Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Storms (26 page)

‘Shh, Saskia!’ scolded Lyall.

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Granny, is it true about heaven?’

But she didn’t get a chance to respond because suddenly there was a huge bang from right behind me and the middle blind flew up all by itself, flooding the room with light. Saskia screamed and I almost jumped out my skin when I saw that the candle had gone out too, and all that was left of the flame was a thin trail of smoke whisping up to the ceiling.

Saskia ran for the door, still screaming, until Lyall pounced on her from behind and covered her mouth.

‘Shoosh, Saskia! Just stop! You’ll attract attention.’ Lyall was as white as a sheet as well. ‘It was just the blind, Saskia. Wasn’t it, Sunny? Finn?’

‘Probably,’ said Finn. ‘Don’t you think, Sunny?’ He moved over to where I was standing near the mantelpiece. ‘You okay, Sunny Hathaway?’ he asked, rubbing my back.

‘I’m
fine,
’ I said, hurrying to put the candle and matches away. I was more than a little annoyed that perhaps Finn didn’t believe we
were
actually communicating with the spirit of Granny Carmelene. Maybe Finn was a sceptic like Lyall? Maybe after the botched seance, Granny Carmelene wouldn’t want to communicate with us again. If only I’d done it on my own! What if I was stuck with unanswered questions about somewhere, nowhere and angels for the rest of my life?

Just then, Saskia screamed again, because just as she
reached for the door its handle started turning by itself.

‘What on earth are you kids up to?’ Steph asked as she opened the door and came in. ‘It sounds like someone’s being murdered in here.’

‘Oh, sorry, Steph,’ I said. ‘We were just playing a game, Murder in the Dark actually, and well, Saskia got a little freaked. We’ve finished now though haven’t we?’ I put my arm around Saskia for a moment. ‘It’s okay, Saskia, it’s only a silly game.’

Lyall and Finn both nodded furiously.

‘Sorry if we disturbed you, Steph,’ I said. ‘I hope we didn’t wake Flora. Come on, Finn,’ I said. ‘Let’s see what’s happening outside.’

Lyall and Saskia both took off upstairs. Finn and I, on the other hand, headed straight for the back door.

‘Hi, you two!’ said Mum. ‘Feel like helping?’

Before I could answer, Finn shouted out, ‘Sure Mrs Aberdeen!’

Willow appeared at top speed when she heard Finn’s voice.

‘Hello, girl!’ I said. ‘Where have you been?’

‘She’s been on the verandah,’ said Mum, pointing to the side of the house. ‘Frantically gnawing on a huge bone.’

Mum’s words triggered something in my brain. I took off up the back stairs and around to the side verandah, with Willow running right behind me. Sure enough, right
outside the dining room windows was a big old doggie bone all chewed on one end. Willow stood over it as though she thought I might take it away from her. Then she squatted down and put a paw on one end of the bone to secure it while she chewed the other. With every move of her head the bone made a knocking sound on the hollow wooden verandah.

Finn appeared beside me and we both stood silently for a moment watching Willow with her clunky bone.

‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Sunny Hathaway?’ asked Finn.

And I said, ‘I really do believe I am, Finn Fletcher-Lomax. It wasn’t the spirit of Granny Carmelene making the knocking sounds; it was Willow. She was right outside the window the whole time.’

‘It sure does look that way, Sunny,’ he said, and I could tell he was sensing my disappointment.

Finn and I decided to dodge the working bee for a bit and go for a walk by the river. We sat at the table under the willow tree, right where Granny Carmelene and I had eaten eclairs.

‘You know what, Sunny Hathaway?’ Finn said. And before I could say, ‘What?’ he continued, ‘No one really knows what happens after you die. Our teacher asked our class once and got twenty-four different answers. And do you know what else?’

‘What?’ I said.

‘They were
all
right. You don’t need your grandmother to tell you where nowhere is, or whether angels really exist. It’s about having a story for yourself that feels right.’

That night, Saskia insisted on sleeping in my bed, even though I’d explained about Willow and her bone making the ghost noises.

‘Sorry, Sunny. I’d sleep with Lyall, but ever since he turned twelve he kind of smells,’ said Saskia.

She was standing at my bedroom door in her jarmies hugging her pillow. How could I turn her away?

‘It’s okay, Saskia.’ I said. ‘Just as long as you don’t wet the bed.’

‘As if! But do you mind if we leave the light on?’ she said, loosening the sheets at the foot of the bed so she could hop in.

‘I’ll tell you what, Saskia,’ I said, ‘How ’bout we leave the lava lamp on. Then at least I can get some sleep.’

To keep Saskia’s mind off scary things I started talking about Mum and Carl’s wedding She seemed to be more excited about it than anyone, even Mum and Carl, and we finally worked out how we could
both
be flower girls. We even worked out a way to make Willow a flower girl too, and maybe even Sophia, if Kara Bleakly said it was all right for her to come.

