Cherry Blossom Dreams Read online

  We had just been debating the best way to get inside it when Miranda, who had arrived with Mum, miraculously produced the key (apparently it had been on an old set of house keys she kept at the office).

  But to everyone’s immense disappointment there had turned out to be nothing inside the box. Sean had insisted on checking for a false bottom or a secret compartment, but even after a very careful search he’d still come up with nothing at all.

  That said I was way too excited by my three new dresses – which Miranda had agreed I could keep – to feel too disappointed by the empty trunk. When we got home I sent Lily and Ellie photos of each dress and Ellie texted me straight back suggesting that I wore one of them to the party.

  I thought it was a brilliant idea, although I was having a difficult time deciding which of the three to choose. My favourite was the red halter neck, but the skirt was too long on me. It might have been OK if I was wearing high heels but I didn’t have any, and even if I had I wouldn’t have wanted to totter about in them all evening. The emerald dress fitted me well and I liked the way the skirt swished when I spun round. But the boned bodice dug in a bit and I thought the bow on the front was a bit too fussy.

  I eventually settled for the third dress. It was less swishy (because of the bead-studded netting over the skirt), but the velvet bodice was more comfortable and very flattering. I don’t tend to wear black very much, but now I could see that it suited me and it also made me look older, plus the fuchsia-coloured skirt was really eye-catching.

  ‘You’ve gotta be kidding!’ Sean exclaimed with a smirk when I went downstairs to show Mum and Granny.

  I ignored him and gave Mum a little twirl. ‘How do I look?’

  ‘Lovely,’ she replied with a smile. ‘And very grown up.’

  ‘Where’s Granny?’ I asked.

  ‘She went outside. Actually I’m a bit worried about her.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Sean was showing her the sales brochure for Blossom House and pointing out all the pictures he took,’ Mum explained. ‘She started peering at them with a really funny look on her face. Then she just rushed out.’

  ‘Sean, what did you say to her?’ I demanded.

  ‘I didn’t say anything!’ Sean protested.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Mum was frowning at him.

  ‘I’ll go and check she’s all right, shall I?’ I suggested, slipping a cardigan on over my dress and heading for the front door.

  I caught up with Granny a short way along our street. It was dark outside and she had stopped on the pavement a few houses along, where she seemed to be staring up at the stars.

  ‘Are you OK, Granny?’ I asked her as I caught up.

  ‘What? Oh, it’s you, Sasha … Yes, I’m fine. Just felt a little peaky all of a sudden.’ She shivered and I saw that she’d come out without her coat.

  I wasn’t really cold so I took off my cardigan and gave it to her.

  ‘Granny, did Sean say something that upset you?’ I asked gently.

  ‘Oh no, dear. It wasn’t anything Sean said,’ she assured me as she began to walk with me back to the house with the cardigan round her shoulders. As we passed under a lamppost she turned to look at me and suddenly froze. ‘What are you wearing?’

  ‘It’s an old evening dress that came from Blossom House. Miranda said I could have it. Do you like it?’

  ‘Like it? Sasha, I want you to go and take off that dreadful old thing and … and … I never want to see it on you again, do you understand?’

  ‘But, Granny –’

  ‘NEVER!’ She yelled it so loudly that the entire street probably heard.

  Mum certainly did from where she’d been standing at the front door waiting for us.

  ‘Sasha, what happened?’ she asked as I rushed past her into the house.

  I was almost in tears. ‘She was really horrible to me about this dress.’

  ‘The dress? Why?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Mum frowned and I could tell that Granny’s behaviour made absolutely no sense to her either.

  There were only thirty-six hours to go until the party and we still hadn’t found Monty. Plus I was seriously worried about my grandmother.

  ‘Maybe she’s going demented,’ Lily suggested helpfully at school when I told her what had happened. ‘My great-aunt’s demented and she’s always shouting at us for no reason and accusing us of stealing her clothes and things.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s that,’ I said. ‘Granny’s memory seems fine. It was only that one thing she said about my dress that didn’t make any sense. Mum tried to get her to say what the problem was but she wouldn’t. Though she did tell me later that she was sorry for yelling at me.’

