Troubletwisters Read Online Free PDF Page A

the shoulder and Jaide by her hand and drew them both in to kiss their foreheads before letting them go.
    ‘I knew you’d come one day,’ she said. ‘And look at how grown up you are! Already twelve, already troubletwisters.’
    ‘What is a troubletwister?’ asked Jaide.
    ‘That’s a story for another time,’ Grandma X said, putting her arms around their shoulders. ‘Won’t you come inside and see your new home?’
    ‘We won’t be staying long,’ said Susan, following closely behind. ‘Just until everything’s fixed.’
    Grandma X sniffed. ‘You are welcome for as long as you need. I have plenty of room.’
    Grandma X took the twins with her through the door. Jaide stepped hesitantly across the threshold, eyes adjusting slowly to the darkness. Four tall chestnut and mahogany cabinets lined the sides of the front hall, all of them latched shut, the latches fastened with heavy old bronze padlocks. The air smelled odd, a mixture of the thick, damp smell of old wood and something else, something that neither Jack nor Jaide could identify, but made them think of ancient things. This reminded Jaide of the blue door and the weird antique shop sign. She had been so busy chasing Jack that she hadn’t seen it when they’d run around the house, and for some reason it had gone right out of her mind. Now the smell brought back that lost memory, and she wanted to check it out.
    ‘Hang on,’ Jaide said, pulling free. ‘I want to get something from the car.’
    ‘Hang on yourself,’ protested Jack. He made a grab at her arm, and she was unable to shrug him off. Together they stumbled back out into daylight. There, Jaide turned to look at the front of the house.
    For an instant, both the sign and the blue door were nowhere to be seen. There was only an expanse of weathered, pinkish brick where she thought they’d been.
    Then she blinked, and they were back.
    ‘I didn’t imagine it,’ she told Jack. ‘I knew it!’
    Jack stared at the door, and the sign, and the words: ANTIQUES AND CHOICE ARTICLES FOR THE DISCERNING .
    ‘You were right,’ he said, amazed that what seemed so solid now had been barely visible before. ‘Why couldn’t I see it at first?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Jaide said. ‘And why couldn’t Mum see it at all?’
    ‘Kids?’ came Susan’s voice from inside. She sounded cross, and was trying unsuccessfully to hide it. ‘Come on, don’t be rude, please.’
    ‘This is weird,’ Jaide said, more to herself than to her brother.
    ‘ Definitely weird,’ Jack responded, and he flashed her a grin that surprised her. ‘Maybe Portland will be more interesting than we thought.’
    Something squeaked above them. The weathervane was shifting, slowly and thoughtfully, to point to the south. But the poplars in the drive and the topmost branches of the great fir tree were still bending west in answer to the easterly wind that had grown stronger, herding in a huge mass of dark, angry clouds.
    Jaide shivered, but not entirely from the coolness of the wind. She pulled her hoodie up and hurried inside, with Jack following closely behind her.

‘ LOUNGE, DRAWING ROOM, STUDY, KITCHEN ,’ their grandma was saying, sweeping down the hallway like a ship in full sail, tapping on doorways as she passed them. The back half of the hall, past the locked cabinets, was dominated by a number of stern-faced portraits that peered down their noses from the walls. Beyond the paintings there were two glass-fronted bookcases that, instead of holding books, displayed a collection of curious trinkets: snow globes, crystalline animals, brass ornaments and the like, all arranged neatly but with no obvious sense of order.
    Jack and Jaide caught up, hurrying lightly on their sneakers, their scuffling footsteps a sharp contrast to the crack of Grandma X’s boots. At the very end of the hall, alone on the wall, a tiny silver mirror caught Jack’s eye as he was hustled past it to the stairs. He saw his and his sister’s faces in