Read Online Jessie's Ghosts by Penny Garnsworthy - Free Book Online

understand the look on Fleur’s face; a mixture of
sadness and perhaps even relief. It was obvious she and Harmony didn’t share
much in common, but Fleur was her mother.
    ‘Unfortunately
the art shop in town didn’t have a very good supply of colours, Jessie,’ Fleur
said, as Harmony and her dad disappeared inside the house, ‘so I was only able
to buy two tubes of luminescent paint, red and green. The people in the
painting will just to be odd colours. You don’t mind, do you?’
    ‘No. That’s
okay. It’s only a trial painting after all. My first.’
    ‘I so wish
Harmony shared your interest in art.’
    ‘I think
Harmony enjoys doing outdoors type stuff, well, apart from the computer that
is.’
    ‘Mmm. You’re
probably right, Jessie.’
    Fleur looked over
to the house. ‘I suppose we’re all different, aren’t we?’
    ‘Just like
paintings,’ Jessie said.
    Fleur turned
around and looked at Jessie. ‘You’re absolutely right. Well, let’s get to work,
shall we? But we’ll need to go inside and find somewhere reasonably dark.’
    As Jessie
followed Fleur over to the house, Harmony was following her father outside,
carrying an overnight bag.
    ‘Jessie,’
Fleur said, ‘this is Harmony’s father, Peter.’
    ‘Hi.’
    ‘So you’re
Jessie,’ he said, ‘Harmony’s told me all about you. She’s really enjoyed your
company this holiday. Well, we’d better get going, Harmony. I have a very early
start tomorrow. Goodbye Fleur.’
    ‘Bye, mum, bye
Jessie – I’ll email,’ Harmony said as her father steered her towards the car.
As they drove off, Harmony waved, and Jessie had the distinct impression she
was waving at her, not her mum. That’s really weird, thought Jessie, Harmony
didn’t even kiss her mum goodbye. Fleur’s eyes looked tired and Jessie felt sad
for her.

CHAPTER 12
     
    But she brightened up as
they started to paint, and an hour later, in Fleur’s studio with the blinds
closed, Jessie’s painting was complete. Fleur had drawn in the people’s
outlines and Jessie had filled them in with the luminescent paint. They did
look funny, all in green, a bit like ghosts Jessie thought. And it was strange
sitting in a dark room, painting. But that was how it worked, the luminescent
paint really did only show up in the dark.
    ‘Well,’ said
Fleur, ‘it will certainly be different, Jessie. I don’t think it matters that
the people are green, do you? Actually I think it adds a certain … dimension to
the painting. They’re almost like ghosts, aren’t they?’ Jessie smiled to
herself.
    ‘Now, let’s take
this back outside and see if we can still see the people,’ Fleur said as she
lifted the painting carefully and carried it out to the front of the cottage.
But as soon as they left the darkened study, the people disappeared from the
painting.
    ‘Well, that
looks terrific, don’t you think?’ Fleur said as she put the painting down
against the side of the house and stood back to view their handiwork.
    It was a very
normal painting, Jessie thought as she tried to make out the shapes of the two
people they had painted in the luminescent colours. She had painted them right
at the front of the house, in the cottage garden. Now she couldn’t even see
their outlines, here in the daylight, and she couldn’t wait to see how they
turned out at night, in the darkness of Nanna’s hallway.
    After all,
that’s where it had to go, in the hallway, if Harold was to read Jessie’s
message.
    ‘Yes, really
great. You can’t see the people at all, Fleur. Just like those paintings at the
gallery. Um, can I take it back to Nanna’s now?’
    ‘Well, we
really should leave it to dry, Jessie. Usually I leave them for a several hours
at least. And, we haven’t even hooked up the wire on the back yet so that you
can hang it.’
    But I don’t
have a few hours, Jessie thought, as panic gripped her, I have to do this
tonight.
    ‘Please Fleur,
I’d really like Nanna to see it!’
    Fleur