by Tim Hehir
Where’s grandfather, Higgins?
As his mind began to churn, there was a knock at the door.
‘We’re closed,’ said Julius, without moving.
The knocking persisted.
Julius spun around and shouted through the frosted glass. ‘I said, we’re closed.’
‘Oi, ’iggins,’ came the reply. ‘Let me in.’
It was Emily.
‘What do you want?’ he said, recalling her murderous expression in the kitchen the day before.
‘To come in. It’s freezing out ’ere.’
He looked at her outline through the frosted glass. A sudden rush of resentment made him want to shout at her to go away and never come back. Immediately he felt ashamed of himself.
If Mr Flynn wants a daughter why shouldn’t he have one, Higgins?
He tried to push the feelings down.
‘I’m busy,’ he said. ‘Come back later.’
‘Let me in, ’iggins. You want me to get frostbite?’
Julius leaned his forehead on the frosted glass and closed his eyes. He missed liking Emily. He sighed and opened the door.
Emily stood there in her bonnet and fur-lined cap. Her purse hung from her wrist. She smiled. ‘’ello, ’iggins.’
‘Hello.’
She walked in without being asked and stood at the counter like a customer. ‘Wot’s wrong? You get no sleep? You look terrible.’
‘Thank you,’ said Julius.
‘’ow did everyfing go yesterday?’ she said.
Julius bolted the door. ‘We found the two bruisers’ hideout. Mr Flynn knows them, They’re Rapple and Baines.’
‘And? Wot ’appened?’
‘Tock was there. There were rats in cages, and orchids. Like the one Tock gave us. They’re called soulcatchers, and there was a large metal thing,’ said Julius.
‘Ace. Start talking,’ said Emily. ‘Why’s it called a soulcatcher?’
‘Darwin said the native people believed it trapped their souls.’
‘How?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Julius. ‘I’m sorry about Mr Flynn finding out about you stealing the diary. He guessed. But I told him that you were available.’
‘Ace,’ said Emily. ‘Wot did ’e say?’
Julius remembered the drawing of the native girl.
‘Wot’s wrong, ’iggins?’ said Emily.
‘Er, nothing,’ said Julius. Tock was looking for her. She seemed so small. What if Baines had cut her hand off ? What else might they do to her?
‘You look like you’ve seen a debt collector, ’iggins.’
‘No. It’s nothing. I was just…’ Julius shook his thoughts away. ‘You’re not vexed with me then?’
‘Vexed? Me? No. Well, maybe a bit,’ said Emily. ‘Clara says it’s best to be agreeable to people. She says you gets more from the world if you’re civil to it than if you knock it on the ’ead wiv a pickaxe handle. So I’m giving it a try. I’m not promising naffing, mind.’
‘No,’ said Julius. ‘Of course not.’
‘Clara’s ace,’ said Emily, ignoring Julius’s sarcasm. ‘If I could pick someone to be my ma I reckon I’d pick ’er.’
Julius felt a quiver of anger arising.
You’ve got a brand new father, isn’t that enough?
He walked into the parlour and fell into his chair. Emily followed. She looked around and sniffed.
‘Not bad,’ she said. ‘Could do wiv a woman’s touch.’
Julius considered putting a few coals on the fire, but he was too tired to move.
‘You made an impression on ’er,’ said Emily.
‘On who?’
‘On Clara. She was asking all about you. Me and ’er spent the ’ole bleeding day scrubbing that bleeding kitchen. Look at my ’ands now, red raw. That’s slave labour, that is. I’m only a little girl. I’ve a good mind to report—Oi, ’iggins, try and stay awake when I’m talking to you.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t get much sleep last night. And grandfather’s gone somewhere so I was working in the shop all morning.’
‘Where’s ’e gone?’
‘I don’t know.’
Julius looked at the dying fire. He clutched the pocketwatch to stem the fear rising up inside him.
Where is he, Higgins? What has Tock done?
He winced when he thought of Tock smashing Abigail’s creature.
‘Wot’s that?’ said Emily. She sat on the arm on his chair.
‘What?’ Julius looked at his hand. He was holding the pocketwatch.
