Really Weird Removals.com by Daniela Sacerdoti Read Free Book Online Page A

lying to my mum and dad like that. But I’ve just got to go with Uncle Alistair. It’s as if something’s calling me. As if this is something I must do.
    Aunt Shuna shepherds us into the kitchen, where dinner is about to be served.
    Camilla’s hovering over the stove.
    “She seems soooo nice, your aunt. I wish she could see me!”
    “What was that, Valentina?” asks Aunt Shuna.
    “Pardon?”
    “What did you say?”
    “It wasn’t me, it was–” Valentina puts her hand to her mouth and makes a face at me.
    Had Aunt Shuna heard Camilla speaking?
    “I just said… I said, ‘ Mmmm , my favourite, fish fingers and chips!’”
    “With your mum’s home-made ketchup.”
    I know . Mum makes her own ketchup. Boils a ton of tomatoes with vegetables and sugar and vinegar, and makes the most delicious ketchup ever. And she makes the fish fingers herself too, with freshly caught fish from the local fishmonger, and the chips she double-fries with rosemary and coarse salt. It’s as if we live in a restaurant.
    But Camilla isn’t in the least interested in home-made ketchup. She is birling round the kitchen, trying to attract our aunt’s attention.
    “Shuna! It’s Camilla! I’m here! Look up here!”
    “Is there a radio on somewhere?” asks Aunt Shuna.
    Valentina wags a warning finger at Camilla.
    “Maybe. It must be coming from outside,” I say, trying to sound breezy.
    As we sit there waiting for Dad to make a decision, I can’t help wondering why Alistair, Valentina and I can See, when my dad and his sister can’t. I wonder if my grandparents could?
    On the way back to our house from his office, Uncle Alistair explained to us that the Sight allows you to see things like they really are, not like theyappear to be.
    “The thing is, some of the creatures I work with look perfectly normal, perfectly human, but they’re not.”
    He told us a story about walking down the street one day in London, a man stopped him for information. The man had a map in his hand, and was looking for Grosvenor Square. My uncle gave him directions, then watched him walk away – and noticed that his bottom half was a horse! Everybody else could only see a businessman. How cool is that?
    A word of advice though, if you’re up here in Scotland, and you see anything half horse, half human, just run as fast you can. It’s bound to be a kelpie and, believe me, you don’t want to meet one of those . Have a look at the Paranormal Database , there are a few kelpie sightings recorded in there, and quite a lot of people – mainly children – have disappeared around the places they were seen. Just to let you know.
    My thoughts are interrupted by Mum’s footsteps on the stairs.
    “I spoke to your dad.” We can tell from the look on her face that it wasn’t an easy conversation.
    “We can go on Saturday?” Valentina and I ask in unison.
    Camilla, who’s sitting on the table, leaps to her feet.
    “You can go see Kenny and Libby in Hag with your uncle, yes.” We jump up and down and Camilla cartwheels along the top of the dresser. Mum holds up her finger in warning. “This time!” she adds, just to specify it won’t be a common occurrence.
    “Great! Thanks Mum!”
    “Ok, ok. But if there’s any trouble…”
    “Why should there be trouble? It’s not like we’re going to hunt monsters or anything like that…” I say.
    “Stone fairies are only small,” adds Camilla, trying to be helpful. Thankfully neither Mum nor Aunt Shuna can hear her.
    “Duncan needs time to trust Alistair again,” I hear Aunt Shuna say to my mum.
    “I know. If the children spend time with him, and Duncan sees they’re perfectly safe, I’m hoping he’ll come round and let his brother back into the family. It’ll be a slow process.” Mum is thoughtful.
    “To think they were so close.” Aunt Shuna’s voice is sad.
    “Were they? It doesn’t look like it now.”
    “It’s true. Wherever Alistair was, there was Duncan. So different in personality,