Read Online Twin Tales by Jacqueline Wilson - Free Book Online

I’m
scared
!’
    â€˜But it’s so silly to be scared, Connie,’ said Gran, sighing. ‘I don’t know. I can’t understand the way you children are brought up nowadays. Your mum shouldn’t give in to you so. We just had to put up with things when we were kiddies. Nobody bothered to ask whether we were scared or not. We just had to do as we were told.’
    Connie was extremely annoyed with Gran.

    Gran hurried along the road. Connie trailed after her, twiddling the blue beads on her plait. As she went into Gran’s house they gave a little blue spark.
    Gran went into her living-room – and gave a shriek. Connie rushed in after her.
    â€˜Look!’ said Gran, pointing with a shaking finger.
    â€˜Wow!’ said Connie.

    The new television and video recorder were hissing and buzzing and crackling ominously, lightning forks of electricity shooting off in all directions. They were covered with hundreds of knobsand buttons, all of them lighting up and flashing like Christmas-tree lights. There were clocks and time switches all over the place, numbers blurring they were going so fast. Different programmes danced across the screen of the television set, while the video recorder opened up all by itself and sucked in Gran’s favourite video, The Sound of Music. It chewed it all up in a split second and spat it out again with a very rude electronic burp.

    â€˜Oh my goodness!’ Gran wailed. ‘I’ll have to phone the television man again! I don’t know what to do. He’s shown me how to work it twice but I can’t get the hang of it at all – and the instruction booklet is written in a completely foreign language. Grandpa’s too old to work it out – and I’m so useless with modern machines. They scare me so.’
    Gran cowered away from the television, squealing as an entire firework display shot out of the set and circled the ceiling.
    â€˜It’s OK, Gran,’ said Connie cheerily. ‘It’s a bit silly to be scared of a television, but never mind. I don’t know. I can’t understand the way you grown-ups feel about machines. We children don’t act so daft. It’s really easy-peasy. Look!’
    She sauntered up to the television and video and pressed a button. They instantly subsided. Connie inserted
The Sound of Music
and pressed another button. It rewound, as good as new. Then Connie selected the right channel and pressed one more button. Gran’s quiz programme came on to the screen.
    â€˜There we are, Gran. I’ll set your video so that it records it automatically for you in future, OK?’
    â€˜Oh, Connie! You clever clever clever little girl,’ said Gran, clapping her hands.
    And Grandpa woke up at last and gave Connie a big smile.

7. Driller Dentist
    Connie woke up with a start, her arms and legs flailing. She pushed back her duvet, gasping for air – and then sighed with relief. She was safe in her own dry bed – not down in the depths of that cold blue pool.
    She glanced at her Little Mermaid alarm clock (oh dear, even that seemed sinister nowadays!) to see if it was time to get up.
    â€˜Mum! Dad! We’ve slept in,’ Connie called, jumping out of bed.
    Mum and Dad came staggering out of their bedroom, their eyes all peepy and their hair sticking up on end.
    â€˜Claire and Charles cried half the night!’ Mum said. ‘I had to give them another feed at four o’clock this morning – and
still
they didn’t settle.’
    The twins woke up at the sound of their names and started wailing.
    â€˜Oh no!’ said Mum, staggering down to the kitchen to put the kettle on. ‘Connie, you’d better share the bathroom with Dad. You have a very quick in-and-out bath while Dad shaves.’
    â€˜You haven’t got enough water in that bath,’ said Dad, his mouth all sideways because he was shaving.
    â€˜It’s fine,’ said Connie, having a quick