I looked at him with my mouth ajar, waiting for the worst to come.
“What?” I prodded him.
“Whatever is on the other side of the wall must be to do with where Phyllis and the other witches go to when they’re not at your house. Maybe it’s their headquarters? Whatever it is might give us some clues as to where your aunt has disappeared to.”
“What are we going to do, Adi?”
Adi looked out ahead of him at all the boys and girls shouting and playing and skipping and chasing each other in the playground. Spencer was swinging his jumper around his head like a lasso and hitting unsuspecting girls with it randomly. They were dropping like dominoes and running off crying to the dinner lady.
Finally, after what seemed an age, he spoke. “We go through the wall, too.”
6
Our Plan
Adi had said he would have a think about how to get through the wall and get back to me. I figured it would be difficult for him to come up with a plan unless he had actually examined our wall to see if I had missed something. So I suggested to him that he call round to our house later that evening on the pretext of dropping off some Maths homework or something.
My mind was so full of questions like, How will we get through the wall? and What will we find on the other side? that I realised I’d forgotten to ask Mum how her audition had gone when she met us from school. I needn’t have worried, she was on it.
“How was school, Rosie?” And before she could pause for breath for me to answer, she said, “I’ve got some very good news! I’ve got a job! I actually got the job today, isn’t that great?”
“Wow that’s amazing, Mum,” I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster up.
To be truthful, I was afraid of her doing this job. It had been so long since our mum had had a “proper” job, if you like, whereby she had to go to work EVERY DAY for ALL DAY, that I was just worried about what it would mean for us. I wasn’t sure I was happy about the possibility of us all being neglected.
Lois’ approach was much more no-nonsense, and I wish I could have had the same simplistic reaction. “Does that mean we can have a McDonalds for dinner, Mum?”
“It most certainly does, my little crazy girl. You can both have a Maccy D tonight as a celebration of my good fortune.”
“When does the job start, Mum?” I asked tentatively.
“On Monday, my love, but it’s only a few weeks of disruption and then before you know it the job will be over and we’ll be back to normal. And listen to this,” Mum continued excitedly, “the part I’m playing is called Martha!”
“Martha as in a big fluffy sheep?” Lois questioned, screwing up her face in disgust. It’s a family joke that when we think of the name Martha, it conjures up the image of a big fluffy sheep.
Mum laughed. “That’s right, Lois, but she’s not really a sheep. Are you pleased for me, girls?”
I paused and looked at my mum’s lovely face, her auburn hair curling softly around her face, her big blue eyes gazing at me imploringly, willing me to share the absolute joy that someone had thought Rae Anthony was good enough to be given a proper acting job.
“I’m over the moon, Mum, it’s brilliant. And I know you’ll be brilliant, won’t she, Lois?”
“Yeah. Can I have chicken nuggets instead of a burger this time, please?” As we walked to the car a little thought popped into my head. If Mum was going to be working and therefore busy and out of the house a lot more, it would be easier for me and Adi to find a way to get through the wall!
We were eating our McDonald’s at the kitchen table when the doorbell rang, and I rushed up to see if it was Adi. Before I had even left my chair, Mum motioned me to stay seated.
“I’ll get it, young lady. You’re eating your dinner.”
Lois was engrossed in Scooby Doo on the TV whilst dunking her chicken nuggets into the barmeque (as she called it) sauce, so I snuck out of my seat and held myself like a ninja behind the door, holding my breath so I could listen to what was going on at the front door.
I tried to peek my head round the frame, so I could see who she was talking to, but she was holding the door only slightly open, and I couldn’t see a thing. I could tell she was talking to a stranger as she had her posh voice on. I managed to hear the following snippets of conversation:
Mum: “…authorised…identification pentagrams…”
Stranger: “Phyllis… BIWIT… BUTBUM aw…”
Mum: “BUTBUM!”
Stranger: “AW”
Mum: “children…away…temporary, Pendle?”
Stranger: “No-Laws…disruption, Phyllis…hiding”
With that, I had to do my swiftest ninja moves back to my table, as I just about managed to see Mum opening the door wider to let in THE STRANGER. All I managed to catch was the fact that they seemed to be wearing a pure-white trouser suit with a white Indiana Jones-style hat that covered their eyes and half their face. I really didn’t have any more time to look, as I was terrified Mum would catch me ear wigging, and to be honest I was a bit scared of THE STRANGER.
I’d just popped the last of my burger into my mouth when Mum re-entered the kitchen ALONE. I tried to act all nonchalant.
“Was that Adi?”
“No, Rosemary, it wasn’t. Have you finished, Lois?”
I was about to ask who it was, or even admit to my mum that I’d seen her usher in THE STRANGER, when the phone rang. It was Dad. As Mum was telling him her job news, I made the decision not to ask any more about THE STRANGER. I knew they had come into the house. I knew that, as they didn’t come into the kitchen, there was only one other place they’d gone: through the wall.
I knew Mum wasn’t going to tell me anything. It felt weird, her lying to me. I didn’t like it, but I guess she was trying to protect us, and I understood that, but I knew I was old enough to find out the truth myself.
I went over the snippets of conversation that I had heard. I knew a pentagram was the star which symbolised Witchcraft, like the star that had been attached to Mum’s heel and disintegrated. What was BIWIT and BUTBUM and AW? What did Pendle have to do with it? I knew Pendle Hill was a place in Lancashire. And who were the No-Laws? I had to write these things down and quick before I forgot them.
Mum hung up the phone, and I could see her eyes were all watery. “Mum, what’s wrong?” This time she didn’t lie, and her voice was flat and sad.
“It’s just your dad, Rosemary. He didn’t seem very excited for me about this job. He knows how much I need to work, and he was too busy going to his next meeting to really show any real interest.”
I put my arms around my mum and tried to comfort her as much as I could. “Don’t cry, Mum, I’m sure Dad is happy for you. I expect he’ll talk to you properly tonight. Please don’t be sad.”
Mum hugged me back and kissed the top of my head. “Don’t take any notice of silly old me, darling, I’m just a bit over emotional. It’s been a big day. Finish your dinner, I’m going to run a bath for you both.”
As Mum went upstairs dabbing her eyes with her hanky, I took myself into the hall and tried not to think about my dad making my mum sad. It seemed a regular occurrence lately.