Squishy Taylor and the Vase That Wasn't (3 page)

Jessie and Vee mostly don’t talk to me at school because they’re five and a half months older than me. Which is fine – my school friends are better than theirs. My friends and I spend lunch and recess playing monkey-bar tag. If you touch the ground, you’re it. I’m
super-ninja
at it since I started rock-climbing and bunk-bed acrobatics. I’m like a monkey god with a hundred arms.

Vee passes just as I’m doing a
kick
up to the top bar. She’s talking to her friends from the horror-movie sleepover.

‘Really,’ she says. ‘An actual ghost.’

‘Ooooh,’ one of them says, sounding impressed. ‘Aren’t you
terrified?
’

Then I get tagged from behind.

After dinner, I tell the grown-ups that I’m skyping Mum and grab the iPad. Jessie and Vee follow me and we sit on Jessie’s bed.

I type:
Love you, Mum, way too much homework, talk tomorrow night?

She sends a whole row of kisses, which is short for:
I love you, I’m busy too.

Done.

I’m handing the iPad over to Jessie so she can work her
hacker magic
when another message appears on the screen. Mum has clearly been thinking.

Since when did you do your homework?

We all laugh.

Jessie sends Mum a wink emoji. Then she gets down to work. It’s no fun watching Jessie google things. She flicks between windows so fast, you can’t actually read anything.

‘Ah. Right,’ Jessie mutters. ‘How do I get into this security footage?’ Jessie stops at a screen with some instructions and a password box. ‘Hmm. All residents have password access to security footage from their own floor for two weeks. Mmm. After that –’

‘Boring!’ I say.

Which gives me an idea.

‘What do you reckon Boring Lady’s doing?’ I ask Vee.

We do
Desk-Leap-Scrambles
up to her bunk and then
Rolling-Spin-Drops
down to mine. We take it in turns to look at Boring Lady through the telescope.

Her light is still on. Boring Lady is known to some people as the Chief of Special Secret Undercover Operations. But not to us. Our bedroom window looks straight across at her quiet-work room, so all we ever see her do is type. Boring.

We wave to her, but she doesn’t look up.

Our telescope is really good. It’s supposed to be for looking at stars, so you can see every single one of Boring Lady’s eyelashes.

We take it in turns to jump up and down in front of the window, but she doesn’t see us.

‘Wonder what she’s working on?’ I say, while Vee looks through the telescope.

‘
Ha!
’ Jessie says, from below. ‘Equal-seventh most basic password ever! I’m in.’

We drop onto her bunk. The screen is divided into two black-and-white scenes showing the twelfth-floor corridor. It’s like two grainy YouTube clips next to each other. One shot is from the lift and the other from the stairwell door. They’re both empty.

‘The thief must have come in through the balcony,’ I say.

‘I haven’t searched the right time yet, dummy,’ Jessie says, sliding the fast-forward bar down the bottom. ‘Let’s look at when he first found out … What time do we get home from school?’

Suddenly the screen shows Haunted Guy appearing out of his door, waving his arms and running towards the lift. She slides it some more and then he and Mr Hinkenbushel walk back down the corridor.

‘OK, sooo –’ Jessie says, sliding the bar back further in time to the night of the haunting.

‘
There!
’ Vee and I say at the same time. Jessie freezes the screen.

We all stare at it. For the first time, I
really, truly
believe in ghosts.

It’s an olden-days-looking Chinese soldier, standing perfectly still. He’s wearing armour carved with
dragons
and a helmet covering his eyes. He’s holding a spear. He doesn’t move once.

Jessie slides the time-bar forwards and backwards. At 11.59, there’s nothing. Then at midnight, the ghost suddenly appears. It stands absolutely still for exactly thirteen seconds. You might not think thirteen seconds is a long time, but when you’re looking at a
ghost
, I promise you, it is. After exactly thirteen seconds, it fades to white and then disappears.

‘
No way!
’ Jessie whispers. ‘No way, no way!’

I realise Vee’s hand is gripping mine.

Jessie starts sliding the time-bar back and forth, like she’ll find something we’ve missed.

Then the screen freezes.

A text box flashes up and the words
Don’t you dare
appear in it, one letter at a time. It’s like there’s a ghost inside the iPad.

Vee gives a little scream.

Then a profile picture loads beside the words. It’s Mr Hinkenbushel.

Mr Hinkenbushel is actually writing to us on our screen:
Nosy brats
, he says.
If you do this again, I’ll seize your iPad for evidence. Go play hopscotch.
The security screen slides away and we’re back to the Google homepage.

Jessie gasps. ‘How did he
do
that?’

Vee: ‘It was a ghost. Was it a ghost?’

Jessie: ‘No, it was Mr Hinkenbushel. He must be tracking who else is accessing the footage as part of his investigation.’

Vee: ‘But before that. There was a ghost before that.’

I’m a little bit scared of the ghost. I’m more worried about Mr Hinkenbushel. I don’t want him to be in our iPad. I don’t want him to
spy
on us. The iPad is the only way for me to talk to Mum. It makes me kind of angry, thinking Mr Hinkenbushel could look at me talking to her.

‘Can Mr Hinkenbushel see what we’re doing on the iPad whenever he wants?’ I ask.

Jessie frowns. ‘No. Why would you think that?’

‘Because he was just
there
, talking to us.’

‘I think,’ Jessie explains, ‘he can only talk to us from the security website. Maybe because he’s investigating, he can see what anyone on that website is doing.’ She pauses and shakes her head. ‘He can’t just look at us anytime. That would be illegal.’

‘Oh.’ I feel a big wash of
relief
.

Vee looks half-scared, half-angry. ‘I can’t believe
that’s
what you’re talking about,’ she hisses. ‘Don’t you even care that we saw a
ghost?
’

Alice sends us off to bed, and we go quietly. The image of that ghost is appearing and disappearing in my mind.

‘If the ghost can steal a vase,’ Vee whispers in the dark, ‘what else can it do?’

‘It can’t really be a ghost,’ Jessie says. ‘It’s got to be some kind of
hoax
.’

‘It could be either,’ I say. Whichever way, it’s a mystery, so I’m happy.

In the night, I wake up because Vee is climbing out of bed. I get a
fright
and lie there, clutching my blanket. A few moments later, Alice brings Vee back and tucks her in.

‘Don’t be scared,’ Alice whispers. ‘I’m here.’ She stands for a while next to Vee’s pillow. My heart slows back down to normal and I fall asleep before Alice leaves.

Jessie looks extra-thoughtful over breakfast, but doesn’t say much. Vee is turning her porridge over without putting any in her mouth. Baby
smashes
bits of apple against the table and drops them on the floor. He’s not scared of anything.

We don’t talk about the vase, but the whole day I’m a little bit tingly because I know there’s something big happening.

‘Hey, you guys,’ Dad says, as we all arrive home from school. ‘Someone got an email from Geneva today.’

‘
Woohooo!
’ I shout and run over. Emails from Mum usually mean movie vouchers or music credit.

He shakes his finger, grinning. ‘Not for you, Squisho, for somebody else.’

He passes the iPad over to Jessie.

I just stare.
Mum
emailed
Jessie
? The world feels wrong. I can feel my eyes prickling hot and I don’t know what to do. Then Dad gives everyone his matching, exactly equal
forehead-kisses
. And I’m suddenly hot-hot angry.

That’s
my
dad and
my
mum. It’s fine that they live apart. I got used to that ages ago. It’s fine that I have to share a bedroom with my bonus sisters. They are actually mostly pretty fun. But I need
some
special things, some things only for me.