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Felix, Net & Nika and the Gang of Invisible People - fragment
2009/01/26
As Nika came down the wooden steps, she noticed a detail that grabbed her attention – the skeleton was in a different place… Then she saw something that made her heart stop. The skeleton was standing up on its own, without the aid of its support. She well remembered the rattling bones that had swung loosely, joined by thin wires, when Felix had shifted its stand at the beginning of the school year.
The skeleton had no right whatsoever to be keeping an upright position without any support! She stood dumbstruck for quite a long time, until suddenly the skeleton slowly raised an arm and took a step in her direction. She dropped her books, screamed and ran headlong for the exit. She could hear the clatter of bones behind her, so without looking round, she dashed onto the staircase and slammed the door shut behind her. She ran down to the ground floor, only stopping when she reached the hall, panting as she tried to catch her breath. She tidied her hair, which had fallen over her face, and raised her head. Felix and Net were standing by the little shop, watching her. Now they came up to her.
“Why were you running like that?” asked Felix.
“It was terrifying!” she stuttered. “That skeleton, in the attic…”
“Is it bothering you again? I moved it further away from our HQ.”
“It… tried to catch me.”
The boys stared at her suspiciously.
“I wonder if Doctor Dachshund is receiving yet?” said Net, looking at his watch.
“I’m serious!” Nika almost shouted, constantly glancing over her shoulder at the stairs, as if afraid the skeleton would come down all this way after her.
Felix squinted. “How exactly did it try to catch you?”
“It stretched out its arm and took two steps,” she said, imitating its movements. She looked at the boys and her shoulders drooped.
“You don’tbelieve me…”
After a pause for thought the boys decided to take her seriously.
“Let’s go upstairs and take a look,” suggested Felix.
“Oh, no!” she protested. “I’m never going in there again!”
“So we’re not going to check if you were right.”
“Go on your own,” she said much more quietly. “You won’t have any trouble spotting the ownerless skeleton that’s running loose in the attic.”
The boys shrugged and left Nika in the hall. Sniggering at her girly fears, they started going up the stairs. When they only had the last flight to go, they started walking more slowly. Step by step their mood began to change. Once they were finally standing outside the attic door, they no longer felt like joking. It’s one thing to make fun of a skeleton when you’re standing in a busy hall, and quite another when you’re just about to see it.
“Let’s go in together,” said Felix.
“And if anything’s wrong, let’s run away together,” added Net.
“OK.”
They pushed the door open and went inside shoulder to shoulder. Felix felt for the switch and turned on the light. The dusty, cluttered attic looked normal, but that didn’t make them feel any calmer. They took another step, and then another. Gradually they reached the steps leading down to their headquarters.
“It’s cold somehow…” whispered Net, doing up his top button. There was steam coming out of their mouths. Something blocked the light from the window and made a metallic grating sound. Net was just about to turn and run, but Felix held him by the sleeve.
“It’s just a pigeon on the windowsill,” he whispered, pointing at the semicircular window.
The pigeon finally settled down and stopped making a noise. They stared into the depths of the attic. There in the gloom stood the skeleton. For a long time they kept their eyes glued to it anxiously, but it didn’t move. The stand it was resting against was still in the same place Felix had moved it to when they were setting up their headquarters.
“Oswald the Bald sleeps standing up,” said Net, trying to cheer himself up with a joke. They went down the steps, fetched Nika’s books and towel, turned around and, trying not to hurry, got to the door. Only once they reached the second floor, where there were more pupils around, did they feel distinct relief.
“She must have infected us,” said Net. “I feel an irrational fear about going back to our HQ.”
“So do I.”
“Girly fears… Better do something about that. I like that attic too much to be afraid of it.”
Felix gave it some thought.
“It’s simple,” he said. “When Nika goes there with us, we won’t be afraid.”
“Hmm, you’re right – she’ll be afraid for us.” They went downstairs and found Nika.
“There’s nothing there,” Felix assured her, handing her the books and the dusty towel.
Nika swept the falling hair from her face. Felix and Net noticed that she was crying.
“On top of it all I’ve lost my hairclip.”
“The silver one?”
“Yes. It belonged to my great-grandmother…” she almost sobbed. “Granny and Mum used to wear it too.”
“It must be in the attic,” said Net. “Come on, we’ll look for it.”
Nika shook her head and retreated. “You’ve got to conquer it,” said Net, mentally adding, “and so have we.”
“Let’s go back there, and we’ll show you everything’s OK. Oswald the Bald is standing in his place.”
“Oswald the Bald?”
“He’s just got a name. He won’t be so scary now.” Nika reluctantly took his hand and let him lead her towards the stairs. They
reached the very top. They opened the door, and confidently, though with their hearts in their mouths, stepped into the semi-darkness inside. Nika was right behind Net, still squeezing his hand. The boy sensed that at any cost he must pretend not to be afraid. The pigeon was still scratching about on the windowsill, a noise to set your teeth on edge. Through the dirty glass loomed the silhouette of its rapidly moving wings. The hairclip was nowhere to be seen.
“Oswald is standing over there, where we left him at the beginning of the school year,” said Net, pointing into the depths of the attic.
They looked the way he was pointing. But then Net’s hand began to shake.
“No…” he said slowly and stepped back a pace. In the gloom, in the place where two minutes ago the skeleton had been, now there was nothing but its empty stand.
“I don’t understand,” whispered Felix, staring at the stand. Net tugged at his sleeve and he looked round.
“I told you,” said Nika, and felt Felix tugging at her sleeve now. She turned around. The skeleton was standing up on its own in the shadows behind the last little window, not far from the door, at the bottom of the steps leading to
their HQ. The three friends froze, glancing now at it, now at the door. All of a sudden the pigeon fell silent. Then the little bone in the skeleton’s little finger shuddered. Felix, Net and Nika screamed, rushed for the stairs and ran down, jumping several steps at a time. The door bounced off the wall and slammed shut with a dull thud.
Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
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