Chapter 1 – Shan’t Go
“Come on kids,” came the voice from the bottom of the stairs, “You are going to your aunts whether you like it or not.”
“Shut up Mum, we’re not going,” came the reply from the room at the top.
“All of you get down here this minute.”
“Okay Mum, we’re coming, keep your wig on.”
“Don’t be cheeky. Right all of you, I want you to be on your best behaviour for your aunt and do as you’re told.”
When she had finished speaking Simon, Lisa, Pierce, Elliot and Samantha (better known as Sam), went out the front door and got into the Land Drover that was waiting on the drive.
“Right, remember what I said and listen to Sam,” Mum said giving each child a kiss (minus Simon).
“I still don’t get why we have to go,” Lisa said and as she was only four, everyone turned to answer her but Sam got there first and said “Mum needs sometime to herself”. Sam felt a bit guilty about lying to Lisa but she couldn’t tell her the truth, she couldn’t tell her little sister that their Mum was really ill and was going into hospital the next day, and nobody knew how long she would have to stay there for.
The drive took ages and as the country side slide by, all the children could do was listen to their aunt chat about the weather and ask about school.
When they finally got the aunts house it was almost dark. “Right everyone, I’ll show you your rooms. Girls are sharing the largest of the three rooms. Pierce and Elliot are sharing middle sized room and Simon is in the smallest room. I hope you don’t mind the arrangements but I thought that Sam being the oldest at 14 should stay with Lisa in a strange house and since Pierce and Elliot are twins of 10, I thought you should share and because Simon seems like a 13 year old who likes his own space I decided that he can have the box room.”
“Thanks Aunt Gina,” everybody said, even Simon (if a little grumpily).
“I’ll leave you to sort out your beds. While you’re here just call me Gina, don’t worry about the aunt bit since that makes me feel rather old.”
“Okay Gina”.
“Right, bed. I’ll wake you up in the morning, and then you will make your way down to the kitchen where you will find breakfast on the table. I’ll see you in the morning. Good night.”
“Night Gina” Lisa said.
“This is going to be horrible, she’ll probably wake us up at the crack of dawn,” Simon said stomping up the stairs.
“Oh stop exaggerating Si. It won’t be that bad,” Sam said picking up her bags and Lisa’s.
“Yeah Si, grow up,” Lisa said laughing.
“Funny sis, real funny,” Simon said pushing Pierce and Elliot up the stairs in front of him.
“You know Simon,” Elliot said going into the room he was sharing with Pierce, “You didn’t have to tell Mum to shut up and that we’re not going, this could be really fun. We are in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by woodlands”.
“Yeah Si, lighten up,” Pierce said picking up the stuff he had dropped out of his bag, coming up the stairs.
Chapter 2-Like it or Lump it
“Right everyone up. Breakfast is on the table,” Gina said as she went into each room to wake everyone up.
“Great”, Simon said sitting at the table, rubbing his eyes, “What is this stuff, it looks like glue”.
Gina gave him a hard look, “It’s called porridge, its oats and milk. You can have sugar on it if you want and you can have raisins if you want”.
“Come on Si,” Sam said, spooning great big spoonfuls into her mouth, “It’s lovely, it really warms you up.”
“If you don’t want it now you can have it cold for lunch,” Gina said, looking Simon full in the face, “No food gets wasted in this house.”
“How about if its only crowdies?” Simon asked, pocking the porridge with his spoon.
“Crowdies are fine. I don’t want you to begin licking the plate since I’m a big believer in manners,” Gina said with raised eyebrows, “Today, before you do anything, I want your beds made and your rooms tidied, then you can go and explore the wood around the house.”
“Can’t we watch T.V. instead?” Pierce asked.
“That would be quite hard,” Gina replied “Since I don’t have a T.V. cause you can’t get signal here.”
“What! You haven’t got a T.V.?” Simon said giving Gina a look that said crazy women alert.
“No I haven’t. Is that a problem? I don’t need a T.V. as I live in such a beautiful place, I go for walks instead and on wet days I paint or read a good book.”
“Lisa can’t read, and I’m the only one who brought more than one book,” Sam said.
“Well then, it looks like you’re going to have to go and explore,” Gina said as she sat down and picked up a book, “Come back when you get hungry.”
Chapter 3-The Door in the Tree
“How could Mum send us to such a dump?” Simon asked kicking at the stones on the path, “Gina doesn’t even care about what we do ‘Come back when you’re hungry’ what happens if we never come back, what happens then.”
“Come on Si, we’re in the middle of nowhere. There aren’t any people for miles, well apart from that little village we drove through on the way here,” Sam said feeling the walkie-talkie that Gina had put in her pocket before they’d left the house.
Suddenly there was a shout from up a head, “Come on you guys, stop ripping out each other’s throats and come and have a look at this.”
“What is it Elliot?” Sam asked as she and Simon caught up with the others.
“It’s a door in a tree,” Lisa said, pointing out what everyone could see now they were closer.
“I wonder where it leads,” Pierce said as he pushed against the door.
“You’re not going to move it Pierce, it’s padlocked,” Simon said standing back from the group, looking at the door in disgust.
“Why don’t you see if the padlocks locked or not,” Sam suggested looking at Pierce.
“Okay. Hey, it’s not locked.”
“Oh great,, a door in a tree and everyone apart from me seems to be hypnotised by it.”
“Shut up Si. Stop being such a kill joy,” everyone said together.
“I’m hungry,” Lisa said.
“Okay you lot, why don’t we go back to the house and eat then come back here tomorrow with torches and open the door,” Sam said.
“Yeah, that sounds good, but why come back tomorrow,” Pierce asked.
“We’ll have a whole day to have a look around inside.”
“Oh, okay,” Pierce said
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Elliot said.
“Yes. Finally we can get out of this horrible wood,” Simon said kicking the tree.
“Hungry,” was Lisa’s reply.
“Okay, let’s go, but don’t tell Gina about the door, okay?”
It's always good!