Edie and the Box of Flits

by Kate Wilkinson

  She plunged forward, pushing her desk out of the way, and grabbed at Nid. She held him fast in one hand and opened the window with the other and then, with a dramatic flourish, she pretended to throw him outside. ‘All done!’ she said, holding up her empty hand. ‘Beetle’s gone.’

  Everyone believed her. There was a smattering of applause from the rest of the class and one of the girls said, ‘Eeeuww! How could you touch it?’

  Edie slammed the window shut and hurried back to her seat, keeping her closed fist down by her side. She dragged her rucksack alongside her knees and tipped Nid into it. He was still clutching the sharpener to his chest.

  ‘Give this to the boy,’ he said.

  She took it from him and carefully drew the zip closed.

  ‘VERY good, Edie,’ said Mr Binding, looking relieved. ‘Very good indeed.’

  ‘I’ll just clear up the pencil sharpeners for you, sir,’ Raphael said, already down on his hands and knees and slipping a sharpener into his pocket. It wasn’t quite the mission that Nid had planned, but Raphael would still end up with a sharp pencil.

  *

  Today was a half-day because of a parents’ meeting for Year Tens, so everyone was allowed to leave at lunchtime.

  Edie ran out of school ahead of everyone and rushed round the corner to catch the first bus. As Nid had come into school with her they could go straight to Ada’s charity shop. She clambered up onto the top deck and sat down right at the back.

  ‘Nid? Are you there?’ she whispered, easing the zip on her rucksack open again.

  His face appeared at the gap. ‘I was only trying to help.’

  He was clutching the boiled sweet that was now the size of a Smartie. A bin lorry stopped to empty the school bins and the bus shuddered to a halt. Crowds of schoolchildren were gathering at the next bus stop and Edie’s plans of a quick getaway were scuppered. There was a clatter of feet as some of them came up the stairs to the top deck. Naz appeared first with two other girls, followed by Linny and Conor, the boy in her maths class.

  ‘Hi, Edie. Didn’t realise you were so good with insects,’ said Linny, all fake friendliness. They draped themselves over the seats around her.

  She heard Conor whisper ‘Flapper’ to Linny. During the early weeks with the too-big shoes Edie had been called Flapper and the name had stuck. Linny laughed a tinkly false laugh.

  Edie stuck her feet out into the aisle to show them that she had new shoes with laces and thick soles, but Linny pretended not to notice.

  ‘Leave her alone,’ said Naz suddenly.

  Linny ignored her and blew a bubble of pink gum. It smelt of sickly sweet cherry.

  ‘Guess what Edie did today?’ she said.

  ‘What?’ said Naz, who was in a different maths set.

  ‘She caught a beetle and threw it out of the window.’

  ‘That’s impressive!’ said Naz.

  ‘So now Edie is Mr Binding’s pet,’ Linny went on. It felt like the sting in her tale.

  As usual Edie said nothing. Linny sucked the gum back into her mouth, chewing furiously until it was a tight ball. Then she pulled it out of her mouth and stuck it on the back of the bus seat. ‘Edie loves Mr Binding!’ she said in her annoying sing-song voice.

  Edie felt the zip of her rucksack pocket being eased open and, glancing down, she saw Nid’s head pop up between the teeth. He was watching Linny and scowling, and Edie couldn’t help smiling at his loyalty.

  ‘What’s funny?’ Linny asked, and Nid ducked out of sight.

  ‘Nothing,’ said Edie quickly.

  Linny turned to the others. ‘See. It’s true. She does like Mr Binding!’

  The ting of the bell went as the bus reached a parade of shops and the group gathered up their bags and began to move down the aisle. ‘I’m going to get chips,’ said Linny.

  Nid wriggled through the gap in the zip and swung himself up onto the back of the bus seat in front of Edie. He stood beside the stub of pink gum and, pulling out a small toothpick from his bag, he angled it under the gum and flicked it upwards. The blob of gum shot down the bus and landed in Linny’s long wavy hair.

  The Year Sevens clattered back down the stairs. Naz was the last to go and for a moment she lingered on the stairs and looked back. Edie pulled Nid down out of view.

  ‘See you, Edie,’ she said, adding quickly, ‘I like your new shoes.’

