Milo and the Pirate Sisters (5 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

LOOKING FOR MISTER LEWIS

‘
T
hat was totally scary, Milo,’ Shane said as we went through town.

I nodded, still thinking over Miss Lee’s words.

‘Do you believe all that?’ Shane asked. ‘About the mill?’

‘I don’t want to believe it, Shane,’ I said. ‘But Miss Lee wouldn’t tell us a fib. And
she did say that there hasn’t been any weird stuff there for ages, but people don’t tend to go there because of the stories they’d have heard for years and years.’

‘Imagine that guy – what’s his name?’ began Shane.

‘McDonnell Maguire,’ I said.

‘Yeah, him. Imagine knocking down the dead people’s place …’

‘You mean the mausoleum,’ I interrupted, because I like to flash new words before I forget them.

‘That’s right,’ Shane went on. ‘No wonder weird things started happening. You can’t go messing with dead people.’

It scared me to think of Mister Lewis alone in that mill.

‘Do you think the Maguires might come after Mister Lewis, Milo? We can’t leave him there on his own,’ Shane went on. ‘He’s a
good friend and he must be scared stiff. He might even be dead!’

‘Shane, he’s already dead,’ I said. ‘Been dead for over a hundred years.’

‘Oh yeah,’ sighed Shane. ‘But in our minds, he’ll always be our spooky pal.’

Well, his words were very poetic and something sparked in my head. ‘Right,’ I said before I could change my mind. ‘Let’s go to the mill.’

‘Serious?’ Shane’s voice wobbled.

‘Positively serious,’ I said. ‘Could we ever live with ourselves if we didn’t at least check the place?’

‘You’re right,’ Shane sighed. ‘Let’s do it.’

So we went the same route – was it only recently we’d helped Mister Lewis with his pathetic few things in a supermarket trolley?

As we walked warily through the field towards the mill, I so wished we were simply
going to have fun and chat with the old guy, instead of worrying about whether he’d be all scattered bones and rags – that was the image that kept coming into my mind. I didn’t mention that to Shane because he’d freak out. But he had already tuned in to my mind, though not in a nice way.

‘Milo,’ he whispered, ‘what’ll we do if we find bits of Mister Lewis all over the place? What part of him would you take to remember him by?’

‘Huh? That’s gross!’ I hollered. ‘You’re a sicko.’

‘No, I’m not,’ he retorted. ‘Gran told me that years ago when she was young, people used to keep small bones of dead folks and talk to them – the bones, I mean.’

‘That’s double gross,’ I snapped and put my hands over my ears. Like I needed that sort of talk when we were hoping to see
our dead friend alive. Well, you know what I mean.

The door of the mill was open.

‘It’s quiet,’ I said, as we tip-toed warily up the winding stairs.

‘What did you expect?’ asked Shane. ‘Trumpets and drums, huh?’

He was still miffed with me over the bones thing.

The first thing we saw when we went in through the half-open door was Mister Lewis’s hat. But, yet again, no Mister Lewis.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MILO'S PLAN

N
either of us said anything – it was like we were waiting for him to waft along and be glad to see us. The room was pretty messy, which was strange because Mister Lewis is what Big Ella calls a ‘real tidy gentleman'.

‘What will we do, Milo?' whispered Shane, staying close beside me.

‘Dunno,' I gulped, picking up the hat.

We stood nervously together, looking around the room.

‘What's going on, Milo?' whispered Shane. ‘Mister Lewis wouldn't go anywhere without his hat.'

Then we heard a shuffly groaning sound from behind an upturned armchair, and we both made a dash for the door, me still clutching Shane's jacket and him hanging on to my Man U sweatshirt.

‘It's me, boys! And I'm so very glad to see you.'

We turned to see Mister Lewis's body becoming visible from behind the chair. I've always wished he wouldn't do that. It freaks me out.

‘Whoo,' gasped Shane. ‘Are we glad to see you!'

‘Not half as much as I am to see you two,' Mister Lewis sighed.

‘What's going on, Mister Lewis?' I asked as I handed him his hat.

He sighed again as he wiped the hat with his gloved hand. ‘It's those women from next door,' he said. ‘They're witches!'

‘Witches?' Shane and I said together.

‘Witches are just fairytale folks, Mister Lewis,' I said as calmly as I could.

‘Were they wearing pointy hats?' asked Shane.

