Cindy Jones Read Free Page A

girls were sure to tell tales. Professor Jones was going to be upset when he heard their version of what had happened.
    The workmen packed up and left, taking the debris of the yard with them. The front yard looked strange and unfamiliar. The trees edging the drive had been lopped to gnarled pillars. Without its friendly covering of vines, the front porch looked cold, austere, and shabby.
    Cindy sighed, and went around to the back yard. She fed Hooper, Amanda, and the cats, left milk for the possums, cleaned out the guinea pig cages, and fed the guinea pigs. By the time she had finished, it was dark.
    She turned on all the lights in the downstairs area of the house. She ate a handful of sultanas, had a bowl of cereal, and washed everything down with a glass of sarsaparilla.
    Afterwards, she cleaned up the kitchen and sat at her desk in the dining room to do homework. Horace and Pearl, the two Siamese cats, curled up at her feet.
    After half an hour, she put her pen down. What had possessed her to push that silly Prunella into the pool? Now she had two enemies instead of just unpleasant acquaintances. Why did life have to be so complicated?
    She heard Jim’s soft whistle. Hooper gave his short happy bark. She glanced out the window. Hooper was already panting as he bounded at Jim’s heels. They vanished into the darkness.
    Cindy stroked Horace, who growled. He was in one of his moods and not at all friendly. She patted Pearl, but Pearl moved away. The house was very quiet. Usually Cindy liked the hours she spent alone in the cluttered dining room doing homework and waiting for her father, but tonight she felt lonely and friendless. She was scared at the thought of how upset her father was going to be when he heard about her pushing Prunella into the water.
    She looked out the window. A large expanse of night sky stared down at her. With the trees lopped so severely around the house, she could stare straight up. She hadn’t noticed the night sky for years.
    â€œStar light, star bright, grant me what I wish tonight,” she chanted out loud.
    Horace opened his eyes. Cindy felt silly. She hadn’t thought of that rhyme since she was very small and really believed wishes on stars were granted.
    â€œI feel like Cinders in the ashes,” she explained to Horace, who between his mad spells was very intelligent. “If I could have a wish, I would wish for a fairy godmother like Cinderella’s who could wave a magic wand and make everything all right.”
    Horace looked bored. Cindy gazed back out the window. A shooting star blazed across the night sky.
    â€œThat’s supposed to mean wishes are heard and granted.” Cindy told Horace as she pressed her nose against the glass. “What a pity there’s no such thing as magic.”
    Even as she finished speaking, a loud rapping sounded. Horace leaped to his feet, his fur standing on end, his tail fluffed out like a bottlebrush.
    His eyes were round with horror. “Yeeoah,” he moaned, his ears flat to his head.
    Although Cindy was used to Horace’s mad spells, the hairs on the back of her neck lifted. Horace looked as if he had sensed something scary approaching. The rapping had come straight after her silly wish, almost as though something had heard her.
    The rapping came again, louder and more insistent. Cindy walked towards the front door slowly. What if something nameless and dreadful waited for her on the front porch of Six Turkscap Drive?
    She shivered and forced her hand to turn the doorknob.

 
    Chapter Four
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    Miss Hopkins, Cindy’s biology teacher, stout, ordinary, and practical, stood on the front step.
    â€œMiss Hopkins!” Cindy gasped.
    â€œWhat happened about your assignment, Cindy?” Miss Hopkins asked.
    The assignment! With the shock of her father’s announcement, she hadn’t got around to finishing it. Still, it was odd for Miss Hopkins to come asking for it.
    Horace wailed and