  Edie was stunned. She lifted her arm and gave a small wave. For the first time she realised that maybe she was acting just like Linny and shutting Naz out.

  Nid prodded her. He was perched on the sill of the bus window. Edie watched as Linny walked away from the bus stop and rubbed the back of her head. Edie imagined the gum slowly working its way towards the roots, making a deliciously sticky, tangly ball.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Baker Street

  Found: four umbrellas, three raincoats, a trumpet, more gloves, a cat basket and a biscuit tin

  A

  large sign was posted on the front of the charity-shop window.

  Due to staff holiday the shop will be closed until 8 November.

  Edie read it out to Nid. She had forgotten that of course Ada was away on her trip with Baby Sol’s family and it would be a whole week before she was back. How could Edie find out where Juniper lived now?

  She crossed the road back towards the Lost Property Office, fighting back tears of frustration. Yet again she checked @JunipBerry’s Instagram account. There was one new comment that read: Doesn’t fool me, @JunipBerry. That pixie’s made of plastic! But Juniper seemed to have stopped posting.

  The office was almost deserted as it was lunch hour. Dad was picking up sacks from London Bridge Station and she didn’t want to risk going upstairs to look for Bead until she knew for certain that Vera was out too, so she joined Benedict at the sorting table in the basement. His bandage had been removed and he was lifting missing items off the helter-skelter.

  ‘Cat basket . . . no cat. Brass trumpet in case. One glove – blue wool. One glove – red wool. Another glove – green leather. Hi, Edie – could you see if you can match this pile of gloves into pairs? I’ve got things to do upstairs.’

  Edie nodded miserably and Benedict bounced off, leaving her alone. She lifted the brass trumpet out of its case and looked at her pale reflection in the shiny bell.

  Nid hopped out of her pocket and up onto the sorting table. ‘Don’t be sad!’ he said.

  ‘But I was supposed to be protecting you. And now we might never see Impy and –’

  ‘Don’t say it!’ said Nid. ‘It’s not your fault. Just . . . don’t give up.’

  He tried to make a game of matching the gloves, climbing inside a toddler’s stripy one and setting it upright so it looked like a ghost hand walking about.

  There was a clang from down the corridor as one of the doors to the storeroom shut, and Edie looked up to see Vera walking briskly towards them. Shadwell was perched on her shoulder and she was dressed to go out. This was surprising as she hadn’t seen her come down by the lift or the stairs. At the sight of them Nid dropped the stripy glove and scuttled inside a green leather one.

  ‘I didn’t expect to see you here,’ she said coldly. ‘Shouldn’t you be in school?’

  ‘It’s a half-day.’

  ‘That’s fortunate,’ said Vera. ‘I didn’t like school.’

  ‘Why?’ said Edie.

  ‘Mostly I disliked the other girls, and they disliked me.’

  Shadwell hopped onto the table and began jabbing at the gloves and turning them over with his beak. In horror Edie realised that Nid’s tiny foot was sticking out of the end of the green leather glove. She quietly placed her hand over it, relieved that Vera wasn’t wearing her eyeglass.

  ‘Why didn’t you like the other girls?’ Edie asked, sliding the glove off the table and into her pocket.

  ‘They were frivolous and silly. I lived alone with my father and a housekeeper, and he didn’t want me to make friends. I amused myself.’


  ‘Oh!’ said Edie. ‘Did you –’

  Vera cut her short. ‘I must be off. An appointment. I’m away for the rest of the day. Come, Shadwell.’ Vera leant forward so that Shadwell could hop up onto her arm, and Edie thought she caught a glimpse of the jewelled bird pendant around her neck.

  ‘Oh, and before I forget. A new sack has just arrived upstairs,’ Vera said. She turned to go. ‘Shall I send it down the chute?’

  Without waiting for an answer she click-clacked up the stairs in her regulation shoes and within seconds a sack came sliding down the helter-skelter.

  Edie dragged the sack along towards the sorting table, noting that it was curiously soft and bumpy. She was about to call for Benedict when she felt something move under her hand. Her whole body fizzed. ‘Nid!’ she hissed at the green glove. Was it Impy and Speckle? Had they somehow found their way back? Impulsively she tugged at the string round its neck.

