It was a rainy day in the school holidays. Lexi looked out of the window at the rain and thought about her parents. They were on a long holiday trip travelling around the world. They said that Lexi was too young to go, so Lexi was staying with her Aunt Bella in her funny old house with lots of rooms and strange noises.

Today Lexi was bored. She was all alone – Aunt Bella was out shopping. It was the second week of the holidays and it had rained all the time. Lexi knew all the parts of the house and garden now. Downstairs there was a big living-room with squashy chairs and the television. Next to that was the dining-room with its enormous table and chairs. The dining-room was blue and there were many old books in the bookcases, but they were not very exciting. The room smelt strange and Lexi didn’t like it. At the back of the house was the kitchen. That room was better – it was warm and full of delicious cooking smells.

Upstairs were the bedrooms. Aunt Bella’s room was at the front and Lexi’s room was at the back. She could see the garden with its apple trees and flowers. Today it was too wet to play outside. The bedrooms were cold and there wasn’t much furniture. In Lexi’s room there was only a bed, a small table and a wardrobe for clothes.

At the end of the corridor there were stairs. It was very dark in the corridor but Lexi decided to look upstairs. Maybe there was something interesting in the attic. She felt slowly in the dark and saw a spider hanging in its web. One step, two more steps, and then she arrived at the top. There was an old door. Lexi turned the key – it was difficult. She heard a click and the door opened as if by magic. She couldn’t believe her eyes.

Lexi stepped into the strangest room she had ever seen. The walls were changing color and were decorated with sparkly silver and gold stars and moons. First blue, then pink, then purple and gold mixed together. It was like liquid color.

The furniture was strange too. On the left was a sofa – but it wasn’t on the floor! It was hanging in the air and moved around the room. Other chairs and tables moved around or stopped on the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a table and two chairs. They weren’t moving very much so Lexi sat down at the table. Immediately the table was covered with delicious food – cakes and jellies and ice-cream. Lexi took a cake and tasted it. Mmmm! Heavenly! A taste out of this world!