Troubletwisters Read Online Free PDF Page B

wallpaper from the other room, and on the card their grandmother had sent. It was like a coat of arms, cropping up everywhere around her.
    The walls were painted white, giving the room a lightness that ran counter to the gloom and mystery of the rest of the house.
    ‘I get this one,’ said Jaide, rushing forward to claim the bed on the left. Mattress and posts squeaked as she jumped on it, crumpling the coverlet under her knees. Jack was less enthusiastic. He, too, missed his room back home, just as he missed the familiar streets of his suburb, and his friends, but he was happy enough with the other bed. He bet that if he pressed close to the window from his side he could glimpse the sea.
    ‘I think you’ll be comfortable here,’ said their grandma from the doorway. ‘Let’s go down and have some lunch. You must be tired after the trip.’
    ‘What’s on the next floor up?’ asked Jaide.
    ‘That’s where I sleep,’ Grandma X replied.
    ‘Don’t go up there,’ Susan warned the twins. ‘We mustn’t invade your grandma’s privacy any more than we already have.’
    ‘It’s not an invasion. I’ve been expecting you.’
    ‘That’s, uh, very kind. But you don’t want these two little whirlwinds going through your things.’
    ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ said Grandma X thoughtfully. ‘In any case, I must ask you to particularly avoid the widow’s walk at the very top of the stairs. This is an old house and the roof needs work. I’d hate for you to slip and take a fall.’
    ‘Did you hear that, kids? Stay right away from there.’
    Jack nodded. Jaide made a movement that her mother accepted as agreement, though in fact she was thinking of the here-and-gone-again antique shop. Grandma X hadn’t mentioned it.
    ‘Is that the only place we can’t go?’ Jaide asked.
    ‘Can’t go?’ said Grandma X. ‘There are places you should not go, certainly, as I have mentioned. Then there are other places to which you may not yet have found your way.’
    Jack gave Jaide a what? look, but his sister was only intrigued. That sounded to her like permission to explore, perhaps even a challenge.
    ‘This house was modernised some fifty years ago,’ said Grandma X as she led them back downstairs to the kitchen. ‘It has central heating, electricity and a telephone. That probably seemed modern enough to the people who owned it back then.’
    ‘What about television?’ Jack asked.
    ‘I can’t abide television, of any sort,’ Grandma X replied, making both twins’ stomachs sink. ‘If I want to watch a movie, I’ll go to the cinema.’
    ‘And the internet?’ Jaide added in desperation.
    Grandma X looked down at her, and a slow smile spread across her face.
    ‘I have found the World Wide Web useful. I’ll give you the password when you’re settled in. However, my own computer must remain private, I’m afraid. Perhaps you have brought your own?’
    ‘Thank you,’ said Susan. ‘Normal rules apply, guys. You can use my laptop, after everything is packed away.’
    Their luggage was still in the car. They had brought what little had survived the explosion with them, supplemented by new clothes hastily bought from a department store before leaving the city. Everything they owned in the world was contained in just a few bags.
    ‘You should eat first,’ said Grandma X firmly. ‘Lunch is ready.’
    A platter lay on the chrome kitchen table, protected from more than just flies by a Portland Lighthouse tea-towel. The broad-shouldered ginger tom the twins had seen before looked up from its contemplation of the covered food as they entered. Its nose twitched hopefully.
    ‘Not for you, Ari,’ said Grandma X, shooing the cat away. ‘That’s Aristotle. Watch out for him. He’ll take the food out of your mouth if you let him, particularly if Kleo isn’t around to keep him in check.
    ‘Where’s she got to, by the way?’ she added, speaking directly to the cat. ‘I thought she’d be here to say hello.’
    Ari