by Nick Gifford
“So are you going to tell me where he’s hiding?”
Danny tore the loaf in half and put one piece on a plate. He took it with the cup of milk and nodded for Cassie to follow. He remembered Oma pushing over Luke so that he fell into the flowers and then running away like a schoolgirl. He remembered how ill she had been, but how she had recovered after Eva’s death, and taken to looking after what remained of her family, how fiercely she tried to keep things together.
Across the landing, he paused before Oma’s bedroom door, knocked with the toe of his shoe and entered.
She lay in the darkened room, her blanket pulled up to her nose. When he entered, Danny saw the briefest of flickers, as she closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.
“Hodeken?” he said gently. “We’ve brought you supper. This is Cassie, my friend. I think you’ll like her.”
Oma didn’t move.
Danny put the plate and cup on the chest of drawers by her bed, and perched himself on the edge of the mattress.
He remembered those last images from his dream of Berlin. Great Aunt Eva hurrying to pack, shortly before the knock came on her door from the state security police. Eva, slumped against the wall, hugging Hodeken and then, in the blink of an eye, the kobold was gone and she was hugging herself.
All the time he had been with them, he had hidden in the most secure place of all.
He had hidden within.
Danny took the self-bored stone from his pocket and held it to his eye. Before him, the shape of his grandmother flickered, as if it were only weakly held together.
And there: a form that at first he could only vaguely make out but which grew steadily stronger, he saw the little man. Hinnzelmanchen. Staring warily back at him.
“Hodeken,” said Danny. “It’s time to leave.”
“You said you didn’t want me,” said the nasal voice. “You said you didn’t need me, but you did, didn’t you?”
Danny had been right. Hodeken had retreated to his hiding place, and he was sulking.
“We didn’t need you,” said Danny. “You were only putting right a situation you had created.”
“I was only doing my best,” said the little man. “I was only trying to make your dream come true. Is that such a bad thing to try to do?”
“No,” said Danny. “It’s a very noble thing to do. We appreciate all that you have done for us in the past, but we don’t need your protection any more. It’s a big and complicated world out there and you are out of your time. We have other ways of dealing with things now. You just make things worse when you get involved.”
“You’re not cross with me?”
Danny thought. This creature had wrecked his family, destroyed his father. “I’m sad,” said Danny. “Very sad. You meant well, but you’ve done so much harm ... caused so much pain. Do you see what you’ve done to us?”
He had to stop.
A short time later, he continued. “I just wish I’d understood sooner. But I was so wrapped up in my own little world that I didn’t see what was happening. I’ve spent the last three years being so terrified that I would turn out like my father that I’ve forgotten to try to turn out like myself.”
He turned to Cassie then, and took her hand. “The poem’s right: our parents do mess us up, but we mess ourselves up, too.”
“It’s been hard,” said Hodeken. “Maybe I could have a rest...”
“Just one thing,” said Danny. “Would you do us one final favour before you leave?”
Hodeken’s face lit up. He smiled. He winked. He said, “Close your eyes and make your wish, and I’ll do my best. As long as it’s not too complicated!”
Danny closed his eyes and wished.
After a short time, he opened them again.
“You’re really going to be okay?” said the small voice.
“Yes, I am. We are.”
“Truly?” he asked again.
“Yes.”
“You don’t need me?”
At the third time of asking, Danny hesitated and then he nodded.
He lowered the self-bored stone and studied his grandmother’s face. For a few more seconds she breathed peacefully, and then there was a rattle in her throat, a half-cough, and she stopped.
Cassie gasped, and Danny squeezed her hand. He had hoped and hoped that it wouldn’t happen like this, but he had suspected that it would. He swallowed. He had lost so much.
“Hodeken’s been keeping her going for three years,” he said. “If he goes, she goes, too.” When Eva had died, the kobold must have moved his attentions to her sister, which explained why she had suddenly roused herself from her various illnesses and rallied in the face of adversity to look after what was left of her family.
He looked at his grandmother again through the hole in the stone, but all he saw was a little old woman, lying in her bed, not moving, not breathing, not being.
24 Normal again
Cassie came, the next morning. They had breakfast with Val and then Danny and Cassie gathered up Josh so that they could take him out to leave Val free to make arrangements for Oma Schmidt’s funeral.
“You will call Christian and Dieter, won’t you?” Danny had asked earlier. Val had nodded and assured him that she would. For Oma’s sake. And who knows? Maybe, after all this, Oma’s brothers would respond and the family would start to pull together again.
“What a way to spend your half-term,” Val said as Danny, Cassie and Josh left. “All this...”
