56
In which what they’ve been looking for finds them
Woe was gone. Whimsy spun around on the spot, trying to see as far as she could into the woods. ‘Woe!’ she called again. She cursed her stupidity. Why had they split up? Not only was Woe lost in the woods but he was lost in the woods with wolves!
‘Where did he go?’ asked Markus, confused.
Whimsy’s mind whirled. Had he fallen? Had he found something in the woods? Amidst Whimsy’s chaotic thoughts, her mother’s soft voice entered her mind. If you ever find yourself lost, take a deep breath . . . Whimsy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Find higher ground . . . They needed to find higher ground. Whimsy moved through the bushes and past the trees. Markus followed still calling out Woe’s name. Whimsy wasn’t sure if walking away from the last spot they'd seen Woe and Woe had seen them was the right thing to do but she needed to find her brother.
She pushed ahead, following the direction in which she'd last seen Woe go. Soon the ground beneath her started to rise and the trees around her began to clear. Looking up she saw the side of a large sloping hill. She remembered the tower of tuna cans. Higher ground. With large strides, Whimsy raced towards it and bounded up the hill almost at a run. When she reached the top, she could see the entire woods. Survey the land . . . Whimsy looked at the woods that spread out before her. They were almost out of them. It was perhaps a half hour walk and no more. But they needed to find Woe. Markus had caught up to her and together they looked down at the part of the woods where they had come from, hoping to see the black of Woe’s clothes amongst the shades of brown and green.
‘There you are!’ called a voice behind them.
Whimsy whirled around to see Woe running towards them across the top of the hill, a large smile on his face.
Whimsy raced to him. Torn between yelling and hugging him, she settled for both. ‘Where did you go?’ she asked sternly.
Woe looked down sheepishly. ‘I found some Lottle leaves,’ he said, pulling them from his pocket to show her. ‘Then I couldn’t find my way back but I saw this hill and remembered what Mum said about higher ground.’
Even though she was still angry at her brother, Whimsy couldn’t help but smile. Together the three of them walked across the top of the hill to the other side. At the end of it was a lookout and an old wooden signpost. It read: YOU ARE ABOUT TO LEAVE THE WALLOWING WOODS.
Woe read the last words again. The Wallowing Woods. This was where Hortensia Abernathy was taken! He looked at his sister. She read it too, thinking of Mr Abernathy. After Woe’s disappearance she could see how easy it was to get lost in the Wallowing Woods. How had Mr Abernathy searched these woods for days?
‘The Wallowing Woods,’ read Markus. ‘Why does that name sound familiar?’
‘This is where Hortensia Abernathy went missing,’ said Woe.
‘And it’s also not far from our home,’ said Whimsy walking to the lookout on the edge of the hill and pointing to the cluster of houses that sat not far in the distance. Littlegate. Beyond it stood the huge gates of Whitby City.
‘And Whitby City,’ added Woe, though his eyes remained on the cluster of houses. The Mordaunt siblings couldn’t help but be slightly consumed by their thoughts. Could they really be this close? Was their house still the same? What about the tree that Woe used to climb? Or the polka-dot ribbon Whimsy had tied to the stair banister? Would their neighbours remember them?
Then all thoughts of home were interrupted when a great, low howl rolled through the woods.
57
In which they run for their lives
They ran. Leaping over logs, jumping over bushes and swiping branches out of their way, they tore down the side of the hill. Whimsy was the first to make it to the bottom. As she sprinted through the woods, she managed a quick look over her shoulder. Woe and Markus were right behind her. And behind them, loping down the hill in long effortless strides was a big grey wolf. She would have screamed if she wasn’t so focused on putting one leg in front of the other as fast as she could.
When Whimsy had said she saw a pair of yellow eyes, Woe thought she must have been imagining things, like the time she thought she saw the ghostly maid from Grave Mistake waving to her from outside her bedroom window. Now the yellow eyes she had most definitely seen were glued hungrily to his back. He tried to pay attention to the obstacles in his path as he sprinted as fast as he could between the trees, and not pay any attention to the scraping of claws against rock he could hear as the wolf bounded closer and closer to them.
