My Sister Jodie Read online

  ‘Old Wilberforce is quite inventive when it comes to punishments,’ said Harley.

  ‘Well, he can’t punish us now. It’s the school holidays. We can do what we like,’ said Jodie.

  ‘I’m still in his care,’ said Harley.

  ‘Well, we’re not,’ said Jodie. ‘Come on, Pearl, help me!’

  She tugged hard at the cupboard, going red in the face with the effort.

  ‘You’ll hurt yourself, Jodie!’

  ‘So give me a hand!’

  I scrabbled at the cupboard too. We could barely budge it an inch. We looked at Harley.

  ‘It’s not worth the effort and the potential aggro.

  There’s nothing up there,’ he said, but he came and stood beside us and heaved too.

  ‘I think there are attic rooms,’ I said. ‘Mrs Wilberforce told me about them. She said she tried to count them all once. She said I should have a go.’

  ‘There! She’s given us her permission to have a 106

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  peer round,’ said Jodie. ‘Come on, use your shoulders. One, two, three, push!’

  The cupboard made a great groaning sound as we shoved at it.

  ‘Ssh, we don’t want Miss Ponsonby to come running,’ said Harley.

  ‘She’s miles up the other end. She won’t hear a thing. Come on, one more go.’

  We hauled at the great cupboard and it suddenly budged and shifted sideways, toppling alarmingly.

  ‘Watch it! It’ll fall on top of us if you’re not careful,’ said Harley.

  ‘It’s fine, it’s fine,’ said Jodie. ‘Look, we can just about squeeze through. Lucky job we’re all thin. Let me go first!’

  She hunched her shoulders up, stood sideways and wriggled slowly through the gap.

  ‘It looks horribly dark through there. Are there any spiders?’ I asked anxiously.

  ‘Ooooh! Tarantulas! Help, help, killer tarantulas as big as beach balls! They’re jumping all over me with their hefty hairy legs!’ Jodie called.

  ‘She’s such a pain, your sister,’ said Harley, sighing. ‘Are you going next?’

  ‘All right.’ I paused. ‘Will you come too?’

  ‘What do you think I’m going to do? Shove the cupboard back and wall you both up for ever?’

  ‘Stop it! You’re as bad as Jodie!’

  ‘Never,’ said Harley.

  I still hesitated, looking at the gap.

  ‘She’s joking about the spiders,’ said Harley.

  ‘I know she is. It’s just the moment she says it I can kind of feel them,’ I said.

  ‘Here,’ said Harley. He held out his hand. ‘Hang 107

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  onto me. If you feel anything at all spidery, just give a yell and I’ll yank you straight out.’

  I smiled at him and then squeezed through the gap, hanging on tight.

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  ‘Oh, it has to be a wedding dress,’

  said Harley.

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  It was like squeezing into a different world. It smelled damp and musty, and it was much dustier.

  The narrow stairwell was very dark.

  ‘I don’t like it!’ I said. ‘Jodie, let’s go back!’

  ‘Don’t be such a wimp. Here, hold my hand. Is Harley coming?’

  ‘Give us a chance,’ Harley called.

  He stuck his arm through the gap, then squeezed his long lanky body through, limb by limb. Then we stumbled up the murky stairs, coughing as we breathed in the dust. There was a long corridor with lots of spiders’ webs dangling down from the ceiling.

  ‘Look!’ I said, pointing at them.

  ‘They’re just little baby spiders,’ said Jodie. ‘Isn’t this great? It’s like we’ve found our own secret passage.’

  We stood peering along the long corridor. There were buckets and basins all the way up it, half full of dank water.

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  ‘I think the roof ’s leaking big-time,’ said Harley.

  Jodie was dodging around them, trying doors.

  Some were locked, without any keys.

  ‘What’s going on? What’s in here? Why has Mr Wilberforce blocked the way with that cupboard?

  Perhaps we’ll find the bodies of all his former wives, like he’s a Bluebeard and he’s murdered them all.

  Maybe he even had a go at murdering the present Mrs Wilberforce by shoving her out the tower window but she miraculously survived, though of course tragically maimed.’

  ‘Don’t, Jodie!’ I said. ‘That’s horrible!’

  ‘She did fall. Someone told me in the village. It was years and years ago, before she was married,’

  said Harley.

  ‘Truly?’ I said. ‘How awful! I wonder how she fell?

  You don’t think someone really pushed her, do you?’

  ‘Maybe we’ll try to find out. We’ll solve the Mystery of Melchester,’ said Jodie.

  She wandered along the corridor. One of the doors was off its hinges, but we didn’t spot any dead wives when we peeped in, not a single coffin. It was just old school junk: broken computers, wobbly desks, and stacks of cheap plastic chairs, big ones, medium-sized ones and little ones.

  ‘Oh, it’s too big. Oh, it’s too soft. Oh, oh, oh, it’s just right!’ said Jodie in a funny Goldilocks voice, trying out all three sizes.

  She tried another room while Harley and I stacked the chairs back neatly. She just took a running push at the door and it creaked open.

  ‘Jodie! Don’t! You mustn’t break the lock!’

  ‘It was broken already. Come and look!’ she called.

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  We found her kneeling amongst big cardboard boxes and battered trunks, pulling out limp paper-chains and tinsel and winding them round her neck like garlands. One of the trunks had old costumes from school plays.

  ‘Now you have to admit, this is seriously cool,’

  said Jodie. She snatched up a white veil and a long blue dress. ‘Oh, wow, I’ve always wanted to be Mary,’ she said, still rummaging. ‘No, no, look, even better, white feathers! Blow Mary, I’ll be the Angel Gabriel, then I can wear wings.’ She pinned them on her back and flapped around the room.

  I fingered the fruit-gum jewels on the three cardboard crowns wistfully. I wanted to play at being a queen but I’d feel too silly in front of Harley. Then I found a lovely smooth black velvety coat and I slipped it on, stroking the sleeves.

  ‘I like your coat, Pearl! What else is there? What’s that brown furry one? Are these the Three Wise Kings’ robes?’ Jodie put on the brown fur and tried to tie the long thin belt round her waist.

  ‘Weird belt! It’s more like a tail,’ she muttered.

  ‘It is a tail!’ said Harley. ‘You’re Ratty! And you’re Mole, Pearl.’ He delved into the trunk and found a large coarse black fur coat with a white streak down the front. He tried it on, grinning. ‘Who am I, Pearl?’

  ‘Badger!’ I said.

  There was a bright green spotted mac at the bottom of the trunk, a perfect Toad outfit.

  ‘You’d make a great Toad, Jodie,’ said Harley.

  ‘Leap around going Parp-parp.’

  ‘Parp-parp! Poop-poop!’ said Jodie, flinging the Toad mac over her head and doing little froggy 113

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  leaps around the room. She tripped in her high heels and ended up sprawling on the floor, laughing.

  ‘How old are we? Mucking around like little kids!’ she said breathlessly.

  ‘You’re the number one mucker,’ said Harley.

  ‘Charmingly put! I wonder if they’ll do a play this year? I want to be in it. Is there a proper