Icefire by Chris D'Lacey Read Free Book Online Page A

house next door and Mr. Bacon, the Pennykettles’ neighbor, stepped out. He was dressed in a baggy old shirt and trousers held up by a pair of splendid yellow suspenders. David immediately started to tense. He didn’t get along with Henry Bacon, who had a habit of sticking his nose into things. That morning was no exception. Henry saw the raised hood and immediately asked, “Problem, Mrs. P.?”
    “Car won’t start. Sproggle on the jizzlewots, according to David.”
    “Jizzlewot? There’s no such thing.” Mr. Bacon brushed David aside, leaned across the engine, and started to fiddle. “Get in, Mrs. P. We’ll soon have her running. Turn her over, if you would.”
    Liz seemed a little uncertain, but she got in anyway and turned the ignition. The car spluttered but failed to start.
    “Stop!” cried Henry, and tweaked another screw. “Once more, please.” Liz turned the key again.
    To David’s relief, the engine shook and the carexploded into life. Liz left it running and came to offer thanks. “Henry, you’re a marvel. I’m indebted to you.”
    “My pleasure, Mrs. P. Learned a trick or two in my army days. Needs a good tune-up. Plugs and points. Happy to oblige. Any time at all.”
    “Thank you,” she said, and would have added more had she not been nearly knocked over by an onrushing Lucy.
    “Mom,” she panted, her fine hair plastered all over her face. “You’ve got to come and look. He’s here. I’ve found him!”
    “Who?” said Liz and David together.
    Frowning, Lucy turned to the tenant. “Spikey, silly. Why didn’t you tell me he was
special?”
    “Special?” A hairbrush with a funny face was special?
    “Yes,” said Lucy, eyes almost popping. “Mom, he’s the greatest hedgehog ever!” “And why might that be?”
    Lucy danced and knocked her fists together. “Because he’s
white!”

9
Z ANNA IN THE G ARDEN
     
    W hite?” Liz repeated, raising an eyebrow.
    “White?” said Henry Bacon, wiping his nose and leaving an oil stain on his mustache.
    “White?”
spluttered David.
    “With pink eyes,” Lucy added, looking at all three adults in turn.
    “That means … well, I’ll be darned,” said Liz.
    “Think you mean ‘albino,’ strictly, Mrs. P.”
    “Where?” rasped David. “Where did you find it?”
    “In the brambles,” said Lucy. “Where you said. Mom, can we please get the rabbit hutch out of the attic and make a real den for Spikey?”
    “Not now, we’ll be late for the fair,” she said,aiming Lucy toward the car. “Say good-bye to Mr. Bacon and David.”
    “Look after Spikey,” Lucy shouted to David.
    “Yeah, right,” he muttered, totally confused. How could Lucy have missed the hairbrush and found a real hedgehog instead? Sighing, he waved the car good-bye. It chugged unconvincingly up the crescent, giving another little cough along the way. “Are you sure that car’s all right, Henry?”
    “Fit as a fiddle,” Mr. Bacon sniffed. “Mind you, if you want a decent vehicle, that’s the thing to be in, boy.” He pointed down the driveway. A sleek black car had just pulled up.
    David grunted in agreement. “Bet it costs a bit to look after, though — wow!” Suddenly his mouth was wide enough to take an apple whole. The driver of the car had just stepped out. It was none other than Zanna.
    “Good Lord!” Mr. Bacon exclaimed as Zanna came clip-clopping down the path. She looked like a tall dark mermaid, with her lower half enclosed in a tight-fittingskirt that flared at the ankles like a large tail fin. To David’s relief she hadn’t ghosted her face, and looked quite stunning in a shocking sort of way, with her eyes shadowed purple and a plum red rinse washed into her hair. But with a silver-studded dog collar around her neck and at least two rings for every finger, she stood out like a runaway scarecrow in the sleepy leafiness of Wayward Crescent. Fearing Mr. Bacon would either faint or, worse, go after her with a stick, David moved forward to