Chapter 2
Chris Gardiner had a face like thunder. 'Seven years of drought and then, on the one day that I really want to be outside, You have to make it pour down!' He pretended to look repentant. 'I'm sorry, God! If you stop the rain I promise I'll go to church every Sunday, clean my teeth twice a day, and keep my room tidy! What more can I offer? Sounds a good deal to me. Wha'd'y'think?'
Chris took a step backwards as a sudden squall outside made it sound as if someone was throwing stones at the window. 'Okay. Maybe not such a good deal. What about if I do my homework every night?'
God must have been on urgent business elsewhere as the rain continued unabated and there was no glimmer of hope in the dark cloud blanket which shrouded the sky.
Josie's twin brother was in a foul mood because he'd wanted to spend the day trying out his birthday present — a metal detector. The rain had forced all his expectations of discovering buried treasure to be relegated to the daydream department. At least he'd proved that the device worked, and was capable of detecting gold — assuming that his sister's strange bracelet was made of gold. He'd managed to persuade her to spend a whole hour hiding it in various places so that he could locate it with his detector. Although Mr Gardiner had assured everyone that the bracelet was made of gold, Chris had kept saying to Josie, 'Are you sure this is gold?'
Josie suspected that her brother's apparent doubts about the genuineness of the bracelet were caused by his feeling a bit miffed that the anonymous benefactor hadn't seen fit to send him a valuable birthday present. She had to admit that it did seem unfair that she was the only twin who had received a mystery gift, so she was quite happy to humour Chris by hiding the bracelet again and again until long after she'd lost all interest in the game.
Since Josie had retired to her room to study her map, Chris had visited every room in the house with his detector. He had found plenty of locations where it told him that there was metal to be found, but he didn't think his parents would be too pleased if he started pulling up the floorboards to reveal nothing more than water pipes.
Through the window, Chris caught a glimpse of a quickly-moving yellow-clad figure in next-door's garden. Potty Potter's pottering, thought Chris.
Mr Potter — if he had a first name no-one knew it — was generally regarded as being the most dedicated gardener in the world. Whatever the weather he was able to find plenty of jobs in the garden to keep himself occupied. Chris watched as Mr Potter stepped into his greenhouse, slid the door closed, and then removed his waterproof. His garden was full of sheds and workshops and Chris was sure he was more at home in those than he ever was when he was indoors. Most of them were full of what everyone else would regard as junk. If anyone in the road had buried treasure — it would be Mr Potter. But Chris wanted treasure buried in the ground rather than treasure buried beneath heaps of old newspapers, broken lawn mowers, cracked flowerpots and bird cages that were probably made by Noah.
As there was nothing else happening outside to keep him amused, Chris decided to go and see what his sister was doing. There weren't many occasions when Chris was glad he had a twin sister but, when it was too wet to go out with your mates or your metal detector, a sister could stop you going mad with boredom.