We ran down the hall in search of the entrance to the attic.
“Let’s go this way!” I yelled, “Maybe there is an entrance to the attic near Mum and Flora’s rooms.”
“What does one look for when trying to find an attic?” asked Millicent running next to me.
“Stairs?” I said guessing.
“That is not very helpful you know Thomas,” replied Millicent.
I then thought for a second or two. In the movies there was always a door leading to the attic. We therefore had to find something that might look like a normal door, but was really the entrance to the attic.
“Maybe a handle, door knob or a lever on a door might tell us there is a staircase behind it?” I suggested.
To be honest, I really wasn’t certain what to search for. After all, I had never been in an attic nor had I ever had to find one. One thing was certain however. We had to hurry. We were running out of time. We knew that Clay would be up here at any moment!
The hallway leading to Mum and Flora’s rooms was full of large cupboard doors. As far as I was concerned, the door to the attic had to be around here somewhere.
“May be should try these?” I said opening the first of the cupboards.
We frantically opened as many cupboards as we could reach – opening the cupboard door, checking inside and closing it again. We did this over and over until we had been through each and every cupboard.
Open, check, close with a bang! Open, check, close with a bang!
But none of the cupboards contained the stairway to the attic. “Nothing here,” I yelled opening another cupboard, “Any luck?”
“No,” replied Millicent closing the last of the cupboard doors, “Nothing at all.” “Maybe we should try Mum and Flora’s rooms?” I suggested.
Even though I doubted that the door to the attic would be in either Flora or Mum’s rooms, I thought it was worth a try. Millicent took Mum’s room and I took Flora’s.
I had never set foot in Flora’s room before and I knew that I really shouldn’t be in there without her permission. With this in mind I cautiously opened the door to her room. I stopped at the doorway and surveyed its contents. There was a wooden bed, bedside tables and a large wooden wardrobe. I dashed over to the wardrobe and flung open the doors. Unfortunately there was not a hint of a stairway to the attic. Only Flora’s clothes hung behind the doors. I quickly closed the doors and checked behind the wardrobe just in case, but there was nothing there either.
I hurriedly ran my fingers over all the walls but I could not find an entrance to the attic. I even tried to shift her bed to check behind it, but it was so heavy, I couldn’t make it budge. A picture of Mum and Dad on their wedding day shook as I tried to shift Flora’s bed. I felt sure that with every shudder the two figures dressed in their wedding best were cursing me.
I was lost for a moment in this thought when suddenly there was a noise behind me. I swung around thinking it might be Flora, or worse the angry Clay. Luckily, it was only Millicent.
“Have you found anything Thomas?” she asked anxiously, “I haven’t found anything in Mum’s room.”
“I am trying to look behind Flora’s bed,” I said.
“Thomas, it is hardly going to be there is it?” said Millicent, “Come on! Clay is going to be up here at any moment. We can’t find the attic. We need to try somewhere
else!”
I dwelt on Millicent’s words for a second or two as I thought what might be our best course of action.
“Maybe we could try and get to Flora downstairs?” I said slowly pondering the idea.
I wasn’t really sure if this was the best course of action but we hadn’t been able to find the attic quickly and we needed to get away from Clay fast.
“Yes, we’ll have to forget about the attic,” said Millicent quickly, “Let’s get downstairs now before we run into Clay.”
We hurried towards the staircase, but before we had even laid a foot on the first step, we stopped. We could hear footsteps approaching. They were very determined footsteps and were accompanied by very heavy breathing. Worst of all, they were coming our way.
“It must be Clay!” we both whispered to each other.
I handed Millicent the quilt and crept down a couple of steps to check if it was indeed him. I crouched down under the heavy wooden railing and looked through the wooden posts. My heart started pounding just like it did last night. Above my heartbeats I could hear the footsteps and the heavy breathing getting nearer. Then, between the posts of the staircase railing, I saw Clay’s large bulky shadow heading in our direction. He was stomping towards the staircase at a great rate. His face was bright red and his hands were trembling with rage. He had to be looking for Millicent and I.
I quickly went into reverse and hurried back up the stairs. “Come on, let’s go!” I said grabbing the quilt from Millicent. “Where are we going Thomas?” she asked.
She had a very serious expression on her face. I could tell she was scared. So was I.
“We should get Flora,” she said.
I turned around to face Millicent. I wasn’t sure what to do.
“We can’t get down to Flora. Clay is blocking the only way down,” I said trying to hide my fear, “We will just have to hide in my room and hope for the best.”
We hurried towards my bedroom. I tried to convince myself that there were many places to hide. There was under the bed, in the wardrobe, behind the curtains or next to the mirror. The only thing about these hiding spots was that they were all a little too obvious and that meant that Clay would easily find us. If only we had found the attic!
