Melody Gardens

by Janeta Munro

  Tilly jumped when Lola’s large, bullet-shaped buds began to burst out along her branches. They made a loud zapping sound then sort of crackled as bright blue jolts of electricity raced from one creamy bud to the next. When the buds began to spin, the strange whistle they emitted caused the hair to stand up on the back of Tilly’s neck. Tiny tingles ran up and down her arms and she shivered. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation—just weird.

  Once the buds reached a certain speed, they began to fly open. THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

  The whistle they’d been making ceased but in its place came a throbbing hum. The inside of the flowers had red, white, and orange stripes so as they continued to spin, they resembled crazy, hypnotic dinner plates.

  Without slowing down for one second, each spinning flower grew a long blue stamen from its centre. The stamens jiggled around in tight circles to begin with but as they developed big, yellow pods on their ends, they started whipping around in wide circles.

  Tilly glanced at Macey. She was chewing on her bottom lip. They both knew what was coming next.

  The electricity that was still dancing from one flower to the next suddenly infused all the pods. Then, with an almighty BOOM, the pods shot off the ends of the stamens and up into the air.

  BANG! BANG! BANG! They exploded one after the other, showering sparks and green pollen everywhere. Tilly, Macey, and everyone else standing beneath got coated with pollen and charged through with electricity.

  Everyone laughed and cheered as the last pod exploded. Lola had not disappointed them. She had once again put on a spectacular display.

  “Oh, my goodness!” Macey giggled as she looked at Tilly, “You should see your hair!”

  “I bet it’s sticking out everywhere!” Tilly tried to smooth it down but it just crackled and sprung right back up. “You should see yours!”

  Macey’s usually tightly packed ringlets were frizzed out in every direction and coated in lime green pollen.

  “My name is Mrs. Frizzlehead!” she said in a silly voice and struck a funny pose.

  “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Frizzlehead,” Tilly said then flipped her hair with her hand, “My name is Miss Cracklemop.”

  They both giggled and shook their heads to rid themselves of as much pollen as possible. They were soon shrouded in a thick, crackly, green cloud.

  “Come here, Miss Cracklemop, and I’ll fix your hair,” Macey offered after a bout of frenzied sneezing. She reached out to pat Tilly’s hair down but before she could even touch her, she got zapped. “Ow! You got me!”

  “Macey!” Tilly’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She was shocked that Macey had even tried to touch her. “I’m sorry, but what did you expect?” she asked as she started to laugh.

  Macey’s brows drew together in a mock frown and she took a step closer. “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” she said in her most menacing voice.

  “Now … you know I didn’t mean to zap you!” Tilly put her hands up in defence but couldn’t stop laughing. She started stepping backwards as Macey prowled towards her.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” she squealed as Macey tried to zap her. She spun on her heel and fled.

  It didn’t take Macey long to catch up to her, though, and she zapped her good, right on the left cheek of her bottom.

  “Ow!” Tilly yelped, “That really hurts!” She rubbed her stinging bottom then spun around and jabbed at Macey.

  ZAP! She got her right on the neck.

  Macey’s hair frizzed out even more, if that was possible, and she made a funny, sizzling, burp sound.

  “Wow!” Tilly gaped at Macey. She wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or concerned. “Are you OK?”

  Macey gasped and tried to talk but nothing came out. She grabbed her neck and staggered towards a very worried Tilly. But as soon as she was within reach, she zapped Tilly again.

  “Hey! No fair! That’s cheating!” Tilly complained.

  Then it was on! Zapping and squealing, they chased each other through the park.

  “Stop!” Tilly eventually cried as she bent over to catch her breath, “I’ve got a stitch!”

  “OK,” Macey said, “no more zapping.” But as she ran past Tilly, she zapped her one last time.

  “Hey!” Tilly rubbed the back of her neck and half laughed, half groaned.

  “That’s just payback for nearly killing me with your death-poke to my throat.”

