by Gee, Maurice
‘Jimmy, here. I want you to have this.’ She took the Birdfolk feather from her neck. It flashed in the midday sun, blue and red. She put it in his hands.
‘Girl – girl – I done some bad things to yer.’
‘Keep it, Jimmy. Wear it for me.’
‘I will. I will, Susie. I’ll name a mountain after yer.’
‘I’d rather have a waterfall. Nick can have a mountain.’
‘OK. It’s a deal.’ He put the feather round his neck.
Susan turned to Brand. She felt in her pocket and drew out the stone-silk gloves. ‘These belong in O. I want you to have them, Brand.’
‘Thank you, Susan. They will stay in Shady Home. They will be our treasure. And I will go to the Great Throat and tell the Stonefolk what you have done.’
Susan smiled. She sighed. ‘Breeze -’ she unbuckled her belt ‘- this is for you. The belt Redwing made. You can keep your medicine in it where I kept the Halves.’ She helped Breeze buckle it on. ‘Now we’ve got nothing but what we came with.’
‘You have some time outside your time,’ Brand said. ‘And you have memories. You take something back.’
‘And this as well,’ Breeze said. ‘I have something for you.’ She held out a tiny box carved from wood. It was no bigger than a walnut shell. ‘Look in it, Susan. You will find something there beyond all price.’
Susan took the box. Carefully she opened it. Green silk made a lining, and on that lay a tiny dot of brown, a paper-flake. Although she had never seen one, she knew what it was.
‘A seed, Breeze? A seed?’
‘A seed of the Shy. Find a secret place in your world. A place where no one will come. Plant it there. The Shy will grow if you plant with love. One day it will flower. Then, if you wish, you can come back and visit us.’
‘Oh thank you, Breeze. Thank you.’
‘If you come, bring Nick with you. The Shy is his as well.’
Susan closed the box. She put it in her pocket. She and Breeze hugged each other. Then Breeze felt in her cloak and drew out two small flowers, one for each, the Shy whose scent would carry them back to Earth. Nick and Susan took them carefully.
‘You know what to do?’
‘We know.’
‘Then goodbye, Susan Ferris. Goodbye, Nicholas Quinn.’
‘I wouldn’ mind comin’,’ Jimmy said. ‘I could do with a feed of boiled mutton an’ spuds.’
‘Goodbye.’
Nick and Susan walked into the cave. They looked back once. Brand and Breeze and Jimmy stood against a backdrop of Wildwood. Nick waved. Susan gave a tiny smile. She could not tell whether it was happy or sad. Then they went on. It grew dark. They felt their way forward, hand in hand.
‘What time shall we choose?’
‘How about lunch? Midday?’
‘All right. Twelve o’clock. We’ll only have been gone for a couple of hours.’ They laughed nervously.
Soon they came to the end of the tunnel.
‘I can’t see a thing.’
‘Nor me. Let’s go quickly, Nick. I don’t like it here.’
‘Right. Midday, remember. Are you ready?’
‘Yes.’
They raised the Shy to their faces, drew their breath in deeply, and that magical perfume flooded them. It was so sweet that all the pain of going back, all the pain of sinking, whirling, drowning, touched them no more sharply than a feather. They saw each other printed on the dark, saw each other sink, they lost their hold on each other’s hands, but rose again from that flooding dark, and found themselves hand in hand once more, kneeling in cold water, in a world they knew was theirs.
‘Nick, Nick, we’re through.’
‘Yes, we’re home.’
They stood up. The Shy flowers were gone from their hands. Through dripping water, past rotten props, in dark, in a grey light, they ran out of the mineshaft, they burst out into the midday sun. For a moment it blinded them. Then they saw everything, blue sky, white clouds, the weed-grown tailing mounds, Lodestone Creek, trees, creepers, a fantail darting in the trunks. They heard it cheep.
‘Oh Nick, I’m glad we’re back.’
‘Look,’ Nick said. Jimmy Jaspers’ pack lay on the stones. Beside it was a tiny blue bottle. Nick picked it up. He could not find the cork. He pushed it down among Jimmy’s shirts and trousers. Then he dragged the pack into the shaft and left it.
‘Come on. Let’s go home.’
They climbed above the gorge, went through the bush, crossed the paddock. Susan felt the little box with the Shy seed in her pocket. Tomorrow she would find a place and plant it. Only Nick would know. She did not believe she would ever go back to Wildwood, back to O, but it would be nice to have Shy growing in her world. She stroked her birthmark.
They went on to the swing bridge. Suddenly Nick started laughing. He pointed at his sneakers. ‘They were brand new. Now they’re worn to tatters. What am I going to tell Mum?’
‘Mine too.’
‘And look at your hair. It’s grown two inches longer all in one morning.’
‘Oh Nick, what will we tell them?’
They went on hand in hand.
‘I’ll think of something,’ Nick said.
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First published in 1982 by Oxford University Press
First published in Puffin Books, 1984
Second Puffin edition published in 2005
This digital edition created by Penguin Group (NZ), 2012
Copyright © Maurice Gee, 1982
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ISBN: 978-1-74253-240-0
