The Grandest Bookshop in the World

by Mellor, Amelia

  ‘Two,’ said Miss Kay, placing another lemon drop on the serving bench.

  Pearl screamed. Her scoop was disappearing into the case of dark chocolates. ‘I lost it!’

  ‘That’s all right,’ Vally said, although he was a little frustrated with her. ‘Take another scoop.’

  ‘But I didn’t get the odd one,’ Pearl said.

  ‘If I might offer an observation – uugh!’ A fleshy tongue of butterscotch slurped up the back of Linda’s head. ‘I can see more than a dozen odd ones!’

  In the middle of digging through a case of peppermints for another lemon drop, Vally stopped. Linda had been going after a jube when the butterscotch caught her hand. Pearl was going after a jube when the chocolate took her scoop.

  ‘There’s more than one trap!’ Vally tossed his scoop aside and pulled out another lemon drop with his fingers. ‘Don’t go for anything with a jube in it. Just the lemon drops, OK? I’ll start on the three rows.’

  ‘OK!’ Pearl climbed a ladder behind the register to get at a jar of medicinal lozenges. ‘Four!’

  Vally ran to the bench with all the lemon drops. ‘Show a dozen in three rows of five,’ he said to himself, half-afraid that his memory of the instructions might disappear. ‘Three rows of five.’ Linda’s idea of stacking them seemed unlikely. The lemon drops would roll off each other. As he pushed the first few into position, Miss Kay gave him another. That made one row of five, easily enough.

  Lemon drops rattled like marbles on the benchtop as Pearl and Miss Kay brought them and ran off again. With a muffled yell, Linda fell to her knees. The butterscotch creature was swallowing her head.

  Mustn’t get distracted. Maximillian was counting on distraction. Vally rolled the next four lemon drops around the benchtop. It wouldn’t work with normal straight rows of five by three, like he used to draw when learning his times tables. Perhaps the rows had to intersect. He decided to try it.

  ‘Eleven,’ said Miss Kay, tossing another one across the bench.

  ‘Twelve!’ Pearl ran across the room with her fist in the air and dropped the last sweet into Vally’s hand. ‘One more row, Val.’

  One more row. How in the world was he going to make another row of five, when all he had left was three? He glanced up to check on Linda.

  Her feet were disappearing into the multicoloured mass of sugar.

  Vally looked down at the bench again. All the lemon drops had scattered.

  His first thought was Pearl. It would be just like the Constant Irritation to have an idea, without thinking it through, and mess up his work so she could test it. But she was nowhere near it. She was, in fact, fielding a rogue lemon drop that had fallen on the floor.

  He tried another configuration. This time, he could see the third row forming diagonally, from the intersection of the first two, and began to exploit it.

  Before he could put the last one in place, they all scattered again, as if an invisible hand was sweeping across them. He, Pearl and Miss Kay scrambled to retrieve them.

  The only sign of Linda was the shape of an elbow, pushing at the creature’s skin from the inside.

  Vally corralled his lemon drops back together. ‘Why isn’t it working?’

  ‘Maybe it’s wrong?’

  ‘Yes, thanks, Pearl, I got that – but why is it wrong?’

  ‘Um …’ Pearl bit her lip. ‘What did the flowers say?’

  ‘Balance, perfection and sweetness.’

  ‘Perfect balance,’ Pearl said. ‘Maybe it has to be sime-trickle.’

  ‘You are not,’ said Vally, struggling to keep his cool, ‘making any sense.’

  Pearl groaned in exasperation. ‘You know! Perfectly the same on both sides!’

  ‘Symmetrical?’

  ‘Does it matter how I say it?’

  Inside the sugar blob, Linda had stopped moving.

  Miss Kay leaned in, and in a voice that was probably meant to be calming, said, ‘Valentine. Do the rows have to be at right angles?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Vally clapped his hands to his head. They were going to lose Linda as well as Pa and the Arcade, and it would be all his fault.

  ‘Can they be diagonal?’

  Last time he’d tried that, they’d all sprung apart. But were they meant to be diagonal after all? And could they be perfectly the same on both sides? Or even all sides? Pearl was talking about bilateral symmetry: the kind that appeared in most animals, including people, each side a reflection of the other. But many of the flowers they had seen so far – magnolia, speedwell, strawberry – were symmetrical from several different angles.

