Sweeties. Er … strawberries and sunshine and picnics and people laughing. All of a sudden, the figures threw off their cloaks: they were fairies with strawberry-pink hair piled on top of their heads, wearing green tutus like strawberry leaves and welly boots. They began doing a funny stomping dance. And then someone poked me in the side.
‘Eve, stop laughing,’ said Lilith.
‘Wh-what?’ I murmured.
‘You were laughing in your sleep,’ she said. ‘Shut up.’
‘Sorry,’ I said, and snuggled down again. I couldn’t wait to get back into my dream. It was like having my own Walt Disney movie inside my head.
Chapter Fourteen
Zodiac Week Three
‘I want to make it for him,’ said Lilith when she realized that I was making coffee for PJ.
‘But I promised I would,’ I said, ‘and he is my zodiac guardian.’
‘Yeah, but Nonna hired him for all of us,’ Lilith protested.
‘Now, now, what’s all the whinging about?’ asked Mum, coming in from the hall.
‘Eve thinks she owns PJ,’ said Lilith.
‘I do not. I was just making coffee for him,’ I said.
‘I’ll make it,’ said Mum, ‘and get some of those little cakes that he likes down from the cake tin to have with it.’
‘Mum’s got a cru-ush, Mum’s got a cru-ush,’ I sang, and even Lilith had to smile as Mum blushed. When Dad came through in his usual morning rush a few moments later and looked at us all suspiciously, we all collapsed with laughter.
‘What is going on?’ he asked.
Lilith and I went and put our arms around his waist and gave him a hug. ‘Nothing,’ I said.
‘Just talking about what a great dad we have,’ said Lilith.
And that made Mum, Lilith and I fall about laughing again.
Dad grabbed a bit of toast from the plate on the table. ‘I will never ever understand women,’ he said. ‘See you all later.’
As Mum started making coffee, my zodiac phone bleeped that I had a message.
Ze sun enters Scorpio on October tventy-zree. Mr Sonny O has sent you a geeft in celebrations of zis. And Venus iz vell aspected zis veek and she too vill bestow a geeft on you. I iz bringing zem viz me on Zursday. See you in a laters. PJ.
I smiled at the way he wrote and the way he spoke. At first I’d found it hard to understand him, but now I spoke PJ-speak perfectly and found his funny accent charming. My feelings towards him had totally changed by week three of my time as Zodiac Girl. In fact, I could no longer even imagine a time when I was scared of him. Now I looked forward to his arrival each morning and wanted to make his stay with us as enjoyable as possible.
PJ, Natalka, Oleksander and their team of workers had totally transformed the downstairs of the new house. The hall looked warm, welcoming and modern in honey-gold colours with lovely cedar blinds at the windows. The living room was done in a deep red colour that suited the Victorian style of the house, and PJ had knocked the kitchen and dining room into one big open space at the back of the house. He had decorated it in a Moroccan style, using rich colours of ochre, orange and deep red. It looked fabulously stylish.
PJ liked to arrive before his team and have a chat about his ideas with everyone in the family, but he made sure that we got time to talk about anything that was troubling me. As the days went on, I began to feel more confident about dealing with my fears and I was certainly sleeping better although I hadn’t been alone in my own room because PJ’s team had been working in there. They had promised to get it ready in time for my and Lilith’s birthday.
I had a second session with Selene (this time in a more official-looking place in Osbury) and she showed me more techniques for dealing with stress or fear. My favourite one was to close my eyes and imagine that I had a bunch of deflated balloons in my hand. Then I had to imagine blowing all my fears into balloons and, when I’d used as many as I felt necessary and they were as full as they could be, I had to imagine releasing them into the air and watching them fly away. Goodbye, fears.
On the Thursday evening, Lilith and I got home to find PJ standing in the hall waiting for us with a pile of parcels.
‘Happy birzdays,’ he said and then pointed upstairs. ‘Ve iz ready.’
‘Ohmigod,’ said Lilith. ‘Our rooms?’
PJ nodded. ‘And presents from ze planets for Eve – I iz havings ze zree geefts for you: one from Mr O, he iz being ze sun planet, and two from Nessa who you know.’
I noticed that Lilith’s face dropped slightly when she heard this and I was so sorry for her. I really felt bad when I got stuff and she didn’t.
