Read Online The Unseen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder - Free Book Online
Authors: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
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piercing teeth, have been nothing more than a dream? Not an ordinary, sound-asleep-type dream, she knew that. No normal dream images were ever that sharp and clear and long-lasting. But as she once again ran her hand down over her smooth, unbitten ankles, she began to wonder if it all could have been some extraordinary kind of nightmare.
She could almost believe that was true. But then again,there was the fact that the incredibly sharp-edged images were still right there in her mind's eye, refusing to fade away as a normal dream always did. Was there such a thing as an enchanted nightmare? Xandra wished she knew, wished there was some way of knowing for sure.
But of course there might be a way. Belinda probably knew—or could find out. Belinda and her grandfather—that must have been who she had meant when she had said that
he
should have warned her about what might happen. So tomorrow, Xandra promised herself, she would find out exactly what Belinda knew. And in the meantime she would find other things to put her mind on. Things like …A glance at her watch told her that the first thing she had to put her mind on was getting ready for dinner, and after that … After dinner the only alternative to a lonely evening of frightening memories might have to be …television.
Xandra had never been crazy about TV because of the Hobson Habitat rule that kids couldn't have televisions in their own rooms. Which meant that a person with so many older and stronger siblings never got to hold the remote and decide what to watch. But on that night, she decided almost anything would be better than watching the nightmare scenes her own mind kept producing when there was nothing to blot them out.
But wouldn't you know it, nearly the whole family was in the family room that night and most of the time nothing at all was happening except a lot of talk. Both the parents were at home by then and all that was going on were conversations about one of two topics—money and Mozart. Actually Mozart came first, because one of thesiblings was getting ready to play a Mozart thing at a concert and she was fussing about how hard it was to play and how scared she was. And the rest of the family were all telling her she'd be great and she shouldn't be nervous. Xandra didn't say anything, but what she thought was that some people just pretended to be nervous to get attention. In Xandra's opinion that particular sibling, the fourteen-year-old named Victoria, wasn't ever really nervous or the least bit uncertain about what and who she was, and probably not about what she could or couldn't do either.
And Xandra ought to know. After all, she and Victoria were only two years apart in age, and until Gussie turned up, the only females. Except for Helen, of course, the mother of all of them. But since Helen was a very successful and extremely busy lawyer, she hardly counted as part of the family. There had been a time, back before Gussie was born, that Tory, as Xandra used to call Victoria, had been a little bit better than your average sibling. A certain period when she and Xandra used to have secrets and play games together. But then, as she got older and more perfect on the piano, as well as in a lot of other ways, she got tired of games and of Xandra too. But she obviously wasn't tired of being the center of attention while everybody told her how incredibly talented she was and how she was going to steal the whole show at the recital.
The other topic, the one about money, was started, as usual, by Henry, the father of the Hobson family. Henry was something called a stockbroker, which, as Xandra understood it, meant that he did very important things with money. Things like moving it around the world in complicated, mysterious ways, and making a lot of it thathe got to keep for himself. For himself and for his big beautiful family was what he always said. Xandra had heard him say that and a lot of other things about money many times before. So the boring
She could almost believe that was true. But then again,there was the fact that the incredibly sharp-edged images were still right there in her mind's eye, refusing to fade away as a normal dream always did. Was there such a thing as an enchanted nightmare? Xandra wished she knew, wished there was some way of knowing for sure.
But of course there might be a way. Belinda probably knew—or could find out. Belinda and her grandfather—that must have been who she had meant when she had said that
he
should have warned her about what might happen. So tomorrow, Xandra promised herself, she would find out exactly what Belinda knew. And in the meantime she would find other things to put her mind on. Things like …A glance at her watch told her that the first thing she had to put her mind on was getting ready for dinner, and after that … After dinner the only alternative to a lonely evening of frightening memories might have to be …television.
Xandra had never been crazy about TV because of the Hobson Habitat rule that kids couldn't have televisions in their own rooms. Which meant that a person with so many older and stronger siblings never got to hold the remote and decide what to watch. But on that night, she decided almost anything would be better than watching the nightmare scenes her own mind kept producing when there was nothing to blot them out.
But wouldn't you know it, nearly the whole family was in the family room that night and most of the time nothing at all was happening except a lot of talk. Both the parents were at home by then and all that was going on were conversations about one of two topics—money and Mozart. Actually Mozart came first, because one of thesiblings was getting ready to play a Mozart thing at a concert and she was fussing about how hard it was to play and how scared she was. And the rest of the family were all telling her she'd be great and she shouldn't be nervous. Xandra didn't say anything, but what she thought was that some people just pretended to be nervous to get attention. In Xandra's opinion that particular sibling, the fourteen-year-old named Victoria, wasn't ever really nervous or the least bit uncertain about what and who she was, and probably not about what she could or couldn't do either.
And Xandra ought to know. After all, she and Victoria were only two years apart in age, and until Gussie turned up, the only females. Except for Helen, of course, the mother of all of them. But since Helen was a very successful and extremely busy lawyer, she hardly counted as part of the family. There had been a time, back before Gussie was born, that Tory, as Xandra used to call Victoria, had been a little bit better than your average sibling. A certain period when she and Xandra used to have secrets and play games together. But then, as she got older and more perfect on the piano, as well as in a lot of other ways, she got tired of games and of Xandra too. But she obviously wasn't tired of being the center of attention while everybody told her how incredibly talented she was and how she was going to steal the whole show at the recital.
The other topic, the one about money, was started, as usual, by Henry, the father of the Hobson family. Henry was something called a stockbroker, which, as Xandra understood it, meant that he did very important things with money. Things like moving it around the world in complicated, mysterious ways, and making a lot of it thathe got to keep for himself. For himself and for his big beautiful family was what he always said. Xandra had heard him say that and a lot of other things about money many times before. So the boring
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