Astrid the Unstoppable by Maria Parr

Author:Maria Parr [Parr, Maria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781406375466
Publisher: Walker Books
Published: 2017-11-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

In which Heidi reveals

her awful plan

When Astrid woke the next morning, she decided to blow up the coffee pot. She dug around in her drawer and took out the massive firecrackers Auntie Eira had secretly given her the year before. That reminded Astrid: it wasn’t long to go until she’d be ten, which would be a milestone birthday.

“It’s a milestone.” That’s what Astrid’s granny says when people have their fiftieth, sixtieth or seventieth birthdays.

A round-number birthday is a bit bigger than a normal birthday. And ten is as round a number as you can get. Astrid had decided to have a massive party. Maybe she could put an advert in the local paper and have an open-house party with everybody invited?

The night before, she’d lain awake thinking about everything her dad had told her. She’d thought about Gunnvald throwing a kitchen chair at the wall, and she’d thought about Heidi’s jet-black eyes. Then she’d thought about the Heidi from the book. It was strange that there was both a real Heidi and a made-up one, Astrid thought. Before she fell asleep, she’d decided to make friends with the real Heidi.

When Astrid arrived at Gunnvald’s farm that morning, Heidi was sitting on the steps outside the house, drinking coffee. Just like Gunnvald usually did. Astrid had to ride her bike in a strange loop, because of the dog, and fell over like a five-year-old with no stabilizers. What a horrible mutt! He snarled and growled, and looked like he wanted to eat her.

“You’ve got a seagull on your head,” Heidi observed, once Astrid had struggled to her feet.

“I know.”

Astrid carefully lifted Snorri down. She needed to have a proper look at Heidi now that she knew what was what. Just think: Heidi had grown up in Glimmerdal, like her. Maybe she knew all the good places down by the river? Maybe she knew about the eagles’ nest below Cairn Peak? Maybe she’d spent the night in a sleeping bag up at Glimmerdal Shieling? Had she drunk Sally’s bad squash? Maybe she’d done everything Astrid did?

“This is the third time now you’ve been here in less than a day,” said Heidi. “I don’t like seagulls, and I don’t like visitors.”

“This isn’t your farm,” Astrid said calmly.

Heidi laughed harshly. “Yes, it is, actually.”

“No, it’s Gunnvald’s farm.” Astrid looked firmly at Heidi.

Then the tall woman pulled a letter out of her shirt pocket. Astrid recognized it. It was the letter she’d posted for Gunnvald just over a week ago, the one addressed to Ms A. Zimmermann. It suddenly dawned on her that Ms A. Zimmermann wasn’t the late Anna Zimmermann, as she’d thought: Ms A. Zimmermann was Heidi. Astrid’s dad had told her the day before that Heidi’s real name was Adelheid.

The letter was frayed at the edges. Astrid was starting to regret having sent it. She should’ve eaten it instead.

“Gunnvald thought he was going to kick the bucket,” Heidi said quite directly. “He’s given the farm to me. That’s what it says in this letter, black on white.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.