‘And, Lilith,’ said PJ, ‘I iz havings two geefts for you too. I not forgettings zat iz your birthday too. I hope you iz likings.’
Lilith’s face lit up again.
‘But first ve are showings ze rooms,’ he said as he beckoned us to follow him up the stairs.
‘OK, first lady,’ he said when we reached the upstairs hallway. ‘If OK viz you, Eve, ve showings Lilith first?’ And he gave me a conspiratorial wink.
‘Absolutely,’ I said. ‘It’s only fair. She was the first twin.’
And I meant it. I didn’t feel bad at all about Lilith going first because I knew that my turn would come. This was definitely something that I wasn’t going to be left out of.
‘OK, closing eyes,’ he said.
We closed our eyes and we heard him open the door, then he ushered us in.
‘OK, opening eyes,’ he said.
‘Wow!’ we chorused when we looked around the room. ‘It’s gorgeous.’
It was too. It was a goth girl’s dream. Three walls were painted matt black as Lilith had wanted and the fourth one was a deep crimson. Against this was a four-poster bed above which was a canopy of black lace. Across the bed was a black silk bedspread with crimson cushions and propped up against it was a Victorian porcelain doll. I’d never seen anything so romantic in my life and it wasn’t spooky-looking at all.
‘Ohmigod, I love it,’ said Lilith as she went over to the black lacquered dressing table to the right of the bed. On it was a silver vase filled with dried red roses and a wrought-iron candelabra. ‘This is the best birthday present ever. It’s all … perfect.’
‘And look, Lilith,’ I said as I turned and saw the long mirror that looked as if it had been rescued from some ancient castle somewhere. ‘It looks so old.’
Lilith gave PJ a hug. ‘You are a total star,’ she said.
He smiled back at her. ‘Not exactly, but almost. And now, Eve. Iz ready for your turn?’
I nodded. I couldn’t wait to see what he’d done with mine. As before, we were told to close our eyes and PJ guided us across the hallway and into my room.
‘Opening eyes up,’ said PJ.
‘Ohmigod!’ we chorused again, and smiled at each other when we realized that we were once more in sync after the last weeks of feeling apart.
My room wasn’t that different from Lilith’s, only it was pink. Three walls were painted in a pale pink, the fourth in a deep fuschia colour that had a satin sheen on it. On the right of that wall was a scattering of tiny silver butterflies, hundreds of them, flying up to the top of the wall and dispersing as they flew across. While Lilith’s furniture was black lacquer, mine was all silver. And I also had a four-poster bed. It had a canopy of pink lace cascading down, and tiny silver butterflies had been sewn into it to match the ones on the wall. It was divine.
‘My room is goth princess,’ said Lilith. ‘Yours is fairy princess.’
‘Do you like it?’ asked PJ.
‘Oh yes,’ I said. I’d been worried that it might have looked a little sugary, but it didn’t at all. It looked bright and fun.
‘OK, and here are your birzday geefts,’ said PJ. ‘Some for Lilith and some for Eve.’
Lilith unwrapped hers first. One was a thick notepad with a black velvet cover and red spiral binding down the spine. Her second present was a fab red pen with a red feather.
/> ‘Iz for writing your goth poetry in,’ said PJ.
For a brief second, Lilith looked sheepish. ‘Oh thanks. I, er … I usually write my poetry straight on to the computer,’ she said.
‘I know,’ said PJ. ‘Why not try writing in ze book next time?’ And he gave her a pointed look that made her blush even more.
Something is going on here, I thought as I watched them. Something to do with her poetry. Lilith rarely blushes. As PJ watched me unwrap my gifts, I made a mental note to ask her later.
The first gift was a poster from Nessa and it came with a note. It was of a beautiful woman dressed in a Grecian robe with a bow in her hand. She also looked remarkably like Selene.
‘Artemis,’ said PJ. ‘Goddess of light. She iz also known as ze huntress. Just ze zing to have on your bedroom wall if you don’t like ze dark, don’t you zink? She’ll chase anyzing you don’t like off viz her bow and arrow.’
I nodded and for a brief second, when I imagined myself on my own in my gorgeous pink room, I felt the old familiar welling up of fear. I quickly pushed it down.
