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country. She says she wants me to become a proper member of this ‘great family’. Whatever that means.”
    “A proper member? Does she mean traditionally or what?” Madillo said.
    “It could mean anything, but I don’t want to be part of some kind of ceremony,” Fred added with a shudder.
    I like the word “shudder”. It sounds like the thing it’s describing.
    “Ceremony? Like a sacrifice?” Madillo said, jumping over every possible reasonable explanation straight to the worst one.
    “Nokokulu is not about to sacrifice anything,” I said, “least of all her favourite great-grandson. Maybe she just wants to teach Fred some manners. She’s always going on about manners.”
    “You’re forgetting the main thing, Bul-Boo,” Madillo said. “You always forget the main thing. She’s a witch. And witches sacrifice things to appease the gods. You name any country in the world and you’ll find human sacrifice. Look at the Germans, and the Tibetans and the Celts and the Aztecs and—”
    “Do the Germans sacrifice people?” Fred asked, temporarily distracted from his own fate.
    “Well, not so much today, but they did. Don’t you remember Sister Leonisa telling us about the Windeby Boy? He was German and the same age as you, Fred—”
    “Fred wasn’t there for the Human Sacrifice lessons,” I interrupted her. “It was when you went with your mum to England, Fred, and missed two weeks of school. The Windeby Boy was one of the ones they found in a bog in Germany.”
    “And he had a headband on and long blond hair. Not like yours, Fred,” Madillo added, to try to make up for telling Fred that the boy had been the same age as him.
    “Madillo,” I said, before she could continue, “Nokokulu is
not
going to sacrifice Fred. That’s just ridiculous.” I was glad that Fred had missed those lessons. They had been very gruesome and he’d have felt even worse now if he’d sat through them.
    “Well, what if she wants to experiment on him with her curses and spells? What if she decides to change him into a chameleon just because she can?” Madillo said.
    “I’ve never seen her change a human into anything,” Fred said, shaking his head. “I know she’s a witch and everything, but she wouldn’t do that.”
    At last one of them was seeing just a little sense.
    “I don’t know if I should tell you this,” he continued, his expression changing, “but she was also talking about something she called the Man-Beast, some terrible creature with a bad memory. She was speaking almost as if we’re going there to hunt him down.”
    Now I could see his worry turning into real fear.
    “She’s mad,” I said. “Man-Beast? There’s no such thing.”
    “She thinks he’s the one who took away my granny. She says he appears every forty years and now he’s come to Ng’ombe Ilede.”
    “That’s it!” Madillo said, bowing her head in the same way she does to Nokokulu. “It’s him – the Man-Beast.
He’s
the one taking all Mum’s patients. He’s the one who has Aunt Kiki. I was wrong. It’s not Nokokulu; it’s him. The Man-Beast has returned and is rampaging about the land stealing people. Who knows who’ll be next?” She peered round the hedge as she spoke, as if to make sure he wasn’t standing there listening while he decided which one of us to take.
    Way to go, Madillo. Why don’t you make things ten times as bad?
    Madillo leant forward and grabbed hold of Fred’s hand. “We won’t abandon you, Fred. We won’t let the Man-Beast claim you as his next victim.”
    “Stop it!” I said. “Stop it now! There’s no such thing. Nokokulu is the biggest liar I’ve ever met. She’s just trying to frighten you, Fred. And you, Madillo, think for a minute. Have you ever seen a Man-Beast, whatever on earth that might be?”
    Madillo looked a little deflated but it wasn’t enough to stop her.
    “Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist,” she said. “And, if you