  The sack burst open in her hands and a dozen magpins rose into the air, squawking and chattering loudly, flapping their green-feathered wings and waving their scaly claws in her face. She cried out and frantically swatted them away, but they fluttered round her head, nipping at her plaits.

  They zoomed around the basement in a ball of feathers, pulling everything in their wake to the floor. A china candlestick smashed and a tin of buttons skittered around Edie’s feet. Edie ran after them and watched helplessly as they flew through the storerooms like a fleet of small destroyer planes, pulling mobile phones, bunches of keys, bags, hats and coats off the racks, and sending everything cascading downwards.

  ‘What’s going on?’ shouted Benedict coming downstairs, alerted by the sound of smashing china. He rushed back and forth trying to catch mobile phones and swatted at the air as the magpins flew around his head.

  Edie followed the flock up the stairs to the main office and watched in a panic as they upturned almost everything, scattering tags and sacks, tossing teabags into the air and pulling the ordered ranks of lost property to the floor. They unpegged every lost shoe on the washing line, pulled the We Return What You’ve Lost poster off the wall and pecked at the photocopier button until the paper jammed and the copier made a loud beeping noise.

  Then the birds flew on, gathering round the Cabinet of Valuables at the far end. In the mayhem Edie thought she saw Vera in her overcoat waving her arms by cabinet’s glass door, but then she was lost in the swirl of birds. When Edie got there the door was wide open and the birds were grabbing at the booty. Vera was nowhere to be seen. The necklaces, rings and pendants glittered like tiny comets as they were carried up into the air by the birds.

  ‘Stop!’ shouted Edie, picking up a broom.

  She charged at them, managing to herd them out of the door and onto the street. They flew full force along the pavement, ruffling papers and whipping people’s hair up as they went past, and they disappeared into Baker Street Station like a band of urban pirates.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Baker Street

  E

  die stood by the main door. She couldn’t speak. The whole Lost Property Office was in chaos and the shelves of the Cabinet of Valuables were almost completely empty.

  It was then that she remembered Nid. She hadn’t seen him since the magpins burst out of the sack. She stood up and felt in her pocket for the green leather glove, but it wasn’t there so she ran back down to the basement and scoured the floor, hoping it had fallen out. Gloves were scattered everywhere and the trumpet from before lay on its side.

  ‘Nid!’ she cried. ‘Where are you?’

  She ran to and fro, lifting chairs and raking through smashed china. She crawled under the sorting table where the gloves had been to see if the green glove was there. Once again she heard the tip-tapping of Vera’s shoes, this time running down the stairs, so she withdrew further under the table and hid behind a crate. The footsteps paused at the bottom, presumably to check if anyone was around. Edie could see through the slats of the crate that Vera was still in her overcoat and hat, and she was also carrying a bag. She strode down the corridor between the two big storerooms and Edie heard the distinctive clang of the door to the Storeroom at the End and then silence. Edie waited for a few minutes and then crawled out from under the table and stood up. What if she had Nid in that bag? Or Shadwell was holding the glove in his awful jabbing beak? She followed Vera as silently as she could and listened at the door to the Storeroom at the End. She must be in there. Where else could she be? There was no other way out and Edie would confront her.

  She unhitched the catch and pushed open the heavy iron door, but the storeroom was in darkness. She switched on the fluorescent lights. The items on the shelves sat still and mute. She called out to Nid, but there was no one there. The Storeroom at the End was completely empty. Vera had disappeared.

  *

  A strangled cry came from overhead. Dad had arrived back from London Bridge. Edie scurried up the stairs to find him staring at the Lost Property Office in disbelief as the door clattered shut behind him.

  ‘What on earth has happened?’

  ‘I-I don’t know,’ she stammered. ‘They were in a sack and I let them out.’

  ‘WHO was in a sack?’

  ‘I-it was birds, Dad. I told you before . . .’

  Benedict appeared from the basement storerooms, flushed with excitement and carrying a huge fly swatter.

  ‘It was like a force field going through the office, Mr Winter. A real invasion. Everything flying everywhere. Maybe they’re extraterrestrial?’

