The Red Room Read Free Page B

practically ran from the room. As I
climbed the stairs, I heard footsteps pounding
along the corridor, and little whimpers. By the time
I reached their bedroom, Amy and Megan were in
bed with the covers pulled up. Megan, who is
seven, was pretending to be asleep, though her
eyelids quivered with the effort of keeping them shut.
Amy, aged five, lay on her pillow with her
eyes wide open. A velvet rabbit with shabby
ears and beady eyes lay beside her.
"Hello, you two," I said, sitting on the
end of Amy's bed. In the glow from the
night-light, I could see that there was a red mark
on her cheek.
"Kitty," she said. Apart from Albie, they were
the only people I knew who called me Kitty.
"Megan hit me."
Megan sat up indignantly. "Liar!
Anyway, she scratched me, look. Look at
the mark." She held out her hand.
"She said I was a bird-brain."
"I did not!"
"I've come to say good night."
I looked at them as they sat up in their beds
with their tousled heads, bright eyes and flushed
cheeks. I put a hand on Amy's forehead. It
was hot and damp. A clean smell of soap and
child's sweat rose off her. She had freckles
across the bridge of her nose and a pointed chin.
"It's late," I said.
"Amy woke me," said Megan.
"Oh!" Amy's mouth opened in a perfect
circle of outrage.
Downstairs I could hear the hum of voices,
the scrape of cutlery on china, someone laughing.
"How shall I get you to go to sleep?"
"Does it hurt?" Amy put out one finger and
poked my cheek, making me flinch.
"Not now."
"Mummy says it's a shame," said Megan.
"Does she?"
"And she said Albie's gone." Albie had
tickled them, given them lollipops, blown through
his cupped hands to make owl noises.
"That's right."
"Won't you have babies, then?"
"Ssh, Amy, that's rude."
"Maybe one day," I said. I felt 23
a little throb of longing in my belly. "Not yet,
though. Shall I tell you a story?"
"Yeah," they said together, in triumph. They'd
got me.
"A short one." I searched around in my mind
for something usable. "Once upon a time there was a
girl who lived with her two ugly sisters and
..."
A joint groan came from the beds. "Not that
one."
"Sleeping Beauty, then? Three Little
Pigs? Goldilocks?"
"Bo-o-ring. Tell us one you made up
yourself," said Megan. "Out of your own head."
"About two girls ..." prompted Amy.
his... called Amy and Megan ..."
his... and they have an adventure in a castle."
"OK, OK. Let's see." I began
to talk without any idea of how I was going
to continue. "Once there were two little girls called
Megan and Amy. Megan was seven and Amy was
five. One day they got lost."
"How?"
"They were going for a walk with their parents, and it was
early evening, and a great storm blew up, with thunder
and lightning and winds howling round them. They hid in
a hollow tree, but when the rain stopped they
realized they were all alone in a dark forest, with no
idea of where they were."
"Good," said Megan.
"So Megan said they should walk until they
came to a house."
"And what did I say?"
"Amy said they should eat the blackberries on
the bushes around them to stop themselves from starving. They
walked and walked. They fell over and scraped
their knees. It got darker and darker and lightning
flashed and big black birds kept flapping
past them, making horrible screeching sounds. They
could see eyes peering at them from the bushes ...
animal eyes."
"Panthers."
"I don't think there were panthers in that--was
"Panthers," said Megan firmly.
"All right, panthers. Suddenly, Megan
saw a light shining through the trees."
"What about--was
"Amy saw it at the same time. They walked
towards it. When they reached it, they found it came
from an oil lamp hanging above an arched 25
wooden door. It was the door to a great ruined
house. It looked scary, a spooky place, but
by now they were so tired and cold and frightened that they
decided to take a chance. They rapped on the
door, and they could hear the sound