‘No.’
‘Phew!’ Brian Malone looked relieved.
‘There are two big holes in the ceiling.’
Brian Malone’s hands went to his cheeks. ‘Are they dangerous? This isn’t a small issue. It’s a big issue, isn’t it? Oh, I hate big issues! Should we call the fire department?’
‘No. The fire department is actually more for fires than holes, Dad. And unfortunately there isn’t a holes-in-the-ceiling department.’
Brian Malone took a deep breath. ‘I suppose I’d better have a look. Wait. Is it safe?’
‘Yes, Dad, they’ve already fallen.’
It had taken Daisy and Ben a lot of time and effort to locate the two heaviest items in the attic, carry them over to the two holes in the attic floor and drop them through. The carpet had cushioned their impact so that the pots bounced rather than smashed, and there was only a slight dent in the floor. They hoped that Brian Malone wouldn’t remember that the pots had actually been stored up the other end of the attic, but figured that that was unlikely because Brian Malone never went up to the attic because:
1. He was scared of climbing ladders;
2. He was scared of trapdoors; and
3. He was scared of attics.
As Brian Malone entered the house his eyes flicked up and down between the two big pots lying on their sides and the two holes above them. Up and down went his eyes, up and down, up and down, up and down until they got bored with doing that and went down and up instead.
‘Someone could have been killed,’ he said eventually.
‘Kind of unlikely,’ said Daisy. ‘Anyway, someone wasn’t.’
Brian Malone rubbed his chin. ‘Hmmm. So both the pots fell separately then?’
‘Yes,’ replied Daisy innocently.
Brian Malone’s hand kept rubbing his chin. Daisy noticed it was shaking a little. The hand, that is. Not the chin.
‘And they fell down today?’ he continued. ‘They’d both been up there for years, and they both fell through the ceiling on the exact same day. How very peculiar.’
He looked searchingly at Daisy.
‘It is peculiar, isn’t it?’ she said, trying not very successfully to smile.
Daisy awoke the next morning, instantly remembered everything that had happened the previous day and frowned. Then she smiled. It was her birthday! She felt like she had been eleven for soooo long, for about six years at least, and now she was finally twelve.
Normally in the day or two leading up to her birthday all she thought about was the presents she was going to get, and the presents she was going to get, and the presents she was going to get, but since the moment she had seen the two men in the bush, her birthday had hardly entered her mind. But now it was here! She hurried to the kitchen.
‘Happy birthday, darling,’ said Brian Malone, giving her a hug. ‘May it be a very safe one. Your favourite breakfast is on the table.’
And so it was! Coco Pops and milk with Milo sprinkled on top – and of course the milk wasn’t boring normal milk, it was chocolate milk – followed by a chocolate croissant and a mug of hot chocolate and most importantly of all, no fruit at all, not one little bit of the stupid stuff! There was only one thing that stopped it from being perfect.
‘Dad, the hot chocolate is a bit, um, weak. Could you make it a bit stronger, please?’
‘I’m sorry, darling, but if I made it any stronger you might get all full of that crazy chocolate energy and go running around the house and then you might trip over a chair and fall and – oh no! – bang your head, and there might be – oh gosh! – blood, and then I’d have to drive you to the hospital and what if – yikes! – I got lost on the way and you were bleeding and I was lost and it was just bleediness and lostness, and then …’
‘It’s okay, Dad,’ Daisy interrupted, holding up her hand. ‘It’s fine as it is.’
‘I’m sorry, Daisy, but I just don’t think I could handle all that blood.’
After breakfast, Brian Malone presented Daisy with her presents. She got:
1. a skipping rope from her parents. Good! She liked skipping. She instantly decided that she would practise every single day forever, which of course really meant she would practise every single day forever for the next four days and then get bored with it or distracted by something else or she’d lose the rope.
