ChApTER 1 Gloria Gloria Kelly lay in bed She was wide awake And she knew her brother Raymond was too She could tell by the way he was breathing It was awake breath He was lying there thinking thinking and listening Sleep breath was different It was longer and lighter less in and out Rayzer she whispered Raymond didn’t answer But she didn’t care She liked sharing the bedroom Although she knew Raymond Raymond didn’t But she didn’t care about that either She could like it in secret She didn’t have to tell him She’d been moved into Raymond’s room when their Uncle Ben had come to live with them For a while That was what her mam and dad had said Uncle Ben would be staying for a while Sometimes her mother called it a little while But the little had disappeared when Uncle Ben kept staying and 5
Gloria began to think that her bedroom wasn’t hers anymore And Raymond she supposed began to think the same thing His room had become their room She looked into her room sometimes when her Uncle Ben wasn’t in there He hadn’t done anything to it He hadn’t touched her pictures or her other stuff It was still pink nearly everything in it The only really new thing in the room was her Uncle Ben’s smell It was kind of an adult smell A mixture of soap and sweatiness There were none of his clothes lying around and just one book that wasn’t hers She’d looked at the cover but it had looked boring about a war or something Except Except for the fact that she didn’t sleep or play in there anymore 6
it was still Gloria’s room So maybe her Uncle Ben really was only staying for a while but the while was a bit longer than they’d expected Maybe Rayzer He still wouldn’t answer She didn’t like her bed It wasn’t a real bed It was just a mattress on the floor She’d liked it at first It had been fun nearly like camping But not now Her face was sometimes right against the wall low down at the baseboard nearly where it joined the floor It was cold there Always even when the rest of the room was warm And she could hear things sometimes she thought she could Behind the baseboard Gloria wished she had her own bed That was all she missed really She had her duvet and her pink cover But it wasn’t the same Rayzer She said it a bit louder Nearly her regular talking voice Maybe he was asleep She kind of liked that the fact that her big brother had fallen asleep before her She tried again Rayzer What Are you not asleep That’s a stupid question I bet you were asleep said Gloria And I woke you I wasn’t said Raymond Bet you were said Gloria Prove it 7
Easy said Raymond You said Rayzer four times She heard him moving turning in his bed Didn’t you Yeah she said I think Why didn’t you answer Didn’t want to I knew that said Gloria I knew you were awake What d’you want Can you hear them said Gloria Yeah Gloria was talking about the grown-ups downstairs Her mam her dad her granny and Uncle Ben They were downstairs in the kitchen Raymond’s bedroom was right on top of them They’re mumbling again Gloria whispered Yeah said Raymond The house was full of mumbles these days Mumbles that often stopped whenever Raymond or Gloria walked into the room Mumbling was what grown-ups did when they thought they were whispering Whispers only stayed in the air for a little while but mumbles rolled around for ages in the high corners along the window frames all around the house The mumbles had almost become creatures Gloria imagined she could see them They were made of dust and hair pushed into a ball with skinny legs that barely touched the walls and ceilings as they slid along the paint and glass and wood The mumbling had started when their Uncle Ben had come to live with them Or just before he came Gloria didn’t like the mumbles They worried her But she didn’t blame her Uncle Ben for them 8
