Groosham Grange Read Free

“I’m sorry, Mr Kilgraw,” he said as she went flying. “That was just my wife’s head. Did you say today?”
    “Yes. There’s a train leaving Liverpool Street for King’s Lynn at one o’clock this afternoon. There will be two other pupils on it. David could travel with them.”
    “That’s wonderful! Do you want me to come too?”
    “Oh no, Mr Eliot.” The assistant headmaster chuckled. “We don’t encourage parents here at Groosham Grange. We find our pupils respond more quickly if they are completely removed from home and family. Of course, if you really want to make the long and tedious journey…”
    “No! No! I’ll just put him in a taxi to the station. On second thoughts, make that a bus.”
    “Then we’ll look forward to seeing him this evening. Goodbye, Mr Eliot.”
    The phone went dead.
    “They’ve accepted him!” Mr Eliot crowed. Mrs Eliot held the telephone out and he slammed the receiver down, accidentally crushing three of her fingers.
    Just then the door opened and David came in, now wearing a T-shirt and jeans. Nervously he took his place at the table and reached out for the cereal packet. At the same time his father rocketed towards him and snatched it away, sending muesli in a shower over his shoulder. Mrs Eliot had meanwhile plunged her swollen fingers into the milk. David sighed. It looked as if he was going to have to give breakfast a miss.
    “You don’t have time to eat,” Mr Eliot declared. “You’ve got to go upstairs and pack.”
    “Where am I going?” David asked.
    “You’re going to a wonderful school that I’ve found for you. A perfect school. A glorious school.”
    “But it’s the end of term…” David began.
    “The terms never end,” his father replied. “That’s what’s so glorious about it. Pack your mother and kiss your clothes goodbye. No!” He banged his head against the table. “Kiss your mother and pack your clothes. Your train leaves at one.”
    David stared at his mother, who had begun to cry once again – though whether it was because he was leaving, because of the pain in her fingers or because she had somehow managed to get her hand jammed in the milk jug he could not say. There was obviously no point in arguing. The last time he’d tried arguing, his father had locked him in his bedroom and nailed up the door. It had taken two carpenters and the fire brigade a week to get it open again. Silently, he got up and walked out of the room.
    It didn’t take him long to pack. He had no uniform for the new school and no idea what books to take. He was neither happy nor particularly sad. After all, his father had already cancelled Christmas and whatever the school was like it could hardly be worse than Wiernotta Mews. But as he was folding his clothes he felt something strange. He was being watched. He was sure of it.
    Closing his case, he walked over to the window and looked out. His bedroom had a view over the garden which was made entirely of plastic, as his mother was allergic to flowers. And there, standing in the middle of the plastic lawn, he saw it. It was a crow, or perhaps a raven. Whatever it was, it was the biggest bird he had ever seen. It was pitch-black, its feathers hanging off it like a tattered cloak. And it was staring up at the bedroom, its glistening eyes fixed on him.
    David reached down to open the window. At the same moment, the bird uttered a ghastly, gurgling croak and launched itself into the air. David watched it fly away over the rooftops. Then he turned back and got ready to leave.

TRAVELLING COMPANIONS
    David arrived at Liverpool Street Station at twelve o’clock. True to his word, his father had sent him on the bus. His mother hadn’t come either. She had gone into hysterics on the doorstep and Mr Eliot had been forced to break a milk bottle over her head to calm her down. So David was quite alone as he dragged his suitcase across the forecourt and joined the queue to pick up his ticket.
    It was a long queue –