When Cassie awakes she thinks that Bigma is by the window on the chair. Cassie’s imagination is running slightly wild because she is imagining this. She wants to feel safe and protected by her family thinking that someone is close to her. ‘Quiet now except for the drip drap of water falling from the roof’. There is no noise now apart from what the author is telling you about the effect of the drip-drap water which is telling you the sound it is making and how obvious it is that something may be about to happen. Cassie is afraid because she doesn’t want to move from the chair.
After a noise is heard on the porch Cassie hurries out there thinking that it is her brothers messing around. When the author tells you that, you are not quite sure what to think because if you were in Cassie’s shoes, in her situation it could be anyone out there. Her brothers wouldn’t be out of their beds outside in the dark at night time. ‘Stacey’, I whispered. ‘Christopher-John? ‘. Cassie is not talking when she says this but is whispering because she is very cautious of who is there and who is making the noise.
When a sudden movement is seen near the end of the porch Cassie heads toward it. This shows she is very brave and not scared to walk up there to see who it is. Fear is building up here because the author is keeping you in suspense so you have to wait a while to find out who is there. ‘I crept precariously’. Cassie is aware that someone is about and she feels unsafe and insecure, because she walks up precariously. Soon there is a sigh of relief because Jason, the family dog jumps upon Cassie and relieves her tension because now what she thought was someone was just her dog.
The author builds up from night time and being quiet to hearing noises outside and then springs upon us that it was only the dog. Cassie is pleased to see Jason because she thought it was someone trying to scare her or wandering around the porch. The author lays tension on us again because Cassie sees a caravan coming up the road. It says ‘she froze’ as she was getting up so this means she knows something is wrong. ‘A caravan of headlights appeared suddenly in the east, coming faster along the rain soaked road like cat eyes in the night’.
This is a simile as it is compared to something else to give you a picture of what the caravan looks like. Cassie knows something is definitely not right because ‘Jason whined loudly, growing skittish as the lights approached’. I think that the dog is getting scared because he senses things and he fears for Cassie. The caravan brakes before the house but Cassie cannot bring herself to go anywhere, ‘My legs would not move’. A figure stepped out of the car but it makes it seem more real and frightening because the author doesn’t describe what the person looks like who has just stepped out of the car.
‘The man walked slowly up the drive’. This creates a sense of footsteps like in a scary movie because it makes it more frightening. Cassie cannot control her feelings to what is happening, she could make an escape but instead she stands still where she is. ‘I stopped breathing’. A dramatic effect is building up here because Cassie is getting worse by the second. She cannot believe what’s in front of her eyes. When the man stops and stares at the house we wonder whether he is after Cassie or any of her family because he is continuously staring at the house as to whether ‘it is the correct destination’.
Eventually a few moments later the man steps back into the caravan and then it drives away. Cassie is now safe from danger because know one saw her and they didn’t come right up to the house. The action doesn’t stop when it says ‘there was a sense of quiet movement in the darkness’. Cassie is sensing this, so there may not be anyone there but just her imagination. But as soon as the ‘moon slid from the dark covers’ she could see Mr Morrison from the side of the house. We don’t know what he could be up to because know one knows that much about Mr Morrison.
He could be a bad person or just being protective towards the family because he has a shotgun in his hand. This puts cassie is a threatening position because she doesn’t want Mr Morrison to see her and she certainly does not want to get into any trouble. Cassie can’t get what has happened in the night out of her mind because she thought the night men had come because of what Cassie and her brothers did to the bus.
First at the end of the chapter it was dark and quiet, then Cassie heard a noise which she thought was her brothers, then it was only the dog, then the night men had come and then we see Mr Morrison with a shotgun. The end of the chapter is filled with terror, anger and dramatic events taking place.