  ‘Extraterrestrials? Don’t be daft, Benedict,’ said Dad. ‘How on earth do we even begin to clear this mess up?’ He looked dismally at the umbrellas scattered on the floor like spillikins and pointed a shaky finger at the Cabinet of Valuables with its glass door swinging open.

  Even Benedict’s naturally happy demeanour sagged into silent shock as they all stared at the empty cabinet.

  ‘How did they break the lock?’ said Benedict.

  The front door opened again and a small tribe of adults walked in, carrying clipboards and dressed in official luminous Transport for London jackets. At the front of the formation was Ursula Slate. ‘Just here for a quick tour with some transport officials,’ she said and then stopped. There was a long silence as they too looked about them.

  ‘Timing’s not the best,’ said Dad, trying to shield the now empty Cabinet of Valuables from her view.

  ‘Yes, I can see that. It looks as if you’ve had a party up here, so we‘ll go straight down to the storerooms. Come along, please.’ Ursula led the way downstairs to the basement with her arm raised in the air like a flag. Benedict made frantic gestures to Dad with his hands, silently mouthing ‘No’, but it was too late – they could hear the official party reach the bottom and set off along the corridor.

  There was an eerie silence. Benedict, Edie and Mr Winter stood in the main office frozen to the spot. It wasn’t long before footsteps clattered back up the stairs and Ursula reappeared with the group. She showed the tribe of officials out of the front door and turned to Dad. ‘I’d like a word, please, in my office – now.’ Ursula’s office was across the road so Dad followed her out.

  Benedict turned to Edie. ‘I can’t believe what just happened. How did those birds get in?’

  ‘It was my fault,’ said Edie. ‘They were in a sack and I let them out. I-I thought they were something else.’ She felt confused. ‘I-I’ve lost a green leather glove, Benedict. I have to find it. It’s really important.’

  ‘It’ll be all right, Edie. Don’t look so worried. I’ll help you.’ He took hold of the now-familiar, industrial-sized broom. ‘Guess what my horoscope said this morning?’

  ‘What?’ Edie said weakly.

  ‘Whatever you do, don’t flap!’

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Baker Street

  E

  die hunted desperately for the green glove. She looked through chaotic piles of raincoats and around the Cabinet of Valuables. All that remained there w
as a small silver spoon that she picked up and held onto as she made her way up to the first floor, to the smaller office with the kitchen and up again to Vera’s tiny eyrie.

  She caught sight of the magpin as soon as she reached the top of the narrow staircase. It was perched on the handle of the fire exit and a tiny figure dangled from its beak.

  Was it Nid? Edie couldn’t quite see as the bird beat its wings against the pane of glass in a bid to escape. Edie stood still and kept her eyes on the small figure. She wondered if it was the same bird that had come in through the window during half-term.

  The magpin stopped flapping and stared back at her defiantly.

  Edie pulled the silver spoon out of her pocket and held it out at arm’s length. ‘Drop what you’ve got and you can have the spoon.’

  The magpin hopped along the bar, still clutching its booty, but it cocked its head and looked at the spoon. The little figure didn’t move. Edie twisted the spoon from side to side so that it glinted in the light from the overhead bulb. It was a beautiful spoon that had been engraved with leaves and polished until it shone. The magpin fluttered its wings again, reluctant to give up what it had, but it studied the spoon greedily as Edie pushed it closer towards it. Tempted by the shine, it darted in and snatched at it and the figure fell from its beak with a strange jangling sound.

  Edie jumped forward and pushed down on the bar of the fire-exit door and the magpin turned and shot out through the gap in the door and down the fire-escape stairs. Edie dropped to the floor and picked up the small figure. It was stiff and cold and it wasn’t Nid at all, but a toy action figure attached to a key ring.

  Edie ran out onto the fire escape to see where the magpin had gone. It hadn’t flown upwards into the sky, but was down at the bottom of the stairs in the yard playing with the glittery silver spoon. Edie called out to it in frustration. ‘What have you done with Nid?’

  The magpin looked at her quizzically, then snatched up the spoon and slipped through the grating of a drain, which seemed odd behaviour for a bird. Then she remembered Bead and, pulling the fire door shut behind her, she hurried into Vera’s office and opened the desk drawer. There was nothing in it, not even a box of sugar lumps. Bead had disappeared and with him all chance of finding out what might have happened to Nid.