only lasts a second, because Jess jabs my chest with her sharp nail.
“I told you to stay in the house!”
“No, you didn’t. Mom did.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“I might ask you the—”
“ Stop saying that! ”
I gulp one of those loud, slow gulps like you see on TV, because Jess’s face is red and her eyes are sharp points and her mouth is one long thin line.
“I was, um—,” I say, trying to think quickly, but the only thing that springs to mind is “I came to look at the gargoyle!”
Why did I say that?
“The gargoyle? What gargoyle?”
The boy comes over now, with Daisy. Daisy’s panting from all the excitement. The boy looks at me and holds out his hand, and I shake it.
“I’m Ben,” he says. “You must be Liam.”
And Jess says, “Don’t shake his hand! He followed us!”
“I just came to see the gargoyle!”
“So you say,” says Jess, folding her arms again. “Where is it, then?”
Such an idiot, Liam!
“I meant those ones,” I say, pointing up at the small ones above us.
“Then why are you guarding that door?”
She barges past me, shoving her way through.
“There’s nothing here,” says Jess.
And I say, “What?”
“It’s empty,” says Jess.
And I say, “ What?! ”
My heart thuds. I rush into the crypt behind her. If this was a cartoon, my eyes would be as big as magnifying glasses and sirens would be blaring and exclamation marks would shoot out of my head.
Because there are books on the dusty bookshelves and boxes on the dusty floor and cobwebs dangling from the ceiling. But no gargoyle.
She’s right.
It’s gone.
13
“If you say anything, you’re dead.”
They’re the only words Jess says to me on the way home.
Apparently I Spoiled the Mood, so Jess said, Please just go to Ben. Then she told me to find that stupid dog , and now we’re heading back so Mom doesn’t ruin my day even more than you already have .
Jess can be really angry when she wants to be.
Once she snuck into Mom’s room and tried to use her hair straighteners and had them on for so long that her bangs snapped right off. I tried not to laugh, but if you’ve ever seen someone with snapped-off bangs, you know that not laughing is pretty much the most impossible thing in the world. Anyway, Jess got so angry that she burst into my room and thumped me on the arm three times.
But I don’t really mind about her, because all I can think about is the gargoyle.
You know how sometimes you hear a noise and it’s so random that you think you’re going crazy? Like, one day I was on a bus for a school trip and I heard a cow moo even though we were on the motorway, and Sam heard it too, and we looked at each other and burst out laughing, but even now we don’t know if we really heard it or not?
That’s how I’m feeling now.
Because first of all there were the glowing eyes.
Then there was the warm stone.
And now the gargoyle’s gone.
I guess someone could have gone in and moved it, but I’ve still not seen anyone else use the church. And, anyway, how do you move a gargoyle that’s as big as a whole room?
Then I think back to Grandma’s diary. This must be how she felt when her gargoyle disappeared from the cathedral. And my story—
I told a story about the gargoyle vanishing, and now it’s gone . . .
It was just a story, I think. Words can’t make a gargoyle move.
Mom’s still not back when we get home, so I feed Daisy and put some water in her bowl, then take my schoolbag with Grandma’s diary in it and go upstairs to my room.
Hopefully she’s written something else about Stonebird; otherwise the only other option is that I’m going crazy.
I sit on my bed and flick through the pages, trying to find any mention of the gargoyle. But after the one with the debris, it’s all about escaping the country.
June 15, 1940
I can’t believe we’re still traveling.
Father drove us all the way to St. Malo but it was chaos, people and cars all over the place. The
“I told you to stay in the house!”
“No, you didn’t. Mom did.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“I might ask you the—”
“ Stop saying that! ”
I gulp one of those loud, slow gulps like you see on TV, because Jess’s face is red and her eyes are sharp points and her mouth is one long thin line.
“I was, um—,” I say, trying to think quickly, but the only thing that springs to mind is “I came to look at the gargoyle!”
Why did I say that?
“The gargoyle? What gargoyle?”
The boy comes over now, with Daisy. Daisy’s panting from all the excitement. The boy looks at me and holds out his hand, and I shake it.
“I’m Ben,” he says. “You must be Liam.”
And Jess says, “Don’t shake his hand! He followed us!”
“I just came to see the gargoyle!”
“So you say,” says Jess, folding her arms again. “Where is it, then?”
Such an idiot, Liam!
“I meant those ones,” I say, pointing up at the small ones above us.
“Then why are you guarding that door?”
She barges past me, shoving her way through.
“There’s nothing here,” says Jess.
And I say, “What?”
“It’s empty,” says Jess.
And I say, “ What?! ”
My heart thuds. I rush into the crypt behind her. If this was a cartoon, my eyes would be as big as magnifying glasses and sirens would be blaring and exclamation marks would shoot out of my head.
Because there are books on the dusty bookshelves and boxes on the dusty floor and cobwebs dangling from the ceiling. But no gargoyle.
She’s right.
It’s gone.
13
“If you say anything, you’re dead.”
They’re the only words Jess says to me on the way home.
Apparently I Spoiled the Mood, so Jess said, Please just go to Ben. Then she told me to find that stupid dog , and now we’re heading back so Mom doesn’t ruin my day even more than you already have .
Jess can be really angry when she wants to be.
Once she snuck into Mom’s room and tried to use her hair straighteners and had them on for so long that her bangs snapped right off. I tried not to laugh, but if you’ve ever seen someone with snapped-off bangs, you know that not laughing is pretty much the most impossible thing in the world. Anyway, Jess got so angry that she burst into my room and thumped me on the arm three times.
But I don’t really mind about her, because all I can think about is the gargoyle.
You know how sometimes you hear a noise and it’s so random that you think you’re going crazy? Like, one day I was on a bus for a school trip and I heard a cow moo even though we were on the motorway, and Sam heard it too, and we looked at each other and burst out laughing, but even now we don’t know if we really heard it or not?
That’s how I’m feeling now.
Because first of all there were the glowing eyes.
Then there was the warm stone.
And now the gargoyle’s gone.
I guess someone could have gone in and moved it, but I’ve still not seen anyone else use the church. And, anyway, how do you move a gargoyle that’s as big as a whole room?
Then I think back to Grandma’s diary. This must be how she felt when her gargoyle disappeared from the cathedral. And my story—
I told a story about the gargoyle vanishing, and now it’s gone . . .
It was just a story, I think. Words can’t make a gargoyle move.
Mom’s still not back when we get home, so I feed Daisy and put some water in her bowl, then take my schoolbag with Grandma’s diary in it and go upstairs to my room.
Hopefully she’s written something else about Stonebird; otherwise the only other option is that I’m going crazy.
I sit on my bed and flick through the pages, trying to find any mention of the gargoyle. But after the one with the debris, it’s all about escaping the country.
June 15, 1940
I can’t believe we’re still traveling.
Father drove us all the way to St. Malo but it was chaos, people and cars all over the place. The
Similar Books
