Daisy materialised just inside of the in-between place, a couple of metres away from the rip in its side,
“Come on Gedber, let’s get you ho…” and she realised he wasn’t there.
Oh God, she thought, please don’t say he’s too big to move.
First things first though, and she ran her hand up the tear and watched with satisfaction when it closed as if two pieces of Velcro were being pulled together.
“Use the power of your mother’s mind,” her ‘conscience’ whispered.
Marjorie almost fell off the bed again when Daisy snapped into existence in the bedroom,
“I don’t have the power mum,” Daisy said, “but maybe, just maybe, I can harness some of your mind. Show it what to do, sort of. It might be enough.”
Oh God, thought Marjorie I hope there‘s nothing in my head that she shouldn’t see.
It didn’t occur to her for one moment to refuse to help, so all she could do was to find the place where she kept all of those naughty and delicious thoughts about Norman, her first love at school, and firmly slam the door on them.
“What do I have to do?” she asked.
“Nothing, just relax and don’t fight me.”
Once more Daisy gathered her thoughts and twisted them, and then she sent a tendril into her mother’s mind, immediately feeling the power of it coming to her and boosting her own efforts. For a moment she let it build, and then she launched and the three of them landed in a heap inside Grelf.
Perhaps it was some unconscious desire not to be squashed, but whatever it was Gedber landed first and both of the others landed on top of him. Apart from a “whoosh” as the breath was knocked out of him, no harm was done.
“You had better go,” he gasped, “I’m feeling tighter, and I don’t know how long it will be before this place starts to put me right again.”
“I’m sure you’ll be OK,” said Daisy, though not really believing it as she could now actually see him getting bigger. He had reached at least four metres, and seemed to be growing several centimetres a minute. “It was nice to meet you, but I need to get my mum out before something odd happens to her.”
“I understand, and thank you Daisy.”
He just lay there, unable to move because he had grown so large. All Daisy could hope for was that his home environment would reverse his growth soon and save his life. There was nothing she could do, so she gathered up her mother, drew her close and launched for home.
“Do weird things like this happen to you very often?” asked Marjorie when they were safely back in the bedroom.
Daisy didn’t answer, as her gaze was on the rapidly expanding globe that was Grelf. Her mother couldn’t see it and was saved from its final moments as it grew suddenly to twice its original size and then exploded in one mind bending detonation.
Daisy was stunned, and the horror of the end of so many Grelflins threatened to overwhelm her. She straightened her back and fought back the tears. It would not do, and certainly would not serve any purpose, for her mother to know what had finally happened. So the tears could come later, when she was alone.
She knew she had been lucky with the milkman. By chance she had sent him to a place where the changes were not serious and he had survived. So now her lesson was learnt. In-between places were not all beds of honey and roses, and in her dealings with them in the future, she would have to be extremely careful.
“Speak to me Daisy,”
“Oh sorry mum, I was just wondering. Who was Norman?”
End
About the Author
Born in the Royal Military Hospital in Portsmouth, England in 1938 and attended Titchfield (Hampshire, UK) Primary School and Fareham (Hampshire, UK) Secondary Modern Boys School until 1953
Joined the Royal Air Force as an Apprentice in 1955 and served 14 years, being discharged in 1968. During that period, in 1962, he met and married Kim, and they are still together after 49 years After, a short period as a Prison Officer, he entered the Computer Industry with Golden Wonder Ltd and stayed in that profession with various companies until 1991. He then joined an Inner City Medical Practice in Leicester (Leicestershire UK) as Fundholding Manager and Practice Manager until his retirement in 2003. He currently lives in Leicestershire and also spends time in Sax, a small town near Alicante in Spain.
He can be contacted at mailto:[email protected]
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Daisy Weal and the Grelflin Page 2
