Page 64 - Lavender-B-5

‘I couldn’t sleep a wink last night,’ he complained. ‘Every time I was about to fall
asleep, the bedclothes would be pulled off the bed. I had to get up at least a dozen times
to pick them off the floor.’ He stared balefully at me. ‘Where were you sleeping last

night, young man?’

I had an alibi. ‘In Grandfather’s room,’ I said. Apart from the
peepul tree, which
‘That’s right,’ said Grandfather. ‘And I’m a light sleeper. other trees are
Just a Minute!
I’d have woken up if he’d been sleep-walking.’ considered holy?
‘It’s that ghost from the peepul tree,’ said Grandmother.

‘It has moved into the house. First my spectacles, then the sweet-peas, and
now Ken’s bedclothes! What will it be up to next? I wonder!’

We did not have to wonder for long. There followed a series of disasters. Vases fell off
tables, pictures came down the walls. Parrot feathers turned up in the teapot while the

parrot himself let out indignant squawks
in the middle of the night. Uncle Ken
found a crow’s nest in his bed, and on
tossing it out of the window was
attacked by two crows.

When Aunt Minnie came to stay, things
got worse. The Pret seemed to take an
immediate dislike to Aunt Minnie. She
was a nervous, easily excitable person,

just the right sort of prey for a spiteful
ghost. Somehow her toothpaste got
switched with a tube of Grandfather’s
shaving-cream, and when she appeared in

the sitting-room, foaming at the mouth, we
ran for our lives. Uncle Ken was shouting
that she’d got rabies.
balefully: when someone looks at you in a way that
Two days later Aunt Minnie complained makes you feel scared or worried

that she had been hit on the nose by a alibi: a proof to prove someone's innocence
sleep-walking: when someone walks around while
grapefruit, which had of its own accord still sleeping
taken a leap from the pantry shelf and indignant: when you feel angry or upset because you
think something is unfair
hurtled across the room straight at her. A excitable: to become really happy or energetic about
bruised and swollen nose testified to the something
spiteful: mean or hurtful
attack. Aunt Minnie swore that life had rabies: a very serious illness that can make animals
been more peaceful in Upper Burma. act strangely and can be dangerous to people
hurtled: when something moves very fast

64