Breakthrough

by Lynne Roberts

  Chapter 11. The Last Ball

  Arriving at the elevator, Ben closed the door and pressed the fifth button. The elevator shook and shuddered and bucked like a horse. Ben felt a fleeting sympathy for Jamie being shaken around in the pencil case as he closed his eyes. Eventually the rocking motion stopped and the elevator creaked to a halt. Tessa pushed the button to open the door then groaned aloud.

  ‘Ben, it didn’t work, we’re still here.’

  Ben opened his eyes and looked out. There was the deserted lobby and the steps with the broken railings

  ‘Why didn’t it work?’ wailed Tessa.

  ‘I don’t know’, said Ben savagely, ‘I’ll try it again.’ Ben closed the door and pushed the button. Nothing happened.

  ‘Keep trying,’ said Tessa and they took turns to push. Sam slumped against the wall while Molly and the puppy crawled around trying to catch his twitching tail.

  ‘Let’s try all the buttons together,’ suggested Ben, and he and Tessa pushed all the buttons at the same time. The elevator swayed and creaked slowly upward to open onto the long corridor.

  ‘Thank goodness’, said Tessa in relief. She and Ben gathered up Molly and the puppy and dragged Sam along the corridor. The light was dimmer than ever and the smell of cabbage was much stronger now. They reached the door and Ben tried to turn the handle. To his surprise the handle was rigid.

  ‘I can’t move it, the door is locked,’ he said to Tessa.

  ‘It can’t be locked, there’s no keyhole. The handle must be broken,’ she said in exasperation.

  They stood beside the door helplessly.

  Ben had a sudden idea.

  ‘Tessa,’ he said urgently, ‘Look at the handle. Do you think it would work?’

  ‘What do you mean – oh,’ cried Tessa. ‘Of course, it’s a golden ball.’ Raising the pencil case she brought it down on the ball with a crack. There was a flash of blue light and the corridor was plunged into darkness. The floor tipped and jerked and the whole world felt as if it was turning upside down.

  When it settled down there was a sudden silence.

  ‘Get off me,’ said Ben as he felt Tessa’s elbow in his ear.

  ‘Get off, yourself,’ replied Tessa crossly as she untangled herself from what felt like a heap of bodies. She sat blinking in the sudden light as she and Ben looked around. To their surprise they were lying on the floor of the elevator with the door to the lobby hanging open at a drunken angle. Lying across Tessa’s feet was a bewildered looking Jamie. Sam was propped against the far wall holding an excited puppy. Sam’s tail had vanished.

  ‘Ben, Molly’s gone,’ Tessa called urgently.

  ‘Gone where?’ said Ben stupidly. He recoiled as Jamie started to get to his feet. Jamie was a pale shade of green.

  ‘Man that was some elevator ride,’ he croaked. ‘I reckon I was hit on the head. I’ve had the most amazing hallucinations.’

  Sam staggered to his feet, still clutching the puppy.

  ‘Um, about this puppy,’ he stammered, ‘do you want it? I mean, can I have it if you don’t want it? I mean, I’d pay you for it if you like. How much is it?’

  ‘Um, er, nothing. It’s free, you can have it,’ Ben assured Sam. ‘Someone gave it to me and I’ve been trying to get rid of it,’ he added truthfully. With a sheepish grin Sam called ‘thanks,’ as he and Jamie left with the puppy.

  ‘Ben,’ said Tessa, ‘didn’t you hear me? I said Molly’s gone.’

  ‘What?’ Ben was feeling such relief that he took a minute to understand. ‘Where did she go?’

  ‘I don’t know, it was when we broke that ball,’ gulped Tessa. on the verge of tears. ‘She just disappeared.’

  ‘Perhaps she ended up at your place,’ suggested Ben. ‘We don’t know if she turned back to an old woman or not. Why don’t we run back to your Dad’s shop and check?’