Ahead they could see the end of the woods but it was still too far away with a wild animal on their heels. They pushed forward, hoping that their legs could get them to the tree line before the wolf got to their legs first.
Then suddenly there was a yelp and a thud. Whimsy and Woe looked back to see Markus on the ground clutching at his ankle. They stopped running. In seconds, the wolf was upon him. Before Whimsy and Woe could react, the wolf pounced with its teeth bared. Swiftly, Markus turned and held his stick out in two hands, jamming it lengthwise between the wolf’s teeth.
Woe knew they had to do something. Markus’s stick wouldn’t last long between the wolf’s razor-sharp teeth. He frantically glanced around them and spotted a handful of rocks near a tree. He picked them up and threw them at the wolf. Whimsy followed her brother’s lead. But the wolf wasn’t budging from Markus’s stick. He growled and pawed at the ground as Markus gripped the stick so tightly his knuckles went white. From the strained look on their friend’s face, it didn’t look like Markus could wrestle the strong animal for much longer. Then Woe remembered that Bertie Potts once came face to face with a bear on one of his adventurous alpine missions. Immediately, he copied Bertie’s stance. Making himself tall, Woe stood on his toes and raised his arms over his head. The wolf looked at Woe warily out of the corner of its eye. Then Woe took a deep breath and shakily walked towards the wolf taking large steps.
‘Woe,’ Whimsy whispered firmly. She wasn’t close enough to pull him back. Why was he getting so close? And bigger? He looked like one of the clowns that were accidentally inflated with a water cannon in Three Laughs Four Tea. Her brother started to make loud barking noises. He was trying to get the wolf’s attention. Whimsy saw the wolf let go of Markus’s stick. It was working! Woe continued advancing towards it. He made louder and louder noises and started waving his arms up and down. The wolf now turned its full attention to Woe. It took a snarling step towards him, challenging him. Whimsy tried to stay calm. She remembered what she had learnt at school. Wolves travelled in packs. Maybe if the wolf thought they were a pack it would leave them alone? She had to face her fear. She had to do something or Woe might not succeed. Quickly, Whimsy copied her brother. Taking large steps, she walked towards the wolf, squawking like a bird, her arms raised high. The wolf backed up, uncertain. It looked between Whimsy and Woe. They continued to advance towards it so that they were now between the wolf and Markus. Then with a small snarl, the wolf turned around and ran back the way it had come, up the sloping green hill.
Danger in the woods
Whimsy and Woe stood there for a moment, watching the grey bushy tail of the wolf disappear into the woods. Then they looked at each other, astonished. They had done it! Whimsy couldn’t believe it.
‘That,’ said Markus, now splayed out on the ground with his weary arms either side of him, ‘was brilliant.’
‘We better hurry,’ said Whimsy. ‘Wolves travel in packs.’
They helped Markus to his feet. When he struggled to put weight on his right foot, Woe looked at his ankle. It had already started to turn purple. With an arm over each shoulder, Woe and Whimsy helped Markus hobble through the rest of the woods. Whimsy kept an eye out, looking behind them every now and then, just in case the wolf decided to come back.
Once out of the woods, the trio walked through a large valley. They tried not to think about their rumbling stomachs. In the race to get away from the wolf, Markus had dropped the
berries he had found. Whimsy and Woe had dropped their sticks too but Markus still held onto his. Using it as a crutch instead of the siblings’ shoulders, he hobbled along slowly. Above them, the once clear sky had started to darken with heavy clouds.
Whimsy couldn’t help the nervous flutter that rose in her stomach as they marched closer towards Littlegate. Somewhere, amongst the cluster of houses ahead, nestled in a quiet cul-de-sac, sat their home. Home.
