Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Storms

by Marion Roberts

  Steph was looking as if she’d missed a couple of key episodes of her favourite soap opera.

  ‘Sorry, Steph,’ said Mum. ‘We’re expanding the vegetable garden to include community plots, and our action group is coming on Saturday to implement Stage One.’

  ‘What a great idea,’ said Steph.

  ‘Thanks,’ continued Carl. ‘Our ultimate goal is eventually to have zero carbon emissions. The solar’s underway, and we’ve got room for a small wind turbine too.’

  ‘Anyway, enough about us. How did things go for you today, Steph?’ asked Mum.

  ‘I was perfectly spoilt and even got an afternoon nap,’ said Steph, not even mentioning the dog fight.

  28.

  By eight-thirty on Saturday morning the people from Mum and Carls’ action group had started to arrive. From up in my turret room I could see everything going on. Carl had pegged out a whole area of lawn that had to be mulched over and turned into vegetable plots, and there was lots of wood and stakes and piles of soil to start making raised garden beds. Kara was blowing into her hands to warm them up. She was wearing the most inappropriate pair of wedge-heeled trainers you’ve ever seen at a working bee. I saw Mum saying something to her, and because I can often tell the sort of things that go on in Mum’s head, I’m sure she was saying something like, If you want to borrow some gumboots, Kara, we may be about the same size. And then I imagined Ritchie thinking that Kara Bleakly might be the perfect candidate for a pair of Crocs. By the end of the day, Ritchie’s Crocs would have mysteriously reappeared. Was Kara going to find out the real truth about Ritchie and dump him?

  I had to get my bowl of rose petals, so I snuck out the front door to avoid having to answer a whole lot of adult questions about how old I am and whether or not I enjoy school. I mean, why can’t adults talk about anything interesting, like where exactly a person goes when they die and whether or not it’s possible to communicate with spirits.

  When Saskia and Lyall finally came downstairs I had already bottled my flower-essence remedy and was making a tag for it with some stamps I’d got for Christmas.

  Lyall poured himself some cereal as if he was on auto pilot. ‘I’m so going to be hiding from Dad today,’ he crunched. ‘Otherwise we’ll have to help in the garden.’

  ‘You’re meant to want to help, Lyall,’ said Saskia, buttering her toast, and I’m sure he would have punched her in the arm if he hadn’t been still so half asleep.

  ‘Oh, we’ll be hiding all right,’ I said. ‘In the dining room, having a seance. Right after we get back from Ritchie’s.’

  ‘What if I actually don’t want to join in?’ said Saskia, with a mouth full of toast.

  ‘Don’t then,’ I said, thinking I’d try Reverse Psychology just one last time. ‘You can keep watch.’

  Woolfie and Sophia must have recognised our voices because by the time we opened Ritchie’s gate the two of them were barking their heads off.

  ‘Shhhhh, you two,’ I said, and instantly the barking-fest turned into a licking-and-tail-wagging-fest as we all squeezed through the gate. ‘Saskia, can you grab the leashes,’ I said, holding Sophia by her collar. ‘They’re up on the meter box near the front door.’ Woolfie ran after her.

  That’s when I noticed what Lyall was up to. He had taken Ritchie’s green Crocs out of his backpack and was rubbing them in a patch of dirt. I gave him the eyebrow.

  ‘It’s got to look like they’ve been buried and dug up again,’ said Lyall. Woolfie gave Lyall a suspicious look.

  ‘Sorry, Woolfie,’ said Lyall. He put one shoe on the front doormat and left the other one face down, partly buried under Ritchie’s lemon tree. ‘That should do it,’ he said.

  ‘Now we’ve just got to stop Dad getting a new pair,’ said Saskia.

  ‘Or Ritchie buying a pair for Kara,’ I added.

  ‘That’s okay,’ Lyall said. ‘I’ll just remind Dad and Ritchie that we live in a world dominated by consumerism and that they really shouldn’t be adding to it by creating the demand for two more pairs of Crocs.’

  ‘That will definitely work on Carl,’ I said. ‘But I don’t know about Ritchie. He does work in advertising remember?’

  ‘Can we go now?’ said Saskia, with a leashed dog in each hand.

  When we got back, Willow, Woolfie and Sophia ran about like crazy, as usual, with Willow out in front (her leg didn’t look as if it was bothering her in the slightest), and the other two following close behind.

