CHAPTER TWO
JADE
“Amber! Crystal! Jewel! Have you seen Jade?”
A shrill voice from the kitchen made Jade shrink further into the darkness. She bit her lip, staring hopefully at the bottom of the stairs close overhead. She hadn’t tried this hiding place before. Maybe they wouldn’t find her.
“Jaaaaade! Jaaaaaade! Mum wants you!” At the sound of three girlish voices and six feet thumping up the stairs, Jade gritted her teeth. If only she could find somewhere to be alone!
“Jade Pearl Lockyer get your backside out here this minute!”
She sighed and pushed open the tiny storage cupboard door with her foot. There was no point in hiding when her mother took that tone. She really should be helping out for the party anyway. Besides, it was a waste of a good hiding place. No-one else knew about this secret, small cupboard under the stairs and it even had a light in it. She’d managed to stash a few books and some food in there earlier. Maybe she could sneak back and get away from her noisy, irritating family for a while later on.
“I’m here, Mum!” she yelled, closing the almost-invisible door behind her and brushing dust off her clothes. Stomping into the kitchen, she blinked at the chaos there and barely protested when her mother dumped a huge bag of potatoes into her hands.
“Good. About time. Peel these and wash them. There’s only two hours until the party and I have to make potato salad to take with us.” Her mother turned back to direct one of the other girls to cutting up celery.
Jade wrestled a stool away from Amber. She sat down at the big kitchen bench, ignoring her older sister’s childish protests. Glowering, Jade snatched up a potato peeler and began peeling. Annoyance faded a little when she realised she hadn’t washed her hands. Ha! Maybe everyone at Coral’s party would get botulism. Lost in a pleasant daydream where she somehow managed to save everyone at the engagement party from the horrors of food poisoning, Jade worked steadily through half the bag.
“OOOOooooowww!” A screeching howl of pain snatched her back to reality. Ruby clutched at her hand, yowling like a banshee while her mother and the other girls twittered around in helpless indecision. Jade saw the angry red burn on her sister’s hand where she’d tipped hot water on herself.
Without hesitation, she put down a half-peeled potato, picked up a knife and ran out the back door. Slicing off the thick leaf of a plant by the door, she raced back. Deftly, she slipped the knife along the length of the leaf, exposing a gooey jelly inside. She wormed her way through the throng of chattering girls and grabbed the burned hand. Before Ruby could protest, Jade slathered the yellowish jelly over the burn. Ruby sighed in relief. With smile of pride, Jade turned to her watching family.
Her mother blinked in astonishment. “What is that disgusting stuff?” she demanded. Jade’s heart sank and she looked around to find all six of her older sisters and her mother staring at her like a bunch of clones – all with the same expression of wary distaste on their pretty faces.
“It’s aloe vera. Perfect for burns. I planted some about two months ago, right by the back door just in case of an emergency..like…this.” She tried hard not to let worry creep into her voice. She had done the right thing. Why couldn’t her mother see that? Jade stared at her toes as her mother rolled her eyes in disgust. No matter how hard she tried, nothing she did was good enough.
All her older sisters were prettier than she: all blonde, curvy and blue-eyed; all with boyfriends, friends and full social calendars. The whole family looked on their youngest sibling as some sort of freak. Jade had short, wavy dark hair and green eyes. At almost fourteen she was thin and wiry. All her sisters had already been young women at the same age. Sometimes she thought she must be adopted; but who in their right mind would adopt a seventh girl?
“Everything alright in here Allison, ladies?” a mild voice inquired from the kitchen door.
Jade looked up to see her father standing there and knew she wasn’t adopted. All her sisters were younger versions of her mother. She was the spitting image of her father. She glanced up at him, looking for support, while her mother replied in a cross tone.
“It’s only Jade showing off again, Hector. Honestly. You shouldn’t encourage her.” She huffed and turned back to settle Ruby on a chair in the corner. “Get back to work, girls. Coral, you get up to your room and get changed. Hurry!” Glancing at her watch, she cast a despairing look around the chaotic kitchen. Her eye fell on the half-peeled potatoes and she groaned. “Jade, that stuff had better not stain your shirt. Quit fussing with your stupid herbs and get back to the potatoes. We all have to be in the car in an hour and a half.”
Jade caught her father’s ironic gaze and tried to hide the hurt she felt at her mother’s dismissal. He smiled slightly and nodded at the aloe leaf still in her hand. With that tiny smile he acknowledged her quick thinking before retreating back to his study. She relaxed. Dad understood. He had seen and approved. She resumed her work, feeling almost content.
She could hardly wait to get this party over with so she could help him in the glasshouse with the latest exotic specimen he’d brought back from South America. Spending time helping Dad prepare and study plants for his botany students at Cambridge was way more rewarding than peeling potatoes. Dad never criticised her. If only he didn’t have to go away so much. Home was no fun at all when he was gone. Maybe she could just stow away on his next trip and be his assistant.
