The Ruby Bottle

by Janet Reid

  ‘Did you send Dabir? Is that how you helped? But how did you know –’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Jimell, tapping the side of his small nose. ‘I can’t tell you that. I couldn’t have you trying it. Heaven knows what might happen if a … person … was to try sorcery. But you can be sure that having Dabir to help him meant Rafiq would catch more fish and make more money. I would guess he made so much money that he eventually asked Dabir to join him in a partnership. Now, I’ve been out of my bottle far too long, and it’s time you were asleep. You have to shoot more goals tomorrow, whatever that means.’

  He slipped back into the bottle and Amber pushed the stopper into the neck. Then she wondered how he knew about shooting goals. She hadn’t told him anything about that.

  Chapter Sixteen

  ‘I’ve got to take one of my jumble items to school today,’ Amber told her mother at breakfast the next morning. ‘We all have to.’

  Her mother added an apple to Amber’s lunch box and closed the lid. ‘What are you going to take?’ she asked.

  ‘The tea set, I think.’

  ‘Well, make sure it’s dusted. Some of that stuff you got from Mrs Heggety’s shed is filthy. And here, wrap it in this so it doesn’t get broken.’ She handed Amber an old tea towel.

  But when Amber reached her room she forgot all about the tea set. The ruby bottle, sitting up on her bedside table, was … glowing?

  Jimell? Was something wrong with Jimell? Then she remembered what Roger Heggety had written in his diary. Jimell made his bottle glow when he wanted to get out. And that’s what he was telling her now.

  She closed the door, just in case her mother came upstairs, crossed the room and picked up the bottle. It was warm to touch. Alarmed, she pulled the stopper and watched as Jimell drifted out and stretched his arms lazily.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ she demanded.

  ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘I just wanted to talk to you.’

  ‘But … the bottle. It was glowing.’

  ‘Yes. That’s how I get you to let me out.’

  ‘I know that,’ she said. ‘But it was warm, too. When I touched it. Is something wrong?’

  ‘There’s nothing wrong,’ Jimell said gently. ‘I’m sorry if I frightened you. I just wanted to ask if I could watch you shoot goals this afternoon.’

  ‘How do you know about that?’

  ‘Never mind. Can I?’

  ‘Well, it could be a bit hard,’ she said. ‘The hoop’s out the front of the house. I don’t know where I could hide you without Mum seeing you.’

  Jimell folded his arms and waited. He began tapping his long fingers on his stumpy arm.

  ‘Okay,’ she said at last, ‘I’ll see what I can work out. Just let me think about it.’ She reached down into her box of jumble and took out the little china cups and saucers. ‘I have to take something for the jumble sale to school today. I thought I’d take this old tea set.’

  ‘Well, if you don’t need me, I’m going back to bed,’ said Jimell.

  Amber tried to imagine her djinn in bed as she watched him disappear.

  ‘The stopper …’ she heard somewhere inside her head.

  How did he do that?

  And how did he get the bottle to glow?

  Amber shook her head in bewilderment. Would she ever get used to having a djinn in a bottle? As she wrapped the cups and saucers in the old tea towel, she thought about how much her life had changed since she’d been into Mr Heggety’s shed. Was it really only just over a week ago? It seemed like months.

  ‘Amber, you’d better get going if you don’t want to be late for school,’ called her mother.

  ‘Coming,’ she called back. She hated being late for school.

  By the time she reached the classroom, the bell was about to ring. And Rachel was standing at the front of the line, smugly holding a bundle wrapped in a sheet.

  ‘Okay, class,’ yelled Ms Kruger from the top of the stairs, ‘let’s get inside and see what you’ve got for the jumble sale.’

  ‘I ain’t got nothin’,’ Amber heard Lukus mumble from the back of the line.

  But later, when Ms Kruger was looking at all the jumble items the class had brought, Amber could see she was impressed. ‘I think we’ll have the best stall at the fete,’ she said. ‘You know, the class who raises the most money gets a prize.’

  Everyone cheered, as if they had already won.

  ‘What’s the prize, miss?’ called Lukus.

  ‘I don’t know, but I think it involves a bus, and possibly some food.’