  ‘Hey, can you two watch them a while? I have to check on Finn’s pigeons.’

  I ran down to the old chook pen behind Settimio’s cottage. All three birds were safe, each perched inside a seperate pigeon hole. I saw straight away why dumb old Lyall had thought they looked too fat to fly: they had all their feathers ruffled up against the cold. Settimio had obviously been looking after them well (just like Mum said he would); there was fresh straw in all the pigeon holes for them to snuggle into at night. But I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard his voice behind me.

  ‘Looking good, you think?’ he said, peering through the wire.

  ‘Oh, Settimio, you gave me a fright. Hey, you got your plaster off!’

  ‘This one especially looking good.’ Settimio pointed to the greyish one with the darker grey stripes on its wings.

  ‘I kind of like the brownish-red one,’ I said.

  ‘Blue one better. This one best,’ he said. I was surprised that Settimio knew which one was going to be the best homing pigeon just by looking at it, but I went along with it anyway.

  ‘Need to feed them good, and then in a few weeks, they be just perfect. Maybe ready by time is wedding.’

  I imagined how wonderful it would be if the pigeons could fly out of a box right when Mum and Carl did their wedding kiss, like I saw once on TV. I’m sure it wouldn’t matter at all if Finn’s pigeons weren’t exactly white doves.

  ‘Great idea, Settimio! Wedding pigeons!’

  ‘Of course,’ he said.

  After that I ran around to the front door and bounded up the stairs two-by-two to deliver my flower-essence remedy to Steph. Only thing was, neither she nor Flora were anywhere to be seen so I put the small bottle next to Steph’s side of the bed and ran back downstairs. Mum was buttering some fruit buns, getting ready for morning tea. ‘Where’s Steph?’ I said, still puffing.

  ‘Outside I think, love. Want to give me a hand here?’’

  ‘Soon!’ I said making a dash for the back door, almost knocking over Saskia on her way in.

  ‘Mum wants you to help her with morning tea,’ I said.

  ‘Sunny Hathaway!’ Mum yelled as I was flying down the back steps. ‘I heard that!’

  ‘Have you seen Steph and Flora?’ I asked Carl, looking super-flustered, as if I was on an important mission. That way, he’d be less likely to give me a job. Carl pointed over to Settimio’s cottage, and I saw Flora’s pram parked right outside. ‘How the heck? I was just over there and didn’t even see them.’

  ‘It’s a wonder you notice anything, Sunny, running about like you do. They must have come out the back door right when you went in the front.’ Carl had hardly finished his sentence before I made a run for it to Settimio’s cottage.

  ‘See if you can encourage Settimio to come and meet the group!’ Carl called out after me. ‘We’d love for him to get involved!’

  Settimio’s door was open, but I knocked anyway because that’s the good manners thing to do in that sort of situation. I heard a chair scrape against the kitchen floor and when he appeared at the front door would you believe he was holding Flora?

  ‘Oh, hello again, Settimio,’ I puffed, feeling suddenly possessive about Flora. ‘That’s my baby sister, actually, in case you don’t know, Settimio.’

  ‘Come in, Sunday, please,’ said Settimio, gesturing towards the kitchen with his Flora-free hand.

  I could tell Steph had been crying because her eyes were all puffy and red, and she quickly put her sunglasses on – inside.

  ‘
You okay?’ I asked.

  Settimio leant down and passed the sleeping bundle of Flora back to Steph. Then he busied himself making a coffee.

  ‘Up and down,’ said Steph. ‘It’s nice to be out for a walk. I felt wonderful yesterday and then this morning – crash!’

  ‘Oh, Settimio, that reminds me,’ I said. ‘Carl said he’d love for you to help with the vegetable garden, if you’d like to.’

  ‘Maybe I could be scarecrow?’ giggled Settimio, making a scary face and standing with his arms outstretched. Then he started laughing and the best part was it made Steph chuckle too, and I didn’t know how long it had been since Steph had had even the tiniest bit of a laugh.

  ‘Hey, Steph,’ I said, ‘I left you a little present next to your bed. I made it myself, and it’s got instructions and everything.’

  29.

  As soon as Finn had arrived and said hello to Lyall and Saskia, he ran straight down to see the pigeons. We all followed him, trying our best to avoid the action group.

