The Tipple Twins and the Gift Read online

  Trying to pretend to be ‘normal’ wasn’t easy. It meant pretending to be somebody you’re not, which was the hardest thing the Tipple twins ever had to do. It was like locking a tiger up and telling it to live like a mouse. But no matter how hard it was, the Tipple twins had no interest in finding out what would happen to them if they were ever unsuccessful. Pretending to be somebody you’re not was – in their eyes – their only option.

  CHAPTER TWO

  *

  THE FLOATING WOMAN

  It was a Saturday morning, and the twins had the rarity of waking up without Billy Buck shouting out and throwing stones at the windows.

  Billy Buck was a boy who was the same age as the twins who lived around the corner and gave them endless amounts of grief for being ‘different’. The twins found it hard to ignore, especially as he had a huge front tooth that seemed to take centre stage of his whole face like it was running for president.

  The twins took their time to put their dressing gowns on (ignoring the blackbirds that began lining up on the windowsill outside) and opened their bedroom door together. They didn’t notice the raindrops beginning to fall, even though there were no clouds in sight, nor did they notice a blackbird sitting on the chest of drawers shaking raindrops off its feathers.

  Mornings were the hardest part of the day for the twins, as they had to relive the reality that they no longer had an older sister. Caitlyn had been gone for two years now, and no matter what anyone said to them, nothing made them feel any better about it.

  Lucy Loop, at Gospel Glums School, had a habit of passing on stories about how much of a horror her five older brothers were, and that the twins had had a lucky escape.

  Unfortunately for the twins, Lucy Loop was their only friend (if you could call her that). Jenna and Jessica found it a difficult task when it came to making friends. They mainly spent the day isolating themselves from the crowd, as they had learned that people were too quick to judge. With their rare double-act appearance and awkward social skills, no child wanted to be seen hanging around with the Tipple twins. It was only Lucy Loop, the class gossip, who seemed eager to interrogate the twins into spilling stories of their private life, which the twins decided to ignore at all costs – unless they were stuck with her during teamwork exercises. That couldn’t be helped.

  What made it worse was the fact that Lucy Loop had a never-ending runny nose, and if weren’t runny, it was crusty on the edges of her nostrils. It was the twins’ priority during the school day to avoid sitting next to her at lunchtime. And if they ever did, it would result in the pair of them heaving and gagging and not eating any lunch at all. This always got them into trouble at home if their mum found out. She clearly didn’t care about bogies.

  Jenna and Jessica had little interest in their appetites since Caitlyn’s disappearance, but they made the journey downstairs for breakfast all the same. Squinting as they walked past what was once their older sister’s bedroom (to avoid looking at it), they bumped into each other as a result, which made a somewhat easy journey into a more difficult one. Finally reaching the hallway downstairs, with their honey-coloured hair almost tangled up in each other’s, they pretended they never noticed Caitlyn’s shoes, left by the front door exactly where she’d last took them off.

  Picking up the morning paper together, they found themselves removing feathers off it, which they’d never had to do before. But they read it all the same and saw that their sister Caitlyn had taken up the front page news again. A name that remains in the papers still to this day. A name that is constantly dragged up by the public and by the media because nobody can let this case go. A case that has been open for two years and remains open because Caitlyn Tipple is not a twin, and people can’t understand why she has been taken by the black figure when she clearly isn’t a double. As they stood and read together, they saw that the headline said: ‘CAITLYN TIPPLE STILL MISSING … THE FIRST PERSON TO DISAPPEAR THAT WASN’T A TWIN.’ They continued reading the article unenthusiastically. They knew that if this had landed inside their door … it had also landed inside many others. Jenna and Jessica felt their cheeks turn a little pink.

  As they read, they saw that PC Dilks, the officer in charge of the investigation (and well-known mummy’s boy), had been interviewed and said:

  ‘Even though there had been no significant events in her personal life leading up to Caitlyn’s disappearance, there is strong evidence that links this case to the missing twins all over the country, as there have been sightings of a black figure, possibly a woman, who was seen moments before Caitlyn vanished.’ The reporter then asked what the public should do if they see the black figure, to which PC Dilks replied, ‘The public need to remain calm and dial 999 immediately, but please be sure as to what you have seen. In the past we have had people phoning in reporting black dogs and cats. Someone even reported the shadow of a lamp post.’

