The Finding of Freddie Perkins Read Online Free PDF

room, and somehow it did feel a little bit magical to have something like that next to your bed – even just for pretend.

5
Some lovely finds

    After that afternoon, the routine at Willow Beck changed. Not gradually. Not with any discussion or planning. Suddenly, and dramatically. And it started with dinner that evening.
    Freddie and Granny P couldn’t stop talking to each other – laughing about what they had found,and coming up with weirder and weirder ideas about what might be in the locked chest with no key.
    It was slow going at first because every time Freddie said something, he had to repeat it three or four times until he was practically shouting – just so Granny P could hear it at her end of the table.
    But halfway through his stew, Freddie put down his knife and fork and stood up. He moved his chair to Granny P’s end of the table so they were sat close enough to talk normally and then he said, ‘Granny P, I’d like to sit here for all my meals now.’
    Granny P didn’t say anything. She just smiled – such a smile, it looked like it was too big for her small, wrinkled face.
    And breakfast the next morning was the same. They took a long time over it because they were chatting and laughing away to each other.
    Freddie couldn’t understand why Granny P seemed so different all of a sudden, and so easy to talk to. Had she changed? Was she just excited about the attic? Or had she always been like this, but he had never really noticed before? It was a mystery.
    But not as much of a mystery as that locked chest. Granny P said that she too had taken ages to get tosleep last night wondering what on earth was in it. Dad had got home from work very late last night – long after Freddie had finally fallen asleep – and so they hadn’t been able to get him to open the chest then.
    But today was Wednesday. Dad had a day off after all his late nights and so he would be able to do it – they would know what was in the chest! Freddie was all for waking Dad straight away and marching him up to the attic immediately, in his pyjamas if necessary, so they could open the chest. And he said so. But Granny P insisted they let Dad have a lie-in after such a tiring week.
    â€˜Freddie, here’s a plan. You go up first and begin with some of those boxes of newspapers we saw in the far left gable. I need to sort a few things down here first, so you start without me. I’ll let your father sleep a bit longer, take him his breakfast in bed, and then when he’s feeling rested – and grateful! – bring him up to tackle the chest.’
    Freddie jumped straight up. Yesterday afternoon had been amazing. And the new Granny P was super improved and really quite fun. But the idea of going up to the attic by himself was
irresistible
.
    He was very practical about it. He had no notions of finding something properly magical up there – that kind of thing only happened in stories. But he might be the one who found something truly valuable. It was absolutely, practically possible – likely even – that there could be something incredible up there, given how old some of the stuff was. And if there was, he
so
wanted to be the one to find it.
    Freddie heard Granny P chuckling as he sprinted out of the dining room and up to the attic. It was almost like she knew, like she’d planned it this way and found some things to do so he would have the thrill of going up alone – just like she had longed to do when she was younger. And that made Freddie laugh too.
    This time the ascent to the attic was much quicker. He took every flight of stairs – even the spiral one up to the attic – two steps at a time, and by the time he reached the door into the attic, his heart was pounding from the effort and excitement of it all. Granny P had left the key in the lock, and the torch next to the door, so in no time at all he was in. He switched on the lights, surveyed the