  Willow, Sophia and Woolfie bounded along behind us. Willow barked at the pigeon cage a few times, but really just to see if she’d get any attention, which she did.

  ‘No, Willow!’ we all said at once, except Finn, who possibly thought it wasn’t his place to discipline my dog. (Kind of like how Carl was at the start, before his whole polite act wore off.)

  Finn let himself into the pen and closed the door behind him. He moved slowly towards one of the pigeon holes and let his hands descend gently upon the speckledy-red bird.

  ‘Soon we’ll have to make some little gates for the cage, so they can let themselves back in when they’ve flown home. Kind of like a cat door,’ he said.

  ‘Did you know I’m dyslexic, Finn?’ asked Saskia from the other side of the wire.

  Both Lyall and I glared at her, and I could tell Finn didn’t really know what to say or even whether to believe Saskia or not. I mean, why couldn’t she just say something normal, like, What year are you doing at school?

  ‘Should we head back inside now?’ I asked, thinking that it was high time we got our seance underway. Especially as absolutely all the adults were safely occupied outside. It was the perfect opportunity.

  ‘Come on, you guys,’ I said. ‘The dining room.’

  So far we hadn’t used the dining room once. It had huge wooden doors at one end that opened onto the drawing room and another door where you could enter through the hallway near the kitchen. There was a long table all the way down the middle and windows that looked out to the side verandah, and a part of the ceiling was all slanty where the staircase cut through.

  ‘Wow,’ said Finn. ‘Is this where you’re having the wedding feast?’

  ‘It’s Plan B actually,’ I said. ‘We’re hoping the weather will be nice enough to set it up outside.

  ‘Will this be scary?’ asked Saskia. ‘I don’t even know what you do in a seance anyway.’

  ‘Oh no, it will be fine,’ Finn assured her. ‘You just ask questions, and if there’s a spirit present they answer for you. I found out my mum used to have seances all the time. Once she even spoke to the spirit of Rembrandt. You know, the artist?’

  I almost wanted to hug Finn then, because that was the perfect answer to give Saskia the reassurance she needed. But I managed to restrain myself in front of the precookeds.

  ‘Rembrandt was dyslexic, wasn’t he?’ asked Lyall, just to add a little icing to the convincing-Saskia cake.

  ‘Cool!’ squealed Saskia. ‘How do we start?’

  There was an old fireplace at one end of the room and a rug between the hearth and one end of the table.

  ‘I think we should sit here,’ I said, standing on the rug. ‘But we have to draw all the blinds first and make it dark.’

  ‘I’ll do it,’ said Lyall, reaching to pull the cord of the nearest one. ‘Man, these are stiff. They feel as if they haven’t been used in years,’ he said as I closed the double doors to the drawing room as well as the door to the hall.

  Saskia and Finn were already sitting cross-legged on the rug.

  ‘Don’t we need a candle?’ said Finn.

  ‘Good point,’ I said, and opened the hallway door again to let some light in while I found a candle, a candlestick and some matches in the sideboard where Granny Carmelene kept the good silver cutlery. I put the candlestick down in the middle of the rug and lit the candle before closing the door once more.

  ‘Now,’ I said. ‘Are we ready? We have to all hold hands.’ Even while I was secretly hoping to hold Finn’s hand, I was also relieved to be sitting between Lyall and Saskia because holding hands with Finn in front of the precookeds would surely make me feel awkward. So I held Lyall’s hand, and Lyall held Finn’s hand, and Finn held Saskia’s hand, and Saskia held one of my hands too. And the light of the candle closed the wideness of the world out; our little bit extended only as far as its flickering glow.

  ‘We should be filming this,’ said Lyall. ‘Then we could put it on YouTube.’

  ‘Are you kidding, Lyall? As if Granny Carmelene is going to converse with us if she knows she’ll end up on the internet. It’s just not dignified for a spirit.’

  Finn laughed, and I could tell he agreed with me.

  ‘Can we just start now, please?’ said Saskia impatiently.

  ‘Okay, then. So, um we have to be quiet and sit and breathe for a while,’ I said, and no one answered me because they were all sitting quietly and breathing.

  ‘Do we have to close our eyes?’ whispered Saskia.

  ‘I don’t think it matters, I whispered back. ‘Maybe you can just watch the flame.’

  ‘Good idea,’ whispered Saskia.

