Billy helped his grandparents sort out the twin beds in the spare room. Since his mother left, no one ever stayed overnight; Jerry didn’t encourage visitors. The room was musty and stale, but his grandparents thought it was a palace after sleeping in the hard bunks at the mine, or out in the open as they’d done for the last week. Billy found spare sheets for them, and blankets from around the house.
Mrs Mumberson was so tired she told Billy she’d go to bed straight away. ‘I’m very pleased to know you, Billy. You’re so helpful.’ She didn’t add, ‘Unlike your father.’ She gave Billy a hug. He hadn’t been hugged since his mother left a year ago.
His grandfather didn’t hug him. ‘Your Dad’s had a bit of a shock,’ he said. ‘He’ll come round in the morning.’ Mrs Mumberson rolled her eyes.
But if the arrival of the Mumbersons had been a shock to Jerry, it was nothing compared to the shock he got when the phone rang during breakfast next morning. He answered it and his face went white. ‘Madeleine?’ he said. ‘Madeleine?’
Billy jumped up from the table. ‘Is it Mum?’ His father put his finger to his lips, silencing him. Billy couldn’t hear what was being said at the other end, and his father’s mutters didn’t give him any idea of the conversation. Whatever his mother was saying took a lot of explanation. Jerry finally slammed the phone down.
‘Was that Mum?’ asked Billy.
‘Yes, it was your Mum. Typical. Typical! Rings out of the blue to tell me she’s got something she has to give me. Insists I go and pick it up. Straight away!’
‘You know where she is? Can I come?’
‘No, you can’t!’ shouted his father, more worried than angry. He went to sit down, then changed his mind. ‘I’ll have to take the day off work. They’re not going to like that. I wonder if Khafoops can cover my shift?’ He began to make himself sandwiches. ‘Your mum’s three hundred kilometres away.’ He dropped some butter on the floor, and didn’t notice. ‘I’ll have to take the car.’ He looked at his knife, wondering where the butter had gone. ‘What am I going to do about you? You can’t stay here by yourself. Maybe Mrs Khafoops...’
‘Dad, my grandparents are here. They’ll look after me.’
‘Them? Look after you?’ Jerry’s face turned red - it seemed to be a day for his face to change colour. Mrs Mumberson had walked into the kitchen, yawning and stretching, as he spoke. She headed straight to the kettle.
‘You don’t even know them,’ muttered Jerry. ‘It’d be like being with strangers.’
‘This’ll give me a chance to know them.’
His grandmother leaned against the bench, enjoying the morning sunshine on her back. She was trying to push her hair into some sort of order. ‘What’s going on, Gerard?’
‘Don’t....!’ He sighed. ‘I’ve just heard from Madeleine. My wife. She insists I see her immediately. It’s vital, she says. Life and death. I’ll have to take the day off work. There’s Billy to...’
‘Get going,’ interrupted his mother. ‘We’ll look after Billy. It’ll make a great change from hammering rocks.’ She pulled Billy towards her. And held onto him. ‘Bring your wife back with you, Gerard. I want to meet her.’
‘That won’t be happening.’ He rushed out of the kitchen to get himself organised.
Mrs Mumberson made herself a cup of tea. ‘Billy’ she said, ‘what do you want for breakfast?’
Billy shrugged. He usually got his own breakfast. ‘Eggs on toast?’
‘I’m sure I can do better than that,’ said his grandmother. She checked out the pantry.
Half an hour later Billy ran to school feeling more full than he had in a long time, and not just with food. He had his grandparents in the house. His mother wanted to see his father. His father was driving three hundred kilometres to meet up with her. Maybe they’d get together again. Maybe she wanted to come home. It made his brain dizzy, though in a better way than when the barber cut his ear yesterday.
Olivia appeared from nowhere, as she always did. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ she asked. ‘You look different.’ Stevedore trailed along behind. He wasn’t allowed to go to school, of course, so he made himself inconspicuous throughout the day until school was over.
‘It’s gone crazy at my house. Dad’s Mum and Dad - my grandparents! They turned up out of the blue last night.’
‘Were they overseas?’ asked Olivia, keeping up comfortably with Billy’s pace.
‘It was weird. They said they’d been prisoners in a diamond mine. It was owned by a witch...’