‘That’s the one the professor used, ain’t it, ’iggins,’ she said. ‘The one to get the Watchmakers.’
‘Er…yes, it is,’ said Julius.
He noticed Harrison’s diary half hidden down the side of the chair. He tried to recall how he came to have the pocketwatch in his hand. Then he remembered.
You stole it, Higgins.
‘Wot’s wrong, ’iggins? You all right?’ said Emily.
‘Me? Yes. I’m fine.’
How could you be so stupid?
He pictured himself handing the key back to Mr Flynn.
Emily could pick Mr Flynn’s pocket. She’d do it if you asked her, Higgins. Then you could put it back.
‘Wot’s wrong, ’iggins?’
We could put the pocketwatch back and Mr Flynn would never know. Emily could put the key back in his pocket.
‘Nothing’s wrong.’
‘Don’t look like it to me,’ said Emily. ‘Are you in trouble, ’iggins?’
‘Tock was here last night, in the shop.’
‘Wot did ’e want?’
‘He wanted to know who had the orchid.’
‘You didn’t tell ’im did you?’
‘No. He was here earlier, too. Apparently grandfather told him he gave it to a customer.’
‘Good old Mr ’iggins. I knew ’e wouldn’t shop me,’ said Emily. ‘So where’s Mr ’iggins?’
‘That’s just it. I don’t know.’
Julius held up the pocketwatch. Its presence reassured him. It was almost like having Mr Flynn in the parlour with them. The tick-tock tickled the palm of his hand. Julius concentrated for a moment. Was the ticking growing stronger?
He picked up Harrison’s diary and flicked through it, but he put it aside again and sighed.
You’ll be studying that for years before you understand anything, Higgins.
‘Anyway, ’iggins,’ said Emily. ‘You don’t ’ave no ma, do you?’
‘No. She died when I was born.’
‘Cos I was finking…’
‘Thinking what?’
‘Wot if she wasn’t, you know…dead?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Oh, ’iggins,’ said Emily, with exasperation. ‘It’s as plain as the snot up your nose.’
‘What is?’
‘That Clara’s your ma. She even looks like you, in the right light.’
‘That’s nonsense.’
‘Suit yourself.’
Julius looked at the watch face. It seemed to glow slightly.
‘Did you see that?’ he said.
‘See wot?’
‘Nothing.’
Julius stared at the pocketwatch, willing it to glow again. Something shifted. He could feel cogs and wheels interlocking in his mind. For just a moment he imagined he understood the whole mechanism all at once, in a way that words could never explain.
‘’iggins?’ said Emily.
The pocketwatch jolted and rose above his hand. It hung bobbing in the air an inch above his palm.
Emily’s eyes widened. ‘Did you do that, ’iggins?’
‘I think so. I’m not really sure.’
‘Make it do somefing else.’
Julius let all his thoughts fall away. He wanted to be aware of only the pocketwatch, nothing else.
The watch face opened into concentric circles.
‘Cor,’ said Emily.
Then the watch expanded into the shape of a cone an
d the inner workings were in plain view. The interlocking cogs and wheels were spinning smoothly, not in the usual stop-start motion of a watch. The pocketwatch rose higher above Julius’s hand and the underside stretched down into a cone too. The ticktock was replaced by a myriad of ticks and clicks that sounded like a swarm of crickets having a discussion.
Julius drew his fingers up and the pocketwatch rose up too. Without touching it he gently moved his fingertips as if to spin a top.
The pocketwatch began to spin.
‘Cor. That’s amazing, ’iggins,’ said Emily. ‘Wot else can it do?’
Emily didn’t know about the time-travel capabilities of the pocketwatch. She knew it could be used to summon the Guild of Watchmakers—she had seen the professor do it. But when Julius had told her he had time-travelled, Springheel was holding a blade to her throat. Had she been paying attention?
‘It can travel through time,’ said Julius.
‘Frough wot?’
‘Through time.’
‘Wot do you mean, ’iggins?’
‘It’s difficult to explain.’
