The Web by Nette Hilton

Author:Nette Hilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-02-05T16:00:00+00:00

I waited until Violet-Anne was having her afternoon snooze. Then I went to visit Judy-next-door. I told her all about Saffron and Misty.

‘Don’t worry, love,’ she said. Judy calls everybody love. ‘I’ll come and visit your great-grandma later.’ She winked at me. ‘I’ve got an old water heater out the back. I’ll bet Saffron will be happy under there. And I haven’t got any cats.’

She got out the bread and some butter. Then she got out a great big jar of jam. She made the most enormous, gluggy sandwich I’d ever seen.

‘I’m not hungry,’ I said. ‘Can I keep it for later?’

Judy laughed. When Judy laughs all bits of her shake about. ‘It’s not for you,’ she said. ‘Come and I’ll show you what I do every afternoon.’

We went out to her backyard. It is the same as Violet-Anne’s. The great big tree swoops over her fence too and dangles its branches right over the clothes line.

‘Watch.’ Judy hoisted herself up the clothes line. I thought she was really clever. I don’t know anyone else who eats jam sandwiches on top of a clothes line. But she didn’t eat it. She just placed it there and then climbed down.

‘It might be a bit early yet,’ she said. ‘But you never know.’

Judy took me back onto her verandah.

‘Now,’ she said, ‘you must be very quiet, and wait.’

We waited for a long, long time. Judy made me a drink and then I got hungry. So she made me a jam sandwich too.

‘You can have that one up there as well,’ she said, ‘if something doesn’t happen soon.’

It got cooler when the sun went down. It wasn’t dark. It looked a little like the world when I looked through my blue-coloured glass. Everything was still. Everything except one branch of Violet-Anne’s old tree.

‘Watch.’ Judy pointed across to the clothes line.

The branch kept wobbling. It joggled about and then it was still. Then it joggled up and down again. And I thought I saw something move. It was a black something. I could see it had a long tail. Then I could see it had two ears and two enormous eyes.

‘Hello, Misty,’ I said.

He looked across to the verandah. I moved a little towards the step. But Misty didn’t seem to care. He was too busy tearing dainty pieces off the giant jam sandwich.

‘I’ve never seen him before,’ I told Judy. ‘I never knew he was so big.’

‘Oh!’ Judy flapped her hands up and down. ‘He’s been coming over for afternoon tea for ages. Cheeky old devil, he is. Then he keeps me awake all night!’

Judy waited while I had a close look at Misty.

‘Listen, love,’ she said. ‘What’d you reckon about inviting your great-grandma in for a late cuppa tomorrow? About this time would be good.’ She winked at me again. ‘Don’t you think?’

‘Can I climb up and put the sandwich on the clothes line?’ I asked. My mum won’t let me climb on our clothes line any more. It’s still got a big bend in it from the last time.

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