Webster would say that her weeder was so old they probably didn’t make them any more.
    At first, everyone thought it was a