A Home for Shimmer Read Free Page A

wasn’t. Mum’s not been around either, she’s been up and down to the village buying paint or buying furniture online, busy and happy to have a project.
    ‘It’s just you and me, Ginger.’
    ‘Meow,’ he replied and put his paw up to the window again.
    I could see a car coming up the lane. I don’t know what kind because I’m not into cars apart from what colour they are. This was a green one. It drove into the yard and stopped. Caitlin got out of the passenger side and looked up at the house. She was dressed in jeans, a red quilted jacket over a navy jumper with silver hearts on it, a grey knitted scarf and grey Converse. She looked older and very cool. I whipped off my hat before she saw me then raced down the stairs to find her already chatting away to Dad and Josh.
    A man with a beard and tousled red hair got out of the car. Caitlin introduced him as her dad.
    He gestured at the house and land with his arms. ‘Amazing place you got here,’ he said to my dad. ‘Great position.’ They seemed to hit it off immediately and soon Dad was showing him around. He looked nothing like a geography teacher, more like a country and western singer in jeans, a red checked shirt and leather jacket.
    ‘So you’re at Amy’s school?’ Josh asked Caitlin. I was pleased that he’d asked her but I knew that he was being polite rather than actually interested. Mum had drilled it into us both to make conversation with visitors and not act, as she put it, ‘like gormless idiots who don’t have a tongue in their heads’. As if. Mum can be Very Insulting as well as Annoying and Strict.
    Caitlin nodded, put her head to one side and looked at him coyly. ‘Amy told me she had a handsome brother,’ she said.
    Josh looked embarrassed by her attention. He looked around like he wanted to get away, which made Caitlin laugh, which made Josh even
more
embarrassed.
    ‘I so did not,’ I said. ‘I said I had a brother. End of.’
    Caitlin punched my arm playfully. ‘Just joshing,’ she said. ‘Nice to meet you, Josh.’
    ‘You too,’ said Josh but he was already backing away and looking in Dad’s direction. ‘Er . . . think I’ll go and join . . . over there.’ And off he stumbled.
    ‘He’s quite shy really,’ I said when he’d gone. ‘And I told you he wasn’t into girls.’
    Caitlin looked after him. ‘Give me time,’ she said, then continued in a strange accent, ‘no-von can resist ze charms of la belle femme Madame Caitlin O’Neill.’
    ‘I wouldn’t bother. He’s boring really, just into animals, being outdoors and computer games,’ I said.
    Caitlin looked over in the direction that Josh’d gone. ‘Didn’t look boring to me,’ she said, then sighed longingly, a bit like Ginger had earlier when he’d looked outside.
    ‘So give me the grand tour,’ she said when we saw that Josh had caught up with our dads.
    ‘Where do you want to start – in or out?’ I asked.
    ‘In,’ said Caitlin. ‘And pretend you’re an estate agent and I’m looking to buy.’
    I laughed. ‘You’re the one who wants to be an actress, not me.’
    ‘All good practice,’ said Caitlin. ‘I am ze very rich foreign lady who is looking to invest her money. You want to be a writer, make up a story.’
    ‘OK, Madame Belle Femme, step this way,’ I said as I led her through the hall into the kitchen. ‘Follow me. Inside, the décor is shabby chic . . . with plenty of shab but not much chic. Some estate agents might say “in need of modernisation”. I’d say, the place is falling down and I don’t think it’s been redecorated in a hundred years. Note the original flagstone flooring and how it has been worn away by the feet of those gone before us. The house has four bedrooms upstairs and has built-in air conditioning because there are draughts everywhere, ensuring a flow of cold air at all times of the day, whether you like it or not. And in here, a typical farmhouse style kitchen,’ I pointed above at the dark wooden