by Angela Timms
Tailor held his head in his hands. “That is really confusing! So we don’t have to do this now, we will do it later but we will have the key and the monkey now. But it is just a monkey isn’t it?”
I sighed. I was irritated that I’d forgotten about the metal but I was glad that Gadget wasn’t going to make more of it. “It is a monkey toy now, we have the key. Wait a minute.” I climbed off of my chair, glad to be able to do something and disappeared into the back of the Widgetarium. I came back a few minutes later holding an old large iron key. “There you go, one key. Now we need to give it to the monkey.”
I walked across the room holding the key and climbed up onto the chair where the monkey sat. “Ok, so what do I do now?” Gadget walked across the room and Tailor followed her but nearly fell over. “Wow, these legs are strange.”
Gadget laughed. “Take it slowly, you’ll get used to them.” Tailor staggered carefully across the room and all three of them climbed up onto the table and looked at the monkey. It was a large monkey a lot like a Barbary Ape. It sat thoughtfully on the chair looking out into space. Its hands were rested on its knees and it looked quite real. It was a well-made toy, accurately created to look like a real monkey.
Now what to do? So I took the key and put it in the monkey’s hand. Nothing happened. “Ok, that was my idea, what do we do now?”
Gadget looked at Taylor. “Well you are The Toymaker. I suppose we have to find a spirit and bind it into the monkey.”
Tailor lifted the hand of the monkey. “Shall we take it to where the door is? Do you know where the door is?” I looked at Gadget. “Yes, it is in the secret garden. Where the healing circle is. We could see if the crystals from the garden’s healing circle charge the key up at all? Shall we go and put the key in the healing circle? It has been unused for many years. Perhaps the energy has gone from it?”
Taylor picked the key up which was difficult with his floppy hands but he eventually managed to make them do something. “That sounds like a plan. Hopefully it can’t hurt so shall we try?”
Their conversation was cut short as they heard someone coming and ran back to their seats and became motionless.
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16 The three of them stepped out into the dark night, a small torch all they had to see their way. I had the torch, Gadget clung onto me and Tailor hung onto Gadget. Their magic kept them from getting muddy as they walked along the front of the house, crossed the bridge and stepped into the garden. The night was quiet other than the gentle rumble of the troll sleeping under the bridge and the babbling of the brook and the splashing sound of the water tumbling down the small waterfall filling the evening silence.
The garden was dark. I had to find my way in the bubble of light shed by the small torch. But, I do know the garden very well and I stopped beside the healing circle as I knew where it was. The other two stepped beside me and the three of us stood beside the crystals set out in a circle illuminated by the small dome of light.
Tailor took the key and laid it in the middle of the pile of crystals. It glowed and they all jumped back, nearly falling over as the crystals began to glow as well. They glowed brighter and brighter until the crystals dulled, leaving the key glowing.
Tailor reached out to pick it up but I caught his hand. “Be careful, that is glowing red, that could be hot. Hot is bad. Remember, you are a puppet now. You will burn.”
Tailor grabbed for a stick that was just poking into their circle of light. He held it out in front of him and pushed the key with it. It sparked into flame and he dropped it onto the crystals where it burnt out, turned to ash and the ash blew away. “Yes, that is hot. I think we had better wait a little while.”
They sat on the bank and watched the key as it gradually lost its glow. Finally it was back to its rusty metal colour so Tailor tried again. He touched it with a stick and nothing happened. He picked it up with the stick and nothing happened. So he reached out and took it off of the stick. It was warm but no longer hot. “Well, it looks like something has happened. What do we do now?”
I didn’t know. “We might have the key but we don’t have the monkey. Do you think I should go and get him?”
Tailor looked at the key. Well if the monkey is going to be the Key Master I would think that the monkey should be here.” I took the torch and left the two of them standing in the dark in the small garden. It was very dark and very scary even though it was a warm and loving place during the day. I suppose that being two small puppets out in the dark was enough to make anyone afraid.
I had left but those who were left behind heard a loud crack behind them which made them both jump. The garden was illuminated by a bright orange light. They grabbed onto each other and both of them screamed in unison. They looked at each other in the dim orange glow and turned around very slowly. Very, very slowly as they really didn’t want to see what was behind them.
But, what was behind them was them. They were looking at themselves looking at themselves except that Widget was there too, looking at them though they didn’t have a Widget to look back.
Tailor the second held his hand up. “Don’t panic, we are you and you are we. We have the monkey here and the key, the key from the future, you have the key from the past and you have the monkey from the past.
clxvii I ran back across the bridge carrying the monkey, using the orange light though gripping my tiny torch for grim death. I saw the three standing facing the two and I saw that the three also had a monkey but their monkey had a key around its neck. I ran and stood next to my friends and they looked at themselves in shock.
