Diana Wynne Jones - Alt Black Maria Now Aunt Maria

Black Maria

Diana Wynne Jones

US title Aunt Maria

A 3S digital back-up edition v1.0

Contents

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Also by Diana Wynne Jones

Archers Goon

Castle in the Air

Dogsbody

Eight Days of Luke

Fire and Hemlock

Hidden Turnings

The Homeward Bounders

Howls Moving Castle

The Lives of Christopher Chant

The Magicians of Caprona

A Tale of Time City

Who Got Rid of Angus Flint?

Wild Robert

Witch Week

the Dalemark quartet

Cart and Cwidder

Drowned Ammet

The Spellcoats

The Crown of Dalemark

Mig loves happy endings but can there be one in

Cranbury-on-Sea? Mig finds that her Aunt Maria, who seems so gentle and civilised, with her sweet little chats and daily tea parties, rules with a rod that is tougher

than iron and deadlier than poison.

The men of the area are grey-suited zombies and the

children behave like clones but things go from bad to

worse when Aunt Maria turns Migs brother Chris into a

wolf. Mig is on her own but then there is the ghost and the green box and Mig is catapulted into the oldest

struggle our world has ever known

Diana Wynne Joness inventiveness knows no

bounds.

Times Literary Supplement

Diana Wynne Jones has that rare ability to create a

compelling fantasy in the mundane everyday world

Books for Your Children

Once more Diana Wynne Jones amazes and

delights a superbly crafted novel

Junior Bookshelf

First published in Great Britain 1991

by Methuen Childrens Books Ltd

Published 1992 by Mammoth an imprint of Reed

Consumer Books Ltd

Michelin House, 81 Fulham Road, London SW3 6RB

and Auckland, Melbourne, Singapore and Toronto

Reprinted 1992 (twice), 1993

Copyright 1991 Diana Wynne Jones

ISBN 0 7497 1043 8

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from

the British Library

Printed in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd,

Reading, Berkshire

This paperback is sold subject to the condition that it

shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than

that in which it is published and without a similar

condition including this condition being imposed on the

subsequent purchaser.

This book is for Elly

We have had Aunt Maria ever since Dad died. If that sounds as if we have the plague, that is what I mean. Chris says it is more like that card game, where the one who wins the Queen of Spades loses the game. Black Maria, it is called. Maybe he is right.

That is the first thing I wrote in the locked journal Dad gave me that awful Christmas, but I think it needs more explanation, so I will squeeze some in. Dad left early in December and took the car.

He rang up suddenly from France, saying he had gone away with a lady called Verena Bland and wouldnt be coming back.

Verena Bland! Mum said. What an awful name! But she said it in a way which meant that wasnt the only awful thing. Chris doesnt get on with Dad. He said, Good riddance! and then got very annoyed with me because all I seemed to be able to think of was that Dad had gone off with the story I was writing hidden in our car in the space on top of the radio. I mean I was upset about Dad, but that was the way it took me. At that time I thought the story was going to be a masterpiece and I wanted it back.

Of course Dad had to come back. That was rather typical. He had left a whole lot of stuff he needed. He came and fetched it at Christmas. I think Verena Bland had disappeared by then, because he came with a necklace for Mum and a new calculator for Chris.

And he gave me this lovely fat notebook that locks with a little key.

I was so pleased about it that I forgot to ask for my story from the car, and then I forgot it completely because Mum and Dad had a whole series of hard, snarling rows and Mum ended up saying she wanted a divorce. I still cant get over it being Mum who did! Nor could Dad, I think. He got very angry and stormed out of the house and into our car and drove away without all the stuff he had come to fetch. But my story went with him.

He must have driven off to see Aunt Maria in Cranbury-on-Sea.

He was always very dutiful about Aunt Maria, even though she is only his aunt by marriage. But he never got there, because the car skidded on some ice going over Cranbury Head and went over the cliff into the sea. The tide was up, so he could have been all right even so. But there was something wrong with the door on the drivers side. It had been like that for six months and you had to crawl in through the other door. The police think the passenger door burst open and the sea came in and swept him away while he was stunned. The seatbelt was undone, but he may have forgotten to fasten it. He often did forget. Anyway, they still havent found him.

Inquest adjourned. That is the next thing I wrote. Mum doesnt know if shes a widow or a divorcee or a married lady. Chris says

Widow. He feels bad about saying Good riddance! the way he did before, and he got very annoyed with me when I said Dad could have been picked up by a submarine that didnt speak English or swum to France or something. There goes Mig with her happy endings again, Chris said. But I dont care. I like happy endings.

And I asked Chris why something should be truer just because its unhappy. He couldnt answer.

Mum had gone all guilty and agonising. She sent Neil Holstrom packing, and I thought Neil was going to be her boyfriend. Actually, even when I wrote that I wasnt sure Mum liked Neil Holstrom, but I wanted to be fair. Neil reminded me of an earwig. All Mum did was buy Neils nasty little car off him, which was hard on Neil, even though I was glad to see the back of him. But it was true about Mum going all guilty. Chris and I went rather strange too

sort of nervy and soggy at the same time and couldnt settle down to do anything. There are huge gaps in the notebook when I couldnt be bothered to write things in it.

Mums worst guilt was about Aunt Maria. She said it was her fault Dad had gone driving off on icy roads to see Aunt Maria. Aunt Maria took to making Lavinia, the lady who looks after her, ring up twice a day to make sure we were all right. Mum said Aunt Maria had had quite as much of a shock as we had, and we were to be nice to her. So we were all far too nice to Aunt Maria. And suddenly we had gone too far to start being nasty. Aunt Maria kept ringing up.

If we werent in, or if it was only Chris at home and he didnt answer the phone, Aunt Maria telephoned all our friends, even Neil Holstrom, and anyone else she could get hold of, and told them that wed disappeared now and she was ill with worry. She rang our doctor and our dentist and found out how to ring Mums boss when he was at home. It got so embarrassing that we had to make sure one of us was always in the house from four oclock onwards to answer the phone.

It was usually me who answered. Mum worked late a lot around then, so that she could get off work and spend Easter with us. The next thing in my notebook is about Aunt Maria phoning.

Chris has a real instinct for when its going to be Aunt Maria. He says the phone rings in a special, gently persistent way, with a clang of steel under the gentleness. He gathers up his books the moment it starts and makes for the door, shouting, You answer it, Mig. Im working.

Even if Chris isnt there to warn me, I know its going to be Aunt Maria because the first person I hear is the Operator, sounding annoyed and harassed. Aunt Maria always grandly forgets that you can look up numbers and then dial them. She makes Lavinia go through the Operator every time. Lavinia never speaks. You just hear Aunt Marias voice distantly shouting, Have you got through, Lavinia? and then a clatter as Aunt Maria seizes the phone. Is that you, Naomi dear? she says urgently. Wheres Chris?