2. from her Mum’s sister Maxine a blue t-shirt that had a picture of a cat sitting inside an open refrigerator wearing sunglasses, and underneath, printed in big icy writing, the words ‘Cool Cat’. Daisy decided she liked the t-shirt soooo much she would definitely for certain wear it the very next time she saw the toaster sprout legs, leap off the kitchen bench and run out of the house shouting, ‘I’m sick of torturing innocent bread. Let me out.’ Until then, however, it could rot in her bottom drawer along with all the other ridiculous pieces of clothing she had been given over the years by her Aunt Maxine, who was a very nice person, but a very bad present-giver; and
3. Twenty dollars from Uncle Tony, her dad’s brother. Nice! Zero out of ten for imagination, but ten out of ten for usefulness.
The final present came with a speech from Brian Malone.
‘Of course, you know that Mum would love to be here, but she is in the middle of some very important archaeological digging. I’m sure she’ll ring if she can.’
‘She’ll call,’ said Daisy confidently. ‘She always calls when she’s not here on my birthday.’
Daisy was disappointed that her mum was away – again – but she was kind of used to it. Jackie Malone had been disappearing for weeks at a time ever since Daisy could remember. Daisy did miss her, but she always got excellent presents when her mum returned, and it was pretty cool being able to tell the other kids at school that her mum was away discovering underground passages and caves, especially as their parents didn’t seem to do anything more interesting than go and sit in some building in the city all day.
‘You know how much she misses you,’ Brian Malone continued. ‘She sent you this.’ He handed over a rectangular parcel that looked exactly book shaped.
‘Just what I wanted! A pony!’ Daisy exclaimed to amuse herself, and then quickly set upon the wrapping as if it were a wounded antelope and she was a starving lioness. When the final scraps of paper were floating to the ground she saw that inside was a big, thick, glossy hardback book entitled, A Young Person’s Guide to Archaeology.
Daisy felt just like that lioness from the previous paragraph would have felt if, just as she was about to sink her teeth into the juicy rump of the antelope from the previous paragraph, the antelope had suddenly turned into a giant salad. What a let-down! Daisy expected sensible, boring presents from her sensible, boring dad, but her mum could usually be relied upon for something fun. Last birthday it had been a jar of lollies shaped like noses and ears, and the time before that a plastic dog poo that she had been able to use to freak out her father for weeks by secretly putting it on his desk, bed, car seat, shoes and breakfast.
But A Young Person’s Guide to Archaeology? What was Mum thinking? Was the time of fun presents over? Was there some law that from age twelve onwards all presents had to be sensible? What would she get next year? 1001 Interesting Facts About Multiplication? The Complete History of Carpet?
She thumbed through the book. Clearly, it was packed full of informative information and factual facts that were all probably true and which would provide a diligent reader with a thorough education on the entire subject of archaeology. The book might – might – even be slightly interesting in a there’s-nothing-better-to-do-on-a-rainy-Sunday-afternoon-now-that-I’ve-used-up-all-my-computer-time sort of way, but it wasn’t what she wanted as a birthday present from her only mother. When Jackie Malone rang to wish her a happy birthday, Daisy would have to have a stern word with her.
Daisy shut the book. As she did, she felt something under its dust jacket.
It felt like an envelope had been stuck to the hardback cover of the book, and then covered by the outer cover. She was about to pull the cover off to investigate but then stopped. If it was going to be something unexpected, maybe she should wait until Brian Malone went to work.
Eventually, after asking her twenty-three times if she was sure she was going to be all right and reminding her not to do anything dangerous like juggle carving knives or jump off the roof or swallow poison, he did.
As soon as he was out the door, Daisy pulled the dust jacket off the boring book. Sticky-taped to the back cover was an envelope. On it, in what looked like her mum’s big messy handwriting, was written one word: DAISY.
Hmmm, thought Daisy with extreme cleverness. That might be me.
She sliced the envelope open. Inside was a piece of paper and also a slightly smaller envelope with the name of Mum’s sister, ‘Maxine Trotter’, written on it.