The other one of me smiled. “It has worked so far and it will work and we will very soon remember this. We have taken the working travelling device and gone into the future after the gateway is open. We have gone through and asked what we did to open it and the answer was that we had to bring a monkey from the past and a key from the past. We had to have a monkey from the future and a key from the future. We have to have a working gateway and all these things. If we bring them together on top of the gateway the Paradox Wave will trigger the lock and the gateway will open. The first spirit to be released is the one guarding the gateway. The one that keeps it shut, the Key Keeper. That spirit must be put into the Monkey or it will kill any it meets and will put itself back in the gateway to keep it shut. We don’t have much time. Let’s do it.”
Gadget took the monkey off of me and Gadget the second who was carrying their monkey walked together to the gateway. It was partially buried again under the leaf mold but it was clear to see. They stood either side of it and put both monkeys and both keys down.
A white light and a burst of energy knocked them all off of their feet. There were sparks and a loud explosion which echoed around the valley. Windows rattled as if they would break. But they did not break so insurance claims were not necessary.
Then there was an eerie silence and Tailor stepped forwards. “Well this is the first time I’ve done this. I just hope I can.” Out of the gateway came a bright white light. It rose up to nearly eight foot tall and it wavered in the still night air. It reached out towards the six puppets who were standing together shaking. It reached out towards Tailor who held his hand out and closed his eyes. He was literally shaking in his shoes as the white light touched his fingers. As he felt the energy was warm and not going to kill him
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he opened his eyes again. He felt the power of the gatekeeper, huge protective power which he knew could kill him on a moment.
He looked from face to face. He looked at the two monkeys. “Which monkey do I put it in?”
I took a step forwards but I really didn’t want to. Tailor felt the energy reach out towards me. “Stay where you are. Don’t move or it will get you. I can’t hold it forever so think about this and let me have an answer quickly. Which monkey? Past or future?”
Gadget looked around in horror. “I would say past. If you put it in the past one it will be there for the future one.”
I smiled. G
adget is of course the bright one. “Well thought out Gadget, that makes sense. Go on Tailor, put it in the past one.”
Tailor looked at Tailor two. “What did we do?” Tailor two laughed nervously. “You haven’t done it yet. When you do I will know. I don’t know yet as you haven’t set that future.” Tailor reached out to Monkey one and the spirit disappeared into the monkey like water into a sponge. It was gone and all was quiet.
17 In the darkness of London bombs were falling. The whistling sound and loud explosions, falling masonry and breaking glass, dust filled the air, choking and billowing into what was left of every house that had been blown to bits. Wood splintered and masonry fell. Treasured possessions fell in the mud and rubble. Fire raged through everything that it touched as people ran for cover. Somewhere beneath a house which had collapsed a family huddled under the kitchen table.
In the darkness and rubble a monkey lay on the floor on what was precariously left of the upper floor of a house. The fire raged around him as the houses around burnt and it got closer and closer. He was only fur but he was loved. He knew he was loved. He had been with his little miss for a few years, looking after her, caring for her. But how did he know that? He had never known that? He hadn’t known anything before. Not until now. Now he could feel. And it was horrible. He was dusty and he was wet. Water thrown to put the flames out had made everything wet, other than where the flames had evaporated the water. He was now wet and dirty. He looked down, how could she love him now? The fire got closer and he could feel its heat.
How could he feel? He had never felt before, he had never thought before. Where was his little miss? Where had she gone? Why wasn’t he with her?
clxx He heard voices, men were coming. Men were climbing over the rubble that had once been homes, pulling out the living. But one man wasn’t helping. He was helping himself. He was taking the treasured possessions of those who had been bombed out and he was putting them in his pocket. He got closer and closer. He got to miss’ house and he came upstairs. There was no wall so monkey could see the room next door. The man reached for little miss’ mother’s treasures and put them in his pocket. He then reached out for monkey and monkey didn’t like it.
Monkey screamed. The man screamed, lost his balance and fell out of the hole in the wall and disappeared down into the flames of the house burning next door. He screamed and then all was silence.
Monkey was gone, he disappeared. He was no longer miss’ monkey, he was something else. He was swept up by a bolt of energy which took him from that house, that rubble.
He had shut his eyes and when he opened them he was in the arms of someone quite different. She was tall and white, glowing white, long white dress, long white hair. She stroked his fur. “Don’t worry little one, you are safe. You have a new life now, you are the Key Master. Let me show you something.”
Monkey was spinning through something bright and then he wasn’t. He was still with the woman but he could see his little miss. She was looking for him in the rubble and she was sad. She was crying. She wanted her monkey. He was sad too.
Monkey was spinning again and then the spinning stopped and he saw his little miss as an old lady. She sat on her chair and was unwrapping her present. Her face still as kind and she smiled in wonder as the paper was pulled from a monkey very like him. She hugged it and she remembered her monkey she had lost all those years ago. She had a monkey again. She now monkey again to keep her company when everyone else was gone. She had a monkey to sit on her chair and be with her on dark nights, cold nights, happy nights and sad.
The white haired woman put the old monkey into the space where the new monkey was and the two became one. “You were that monkey again and you were with her all those years. Now you have a new little miss and you have new friends. The wrong done to her when you were taken had enough power for you to become the monkey again. Now you are the Keymaster. My Keymaster, Mon Keymaster. Go, be with them. They need your help.”
