[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
a clockwork dog. And there was always the challenge of
dressing up the cat in a child s bonnet and knitted jumper.
Those stove-side sessions were when Mick and I learnt by
heart The Man from Snowy River . Miss McAllister taught
it to us, her eyes shining as she leant forward, jockey-style
and saw that ride through to its finish.
On one of those nights around the stove Miss
McAllister was reading Great Expectations to us. While she
read, Mick was practising knot-tying with a piece of rope,
Wilf and Percy were making gravity-defying towers with
Stuart s blocks and I was dreaming away inside the story.
Miss McAllister had come to the scary bit where the young
hero meets the everlastingly jilted bride, Miss Haversham.
Suddenly, Miss McAllister put her magnifying glass down
and the silence made us all look at her.
This story reminds me of how time passes. How
youth is so quickly spent. I have been meaning to show you
184 MISS McALLISTER S GHOST
something. Do come this way, all of you.
Miss McAllister stood up and walked to the door that
connected with the hallway, where she waited like a tour-
guide until we were standing in a semicircle around her.
Please regard the markings on the door-jamb, she said.
Wilf was the first to see what she was talking about.
It s writing and numbers! he said. All in pencil.
What you see there, said Miss McAllister, are the
names, height measurements and dates taken of all us
children from the time we could stand.
At the very bottom I could just make out the name
Grizelda and 1902 . There was a mass of pencilled statistics.
At the top of these were the measurements of Bernard and
Stuart made in 1914. Bernard was a touch taller than Stuart.
Both boys were over 6 feet tall. Knowing from where they
would have looked down at me made them more real.
It s time to add to these measurements, said Miss
McAllister.
She found a tape measure and pencil, rested the Great
Expectations novel on Wilf s head and drew a pencil mark
across the door jamb. Miss McAllister was too short to reach
above my head, so Mick and I measured each other. Mick
was almost the same height as Bernard when he was Mick s
age. Wilf made us measure Percy, who stood as straight as
he could, his head slightly sideways.
You re taller than Wilf, Percy, said Mick. Percy looked
pleased.
CHAPTER 24 185
It was the day we got measured that I started to
come down with a sore throat. I had felt sort of chilled
through and a bit achy all day. That night, when I told Miss
McAllister I was feeling funny, she made me drink a hot
lemon juice with honey and sent us home. As I stepped out
into the winter air, I felt I was leaving home behind.
186
e
ha t
C p r 25
That was the start of the worst flu I ve ever had.
I had antibiotics and two weeks off school. Mick and Wilf
came down with it too, though not as badly as I had it. The
newspapers called it the biggest epidemic in ten years.
It was many days before the three of us got back to Miss
McAllister s. On that dark, windy afternoon we knocked at
the front door and waited a long time without an answer.
We checked out the backyard, but it was empty. When we
saw Percy at the back door, watery-eyed, snivelling and
pointing inside the house, we knew something was wrong.
Mick, Wilf and I bolted up the steps and into the
house. The kitchen was freezing, as the stove had not been
lit. Percy hobbled through the hall door. We followed,
C
h
p
a
t
e
r 2
5
CHAPTER 25 187
frightened of what we might be shown.
Miss McAllister had had a longer life than anyone
I had ever known. Ninety-seven years was plenty. As we
walked down that icy hallway, I wondered how long Miss
McAllister might have been dead. I was dreading what a
dead body might look like. More than that, I was regretting
lost opportunities for the questions I had never asked and
for the friendship I had still wanted to give. I followed the
whimpering Percy. Wilf clung to my jumper. Mick stayed
well behind. Percy opened the door to Miss McAllister s
bedroom. It stank of age.
I m not going in, said Mick.