  Tilly laughed. “Death-poke, hey?” She gave Macey a sceptical look. “OK, let’s call a truce. No more ‘death-pokes’ to any part of our bodies, deal?” She raised her hand for a high five.

  “Deal!” Macey slapped Tilly’s hand and they both squealed and jumped apart as their hands connected with a loud CRACK!

  Tilly ran her fingers through her hair in an attempt to calm it down. It still crackled and popped like Chinese crackers. Beside her, Macey tried to pat hers down. She wasn’t having much success either.

  “How do I look?” Macey asked.

  “Like Mrs. Frizzlehead!” Tilly replied, “How do I look?”

  “Like a hairy caterpillar!”

  Tilly laughed. She was thinking up a good comeback when they were distracted by a commotion coming from the top end of the park.

  “Ohh, look!” cried Macey, “The Luminous Lampstools are coming up!”

  “Come here, Gus!” Roger was getting really frustrated now.

  He’d followed the Chime Maker at a safe distance through the park, but when she’d joined the crowd to watch Lola spring-out, he’d spotted his favourite grasshopper flying towards a tree. He’d debated what to do: stay with the Chime Maker and see if she had Fritz or go after his other grasshopper.

  Going after Gus had seemed like the best choice at the time but now, he wasn’t so sure. He’d already climbed up higher than he was comfortable with and the branches of the tree were getting dangerously thin. And to make matters worse, every time Gus was within reach, he would fly off before he could get a hold of him.

  “Gus,” he yelled, “if you don’t let me catch you soon, you are dead!”

  From up here he could see a bunch of kids running down the sidewalk after the Luminous Lampstools. He wished he could get in on the action too. He liked chasing the Luminous Lampstools but he couldn’t do that and catch Gus at the same time.

  Taking a deep breath, he inched along the branch just a little further and…. Crack!

  Chapter 7

  The Luminous Lampstools were coming up so fast one after the other that Tilly, Macey, and the other kids had to run to keep up with them. As each one shot up out of the ground, they made a funny zooping sound. When they reached knee height, the sprouts popped open the way an umbrella would. They were large and toadstool-shaped with vibrant blue caps covered in little white bumps. When they’d finished sprouting one beside the other, they formed a long straight line that stretched from one end of the park to the other.

  Tilly and Macey were puffed by the time they got to the end of the line. They each sat down on a Lampstool to catch their breath. The other children lay sprawled on the grass around them, laughing and catching their breaths as well.

  “That was fun,” Macey puffed.

  “Yeah, but I’m sure they get faster every year,” Tilly groaned and held her side.

  She bent forward to pick up a rock then turned to the Lampstool beside her. She raised the rock above her head then brought it down on the Lampstool.

  BONG! It rang like a church bell.

  Macey jumped up and went in search of a rock then came back and struck the Lampstool she’d been sitting on.

  BONG! It made a slightly deeper sound than Tilly’s.

  As if on cue, all the other children rushed off to find either rocks or sticks then came back and started banging on the other Lampstools. Before long the air resonated with what sounded like ringing church bells. It was deafening.

  “OK, that was a mistake!” Tilly stuffed her fingers in her ears and grimaced.

  Macey laughed then shouted above the din,
“I think the Bellberry Sisters will start weaving soon. Want to go check?”

  “Sure,” Tilly nodded as she followed Macey. “But first…,” she pointed in the direction of Old Mai and yelled, “I’m going to check on my leaf.”

  “Eeeek!”

  Roger screamed like a girl as the branch he was standing on cracked then gave way.

  “Oof!” came next as his ribs connected with a larger branch further down. He managed to cling on to the branch and prevent himself from falling any further but he had to act fast, his arms were about to give out on him.

  Using all the strength he could muster, he swung a leg up over the branch and half lay, half hung there until he could calm himself down. He was shaking like a leaf.

  “Stupid grasshopper!” he yelled. “You nearly got me killed!”

  As if to taunt him, Gus flew right past him and landed on a branch closer to the ground.

  “You rotten bug! Don’t think you’re going to get away from me this time!”