  ‘Can you stop talking, Saskia,’ whispered Lyall.

  ‘Sorry,’ whispered Saskia. Then we were all very quiet again for a really long time.

  ‘Okay.’ I cleared my throat as I tried to remember exactly what to say.

  ‘We’re trying to communicate with the spirit of Carmelene Aberdeen. If the spirit of Carmelene Aberdeen is present would you please give us a sign.’

  Suddenly the candle flame flared upwards and Saskia screamed.

  ‘Shh!’ we all went at once.

  ‘This is freaky,’ whined Saskia.

  ‘It was nothing,’ said Lyall. ‘Candles always do that. It was probably just an air bubble in the wax.’

  I was suddenly regretting that I’d agreed to have a sceptic in the room. I mean, Lyall was going to have a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything and surely the spirit of Granny Carmelene would simply get bored and go away.

  ‘Shhhh,’ I said. ‘Let’s continue.’

  We all settled again and became quiet. ‘If the spirit of Carmelene Aberdeen is present would you mind giving us another sign, and I’m really sorry but could you make it a big one because unfortunately Lyall is a sceptic.’

  For a while there was nothing but silence.

  Then Finn took over and said, ‘Carmelene Aberdeen, I’m sorry never to have met you whilst you were on this earthly plane, but if you are at all present in spirit would you mind tapping or something to let us know you—’

  There was a definite sound, like when you knock a ruler against your desk at school, but it was difficult to work out exactly where the noise came from. It tapped three distinct times, then stopped.

  ‘That was a tap all right. Did you hear it, Lyall?’ I whispered. ‘Is that enough of a sign for you.’

  ‘I want to get out of here,’ squeaked Saskia. ‘I really do.’

  ‘Hello, Carmelene Aberdeen,’ continued Finn. ‘Do you mind if we ask you a few questions? You can tap once for yes and twice for no.’

  There were two more taps.

  ‘That’s a no,’ I said.

  Then there was one loud tap, meaning yes.

  ‘Now I’m really confused. Granny Carmelene, if that’s you—’ I was cut off by one loud tap.

  ‘Oh bejeezus!’ croaked Lyall, and I could feel his hand go all clammy, but I still kept holding it be
cause on the inside I was freaking out myself.

  ‘Okay then, Granny Carmelene, it’s really good you’re here. I’ve been missing you a lot, but kind of sensed that you were around, wherever around might be. Can I just ask one thing? This angel business – is that actually you?’

  One tap

  ‘Told you!’ said Lyall.

  ‘You did not! Anyway, we’re not here to argue,’ I whispered forcefully.

  Two solid taps.

  ‘See, Lyall, Granny Carmelene agrees.’

  ‘Hurry up, Sunny,’ he said. ‘Just ask what you need to ask and then let’s go. I said I’d help Dad in the garden.’

  ‘Me too,’ whispered Saskia.

  I’d suddenly forgotten all the things I wanted to say, just like how I felt when I first met Granny Carmelene in real life and went all shy. Not only that, this tapping thing could only give me yes or no answers and what I really wanted to know was a little more involved than that. Like, for instance, where exactly was she?

  ‘Can you hurry please, Sunny,’ said Saskia once more.

  ‘Are you still there, Granny Carmelene?’

  There was a short silence and we all looked about expectantly.

  ‘She’s gone,’ whispered Saskia. ‘It’s probably morning-tea time up in heaven. Let’s do something else.’ She tried to ease her hand out of mine but was interrupted by the sound of a loud tap and squeezed my hand again as tightly as she could. ‘Hurry, Sunny, can you just finish your questions. I really need to pee.’

  ‘Shh, Saskia!’ scolded Lyall.

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Granny, is it true about heaven?’

  But she didn’t get a chance to respond because suddenly there was a huge bang from right behind me and the middle blind flew up all by itself, flooding the room with light. Saskia screamed and I almost jumped out my skin when I saw that the candle had gone out too, and all that was left of the flame was a thin trail of smoke whisping up to the ceiling.

  Saskia ran for the door, still screaming, until Lyall pounced on her from behind and covered her mouth.

  ‘Shoosh, Saskia! Just stop! You’ll attract attention.’ Lyall was as white as a sheet as well. ‘It was just the blind, Saskia. Wasn’t it, Sunny? Finn?’