  ‘Strange … so are you still going to wear that dress to the party?’

  ‘Yep. And Priti’s going to wear the red one if it fits her. I’m taking it round to hers after school today so she can try it on.’ I had already offered Lily one of the dresses to wear but she had declined, saying that vintage clothes weren’t really her thing.

  ‘Priti won’t turn up,’ Lily said. ‘She’ll make some excuse at the last minute. You’ll see.’

  ‘No, Lily, I think she’ll come,’ I said. ‘She’s already got it all planned out.’

  Priti had relayed her plan to me the day before: ‘I’ll tell Dad I’m going to yours for the evening on Saturday and I’ll arrange for him to drop me off there. Mum won’t be in because she’s going to see my auntie, and Dad won’t notice I’m all dressed up if I wear my long coat over the top. I’ll walk round to Blossom House, stay at the party for a couple of hours, then walk back to your house and be waiting outside when Dad comes to collect me.’

  I was actually surprised by how gutsy she was being. Priti never usually broke the rules or disobeyed her parents. I knew this was a really big deal for her.

  As for my own cover story, Mum thought I was sleeping over at Lily’s place and Lily’s mum thought she was staying at mine. Hopefully our mothers wouldn’t mention it to each other at any point, though since they hardly see each other these days, I thought it was unlikely.

  ‘I am so excited about tomorrow night, Sasha!’ Lily exclaimed, slipping one arm through mine. ‘You do realise this is going to be the most fun we’ve had in, like … forever!’ And she let out a delighted giggle as she teased, ‘You know, I’m starting to think I might not lose you to the dorky side after all!’

  I had a great time at Priti’s house on Friday evening. We’d stopped at mine on the way back from school to pick up the dress, and when Priti tried it on it fitted her perfectly. It turned out she even had a pair of high-heeled red shoes to go with it.

  As usual Priti’s dad insisted on giving me a lift home at the end of the evening. He actually drove us past Blossom House, and I saw to my surprise that the lights were on. Weird!

  I got home to find Sean sitting in the kitchen eating a large slice of Granny’s homemade chocolate cake. (One really good thing about Granny coming to stay is that she always does loads of baking.)

  ‘Sean, I just passed Blossom House and I saw –’

  ‘Mum and Granny are round there,’ Sean said without looking up from his cake.

  ‘Granny?’

  ‘Yeah. She decided she wanted to go and see the place after all. They’ve been gone ages.’

  ‘Did Mum and Miranda finish clearing it out?’

  ‘Yeah – just as well, because I’m taking Zack round there tomorrow to look for Monty. He’s bringing a mouse to try and entice him out. He says snakes are naturally shy, so he’s not surprised Monty hasn’t shown up while there’ve been people in the house.’

  ‘Right …’ I murmured. I couldn’t believe I’d almost forgotten about the Monty crisis in all the excitement about the party.

  ‘Don’t worry. Zack and I will be well away from the place by the time you lot get there,’ he added.

  ‘But I thought Zack wanted to look for Monty after dark.’

  ‘Yeah – wel
l, he’s hoping it won’t come to that.’

  ‘You know, you and Zack could always just come to the party. You could have a look round for Monty at the same time.’

  ‘No, thanks. I don’t intend to be anywhere near the place when you get caught and Mum and Leo go ballistic! Though it’s going to be quite cool seeing the looks on their faces when they find out you’re the one responsible and not me!’

  Before I could even respond we heard the front door open.

  ‘Granny!’ I went through to the hall, where she was taking off her coat. ‘What did you think of Blossom House? Did Mum show you the box?’

  ‘What?’ She looked a bit dazed.

  ‘Blossom House? You just went to see it, didn’t you?’

  ‘Oh, yes, it was … it was …’ She seemed to forget my question before she’d even answered it. ‘Actually I’m rather tired. I think I’ll go straight to bed.’

  I looked quizzically at Sean as Granny moved slowly up the stairs, looking as if all the energy had been drained out of her.

  ‘What is it with Granny and Blossom House?’ I murmured.

