joined the family for breakfast the next morning. And when she opened the box and looked inside she squealed with surprise and delight.
“EEEEE!!! My ballerina! It’s my little ballerina! I thought I would never see you again!”
She ran around the table and gave her Grandfather a big hug. “Thank you Grumpy Jake; thank you so much,” she said. Then she took his hand and added more seriously: “I’m glad I didn’t find out you took her, though. I don't think I would have been very understanding.”
Tilly’s mother and father were puzzled by her excitement over this grubby little figurine in a shabby little music box, but naturally they didn’t comment.
Later, when Tilly was getting ready to leave for school, she went to where her grandfather was working and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you again, Grumpy Jake,” she said. “I think I must have just the very besterestest Grandpa in the whole world.”
“—Not good enough to get your music box going, though.” Jake replied with a sigh, “I do wish I could have made it work again.”
“You mustn't worry about that, Grandpa,” Tilly replied. “When I first saw her in Mr DaCosta’s window it seemed important somehow that I should have her, just as she is. That's why I was saving my money.” She picked up her school bag and turned to go. “And now I do, and I’m so pleased.
“—See you later, Grandpa.”
“And don’t forget,” said her mother, “After tea tonight your father and I are taking the telescope to the Hamilton’s farm to watch the eclipse, so don’t come dawdling home from school.”
“I won’t Mum,” Tilly shouted as she went out the door. “I’ll be straight back to talk to my ballerina.”
When Tilly arrived home that afternoon her mother had the big telescope unpacked. She was making sure everything was there, and that all the moving parts were working smoothly. Outside, Tilly’s father was getting the car ready.
That evening they had dinner much earlier than usual, as they wanted to set off before dark. Jake and Tilly cleared the table when everyone had finished, then went outside to wave goodbye.
“You can stay up for a little while after you’ve finished your homework,” Tilly's mother told her as she fastened her seatbelt, “but please make sure it’s not too late. Your Father and I will be home about breakfast time tomorrow.”
Just then Mr DaCosta drove his battered old utility into the gateway next door. Stacked on its back – higher than Tilly could believe possible – was a huge load of furniture. Mr DaCosta had brought the furniture back to his house because he wanted to spruce it up before putting it on display in the shop.
As he went past he gave them a wave and shouted, “Happy Birthday Tilly.” Then he and his overloaded old ute disappeared into his back yard.
Tilly waved her parents goodbye, then walked out to the footpath to watch them drive away. There she saw the full moon, half risen exactly where the road went over the rise near the school, its bright golden light shining straight along their street. She kept watching as they drove towards it, until their car had disappeared over the rise. It almost seemed as if they had driven off into the moon.
She remained outside for a while after that, until the moon had risen clear of the roadway. Back in the house she helped Jake with the dishes and then went to her room; there she took her books and pens from her school bag and put them on her desk, ready to start her homework.
The assignment was to write a composition, something Tilly always enjoyed doing. It was to be entitled “A busy afternoon”, and she sat down and turned over in her mind some ideas about what she might write. Then she remembered the ballerina, and moved her from the dressing table to the corner of her desk.
“This will be easy to write, Little Princess,” she said. “I had some very busy afternoons while I was trying to save the money to pay for you.”
When her homework was finished Tilly went to the bathroom and cleaned her teeth, then went off to Jake's work space to say goodnight. Jake was in the middle of inspecting the dozens of little brass screws and gears he'd taken out of a clock he was fixing. How he remembered where all the parts came from was more than Tilly could imagine.
Back in her bedroom she fixed her door open wide and partly opened the sliding window by her bed. This was to catch any breezes that might be passing, for it was a very warm night
From her window Tilly could see over Mr DaCosta’s fence. He was in the back of his old utility, on the grass behind his house, and was working under a big light, cleaning the swivel mirror on a dressing table. The rest of the furniture had been unloaded, but the dressing table had been left on board because was in good condition. He wanted to have it ready to put in the shop the next morning.