  The room buzzed.

  ‘Last year they went skating and had pizzas afterwards …’ Amber heard someone whisper behind her.

  Then she heard Rachel. ‘We’ll need something better than old chipped tea sets to win.’

  And Marissa sniggered. Loudly.

  Amber pretended not to hear and started searching for her test book. So what if the tea set was old and chipped? That was what a jumble sale was all about. Then she thought of the beautiful doll Rachel had brought in to show the class. It had golden ringlets and big blue eyes and was wearing an old-fashioned dress. All the girls had gone crazy over it.

  You just wait, Rachel Higgins. My jumble might not be as good as yours, but I’m going to shoot more goals than you tomorrow. And she began to wonder how she could get Jimell outside to watch her practise.

  ‘Quieten down, class,’ called Ms Kruger, clapping her hands. ‘Now, next week you can start bringing in all the things you’ve collected and we can keep them in our storeroom. But right now it’s time for your spelling test.’

  The class groaned.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Amber dropped her school bag at the bottom of the stairs and went in search of something to eat. She found her mother in the kitchen.

  ‘Oh, good. You’re home,’ said Mum. ‘I’ve fixed some afternoon tea for you. I’m just popping across the road to see Mrs Mitchell. Do you want to come, too?’

  Amber’s eyes lit up. Mrs Mitchell had a new baby and she always let Amber have a nurse. But …

  … with Mum out of the way, she could get Jimell downstairs. ‘Ah, I think I should stay here and practise for the netball game tomorrow.’

  ‘You sure your knee’s okay?’

  Amber nodded as she picked up a ginger biscuit. ‘It’s much better today. I’ll be careful though,’ she said. And as her mother bustled out of the kitchen, Amber dunked her biscuit in her milk and tossed it into her mouth.

  She listened for the click of the front door before dashing upstairs to get her ruby bottle.

  ‘Just remember to slip back into the bottle if somebody comes,’ Amber warned, once she had settled Jimell on her towel in the shade of a bush.

  ‘Don’t worry about me, Amber. Just concentrate on what you have to do. I’m just going to enjoy being outside for the first time in years.’ And as if to prove it, he stretched out his arms and took a deep breath of fresh air before lounging back on the towel.

  Amber picked up the ball and started tossing it at the hoop. But no matter what she did, she could not shoot a goal. She even tried Terry’s trick and bounced it first. But that didn’t work either.

  ‘Amber, what’s supposed to happen?’

  Amber turned to see her djinn hovering in midair, hands on his hips. If she hadn’t been so dispirited, she would have laughed. She let the ball bounce off down the driveway and threw herself on the grass beside him.

  ‘The ball is supposed to go through the hoop,’ she said. ‘That’s how you score a goal.’ She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. ‘But I don’t think I’m going to be much help. Our coach should have picked Sharnie after all.’

  She sat in silence, picking at the dressing that covered her cut and wondering if she could tell Terry her knee was too sore to play tomorrow. Then her head jerked up and she stared down at Jimell, her brows twisted.

  ‘What?’ asked Jimell.

  ‘When you called out to me just then. It was like … I don
’t know … as if you were talking through a tunnel or something. Just like when you ask me to put the stopper back in the bottle. I don’t hear the words exactly, just … just what you want to say.’

  ‘Oh, that. That’s because I’m sending my thoughts straight into your head. Otherwise you wouldn’t hear me, especially if you’re too far away. And once I’m in my bottle, we can’t talk to each other. Not like this.’

  ‘Why didn’t you do that this morning? When you wanted to ask about watching me shoot?’

  ‘Oh, I can’t do it once the stopper’s in,’ he said. ‘That’s why I have to make my bottle glow.’

  ‘But how …?’ Amber stammered. ‘How do you do it?’ Then she remembered another question she had for her djinn. ‘And how did you know I was shooting goals? I never told you, but you said you wanted to come and watch me.’

  Jimell smiled slyly. ‘Well, let’s just say it’s a bit like mind-reading.’

  ‘Mind-reading? You mean you can read my thoughts? Like you know everything I’m thinking?’ Amber was horrified.

