“I’ll use my imagination,” whispered Jack, “and festoon it with the brightest colours I can remember.”
11
Several hours had passed when Jack and Jalli were awoken by Yeka thrashing in a dream.
“Leave!” she grunted, then woke up with a start.
“It’s alright, Yeka.” Jalli cuddled her to her. “It’s a dream. It’s only a dream.”
Yeka was cold and wet with sweat. It had been a nasty dream.
“Where are the sweets, Mummy?”
“They are safe. They are here under the bed.”
“Let me look!”
“It’s OK, Yeka. No-one’s been in here.”
“I want to see!”
“Alright. I’ll get up and find them…” said Jalli, a little peeved. It was not yet time to wake up. She lowered herself from the bed and felt beneath it to where she had hidden the bag containing the sweets. “Here. They are just as we left them in the same bag under the bed. No-one has touched them.”
“I want to take them and plant them.”
“They aren’t seeds,” said Jack, sleepily. “Sweets don’t grow into trees.”
“These do.”
“Explain,” said Jalli laying a finger on Jack’s lips.
“In my dream, we were chased by horrible men – like that man who came in and shouted at us. They wanted the sweets. We ran and ran up a little lane and into a field where a farmer had dug it to put his seeds in.”
“A ploughed field. Bare soil. No grass.”
“Yes, like that. It was all brown and bare. I fell over and the man nearly catched me and the sweets came out of the bag all over the bare field. They were like treasure – all sparkly and bright.”
“What did the man do?”
“He tried to pick up the sweets but they got stuck and then started to grow. Big and sparkly trees came up. He got an axe thing and chopped down a red one, then a blue one but I shouted at him telling him to stop but he didn’t… We have to put the sweets down in the ground… properly, before he finds them. We have to take them now.”
“Yeka, it’s the middle of the night. We can’t plant anything until it is light. And we don’t know where this field is.”
“I do! I know!”
“Yes but you don’t know how to get there. We have to wait until morning. These nasty men say everyone should stay inside at night. If you go out now you will get these nice people who are looking after us into trouble.”
Yeka calmed down. She didn’t really understand. She wanted to go to the field and plant her sweets but when Mummy said something, she knew she was not going to change her mind. She looked momentarily at her daddy but an appeal to him would never work – he always backed her mummy up. She’d seen it too often.
Jalli began to sing and, before Yeka realised it, she had fallen asleep. The next thing she knew she was waking again and it was light. She climbed over her daddy and went looking for her bag. The sweets were all there.
“Daddy,” she pleaded, pulling at him to sit up. “Now. We have to plant them now!”
Jalli touched Jack’s arm. “We do need to leave these people, Jack. We are a danger to them.”
“I agree,” he said, getting to his feet. “We’ll set out in the direction of the mountains. That would look right.”
Jack and Jalli dressed quickly and got Yeka ready to go. She was extremely compliant. She knew what she wanted and where she was going.
Jalli called their hosts.
“Jodwa, Hann. We must go. We must leave you.”
Hann opened their bedroom door. “It is early. The weather is not good. I think it will rain.”
“But it is light and we do not want to be here should your police return. You have risked too much for us already.”
Hann saw that they were dressed and ready for the road. He grunted. “But you must eat before you go. Jodwa.”
Jodwa and Hann put bread and a grey/brown-coloured jam before them. Yeka took two mouthfuls and was on her feet. Jack and Jalli finished their meal but they were soon taking their leave.
Outside, they encountered an oppressive mist that didn’t allow them to see very far. Yeka, however, immediately appeared to know which way she wanted to go. Jalli thought it best not to argue with her. And anyway, at this stage, any way was good. They couldn’t see to the end of the street, let alone the direction of any mountains.
They passed along some quiet streets but all the while gained height. Eventually, they emerged from the mist and were able to see that the town was in a broad valley, and in the distance against a sky laden with slate-coloured clouds, Jalli made out the jagged shapes of snow-topped mountains.
“Beautiful,” she whispered. “Jack, I see the mountains. Out here on this hillside it is not so dull.”
“The field is up this way!” urged Yeka. Jalli and Jack had never known her quite so determined. She was beginning to show some of her sister’s impatience.
They continued up a lane that had now become a rough track as the houses became less and less frequent. Soon they were in the open countryside. The mist was lifting from the valley but the dark clouds now obscured the mountains. It began to rain.
Jack stopped. “Children,” he said. “I hear children.”
“Where?” asked Jalli. “Oh, yes. Behind us.” She looked back the way they had come and saw a group of children approaching along the lane. Then she spotted a red sweet on the path.
“Yeka, you have dropped a sweet.” She went to pick it up and then saw another – there was a trail of them every twenty metres or so the way they had come. The children had found them and were following them.
“Mahsnyeka, what have you done?!” Jalli used the crossest voice she could without shouting.
“What is it?” asked Jack, concerned.
“Our daughter has laid a trail of sweets and the children are following us – and soon, I guess, half the population of the town!”
“Yeka, that’s naughty!” exclaimed Jack, crossly.
“I have to do the dream…” Yeka sobbed.