Deep inside the mechanism Julius saw a point of blue light. It grew steadily and shone out from the pocketwatch. Suddenly the cogs and wheels were spinning faster. The clicking and ticking grew louder, and turned into a polyrhythm. Soon the wheels were spinning too fast to see.
Emily grasped Julius’s shoulder. ‘Wot’s ’appening?’
‘I think it wants to take us back in time,’ said Julius.
‘Where?’
‘I’m not sure,’ said Julius, ‘But Darwin wrote that he was indebted to two children.’
‘So?’ said Emily.
‘I think the children might be us,’ said Julius.’ He grabbed her hand and shifted in his chair to face her. ‘Whatever happens, don’t panic.’
‘Wot?’
‘And bend your knees when you land.’
‘Land where?’
‘We’ll know when we get there.’
Julius tapped the side of the pocketwatch and clasped Emily’s other hand.
Everything went black and silent.
The next thing Julius knew he was tumbling through space.
Ha, ha. You did it, Higgins.
In front of him was the pocketwatch, as huge as London. The mechanism stretched up like a mountain. The massive wheels and cogs moved so slowly that it took hours for each second to pass. With each tick, the universe quaked silently around him.
Both Julius’s arms were stretched out hundreds of miles on either side, but he could see Emily’s hand in his, as clearly as if it was next to him. He couldn’t see Emily, though. She was floating on the other side of the gigantic pocketwatch, which flew through the eye of a galaxy faster than it took to sneeze.
You did it, Higgins.
They careered through galaxy after galaxy for what seemed like an eternity and a minute all at once.
Then everything went black again.
CHAPTER 10
Friday June 29th 1832
1:35 PM
Julius hit the ground and rolled over. All at once he knew he wasn’t in London. Strange cries like whoops and whistles filled his ears. The air against his skin was warm and moist. Dancing points of bright light shone down around him. He snapped his eyes shut but the light burned inside his eyeballs.
Someone fell through foliage and swore.
‘Wot the bleeding ’ell just ’appened, ’iggins?’ she said.
Well done, Higgins. All accounted for.
‘It’s all right, Emily,’ said Julius. ‘We’ve travelled through time.’
He blinked his eyes to accustom them to the light. Tints of brown and green swam before him. The shapes resolved into large leaves at the base of a tree. The whoops and whistles in his ears clarified too.
It’s monkeys and birds, Higgins. Just like at the zoo.
An arm’s length away the pocketwatch spun in the air. Julius held out his hand and it flew to him. He clasped it and put into his pocket. Then he realised he was wearing only a pair of tatty shorts and a ragged shirt with its sleeves torn off.
He looked around. He was in a forest, but not like any forest in England. The air was so warm it tickled his skin. The trees were unlike any he had seen before. They towered above him, forming a ceiling of shifting patterns. He understood the dancing light now—it was speckles of sunlight falling through the ever-changing leafy roof of the forest.
‘Cor,’ said a voice nearby.
Julius turned to see a very pretty native girl step out of a clump of giant leaves. She was barefooted and wore a tatty smock. Her black hair fell over her shoulders and her skin was the colour of copper.
It’s the girl from the diary, Higgins.
‘Oi. Who are you?’ she said to Julius.
‘Julius Higgins,’ he said.
‘No you ain’t,’ said the native girl. ‘Wot ’ave you done wiv ’im?’
That’s it, Higgins. The pocketwatch has made new forest versions of us.
‘It’s all right, Emily. It is me, I promise.’
The girl eyed him suspiciously.
‘The pocketwatch did it,’ said Julius.
‘Did wot?’
‘It sent our atoms back to the parlour at home and took our consciousnesses travelling through time and space. Then it landed us here—wherever that is—and wrapped the atoms of the forest around our minds to make local versions of us.’
The girl stared at Julius. Her eyes were darker, but the right shape, and her nose had that upturned end.
She stroked her arm. ‘I’ve gone all brown.’ She looked Julius up and down. ‘’ave we travelled frough time?’
Julius nodded.
‘And frough space?’
Julius nodded again.
‘And landed ’ere?’
‘Yes. It looks that way,’ said Julius.