  ‘No,’ said Jimell, shaking his head. ‘No, it’s not like that. It’s more … I don’t know … as if I know what you’re feeling rather than what you’re thinking. Like I can feel your vibes.’

  ‘Is that how you knew about the diary being damaged? You could tell I was feeling bad about it?’

  Jimell nodded. ‘Yes. Something like that. I pick up your feelings and I can tell what it is you’re thinking about. But come on, your mother might be back any time and we have to get these goals sorted out.’

  He jumped up and hovered in front of her. ‘Amber,’ he said, ‘this time I want you to close your eyes and think about what you have to do. See it in your mind first. Imagine the ball going through the hoop before you have a go.’

  Amber sighed. She knew she’d have to do a lot more than imagine the ball going through the hoop. She’d have to hope for a miracle.

  ‘Go on. Give it a go. Have some faith in yourself,’ insisted the djinn.

  Amber reluctantly clambered to her feet and retrieved the ball from the gutter, where it had come to rest. Standing beneath the hoop, she closed her eyes for a moment and imagined the ball sailing up and dropping through the metal ring. Then she took a deep breath, opened her eyes and pushed the ball. And … it actually hit the ring before bouncing away.

  Heartened, she tried again. Eyes closed briefly, she imagined shooting a goal. Then, eyes open, she pushed the ball up. It wobbled on the edge of the metal ring then dropped back to the ground.

  On her third attempt, the ball teetered on the rim, then fell. Through the hoop.

  Through the hoop!

  ‘Yay!’ she shouted, turning excitedly to Jimell. ‘Did you see that? I shot a goal.’

  ‘Do it again,’ he echoed back.

  But she missed.

  Taking her time, she lined up her shot and tried again. This time she got it.

  ‘Good,’ said Jimell as he watched Amber do a victory lap of the driveway. ‘We seem to have that sorted out. See, all you needed was a little faith.’

  ‘Oh, Jimell, it was just like …’ In her excitement, Amber struggled to find the right word. ‘… like magic.’ Then her eyes widened in horror and she swung around to look at him. ‘It wasn’t … was it?’

  Jimell reached out and rested his large flat hand on her arm. ‘I doubt it would be magic, Amber,’ he said. ‘How could it be? For a start, I don’t do magic. Well, not the sort you’re thinking of.’

  Amber stared at him for a minute. Then she said, slowly, ‘So, you’re saying you didn’t do anything to help? It was just … me?’

  Jimell blinked his beady red eyes. ‘Well, I wouldn’t say that, exactly. I just showed you that you needed to have some faith in yourself.’ He reached out and touched her cheek, smiling up at her.

  ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘You need to keep practising and I’m going back into my bottle.’

  There was a haze of red and the djinn disappeared.

  ‘Don’t forget the stopper.’

  Amber stood still for a second. Had she really only heard that in her head?

  Chapter Eighteen

  ‘Only five days to go, everyone,’ said Ms Kruger first thing Monday morning. ‘You’ll need to start bringing in all the jumble you’ve been collecting. We’ll keep it in the storeroom until Saturday. Now, let’s see …’

  She looked about the room and her eyes fell on Rachel.

  ‘Rachel, you’re usually at school early. I’ll get you to help keep the storeroom in order. You and … hmmm, let me see. Amber. You can help.’

  What? Me? And Rachel? Please, no. Not after Saturday’s netball game. Which they’d lost. After all, they were playing the Eagles – the top team. But they’d only lost by twenty-two goals this time. Rachel had managed to get four goals but Amber had shot the rest.

  Nine!

  Nine goals. She still couldn’t believe it.

  Everyone had hugged her – all except Rachel – and Terry had given her Player of the Match. The Eagles had walked away shaking their heads, probably wondering why they were all so excited about losing.

  Then Amber had heard Rachel whine to her father, ‘Dad, I don’t feel well. I’ve had a bellyache all morning.’

  Now she was whining to Ms Kruger. ‘Couldn’t I do it with Marissa instead?’ she asked.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Rachel,’ said Ms Kruger. ‘Marissa never gets here for the first bell. Now,’ she said to the class, ‘about your art work. You’ll be finishing that off on Wednesday afternoon. Miss Warburton said you’d be bringing in materials from home to complete the project. So don’t forget that. Right, that’s enough about the fete for now. Spelling books out.’