My second present from Nessa was a little bottle of essential oil. I took off the top and sniffed. ‘Lavender,’ I said. ‘I know because we had some in the garden of our last house.’
PJ nodded. ‘And ze best oil to help you sleep. Sprinkle some on your pillow. It’s vot zey used to do in France in ze old days. In fact, zey used to sew lavender bags into pillows to help sleep.’
‘Cool,’ said Lilith. ‘I might do that too.’
‘Unwrap ze last von,’ PJ instructed. ‘It’s from Mr O.’
I did as I was told and saw that it also came with a card. I opened it up and read out what he’d written: ‘Darkness is merely the absence of light. Love Mr O XXXX. Where there is light, there can be no darkness.’
I opened the box. It was a tiny lamp. I plugged it in and it cast a soft pink glow into the room.
‘I don’t know why you didn’t think of having a light before,’ said Lilith.
‘Because I was too scared to speak up for what I wanted and too ashamed you’d think I was a sissy,’ I replied.
Lilith gave me a hug. ‘So, Evepud, you going to be OK now?’
I nodded. A small lamp with a soft bulb would be perfect! It wasn’t too bright to keep me awake, but enough to keep my fears at bay. With my pink room, my huntress goddess looking over me and my new lamp, the shadows that the dark brought were fast receding.
Chapter Fifteen
Zodiac Week Four
My pink room was a success.
My little lamp was a success.
My getting-to-sleep techniques were a supersonic fabbie dabbie doobie success. By the end of my fourth week as Zodiac Girl, I felt like a new girl. I was sleeping happily in my own bed in my own room, on my own. I felt stronger, more my own person – like I’d got it sorted and there was nothing more to fear. PJ and his team had done the bathroom (lovely sand and sea colours), Adam’s room (blue and charcoal – he likes it!) and were finishing off Mum and Dad’s room.
‘So I guess that’s it, is it, PJ?’ I said as he got ready to go on the evening of 31 October. ‘End of my time as Zodiac Girl?’
PJ shrugged. ‘Not quite. It iz alvays up to each Zodiac Girl to make of her time vot she vill. Some resist. Some ignore. I am thinkings you have made good efforts. You iz feelings better, ja?’
‘Ja,’ I said, and I held out my hands to display my newly manicured nails. I’d had them done at the Pentangles salon yesterday after school and it was the first time in years that they weren’t bitten down and raggedy.
PJ smiled. ‘Ja. Iz good. Only one lasting thing. Saturn iz square to your sun in last veek … ’
‘Vich means vot?’ I asked.
‘Vot you is makings of it. Saturn is taskmaster of the Zodiac—’
‘Dr Cronus?’
‘Ja. Iz planet zat teaches you big life lessons. If you have learned lessons, iz easy peasy lemon squeezies; if resisting lessons, ooo, can be difficult.’
‘No probs,’ I said. ‘I haven’t resisted anyone. I feel a totally new person.’
‘Ja, no probs,’ said PJ, but he looked at me with concern for a moment and my new-found confidence buckled just for a second.
The talk at school all week had been about Halloween, with people making masks in art class, writing ghost stories in English, discussing the origins of the night in history. Of course Lilith was working hard on a Halloween poem, spending hours on the computer on it and not letting anyone see what she’d written until she’d finished. I wondered if maybe it was time to let my third and final secret out.
When it came to the night of 31 October, Lilith came down in her Halloween costume. It was a skeleton outfit, which consisted of white bones and a skull painted with glow-in-the-dark paint on top of old black leggings, a black T-shirt and a black stocking with the nose cut out which she’d pulled over her face. It was really effective when we turned off the lights. Mary was dressed as a witch in a black dress, and she’d painted her face green. Adam had a matted grey wig on, tattered clothes and bits of gloop hanging off his skin.
‘What are you meant to be?’ I asked. ‘You look like you’ve just crawled out of a vat of porridge.’
He looked at me with indignation. ‘A zombie,’ he said.
‘No change there, then,’ I said, and gave him a cheeky grin.
This year, he was off to a sixth-form party with his mates so wouldn’t be going trick or treating. By the overwhelming amount of aftershave he was wearing, I thought he was hoping to get lucky with some girl that was going.
