The Glass Children Read online

  The most important thing was the contract.

  Billie’s hand was shaking as she tried the drawer. It wasn’t locked, but it was quite stiff.

  Mum would be away for at least an hour, which was just as well, because the contents of the drawer were a complete mess. Billie didn’t want her mum to know that she had been rummaging around, so she lifted the papers carefully to see if she could find what she was looking for. She saw bills and receipts and pay slips, but no contract.

  The sound of birds on the roof made her stiffen. Sometimes they were there, sometimes they weren’t. It was the same at night. Sometimes the birds didn’t make a sound, but sometimes they made so much noise that they woke her up.

  Billie was just about to give up and start searching for the contract in Mum’s messy bookcase instead when she spotted an open envelope in the drawer. She took it out and squeezed it. It seemed to contain a thick wad of papers. Billie could feel her excitement growing as she pulled everything out and read the top sheet. Contract of Sale, it said.

  At last! She glanced at the page and found both her mum’s name and their address in town. Further down she discovered what she was looking for:

  Vendors: David and Marie Stjärnguld

  Billie felt a flush of pleasure. David and Marie Stjärnguld, that was their name. She thought it was rather an odd surname, but it was also good to have such an unusual name. A bit like Aladdin – that was different too, but in a good way. She carried on reading, and was disappointed to learn that if she had understood the contract correctly, the family had moved to Germany.

  Billie’s heart sank. Germany was a long way from Åhus. She looked through the contract carefully – perhaps they had left a telephone number or an address where they could be reached? But there was nothing.

  She tucked the contract back in the envelope and replaced it in the drawer. She would go and see Aladdin right away. They mustn’t give up too easily. The family lived too far away to visit, and there was no way they could phone them either. But at least they had a name now.

  There couldn’t be many people called Stjärnguld.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Aladdin gazed at Billie’s notebook where she had written down the name of the family.

  ‘What do we do now?’ Billie said. ‘How are we going to find out why they moved? Should we cycle round the village and ask if anyone knew the Stjärnguld family when they lived here?’

  They were sitting in Aladdin’s room. The harbour was still busy with people looking at the boats and eating ice cream, but Billie thought you could tell that the summer was coming to an end. She couldn’t wait to get back to school – she would be in Kristianstad every day.

  Aladdin went and fetched a laptop and tried a few searches. The Stjärnguld family was nowhere to be found. Without saying a word he put down the computer and started looking for something on the shelf above his bed. After a while he found what he was after.

  ‘I knew I’d kept them,’ he said, pulling out several books.

  He sat down next to Billie. ‘Yearbooks,’ he said.

  Billie looked. One for every year Aladdin had been in school. There weren’t many schools in Åhus, and they all shared a yearbook. There were class photos of everyone who had attended primary, junior or high school in Åhus over the past few years.

  Aladdin passed her two of the yearbooks. ‘How many people do you think are called Stjärnguld? If we find any kids by that name in here, then I’m certain they must belong to the family who used to live in your house.’

  It didn’t take long to flick through the yearbooks. Billie looked at the photographs, and was very pleased that she would be staying on at her old school in town. She didn’t recognize a single person.

  The first book she looked at was from the school year before last, the one that had finished last summer. That was when the family had moved out, according to the old man who had shown Billie and her mum around the house. If that was true, and if the family had children, then they should be in this yearbook.

  But they weren’t.

  ‘Maybe they were off sick on the day the photographer came in,’ Aladdin said.

  ‘That doesn’t make any difference,’ Billie said. ‘Look, there’s a list of everyone who was absent that day.’

  She looked through the book from last year. There was no one in high school called Stjärnguld. Nor in the junior or primary schools. What if the children had gone to school in Kristianstad, just like Billie? She had better look through her own yearbooks as well when she got home.

  The boat suddenly swayed, and Billie glanced up.

  ‘Have you finished?’ Aladdin asked. ‘I didn’t find anything.’

  That was when Billie saw the girl’s name. It was under the very last picture in the yearbook, which showed fifteen children in the first year.

  Wilma Stjärnguld.

  She was sitting right on the end of the bottom row. Her hair was like Simona’s, thick and curly, although she was blonde rather than ginger.

  Billie and Aladdin gazed at the picture for a long time. Wilma Stjärnguld had started in the first year three years ago, but she wasn’t in any of the later yearbooks. So Ella might have been right when she said that the family had moved two years ago, not last year.

  What else had the man who showed them the house lied about?

  ‘We’ll go over to her school,’ Aladdin said. ‘We might find something out if we speak to the teachers.’

  ‘But there won’t be anyone there,’ Billie said. ‘Don’t the teachers have a summer holiday like us?’

  ‘They go back two weeks before us,’ Aladdin said. ‘To plan our lessons and sort out the timetable.’

  Aladdin led the way as they set off on their bikes. He hadn’t gone to this particular school, but some of his friends had.

  The school was silent and deserted. Billie counted the buildings; there were three small red-painted blocks, plus a slightly bigger one that she assumed was the gym.