That nice little daydream ended abruptly when her mother caught sight of the still-unpeeled potatoes.
“Jade! Concentrate on what you’re doing. Finish those potatoes.”
She sighed, hunching her shoulders. She knew she’d never be able to live up to her mother’s expectations. Why was it so awful that she liked to read or mess about with plants instead of buy dresses and try on makeup? Why did she even bother to try?
Jade finished peeling the potatoes and glanced around. Everyone was frantically busy and no-one was watching. She stole out of the kitchen and made for the cupboard again. Maybe if she was very, very quiet, no one would notice and they would all bustle off to the party without her. Just the thought of having the whole, entire house to herself made Jade hug herself in delight. No sisters to tease her and steal her books; no mother to shake her head in despair.
It was a small house; old and full of secrets. They’d only lived here a year and so far she’d discovered an attic full of discarded bits of other people’s lives, a secret drawer in the fireplace mantle (regrettably empty) and now this secret cupboard under the stairs. Her retreats to the attic hadn’t lasted long but they’d been full of imaginary adventure. Who had slept in the tiny, broken cot? Whose favourite toy had been the wooden doll with painted eyes? A wooden sword had given her hours of enjoyment battling ancient dragons and knights.
Then her sisters had discovered her and the magic had been lost in their exclamations of disgust. It was so dusty and gross up there. Ewwww! They’d said. Their mother came up and stripped the place bare. What was saleable was auctioned on Ebay. What wasn’t went to the dump. The doll, the cot. Gone. Jade managed to hide the sword in the back of her closet but now there was nowhere to play with it. The attic was converted into a retreat for the older girls and Jade banned from it until she turned sixteen.
So the cupboard under the stairs was all that remained secret. Jade smiled a little as she crept into it. She felt like Harry Potter but she was hiding out by choice. Oh, how she longed to be like Harry and disappear off to a magical school of wizardry. Did being the seventh daughter of a seventh son make her magic? Or maybe to someplace where she could train to be a knight. Maybe not. That armour looked pretty heavy.
She picked up the book she’d been reading.
It was the sudden silence that roused her from a world of fantasy. Listening,
she cocked her head. The house was silent. Worried, she pushed open the cupboard door and darted out.
“Mum!? Dad?” Her voice echoed around the house. There was no reply. No footsteps. No noise at all. They really had left without her.
Her first reaction was one of delight. No stupid, boring engagement party. No being “good” for hours on end in company. No having to listen to dumb speeches about Coral and her fiancé. No having to fetch and carry and play waitress; and, especially, no princessy, perfect sisters swanning about making her feel ugly and clumsy. She had the whole house to herself!
“Yahooo!” Executing a neat dance step, Jade shimmied down the hall, singing the theme song to a weekend cartoon: “I’m strange, and I like it; that’s just the way I am...” In quick succession, she peeked into each room of the bottom floor, just to make certain she was completely alone. She was. Everyone was gone. The big old house was totally empty. Completely, totally empty, except for her...
In fact, it was very empty.
Maybe too empty...
Jade stood still in the middle of the entrance hallway, listening. The wind picked up a little outside. That must be what caused that strange whooooooing sound. Yes, it was just the wind going past the chimney stack. That rattling...well, that had to be a window one of the girls had left open upstairs. Honestly, she fumed, how thoughtless they were.
She turned and placed a foot on the bottom stair, ready to go up and latch the window. Darkness cloaked the top landing. All the lights were turned off. It’s just darkness, she admonished herself firmly. She took another step upward, trying to ignore the sudden flutter of her heart.
Somewhere up there, a floorboard creaked; then another. Swallowing, Jade backed down again, into a corner of the hall, where she huddled with arms around her thin body. These were not the noises she was used to hearing in this house. She was so used to the sounds of her six sisters chattering and fighting that it was unnatural not to hear them. It didn’t make her feel better to tell herself that all old houses made creaking noises. The wind outside was now fairly howling and rain pelted against the timber walls. The window rattled again.
A shrill jangling right beside her, made her leap a foot into the air and let out a shriek. The telephone. Taking a deep breath, she reached for the ancient handset, and then paused. Should she answer it or not? Images of horror movies jumped into her head. People left home alone and stalked by axe-murderers. What if it was her parents calling because they realised they’d left her?
What if it wasn’t?
Her hand hovered over the handset for five full rings before she snatched it up. “H..Hello?” she stammered.
“Are you alright, honey?” Her dad’s worried tones sounded hollow and far away. A rushing noise in the background almost drowned him out.
“Dad!” Jade let out the breath she’d been holding and sat down on the telephone stool in relief. The house suddenly seemed almost ordinary again. “I’m fine. You guys left without me,” she complained.