Someone has to, I said. I forced myself to walk in
there, Wilf still clinging to my jumper and trying to burrow
under my armpit simultaneously. We stood at the foot of
Miss McAllister s oak bed. She was lying on her back, her
head propped by pillows. Her eyes were shut and her hand
lay on top of the bedclothes. It was like a movie death; she
could have been arranged. Her white face gleamed in the
dimness like a sliver of moon on a cloudy night. It was too
late to help and too late to say goodbye. I led Wilf out of the
room and handed him to Mick.
She s gone, I said.
Mick said nothing.
I m going back in to sit a while.
Mick nodded and put an arm round Wilf. I walked
past Percy who was standing in the doorway as if waiting
188 MISS McALLISTER S GHOST
for Miss McAllister to wake up. I sat in a chair next to the
bed. I had this vague idea that if someone hadn t been dead
too long, her spirit might still be hanging about.
Miss McAllister, I began, looking straight at her
whiskery old face, you were the best thing that happened
to our lives. Mum and Dad work hard. They say they re
doing it for us, but we re never together as a family. You
were always here for us. You might have been a bit strict,
but you were fun, too. And don t worry about Percy. We ll
figure something out.
I had to stop there. I bowed my head and a couple of
tears ran down the side of my nose and dripped onto my
hands. Just then an icy hand gripped my wrist. I screamed
and jerked my head up to see Miss McAllister, eyes open,
staring at me.
Mick! I screamed.
I tried to pull back, but Miss McAllister held on to
me like a drowning person clings to a buoy. The boys were
beside me and Percy went down on his knees by the bed.
She s alive, I said, staring into her eyes.
Can you speak? asked Mick.
She let go of me and gave a weak hand gesture for us to
come closer. The three of us leant close to her face.
Bible, she whispered and then she gave a rattling
cough.
What does she mean? Mick asked turning to me.
I knew. I got up and hurried to the living room where
CHAPTER 25 189
the big family Bible lay on the table. When I got back with
it to the bedroom, Miss McAllister s eyes were shut again.
Mick said, She wants you to read the 23rd Psalm.
Where am I supposed to find it? I asked.
Mick grabbed the Bible and floundered through it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szkicerysunki.xlx.pl
a clockwork dog. And there was always the challenge of
dressing up the cat in a child s bonnet and knitted jumper.
Those stove-side sessions were when Mick and I learnt by
heart The Man from Snowy River . Miss McAllister taught
it to us, her eyes shining as she leant forward, jockey-style
and saw that ride through to its finish.
On one of those nights around the stove Miss
McAllister was reading Great Expectations to us. While she
read, Mick was practising knot-tying with a piece of rope,
Wilf and Percy were making gravity-defying towers with
Stuart s blocks and I was dreaming away inside the story.
Miss McAllister had come to the scary bit where the young
hero meets the everlastingly jilted bride, Miss Haversham.
Suddenly, Miss McAllister put her magnifying glass down
and the silence made us all look at her.
This story reminds me of how time passes. How
youth is so quickly spent. I have been meaning to show you
184 MISS McALLISTER S GHOST
something. Do come this way, all of you.
Miss McAllister stood up and walked to the door that
connected with the hallway, where she waited like a tour-
guide until we were standing in a semicircle around her.
Please regard the markings on the door-jamb, she said.
Wilf was the first to see what she was talking about.
It s writing and numbers! he said. All in pencil.
What you see there, said Miss McAllister, are the
names, height measurements and dates taken of all us
children from the time we could stand.
At the very bottom I could just make out the name
Grizelda and 1902 . There was a mass of pencilled statistics.
At the top of these were the measurements of Bernard and
Stuart made in 1914. Bernard was a touch taller than Stuart.
Both boys were over 6 feet tall. Knowing from where they
would have looked down at me made them more real.
It s time to add to these measurements, said Miss
McAllister.
She found a tape measure and pencil, rested the Great
Expectations novel on Wilf s head and drew a pencil mark
across the door jamb. Miss McAllister was too short to reach
above my head, so Mick and I measured each other. Mick
was almost the same height as Bernard when he was Mick s
age. Wilf made us measure Percy, who stood as straight as
he could, his head slightly sideways.