  So. Miss Kay thought the rows should be diagonal to each other. Pearl thought that the array had to be symmetrical, based on the perfect balance clue. And Vally had already figured out that for three rows of five to make twelve, all three rows would have to intersect. His hands flew in a blur over the benchtop. If he applied all three of their ideas, the answer would be …

  At once, all the jars shattered, and the shop was plunged into darkness.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  MISSING PIECES

  The sweets were dull, dusty, mouldering, crystallised. Burst display cases spilled them in piles at the foot of the bench. The butterscotch monster collapsed into a mountain of paper-wrapped pellets.

  And nothing was inside it, save for a pink bouquet. Linda was gone.

  Pearl ran to the pile of sweets, fell to her knees and rummaged through it. It was too small to hide a sixteen-year-old. It was barely big enough to hide a newborn. But Pearl wasn’t looking for Linda. She was hoping for a sign. A shoe. A button. Something.

  The pile became too shallow to hide anything. Pearl sat back in defeat. Like the Band, Linda had disappeared without a trace. She knew the imagination principle wasn’t enough on its own, but still she closed her eyes and willed Linda to magically appear in the stillness, brushing dust off her sleeves. She had come into the game, offering order and understanding to counter the Obscurosmith’s malicious nonsense. And now, in a single round, he had eliminated her. Pearl remembered the vanishing medallion. Pearl and Valentine Disappear Forever. Hundreds of people around the world went missing every year, and were never seen or heard from again. Was Linda about to become one of them?

  ‘Vally.’ She stood up, and was surprised by the tremor in her voice. ‘What if she doesn’t come back?’

  ‘He can’t do that,’ said Vally, a little too quickly. ‘He said – he said – well, I don’t remember the exact words, but he’s not allowed to do that. We offered him three things.’

  ‘Pa and the Arcade, and what was the other one?’

  ‘Our memories. I hope you’re joking.’

  ‘Of course I was,’ said Pearl – but she hadn’t been. She picked up the pink posy and looked around the darkened shop. ‘We’re so sorry, Miss Kay …’

  ‘And Saturdays are my busiest time.’ The confectioner was staring into space, hands braced against her temples. ‘I’ll have to close. I’ll have to put in all my orders again … make everything from scratch …’

  Pearl felt sorrier for her than she did for herself. ‘You don’t have to do that. We’ll have it back to normal by Monday.’

  Only then did Miss Kay seem to register that the Coles were still there. ‘How in the world will it be normal by Monday? You two can’t clean it all.’

  ‘No, but we know someone who can.’ Vally checked his pocket watch. ‘And now, if you’ll excuse us …’

  ‘We promised to tell her,’ said Pearl.

  Vally paused, giving her space to begin.

  Pearl picked up Miss Kay’s broom and started to sweep the sweets together. ‘Well, Miss Kay, it all started when –’

  ‘Leave that to me,’ said Miss Kay, looking tired. ‘The short version?’

  ‘A deranged magician is destroying the Book Arcade,’ said Vally. ‘We made a bet with him to get it back. We’re winning.’

  ‘The slightly longer version?’

  Pearl told her the slightly longer
version.

  ‘I see,’ said Miss Kay. ‘And does Maximillian’s Impossible Emporium require a sweetmaker?’

  ‘You’re going to quit?’ said Vally.

  ‘I don’t want to,’ said Miss Kay with restraint, ‘but if there’s no Cole’s Book Arcade, I won’t have a choice.’

  Pearl burned with shame. She hadn’t once thought of the staff when agreeing to the game. The Book Arcade was important in the lives of far more people than her own family. In fact, people all across Melbourne would find themselves at a loose end without it. Pearl thought of her favourite regulars, the interesting people she liked to read. They’d all lose the Arcade, and never know why. That big flock of artists would have to find a new teahouse for their lazy late breakfasts. That glamorous old woman with the huge brooches would have to find another supplier of books and … what else did she like, again? Watercolour paint? Sheet music?

  ‘We won’t let you down, Miss Kay,’ said Vally. ‘But we really must go.’

  ‘Wait. I wanted to give you something.’ Miss Kay dug in the pocket of her apron and dropped a pair of green and white sweets into the Coles’ open hands, wrapped in translucent waxed paper. They were stripy, about an inch across – the size and shape of tombowler marbles.