  ‘Let’s find the staffroom,’ Aladdin said, tugging at her arm.

  They walked round the buildings and peered in through the windows. In the block furthest away they could see a number of adults coming and going in the various rooms.

  ‘This must be it,’ Billie said, just as a man with a cup of coffee in his hand caught sight of her.

  Instinctively Billie crouched down so that she disappeared from view.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Aladdin said. ‘We want them to see us and come to the door, don’t we?’

  Billie felt stupid.

  A second later the door opened and the man with the coffee cup came out onto the steps.

  ‘Is there something I can help you with?’ he said.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Billie thought the man looked really nice. He was wearing a comfy old green jumper and baggy jeans.

  ‘We were wondering if you know a girl called Wilma Stjärnguld,’ Aladdin said. ‘Or if any of the other teachers might know her.’

  The man frowned. ‘Why do you ask?’

  ‘We want to find out if she’s a pupil here,’ Aladdin said, even though they knew perfectly well that she wasn’t. ‘Billie here has moved into the Stjärnguld family’s house. May we come in?’

  When Aladdin said where Billie lived, the man almost dropped his coffee cup. ‘Of course, come on in,’ he said, taking a step back.

  Billie and Aladdin followed him inside.

  ‘I’m not sure I understand what it is that you want to know,’ the man said. ‘But I was Wilma’s class teacher.’

  ‘Oh,’ Billie said; she was getting to be almost as good a liar as Aladdin. ‘So she doesn’t live in Åhus any more?’

  ‘No, the family moved away two years ago.’

  Billie hardly dared breathe. So Ella had been right.

  ‘Do you know where they went?’ Aladdin asked. ‘Abroad, I think,’ the man said, taking a sip of his coffee.

  ‘Why did they move?’ Billie said.

  The man looke
d at her for a long time, then glanced at his watch. ‘I have no idea,’ he said. ‘I’m afraid I really don’t have time to stand here chatting.’

  He sounded cross. Or afraid?

  ‘Is there anyone else who might know more?’ Aladdin said.

  ‘No, there isn’t,’ the teacher replied. ‘Now off you go.’

  ‘He was a bit weird,’ Aladdin said when they were back in the playground.

  Billie agreed. ‘I think he was lying,’ she said. ‘And I think he knew more than he was willing to tell us.’

  ‘I think you’re right,’ Aladdin said.

  Billie searched her pockets for the key to her bicycle lock. ‘Let’s go back to yours,’ she said. ‘I need the loo.’

  ‘Can’t you go here instead?’ Aladdin said. ‘I thought we could go for an ice cream.’

  Billie glanced over towards the school.

  ‘Come on,’ Aladdin said. ‘All you have to do is go in and find the toilets.’

  I’m such a coward most of the time, Billie thought. Simona wouldn’t have hesitated for a second.

  ‘Wait here, I’ll be as quick as I can,’ she said firmly, running back towards the block they had just left.

  This time she didn’t wait for someone to come and open the door, but slipped inside. She hurried along the corridor looking for a toilet. She sincerely hoped no one would spot her.

  A door on the right was standing open, and she could hear voices from inside the room.

  She recognized one of the voices; it was the man with the coffee cup.

  ‘I didn’t know what to say,’ he said.

  A woman answered: ‘You did the right thing. Children shouldn’t have to hear what happened.’

  Billie stood perfectly still, listening hard.

  ‘She was always so frightened of everything,’ the man said with a sigh. ‘The child looked as if she could see ghosts in broad daylight.’

  ‘Wilma was different,’ the woman said. ‘Just like that house.’

  ‘The girl who was here asking about Wilma claims that she lives in the house now.’

  Billie heard the woman gasp.

  ‘That can’t be true,’ she said. ‘It seems completely impossible to have a good life at that address.’

  ‘Yes, but none of us believes in ghouls and ghosts,’ the man said. ‘All those stories about the house on Sparrisvägen . . . Can they really be true?’

  ‘I think they ought to tear that house down and build a new one,’ the woman muttered. ‘It’s obviously going to get harder and harder to find new owners. I mean, it’s been empty for quite some time now.’

  ‘Let’s hope it all works out better for the family who are living there now,’ the man said quietly. ‘It would be terrible if more people came to grief.’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said the woman. ‘It started with the glass children, and things haven’t been right since. Poor Wilma. Do you remember what she told us? She couldn’t sleep because someone kept tapping on her window. And she said that someone went into her room when no one was home and moved her toys around.’

  ‘You can understand why her parents didn’t believe her,’ the man said. ‘Although of course everything changed when she almost drowned. They certainly moved fast then.’

  ‘And not a day too soon,’ the woman said. ‘After all, someone had tried to drag her under the water.’

  Billie didn’t know what to do with herself. So someone had tried to drown Wilma! That was why the family had moved out so suddenly.

  With her heart pounding, Billie ran back to Aladdin. No one was safe in the house on Sparrisvägen, that much was clear.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mum’s holiday came to an end, and Billie was poorly. She had a temperature and a sore throat, and had to stay in bed.

  ‘Have you got enough books?’ her mum said anxiously before she left for work.