“It’s a first for me,” said Cassie.
Danny led her down the stairs by the hand, aware of his watching mother and realising that it only bothered him a bit.
“Have you heard anything about your dad?” asked Cassie, as Josh ran off across the grass ahead of them.
Danny shook his head. “I think they’ve got him locked up as safely as they possibly can, just to be sure. It’ll sort itself out. He’ll be moved to another prison and I’ll be able to start visiting him again – I’ll find an adult who will accompany me. They won’t let me go on my own. It’ll all be back to normal before we know it.”
“Normal,” said Cassie, and grunted.
“Yes, ‘normal’,” said Danny. “Whatever that is.”
~
They walked around the grounds, following a path that took them through the trees to the orchard, and there they saw Little Rick. He had his beekeeper’s gear on and was puffing smoke into one of his hives to pacify the bees.
Josh ran up to him and started running round in circles making buzzing sounds.
Rick straightened, took his hat off and beamed at them.
“Hey, Danny! Cassie! How are things today after our little bit of excitement? I was going to call in later. I heard about Omaschmidt.”
Danny looked at him, and then at Cassie whose face had gone purple and looked just about ready to explode. He grinned at her, and watched her expression shift from outrage to puzzlement.
“You’re not welcome here,” said Danny to Rick. “I want you to leave us alone. Me. Val. All of us.”
Rick was still smiling, but with less confidence now.
Behind him, the buzzing had grown just a little more persistent, just a little louder, as first one or two, and then a growing mass of bees gathered on top of the hive.
It was stupid to hope that things could ever be perfect. Life had its ups and its downs and you just had to cope. But it didn’t seem such a bad thing to hope for a few more ups than downs. It might just start to balance out all the low points they had endured.
And life at Hope Springs could be pretty good for them if they were only given a chance. A bit of peace.
It didn’t seem too much to wish for.
Rick was uncomfortable now. Looking around. He knew something was up, but he hadn’t quite worked out what it was yet.
Danny stepped back, pulling Cassie with him. “Josh?” he called. “Over here, Josh.”
A great big lump of bees broke away from the top of the hive and flew straight up in
the air. They hung there for what seemed like forever as more and yet more flew up to join them.
Rick looked up at them. He had probably never seen anything like this before. He looked worried.
He had good reason to be worried.
The swarm dropped, plunging through the air.
Rick made a strangled yelping sound, and darted out of their way.
The swarm swooped low over the ground and then swung back up into the air again.
Rick looked at it, and then at Danny, and then he began to run.
The bees followed him, and dived down, and he ducked and tripped and sprawled in the mud. He scrambled to his feet again and ran, and soon he was lost from sight.
That was the last that was ever seen of Little Rick at Hope Springs. Nobody ever did explain why he had just gone off, never to return. He was so popular and liked by everyone, after all. And nobody could explain, either, why every last one of his bee-hives had been abandoned from that day onwards, too.
Only Danny knew, but he didn’t tell anyone. Wishes should be secret things and they should not be shared with anyone if you want them to come true, and if you want them to stay true.
~
Danny woke and washed and dressed and shoved today’s books into his school bag. It was June now and they were well into the second half of the summer term. Already, Danny was looking forward to the long summer holiday.
He looped the ready-knotted tie over his head and tightened it. His blazer was still too small, but it should see out the term.
He went through to the kitchen and made himself coffee and toast. “You okay?” asked Val, looking up from her notes.
He nodded. Yes he was, he realised. He was okay.
Outside, the usual group was heading for school, a short distance ahead. He hurried his stride to catch up with them.
“Hi, everyone,” he said, to Jade, Won’t and Tim as he joined them.
He listened to the two brothers, arguing about cricket again. Partway round the village, Won’t turned to Danny and said, “You coming to the cricket on Saturday? It’s the Grafton-on-Severn festival.”
Danny shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m going to visit my dad on Saturday.” David and Sharmila were taking him. This would be his first visit since Oma had died. They’d spoken on the phone a few times, though, and Danny’s father seemed calmer now, more settled since Hodeken had gone.
“Ha! Makes a change from him coming to visit you, doesn’t it?” Won’t laughed, dodging out of the way of Danny’s bag as it swung towards his head.
Danny laughed too, gathering up his bag again. “Yes,” he said. “I think this is the best way round, all in all.”
Ahead of them, Cassie was waiting with Jo Lee at the start of the lane across the fields to Grafton-on-Severn. Danny found himself grinning. A stupid, dumb grin which he just couldn’t get off his face.