Monkey opened his eyes and he was in a garden. His body was a little different but the same. He was the monkey now that his little miss had been given. He was clean, he was dry and he could smell the loamy soil of woodland, the specific scent of pine needles and the distinctive smell of cordite, explosions but no rubble and he knew he was somewhere else.
One by one Gadget two, Widget two and Tailor two, their monkey and key disappeared and Gadget, myself and Tailor stood there on our own with our monkey and key. And there was silence other than a very spooky creaking sound of a large wooden door opening.
Tailor looked at the drain cover. It looked different to him now. It was as if there was a ghostly door standing over it. “Can you see that? Can you see that huge wooden door?”
We couldn’t see anything other than the three of us standing in the light given off by the torch. Tailor was staring intently at something we clearly could not see. I saw it later in a dream so that is how I know what it looked like.
The monkey turned his head and looked from one to the other. “Only we can see it Toymaker. You have to see it so that you can bring our people through when I open the door for you. That is my job now, I am The Keymaster.”
They walked back to the house in silence after The Keymaster had closed the door. They went back to the Widgetarium and back to their seats and monkey went back to her seat across the room.
Quite a day but it was wonderful to be back sitting in our room and all together. “Well now we have a monkey friend as well.”
clxxii Monkey waved from his chair the other side of the room. “How do I get to come and sit with you? I don’t like being over here on my own and how do we explain the key on the table? Surely the humans are going to see it.”
I waved back. “They understand things like that. Hopefully they will solve the problem for us.” Angel came into the room at that point so they silenced and became immobile. She looked at the key on the table in front of the monkey and smiled. She walked upstairs and brought down a long string of glass beads and looped them around the key and put it around the monkey’s neck. She then went into the kitchen diner and found the stool which had been made for her grandfather and moved the puppets around so that she could fit the stool in with them. She then moved the monkey with the key and put it into the Widgetarium with the others. “There, that tidies things up a bit.” She smiled and went off to tidy something else up.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Well there you go. That was easy. So what are you going to be called? We can’t call you Keymaster or Monkey?”
The monkey smiled. “I have no idea. I have never had a name. Little Miss just called me monkey. What would you call me?” Gadget thought for a moment. “How about Keyton?”
Keyton smiled. “I like that name. I will happily be called Keyton.” Now we have to have a way forward. We’ve got The Toymaker and the Keymaster with us. I’m sure that The Weaver of Dreams will send us information as to what to do next but what can we do from where we are? We are in the middle of Wales and that could prove a problem. Through our writing perhaps? I don’t know.
Last night The Toymaker told us a story from his book. It was a lovely tale about a little girl who didn’t do what her father told her and got herself into all manner of mischief. It was such a lovely story that I wanted to put it here. He has other stories and if this one is
clxxiii popular perhaps he could have a book of his own. The Toymaker’s Tales. For now he is just happy to have his journal back and he is entertaining us with his stories on those dark nights when nothing much is happening.
This is all part of the Way Forward. This magnificent thing that we and our friends are talking about. Life has to move on. It isn’t just about surviving and fighting the Goblians, we have to have a life as well.
I have heard Angel and Niall talking and I like their plans for the future, especially the plans that involve me. I agree that there has to be a plan for the future. We have a lot of goats here and these goats have to have a future too. They aren’t pets, much as they l
ive and feel like pets. They were all part of a plan to make beautiful cheese and to sell their milk. It was just the red tape that has stopped that. Also the situation that we have all been in because of Angel having to have her hip replaced, her husband leaving and her mother passing away. Now things have to move forward if we are going to survive.
I agree with Angel that this cloth body is limited if we are going to do anything at all out there. Without magic my body will get muddy. If this body gets muddy it will be ruined and practically that will be a disaster. So, rather than let that happen, we have a new body coming for me, a travelling body. I’ll still have this soft one for the house but I am having a body for outside made. This is being made by a lovely man called Andy Rimmer and it is very exciting.
Poor Wagner had a nasty accident and he is bandaged at the moment as he has a broken leg. The cast comes off just before Christmas and if he can stand on it he will have a future with us. He will be my riding goat. He was going to be a harness goat but it wouldn’t be wise to put pressure on that leg, however good it may look. My new body is going to be more rigid so that I can sit in a saddle and so that I can be led around on his back so that we can do shows and so that we can meet visitors.
The way forward, that is going to be very exciting and I will write about this in the New Year when I can tell you more about it. clxxiv
THE PRINCESS AND THE PEACH The Toymaker’s Tales Story One
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1 Abigail is a little girl who always thought that she was a princess. Her mother always treated her like a princess. Her father treated her like a princess. She acted like a princess and that was good enough for her.
She wore beautiful dresses which her mother sewed for her. She had a pretty sparkly tiara and she would wear these every day. When she played in the garden she would wear them. When she walked down the street she would wear them so that those around her would know that she was a princess.