‘It’s almost spring, Sunny, I can feel it in the air,’ said Saskia. ‘I just can’t wait. Then it will be summer and we can jump off the jetty into the river. And then it will be Christmas and then it will be my birthday and then … ’night, Sunny.’

And then it will be Flora’s birthday and then it will be my birthday too,
I thought to myself. And I kept on thinking, just like I always do in bed at night. I had lots of thoughts about Granny Carmelene, and the good news was there was nothing about my thoughts that made me feel sad one bit. It was as if all of a sudden I could remember her without putting all my energy into trying to stop remembering. And I thought about what Finn had said, and tried as hard as I could to imagine what
nowhere
was like for me.
Nowhere
was floaty and cloudy, but mostly sunny, and it glowed all purple and warm. Kind of like how my turret room feels with the lava lamp on and I’m all snuggled up in bed.

Finn was right. No one could tell me that my idea of
nowhere
was wrong, and I didn’t really need Granny Carmelene to tell me that it was
right,
either. The main thing was that it suddenly felt okay for Granny Carmelene to be there – all tucked up in
nowhere.
It made me stop worrying about her being all right.

I drifted off into the most peaceful slumber. And it felt like the sort of slumber where hours and hours had passed, until …’

Thud!

Saskia woke up and screamed when she saw the expression on my face. And I screamed too, just because seeing her so scared and screamy made me scared and screamy too, and it was so dark outside all we could see were the reflections of our own selves in the windows.

Then there was a thud against the window again, and Saskia dived under the covers and burrowed up to my end of the bed and clung on to me until it hurt.

‘Sunny! What is it? Ly-a-all! Daaaaduh!’ she yelled.

I was all frozen and silent and actually tried to scream for Mum but couldn’t make any noises. The only thing that came was a hopeless squeak. Then there was another thud, an even louder one, and this time a whole pane of glass broke, and without even meaning to I kind of huddled on top of Saskia and pulled the covers over both our bodies, and we screamed and screamed at the top of our voices and this time my scream actually worked so well I’m sure Dad could have heard us all the way over in China. And nothing could stop me screaming because there was actually
something
in the room! Something thumpy!

Finally I heard someone running up the stairs and then Carl say, ‘God Almighty!’ and Mum yell, ‘Are they all right? Sunny? Saskia?’

Then Carl said, ‘Don’t come in, Alex! I’ve got to get it out!’ and Saskia and I screamed some more and I could
hear the thumping thing thumping, and then I heard a screech.

‘Shh, girls,’ said Carl, and I heard a flap and a thump and a screech, and then I heard Carl saying, ‘Shoo!’ and there was a rush of cold air in the room and then it was silent.

Saskia was whimpering and clutching onto my arm. Carl gently peeled back the covers and I heard the door handle squeak again as Mum opened it ever so slightly and said, ‘For goodness sake, Carl, what on earth is happening?’

And he said. ‘Would you believe it was a bat, darl? Flew clean through a pane of glass.’

After the bat
incident I had to vacate my room on account of it not having its full complement of windows any more.

‘You can share my room, Sunny. I really don’t mind,’ said Saskia.

I thought about it seriously. I mean, for Flora’s sake the more practice I had at being big sister the better, right? And I kind of had always wanted to have one of those rooms with the line down the middle that the other person wasn’t allowed to cross when you had a fight. Especially if I made sure my side of the room was the part that had the door.

‘Okay, thanks, Saskia,’ I said. ‘Maybe I will for now.’

What are you kids going to do about Boredom Control now that school’s gone back?’ Mum asked at breakfast one morning.

‘We’re still going to take Woolfie one night a week after school. But since Sophia is having regular play days at his place, neither of them are going to need as much entertaining.’

‘Yeah,’ I added, ‘and Kara said she’s going to be working less, and that she and Ritchie are going to try to take both dogs for long walks together.’ I checked my watch. ‘I gotta go, otherwise I’ll miss my bus.’

The best part about being back at school was knowing I’d see Finn on the bus each morning, which was a whole lot easier than writing letters or (don’t tell Finn) trying to communicate via pigeon.

The other best bit was that I had solid evidence that Finn was an official boyfriend. It wasn’t anything he said. It was simply due to the fact that I knew he missed two buses after school to make sure he caught the one with me on it. What more proof does a girl need?

As the weeks whizzed by, we all got totally used to having Steph and Flora in the house. They became part of the family, especially as Dad’s time in China kept being extended. I missed him heaps, but let’s face it, the longer
he was away, the longer I’d have Flora around.

Steph missed Dad too, even though he rang almost every day, but I didn’t think she was looking forward to leaving either. But the weirdest part of all was that, with us kids out of the house all day, Steph and Settimio had kind of become best friends.

Every day she and Flora would visit him and they’d drink small, thick cups of coffee with oodles and poodles of sugar and Settimio would go all goo-goo over Flora. (I knew because I was still in the habit of sneaking up to my turret room after school and spying through Settimio’s kitchen window with Granny Carmelene’s telescope.)