  When the reporter asked Dilks about the rumour that when he was off-duty one night at home he called 999 reporting a black figure that turned out to be his coat hanging up by the front door, he replied, ‘No comment.’

  The reporter then said that a homeowner and stamp collector had been quoted as saying: ‘Actually, I turned all the lights off in my house to make sure I didn’t mistake any shadows for anything … Well, it wasn’t very good because I was in complete darkness and thought I had already been snatched by the black figure.’

  PC Dilks then admitted that, because it’s summer, he hasn’t received a lot of calls regarding this case as people are less afraid of the dark. In fact, the most important thing he’d received this week was a candy crush request – from his mum.

  The paper had used the same photo they’d always used of Caitlyn. It was her Gospel Glums School photo. Little did the Tipples know that when this school photo was taken it was to be her last.

  Before they entered the messy kitchen, Jenna held back a little and refused to move until she’d counted to ten in her head, a habit she’d picked up since Caitlyn had gone. Jenna felt a strong urge to do this, and by not doing so, she felt the Tipples could experience bad luck. Mrs Tipple was convinced it was due to her feeling the need to control a situation.

  ‘Right, come on then,’ she said once the counting had finished. Jessica had been waiting patiently by her side, longing for a day where she didn’t have to wait for counting, knocking on tabletops or, Jenna’s favourite, finger flicking. It was a risky habit, given the finger-pointing rule, but Jenna was adamant about continuing the odd behaviour.

  When they entered the kitchen, their mum was standing by the window, as she did most mornings, with her spoon in her teacup, which was stirring the drink on its own. It wasn’t until she looked up and noticed the paper and its contents that she became startled and grabbed it and made a dash for the phone. She began talking before she had even dialled.

  ‘Hello? … Hello, Maud? … Maud? … Maud? … Is a-n-y-b-o-d-y t-h-e-r-e! … MAUD? … MAUD!’ She continued her one-sided conversation with what she thought was her sister, Aunt Maud Boggins, and she cried to nobody about how she wished the papers would stop reminding her of the terrible event from two years ago and how the police had told the family to prepare for the worst if Caitlyn was ever found.

  Eating as little cereal as they could get away with, the twins concentrated on the spoon still stirring inside the cup, which was now on the table in front of them.

  No longer hearing their mum sobbing over the phone, they were reminded by the sight of the self-stirring spoon of a story she had told them years ago. It was one that had stuck with them ever since and was the main reason why they weren’t allowed to use their magic. It was the story of ‘The Floating Woman’. Mrs Tipple had once explained to the twins that getting caught making magic could cause great outrage and lead to severe punishments.

  ‘Like what, Mum?’ the girls asked on a cloudy Sunday nearly three years before.

  ‘Never you mind. All you
need to know is that the world can be full of horrid things, and the punishments for having an extraordinary gift are just some of those things,’ she said, placing some biscuits and milk on the table, with Caitlyn, Boo, Jenna and Jessica all huddled on the floor wrapped in blankets by their mum’s feet.

  ‘Please, Mum, we won’t tell anyone. We promise to keep it secret,’ Caitlyn pleaded while brushing her hair away from her face with her fingers before stuffing a chocolate bourbon in her mouth.

  ‘Okay, I’ll tell you just one story. But you must promise to keep it secret and to never tell a soul.’

  ‘We promise.’

  ‘Not even Lucy Loop, your friend at school?’

  ‘Not even Lucy Loop,’ said Jenna and Jessica.