  Behind him, Roger could hear the kids banging on the Lampstools.

  “Should have been chasing the Lampstools instead of you, ya dumb bug! Boy-oh-boy, are you gonna’ regret this!”

  Summoning what strength he had left, Roger climbed back down the tree. He took off one of his shoes and crept up to the branch Gus was on. Whack! He completely missed. Gus flew up to the next branch. Whack! He missed again.

  “Aargh! Will you hold still so I can get you?”

  Gus started cleaning his antennae. Whack! This time Roger didn’t miss.

  “Ha-hah!” Roger grinned triumphantly, “Gotcha!”

  Slipping on his shoe, he bent down and picked up the stunned grasshopper.

  “What are you doing?”

  Roger nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned to face his older sister and quickly put his hands behind his back.

  “Nothin’.”

  Emily was four years older than Roger and, as his older sister, thought she had the right to boss him around.

  “What do you have behind your back?” she demanded.

  “Nothin’.”

  “Let me see!” She towered over him, trying to see behind his back. “You better not be catching grasshoppers again.”

  He quickly stuffed Gus into the back of his pants then held out empty hands. “See … nothin’.”

  Emily frowned at him for a moment, not sure whether to believe him or not. “What have you done to yourself?” she asked, looking at his torn shirt and the grazes up his arms.

  “I fell out of a tree,” he said as he averted his eyes.

  Emily rolled her eyes then shook her head. “Typical! Always in some sort of trouble, aren’t you?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him then jammed her thumb in the direction of their house. “You better get home, Podge. Mum’s really cross with you. You haven’t done your chores and you left without telling her.”

  Roger screwed his nose up at her and was tempted to tell her where to go but then thought better of it. She was likely to cuff him around the ear. Instead he bowed his head in submission.

  As she turned to walk away, he glanced towards Old Mai. Tilly was walking beneath her branches and Macey wasn’t far behind. A prickly sensation near his bottom gave him an idea. He started creeping backwards away from Emily.

  “Roger!” Emily yelled when she noticed he wasn’t following her. “Get here!”

  “You go on ahead!” he called over his shoulder as he ran off. “Tell Mum I won’t be long. I’ve just thought of something I have to do first.”

  Chapter 8

  The Chime Maker ambled along the path that led towards Old Mai. She loved Spring Day and always looked forward to the trees putting on their best, spring-out displays. She missed their bright colours and the life they brought to Melody Gardens when they hibernated throughout the winter. She let out a contented sigh and stopped to admire the blooms of the Emilia tree.

  “You are looking beautiful as always, Emilia,” she said to the flower-strewn tree.

  Bright pink lacy flowers covered every inch of her branches. The Chime Maker took in a deep breath of their beautiful fragrance. “Mmm … delightful!”

  She was about to say something else to Emilia when she noticed Roger peering around the trunk of a tree a little further along the path.

  “What on earth are you doing, child?” she said under her breath.

  As she watched, he jerked and twisted then shoved his hand down the back of his pants. He seemed to be fishing around in there for something. He had to reach all the way down his pants leg and every now and then he would twitch and shake his leg.

  “Most peculiar,” said the Chime Maker.

  At one point he quickly drew his hand back with a startled yelp and sucked on one of his fingers. He then slapped his leg and went back in to retrieve whatever it was that was crawling around in there.

  “It seems to me, Emilia, that this one is up to no good. I think we should keep an eye on him.”

  With one more shake of her head, the Chime Maker continued along the path. As she slipped past Roger, she saw him fish, of all things, a grasshopper out of his pants.

  “Hmm, how interesting,” was all she said.

  Macey walked up beside Tilly who was standing beneath her leaf. They checked it all over for bite marks but there was no sign of any damage. A thorough search through Old Mai’s branches revealed no sign of grasshoppers either.

  Tilly sighed with relief. “I’m glad my leaf’s OK. I don’t feel so worried now.”

  “Good,” said Macey, “‘cause I really want to watch the Bellberry Sisters spring-out and I don’t feel like grasshopper hunting right now.”

