Chapter One
Even if Clancy had heard the phone ring, she wouldn’t have answered it. Clancy didn’t like talking to strangers, especially not on the phone. So the message sat blinking on the machine for a whole day before Harriet, Clancy’s mother, discovered it. And then all hell broke loose.
‘But you must have heard the phone!’ said Harriet.
‘I didn’t!’ insisted Clancy.
‘No one rings land lines anymore. She probably thought it was a scammer,’ said her younger brother,Bruno, helpfully.
‘She’s in another world.’ Her older sister, Tash, was scornful. ‘She wouldn’t notice if the whole building blew up.’
‘Were you reading, Clance?’ asked her father, Tim,hopefully. He was a teacher, and he still dreamed that at least one of his children would develop a love of books. Harriet hadn’t heard the phone because she was out at work. Tim hadn’t heard it because he was at school, preparing for the new term that was about to start, and then at a rehearsal with his jazz band. Bruno hadn’t heard it because he had been on the computer all day, wearing headphones. He was in trouble for that now, because he was only supposed to have two hours of computer time a day, even during the summer holidays.
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