Silence is Golden

08. The You-Know-What of Horror

Ella didn't even wait to put her dress on. She was out before I could move a muscle.

Hm... where could she be going? You have three guesses, Lilly.

I only really needed one.

Sighing, I rolled out of bed, threw on a robe against the cold of the night and went to the window, where I had let the ladder stand, just in case. Down in the house, I could hear the pitter-patter of Ella's swift, light feet. I, for my part, climbed leisurely out of the window and down the ladder. By the time the back door exploded outward and Ella rushed into the garden, one hundred percent the delectable damsel in her white nightgown, I was sitting behind my usual bush, trying to count the daisies on the ground in the moonlight.

'Edmund!'

Ella's cry faded away unheard. Instead of pining at the fence, her lover had apparently done the sensible thing and gone to bed. Ella didn't seem to realise or care, though. She rushed towards the fence.

'Edmund!'

Once again, no answer. Gripping the poles of the fence, Ella pressed her face between the bars and called, so loudly that I was worried she might wake up our aunt up in the house: 'Edmund, my love!'

However, Edmund my love – or rather her love, thank God – didn't respond.

Ella then said a very, very bad word. A word that made me raise my eyebrows and raise my opinion of my little sister's vocabulary a notch or two. Turning, she stomped over to the garden shed. For a moment I didn't realise what she was after – until, that is, she reached out her arms and with both hands grabbed the ladder leaning against the shed. The ladder I had used to climb out of the window. The ladder which had rested against the garden shed for over a year without the lovers once getting the idea of using it to climb over the fence.

I sucked in a breath!

This was a historic moment! I was almost sorry I didn't have a professional painter here to record it for posterity. I was still in a daze by the time Ella had reached the top of the ladder. Not hesitating a second, she swung her legs over the fence.

'Mpf! Ouch!'

There was a dull thud as my little sister hit the ground. It shook me out of my paralysis, and I rose to peek over the bush. Was she hurt?

But Ella was rising to her feet, dusting earth and bits of grass off her formerly white dress. Without hesitation, she marched off towards the Conways' house

And I?

Why the heck was I still standing here?

Giving myself a mental kick, I surged forward, grabbing the ladder and starting upwards. Ella was so focused on her goal that she didn't notice me, not even when I dropped down behind her, emitting a considerably louder thud than she had.

'Edmund!' she called, softly, advancing towards the back of the Conways' home. I could only hope that Mrs Conway didn't have a lighter sleep than her son Edmund, or we'd be in big trouble. Grabbing Mr Metal in both hands, just to be sure, I ducked behind the nearest bush. It didn't feel comfortable. It wasn't my bush, my little fortress of feminism where I felt like nothing in the world could touch me. It was a strange bush, with funny-smelling leaves. Plus, a cat left me a little sweet-smelling present there.

'Edmund!'

My grip around Mr Metal tightened. Shut up! I mentally yelled at my little sister. Do you want to wake up the whole neighbourhood?

But Ella's plans apparently were more tightly focused on one particular neighbour. Grabbing a handful of gravel from the path behind the house, she pulled back her arm and let it fly. I had to admit, I was impressed. My little sister had a better arm than I had suspected. The gravel sailed through the air and hit Edmund's window on the first floor with an audible clatter. Maybe I should take her out to play squash or tennis some time.