Free Horten's Incredible Illusions by Lissa Evans Page B

phone call,” he said, rather slowly, as if speaking a foreign language. “Who was it from?”
    “A very old lady. She knew about Great-Uncle Tony’s workshop being found, and she wants to buy all the tricks. She’s says she’s very rich. Dad?”
    “Yes?”
    “Have you ever wanted to be rich?”
    “Such an ambition has never come within the compass of—” His father stopped and cleared his throat.
    “I mean to convey that I have always engaged in wider considerations than—” He cleared his throat again.
    “No,” he said simply. “There are more important things than money.”
    In the brief silence Stuart heard April shouting his name from the backyard.
    “Can I go and see her?” he asked, and instead of saying something like you have my unconditional assent , his dad just smiled and replied, “Yes.” And Stuart thought, with a burst of pleasure, how much simpler life would be if his father stuck to this new way of talking.
    The fence between the yards always made Stuart feel especially short; it was too high for him to see over, whereas April was tall enough to comfortably rest her chin on it. She was standing on her side of it, sucking a bright-blue popsicle.
    “Hello,” she said. “You look all weird and excited about something. What’s going on?”
    “Well, I had this mysterious phone call and—”
    The entire top of April’s popsicle broke off in her mouth, and she let out a piercing scream.
    Stuart stared at her.
    “It’s cold ,” she wailed madly, hopping from foot to foot. “My teeth have gone all tingly . Ooooh! It’s like pins and needles only in my teeeeeeeeth !”
    Stuart folded his arms. “You’re not April,” he said.
    “What?”
    “She wouldn’t make a fuss about something like that. You must be May.”
    Instantly April popped up from where she’d been hiding behind the fence, next to her sister.
    “Very good,” she said. “We were just testing you. I lent May my glasses, and then I hid.”
    May laughed. Stuart felt a bit irritated. “What did you want anyway?” he asked.
    “To tell you that I can’t be at the museum tomorrow morning. We’ve got to go shopping for school shoes.”
    “Okay.”
    “Bye, then.” She walked away, and May trailed after her, still complaining about her teeth.
    Stuart watched them go, and then jumped violently as the third triplet suddenly bobbed up from behind the fence.
    “Hi,” she said, grinning. “I was hiding too. Did you like our test?”
    “Not much. But at least I got it right.”
    “Half right. The one with the popsicle was May, but the other one was June. I’m April. You missed a vital clue.”
    “What?” asked Stuart.
    “June isn’t as curious about things as I am. She didn’t ask you all about the mysterious phone call, whereas I would have. It’s about what we say as well as how we say it.”
    “Oh.”
    “Maybe, if you really concentrate, you’ll get all three of us next time.” She leaned her chin on top of the fence and smiled down at him. “So what was the phone call about?”
    “It was, um …” Suddenly he didn’t feel much like telling her; he wanted a bit more time to think about Miss Edie’s offer and what it might mean. Rich with a great big golden capital R …. April wouldn’t spring silly tests on him and then lecture him on the result if he had lots of money. She’d be too busy wondering whether she was going to get a ride in his new car. He imagined the triplets trudging to school in torrential rain while he swooshed by in his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce.
    “I’m sorry,” he said. “There’s no time to tell you now—it will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon.”
    “Okay.” She said, looking disappointed. “See you then.”
    “See you.”
    “Oh, hang on, Stuart. I had a brainwave about the Fan of Fantasticness. You know we’d decided that it must fold up somehow but we haven’t worked out how?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, I remembered that May had this stupid plastic fan she