  ‘Okay, sit closely then,’ Mrs Tipple said, as she got up to turn off all the lights and reached for a torch to hand to them. ‘You can never tell who’s earwigging through walls… or peering through cracks,’ she said, as she closed the curtains in the living room and wrapped all four of them in more blankets. She sat in her chair in front of them and leaned forward so her face was close to theirs… ‘And so the story goes like this…’

  ‘Ah, I’m scared… I don’t like it…’

  ‘Boo,’ Mrs Tipple said gently, ‘I haven’t started.’

  ‘Oh, okay,’ Boo said, settling back in the blankets, with Caitlyn, Jenna and Jessica giggling quietly.

  ‘Burrp!’

  ‘I don’t know which one of you did that, but I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear it,’ said Mrs Tipple, waiting for the laughing to stop before carrying on. ‘Right… once there was a woman who lived in a house at the top of an isolated hill, where only the postman would visit, and maybe the milkman in the mornings.’

  ‘Yes…’ the four of them said together eagerly.

  ‘And she was happy living there, very happy, until children started playing stupid games outside her door.’

  ‘Mum, we thought you said it was isolated.’ Said Jenna.

  ‘It was. But this is why it made her unhappy. She liked the peace and quiet. She didn’t want rude children playing loudly outside her front door.’

  ‘Mum?’

  ‘Yes, Jessica.’

  ‘Do you think we are rude when we play?’

  ‘No, Jessica, but the point I’m trying to make is that the woman didn’t like children playing outside her home. So one day she told them to clear off and go and play somewhere else.’

  ‘That’s not too bad.’

  ‘Jenna, I haven’t finished. A few days after she told them to go away, they came back and played even louder than before. Then the next day they came back and were louder and louder. They even started knocking on her door and running away.’

  ‘Aah, we feel sorry for her,’ said the twins. ‘How old was she? What did she look like? Was she pretty? I bet she was…’

  ‘Boo, shhh, let me finish. And girls, don’t laugh at him,’ Mrs Tipple said as she rolled up her sleeves before continuing. ‘One night, the group of children came and played outside her door in the hope that it would stop her from sleeping, because she worked hard and sometimes liked early nights. And it did. It stopped her from sleeping. And do you know what it feels like for a hardworking adult to lose sleep due to careless children?’

  ‘No.’ They all said together.

  ‘It can make a person very angry.’

  ‘I’m scared,’ Jessica said

  ‘I’m even scareder,’ Boo said, shivering.

  ‘That’s not even a word,’ Caitlyn said, and they all laughed.

  ‘Good. I’m glad you’re scared,’ Mrs Tipple butted in quickly, ‘because she got so angry she cast a spell on all the children and turned them into ants.’

  ‘Yuk! We would never use our magic for something horrible like that.’

  ‘Good, I’m glad, but then the ants made their way into her home and ate all the food in her kitchen – even her home-made chocolate cake that she made every Sunday afternoon.’

  ‘Uhh! That’s just unforgivable,’ Jenna said, disgusted.

  ‘I don’t think I’d mind too much,’ Boo said. And the girls laughed some more.

  ‘Please be quiet, girls. So, anyway, she had to turn them back into children. And when the children went home they told their parents what had happened. One child even claimed they were ill and that it was the woman who had made them ill.’

  ‘What did their parents say?’

  ‘They didn’t believe them at first, but one parent went and spied on the house for a whole week and caught her making spells in her home.’

  ‘What sort of spells?’ Caitlyn asked, her big brown eyes widening behind her blanket.

  ‘Only simple ones, like to help her cook dinner, or to turn on the TV. Which is understandable. I wouldn’t mind being able to do that every now and then. But anyway, she got arrested for it and was taken to a circus, where she was made to dance in the air and had to stay there for the rest of her life, for the public to look at her and laugh.’

  ‘Being made to dance in the air isn’t too bad.’

  ‘Oh, but it is, Jessica. It was the worst punishment you could get back then. And still is today. No one ever wants to be made to dance in the air.’

  ‘We don’t like this story,’ Caitlyn said. ‘And I can tell Jenna and Jessica don’t like it either because I’ve barely got any blanket left.’

  ‘What does Caitlyn know? She’s the one moaning she has no blanket left,’ huffed Jenna.

