Mostly Sunny with a Chance of Storms (21 page)

The only thing I had to worry about was finding a cure for Steph’s depression and working out how to communicate with the spirit of Granny Carmelene so I could find out exactly where
nowhere
was, once and for all.

It was my
favourite kind of cold day – crispy, sunny and not a breath of wind to blow anyone else’s dark clouds my way. I had to run an errand for Settimio (even though I was grounded), but Mum said she’d come with me to make sure I didn’t do anything wrong.

I was still spying on Settimio, even though I’d promised myself I wouldn’t. It was starting to look like an addiction. I just couldn’t quit the habit. Still, it wasn’t as if he was ever doing anything out of the ordinary – just reading the paper, or making coffee. Surely I’d get bored of spying sooner or later.

On the way to the shops I had two extra springs in my step. One foot had an extra spring on account of Dad, Steph and Flora moving in. And the other was extra
springy because Finn was coming over.

I had to play it down though, because it was important that Mum believed I was at least suffering a little bit due to being grounded.

We were waiting at the lights to cross the road to the supermarket when Willow started wagging her tail frantically and pulling on her lead because she saw another dog tied up outside. I could see from a distance that it was Sophia. And with her own collar back on too.

‘Calm down, Willow!’ I said, as the lights turned green. She was so excited her whole body wanted to break into a few Washing Machines, right in the middle of the intersection. She pulled me hard to where Sophia was tied up, and jumped and pounced all over her.

I was still trying to untangle them when Kara Bleakly appeared with two plastic bags full of shopping.

‘Oh, Sunny, it’s you,’ she said, trying to untie Sophia with one hand while dodging a lick on the face from Willow.

‘Hi, Kara,’ I said, holding Willow by the collar. ‘This is my mum, Alex.’ Then I turned to Mum. ‘Mum, this is Kara Bleakly.’

‘Hello, Kara. Sunny’s told us all about you.’ Mum held out a hand, which I think she intended as a handshake, but Kara promptly loaded her up with her shopping bags so that she could deal with Sophia.

‘Pleased to meet you, Alex. Sunny’s been doing a great job with Sophia. She’s already lost some weight.’

Mum handed Kara back her shopping bags.

‘I think it’s the swimming,’ I said. ‘Sophia’s
really
good at it.’

‘Which reminds me, Sunny,’ Kara went on. ‘There was a mix up with the collars the other day. Sophia had the wrong one on when you dropped her off.’

Mum gave me
the eyebrow
.

‘Really? I’m so sorry, Kara. I can—’

‘Not to worry, Sunny. Luckily the other collar had a contact number on it, so I called the chap, and we set things straight. He lives just around the corner, it turns out.’

‘Yes, Ritchie and Woolfie. They’re just on Carmichael Drive.’

‘Exactly,’ said Kara looking at her watch. ‘Gosh, I’ve got to fly. Working most of the weekend again, I’m afraid. Will you be picking Sophia up again tomorrow?’

‘Yep, two o’clock,’ I said as she took off towards the crossing.

‘Lovely to meet you, Alex,’ Kara shouted over her shoulder.

‘You too, Kara,’ Mum called after her, and, when she was certain Kara was out of earshot, Mum said, ‘Well, Sunny, your devious matchmaking scheme looks like it’s off to a good start. They’ve met each other at least.
Swapping the dogs’ collars, huh? Inspired!’

And I could tell that even though Mum had to be cross with me for my involvement with the Croc theft, she was also dead proud of me at the same time.

As we clicked open the gate I noticed Finn standing on the front porch – and before I could restrain Willow she had darted out in front of me and raced ahead to greet him.

‘Watch out!’ I called out to him. ‘Willow might spook the pigeons.’

‘It’s okay, Sunny Hathaway, I’ve put them out of dog reach.’ Finn pointed to one of the work vans parked around the side of the house, and sure enough, there was his crate of birds safely sitting on top.

‘Hi, Mrs Aberdeen,’ Finn said. ‘Can I help you with that?’

‘Oh, thank you, Finn,’ Mum said, allowing him to pull the shopping buggy up the front steps. ‘But please, you can call me Alex.’

‘I prefer Mrs Aberdeen if you don’t mind, Mrs Aberdeen.’

‘Finn’s got a thing about using people’s full names,’ I explained as I propped the wire door open for everyone to get inside.

‘Fair enough,’ said Mum. ‘Now, before you both disappear, Settimio needs his parcel from the pharmacy. Why don’t you take Finn down to meet him?’

‘Aw, Mum! Can’t you do it?’ I whined.

But before Mum could answer, Finn said, ‘Why don’t we all go?’ Which was a totally weird thing for a friend to say, if you ask me. But let’s face it, Finn is hardly regular.

‘That’s a great idea,’ said Mum.

Settimio was waiting in his kitchen with the front door ajar so he wouldn’t have to get up from his seat at the table to let us in.

‘Knock knock!’ Mum called out before we went inside.