  Pearl went to unwrap hers at once, but Miss Kay stayed her hand. ‘Don’t open them yet.’

  Vally inspected his. ‘Are they special ones?’

  ‘They’re special, all right. Too special to sell. Save them for an emergency.’ Miss Kay smoothed her hands down her apron. ‘What are your parents doing about all this?’

  Pearl and Vally exchanged glances. If they told Miss Kay that their parents didn’t know, she was bound to tell them. No doubt she meant well, but it would only bring disaster.

  ‘As much as they can,’ said Vally. The bell tried to tinkle over the door as he opened it, but it only managed a sad little clunk.

  Outside, in the Arcade proper, Pearl saw that the green stripes of the rainbows were beginning to fade. But the speed of the disappearing rainbow now seemed like the least of her problems. Linda had popped out of existence like a bubble. The Arcade staff were going to lose their livelihoods. And though she probed the corners of her mind, Pearl could not find the memory of what it was the brooch woman liked to do.

  ‘I hate to admit it, but Linda was right,’ said Vally, as they climbed the stairs towards the flat. ‘We should keep Pa’s book and the flower book with us.’

  ‘Flower dictionary.’ Was he forgetting, too?

  ‘Right. And we should keep a list of everything we’ve done so far. All the flowers and what they mean, all the departments we’ve been to, all the challenges and all the solutions.’

  ‘And the people we’ve told,’ Pearl said. And the lies we’ve told, she did not say.

  Eddie ran up to join them as they reached the first floor. ‘Couldn’t catch the stupid bird,’ he said, a little out of breath. He gestured at the bouquet in Pearl’s hand. ‘Are those new? How did you go?’

  ‘We won the challenge,’ said Pearl.

  ‘We lost Linda,’ said Vally.

  The rhythm of Eddie’s footfalls stopped abruptly. ‘She died?’

  ‘No, no!’ said Pearl. People talked about losing Ruby, so she could see why he was alarmed. ‘We just don’t know where she went. She vanished when the room fell apart.’

  ‘We’re hoping to get her back at the end of the game,’ said Vally.

  ‘Hoping isn’t good enough!’ Eddie shook his head in frustration. ‘We have to look for her, at least!’

  ‘Where?’ asked Pearl. ‘One minute the toffee monster was gobbling her up, and the next minute, it was in pieces and she was gone.’

  ‘Into thin air?’ Eddie said. ‘No, I’ve seen those magic shows. Magicians can’t make a person disappear into nothing, just like they can’t create something out of nothing. It’s even harder than making things fly. The lovely assistant either gets turned invisible, or she’s hiding behind something and it’s not magic at all.’

  ‘The Obscurosmith disappears and reappears all the time. He’s very good at what he does. He makes things happen like that.’ Vally clicked his fingers. ‘It’s like everyone else stumbles along to the sheet music, and he’s playing it perfectly with his eyes closed.’

  Eddie walked faster towards the Cole apartment, his fists at his sides. ‘She must be somewhere.’

  ‘I’m sure we can get her back,’ Pearl said. ‘We said the Obscurosmith could only keep Pa’s life, the Book Arcade and our memories, didn’t we, Val?’

  ‘Oh, well,’ said Eddie sarcastically, as he opened the front door to the flat. ‘If those are the only things you promised, that’s fine.’

  Pearl walked first into the flat, and then into her mother.

  ‘Ooh! Good morning!’ said Mrs Cole, stepping back. She looked at Pearl, who was embarrassed but not hurt, and then at her sons. She seemed pleasantly surprised to see this unorthodox grouping of her children playing together. ‘What have you three been up to?’

  Pearl was too startled to answer, but Eddie covered for them with his standard response. ‘Mucking around.’

  ‘I thought you were still in bed.’ Ma grabbed her jacket from the raised paw of the bear. ‘Who gave you the flowers?’

  Pearl realised that she was still holding the coded bouquet. ‘Oh, um – they’re for Pa.’

  ‘From a girl with a cart,’ Vally added, gesturing towards Bourke Street below them.

  ‘That’s very thoughtful of you,’ said Ma. ‘Well, pop them in some water and put on your hats. We might make the earlier tram after all.’

