[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
same sort of half-notes. It was unstructured, but seemed
like an attempt at music, because it meandered, rose and
fell, and some notes were held longer than others. The eerie
sound wound itself around me. I wanted to stay and listen
more than I wanted to run away. Sometimes a note would
be repeated again as if the singer really enjoyed that note. It
had to be the sound of madness for the moment, at least, a
contented madness. Miss McAllister had deceived us. And
worse, the person in the room above was probably a prisoner.
Why else had we never met him or her? Miss McAllister s
peculiar ways were explained. Abrupt, uncommunicative,
CHAPTER 13 93
she had resented our intrusion into her warped and twisted
life, but once we had arrived she was probably planning
some terrible fate for us.
At that moment the broom slipped from my grasp with
a clatter onto the stairs. I held my breath. The floating song
stopped. There was clumping on the floorboards overhead
and the something or somebody rattled wildly at a door
handle. I grabbed the broom and crashed my way across
the room. Boxes tipped over, things fell all about me and I
remember crushing something underfoot. I charged out the
door and up the garden without looking back, expecting a
clawed hand to grab me from behind.
By the time I was in the kitchen, I was convinced that
Wilf and I were in real danger. It was no time for manners.
Here s your broom, I said to Miss McAllister who was
still sitting in her chair. I dropped it on the ground and
grabbed Wilf by the arm.
Mum wants us back early, I lied. She has a cake in the
oven and I have to take it out for her.
Miss McAllister s watery eyes narrowed. That cake
has been in the oven for well over an hour. Cakes don t
generally take so long. You have been meddling, haven t
you! She almost shrieked the accusation as she rose from
her chair.
There was no time to lose. Still holding on to Wilf, I
hurried across to the hall door. By the time I had opened it,
I could hear the swishing sound of Miss McAllister s skirts
94 MISS McALLISTER S GHOST
behind me, coming at us like a black spider. I started down
the hallway, but Wilf could not understand my panic and
I had to drag him along. Arthritis or not, Miss McAllister
was catching up on us. I got to the door, but it was latched
from the inside. The latch was stiff with age and my struggle
with it moved it a centimetre. Miss McAllister was only a
stride away, when, with aching fingers, I heaved the latch
sideways, catching my fingers in a stinging pinch. As I
opened the door and pushed Wilf through first, my arm
was grabbed by those prehistoric fingers of steel. I flung
my arm upwards and behind me towards Miss McAllister.
The force threw her back a step and gave me long enough
to make my run. On the verandah I clutched Wilf again. I
ran down the steps and through the garden, briars catching
at my clothes like Miss McAllister s fingers. Only when I
was on top of the garden wall with Wilf did I look back
to see the thin, black form of the old lady standing on the
verandah, one hand reaching out as if to draw us back.
You must be here tomorrow. It s baking day, she called
in her raspy voice. I ll need you all.
95
e
ha t
C p r 14
I hate you, Cas. Why did you do that? said Wilf.
I didn t answer. My aim was to put distance between
us and the McAllister house. I pulled the unwilling Wilf
along, tears streaming down his face. Halfway home, Mick
came strolling towards us.
What s going on? I left the Bowl early to come over,
he said.
We re not going back. I stared him straight in the
eyes. I was in that old shed, stables she calls it, and there s
a madman upstairs. My voice shook. I kept seeing scenes
running like a film in my mind the moaning song, Miss
McAllister chasing us down the hall, the escape over the
wall.
C
h
p
a
t
e
r 1
4
96 MISS McALLISTER S GHOST
Steady on, Cass. Tell me about it, said Mick, his hand
on my shoulder.
I leant against someone s garden fence and began.
Mick s whole being was concentrated on me. It was
everything he wanted to hear: the weird singing and the
rattled door handle.
She chased me and tried to grab me, Mick. We were
fools to get involved. Let s get home, I finished.
While Mick interrogated me on the details, I quietly
decided that Mum and Dad should be told. We would not
be properly safe until they knew.
I sat at home for the rest of that afternoon waiting
to talk to whichever parent walked through the door first.
Things did not turn out as I had planned. Mum and Dad
walked through the front door arm-in-arm. Dad had sold
two cars in the one day after a dangerously long drought.
He was taking us all out for a pizza.
He spotted my glum face before I had a chance to say
anything. He pinched my cheeks with the thumb and index
fingers of both hands. It hurt. We need a bit of pizza to put
some colour back into those cheeks! he boomed.
I ve got to tell you something, Dad, I said.
Mick, who was scoffing a giant sandwich from the
comfort of his favourite beanbag, almost choked. He glared
angrily at me, but his mouth was so full he could only grunt.
Save it for tomorrow, said Dad. No sad faces tonight.
We re going to have a bit of fun tonight. And he whacked
CHAPTER 14 97
Mick on the back, causing him to choke for real this time.
But Dad, I &
Mum cut me short. Cas, we have few enough happy
moments in this house. Times are tough. Tonight we re
going to enjoy ourselves.
Tears of frustration rose in my eyes. Mum and Dad
walked past me into the kitchen. I heard Mum say, Probably
that time of the month.
An hour later, when we got to the restaurant, Mum
and Dad were loud, cheerful and very hungry. All the
family except me stowed the pizza away. Worrying about
the dangerous mess my brothers and I were in made me lose
my appetite. Mum took it for sulking. She said the look on
my face would turn her wine into vinegar. While she and
Dad discussed the merits of the different pizza toppings,
I was quietly tongue-lashed by Mick for being a traitor. I
don t remember much else except for Wilf whingeing about
the anchovies on his pizza.
You might never have tasted pizza again if I hadn t
made that run for it, I hissed.
Nothing was going to stop me telling Mum and Dad
the truth the next morning. We had put ourselves in danger
because we did not have the courage to tell the truth and
cop the consequences. I slept a deep sleep with a lighter
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]