  Sean just shrugged, clearly a lot less intrigued by the situation than I was. And if I’d expected Mum to throw some light on the matter when she came home twenty minutes later, I was wrong. It turned out Mum was totally anxious for a different reason. I’d completely forgotten that tomorrow was the Big Lunch. At long last Granny and Leo were going to meet – and Mum was already panicking about it.

  That night it took me ages to get to sleep, and on Saturday morning I woke up filled with anxiety and excitement. Lily started sending me texts before I’d even got out of bed, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate fully on preparing for the party until I’d made it through lunch with Leo and Granny.

  I also had to hope that Sean and Zack found that snake in time – not that Lily thought a snake on the loose was a good enough reason to cancel our party. It was just that I’d rather not have to worry about Monty making an appearance in addition to everything else.

  Mum was worked up too, though of course she didn’t know anything about what I was planning for this evening. All she was thinking about was lunch.

  ‘Maybe I should have booked something a bit more formal,’ she said with a worried frown when Granny was upstairs getting dressed. ‘But I know Granny likes the pasta there and –’

  ‘The pizza place is fine, Mum,’ I reassured her swiftly.

  ‘Yeah, Mum, pizza’s a great idea,’ Sean agreed, adding with a grin, ‘If it was a steakhouse there’d be way too many sharp knives!’

  Mum glared at him. ‘Carry on like that and you can stay at home. This is very stressful, Sean. There’s nothing to joke about.’

  ‘Come on, Mum. You need to chill out,’ Sean said impatiently. ‘Do some deep breathing or something.’

  ‘Yes, Mum. It might help,’ I agreed.

  ‘Just watch where you do it,’ Sean warned. ‘You don’t want Granny tripping over you and nearly breaking her ankle like she did that time when you were meditating on the kitchen floor.’

  ‘Poor Mum,’ I murmured after she’d gone upstairs to meditate in her bedroom. ‘She’s really worrying about this.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Sean agreed. ‘She needs to loosen up. I mean, at the end of the day, Granny will still be on her side whether she stays with Leo or not. Granny just wants to make sure Mum’s not about to do something stupid, that’s all.’

  ‘Yeah, Granny’s just trying to protect the three of us as usual,’ I agreed.

  We were both thoughtful for a few seconds before turning to face each other. ‘Poor Leo,’ we both said at once.

  Granny was unusually quiet when she eventually came downstairs, but I quickly dismissed the idea that she could be worrying about meeting Leo. Though she might have been mentally compiling her list of interrogation questions for him.

  Sean had already left the house to meet Zack for their last-ditch mission to rescue Monty, and Mum had just finished her meditation session, which seemed to have calmed her down.

  Trying to draw my grandmother out a bit, I asked her, ‘Granny, did Mum show you that old trunk we found in the shed at Blossom House the other day?’

  There was a momentary pause before Granny replied stiffly, ‘I believe she mentioned it, but I had no desire to go traipsing through all that long grass and weeds to look at some old box.’

  ‘I asked Miranda what she knows about it,’ Mum told me, as she passed Granny the butter for her toast. ‘It turns out it belonged to the old lady’s husband. And guess what? He was a magician too!’ She turned to Granny. ‘No wonder that box reminds me of Dad’s! Miranda says the old lady was his assistant as well as his wife. Apparently she was really tiny and a bit of a contortionist, so she was very good at fitting inside small spaces –’

  Suddenly Granny clanked her knife down on her plate and demanded, ‘Annabel, are you deliberately trying to upset me?’

  ‘What?’ Mum looked surprised. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

  Granny narrowed her eyes and announced that she intended to get the first train home after lunch.

  ‘What? But Leo’s planning to take us out this afternoon!’ Mum protested. Leo had arranged a trip to a nearby stately home where the cakes are to die for.

  ‘I shall meet the boy at lunchtime and that will be quite enough time spent together for both of us, I should think,’ Granny replied briskly.

  Now it was Mum whose eyes became slats. ‘Leo’s not a “boy”, Mother!’

  ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, Annabel, don’t be so touchy! I’d love to hear what the two of you call me behind my back. Your trouble is you take everything far too personally!’