  She could hardly have induced a more horrified look from Vally if she had kicked his dog.

  ‘Don’t make that face, Vally,’ said Ma, pulling on her jacket. ‘I’ve arranged appointments for your fittings this morning and I need the four of you there. You’ve all grown a lot since the last one.’

  Vally looked desperate. ‘But we – we haven’t had breakfast yet.’

  ‘Next time, eat breakfast first and go to Lolly Land afterwards.’ Ma nodded towards the kitchen. ‘You can bring some fruit. What’s the matter, Pearl?’

  Pearl was, in fact, trying to decide whether to feign ignorance or scream at her sister. It seemed that Ivy had spilled a vital amount of the beans. Instead, in a measured voice that she hoped would not confirm nor raise suspicion, she said, ‘I didn’t know we were having a fitting today.’

  ‘Of course.’ Ma pulled on her gloves. ‘Your new clothes need to be ready in time for Easter. You needn’t come to church with me if you don’t want to, but we’ll be having guests afterwards. Linda, Aunt Mary, your cousin and I were fitted just the other day, and I saw some new patterned fabrics that will look so lovely on you and Ivy …’

  In the passageway behind Ma, Pearl caught Ivy’s eye. At least she had the decency to look sorry. Perhaps it wasn’t fair to be cross with her. Their mother was leading with talk of the fitting, which suggested she didn’t know about Ruby’s copy or the game. Either that, or she did know and wasn’t bothered by any of it. Which was unlikely. Improbable. All right, preposterous.

  ‘You don’t have to buy us all new things, Ma,’ said Eddie, as if deeply moved by her generosity. ‘We’ll just wear our Sunday best to the Easter service.’

  ‘And be the only children at the church fête in worn-out clothes? I won’t hear of it. If you expect to get chocolate, you’ll get new clothes, too – it’s tradition. Especially you boys. Vally must be a foot taller than this time last year. Handsome young men like you should have proper tailored suits for best, not your mother’s higgledy-piggledy sewing.’ Mrs Cole finished buttoning her jacket, and returned to the kitchen for her wicker shopping basket. ‘Besides, your Pa needs his rest. We might as well get out of the flat for a few hours.’

  Pearl’s dismay was growing by the second. This wasn’t just a fitting: Ma intended to stop at the market as well. Any other day, Pearl would have happily accompanied her. The market was full of in
teresting people for Pearl to read while her mother chatted and haggled. The household couldn’t function without the enormous amount of work she put into keeping the Coles fed, clean and clothed. But if Pearl and Vally had to go with her today, there might not be a household to come back to.

  ‘Now,’ said Ma as she returned, ‘have you all put on clean underthings? Have you brushed your teeth? Because if you haven’t, those poor tailors will smell it, and I won’t have it said that the Coles don’t wash –’

  A harsh gagging interrupted her.

  Ivy was doubled over, bracing against the kitchen doorjamb. ‘I’m sorry, Ma …’ With her hand to her mouth, she began to cry. ‘I want to come and get measured but – but I’m seeing everything funny, and my head hurts …’

  Ma dropped her basket at the polar bear’s feet, pulled off one glove and felt Ivy’s forehead. ‘Are you going to vomit?’

  Ivy nodded and drew a couple of short, uneven gasps. ‘I already di-hi-hid!’ By the last word, she was bawling. ‘Last night. I think – I’ve got – what Pa’s got.’

  ‘Oh, no,’ said Pearl. First Pa, then Linda, now Ivy. The Obscurosmith was knocking Coles down like skittles. She realised, as soon as the words escaped her mouth, that she sounded as if she was annoyed with Ivy, rather than him. Ma and the boys looked at her with affronted shock. But Ivy was focused on Pearl, too. And as soon as the others looked away, she gave Pearl a wink.

  Unbelievable. Ivy, who was normally as useful as boots on a snake, was throwing her a lifeline.

  ‘I think I’ve got it, too,’ Pearl said, hoping that would explain her apparent heartlessness. ‘I was too hot last night. And I had to get up.’

  ‘To be sick?’ asked her mother.

  Before Pearl could confirm it, Vally caught on. ‘I was up last night as well.’ He blinked hard and made a face of such convincing discomfort that his mother pulled back.

  ‘Eddie?’ Ma’s tone was almost pleading.