  ‘Jenna and Jessica, give your sister her blanket back… and I’m glad to hear it. It means you’ll be extra careful and not practise any magic in public.’

  ‘We won’t ever, we promise.’

  And that is what they did. Kept their promise. They also made sure they never told anyone about the story itself. Apart from one time, just once, when Billy Buck tried blocking the twins’ path to their home with his friends. They told him if he listened closely he would hear the cry of the floating woman at night and she would come and dance in his room when he was asleep. But as much as Billy Buck trembled and chattered his big tooth against the rest, he eventually said that he didn’t care. Even his mate next to him said that the story was ‘well wet’. But the tear in his eye and the lump in his throat told the Tipple twins something different.

  CHAPTER THREE

  *

  MAGIC MOODS

  It was around four thirty in the afternoon when Jenna and Jessica entered the living room to hear their dad tell their mum he had just seen Mrs Griffins run outside her house with her arms flapping and yelling for someone to save her because she was just about to get killed by one of the blackbirds. Apparently, she flapped so much she nearly took off with one of them.

  Mrs Tipple said it was ridiculous, because it was only last week she accused a bird of getting into her car and said it tried to drive off. And a month before that one had got into her bed with her slippers on and poured itself a cocoa.

  When Jenna and Jessica looked out of the window they saw a shoe they guessed Mrs Griffins had left behind in the road, but above all things, they noticed the weather had changed and it looked like it was the beginning of a storm.

  As dark clouds were now forming and a few raindrops were falling, people were putting up umbrellas, but they seemed to be struggling to keep hold of them. The Tipple twins ignored the blackbirds that were slowly gathering outside the window.

  A little later that afternoon, Billy Buck shouted up to the twins’ bedroom window for them to open it (causing Boo, who had just been floating in circles trying to catch his tail, to rush behind the curtain quivering with fright). And when they did, Billy Buck stood there with another boy, whose arms and face were covered in second class stamps (because he said he was going to post himself to America to visit his uncle there). They suggested to the twins to do the same thing, as London could do without rats.r />
  ‘It takes one to know one!’ shouted Jenna. She wished she could have thought of a better comeback than that one, but she had to say something quickly. She didn’t trust Jessica to say the right thing. Nobody trusted Jessica to say the right thing. Jessica tripped up over words as easily as she did her own shadow. That was never good. Jessica disagreed with that slightly and felt she was never given a chance. But that’s the price you have to pay for being the baby of the litter. The last one out. The runt.

  There was an awkward stand-off between Jenna, Jessica and Billy Buck. They stared silently at one another. No one knowing what to do or say next. That was when they noticed there were more blackbirds than usual around the Tipples’ home. One by one they were landing, not only on the house but all around the square. And there was a brave one that landed on Mrs Griffins’ front door step.

  Hearing their mum and dad rushing around in a panic downstairs, they closed their bedroom window and went to investigate to see what the noise was all about, shutting Boo in the wardrobe before doing so, as that was his safe place. As they entered the living room, their dad was standing hunched in the fireplace blocking what seemed to be blackbirds falling down the chimney.

  ‘B-blasted birds!’ Mr Tipple shouted. He was covered in soot and looked like a blackbird himself.

  ‘I just don’t understand what’s going on. Why are they all here? Why so many?’ Mrs Tipple said. ‘We’re going to have to blame this one on next door. We’ll just say they copied us.’ She then paused and looked at Caitlyn’s shoes by the front door. ‘No wonder we’re the talk of the square.’

  With Jenna and Jessica still fixated on the blackbirds outside (that continued to land in their hundreds), Billy Buck and his friend were now dancing in front of a group of birds, and when the birds tried to attack Billy’s friend and his stamps, they ran off in a panic and told the birds to ‘stay swag’.

  But then the twins saw something emerge from the heavy rain … something that haunted them at night when they closed their eyes. Something that brought back bad memories of the night Caitlyn had gone. The twins covered their eyes with their hands, peering through the cracks of their fingers, to hide from the image that was scaring them. Three figures were coming towards their home.