“No. You don’t,” answered Jalli. “Jack, we’d better hide. But there’s nowhere to go apart from over the fence in among bushes. And I don’t know how I’m going to get you over quickly enough.”
“Not much point, Jalli. They’ll just look for us where the sweet trail ends… And I guess they’re nearly here. Let’s just keep going. It’s all we can do.”
They strode out as fast as Jalli dared with Jack on her arm on a rough road – which wasn’t very fast.
“Yeka, give me that bag,” commanded Jalli, as the little girl struggled over the stones. But Yeka clung on to it, forcing Jalli to stop. “I don’t know what has got into you, young lady. But this will have to end here if you ever want to go through a white gate again. This is a dangerous situation and you have no idea, have you?”
“No. She hasn’t,” said Jack. “Getting cross won’t help. She’s inherited the Smith streak of defiance from her father… We can’t outrun these kids anyway. Maybe we should just let them catch up and give them the whole bag.”
“No. It’s mine! We have to plant them… in that field.” Yeka pointed out a field some thirty metres in front to the left of the track. As Jalli let go of her to look, Yeka took off and covered the distance to a gate which she squeezed under before Jalli could do anything to stop her.
“Jack, I don’t know what’s got into her. I’ve never known her like this.”
“There’s definitely something bugging her here,” said Jack. “She knows exactly what she wants to do. It’s not really in character… Maybe we should just go with the flow.”
“No choice. She’s scattering the sweets across a harrowed field like farmers did before they had tractors.”
“When she’s finished, she’ll be different. We can carry on. At least the children will stop in the field to harvest the sweets.”
As he said this, the first of the children came running up. He spotted Yeka in the field and dived un
der the gate like she had done. As soon as Yeka saw him, she shouted at him to leave the sweets where they were.
“No, leave them!” she called.
Other children arrived and she repeated her command. “Leave! Let them grow.”
“That is when she woke up from her dream,” said Jalli. “She won’t know what comes next.”
Yeka had begun running around screaming and pushing the children off the sweets. While Jalli stood wondering what to do, the first of the adults in pursuit of their children arrived. He came puffing up the lane and stood alongside Jalli and Jack while he too watched the children scrabbling for Yeka’s plantings.
“Goks,” he commanded. “Come here! Now!”
Goks gave his father a pout but stopped hunting for sweets and quietly came back towards the gate.
“And you, too, Mags… All of you!”
He clearly had some authority. The children knew the game was up. Jack called to Yeka.
“Yeka, enough. Come back to Daddy.”
Yeka, seeing the last of the children leaving the field, obeyed without question. Her sweets were safe, her task completed.
Within minutes, a dozen adults had arrived to retrieve their children. They were soon followed by the same group of colour police that had accosted the family the previous evening.
Jack and Jalli stood together with Yeka in hand. Seeing the police, the adults began accusing the Smiths of leading their children astray. They had to make sure that none of the blame rested on them or their children.
“What is all this?” barked the officer in charge. “What is going on here?”
“This child has been scattering candy, officer,” said a mother, hastily. She lowered her head and added in a whisper, “Coloured candy.”
The officer looked across the field. He could see no sweets. To Jalli’s surprise and delight, they had all melted into the soil.
“I’m sorry, officer. My little girl has quite a vivid imagination… Somehow, she has managed to persuade these children she had some sweets,” said Jalli, with a charming smile.
“They—” began a child in protest. But his father immediately intervened. “Our children, officer, are not used to lies. I’m sorry; they must have believed this naughty girl from across the mountains.”
Some of the children were getting restless. “May we take our children home, officer?” said a mother in a trembly voice. “They have never behaved like this before… We need to teach them not to follow and listen to strangers in future.”
The officer ignored her and turned to the Smiths.
“So, if you are going home to your place beyond the mountains, why are you on this track? You are on the wrong side of the valley.”
“Are we?” said Jack. “I’m afraid I can’t see and my wife and daughter cannot read the directions.”
“Sorry,” said Jalli. “I just thought that if we came up here I could see which way to go. It was foggy in the town. Everything looked the same.”
As she spoke a shaft of sunlight came through the clouds and, at the same moment, the mountains reappeared from behind the dark-grey clouds. A rainbow appeared, growing brighter and brighter as they watched.
“Look,” said Yeka. “Wainbow! Red and orange and yellow and green and blue and indigo and violet!”
“So, she knows her colours,” declared the officer in an accusatory tone.
Jalli felt emboldened. They had run far enough. The rainbow reminded her of the presence of a loving Creator who had infinitely more power than these policemen. She also remembered that they were in this place because of Him. And the sweets had never belonged to Yeka – they had been a gift from Him at the white gate they had used. The sweets were His.
“Yes, my daughter knows her colours,” answered Jalli. “She also knows who created them. You see, officer, you can demand that people live in a grey town but you can’t paint the whole universe grey. It is vibrant with colour.” She turned and looked at the field in which Yeka had scattered the sweets. In the sunlight it was now full of wild flowers – yellow, red, pink and blue.
“Mummy, Mummy! They growed… I said they would.”