  They ran around the corner and down Victoria Street to the Antique shop. Tessa raced inside. After a few minutes she stuck her head around the door.

  ‘She’s not here and Mum’s caught me. We have to go home now. What are we going to do?’

  ‘I’ll have another look for her,’ said Ben. He trudged back down into Spring Street and as he entered the lobby he saw two men in overalls.

  One was searching in a large metal toolbox while the other unscrewed the control panel of the elevator.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

  ‘There’s been reports of drunks and derelicts sleeping in here,’ replied the man. The council wants this repaired then locked until they decide to upgrade the offices. We should have been here Friday morning but we had an emergency job over at the hospital. At least we’ll get overtime for this lot. Run along now.’

  Ben walked slowly home.

  ‘I guess we solved most of the problems,’ he thought. ‘Jamie is the right size again and he and Sam have a puppy. And they’ve decided not to beat me up, thank goodness. But I wonder what happened to Molly?’

  As he walked up the path to his house, Ben could smell sausages cooking.

  ‘Food at last,’ he thought.

  His mother hugged him as he came into the kitchen.

  ‘Ben, I’m sorry we had to rush off this morning but we had a call about an abandoned baby. There was nowhere for her to go so we said we would look after her.’ She led him into the sitting room where a small girl beamed happily from his father’s knee.

  ‘Meet your new sister,’ said his father. ‘Poor little thing – she was left in an elevator. Aren’t some people irresponsible.’

  Ben sat down suddenly on the couch beside his father.

  ‘What’s her name’ he croaked.

  ‘Amelia Anne,’ said his mother. ‘But that’s such a mouthful we thought we’d call her Molly for short. What do you think?’

  ‘I think it’s going to be great having a little sister,’ laughed Ben as he picked Molly up and hugged her.

  Tessa looked at Ben in awe.

  ‘Wow, I bet you get an A for that,’ she said. ‘I am seriously impressed. It must have taken ages to write.’

  Ben tried to look modest.

  ‘Yeah, well you know how it rained that first week of the holidays. The TV broke and Mum kept ranting on about me helping to clean the house, so I said I had to do my assignment. Then once I got started it was so interesting I sort of kept on writing.’

  Jamie heaved an apple core out of the tree house. It bounced beside the nose of a large yellow dog stretched out asleep in the shade. The dog nosed at the apple core then sighed and closed its eyes again.

  ‘What a cheek saying you did my Maths homework for me,’ he said lazily. ‘You’re even more useless at Maths than I am. Anyway,’ he added, ‘I always get Sam to do mine. That way I know the answers will be right. I’m going to miss him when he goes off to university next year.’

  ‘Benjamin!’ His mother’s voice floated up to the treehut. ‘ Ben, come down here. I need you to look after Molly while I go to the hairdresser.’

  ‘Aw, Mum, can’t you take her with you?’ complained Ben.

  ‘No, I cannot,’ said his mother. ‘It’s only for an hour and it’s not as if I ask you very often. I’m sure Tessa and Jamie won’t mind.’

  Tessa slid down the rope with a bump to land beside Mrs Patterson.

  ‘I’ll look after Molly,’ she said eagerly, ‘she is so sweet.’

  A small golden haired girl, carrying a large yellow beach ball, tottered across the grass.

  ‘Want Ben’, she demanded.

  ‘I’ve got to go home now,’ mumbled Jamie hastily.

  ‘Oh no, you don’t,’ said Ben ‘You can jolly well stay and help me with Molly.’

  ‘I’ll pop in and get my purse then I’ll be off,’ said Ben’s mother. As she went inside there was a tinkle of tubular bells chiming a snatch of melody. The sound came closer and closer. Ben picked up Molly and thrust her into Jamie’s arms.

  ‘Race you to the ice cream van,’ he called and
ran out to the footpath. He heard Jamie’s shout from behind him.

  ‘I’m going to get you for this Ben Patterson!’