Free The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter Page A

were not so coldhearted as to let their youngest sibling wander around a strange place by himself, and two, because they didn’t want to be left alone to wander around a strange place without their youngest sibling. Max always seemed to know so much more about real-lifethings than they did, like how to get from one place to another.
    Still, they did mutter to each other as they walked along (Otto often had to repeat himself since it was hard for Lucia to see his hands in the darkness):
    “This is taking things pretty far, I’d say,” said Otto, gazing at the black stretch of fields all around them. “Sometimes I think Max is quite mental.”
    “It’s just that Dad always indulges him. Because he’s the youngest, of course. He ought to be more strict with him. I think I’ll have a chat with Dad when he gets back.”
    And the two continued this “older brother-and-sister conversation” because it made them feel a little less nervous about travelling to who-knew-where in the middle of the night.
    Soon a lone farmhouse appeared, with a tumbledown barn behind it. A low groaning sound made Otto and Lucia stop short and stare at each other, their eyes wide.
    “Cows,” Max called back, without turning or slowing his pace.
    Lucia forced her nostrils to flare but it was too dark for anyone to notice. Otto yanked on the end of his scarf so that it was wrapped tight around his neck, and they continued on.
    More and more houses began to appear until they came to the heart of a small town. It looked so similar to Little Tunks—the small tidy shops, now closed of course, and the rows of brick houses with their scrappy little front yards—that it made Otto and Lucia relax a bit. They evenbegan to peer at the shop windows, most of which were too dark to see into. But there was one towards the edge of the town, where the shops began to dwindle, that had a single light on towards the back, enough to illuminate a front window and the sign above it— SAINT GEORGE’S TAXIDERMY & CURIOSITIES . The window display had a spooky-looking collection: stuffed rabbits frozen in mid-hop, stuffed foxes frozen in mid-leap, and a miniature zebra that looked out quizzically at them with glinting black eyes. There were several cylindrical-shaped glass containers that imprisoned stuffed ducks and owls, and various horns were scattered all about. The centerpiece, however, was a wild boar. The beast was standing with its huge snout pointing upwards. Its mouth was open in a snarl, baring its white curving tusks. Someone had painted the tips of the lower tusks bright red as though it had recently gored someone.
    “It’s hideous,” Lucia said quietly, unable to tear her eyes away from the beast’s face.
    “It’s fake,” Max said. “That’s just a very large pig with tusks stuck into its jaws.”
    “How do you know?” Lucia asked.
    “For one thing, only male wild boars have tusks. That one is a girl.”
    “Really?”
    Lucia and Otto both ducked their heads and tipped them to one side to have a better look.
    “You’re right,” Lucia said, then suddenly cried, “Oh!” and drew back.
    “What?” Otto asked.
    “There. Look on the floor, right by the boar’s hind legs,” she said.
    “Pig,” Max corrected, but he crouched down along with Otto and they saw a stuffed black cat, curled in a sleek ball on the floor.
    “It’s one thing to stuff a rabbit,” Lucia cried. “But a cat! That’s barbaric!”
    “Look at his toes!” Otto said. “On his right front. He’s got”—he squinted to see if he was correct—“yes, he’s got eight of them!”
    “He can’t have,” Max said. “The most they can have is seven.”
    “Look!” Otto said, tapping on the window.
    At that moment two things happened. The cat looked up, and a voice from within the store called out, “Have you brought me a body? If not, go away!”
    The children stared at one another in silence, eyes wide. In a moment they heard a scuffling from within, then