  Tilly laughed but then sobered again as she shared a nagging thought. “I still have to wonder where those grasshoppers came from.”

  At that very same moment, Roger came barrelling up behind them. Before Macey realised what was about to happen and could do anything to prevent it, Roger stuck his hand out, right under Tilly’s nose.

  When Tilly saw the grasshopper he was holding, she totally freaked out. She let out an ear-piercing scream and instinctively struck out at it. Unfortunately for Roger, she completely missed the grasshopper and connected with his nose instead.

  There was no way she was going to hang around to find out what she’d hit. She took off running without a backwards glance.

  “Tilly!” Macey called out. She took one look at Roger who was holding his nose and ran after her. “Tilly, wait!”

  Roger was stunned by the unexpected blow. Were those stars? And ohh … his nose hurt so bad! That didn’t go the way he had planned—at all! His eyes were watering, his nose was bleeding, and he’d dropped his favourite grasshopper.

  “Aargh!” he cried out in frustration as he bent down and picked up the lifeless remains of Gus. The girls had trampled him as they’d run off.

  “You girls are going to pay for this!” he yelled out after them. He squeezed his eyes shut and gingerly wiped his throbbing nose. When he opened his eyes and saw the blood on the back of his hand, his resolve hardened. He was even more determined now than ever to get even with Tilly and Macey.

  “Oh, dear!” the Chimemaker said as she made her way over to Old Mai. “It seems that we have a youngster bent on trouble this morning.” She had witnessed the whole debacle.

  She stopped beneath Tilly’s leaf and rested both hands on the top of her cane. She tilted her head slightly forward as she listened to Old Mai.

  “I agree,” she said. “It would be best to warn him to quit while he’s ahead but I don’t imagine he will take any notice of an old lady like me.”

  Old Mai lowered one of her finer branches and gently curled some slender twigs over the back of the Chime Maker’s hand.

  The Chime Maker smiled as she clasped the twigs and gave them a gentle squeeze, but then her brow creased with a troubled frown as she listened to Old Mai’s appeal.

  “I know you care about that boy, dear,” the Chime Maker’s tone softene
d and she began to stroke the twigs with her hand, “just as you care about us all. But honestly, Old Mai, I feel it will take a bit more than my words to convince him to change his ways.”

  When Old Mai insisted she help Roger, the Chime Maker sighed and nodded. “All right, my dear,” she said, “I will at least try.”

  Chapter 9

  “Tilly, slow down!” Macey caught up with Tilly and grabbed her by the arm. She gently pulled her to a stop and moved around to face her. “That was really mean of Roger.”

  Tilly took a shuddering breath and wiped the tears from her eyes, “Did I get the grasshopper?”

  Macey couldn’t help but laugh. “No, but you got Roger real good! Bam! Right on the nose! I don’t think he saw that coming, at all. You should have seen the look on his face! I don’t think he’s been that shocked in his entire life!”

  Macey proceeded to act out what had happened, and before long, had Tilly laughing again.

  “Come on,” she said as she threw an arm around Tilly’s shoulders, “If we’re going to watch the Bellberry Sisters spring-out, we’d better get going.”

  Three tall trunks that looked more like telegraph poles than trees stood close together. As Tilly and Macey approached, they could hear a lovely hum coming from them. It was so soothing and, as the girls absorbed the sound, they began to relax. Letting out contented sighs, they decided on a nice patch of grass and settled down to watch Bellberry Tower come to life.

  “There’s one!” Macey pointed out a long, thin vine that began to grow from the very top of the closest trunk. More vines began to appear at the top of the other trunks beside it and mingle with the first.

  Tilly and Macey laughed at the way they wriggled and twisted around each other as if happy to see each other again. When enough vines had grown from the tops of the trunks, they began to weave.

  Some of the vines began to move in an upward direction while others spiralled downwards, looping around and about the trunks. Faster and faster they whipped and weaved back and forth, up and down.