Elizabeth hid behind the giant tree she surprised herself climbing up two days ago.
Now think. Think! How shall I get in there unnoticed?
She heard a door opening and peeked out of her hiding place.
The angry man, who’d sent her away, went down the stairs and disappeared around the corner. He made a lot of noise with what must have been a very old and screechy door.
Then he appeared again, with a bicycle.
Elizabeth bypassed her gladness about him living. If he was taking a bike, he would be back any moment.
As soon as he was out of site, she stepped out of her hiding space.
She needed to work out something fast, otherwise she would never get inside.
Elizabeth crossed the narrow road and stepped onto the broad brick way leading to the house.
She was stopped by the house door opening. Alice went out and froze. She gazed at Elizabeth. A large flower pot in her hands.
“Oh, let me help you with this.” Elizabeth hurried up the eleven steps with almost unexpected easiness, and supported the pot Alice was holding.
“Thanks.” Alice woke up from her surprised stare and tilted her head to point where she wanted to put the pot. To her right.
As they both unbent their backs, Elizabeth rushed to say. “Alice.” She stopped, suddenly conscious that she revealed herself sneaking after her first visit, then said, “Sorry, I overheard your name the other day. May I talk to you? May I … maybe … come in?”
“Um.” Alice took a long moment to gaze into Elizabeth’s eyes. This felt both confusing and comforting. Then she nodded. “Yes, you may come in. But you better talk to Patrick when he comes back. Not to me.”
Elizabeth frowned. Patrick? Was this the man’s name? Did she hear it before?
She was interrupted by the floorboards squeaking below Alice’s feet. Alice held the door open for Elizabeth.
They entered a large entrance hall with a wide staircase winding from the right side to the upper left corner of the hall. Elizabeth followed the stairs with her gaze and saw the balconies of two more floors arching above the opposite side of the hall.
A small head with short and densely packed brown curls appeared above the white plastered baluster of the first floor, topped with dark wooden railing.
Elizabeth recognized the girl she saw running out of a car into Alice’s arms two days before.
“Hi,” said Elizabeth with a wave to her.
“Hi,” said the girl. She looked at Alice. “You told me another girl was coming to take my room. But she is not a girl.” Then she turned her head to Elizabeth, her curls dancing in all directions on top of her head. “Are you also dying?”
Picture: Looking up helps discovering the sky and its limitlessness anew. This time through branches of a Rowan tree.
P.S. Chapter 6 will be written and posted in two weeks time.
P.P.S. You can find the complete story written so far at the page “Free Online Books”.
P.P.P.S. If you think you have friends who could like this story, feel free to forward it to them.
Everything except one paragraph (1st paragraph in Chapter 1) of “Nothing is As it Seems” is under copyright © 2015-2016 by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels