by Michael Kerr
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN ―
THE END OF THE BEGINNING
Fig and Speedy went through the mirrored portal and immediately tumbled down a small hillock into a wooded glade that they both recognised. They were only a short flight from the oak palace.
“Your wing has grown back,” Speedy said. “And we are almost home.”
Fig flexed his wings and fluttered up into the air. “That feels so good,” he said, smiling broadly. “Come on, Speedwell, let’s go to the palace and tell that nephew of mine how we succeeded in returning the chalice. We’ll be heroes.”
Speedy flew up to join him, and they sped off through the trees as fast as their wings would carry them.
Faraway, Gorf and Pook had been transported to the Land of the Vampires, and were standing outside Charlie’s castle.
They climbed the steps and went inside, closing the door behind them to keep the light out, and were amazed to see how clean the place was. The dust had been swept away, and all the sheets were gone, to reveal the fine furniture beneath.
“CHAARLIEE!” Gorf shouted, and his deep voice echoed throughout the castle.
A bat flew down the wide staircase, to change its shape and become Charlie in his black cape.
“Gorf! Pook! What are you both doing back here?” Charlie asked. “And where are your friends? Did that rogue Pintello hurt them?”
“Pintello is dead,” Gorf said. “And our friends are fine. They’ve gone back to where they came from. We returned the chalice to the Keeper, and decided to come here and spend some time with you, if you don’t mind.”
“I’d be very pleased to have you here,” Charlie said. “As you can see, I’ve been cleaning the place up a bit. It was getting too full of cobwebs, and I thought it needed a makeover. Let’s eat. And you can tell me all that has happened since I last saw you.”
“Just you three left to send back,” Aurora said to Sam, Ben and Tommy. “This will be quite tricky. There is always a chance that the timing might be out by a century or two.”
“A century or two!” Sam said. “That’s no good at all. Can’t you return us to the day and spot we left?”
“I’ll do my best,” Aurora said. “But time and space are never still. Stand right up to the portal and hold hands. I will push you through when I sense it stable enough to try and pinpoint the location and day you left on. If you find yourselves too far behind or forward in time, then jump back into the doorway you come out of. But be quick about it. I can only keep it open for a few seconds.”
With Sam standing in the middle, they gripped each other’s hands tightly and stood so close to the mirror that their noses touched its cool, elastic surface.
Aurora put one hand flat against Tommy’s back, the other on Ben’s, and when she felt the time was right, she pushed hard.
There was a moment of pitch blackness, and the sensation of moving at the speed of light as they shot through a silent tunnel of space and time. And with a loud popping sound, they fell out into bright sunshine, to roll over and over on rocky ground.
“Ow!” Sam exclaimed, rubbing her grazed knees as she got to her feet.
“Are we home?” Tommy said.
Ben looked around at their surroundings. It appeared to be where the Turquoise Lake had been, but there was no sign of the lake or the waterfall. “I’m sure that we’re back at where the lake was, but there’s no way of knowing if it’s at the time we left it.” he said.
“Do we stay or go back?” Sam asked, looking at the swirling circle of glowing, pink mist that they had come through. “We have to make a decision, and quickly.”
“Search me,” Ben said. “What do you think, Frog?”
“That we don’t have time to find out for sure if this is when we left,” Tommy replied. “I don’t know what we should do.”
The decision was made for them a couple of seconds later. The circle of mist shrunk to the size of a pinhead and plinked out of existence.
“I guess we’re stuck here, wherever here is. Let’s go and look for the bikes,” Sam said.
They walked across the boulder-covered ground that had been the lake bottom, and began to climb up the slope to where the gap had reappeared in the rock face.
“You’re not limping, Frog,” Ben said.
Tommy stopped and pulled the leg of his trousers up. His leg was still fine, and so was his eyesight. He grinned.
“And we’ve got our own clothes back,” Sam said.
“Did it really happen?” Ben asked. “Or am I in bed at home dreaming all of this?”
Sam reached out and touched the string of red stones around his neck.
“Those are real enough,” she said.
“And so is that,” Ben said, running over to where his Taz baseball cap was lying on the ground. He picked it up and put it on backwards.
They climbed up to the top of the limestone ridge, walked through the narrow canyon of rock and ran down a trail, through the forest, not stopping until they reached the spot where they had hidden their bikes in the ferns.
Not one of them thought that the bikes would still be there. Finding them was such a surprise that they just stood and stared, hardly able to believe their eyes.
“They look exactly the same as when we left them,” Tommy said.
Sam wasn’t convinced. She knelt down and inspected her 18 speed Raleigh Vixen. The amethyst and black painted steel frame showed no signs of rust, and the tyres were still up. It was a good sign.