  ‘Yes,’ Billie said, thinking that the problem with spending a whole day home alone was unlikely to be a lack of reading material, but that the house she lived in was extremely dangerous.

  Her mum sighed, looking worried. ‘I don’t like the idea of leaving you on your own when you’re not well,’ she said.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ Billie said.

  ‘There’s food in the fridge for you to heat up.’

  Mum bent down and kissed her on the forehead. ‘I’ll call you later,’ she said. ‘You take care of yourself. Promise.’

  Billie promised.

  Then she remembered that she’d forgotten to ask her mum about something. ‘Have you spoken to the neighbours yet?’ she said.

  Billie hadn’t told her mum what she and Aladdin had learned about the family they had bought the house from, but she was curious about what her mum might have found out from the neighbours.

  Her mum looked surprised. ‘The neighbours? No – what do you mean?’

  ‘You said you’d ask them about the family who used to live here, find out when they moved out.’

  Her mum didn’t speak for a moment. ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘Yes, I did speak to them.’

  Billie sat bolt upright in bed. In that case Mum must know that they had moved out two years ago, not last year! ‘What did they say?’ she asked eagerly.

  Her mum scratched her forehead and screwed up her eyes as if she was thinking about something really complicated. ‘They said they moved out a year ago, just as Martin told us when he showed us the house.’

  ‘But . . .’ Billie didn’t know what to say. Someone was lying – either Mum or the neighbours. Billie guessed it was Mum.

  Her mum looked at her watch. ‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘You remember what you promised me, don’t you?’

  Billie lay back down. What had she promised?

  ‘You said that if I spoke to the neighbours, you would stop all this nonsense about there being something wrong with this house. Do you remember?’

  ‘Yes.’

  There was no point in talking to Mum any more. They would only end up falling out.

  Mum looked relieved. ‘Excellent. That’s the end of that, then. Now you look after yourself, sweetheart. I’ll be home as early as I can this afternoon.’

  Her footsteps made the stairs creak, then Billie heard the front door close. Mum had lied to her.

  Perhaps it was because she had a temperature and was sleeping a lot, but after a while Billie started to think that it was rather nice to be home alone. The sun came and went, but it wasn’t too hot, and Billie left the window open. Their neighbour seemed to be cutting the grass, and Billie liked to hear that sound. When Dad was alive, he had been very particular about keeping the lawn nice.

  ‘It’s the first thing people see when they look at the house,’ he used to say.

  He would be out there working hard to achieve the perfect lawn while Billie and her mum stood at the kitchen window, giggling away. It was a long time since they had laughed like that.

  Just after lunch there was a knock on the door. Billie froze in her bed. People hardly ever called round. She tiptoed down the stairs and said, ‘Who’s there?’ before she unlocked the door.

  ‘It’s only me!’

  Aladdin, of course.

  ‘I’m not very well,’ Billie said as she let him in.

  ‘I know that. I thought you might be fed up, so I’ve come to see you. Can I stay for a while?’

  Billie smiled. ‘Of course you can.’

  They went and sat on the patio, with Aladdin swinging in the hammock and Billie a little distance away.

  ‘How long will you stay on the houseboat?’ Billie asked.

  ‘Until I go back to school next week.’

  They sat in silence for a few moments.

  ‘Has anything happened over the past few days?’ Aladdin asked. ‘In the house, I mean.’

  Billie shook her head. No, everything had been quiet.

  Then she told him that her mum had lied.

  ‘She doesn’t believe you,’ Aladdin said. ‘That’s why she did it.’


  ‘I know,’ Billie said. ‘I think we’re running out of time. We have to find out more about the house so that I can make her understand how dangerous it is.’

  She thought about what the teacher had said about Wilma Stjärnguld: that she had heard tapping on the windows, and no one had believed her.

  ‘If it’s only children who see all these terrible things, I’ll never be able to convince Mum,’ Billie said.

  Aladdin didn’t reply; he was staring at something behind her back. ‘Look,’ he whispered.

  Billie turned round. She could see through the hallway and into the living room. Aladdin was pointing at the ceiling light. It was swinging silently to and fro, just as Billie had seen it do before.

  Even though it was the middle of the day, Billie was every bit as frightened as she had been at night. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds, and she shivered.

  She no longer had any doubts. The house was haunted. And the ghost wouldn’t leave them alone until they moved out.

  Chapter Nineteen

  More and more paint started flaking off the outside of the house. More and more scraps of blue littered the ground, and yellow patches began to appear all over the walls.

  ‘I just don’t understand it,’ her mum said as she and Billie took a walk around the house to look at the patches.

  Billie was better, and the summer holidays were over. She was glad that term had started. Everything was more enjoyable now that she knew she only had to spend the evenings and nights in the house. Although of course the evenings and nights were the worst.

  Mum called Josef to ask him to come and look at the outside walls. Billie thought the house was shaking off the blue paint, because it didn’t like the fact that it had been repainted. It was doing the same thing with the paint as it had done with everyone who had tried to live in the house – it simply got rid of them.