‘
Grazie mille
,’ he said, as Mum put his parcel down on the table.

‘This is Sunny’s friend Finn,’ Mum said. ‘Finn Fletcher-Lomax. Finn, this is Settimio Costa.’

Suddenly Mum had become a surname lover too.

‘Hello, Mr Costa,’ said Finn, and he shook Settimio’s hand.

Mum set about unpacking the groceries and Settimio propped himself up against the open door of the fridge, ready to put things away with his spare hand.

‘How did he hurt his leg?’ Finn whispered.

‘He won’t tell,’ I whispered back. ‘You ask him.’

‘
Il latte
?’ Settimio said, clicking his fingers at me impatiently. ‘
Milk,
’ he repeated.

‘Here it is,’ said Mum, grouping all the things together that needed refrigeration. ‘Lovely sunny day!’ she said. ‘Finn’s been raising pigeons, haven’t you, Finn? Sunny, why
don’t you take Finn outside and show him the old chook house. It might be suitable for pigeons don’t you think, Settimio?’

‘Pigeons very nice bird,’ Settimio said. ‘You go take a look.’ He nodded sideways at Finn. Then he sighed and sat back down at the table. ‘Coffee?’ he asked Mum. ‘You get coffee?’

‘I’d love one,’ said Mum. ‘Thank you Settimio. Why not?’ And just as Finn and I were leaving I noticed Mum take one of Settimio’s books down from the shelf above where he has a whole row of little coloured cups, each hanging on its own hook. The book was called
Erbe Medicinali d’Italia,
which even I knew was an Italian book about medicinal plants.

I showed Finn the way to the old chicken coup, which I must say I found a little scary because it was so overrun with long grass and weeds, which could be the perfect hiding place for a tube with fangs, even if it was winter, when snakes are meant to be hibernating.

‘Mad,’ said Finn, as we stepped inside the cage. ‘If I can keep half my pigeons here, we really will be able to reinstate the pigeon post.’ He started tugging on some of the weeds in the open air section and made a big pile in one corner.

‘I’ll put some straw down and mulch over this whole
area,’ he said getting as excited about mulching as Mum and Carl.

‘Okay,’ I said, helping to pull weeds. ‘But what did you think about the seance idea, Finn. Will you participate? I’m sure Granny Carmelene’s spirit will talk with us straightaway because she’s still here. I can feel her and I’m sure that’s why she’s been sending me angels. As messengers. To let me know she’s around.’

‘Of course I’ll participate, Sunny Hathaway,’ Finn said, taking off his pinstriped jacket. ‘But how exactly do you talk to spirits? I couldn’t find
anything
in our
World Books
or the
Encyclopaedia Britannica.’

‘Oh that part’s easy if you have the internet. Leave it to me. The difficult part will be convincing Lyall and Saskia. You see, Saskia gets easily freaked and Lyall’s a big fat sceptic.’

Finn used some of the weeds he’d pulled out to sweep out the wooden pigeon holes. ‘I hope you won’t mind helping look after the birds, Sunny Hathaway? And are you sure it’s okay with your Mum?’

Mum and Settimio were still drinking coffee and looking through Settimio’s book when we trooped back into the kitchen.

‘Where I come from,’ said Settimio, stirring two teaspoons of sugar into his coffee, ‘the plant you need for medicine is
the one that grows right in front of your nose.’

‘Yes, I’m familiar with that philosophy,’ said Mum. ‘Dandelion, for instance; wonderful for the liver, yet most people think it’s a weed.’

‘Ah
sì, il dente di leone.
Is very bitter plant.’

‘It’s a beautiful book, Settimio,’ Mum said, closing the cover and brushing the dust off with the back of her hand.

‘
Sì,
it belong to my grandmother,’ said Settimio, throwing back his coffee in one go.

And then I had one of those lightening-bolt light-globe moments when an idea appears and it’s just the thing you’ve been looking for. If it were true that the very thing we need as medicine was the very thing that grows around us in most abundance, then surely at Windermere that plant would have to be roses. Maybe I could make a batch of rose-petal medicine to cure Steph!

After Finn cleared the whole pigeon-keeping arrangement with Mum (Settimio also seemed extremely enthusiastic about helping), he set about explaining the whole pigeon-post concept to me.

‘I’m going to let three pigeons fly back to my place and leave the other three here. You’ll have to keep them in the enclosure for a good six weeks, because that’s how long it will take for their homing mechanism to readjust,’ he explained.

‘Right on,’ I said. ‘Sounds simple enough. Food, water, six weeks …’

‘Yeah, then, we’ll swap your three for my three. The ones that have been at my place will always return to me, and the ones that have been here will fly home to you. Then we just need to find a method for attaching messages. Get it?’

‘Kind of,’ I said. It all seemed a little complicated, but who was I to argue? I mean if the guy was going to be kind enough to participate in a seance, the least I could do was help him get the pigeon post off the ground.