It wasn’t far to my room from the staircase, but I was finding it difficult to run because of all the things I was carrying. I had the backpack on my back, I was wearing my jacket and the quilt was in my arms, but was also dragging behind me. I was struggling not to step on it as I ran, but somehow, only paces from my room, I tripped.
“WHOOOOAAA!”
For a second or two I was airborne. Not one part of my body, or the quilt, was touching the ground. I felt the backpack lurch towards my head and somewhere around me, I heard Millicent gasp. I seemed suspended in mid air with the only movement being the wooden floor and the panelled walls around me. However, the wooden panel in front of me was getting closer, and closer to me, and then …. THUMP! I collided with it!
For a moment I sat crumpled on the floor not knowing where I was, or if a part, or parts of me were injured. I did however hear a handful of very important words from Millicent.
“Thomas, you’ve found the attic!”
I shook my head and attempted to stand. Millicent helped me up.
“You’ve found it!” shouted Millicent shaking me excitedly, “You’ve found the attic!”
I felt all wobbly, but nevertheless I could see a wooden panel in front of me had slid sideways and from it, were stairs leading up into the ceiling. All the time we were
looking for some kind of doorknob, handle or lever that would indicate where the attic was. This wooden panel must have some kind of pressure point to open it. I almost certainly triggered it with my head.
Even though I had taken quite a whack, I still understood that we needed to move quickly.
“Hurry up there,” I motioned to Millicent, “Clay has probably reached the top of the stairs.”
Millicent walked up the steps to the attic and I followed. The steps were narrow and creaked as Millicent and I climbed them. As soon as my foot lifted from the top step, the panel silently closed behind me as if by magic. It was quite eerie. I wondered whether Flora knew about this secret entrance?
Just around the corner, Clay had climbed the final stair. His eyes were red, he was shaking and his hands were clenched. He was still breathing heavily and needed a small break before moving on.
“Where are those foul little creatures?” he gasped.
He went to Flora and Mum’s room first to search for us.
The attic was very dusty and seemed quite large although we couldn’t see where it ended. It was also extremely quiet – there was not one ounce of noise. Small windows at the top of the walls let in a little light. There were many boxes around us, some of which looked very old. There were also plenty of spider webs.
“Yuck! Spider webs!” said Millicent woefully.
I put the backpack and quilt on a nearby box and sat down on the floor, even though it was quite dusty. My head was starting to ache. Pushing back my fringe, I felt my forehead. My searching fingers quickly found a large lump right. It hurt to touch it.
“Wow!” said Millicent spotting my newly formed lump, “Most eggs aren’t that big!
Are you okay Thomas?”
I felt a little dizzy but overall, I was fine. I felt mostly relieved that we had escaped from Clay.
“Yeah I’m okay,” I replied.
Millicent pulled over a box, wiped it down with her hands and sat on it. “Thomas, do you think Clay will find us?”
Millicent still looked a little afraid.
“Everything will be fine little sister, so don’t be scared,” I said, trying my best to sound brave.
“Don’t start with that little sister, big brother stuff, now Thomas,” Millicent snapped, “We are in this together. We are a team!”
I imagined myself rolling my eyes, but I dare not do it for real. Millicent liked people to think she was always in control. It was part of her bossy personality.
“Yes, I know we are a team,” I replied rather stiffly, “To answer your question, I am actually hoping that Clay won’t find us at all.”
“So what will we do in the meantime?” asked Millicent.
“Well, I know we can definitely eat,” I said patting my backpack.
“So what did you bring with you?” asked Millicent, starting to look a little hungry. “Oh there are heaps of things in here,” I said enthusiastically.
I grabbed hold of my backpack and emptied the contents onto the floor. There was half an empty bottle of lemonade, a crushed packet of chips, a bite of a chocolate bar, two apples and a magnifying glass.
“Is this it?” asked Millicent, “Are you telling me these are all the provisions?” “Yes, they sure are,” I said proudly.
“Gosh, I hope we’re not up here for too long or we might starve!”
“Don’t worry,” I said with a grin as I returned the items to my backpack, “I’m sure that there are plenty of mice up here that we can catch and eat.”
I knew that Millicent wouldn’t like that very much and I waited for her reaction.
“Mice! You never said anything about mice Thomas!”
She jumped up from where she was sitting and nervously searched the floor. I couldn’t help myself. I laughed out loud even though it hurt my forehead.
“It’s okay Millicent,” I said indicating for her to sit down, “I’m only joking. We won’t be up here for long. We just need to stay long enough to be sure that Clay isn’t searching for us anymore.”
I don’t think Millicent believed me about the mice, as she didn’t return to her position on the box. Instead she sat down next to me, sitting as close as she possibly could without actually sitting on top of me.
“I am a little scared Thomas,” Millicent whispered owning up.
I didn’t say anything this time, but put my arm around her. I didn’t want to alarm her, but I was a little scared too. With the other arm, I grabbed the quilt and draped it over the two of us to keep warm whilst we hid from Clay.