‘No,' Mister Lewis replied.

‘What about big noses and hairy chins?' I put in.

Mister Lewis shook his head.

‘What about broomsticks?' Shane asked.

‘No, nothing like that,' sighed Mister Lewis. ‘They just barged in and snatched the buns that Big Ella gave me!'

‘Well then,' said Shane, ‘they're definitely not witches.'

‘It's true, Mister Lewis,' I added. ‘My dad is a Garda and he says times are so bad that
there are people who can't pay rent so they get turfed out of their homes and try to find shelter anywhere.'

‘Especially derelict buildings like this,' put in Shane.

Mister Lewis sighed again. ‘Well, whoever they are, look what they've done to my lovely room. They just barged in without knocking and went around messing with my things. I can't stay here with shrieking crones like them. Where shall I go now? I'm tired of moving about.'

I looked at him, with his crooked hat and wobbly nose and it was like a big surge of electricity went through me from my toes right up to my head.

‘Listen, Mister Lewis,' I said. ‘Me and Shane will help you.'

Shane's eyebrows shot up his forehead. ‘What?' he said.

‘We're not afraid of a couple of straggly women with no manners,' I nodded to him.

‘Sure,' said Shane. ‘We'll … we'll …'

‘We'll work something out,' I put in. ‘Now let's clean up here and we'll be back later.'

‘Huh?' said Shane, sounding like he wanted to object – until he saw my frown. ‘Er, yeah,' he went on. If they come sniffing around, you tell them that you have tough guys coming who'll sort them out.'

It was good to see Mister Lewis smiling again, even if there was still fear in his eyes.

‘Thank you, boys,' he said. ‘You have cheered me up already. With your help, we'll handle this together. I'm staying put,' he added decisively.

Fighting words, but we both knew that he was mad scared. And so were we.

‘What were you thinking, Milo?' asked Shane shortly afterwards as we headed for
home. ‘How are we supposed to deal with a couple of wild women with no manners?'

‘I know,' I said. ‘But I felt so sorry for him. I just wanted—'

‘I wonder where the horses are,' Shane interrupted. ‘There's still no sign of them. Come on, let's see where they are. It'll give us a bit of reality after Mister Lewis's stuff,' he went on as he ran towards the field.

I sighed as I followed. Much as I like horses, I just wanted to get away from here, and I wondered how we could possibly help Mister Lewis against two wild women.

Up ahead, Shane stood on a bar of the gate.

‘Milo!' he shouted. ‘All the horses are gone. The whole field is empty.'

‘Maybe they've just been moved to a different field,' I called out.

‘No way!' Shane shouted back. ‘The far
gate is broken in bits. It's like they barged right through it.'

‘Crunch and Wedge!' we both said together.

‘Imagine those two getting their evil fun by chasing poor horses around the field and making them break through that gate,' said Shane.

‘Creeps, the pair of them,' I said angrily.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

SLEEPOVER

M
um was taking a shepherd’s pie out of the microwave when I got home at teatime. I hoped it was the last one. Mum feels that she’s being really clever by making a load of pies at the same time and then freezing them. She says it makes life easier – though, frankly I prefer Dad’s idea of cooking, when Mum is out with friends and he phones for a delivery of fish and chips and we watch telly. I sneaked upstairs before she saw my
muddy shoes and dirty hands.

‘Come on, Milo,’ she called up after a few minutes. ‘We can’t wait for your dad.’ (She always puts in the
your dad
bit when she’s annoyed with him.)

‘Any news, Milo?’ she asked when I sat down at the table.

The real answer went whirling inside my head.
Yes, Mum. Me and Shane are going to spend the night saving a dead man from a couple of loco women who are driving him mad.

‘Nothing much, Mum,’ I said. ‘Me and Shane had a chat with Miss Lee about history stuff.’

‘Good lads,’ she nodded as she dished out the shepherd’s pie. ‘You two will go far.’

Well, that was for sure, I thought, considering my promise to Mister Lewis. ‘Going far’ might be somewhere up there on a cold moon with raggedy corpses
floating about on it. But then I shook my head to stop crazy thoughts; after all, in spite of Mister Lewis’s weird imagination, a couple of poor women could be tamed.

Halfway through our meal, Dad came in. He was sweating and his shoes were even muddier than mine.

‘Heavens, man,’ Mum exclaimed. ‘Where have you been? Look at the state of you.’

