Jennifer's Diary & the Worst Child I Ever Had - Anne Fine [3]
“Neither would I,” agreed Jeff, prising Josh and Jessie apart because they were trying to bite one another. “I’d have been far too cross.”
“I was, too,” said Mrs Mackle. “I went straight into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. I didn’t even offer Susan orange juice. And she didn’t come in and ask for it. She just kept marching back and forth from her toy cupboard under the stairs to the front room, carrying armfuls of tiny plastic chairs from her doll’s house.’
“A nice change,” said Flora. “Playing with stuff from her doll’s house.”
Mrs Mackle snorted.
“Wait till you hear,” Jeff warned Flora, to save Mrs Mackle the bother of saying it darkly. Then he turned to Mrs Mackle. “Carry on.”
She carried on.
“I sat at the table in the kitchen, sipping my coffee and nibbling a nice digestive biscuit. After a while, I heard Susan switch on the television in the front room.”
“Was it Snail Show cartoons?” asked Flora, as she rushed off to fetch Frances.
“Yes,” Mrs Mackle told her when she came back. “I recognized the silly song they always sing.”
“And did Susan sit and watch it all by herself?” asked Jeff, prising Josh and Jessie apart because they were trying to poke one another’s eyes out.
“I thought she did,” said Mrs Mackle. “That’s what I thought at first. But then, in between sips of coffee and nibbles of biscuit, I thought I heard the back door quietly open. And quietly close. And open. And close. And open. And close.”
“How strange…” said Flora.
“Very odd…” agreed Jeff.
“Just what I thought,” said Mrs Mackle. “So I called out, ‘Susan, are you all right, dear?’ And she called back, ‘Yes, thank you, Mrs Mackle’.”
“She sounds like a perfect angel,” Jeff said wistfully, prising Josh and Jessie apart because they were trying to pull one another’s hair out.
“Wait till you hear,” warned Flora, to save Mrs Mackle the bother of saying it darkly. Then she rushed off to fetch Frances.
When she came back, Mrs Mackle took up the tale.
“So I drank up my coffee and finished my biscuit. And just as I was rinsing the cup under the tap, I thought I heard the back door again. Open. And close.”
“Weird…” Flora said.
“Most peculiar...” agreed Jeff
“So I thought I’d better go and take a look.”
“You never know,” said Flora.
“Better safe than sorry,” agreed Jeff.
“I walked across the kitchen and opened the door. There was nothing in the hall, just the door of the toy cupboard under the stairs swinging open, and Susan’s doll’s house empty on the floor.”
Flora looked round for Frances. But, tired suddenly from all that running away into the bushes, Frances had climbed quietly into her pushchair, and fallen fast asleep.
Jeff glanced in the sandpit. Josh was squashed up as close to Jessie as he could get, sucking his own thumb but patting Jessie’s chubby thigh. Jessie’s eyes were drooping.
“Go on,” whispered Flora.
“Yes, go on,” whispered Jeff.
“I walked down the hall and pushed open the door of the front room. At first I saw nothing special – just the same old furniture in the same old places, and, on the television, Snail Show cartoons blaring away.”
“To an empty room?”
“Nobody watching?”
“That’s what I thought at first! But then I saw!”
Mrs Mackle’s face drained dead white at the memory. Up in the branches overhead, a few leaves stirred as if a breeze had rippled through the tree.
“Saw who?” whispered Flora.
“Saw what?” whispered Jeff.
Mrs Mackle leaped to her feet, tearing her hair at the memory.
“Dozens of them!” she cried. “Dozens of the horrible, slimy, slithery things! Each one perched on its own tiny plastic doll’s chair! Each one with its little head poked out of its shell, and its little horns straining! A whole lot of them, looking for all the world as if they were at a little private cinema, watching a show on the big screen!”
“Snail Show!”
“Snail Show!”
“It was horrible!” cried Mrs Mackle. “Horrible! Horrible! It was the worst sight that I have ever seen in all my years