Snakes' Elbows by Deirdre Madden

‘We’d best go and see where Jasper is. We’ll catch up with you later.’ Again Dandelion felt a rough, comforting paw touch her on the head. The door of the room, which was ajar, opened wider as the two invisible dogs slipped out on to the landing.
    Dandelion hopped up on to the piano and sat down at the end of the keyboard, staring hard at Barney. She was wearing her red leather harness, which was tight and uncomfortable.
    â€˜What is it, my dear? What do you want?’ he said and he stopped playing, leaned over to tickle her chin. ‘Why, how could I have forgotten? Your pills!’
    Oh no! He crossed to the bedside table, picked up a brown glass jar and took from it two enormous yellow pills. ‘Come along, Dandelion. Be a good cat and take your medicine.’
    â€˜You’ll have to catch me first,’ thought Dandelion, and with one bound she was at the top of the curtains. She hung there by her claws, mewing, while Barney tried to coax her down.
    Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, Wilf was already preparing lunch. He had rolled out the pastry for an apple pie and was peeling and chopping the fruit when the kitchen door swung open. ‘Must be a draught,’ Wilf thought as he went over and pushed it closed again. Just at that moment he caught again the smell of eau de cologne he’d noticed when he was bringing in the milk. Had the ghost come back? he wondered.
    As if in reply, the rolling pin rose off the table and floated in mid-air. ‘Eek! Help!’ he cried asit moved towards him and then Thwack! Wilf’s own rolling pin hit him hard on the head! He saw red lights and swirling stars, reeled backwards and almost fell over. The rolling pin was still hovering over his head. He saw it draw back to thump him again and with that Wilf started to run. Round and round the table he went with the rolling pin following him. Never in his life had he been so frightened. To be chased by a man with a rolling pin would be awful he thought, but somehow to be chased by the rolling pin itself was even worse.
    Suddenly he noticed the door into the pantry and he threw himself on it. The door fell open and he tumbled straight into the small dark room, head first into a lemon jelly that had been left there to set. The rolling pin – it could be no one or nothing else – slammed the door shut and Wilf heard the key being turned in the lock. It was almost a relief to be sitting there on the floor in the darkness, with a fancy jelly mould on his head and lemon jellyslithering down the back of his neck. At least here he was safe.
    Up in the bedroom, Barney had managed to catch Dandelion and to force one of the yellow pills into her. It was achieved with much wiggling and mewing and scratching on Dandelion’s part, and much coaxing and scolding and scrambling on Barney’s. He was quite exhausted with the effort.
    â€˜I shall have to fetch Wilf to help me give you the second one, or it’ll take all morning.’
    Barney left the room with Dandelion at his heels to go to the kitchen. He was amazed to see that all the paintings had been removed from the wall and were stacked up neatly at the end of the passageway. Why on earth had Wilf done this? He hadn’t asked him to, and Wilf hadn’t mentioned anything about it. Puzzled, Barney continued along the corridor and went down the stairs. What a sight met his eyes on the second floor!
    A picture in a heavy gold frame of a storm atsea was getting down from the wall all by itself. Several other paintings were already stacked up nearby. Barney watched open-mouthed and goggle-eyed as the seascape slid itself up the wall and then tilted out at the bottom. Slowly and gently it moved off and hovered in mid-air for a moment before lowering itself to the ground. It rested there as if it were tired and Barney noticed a curious and pleasant smell, a cross between pinecones and lemons.
    â€˜It’s like a very good eau de cologne,