Read Online The Devil's Music by Jane Rusbridge - Free Book Online
Authors: Jane Rusbridge
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face is wrong and she has tears going into her mouth. Mummy’s nurse friend helps her up. Mummy leans against her and they go into the house.
They’ve all gone now. There are empty chairs and a rug on the grass. I pull off my shoes without undoing the laces. I pick bits of grass and put lots in my shoes. I take my socks off. I try to push a stick from the apple tree into the underneath of my feet. It makes a white dent and red all round it. Red. White. I find a littler stick and I can hold it between my toes and walk, but anybody can see it. Houdini had secret invisible places underneath his feet. He hid things there so that he could pick locks.
No one comes to see where I am. I throw the bigger stick for Honey to fetch. I shout ‘Fetch!’ She lifts up her head and puts it down again. I go nearer to the house. I sit on the red steps that go up to the French doors. I will be Harry Houdini the Handcuff King and handcuff myself to the railings and stay until it gets dark and everyone will say, ‘Where is Andy, Andy, where are you?’ and come looking. My handcuffs are upstairs.
There is a key in the door. I take it out and put it in my pocket. I will pick the lock. My stick fits into the lock but it won’t turn. I twist it really hard and it sort of turns but it is only going round in the hole. It is not picking the lock. My stick has chips and scratches in it now.
A crash and noise from the kitchen, Father’s voice shouting, ‘THE BOTTOM LINE.’ I throw my stick into the hedge and put the key back in the lock. I run into the house and push open the kitchen door and it is hot and people and noisy voices and faces and cups and saucers and plates and crusts everywhere. Auntie Jean is pointing her finger at Father. Hoggie wipes her hand across her forehead. Even with my hands over my ears I can’t keep out the buzzing crossness. Two of Mummy’s nurse friends are talking to each other in big voices. One of them has the white shawl over her shoulder and her hand is on Elaine’s head. Grampy and Mummy are sitting down. They are looking at the blue table top and Grampy holds her hand. She has a handkerchief in the other hand. The words buzz buzz buzz over the top of Grampy’s head and Mummy’s head. My breath gets jumpy inside me. Grampy looks up and sees.
‘There you are, my Treasure! Why don’t we go for a walk?’ He stands up and takes hold of my hand. ‘We can take the dog down to the river.’
We stop in the hallway and Grampy looks down at my feet. ‘Better get something for those first, had we not?’
He lets go of my hand and goes back into the kitchen. Crossness is still going round and round like the rollers on the wringer, squashing everything. He comes back with my wellies. The noise from the kitchen has stopped. I count, like for lightning and thunder. Grampy closes the front door and we go up the side path to get Honey from the back garden. When I get to twenty the loud voices start up again.
We walk all along the river and Grampy tells me that today Elaine is not quite all there under the white shawl. He tells me about Houdini’s tricks and the freak shows with the fattest woman in the world, and all about how Houdini went to all the police stations in all the towns and said, ‘Handcuff me and put the leg irons on,’ and Houdini always escaped and was famous because he got into the newspapers. Except once when a bad man jammed the handcuffs shut on purpose.
Houdini made lots of money escaping from handcuffs and one day he went home to where his Mummy sat on a kitchen chair and he poured gold coins all over her lap.
Grampy and me walk over the bridge next to the railway line but there are no trains today, just the track going a long way away. We go up the spooky footpath in the cool between high fences and walls and through the allotments all the way to Grampy’s house.
Chapter 11
You stand by the front gate. The muscles of your
They’ve all gone now. There are empty chairs and a rug on the grass. I pull off my shoes without undoing the laces. I pick bits of grass and put lots in my shoes. I take my socks off. I try to push a stick from the apple tree into the underneath of my feet. It makes a white dent and red all round it. Red. White. I find a littler stick and I can hold it between my toes and walk, but anybody can see it. Houdini had secret invisible places underneath his feet. He hid things there so that he could pick locks.
No one comes to see where I am. I throw the bigger stick for Honey to fetch. I shout ‘Fetch!’ She lifts up her head and puts it down again. I go nearer to the house. I sit on the red steps that go up to the French doors. I will be Harry Houdini the Handcuff King and handcuff myself to the railings and stay until it gets dark and everyone will say, ‘Where is Andy, Andy, where are you?’ and come looking. My handcuffs are upstairs.
There is a key in the door. I take it out and put it in my pocket. I will pick the lock. My stick fits into the lock but it won’t turn. I twist it really hard and it sort of turns but it is only going round in the hole. It is not picking the lock. My stick has chips and scratches in it now.
A crash and noise from the kitchen, Father’s voice shouting, ‘THE BOTTOM LINE.’ I throw my stick into the hedge and put the key back in the lock. I run into the house and push open the kitchen door and it is hot and people and noisy voices and faces and cups and saucers and plates and crusts everywhere. Auntie Jean is pointing her finger at Father. Hoggie wipes her hand across her forehead. Even with my hands over my ears I can’t keep out the buzzing crossness. Two of Mummy’s nurse friends are talking to each other in big voices. One of them has the white shawl over her shoulder and her hand is on Elaine’s head. Grampy and Mummy are sitting down. They are looking at the blue table top and Grampy holds her hand. She has a handkerchief in the other hand. The words buzz buzz buzz over the top of Grampy’s head and Mummy’s head. My breath gets jumpy inside me. Grampy looks up and sees.
‘There you are, my Treasure! Why don’t we go for a walk?’ He stands up and takes hold of my hand. ‘We can take the dog down to the river.’
We stop in the hallway and Grampy looks down at my feet. ‘Better get something for those first, had we not?’
He lets go of my hand and goes back into the kitchen. Crossness is still going round and round like the rollers on the wringer, squashing everything. He comes back with my wellies. The noise from the kitchen has stopped. I count, like for lightning and thunder. Grampy closes the front door and we go up the side path to get Honey from the back garden. When I get to twenty the loud voices start up again.
We walk all along the river and Grampy tells me that today Elaine is not quite all there under the white shawl. He tells me about Houdini’s tricks and the freak shows with the fattest woman in the world, and all about how Houdini went to all the police stations in all the towns and said, ‘Handcuff me and put the leg irons on,’ and Houdini always escaped and was famous because he got into the newspapers. Except once when a bad man jammed the handcuffs shut on purpose.
Houdini made lots of money escaping from handcuffs and one day he went home to where his Mummy sat on a kitchen chair and he poured gold coins all over her lap.
Grampy and me walk over the bridge next to the railway line but there are no trains today, just the track going a long way away. We go up the spooky footpath in the cool between high fences and walls and through the allotments all the way to Grampy’s house.
Chapter 11
You stand by the front gate. The muscles of your
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