Midnight for Charlie Bone. Jenny Nimmo

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СКАЧАТЬ had such a deep and chilling voice, Charlie dropped the paper. It whirled away and flopped into the gutter.

      ‘Charlie, what’s going on?’ asked Benjamin.

      Charlie gave a deep sigh. ‘I’m hearing voices,’ he said.

      ‘Oh, no.’ Benjamin sat beside him, and Runner Bean crouched beside Benjamin. ‘What sort of voices?’

      Benjamin never ever said ‘That’s rubbish’. He took life seriously, which wasn’t always a bad thing.

      Charlie told Benjamin about the photograph of Runner Bean that had got mixed up with a man and a baby. ‘It was going to be a surprise birthday card for you,’ said Charlie, ‘and now it won’t be. I’m sorry.’

      ‘Doesn’t matter,’ said Benjamin. ‘Go on about the photograph.’

      Charlie explained that he’d heard voices when he looked at the man and the baby. He’d even heard the baby cry, and perhaps a cat purring.

      ‘Weird,’ breathed Benjamin.

      ‘I made myself believe I’d just imagined it,’ said Charlie, ‘but when I saw the newspaper, it happened again. I could hear reporters talking to that boy on the front page. I could hear his voice, too. He sounded kind of mean and sly. And then someone said, “Enough!” and that was the worst voice I ever heard, in my whole life.’

      Benjamin shivered and Runner Bean whined in sympathy.

      The boys sat, side by side, on the damp pavement, not knowing quite what to do. The wind flung leaves at them, and thunder grumbled in the distance.

      It began to rain. Runner Bean nudged Benjamin and whined. He hated getting wet. And then, during a particularly loud clap of thunder, a man appeared in front of the boys. He was wearing a dark raincoat and his wet hair was plastered over his forehead in wide, black bands.

      ‘It’s raining,’ the man announced. ‘Had you not noticed?’

      Charlie looked up. ‘Uncle Paton,’ he said in surprise.

      Uncle Paton was Grandma Bone’s brother. He was twenty years younger than she was and they didn’t get on. Paton led a secret life, even eating apart from the others. He never went out in daylight.

      ‘You’re wanted at home,’ Uncle Paton told Charlie.

      Charlie and Benjamin stood up and shook their cramped legs. This was the third unusual thing to happen today. It wasn’t nearly dark enough for Uncle Paton to venture out.

      Charlie wondered what could possibly have happened to cause such drastic action.

The Yewbeam aunts

      It was difficult to keep up with Uncle Paton. He swept through wind and rain as if he wore seven-league boots.

      ‘I’ve never seen your uncle outside in the daytime,’ Benjamin panted. ‘He’s a bit funny, isn’t he?’

      ‘A bit,’ agreed Charlie who was rather in awe of his peculiar uncle. He put on a spurt as Uncle Paton had already arrived at the steps of number nine.

      Benjamin fell behind. ‘Something’s up with your family,’ he called to Charlie. ‘I hope you can still come to my birthday.’

      ‘Nothing can stop me,’ said Charlie, reaching his uncle.

      ‘No dogs,’ said Uncle Paton, as Benjamin and Runner Bean came leaping up to them.

      ‘Aw, please,’ said Benjamin.

      ‘Not today. This is family business,’ Paton said sternly. ‘Go home.’

      ‘OK. Bye, then, Charlie.’ Benjamin trailed away, followed by Runner Bean, his ears and tail well down. A real hangdog.

      Uncle Paton ushered Charlie into the kitchen and then disappeared upstairs.

      Charlie found his mother and two grandmothers sitting at the kitchen table. Maisie looked very put out, but a secret smile played on Grandma Bone’s thin lips. Charlie’s mother was nervously stirring a cup of tea. Charlie couldn’t imagine why. His mother didn’t take sugar.

      ‘Sit down, Charlie,’ said Grandma Bone, as if she were about to put on a show entirely for his benefit.

      ‘Don’t let the Yewbeams get at you!’ Maisie whispered. She took Charlie’s hand and patted it.

      ‘What’s going on?’ said Charlie.

      ‘The Yewbeam aunts are coming,’ said his mother.

      ‘Why?’ asked Charlie.

      The Yewbeam aunts were Grandma Bone’s three unmarried sisters. Charlie only saw them at Christmas, and he’d formed the impression that they were deeply disappointed in him. They always left a strange assortment of gifts: paint-boxes, musical instruments, masks and cloaks, and even a chemistry set. Charlie had found none of these things the least bit useful. He liked football and TV, and that was about it.

      Grandma Bone leant across the table. Her eyes sparkled mysteriously. ‘My sisters are coming to assess you, Charlie. And if it is found that you are worthy – that you are, as I suspect, endowed – then they will provide the necessary funds to send you to Bloor’s Academy.’

      ‘Me? At Bloor’s?’ Charlie was aghast. ‘It’s for geniuses.’

      ‘Don’t worry, love. You won’t pass the test,’ said Maisie confidently. She got up muttering, ‘Of course, it’s old Maisie who has to do all the preparation for our Lady Mucks, isn’t it? I don’t know why I bother.’

      There was to be a dinner for the aunts, Charlie’s mother explained. The best silver, the finest crystal and the treasured porcelain, would be carried up from the cellar and laid in the chilly dining-room, a room that was only ever used when the Yewbeam aunts came. Maisie was defrosting chicken and fish and goodness knows what else, as fast as she could.

      Charlie would have been worried if he hadn’t been completely convinced that he wouldn’t pass the aunts’ test. He remembered how he’d tried to paint a picture for them and failed miserably. How he’d unsuccessfully attempted to play a violin, a flute, a harp and a piano. He had put on the masks they provided: animals, clowns, pirates, cowboys and spacemen, but only managed to act the part of Charlie Bone. Finally, it had to be admitted that he was not gifted.

      So as he waited for the great aunts to arrive, Charlie was not as fearful as he should have been.

      Benjamin, on the other hand, was extremely fearful. Charlie was his best friend, his only friend. Anything that happened to Charlie would, indirectly, happen to him. Sinister events were closing in on his friend. Benjamin sat by his bedroom window and watched Charlie’s house. As darkness fell the street lamps came on and lights winked in the building behind the chestnut tree: in the basement, the attic and all the bedrooms. What was going on?

      The wind intensified. Thunder and lightning coincided. That meant that the storm was right above. Benjamin clung to Runner Bean, and the big dog hid his face in Benjamin’s sleeve.

      The street was now deserted except for three shadowy figures. СКАЧАТЬ