Emily smiled. ‘This is ace, ’iggins. You’ve done a good job.’
‘You’re pleased then?’
‘Not ’arf. Is this what Mr Flynn and the professor do? Time-jumping about ’ere and there whenever they feel like it?’
‘Something like that,’ said Julius. ‘They do it sparingly, I think, and it’s usually in pursuit of time-criminals.’
‘Yeah, yeah, wot ever,’ said Emily, looking up at the leafy forest canopy. ‘Wot ’appens now?’
‘The pocketwatch brought me, I mean us, here for a reason,’ said Julius. ‘I’m sure of it. We’ve already been here—in the past, I mean. There is a drawing of you and me looking like this in the diary. I didn’t understand at the time, but I think I do now. We did something to help Darwin. Something so wonderful that he said he’d be forever in our debt.’
‘So we’re in the past, right now?’ said Emily, ‘to do somefing we did years ago?’
‘Yes.’
‘But, ’ow will we know what that fing was?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Julius.
Emily patted the nearest tree and looked up. ‘Big, ain’t they,’ she said. ‘We should ’ave a look round, ’iggins. See wot’s wot.’
‘I think that’s a path,’ said Julius. He pointed along a worn strip of dirt winding along the forest floor.
‘It goes that way too,’ Emily said, looking in the other direction. She twitched her nose as she considered. ‘This way,’ she said, and set off.
‘Why this way?’ said Julius.
‘Why not, ’iggins?’
A few hundred yards along the path the trees began to thin. Up ahead the sunshine poured down like ghostly treacle.
Emily stopped suddenly. Julius bumped into her.
‘What is it?’
‘Did you ’ear that, ’iggins?’
They crouched and listened. A sound emerged through the screeches and squawks. Julius strained to make it out. It seemed out of place in the forest.
The sound grew louder. There were footsteps too. Something heavy, on two legs. And it was coming towards them. Julius peeped through the foliage. A large black
creature was ambling in their direction.
Julius was just about to grab Emily’s hand and run for it when the sound fell into place in his ears. It was a hymn—‘Abide with Me’, if he was not mistaken.
Emily’s eyebrows tensed as she recognised it too. The sounds of footsteps grew closer—the distinctive thud of boots on hardened earth. Julius peered through the bushes. The great black lumbering thing was whipping the bushes with a stick and coming closer.
Julius and Emily edged back into the forest greenery trying to make themselves invisible. A few yards away the thing broke out onto the path and strode towards them swinging its stick like a scythe.
Julius stared in disbelief.
It was an ageing clergyman with red orchids growing from each side of his mouth like tusks. He wore full black attire including a black felt hat. He was humming another hymn now. It sounded like ‘Rock of Ages’.
Julius and Emily stayed out of sight until he lumbered by.
‘Did you see ’is face, ’iggins?’
‘Yes, I did. Come on,’ said Julius.
Julius jumped out onto the path in time to see the clergyman step out of the forest and into the sunshine. The light was so bright it seemed to subsume him, turning him into a black-coated shimmer, that grew smaller and smaller as he walked away.
Julius stepped into the sunshine and shaded his eyes.
‘Don’t stop, ’iggins, we’ll lose ’im,’ Emily said.
Julius grabbed her arm and pulled her back. ‘Wait.’
Emily twisted impatiently. ‘Wot?’
Julius pointed to the ground. ‘Look. Soulcatchers.’
Small red orchids were growing up through the grass all around them. Some were only inches from their feet.
‘Do you notice something, Emily?’
‘No. Wot?’ she said, shading her eyes, too.
‘They’re all leaning towards us,’ said Julius. ‘It’s like they’re watching us.’
Julius held Emily to stop her from moving. ‘Remember the soulcatcher in the kitchen,’ he whispered.
Emily nodded. They stepped as slowly and cautiously as frightened snails into the clearing where the soulcatchers thinned out. The orchids tilted their petals, as if keeping them in sight. But none of them tried to pull itself out of the ground.
Julius breathed a little easier.
‘I fink they’re all right,’ Emily whispered.’ She gingerly approached one.