‘Hadn’t you better hurry up and change, Eve?’ asked Mary after Adam had gone.
‘Yeah,’ said Lilith. ‘We’ve only got a few minutes before we’re supposed to join the other trick-or-treaters group and Miss Regan from our school. ‘You’re not even dressed yet.’
‘I’m, um … not coming either this year,’ I said.
Lilith look surprised. ‘Why not? Oh. Is it because you’re still scared of the dark?’
I shook my head. I knew that I had to say what I felt and my weeks as Zodiac Girl had given me the courage to do it. ‘Not really, more because I feel that I’ve grown out of it – like roaming the streets with a bunch of people dressed as zombies, devils, witches and vampires just isn’t my thing. It never really was.’
‘Ooer, get her,’ said Lilith. She looked disappointed, but she didn’t argue.
‘And, um … also, Nessa said she’d come round and cut my and Mum’s hair,’ I said.
Lilith raised an eyebrow. ‘Nessa from Pentangles?’ she asked.
I nodded and I could see that Mary looked torn between going out into a cold rainy night and staying in for a girlie evening. She ran her hand through her hair. ‘I could do with a trim too.’
‘You dare abandon me, Mary,’ said Lilith. ‘You promised and you’ve already got your costume on.’
Mary shrugged. ‘OK, OK, but we don’t have to stay out too late, do we?’
Lilith shrugged her shoulders and stomped out. ‘I don’t know what’s happening to everyone around here any more. Like, where did all the fun go? And what happened to our traditional Palumbo spook night on Halloween?’
‘Maybe what we used to think of as fun has changed and you’re the only one with enough of a brain to realize it,’ said Mary to me, but she followed Lilith out of the room.
‘I guess,’ I said. It felt good to accept that Lilith and I had some things that we’d always do together, but we could also do things separately.
Mum and I had a cosy night in with Nessa, and Nonna turned up halfway through the evening, bringing a big scrummy box of Belgian truffles with her. Now this is my idea of a good night, I thought as we listened to sounds on the CD, stuffed our faces with chocolate and flicked through mags looking for hairstyles. I’d never had an evening like this with my mum before, but she seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was. Nessa cut Mum’s long straggly hair to just on her shoulders and showed her how to
apply a little make-up. It was a hundred-per-cent improvement. She looked really beautiful and loads younger. When it was my turn, she cut my hair a little shorter, put some layers in, then cut a fringe. But, best of all, she put in bright pink highlights. It looked really fantastic. When Dad came home, we asked if he’d like a trim too, but he ran and hid in the kitchen. Nonna thought it was hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing. Just as some things will change, I also have to accept that there are certain things that never will, I thought. And Dad’s scruffy style is one of them.
After Nessa left, Nonna and I settled down in front of the telly with a box of popcorn to watch a romantic comedy. Mum and Dad popped out to collect Adam from his party. Nonna soon dozed off and didn’t even stir when my normal mobile phone rang.
It was Mary. She sounded out of breath. ‘Eve, you have to come. L-Lilith’s in trouble.’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ I said. ‘You don’t fool me that easily.’
‘No really, Eve, please come. I’m really scared for her.’
‘Halloween wind-up. Yeah, yeah. Tell you what. You and her can all come home now. In fact, it is getting a bit late.’
‘I know. I really want to come back but … please, Eve, you have to believe me! This isn’t a wind-up. I promise you.’
She did sound freaked out and I began to wonder if something really was amiss. ‘Where are you?’
‘In the cemetery and Lilith’s in—’
‘Next to our old house?’
‘Yeah.’
My heart sank. ‘Oh, come on, Mary. Now I know it’s a wind-up. Lilith was cross that I didn’t want to come out with you tonight for a spook night and now she wants to get me down there and scare me. No. I’m through with all that.’
‘No, no, really.’ Mary’s voice wobbled. If she was acting, then she was doing a very good job of it. ‘Please come quick. I’m really scared.’
‘Mary? What’s happened? Why should I get down there if it’s not for them to try to spook me?’
‘I can hear her calling, but I don’t know where she is. Oh god, Eve … I have to go. Someone’s coming. Come quick, quick.’
Double Trouble (Zodiac Girls) Page 10