Ben looked up at the sky and decided by the position of the sun that it was mid-afternoon. It was very hot, and he was hungry, thirsty and exhausted.
“Have either of you got any water left?” Ben asked Sam and Tommy.
Sam slipped her backpack off, opened it, and found that she had her original plastic Coke bottle, but it was almost empty. There was also the leather pouch that had belonged to Pintello. Looking inside it, she discovered that it was now full of pound coins instead of ducats.
“Here,” she said to Ben, handing him the bottle. “Finish this. And then let’s go back to Sugden’s and get some cold drinks and something to eat. We’ve got enough money here to last us for ages.”
They didn’t rush. Just pedalled slowly along the road in the direction of Grassington. Each was lost in thought. Sam was trying to make sense of it all in her mind. Less than an hour ago they had been in the frozen wasteland of another world. It was almost impossible to believe that any of what had happened could have really taken place.
Ben was more laid back about it all. He accepted that weird stuff happened, and was just very relieved to be back where he belonged. He had felt like Gulliver, travelling to strange places that should not exist, but did.
Tommy was overjoyed at being so physically fit. He felt stronger, and had lost some weight. And the miracle of his 20/20 vision, his healthy leg, and smooth, zitless skin was just awesome. The downside was Pook. Leaving the little bear behind was the saddest and hardest thing he had ever had to do. There was a part of him that wished he had stayed in Otherworld and gone with Pook and Gorf. But you couldn’t have everything. He realised that, now. Life was full of choices, and he had made his. No good crying over spilt milk, his mother would say. That made him smile. Fig and the others would have wanted to know what the saying meant. He would have told them that once something has happened, however sad, there was nothing to be gained by being upset forever, because you couldn’t alter it, and had to get on with how things were.
They rode into the village, leaned the bikes up against the pillar box and went inside the shop to buy chilled cans of pop, and bars of chocolate. The first thing Ben did was check the newspapers in a rack. The date on the front pages confirmed that it was still the day that they had started out on a journey which had taken them many weeks to complete in Otherworld.
“You not eating, Frog?” Ben asked when they went back out and sat down on the kerb.
“No, Ben,” Tommy said, pulling the
tab off a can of diet Fanta. “I’ve got rid of my zits, and I don’t want them back. I think I’ll avoid too much sweet stuff from now on. And, Ben, if you’re a real friend, please don’t call me Frog anymore. It really winds me up.”
“Okay,” Ben said. Tommy was a true and special friend. They had been pals for as long as he could remember, and he didn’t want to fall out over a silly nickname.
“I’m going home,” Sam said, crushing her empty can and throwing it into a concrete waste bin. “I need to see my mum, dad and Emily.” She got on her bike and pedalled off, dropping into a low gear to get up the winding hill.
“See you tomorrow,” Ben shouted after her.
Sam raised her hand and waved without looking back. It was still only the first day of the holidays. They had weeks to explore the area, go to the movies, and maybe build a tree house in Ben’s back garden. Funny, but now all the things that they had talked about doing seemed a little tame. Visiting Otherworld had been far more exciting.
“I’ll text you tonight, Tommy,” Ben said, climbing on his bike.
Tommy nodded and watched as Ben rode down to the junction, turned left and vanished from sight.
It felt strange to be by himself. Tommy had grown used to being with the others. He didn’t ride, but pushed the bike, in no hurry to get home. His mum would ask questions that he would not know how to answer. It would be impossible to explain the changes that had taken place.
After putting his bike in the small shed in the back yard, he opened the kitchen door and sneaked along the hall to the stairs. He could hear the radio playing, and smell the fresh, steamy-hot odour of clothes being ironed. Halfway up the stairs, he froze as his mother called out his name.
“Tommy, is that you?” Fiona Scott shouted.
Who did she think it was, a burglar? Or maybe a psycho jester, or a vampire who got indigestion if he drank blood?
“Yeah, Mum. I’m just going to get changed.”
“Don’t be long,” his mum said. “I’ll make you a nice cup of tea.”
Tommy went into his bedroom and closed the door. There was something he had to know. With shaking hands, he pulled open the wardrobe door and reached up to feel on the shelf. It was a little high up and he couldn’t stretch his arm far enough. Placing a chair in front of it, he stepped up and moved a pile of sweaters and a spare pillow. Pookie was gone! The empty space his Teddy bear had occupied was the final proof Tommy needed to truly believe all that had happened. He smiled at the thought of Pook asking Charlie the vampire to make him pancakes with maple syrup.
“Where are your glasses, Tommy?” his mum asked him as he entered the living room. “Don’t tell me you’ve lost them. I―”
“Mum, you’d better sit down. I’ve got something really wicked and scary to tell you,” Tommy said as he slowly rolled up the right leg of his cargo pants.
