Suddenly, she heard her father’s voice in the hallway.
‘Oh my goodness! Would you look at these prices!’
Once again, Lana scrambled around, trying to put the bottle back, accidentally pressing the nozzle. This time it squirted in her right eye, which immediately began to weep.
‘Ow!’ she cried, clasping her hands to her face.
‘Poppet!’ cooed her father, entering the room. ‘What’s the matter?’
She had no choice: she was going to have to pretend to be upset, just like she had with her mother.
‘Mum’s hidden my book,’ said Lana, looking up at him with streaming eyes. Or rather, one streaming eye and one quite normal one.
‘Oh, dear,’ said her father, scooping her up in his arms. ‘I’m sure she’s just put it somewhere safe. Anyway, she’s at work. I’m looking after you this morning.’
Disappointment flooded through Lana; now she would have to wait a whole day to find out where her mum had hidden her book. And, with Harrison busy studying again, another day of boredom stretched out ahead of her.
‘Never mind, Lana,’ said her father, producing a leaflet. ‘Feast your eyes on this! I just found it on the doormat.’
Her vision was a bit blurry from all the fake eye-rubbing, but even so, Lana could just about make out the name at the top: Grimm’s.
‘Look at these prices! Twenty-seven bottles of toilet cleaner for the price of twenty-six! Thirty-eight tubs of cocktail sticks for the price of thirty-seven!’ His eyes lit up at the thought of such bargains. ‘So, what do you say we go and check it out? It might cheer you up?’
Lana readily agreed. The strange supermarket, with its equally strange employee, was the most entertaining thing she’d come across for weeks.
When Lana and her father arrived at Grimm’s a few minutes later, the car park was almost full to bursting. It seemed that news of a bargain travelled fast. Instead of parking right outside the store, they had to cruise round and round to try and find a space.
‘These people can’t all be from the village,’ tutted her father. ‘Haven’t they got their own cut-price supermarkets to go to? Argh!’
As he spoke, an overloaded trolley lurched out onto the tarmac, forcing him to slam on the brakes.
‘Mind where you’re going!’
‘Sorry!’ called a bearded man from behind a mountain of kitchen roll. ‘Didn’t see you there!’
‘Honestly,’ said her father, under his breath. ‘Does he really need all of that?’
‘Perhaps he saw how cheap it was, and couldn’t help himself?’ suggested Lana, but her father didn’t seem to pick up on the joke.
And that wasn’t the only joke he didn’t pick up on. As they crawled along the aisles, waiting their turn at the shelves, Lana invented a very funny game. Every time her father paused to study the price on something, Lana would sneak as much sugary food as she possibly could into the trolley. She risked two pints of chocolate milk, a family pack of Choco Pops and a bucket of chocolate-chip cookies.
It was only when he reached the checkout and started putting their shopping on the conveyor belt, that her father realised what Lana had been up to.
‘Where did this chocolate log come from?’ he asked accusingly. ‘And what about this jar of chocolate spread?’
‘Maybe the thirteenth fairy put them in there,’ said Lana, helpfully.
‘Who?’
‘The thirteenth fairy. She wasn’t invited to Briar Rose’s party, so she didn’t get any sweet treats.’
Lana’s father narrowed his eyes.
‘I see. Is this to do with your book of fairytales, by any chance?’
Lana nodded, trying not to giggle.
But her father wasn’t amused. He took a shopping basket from beside the till and begin to fill it with Lana’s stolen sugar. ‘You need to put these back, right now, or there’s going to be a Consequence.’
A Consequence, as Lana well knew, meant something bad.
‘Like what?’ she asked.
‘Like no bedtime story,’ said her father, who seemed to have a second sense for what Lana wanted most.
‘But I want to find out what happens to Briar Rose!’
‘Then you’d better be quick,’ came the firm reply.
Which was how Lana found herself dragging a basket full of chocolate bars, cakes, biscuits and cereals around the corner of the Pet Food aisle, narrowly avoiding an elderly lady on a mobility scooter, who swerved wildly, running straight over the toe of the little old man. ‘Oi!’ he yelped, clasping his foot in pain. He was wearing his maroon boiler suit again and the moustache he’d had at the checkout was gone. ‘Watch where you’re going, you stupid old bat!’
But the elderly lady seemed not to hear, and trundled off down the aisle.
‘Don’t be so rude!’ exclaimed Lana, shocked at the little old man’s reaction. ‘Anyway, it wasn’t her fault – it was mine.’
‘Huh,’ he grunted. ‘I might have known.’ A smile curled at the corner of his lips. ‘Come to bring the book back, have you? I told you it was too scary.’
‘Actually,’ said Lana defiantly. ‘I’m really enjoying it.’
‘Really?’ he asked, sounding surprised. ‘Which story have you started with?’
‘Sleeping Beauty,’ said Lana.
‘Oooh,’ he said, smiling again. ‘Where are you up to?’
‘The thirteenth fairy has cast her curse and the king has destroyed the spindles.’
‘Ah,’ he said, nodding sagely. ‘That explains it. That’s just the set-up. You haven’t got to the scary bit yet. Well, I’m sure when you do, you’ll be bringing that book back, all right.’
And with that, he headed off down towards the Toys and Games aisle. Moving quickly, Lana chucked her basket in a nearby trolley and scurried after him.
‘What scary bit?’
The little old man turned slowly.
‘You really want to know?’
Lana nodded. He fished a well-thumbed red-leather booklet from the top pocket of his overalls, consulted it, then put it back.
‘May I suggest you try the sherbet lemons?’
For a moment Lana couldn’t understand what he could possibly mean, but then her eyes came to rest on something truly extraordinary. Smack dab in the middle of the toys were the biggest tubs of pick ’n’ mix she had ever seen.
Lana frowned in confusion. Pick ’n’ mix was one of her favourite things in the whole world, so she couldn’t imagine how she hadn’t noticed this HUGE selection yesterday. But there it was, row after row of giant crystal-clear tubs, each and every one crammed full of the most delicious-looking sweets.
She took a step closer. Entranced, she lifted the nearest lid. An entire tub full of pear drops. She could almost feel the sharp crystallised sugar, scraping the roof of her mouth. She lifted the next lid. Jelly babies. She loved jelly babies!
‘Found them yet?’ grinned the little old man.
Lana shook her head.
‘There, at the back.’
She tried to open the lid, but it was just out of reach.
‘Here, let me lift you up.’
And before Lana could protest, he reached up under her arms, and lifted her towards the lid of the tub.