“Yes, Yeka. You were right.” On some of the trees beyond the field there was pink and white blossom, and the leaves were many shades of green. “The Creator rejoices in colour,” she added defiantly.
“I may no longer see them,” concurred Jack, “but I hear and sense them. A coloured world is a free world. If I may say so, you are living in a false world. You may be able to control people but you cannot control nature.”
“Look, Mummy. Bee!” Yeka had spotted a bright yellow bee buzzing from flower to flower. “Mummy likes bees,” she told the policeman. “Bees make flowers happy.”
“They do indeed,” agreed her father. “So, officer, are you going to arrest us for admiring the God-given wonders of nature?”
“I could arrest you for conspiring to cause a disturbance.”
“But, officer,” protested Jalli, gently, “we have done nothing but attempt to leave. The rainbow, the flowers, the bees and the trees are not of our making.”
“… and the mountains and the sunshine,” enthused Yeka, “and…” she was going to add, “the sweets” but they had quite vanished. “And… and…” she played for time, not wishing to finish without a proper ending. Then she spotted something, then another. Iridescent blue butterflies had flown in from the edge of a red, brown and green wood. “But… but-flies!” she added, triumphantly.
The officer looked where she was pointing. Then something happened to him. He stood transfixed as he watched the brilliant blue insects flit from flower to flower. His men followed his gaze, then the adults and finally the children.
“What is it?” said the little boy called Goks.
“A butterfly,” said his father.
“They’re so pretty,” said the little girl, Mags.
“God makes them,” declared Yeka, decisively. “She makes everything. She makes things nice.”
Jack gave her a squeeze.
The officer pulled himself together.
“Well, since you are leaving, I think we shall take no further action.”
Jack became aware of a sensation in his brain that he knew well. “I think you will find there is a white gate up this way a little,” he said to Jalli, raising his arm.
“Yes,” said Jalli. “In the lane about thirty metres ahead of us… It has just appeared.”
“White gate?” mused the officer. “What miracle have you now?”
“You will not see it,” said Jack, “unless you are called to come with us.”
“There tis!” said Yeka. “Twistmas! Twistmas tree!” She began to pull at her parents’ arms.
“Thank you, officer,” said Jack. “I hope we have not caused too much unwanted disturbance… We have not brought unwanted colour to your world; it has been here a long time. You have a beautiful place; I can hear it sing… We shall be on our way.”
“Oh, yes,” said the officer, distractedly. One of his men had just seen another butterfly settle on a bush right in front of him and had bent down to examine it. “You are free to go.” He dismissed them and turned his attention to the field which was now a sea of colour.
“Thank you,” said Jalli. “Goodbye, everyone.” She waved. “Wave to the people, Yeka.” Yeka waved and they stumbled off up the track towards the gate. When they reached it, Jalli looked back but the people were not watching them. They were engrossed in other colourful wonders they had just become aware of. Yeka bounced through the gate and Jalli held it for her husband. They were back in the garden of White Gates Cottage and by the time Jack had gathered his thoughts, Yeka was already telling Shaun all about their adventures.
“I was going to have a talk with her when we got here,” said Jalli. “She was very defiant this morning. I don’t like that.”
“I agree. She was quite naughty but she was so sure of what she needed to do. So determined. It may not happen again but if it does, I think we
must tell her she must try and explain to us the reason she feels she wants to do her own thing.”
“You don’t think we should say anything now?”
“Not unless she appears proud of her defiance in her telling of the story. I don’t think she was aware of being naughty. Let her delight in her triumph. I think the Creator used her today.”
“That’s true,” said Jalli with a sigh, allowing her concern to evaporate. “I am so glad I don’t have to live in that world.”
“It is a beautiful world and I think a few more of the people who live there have discovered that, due to Yeka. You never know, if we get to go again, things might have changed – it could be full of Twistmas trees!”
Jalli smiled. “It may just be.”
***
Christmas was certainly catching on on Joh. Pastor Ruk was introduced to the Christmas tree in White Gates Cottage by Yeka. She had insisted he call round to see it.
“Do you have these in your places of worship on Planet Earth?” he asked Matilda.
“We certainly do, inside and out. Back in Persham, some Christmases they have Christmas tree festivals. St Augustine’s was packed with fifty trees one year – all decorated by local organisations. The church looked beautiful and hundreds of people came to see them.”
Ruk listened intently. He could see many benefits from doing something that brought people together.
“Perhaps we could do something similar here?” he said.
“It’s a lot of hard work, mind you,” said Matilda, aware of the amount of time some people put into it all.
“But it would be beautiful. And it will bring people together,” said Ruk. “Perhaps next year. I will need you to help, though.”
“Yes. I guessed you might say that,” smiled Matilda. “Should have kept my mouth shut. But I think that if I were still in Persham I would be involved, so I’ll do it. Perhaps, if she is around, Abby could help, too. The best thing would be if the Rev Dave could come.”
“I would love to meet him,” enthused Ruk. “I am praying that he and I can make contact some day.”
The Spark (White Gates Adventures Book 4) Page 12
