The Land of Roar. Jenny McLachlan

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СКАЧАТЬ I saw something up there. Grandad’s surprises are legendary. He’s built us a tree house, go-carts with working lights, and even a raft that we take on the river. Whatever he’s done in the attic, I bet it involves that wizard!

      ‘Race you!’ I yell, making a dash for the back door.

      I’ve only gone three paces when Rose overtakes me. She shoves me on my shoulder, shouting, ‘See you later, loser!’

      I try to make my short legs work faster, but Rose is such a good runner and she drained me so well, there’s no way I can catch up with her. So instead I go with insulting her, and I shout the insult that I know annoys her the most, and I shout it all the way through the house and up the stairs.

      ‘You look like me! You look like me! YOU LOOK LIKE ME!’

      ‘Whoa . . .’ I say, standing at the attic door.

      I’ve not been up here for a few years, but it’s even messier than I remember. Bags and boxes are piled knee-deep across the floor and toys are scattered everywhere. There are broken bikes and a canoe tucked into the eaves, and I can just see the old sofa buried under a pile of blankets. It’s a tip, but just standing in this dusty, untidy room makes me happy. This is where Rose and I used to play – the best games that went on for hours.

      ‘I can’t see any surprise,’ says Rose, poking around behind the sofa.

      My eyes go straight to the window. I’m expecting to see the inflatable skeleton, or a load of boxes . . . but there’s nothing there at all. For a second I’m disappointed – I was so sure the wizard was going to be part of Grandad’s surprise – but then the prickle of fear comes creeping back because I’m sure I saw something up here.

      Just then Grandad comes wheezing into the room. ‘So what do you think of your surprise?’ he says.

      I pull my eyes away from the window. ‘We can’t find it.’

      Grandad laughs and throws his arms out wide. ‘That’s because you’re standing in it!’

      Rose blinks. ‘What do you mean, Grandad?’

      ‘The attic is your surprise. Isn’t it amazing?’

      Rose and I share a look of confusion. Grandad’s done some pretty weird stuff over the years – including dying his beard green for Christmas – but he’s never given us his attic as a present.

      He looks at us eagerly. ‘Do you like it?’

      I nod. ‘Yeah, it’s really . . . surprising.’

      Rose is less polite. ‘Is this some sort of joke, Grandad?’

      He walks around the messy room, kicking things out of his way. ‘I know it doesn’t look like much at the moment, but once you’ve cleared it out, I’m going to turn it into a den for the two of you. I’ll put a TV over there, replace the sofa, put a popcorn machine in the corner. Whatever you want. It will be yours!’

      I smile as I imagine how amazing it will look. Even Rose’s eyes light up, breaking her number-one rule of never showing she’s into something. ‘I’ve always wanted a proper den,’ she says. ‘Not the sort of thing me and Arthur used to make with blankets. Can we have beanbags?’

      Grandad laughs. ‘Shaped like burgers?’

      And that’s when my mind catches up with what Grandad just said. ‘Hang on. What do you mean, once you’ve cleared it out?’

      ‘Well, look around! How can I make you an amazing den if all this junk is up here?’ He pushes a wobbly pile of boxes. ‘I’d like to help, but I can’t, not with my asthma.’ To prove his point he bends over and breaks into a hacking cough.

      ‘Inhaler,’ I say, and obediently he pulls out his asthma inhaler and has a puff.

      ‘Nothing to worry about,’ he says, straightening up. ‘Now, after you’ve got the attic empty, we can spend the rest of the week painting.’

      Rose groans. ‘Do we have to, Grandad?’

      I’m with Rose on this. In just over a week we start at Langton Academy – a huge secondary school that’s packed full of big, scary kids and that has a no-talking-in-the-corridors rule – I do not want to spend my last days of freedom doing DIY.

      ‘You have to if you want a den,’ says Grandad. Then he grabs a pile of comics and heads for the door. ‘I’ll be in my shed.’

      For a moment Rose and I stand there staring at the chaos. Then Rose picks up a metre ruler – which for some reason is wrapped in tinfoil – and starts clearing a path through the middle of the junk. ‘This is my half,’ she says, then she tosses the ruler into the messier part of the attic, ‘and that’s your half.’ Next she opens a cupboard and starts pulling out books. After a moment, she says, ‘No wizards in here, Arthur.’

      With a sigh I pick up a sports bag and start stuffing it full of National Geographic magazines.

      Suddenly Rose gasps. ‘Hang on . . . I think I’ve found one!’

      I can’t resist looking up.

      Rose is grinning and holding up a large dusty book. ‘My mistake. It’s not a wizard. It’s a French dictionary.’

      I go back to the magazines. Something tells me this is going to be a very long day.

      Rose decides that we’re going to put everything in the garden before sorting out what’s going to the tip and what’s going to the charity shop, and ‘Hurry up, Arthur!’ soon becomes her favourite phrase. But it’s hard to hurry up when there’s so much cool stuff to look at.

      I discover a magic set, a whole pillowcase stuffed full of Playmobil pirates, and I even find a wizard’s hat perched on top of an oar. I wonder if this could be what I saw at the window, but the oar is right at the back of the attic. There’s no way I could have seen it from the garden.

      I put the hat on and creep up on Rose, planning to scare her, but when she turns round she just narrows her eyes and says, ‘Didn’t you once have an imaginary friend who was a wizard?’

      She’s right, I did. His name was Wininja and he was stealthy and a bit magical.

      ‘He was a wizard-ninja, Rose. Big difference.’

      She smiles. ‘Is he standing next to you right now, Arthur, whispering in your ear?’

      The moment she says this I have this sensation that someone could be standing next to me and I have to fight the urge to look. Rose goes back to her books and I glance around the attic, СКАЧАТЬ