Daisy turned the envelope over. It was sealed with what looked like melted candle wax, which had the imprint of a leaf across it. Daisy had read about sealing letters this way. They used to do it in the olden days to prevent people steaming a letter open, taking a peak and then resealing it. But why would her mum need to do that?
Daisy turned her attention to the piece of paper, which was covered in her mum’s handwriting.
My darling Daisy,
Firstly a big sooo-rrrr-eee for missing your birthday. I know! Again!! Bad Mummy! Let me answer the question that I know you are asking. Why the super-serious extra-super-dull present? Has Mum turned boring?! I haven’t! I promise! I know you have much more important things to do than to read a fat book about archaeology!
Daisy had forgotten how in love her mum was with exclamation marks.
I sent you the book because it was a hardback and I could hide an envelope under the cover so that you would find it but your dad would not. I hope it worked! Daisy, I need your help! I wish I could ask your father, but if I did he’d start worrying and then he’d start panicking and … well, we don’t want that, do we! Especially not when I’m away!
So I’m asking you. All you have to do is this. Take the envelope addressed to Maxine and put it in a safe hiding place where no one will find it. That’s all! Ease-ee! Put it somewhere safe and then … do nothing. Then, when I come home, give it back to me. Simple!
The only situation where you may have to do something more is – and this is the bit that would upset your father – if something were to happen to me and I couldn’t come home for some reason. I’m sure this won’t happen, but if it does, don’t deliver the envelope to Maxine. Open it yourself and there will be some more information inside!
You may wonder why I am being so dramatic. Don’t worry! It’s just that I uncovered something fairly special on my last dig at Gloomy Gulch, and I thought I should leave a message telling someone where I put it, just in case I get hit by a bus or abducted by aliens or something. Of course that won’t happen, but I just wanted to make sure.
Finally, Daisy, you may have noticed that the other envelope is sealed with wax. That, my dear, is because I am very aware that, like me, you are extremely curious. Curiosity is a wonderful thing! It can take you to amazing places and show you extraordinary things! Those without curiosity miss out on a lot. But I thought that your curiosity might cause you to open the second envelope and read what’s inside, and then reseal it.
So to lessen that horrible temptation I have taken the precaution of sealing it! So now you know that if you did open it I would definitely find out, and then I would be DISAPPOINTED in you!
So I know you will resist!
All my love, darling, have a wonderful birthday and I promise that when I come home I will bring you something much more fun!
Your loving Uncle Gronkfonk,
Just joking,
Mum
P.S. I promise I will call you on your birthday! Early!
When she finished reading, Daisy stared at the letter, trying to work out what it all meant. So did Ben, who had been reading over her shoulder. After a while Daisy stopped thinking and just sat there. She wanted to keep sitting there forever, because that way she wouldn’t have to work out what to do with the letter, and life could just be nice and peaceful for a bit.
So she did.
And Ben, sensing her mood, because dogs are good at that, sat there too.
Eventually Daisy had to get up to go to the toilet, and when she came back she knew that the nice resty, peaceful bit was now over. (And that’s good for you, dear reader, because if the nice resty bit went on for too long, Daisy’s story would get a bit boring. Just imagine: ‘So Daisy rested. Then she rested some more. Then she looked at her fingernails. Then she did some more resting. Then she kept resting …’ Boring, right? Luckily for you [but not so luckily for Daisy] there will be no more nice resty bits for Daisy for quite some time.)
‘The thing is,’ she said slowly (but not so slowly that she sounded stupid, or like a robot whose batteries were running down), ‘there was that bit in the letter about Mum finding something on her last trip.’
‘Yes,’ said Ben. ‘There was that bit.’
Daisy picked up the letter again. ‘Here it is. It’s just that I uncovered something fairly special on my last trip to Gloomy Gulch. You see, Ben-dog, I’m wondering if that thing she says she found, maybe she brought it home with her and hid it in the attic.’
‘And are you also wondering if the thing she hid in the attic may have been blue …?’ asked Ben.
