When she came home from school she could finally sit down and read. The world in her textbooks was so big and wonderful. She loved history and science, she loved discovering old places that were new to her and reading about the way the world worked. Everything seemed so scary and unorganized from a distance, but when she looked up close she could see that the world was indeed a very organized and spectacular place.
Ava knew that all questions had an answer, and it made her feel powerful to know things. The kitchen table, spread with all her papers and books, was Ava’s favorite place.
Robbie and Anja had gone into the backyard to play in the few patches of snow that remained, Miss Potter was sitting in the living room texting her friends, and Ava was reading about the history of Mesopotamia when there was a loud knock at the door.
“Don’t answer it!” shouted Robbie from the backyard, but Ava didn’t hear him. She got out of her seat with an exasperated sigh and marched over to the front door to demand an explanation from the unexpected visitor.
Ava was surprised to find that the person who had knocked so loudly was an old woman, bent over a metal cane. She stared at the woman’s long white hair, which fell over her black coat that hung like a thick tent over her tiny body. She looked like a witch, come to life straight out of one of Robbie’s cartoons.
“Hello,” she said finally, remembering her manners. Ava wasn’t scared of adults but she was suddenly very nervous, standing before this old woman.
“Hello, dear,” the old lady croaked. “I just moved into the house at the end of Juniper, and I heard there were children living on the street. I just adore young children.”
The old woman reached inside her giant coat and took out a package. “This is for you and your brother and sister,” she said, holding it out to Ava. As the old woman’s reached forward, a strange caw sound emerged from inside the old woman’s coat, and Ava thought she saw a pair of black, glassy eyes.
“Excuse me,” Ava said, not taking the package. “Do you have a….ahem…a crow in your jacket?”
“Of course not,” replied the old woman with a cough. She smacked her jacket with her arm and held out the package again. “That’s just the, ah, the ringtone on my phone. Pay no attention to it. Here,” she held out the package again, “do take these lovely cookies.”
Ava took it without saying anything, and after a few moments of awkward silence the old woman said,
“Well, you just come visit me whenever you want,” and then she turned and shuffled away.
Ava closed the door and looked at the package in her hand.
Robbie was suddenly beside her. “What did she want?” he asked, his brown eyes wide.
“That was the old lady from the grey house,” Ava said, and Robbie looked confused.
“She’s not supposed to be old, she’s supposed to be…” but Robbie stopped. The woman he’d seen in his mind hadn’t been any particular age, she’d been ageless.
“She’s old,” said Ava, and then looked down at Robbie’s boots and frowned.
“Don’t track snow and mud through the house!” she said, and went off to find a paper towel, leaving the package on the table by the front door.
Robbie, sensing danger either from Ava’s wrath or the mysterious package, ran through the house and into the yard to rejoin Anja, and when Ava returned to clean up Robbie’s wet footprints she found that the package had disappeared.
She took a deep breath and thought she would go and talk to Robbie about taking things from strangers when she heard Miss Potter’s voice from the other room.
“Teeth cookith are delithous,” said Miss Potter with her mouth full. She had paid attention long enough to know that someone had delivered something and felt it was her duty, as the babysitter, to open the package and see what it was.
Ava shook her head. Sometimes she wondered if Miss Potter didn’t need a babysitter herself.
“If any of us were going to be poisoned by a strange old lady, it’s probably best to be Miss Potter,” she muttered aloud.
Ava took the wet paper towels and threw them in the garbage, then returned to the kitchen table to finish reading, but she looked up every once in a while to watch the front door.
I just don’t like that old woman, she thought to herself.
Mr. Smith came home at exactly six o’clock, which is the same time he returned home every day.
“Good,” said Ava and Miss Potter when they heard the sound of the garage door opening. Mr. Smith walked in and took off his boots, looking very tired, and certainly he was very tired. His job was very difficult, and his customers very ornery, and Mr. Smith loved nothing more than coming home to his children.
Ava looked at her father. There was nobody in the world that she loved as much as him. He had been very handsome once, and he still was, but there was grey in his dark hair and in his beard, and his hands were always dirty from work. He walked with his head down and his shoulders slumped forward, but when Robbie and Anja ran to greet him he smiled, and the corners of his eyes crinkled and he stood a little straighter.
When Mr. Smith smiled, Ava smiled, too.
“See you tomorrow, same time,” said Miss Potter as she left, but nobody noticed.
Mr. Smith sat down in the chair Miss Potter had been sitting in, and, surrounded by his children, asked them about their day. Robbie and Anja told him about the fort they’d been building in the backyard, and Ava told him about the old lady with the package of cookies, and Mr. Smith laughed and his beard shook.
“It sounds like you’ve been having adventures!” he said, laughing, and the children all smiled. Mr. Smith looked down into their happy faces, lingering a moment on each one, and he felt peace.
Ava was strong and determined, with a quick mind and a steady head. Robbie was loyal and wise, and always seemed to know the right moment for a hug. Anja was wild, with emotions that poured out onto all those around her.
Unlike her older sister, Anja didn’t like reading, or writing, and she detested schoolwork of all kinds. Her long blonde hair was never braided, and her blue eyes always sparkled with a smile. But what Anja lacked in academic competence she made up for in verbal skills – she had the vocabulary and speaking ability of a child twice her age, and she could fill any silence with her delightful chatter. Mr. Smith knew his children, and he saw that each one did things in their own time and in their own way, and he had the good sense to be proud of all three of them.