  ‘Oh yes?’ Mum retorted angrily. ‘Well, what about you? You seemed to take it pretty personally when I was talking about some other magician having a wife who actually supported him! You were always so mean about Dad’s job!’

  At that point you could have heard a pin dropping on our kitchen floor.

  I gaped at Mum.

  ‘Yes, well … I think I’ll just go upstairs and pack now,’ Granny said a little shakily.

  As Granny left the kitchen I turned to Mum and gave her a stern look.

  ‘Well, it’s true!’ Mum said defensively. ‘Your grandpa loved his job. And he was good at it too. He really made me believe in magic.’ Mum stopped and I saw that her eyes had filled with tears. ‘You know … I was away travelling with your dad when your grandpa died. I couldn’t even get back for the funeral. And then when I got home, all his stuff was gone. She didn’t even wait to see if I wanted anything …’

  ‘Maybe she couldn’t stand seeing all his things around her when he wasn’t ever coming back,’ I said, trying to console her with the first thing I could think of. Though I had to admit what Granny had done did sound a bit mean. I’d never really thought before about how Mum still missed her dad, whereas Granny seemed to want to forget that he’d ever existed.

  Frankly, I was beginning to think I didn’t understand my family at all.

  At a quarter past one Sean and I were waiting inside the pizza place with Leo. My brother and Zack had spent the morning searching Blossom House for Monty to no avail. Now our minds were on the next challenge of the day.

  Or ‘Granny versus Leo’, as Sean had dubbed it.

  ‘I’m starving,’ Sean muttered as he stood up to go and inspect the salad bar.

  I went with him.

  ‘Might have known Granny would keep him waiting,’ Sean said as he prodded the potato salad with the serving spoon.

  ‘He’s dressed like it’s a school day,’ I pointed out as I glanced back at our table, where Leo was sitting rigidly with his eyes glued to the door.

  ‘I know. He could do with losing the tie,’ Sean agreed. ‘He looks like he’s here for a job interview.’

  ‘Poor thing, he’s really nervous,’ I murmured.

  ‘Yeah,’ Sean agreed and there was something in his voice that almost sounded disappointed. ‘You’d t
hink he’d be a bit … well, braver … wouldn’t you? I mean, he stood up to Mr Jamieson that time when he bawled him out for wearing trainers to school after he broke his toe. You’d think he could handle Granny!’

  ‘Oh well … she’s not here yet,’ I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. That’s when I saw what my brother was doing. ‘Sean, don’t,’ I warned him, but as usual he ignored me.

  You see, whenever we go anywhere with one of those fill-up-your-own-plate buffet systems, Sean sees it as a personal challenge to cram as much food as possible on to his plate. The challenge also includes making it back to our table without spilling anything. He’d failed on that point the last time and the lady at the next table to ours had ended up with her handbag covered in coleslaw. His behaviour really embarrassed Mum (and me) but no matter how cross Mum gets each time, she can’t seem to make him stop doing it.

  Today Sean had piled up an absolute mountain of food on to his plate and I closed my eyes and sent up a prayer as he set off across the room with the precariously arranged salad stuff looking fit to topple off at any moment.

  ‘Ta-dah!’ he announced proudly as he placed the loaded plate down on our table without mishap. It was heaped with pasta salad, rice salad, bean salad, potato salad, coleslaw and just about everything else at the salad bar except for any actual green stuff. He saw Leo’s shocked expression and laughed.

  ‘You know what that looks like?’ I told my brother in disgust. ‘Like the slops container after school dinners.’

  Sean just kept laughing.

  Just then our waiter arrived with the garlic bread Leo had ordered for us to munch on while we were waiting. Sean was about to dig in – he loves garlic bread – when Leo’s hand shot out to grab my brother’s wrist.

  ‘You can have some after you’ve eaten all of that,’ he told him, pointing at the grotesque mountain of salad which we all knew my brother had no intention of actually finishing.

  I think Sean thought Leo was joking at first.

  ‘Come on, Leo! There’s no need to start acting like Granny! She’s not going to like you any better for it!’ he teased.