You re taller than Wilf, Percy, said Mick. Percy looked
pleased.
CHAPTER 24 185
It was the day we got measured that I started to
come down with a sore throat. I had felt sort of chilled
through and a bit achy all day. That night, when I told Miss
McAllister I was feeling funny, she made me drink a hot
lemon juice with honey and sent us home. As I stepped out
into the winter air, I felt I was leaving home behind.
186
e
ha t
C p r 25
That was the start of the worst flu I ve ever had.
I had antibiotics and two weeks off school. Mick and Wilf
came down with it too, though not as badly as I had it. The
newspapers called it the biggest epidemic in ten years.
It was many days before the three of us got back to Miss
McAllister s. On that dark, windy afternoon we knocked at
the front door and waited a long time without an answer.
We checked out the backyard, but it was empty. When we
saw Percy at the back door, watery-eyed, snivelling and
pointing inside the house, we knew something was wrong.
Mick, Wilf and I bolted up the steps and into the
house. The kitchen was freezing, as the stove had not been
lit. Percy hobbled through the hall door. We followed,
C
h
p
a
t
e
r 2
5
CHAPTER 25 187
frightened of what we might be shown.
Miss McAllister had had a longer life than anyone
I had ever known. Ninety-seven years was plenty. As we
walked down that icy hallway, I wondered how long Miss
McAllister might have been dead. I was dreading what a
dead body might look like. More than that, I was regretting
lost opportunities for the questions I had never asked and
for the friendship I had still wanted to give. I followed the
whimpering Percy. Wilf clung to my jumper. Mick stayed
well behind. Percy opened the door to Miss McAllister s
bedroom. It stank of age.
I m not going in, said Mick.
Someone has to, I said. I forced myself to walk in
there, Wilf still clinging to my jumper and trying to burrow
under my armpit simultaneously. We stood at the foot of
Miss McAllister s oak bed. She was lying on her back, her
head propped by pillows. Her eyes were shut and her hand
lay on top of the bedclothes. It was like a movie death; she
could have been arranged. Her white face gleamed in the
dimness like a sliver of moon on a cloudy night. It was too
late to help and too late to say goodbye. I led Wilf out of the
room and handed him to Mick.
She s gone, I said.
Mick said nothing.
I m going back in to sit a while.
Mick nodded and put an arm round Wilf. I walked
past Percy who was standing in the doorway as if waiting
188 MISS McALLISTER S GHOST
for Miss McAllister to wake up. I sat in a chair next to the
bed. I had this vague idea that if someone hadn t been dead
too long, her spirit might still be hanging about.
Miss McAllister, I began, looking straight at her
whiskery old face, you were the best thing that happened
to our lives. Mum and Dad work hard. They say they re
doing it for us, but we re never together as a family. You
were always here for us. You might have been a bit strict,
but you were fun, too. And don t worry about Percy. We ll
figure something out.
I had to stop there. I bowed my head and a couple of
tears ran down the side of my nose and dripped onto my
hands. Just then an icy hand gripped my wrist. I screamed
and jerked my head up to see Miss McAllister, eyes open,
staring at me.
Mick! I screamed.
I tried to pull back, but Miss McAllister held on to
me like a drowning person clings to a buoy. The boys were
beside me and Percy went down on his knees by the bed.
She s alive, I said, staring into her eyes.
Can you speak? asked Mick.
She let go of me and gave a weak hand gesture for us to
come closer. The three of us leant close to her face.
Bible, she whispered and then she gave a rattling
cough.
What does she mean? Mick asked turning to me.
I knew. I got up and hurried to the living room where
CHAPTER 25 189
the big family Bible lay on the table. When I got back with
it to the bedroom, Miss McAllister s eyes were shut again.
Mick said, She wants you to read the 23rd Psalm.
Where am I supposed to find it? I asked.
Mick grabbed the Bible and floundered through it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]