When Tilly climbed into bed she lay back to read some more of her book, but before long found herself getting drowsy, so she put it aside. Then she said goodnight to the little ballerina, turned off the light, pulled up the sheet, put her head on the pillow … and quickly went to sleep.
In the workroom her grandfather was putting the clock gears together again. Later, when he'd finished, he set it going to make sure it worked properly then tidied his workbench and went outside to see what was happening.
Up in the heavens the Lunar Eclipse was well under way. The Earth’s shadow had dulled the full Moon’s face and stained it orange. Slowly the shadow spread, until – eventually – all that was left to see was a dull remnant of colour. Soon that too was gone and the Moon was but a ghost, lost among the stars.
All through this Jake had remained there, sitting back and looking at the sky. Then he too went to bed.
At a minute before midnight the eclipse ended and once again the moon was shining bright and full – though now it was directly overhead. Yet somehow, on the wall of the Haymans' house under their roof's dark shadow, there gleamed a bright spot of moonlight. Right at the bottom edge of Tilly’s window it lay, like a luminous beacon.
The moonlight was being reflected there by the mirror of the dressing table Mr DaCosta had left on the utility. After finishing working on it he’d tilted the mirror back and then covered the whole thing with an old blanket – to protect it from the morning dew.
But the blanket had a fist-sized hole in it and when he’d thrown it over the dressing table the hole had finished up in the middle of the mirror, and this plus the mirror's angle was causing a shaft of moonlight to be reflected directly at Tilly’s house. And, as the Earth rotated, millimeter by millimeter the spot slowly moved.
Just then the little clock in Jake’s room began chiming the hour, and at the same moment the reflected moonlight reached the glass of Tilly’s window. And as the first strike of twelve rang a thin silver beam pierced the darkness her room.
Through the partly-open window’s two glass panes it shone, through a tiny gap in the curtains … and onto the exact spot where the ballerina was holding outstretched her tiny wand. And as the moonlight touched the wand something wonderful happened, for the little figurine began to glow with a soft golden light. At the same time she slowly began to turn … and from beneath her feet came some delicate notes of music.
Tilly woke instantly at the sound. She sat up in bed and looked about in the darkness.
On seeing her ballerina she gasped with fright – then found she couldn’t move! Nor could she take her eyes from the glowing figurine.
…Because this little ballerina in a fairy queen costume was no ballerina.
This was the Fairy Queen herself! Regal! And radiant! And beautiful!
She held Tilly in a powerful spell, and Tilly could to do nothing but watch her and listen. And all the while she shivered with waves and waves of goose bumps.
As the earth turned, so the spot of moonlight from the mirror became more perfectly aimed. Now it shone on the Fairy Queen and, as the music grew stronger, more brightly did she glow and more quickly did she turn.
Suddenly a great spray of moonbeams streamed from the Fairy Queen’s wand. Around the room they swi
rled, twinkling and sparkling like tiny diamonds.
When they fell on the nearest grandfather clock it became enchanted by her spell and immediately began chiming, its ringing joining in with the tune of the Fairy Queen’s music box.
Suddenly Grumpy Jake arrived at Tilly’s bedroom door.
He too had been woken by the first few notes of music, and he’d sat up in bed to listen, puzzled over where the music could be coming from and what might have been making it. And when he heard one of his grandfather clocks join in Jake tumbled out of bed and ran down the hall as fast as his skinny old legs would take him. Something was making one of his clocks go crazy!
At Tilly’s open door he knocked quickly and stepped in. Then he caught sight of the Fairy Queen and instantly was taken by her spell. And there Jake Shielby stood, frozen to the spot and quite unable to move.
Stronger still came the light beam from the mirror, and stronger came the twinkling from the magic wand, its moonbeams all drifting and swirling about like tiny stars in the darkness of Tilly’s room. And whenever they fell on another grandfather clock it too would join in the chiming.
Soon all the clocks were playing, ringing and singing and booming and chiming along with the song from the music box. And the loudest of all was the biggest one there, the one Tilly called “Mr Clock”.
Oh what a noise! Tilly thought. She was sure the music would be
The Enchanted Music Box Page 4