‘We were out looking for Harry Donnelly’s horses,’ Dad said. ‘They were all over the place … Oh, shepherd’s pie again,’ he said as he dried his hands. ‘Lovely.’

‘Did you find them, Dad?’ I asked. ‘The horses.’

‘We did – eventually,’ he said, shaking lots of pepper on his dinner. ‘They broke into a couple of farms. Very strange,’ he went on. ‘Every one of them was shivering. They were really scared.’

‘What scared them?’ Mum asked. ‘Perhaps a couple of youngsters messing about in the night?’

‘No,’ said Dad. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. Those horses were extremely traumatised – as if the devil himself was after them. We had to put them into another farmer’s field because they refused to go back along the road to Harry’s. I’ve never heard such a commotion.’

‘Is it OK if I stay with Shane tonight?’ I cleverly asked while they were absorbed in the runaway horses.

‘Sure,’ said Mum. ‘That means we can watch what we like on telly.’

I rushed upstairs and packed two torches, matches and a couple of candles.

‘Have a good time, and be good,’ Mum called out as I ran down the stairs.

‘And stay alive,’ I muttered to myself,
trying not to think of what might happen in a dreary old mill with just a dead man for company.

I called in for Shane, who had already told Big Ella that he’d be sleeping in my house.

‘And please don’t phone me, Gran,’ he said, putting his bag over his shoulder. ‘And don’t phone Milo’s mum because I’m not a baby. OK?’

‘OK,’ laughed Big Ella. ‘Here.’ She went to the fridge and took out a box of goodies. ‘I know you boys,’ she laughed, handing it to Shane. ‘You’ll probably be peckish at midnight.’

‘Oh, we’ll have a blast, Gran,’ Shane replied.

‘Well, have a good time now,’ she smiled.

‘I wish,’ I whispered.

‘We’ll be fine, Milo,’ said Shane, closing the front door. ‘And look,’ he went on as he fished something from his pocket. ‘I’ve
brought my mouth organ to help while away the time.’

‘Or we could just play I Spy,’ I said, because I know how he plays the mouth organ and I felt a headache forming already.

‘No, this will keep us calm during the night, Milo,’ he said seriously.

I took a deep breath and hoped he might lose it on the way.

Naturally we brought our schoolbags with us – it would be pretty awkward if we’d left them behind and Big Ella and my parents found them next morning!

On the way down Main Street we saw Jimmy Riley’s bus pulling in and a gang of guys from fifth and sixth classes got out, all wearing football gear and chattering like high-pitched starlings. We were amazed to see Wedge and Crunch among them.

‘Ha, look at Sleepy and Grumpy,’ laughed
Wedge. ‘We’ve been at a soccer blitz, while you two were mincing around the town like girls.’

‘Our whole class was away since yesterday,’ added Freddie Murphy.

‘We were in a posh school with a big soccer pitch,’ boasted Wedge. ‘We had a blast. Soccer all yesterday evening and this morning. Pure cool! They even have lights.’

‘Yeah,’ put in Crunch, whose bee stings had settled down nicely. ‘But not a place for losers like you nerds,’ he added in a whisper.

‘How come you got to go there?’ asked Shane.

‘The boarder guys were away on a break, and our teacher Mister Dunne is friendly with the principal,’ said Crunch. ‘That’s how we got invited to play on the pitch
yesterday and this morning.’

‘And we got to stay the night,’ Wedge gloated.

‘In sleeping bags!’ added Dave Malone. ‘It was mega fun.’

That’s when it hit me. ‘Shane!’ I hissed, dragging him away.

‘What’s wrong, Milo?’ he asked.

‘They’ve been away since yesterday! Remember Crunch’s ma telling him not to miss the bus?’

‘Yeah, so?’ Shane put in impatiently.

‘Think,’ I said.

And then he got the message. ‘Hey, Milo!’ he exclaimed. ‘That means it couldn’t have been Wedge and Crunch who chased the horses.’

Well, if we were scared before, we were heart-thumpingly panicky now.

‘What’ll we do, Milo?’ Shane asked in a low,
quiet voice to stop himself from screaming. ‘Maybe leave it till tomorrow, huh?’

Several things shot through my mind – all of them cowardly. But I thought of Mister Lewis alone in that old mill with just a couple of loonies and his bees for company. We had made a promise. So there was no turning back from the scariest decision ever.