Free Emily's Penny Dreadful by Bill Nagelkerke Page A

finally going to start working out how to escape from the
match factory. But because Emily hadn’t worked it out, neither had
Miley, so hardly anything had been written except a big fat
question mark and, since then, a few sentences that weren’t going
anywhere.
      It was all very
upsetting.
      Uncle Raymond’s
refusal to help her with ideas, or to tell Emily the truth, had
been the last straw. The two last straws.
    *
    Someone knocked on the door.
      It couldn’t be
Sibbie. Sibbie would never knock on the door of her own
room.
      “ Who is it?” said
Emily.
      The door opened. It
was Uncle Raymond. Emily thought he looked ashamed of himself. And
so he should, she thought.
      “ Hmm,” he said. “May
I come in?”
      “ I suppose so,” said
Emily. “You can sit on Sibbie’s bed if you want to. Mine’s too low
on the ground. Even lower than my chair. You might find it hard to
stand up again.”
      “ Thank you for that
advice.” Uncle Raymond sat down on the corner of Sibbie’s
bed.
      “ Is that your
writing book I see?” he asked.
      Emily
nodded.
    “ Hmm. I’ve come to
apologize,” said Uncle Raymond. “I’m sorry for the way I spoke so
sharply to you, and for lying.”
      “ I know that all the
best writers are liars,” said Emily. “It probably wasn’t fair to
expect you to tell the truth.”
    “ Hmm. Well. Nevertheless,
those last questions you asked me were fair enough,” said Uncle
Raymond. “I know you would be much happier if your Aunt and I
weren’t taking up the space that rightly belongs to you. Believe
me, we feel the same. But we have no money
    to live elsewhere, not with the cost
involved in
    building ourselves a new home. Your mother
and father have been very generous to let us stay in their house
and you have been extra generous to vacate your room for the
duration. I spoke out of order and I’m very sorry to have upset
you.”
      Emily sniffed.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I don’t really mind. Well, I do, a bit.
Well, quite a lot really, but it’s still okay.”
      “ Your aunt and your
mother both think I should assist you with your story,” Uncle
Raymond said. “The one you’re stuck on. I can see for myself that
you’re stuck. An almost empty page looks very much like a blank
computer screen.”
      “ It has a question
mark on it,” said Emily. “And a few sentences. But that’s as far as
I can get.”
      “ Perhaps if I don’t
have any ideas for my own writing, I might still be able to concoct
one or two for yours,” said Uncle Raymond.
    “ Could you? Would you?
Really?” said Emily.
      “ I can but try,”
said Uncle Raymond.
      “ Well, this is
Chapter 15, the chapter where Miley
    begins to work out how to escape from the
match factory. But it’s mostly blank because I don’t know
    how she escapes.”
      “ Let me read the
rest of the story first,” said Uncle Raymond.
    “ You mean
read it now ?”
asked Emily. “Don’t you want to take it away with you? It doesn’t
have to be wrapped in a freezer-storage bag.”
      “ I’m a fast reader,”
said Uncle Raymond.
    “ I wish I was,” said Emily.
“Can you teach me to read fast? I could teach what I already know
about barking. It’s not that hard.”
    “ Maybe. Later,” said Uncle
Raymond. “Story, please.”
      Emily handed over
the exercise book, together with Uncle Raymond’s Penny
Dreadful.
      “ You can have this
back,” she said. “I’ve finished with it.”
    “ Did you manage to read it
all?” he asked.
      Emily nodded. “The
printing was very, very small,” she said, “but I finished it.
Twice. It was very
    inspirational. I even did some creative
borrowing from
    it, for my story.”
    “ I’m impressed. Were you
very scared when you read it?” asked Uncle Raymond
curiously.
      “ No,” said Emily. “I mean I was, but not scared as in scared . It wasn’t real,”
she said. “And the police got there in the end. I want the police
to save