  Amber felt a sting on her cheek. As she lifted her hand to touch it, she saw a small pea-sized piece of crumpled paper fall on the desk in front of her. She picked it up and turned to see Marissa sneering at her, and Rachel with her tongue poked out. Why can’t they just leave me alone?

  That night in bed, Amber watched as her djinn slipped from his bottle. This was the first chance she’d had to tell him about her goal shooting on Saturday. Yesterday Dad had decided they should go for a drive and have lunch out, and they hadn’t got home until late.

  Jimell reached out his long arm and rested his hand on her cheek.

  ‘See, I knew you could do it,’ he said. ‘All you needed was a little faith in yourself.’

  Then he frowned.

  ‘What’s this mark on your face?’ he asked.

  Mark? Her hand flew to her cheek. He was touching the exact spot that the paper missile had hit. But it hadn’t left a mark.

  ‘I know you can’t see it,’ said Jimell, ‘but I can feel it. What happened?’

  Amber sighed. ‘It was Marissa. Or Rachel. I don’t know which one,’ she said. ‘They’re both horrible to me. Rachel’s annoyed that I got all those goals. She’s usually the one who shoots most of them and everyone makes a fuss over her then, but this time they made a fuss over me. And now Ms Kruger’s put us both in charge of collecting the jumble for the fete. Rachel would rather do it with Marissa.’

  Jimell settled himself down on the doona and folded his arms.

  ‘Tell me about them,’ he said. ‘What else have they done?’

  Reluctantly she told him how they would whisper about her when they knew she was watching, and what Marissa had done to the diary down behind the sports shed.

  ‘And then last Wednesday she tried to get me into trouble with Mrs May in our PE lesson.’

  ‘So it’s really Marissa who’s the ringleader?’

  Amber thought about that for a moment. ‘Yes, I guess she is,’ she answered. ‘Rachel just seems to go along with it because they’re friends.’

  ‘But why?’ asked Jimell. ‘Why is Marissa like this?’

  Amber sighed. ‘I think it all started with the Christmas play last year.’ And before she realised it, she had told Jimell what had happened when the angel broke her leg.

/>   ‘You know,’ she added angrily, ‘I would have been just as happy to be the sheep. It wasn’t my fault that our teacher picked me to be the angel.’

  Jimell smiled up at her. ‘But you made such a beautiful angel,’ he said.

  Amber frowned. How could he know that?

  Jimell nodded towards the desk where the photo frame stood. ‘Who’s the other girl?’ he asked. ‘Is that Bethany?’

  Amber’s eyes widened.

  ‘How did you know her name?’

  ‘Your mother called her that,’ he said. ‘But I don’t understand why Marissa is still worried about that angel business after all this time.’

  ‘I know, and she’s worse now that Bethany’s gone. And since she’s become best friends with Rachel.’

  ‘You know what I believe?’ said Jimell. ‘I believe they are both jealous of you.’

  ‘Jealous? Why would they be jealous of me?’

  ‘Look are you, Amber. You can shoot goals in netball, and you’re clever at maths –’

  ‘That was only because you helped me,’ she interrupted.

  Jimell pursed his tiny lips. ‘Amber, have faith in yourself, just like you did in netball. You are special, and kind. And good. And I want you to always remember that. And besides, you would never treat anyone the way they treat you.’

  And he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her neck. Amber felt all the hollow spaces inside her fill up with a warm, tingly feeling. Her throat tightened as she tried to hold back her tears.

  They sat like that for a long time, then Amber whispered, ‘I’m so glad you’re my friend.’

  ‘Yes, I am your friend, Amber,’ said Jimell, pulling away but keeping his hand on her cheek. ‘But you need friends at school, too, so you’ve got to stop worrying about those girls and find someone else to be friends with now Bethany’s gone.’

  Amber thought of Ricco. She liked being with him. Well, except when he’d got her into trouble for being out of bounds. She had looked for him at lunchtime today, but she hadn’t found him. Not in the library. Nor in the computer lab. Not even behind the sports shed.