58
In which Whimsy and Woe finally go home
Woe looked at his pocket watch. At their slower-than-walking pace, he didn’t think they would make it to Whitby City in time. Markus said the gates closed at seven o’clock. He wanted to hurry them along but Markus winced with every step.
‘It’s half-past two,’ said Woe.
‘We can make it,’ said Markus confidently.
Whimsy looked at her brother. They both knew that with Markus’s ankle in the shape it was in their pace was too slow.
‘Should we stop?’ Whimsy asked. ‘Maybe rest your ankle?’
Markus shook his head, adamant that he could carry on.
As they walked, Whimsy’s mind stayed on their home and the thought of seeing it once again kept pulling at her more and more.
When they finally reached Littlegate, their pace had slowed even further. Houses of all different shapes and sizes made of stone and wood stood in neat lines. There were oddly no people around. The three of them continued through Littlegate until they came to a street. Whimsy and Woe stopped. It was their street. It looked exactly the same as when they’d left.
Whimsy looked at her brother. She tried to show him that they needed to see their home. They wouldn’t be long at all. They had come so far. They couldn’t just walk past it. Could they?
Woe knew what his sister was thinking and what she was feeling. He had been thinking and feeling the same things. But if they stopped, they wouldn’t reach Whitby City in time.
Markus looked questioningly down the street.
‘Our home is just down there,’ Woe explained.
Markus nodded. ‘How long has it been?’
‘Three years,’ Whimsy said. She could just see the roof from where she was if she stood on her toes.
‘Maybe we should stop,’ Markus said.
Whimsy let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
‘But the gates . . .’ said Woe weakly. They wouldn’t reach Whitby City in time.
‘It would only be a small detour,’ said Markus. ‘We have time.’
‘There could be clothes,’ said Whimsy to her brother, smelling her dress. Even though their clothes had been washed in the pool and dried as they walked through the woods, the damp swamp smell still remained.
‘And there could be food,’ said Markus.
Woe’s stomach gurgled at the thought of food. None of them had eaten in a while. And the sludge milk had left a gaping hole in his stomach. He wanted to see their home too. Woe pushed aside all thoughts of Whitby City and said, ‘Let’s go home.’ The words sounded strange to his ears. Let’s go home.
Whimsy gave Woe a smile before taking off at a run down the street. She came to a stop only when she reached the two-storey house.
The house itself wasn’t exactly how she remembered. Boards covered the windows, the roof tiles were falling off and the front garden was overgrown. But these weren’t the things that Whimsy saw. She saw the slightly lopsided steps she used to sit on, the large trees Woe used to climb, the door that would sometimes squeak when it closed. The things that didn’t seem memorable at all at the time were everything now. In their parents’ absence, these were the things that made the stone building in front of her their home.
Home.
When Woe caught up to his sister outside their house, he was pummelled with so many memories that he didn’t even mind when the sky opened up and rain poured down on them. For the first time in three years, they were home.
59
In which they have nothing left but memories
By the time Markus had caught up to them, Whimsy and Woe had already started to climb the front steps. It was as though they walked up them in slow motion, the happy memories of their time spent at home washing over them. Whimsy imagined their mother greeting them at the door, laughing happily. Woe saw their father practising his lines as he paced along the wooden porch.
They paused outside the front door.
Woe took a deep breath. They had wanted to come back to this house for three years. But they had wanted to come back with their parents. And now they were here. And their parents weren’t.
As they stood there, a gust of wind swirled around them. To their surprise, the door heaved on its hinges and opened. Just a crack. A small plume of dust from the doorframe fell in front of them. Hadn’t anybody bothered to lock the door? wondered Whimsy.
‘Ready?’ Woe asked.
Whimsy wasn’t ready. She knew her mother wasn’t going to be behind their front door. She knew her father wasn’t going to be sitting in his chair in the lounge room reading. What were they going to find inside? For a moment she thought she heard her father’s whistling. Then she realised that it was just the wind. She couldn’t move from where she stood.
