The Light Jar by Lisa Thompson

Author:Lisa Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2019-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

We walked through the wood.

I felt a bit weird after seeing the “boyfriend” thing on the magic ball, but I decided to just ignore it. It probably didn’t have anything to do with me; she’d just been trying it out.

“So, where exactly is your house?” I asked. I didn’t want to go there, but it would be nice to get a glimpse of it, at least.

“It’s over there,” she said, waving her hand vaguely. “We can’t go near it though. You wouldn’t want to be seen by anyone, would you?”

I was about to protest that my parents and I were totally allowed to be at the cottage and weren’t hiding, then closed my mouth. I was worried if I said too much she’d start asking questions.

We came out of the forest, and the frozen ground was so hard it hurt the soles of my feet through my thin sneakers.

“It must be amazing having all this space around you,” I said as we puffed along. “You can walk the length of our back garden in ten steps.”

I wondered if I’d ever see our old house or garden again. It hadn’t really felt like home since Gary had moved in. I guessed I wouldn’t miss it too much. I thought of Mum and Gary there together. Without me. I pushed the image out of my mind.

Kitty stayed silent and I stopped to take a look behind us. There were the dark woods, and then to the left of that I could just make out the top of a roof.

“Is that the house?” I asked, stretching my neck to try to see more. But Kitty was hurrying in the other direction.

“Look! There’s the ice house.”

Cut into the side of a hill was a small oval hole containing an iron door, and as we got closer I could see the blackness behind the bars. I shuddered.

“It looks like a dungeon,” I said. “That is so creepy.”

Kitty crouched down and peered inside. “There’s a bit of a drop as you go in and then there’s a brick room.”

I looked at the outside. It really was a brilliant design. Being built into a small hill meant the whole of the ice house was underground, where it would be coolest.

“Go on then,” Kitty said to me. “Open it.”

I rattled the iron door, then pulled it gently toward me. It opened easily.

We stood there for a moment, staring into the dark, gaping hole. I could hear a steady drip, drip, drip coming from inside, and there was a strong stench of damp. Kitty leaned in.

“Helllloooooooooo!!!!!” she called, and her voice echoed over and over, tumbling into the darkness. I swallowed as she stared at me, her eyes wide.

“It looks horrible. I can’t imagine James and Charlotte playing in there, can you?” I said. “Maybe I was wrong about the ice house? Maybe there’s another kind of frozen place. Somewhere in the kitchen in your house?”

Kitty scowled at me. “Of course it’s in here. What else could a frozen place be with the letters I and H? And remember, it probably looked better when they were little.

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