‘A witch! I wonder if she can do real magic.’ Olivia beamed with enthusiasm.
‘Not now she can’t. She died.’
‘I’d love to meet someone who could do real magic.’
They’d reached the school gates. The headmistress was ringing the bell for the first class. ‘You’re late, William Mumberson,’ she said, loud enough for most of the school to hear.
Billy couldn’t concentrate during the day. If he wasn’t thinking about his Mum and Dad, he was thinking about his grandparents. Or the diamond mine. Or the witch - he was glad she was dead. He wasn’t sure he wanted to meet someone who could do real magic. His father always scoffed if he talked about magic. He said there was no such thing; it was no more real than the sleight of hand or conjuring tricks they saw on TV.
But perhaps there were people who could do it?
Olivia chattered about Billy’s grandparents and the witch at morning break, and at lunch time, and as soon as school was finished. Billy wished she’d stop so he could think more about them for himself. As usual she followed him home. He paused at the gate, wondering how he could politely tell her not to come in. He wanted to have his grandparents to himself for a while, but Stevedore nudged the gate open with his nose, and Olivia followed him up the path. Oh, well, she’d have to meet his grandparents sooner or later.
Mrs Mumberson had been baking, which surprised Billy, because he didn’t think there was enough in the house to bake anything with. But she’d somehow conjured up two batches of biscuits out of ingredients in the pantry. They were cooling on airing trays on the kitchen table. Billy wondered if his grandmother could do magic too. Maybe some of the witch’s magic had rubbed off on her. He shook his head: that was stupid.
His grandfather sat at the table reading the paper. He was eating one of the newly-baked biscuits and drinking tea. Both the grandparents were cleaner and tidier than last night: their hair was done, and there was no sign of dirt. Because they were both so skinny from lack of food, the clothes they’d borrowed from Jerry and Madeleine’s wardrobes hung loosely on them.
Billy introduced Olivia, and before either of them knew what was happening, they were sitting at the table with a plate of biscuits each, and hot chocolate drinks. Mrs Mumberson had found all manner of things in the pantry, some of which had been forgotten since Billy’s mother had left.
‘What was it like in the witch’s diamond mine, Mrs Mumberson?’ asked Olivia, eating her first biscuit.
Mr Mumberson looked up from his paper. ‘We don’t talk about that, Olivia.’
‘It’s too painful,’ said his wife. ‘We want to forget it.’
‘But it’s so exciting, and different, and full of magic,’ said Olivia.
‘Magic is nothing but trouble,’ said Mr Mumberson.
‘I’ve never met anyone who’s been involved in magic before,’ insisted Olivia. Billy gave her a warning glance which she ignored. ‘I think it would be a great adventure, and...’
She was interrupted by a couple of chirps from Billy’s cellphone. Both the Mumbersons looked on with interest as he checked the text; they’d never used cellphones at all.
Billy said, ‘It’s from Dad. Come immediately. Meet me at the Factory gates.’ Billy frowned.
‘Is he back in Skittleton already?’ asked Mrs Mumberson.
‘He can’t have brought her home yet,’ said Billy. ‘Didn’t he go and see Mum after all?’
‘Maybe he changed his mind,’ said his grandmother.
‘Exactly what he would do,’ said Mr Mumberson, giving the paper a snap to remove the crease.
‘Why would he change his mind?’ Billy stood up, leaving a biscuit half uneaten on his plate. ‘What’s going on?’
‘We need to go and find out,’ said Olivia. She grabbed the remainder of Billy’s biscuit off his plate, and gulped it down with the rest of her drink.
Mrs Mumberson said, ‘But he took spare clothes. He said he was going to be away overnight.’
‘And his toothbrush,’ said her husband. ‘Talking of toothbrushes...’
‘Why would he be back so soon?’ asked Mrs Mumberson.
‘Probably piked out at the last minute. Thought she’d have a go at him.’
‘Oh, shut up, Mumberson!’
‘I need to go,’ said Billy. ‘Dad said come quickly.’ He headed for the door. Olivia was only a step behind him, and Stevedore two paws behind her.
‘Ring me and let me know what’s going on!’ shouted Mrs Mumberson from the front door, as they raced down the street.