Woe looked at his sister. She was biting her lip and staring straight ahead but her eyes were far away. He could see that the happiness she had felt only moments ago had suddenly been replaced with what looked like sadness and . . . fear. Woe felt it too. Their parents weren’t here. They didn’t know what was behind their front door. So he did the only thing he could think of, he grabbed Whimsy’s hand. She turned to him and he gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Woe was glad when Whimsy returned his smile with a small, determined nod. And then with a shaky hand, she took a step forward and pushed the door.
With a creak, the door to the Mordaunt family home opened wide.
Stepping inside, Whimsy and Woe saw straight away that their house was dark and . . . empty. There was no furniture, no rugs and no paintings. The walls, ceilings and floors were bare. Apoline, Woe thought bitterly. Their aunt must have inherited their family home after their parents’ disappearance. Woe remembered how Apoline had many of their parents’ things in her room at the Idle Slug, though he didn’t expect the house to be this empty. There weren’t even any picture frames left on the walls.
‘Everything’s gone. Like my grandfather’s house,’ said Markus as he entered the house behind them.
They made their way from the hall, through the lounge room and into the kitchen. Emptiness stood where bookcases, paintings and rugs had once been. Whimsy pulled open a drawer in the kitchen and found that empty too.
‘Why would they take the cutlery?’ she angrily wondered out loud. Whimsy tried not to focus on the emptiness of the house and the missing possessions. But she couldn’t help but feel that the house was now just a shell. Without their things, she no longer felt her parents in every part of the house. She pushed the thought aside and searched through the rest of the drawers in the kitchen, hoping to find something they could use.
What could someone want with all of our family photos? wondered Woe, looking at the picture frame marks left on the walls. Even the hat rack that usually stood by the front door was missing. He opened the pantry and wasn’t surprised when he found it empty too. He was about to close the doors when a silver glint at the back of the bottom shelf caught his eye. Three lonely, bent cans of baked beans sat huddled together. He pulled them out with a grimace. He and his sister had never liked baked beans.
Whimsy ran her hand underneath the kitchen counter, hoping to find at least one thing that reminded her of their parents. Her hand grazed a familiar indentation in the wood and she smiled thankfully. When their father played the role of Marvin the woodcarver in Carvin’ Marvin, a musical about a man who carves his way into the hearts of others, he practised his woodcarving skills around the house. One day, Whimsy had found him underneath the kitchen counter with carving tools. He had carved a sma
ll love heart underneath the counter, hoping that one day their mother would find it by accident. She never did. Whimsy ran her hand over the heart and felt tears prick her eyes.
Together, Whimsy and Woe wandered through the silent and empty house. Whimsy had thought that seeing their house and remembering the time they had spent in it would make them feel better. But instead it seemed to have only made them feel worse. Without their parents and without their possessions, it was as though their family had never existed. Woe swallowed the lump that rose uncomfortably in his throat at the thought.
Perhaps coming back to their home might not have been such a good idea after all.
60
In which there is a family gathering
They sat in the empty lounge room and ate their cold baked beans. Woe had pulled off one of the boards on a window to let some light in. It was silent for a while.
‘You have a nice house,’ said Markus, trying to fill the sombre silence. His leg was propped up on a crate Woe had found in the backyard. Whimsy had wrapped his ankle tightly with strips of the kitchen window blinds and some glue she had found in a drawer. He could walk on it now without hobbling or wincing. ‘Have you lived here all your lives?’
Woe nodded. He looked over at the place where he had hidden beneath a pile of costumes on the last day they all played hide-and-seek.
‘My parents hate staying in one place,’ said Markus. ‘They say it’s boring. But I think it’s nice.’
‘Do they know where you are?’ Whimsy asked, remembering that Markus had parents somewhere who could be worried about him.
‘They think that Magnus retired. When I told them he hadn’t and I was going to look for him, they pulled out a map and began plotting their next sea voyage.’
Whimsy felt for Markus. She couldn’t imagine having parents who would prefer to sail the seas rather than spend time with their children.
Whimsy and Woe Page 17