‘I was. And I was wondering if it glowed.’
‘Indeed.’
Daisy thought for a moment, then looked at Ben. ‘I think what we’re saying is that we think that Mum might have found that blue glowing thing somewhere in the caves at Gloomy Gulch, and then brought it home and hidden it in the attic.’
Ben nodded. ‘I think that’s definitely possible.’
‘And those men wanted it so much that they broke into our house to steal it.’
Ben nodded again.
‘Mum wouldn’t have written a letter like that unless she thought she was in danger. She tried to say that she wasn’t, but she must be. Why else would she think that she had to tell someone about the thing she found unless she was worried that something was going to happen to her?’
Ben would have spread his paws wide to indicate that he couldn’t think of any good reason why she would have done that, but if he had done so his head would have fallen onto the ground and that would have hurt, and it would have looked stupid, so he didn’t. Instead he said, ‘I don’t know.’
‘So we think that Mum is in some sort of danger, but we don’t know what sort.’ Daisy picked up the envelope with ‘Maxine Trotter’ written on it. ‘And there’s more information inside this sealed envelope.’
‘You’re going to open it, aren’t you?’ said Ben.
‘Are you going to try to talk me out of it?’
He shook his head. ‘No, but why don’t you at least try to call your mum first.’
‘Of course. Good idea.’ Daisy grabbed the phone and dialled Jackie Malone’s mobile number. It went to message bank. That wasn’t unusual. Jackie Malone’s phone didn’t usually ring when she was at Gloomy Gulch. The archaeological site was out of town and in the shadows of hills and rarely got reception. And there were no landlines there.
It was, however, slightly unusual that Jackie Malone hadn’t yet rung Daisy to wish her a happy birthday. Especially when, in her letter, she had promised to call Early!
Daisy picked up the envelope, looked once again at the words ‘Maxine Trotter’, and broke the seal.
Inside was another piece of paper covered in her mum’s handwriting, and yet another envelope.
‘It’s like those dolls,’ said Ben.
‘What dolls?’
‘You know, the ones that have smaller dolls inside them. What are
they? Romanian dolls.’
‘Russian.’
‘Yes, I know you’re in a hurry, but I just –’
‘No. Russian dolls.’
‘Oh. Sorry.’
This envelope was sealed in the same way as the one addressed to Maxine. On it was written ‘Professor Trevor Blont’. She put the envelope to one side and picked up the sheet of paper.
Dear Daisy,
The fact that you are reading this means that either something has happened to me and I have not returned home, or everything is fine but you’ve opened the letter anyway. If it is the second, then you are a naughty thing! Stop reading at once, put this letter and the envelope back in the other envelope and leave them alone until I get home!
Daisy, of course, without even the merest split second of hesitation, kept reading.
So, you’re still reading, are you? That means something has happened to me. Oh well. Firstly, don’t worry, it’s bound to turn out fine in the end, and in the meantime things are probably not nearly as bad as you are imagining.
Enough of that! This is what you must do. Don’t take the envelope to Maxine. She’d be too busy adding up gigantic sums of money at the bank she works at to look at it anyway, and it contains far too many words and not nearly enough numbers to interest her. I only put Maxine’s name on the envelope so that if someone else stumbled upon it, a letter to my sister would be unlikely to attract any interest.
Daisy, please take the envelope with ‘Professor Trevor Blont’ written on it to – you guessed it – Professor Trevor Blont. He is my boss at the university and is in charge of the whole Gloomy Gulch operation and … to be honest, Daisy, it’s all quite complicated and it’s getting late and I’m dreadfully tired, and I have to do all this sealing business again which is actually a lot harder than it looks so I’ll explain it all later, but you really must deliver this envelope to Trevor as soon as you can. It’s very important! He works in the same building as me at the university. Same floor, room 316.
And don’t open the next envelope!!
I love you very much, darling, and if something has happened, don’t worry, it’s all going to be all right and I’ll be home cuddling you soon.
Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone Page 5