“Sorry honey. Your mum was in such a hurry we didn’t count heads. “
“Are you coming back for me?” Jade heard giggling. Oh! Her sisters had known she was missing and had deliberately not told their parents. Biting her lip, she struggled not to cry. They were so mean.
“We really can’t. We’re already going to be late for Coral’s engagement party as it is,” he sounded regretful. Jade heard her mother’s voice clearly, complaining about her youngest daughter’s complete lack of consideration for others. Her father hushed her mother loudly and Jade choked back tears of hurt. She felt guilty about causing so much trouble but it really hadn’t been on purpose. Surely her father knew that?
“Dad?” She sniffed. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“It’s ok, honey,” he reassured her. “I’ve called Mrs Nevin and she’s going to come over to babysit until we get home. She won’t be there for about an hour, though. Can you manage?”
She nodded, forgetting he couldn’t see her. “Sure, Dad,” she said morosely. “I’ll be fine. I don’t really need a sitter.” Even as she said it, Jade realised that she was quite glad Mrs Nevin was coming over. She’d never let her sisters know that.
“I know but I’d feel better if you had someone with you,” he replied. “We’ll be pretty late getting home.” She could hear the pride and worry making his voice smile.
She gave in. “OK but…”
“Yes?”
“Can I play that new computer game you got yesterday?” Dad never ever let anyone play on his computer. It was the only decent, new computer they owned and he didn’t want to risk it getting broken. “Please?”
He chuckled. “Alright but you know the deal?”
“I know.” She giggled, happier now. “Don’t let the others know. As if they’d want to play computer games anyway, Dad.”
“Don’t be cheeky or I’ll change my mind.” He spoke sternly but she heard the smile in his voice again. “Be good. Call us if you get scared before Mrs Nevin gets there.”
“I’ll be fine, Dad.” Jade said more confidently than she felt. “I’m almost fourteen, remember?”
“How could I forget? Bye honey.”
“Bye Dad. Thanks.” She hung up the phone and bounced up, excited all over again. She clapped her hands and raced toward her father’s study without looking up the dark stairs. Her sisters could keep their stupid party. She was going to create the most beautiful, kick-ass avatar in history, play 80AD and defeat the evil villain Feng Zhudai.
Jade was almost there when she spotted the door to the under-stairs cupboard. Golden light streamed out the half-open door for all the girls to see when they came home. That wouldn’t do at all. Hurrying back she reached around and felt for the light switch.
Instead of the switch, her fingers encountered something soft tucked into a corner of the wooden beams that lined the tiny room. Ducking her head in, she tried to see what it was but her head blocked the light. She had to wiggle it out of its hiding place by feel alone. There was only a tiny piece sticking out, so it took a bit of work to get it all free.
Finally she held it in her hand - a small, green velvet bag. The sort a jeweller might put a trinket into at the craft markets. It couldn’t be very old, because the bag was in perfect condition. The pull-tie strings at the neck were even finished with little plastic bits like shoestrings.
Still…
Jade felt a quiver of anticipation in her belly as she tugged at the neck of the bag. Who had hidden it? What was in it? Why was it so carefully secreted away? Was it dangerous? Magical maybe?
Taking a deep breath, she got a firm grip on her imagination. Her father always laughed at her wild stories. The bag slid open and she tipped it onto the palm of her hand. Out slithered a fine gold necklace with a pendant on it.
Touching it with a gentle finger, she drew a slow, reverent breath. The shape looked familiar somehow. It was a kind of bent gold teardrop shape with a pearly silver dot on one end. The delicate chain threaded through a tiny loop in the skinny end of the drop. It was beautiful and sort of warm to touch.
Inspecting the chain, she discovered the clasp was broken and it was marked with smudges of a dark rusty coloured stuff that flaked off on her fingers. Jade touched the chain that hung around her own neck. Her father had given her for her 10th birthday. It wasn’t nearly as pretty as the one in her hand but at least it was whole and clean. Quickly, before she changed her mind, she slipped the pendant off its chain and onto her own.
She glanced at it once more before tucking it safely inside her t-shirt. There was now a small, warm spot on her chest where the pendant lay. Guiltily, she glanced around. She sort of expected the real owner to show up and demand her property any moment. That was silly. The previous owners were a very old cou
ple who lived in the house for twenty years or more. They didn’t have any children or even any grandchildren whose nimble fingers might have hidden the necklace away.
It certainly was a puzzle. Who could have put it there? One of her sisters? She hoped not. She didn’t want to have to share her hiding place or this secret treasure.
Jade chewed her bottom lip then tucked the broken chain and bag into her pocket. She really didn’t want to give the pendant back but she didn’t like feeling guilty about keeping it. She switched off the light and slid the door shut. Tomorrow she’d show it to her father and he could tell her what to do. Yes. That was the right thing. Feeling better, Jade went to her father’s study – via the refrigerator for a snack.
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