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THE YEAR THE TWINS TURNED TWELVE, EVERYTHING CHANGED

It started with a black cloud scudding over a perfectly ordinary suburban landscape Neither Jack nor Jaide noticed it, even though they were standing sentry outside their house, eyes peeled for the first sign of their father’s arrival Their attention was fixed on the street and its occupants, not the sky above

A taxi appeared in the distance, and the twins craned their heads hopefully, but it turned off two blocks ahead of their house They sagged in disappointment

‘I wish Dad wasn’t late all the time,’ said Jaide

‘Here’s hoping it’s not genetic,’ Jack gloomily replied This ti

Jaide sent a hard look her brother’s way ‘Speak for yourself, Jack I’m not the one who takes after him’

This was true Jaide had her h she never burned in the sun, whereas Jack had the brown eyes, black hair and brown skin of his father’s side of the family Or at least they assumed their father’s family looked like that; they had never actually met any of the other Shields They all lived far away, the tere told, and weren’t very friendly Even their mother had only one very well

Jack vowed to hioing to be like the, their mother liked to say Jack wanted to believe this

Several hundred yards behind their house, the cloud turned right at a church spire and spun twice anticlockwise, as though lost

Instead of their hoped-for father, the next person the twins saas the postman He smiled at them and put a letter in their letterbox

‘Hey, maybe it’s a card from Dad!’ said Jaide Hector Shield was a treasure-seeker, hunting lost alleries Soer to arrive than he did

‘He’s probably just -distance excuses,’ muttered Jack

Jaide pushed past her brother, opened the letterbox, and took out the envelope

‘It’s not fro the cream-coloured envelope curiously ‘But it is for us’

The envelope was made of a thick, flecked paper and was addressed in ornate, fornised It also referred to them by their real na trouble:

‘Who’s it fro over Jaide’s shoulder

Jaide turned the envelope over There was no return address anywhere, and next to the stamp was a four-pointed star – like the compass symbol on a map – printed directly on the envelope

So about the star unsettled Jack But he couldn’t help asking his sister, ‘Are you going to open it?’ Jack would rather know so than have to wait in suspense

‘Of course,’ Jaide told her brother, trying to sound as calm and cool as she usually did It took a lot to bother Jaide ‘What’s the hurry?’

She didn’t tell hi about the card thatabout it just feltodd

She ran her thu rip The s sea breeze had just rushed over her – even though they lived nowhere near the sea

Jack wasn’t hit by this strange sensation As his sister hesitated, he pulled the envelope froed out the card from within It hite, with the saold on the front

The day darkened le black cloud ain

‘Maybe we should show it to Mum first,’ Jack said

‘It does have our names on it,’ Jaide pointed out She flipped open the card

Inside were a few lines written in the sa

‘Grandma who?’ asked Jack

‘That’s not Ma of their mother’s mother, who lived with their aunt in an apartment on the other side of town

‘Let me see that’

Both Jack and Jaide jumped as their mother reached past theers Neither twin had heard her co

After reading the htened and she shut her eyes for a moment The tatched her, puzzled by her reaction

‘This isn’t really for you,’ she said finally ‘I want you to forget you ever saw it’

‘But it was addressed to us,’ Jaide said

‘I know, but it shouldn’t have been,’ their mother replied firmly

Jack couldn’t help himself ‘What’s a troubletwister?’ he asked

‘We’re not going to talk about it noant you to forget it,’ Susan repeated in a warning voice The twins knew that tone They only ever heard it when they were caught doing so things up in the microwave

‘But we didn’t do anything wrong,’ Jaide protested

‘I know,’ said Susan She knelt down and pulled the, which typically Jaide resisted and Jack leaned into ‘But let’s o and have a jump on the trampoline?’

‘We did that already,’ said Jack

‘Who juhest?’ Susan asked

‘I did,’ both twins declared They glared at each other for a inally faster than going around to the backyard

Susan watched theht, she read the card a second ti else in the envelope Susan pulled it out just far enough to see it was a rily, she stuffed it and the card back in the envelope, which she then shoved into her back pocket

‘Where are you, Hector?’ she said savagely as she closed the letterbox flap with a loud rattle and went inside

Half a le black cloud stopped above a derelict building site and a single stroke of lightning flashed down The muted clap of thunder that followed could have been a car backfiring

The twins, busy on the backyard trampoline, didn’t notice it Jaide, the eldest by four minutes, was shorter by half an inch, but even so she could nearly always juher than Jack, much to his annoyance

‘Do you really think I take after Dad?’ Jack asked while gathering his breath for another challenge

‘I don’t know I guess we both do, a little bit’

‘So you could be the late one, not me’

‘Maybe, but I’ll always juhest’

‘Only because you hog the middle’

‘That’s not true!’

‘You know,’ said a voice froiven the opportunity’

The twins stopped ju For all their differences, the surprised looks on their faces were identical

‘Dad?!’ they both asked