Suddenly, Mr. Smith sat up straight. “Ahh, I almost forgot! Someone special showed up at my shop a couple weeks ago, and we haven’t been able to get rid of him. So today I brought him home!”
Mr. Smith put his boots back on in a hurry and went out to his car, and when he returned he had something huge and fluffy in his hands.
“A cat!” shrieked Anja, jumping up and down as the lights in the living room grew brighter. “Can we keep him? Can we?”
“Yes!” said Mr. Smith, “That’s why I brought him here!” and he put down the black and white cat, who looked around the room full of children and made a beeline for the stairs.
The children ran after him and found the cat sitting on Ava’s bed.
“I think he likes it here!” said Robbie, and then added, “I think his name is Ronald.”
“Nice to meet you, Ronald!” said Anja, giving the cat a kiss on the nose.
“I hope he doesn’t have fleas…” Ava began, but the cat turned upon Ava with a look that seemed to say, Of course I don’t have fleas, and Ava didn’t bring it up again.
Robbie and Anja immediately fell in love with Ronald the cat, but it was Ava who he followed around. When she went to go make dinner, he stayed in the kitchen to watch her, and when she ate he sat underneath her chair, licking his paws. When the children went upstairs to brush their teeth, Ronald went back to Ava’s bed, where he stayed.
“I want to sleep with Ronald!” called Anja from her room, and Robbie said,
“No! I want to!”
But Mr. Smith s
aid “Cats are funny creatures, they have to decide,” and even though Robbie and Anja promised Ronald treats, he wouldn’t leave Ava’s side.
Mr. Smith turned off the lights and went to bed, and in a few minutes he was snoring. The children fell asleep soon after, and when Ronald was sure that nobody was awake he jumped down from Ava’s bed and hopped up onto her dresser, where he opened a drawer with his paw.
He looked down and saw the golden key, and thought to himself, Excellent. Just as I suspected.
Then he hopped down and slept in her doorway, to guard both the key and the girl.
Chapter Three
M
r. Smith left very early the next morning to go to his shop. He made lunches for the children and left notes for them, wishing them a good day and telling them he’d be back for dinner. It made him terribly sad to start his day without seeing their smiling faces, but bills were bills and this was life.
Today, like every day, Mr. Smith would climb into his cold car with his hot coffee and head to the shop to fix broken vehicles. Mr. Smith paused on his way to pet the cat, who had followed him downstairs, and then with a sigh he picked up his lunch bag and started off.
Ronald watched this departure. Ronald was a very peculiar cat. He was all black, except that he had white fur on all his paws which made him look like he was wearing little boots, and he had a white patch under his chin that looked like a tie and white whiskers that curled up at the end just like a mustache.
Whenever he saw his reflection in a mirror or window he imagined how wonderfully fancy he would look wearing a top hat and a pair of spectacles, for Ronald, like all cats, was vain and wished above all else to be thought handsome. Long ago he’d had a very fine suit made to fit him, but it had been lost during a trip to New York and he’d never gotten around to replacing it.
Ronald preferred to be served breakfast at seven o’clock on the dot, so he hurried back upstairs to wake Ava at precisely that time, and he accomplished this by sitting directly on her stomach and meowing until she got out of bed. Ronald knew it was best not to talk to your human until after they’d gotten used to having a pet, so as humiliating as it was he made normal cat noises. He was thoroughly embarrassed.
When Ava was finally awake, she dressed for the day and went downstairs for breakfast. Ronald followed Ava down the stairs and to the kitchen, where he waited as she poured a tiny saucer of milk and emptied tin of tuna onto a plate, which she placed on the floor. Ronald hated eating like an animal, especially in front of the children, so he turned his back to her and didn’t eat until she sat down at the kitchen table to eat her own breakfast. Then he gobbled up his tuna and drank his milk with his little pink tongue.
Presently, Anja and Robbie came downstairs, their happy voices filling the room. Ronald smiled. He liked children, and he especially liked to watch them discover how extraordinary they were. He felt quite lucky to be in his line of work. Ronald had taught many children, some of them more pleasant than others, but each one marvellously gifted in their own special way. The Smith children were going to be wonderful students, he could already tell.
When breakfast was over, the table was cleared, and Ronald sat in the middle of the living room, where he watched the children put on their coats and boots. Ava helped Robbie do the top buttons on his coat as Anja searched for a missing glove, and eventually they were all bundled and buttoned and ready to go.
“Remember, Robbie,” Ava said gently, “Miss Potter will be here to watch you this afternoon, but we’ll be home as soon as we can,” and then, as an afterthought, she said, “Please don’t open the door for anyone, even if they ring the bell.”
“I know,” said Robbie, and they went out of the door, Ava locking it behind her, and one by one they went to stand at the end of the driveway to wait for the bus.
Ronald went to the living room window to spy, and as soon as he saw the children had boarded safely he turned to the clock above the fireplace and said, “Hello, Tempo, old friend.”
The clock stopped ticking and said, “Professor Ronald! Right on time!”
Professor Ronald came to stand before the fireplace and looked up with one eyebrow raised.
“I suppose you think you’re clever, turning yourself into a clock,” he started.
The sides of the clock stretched out as if in a smile, and a deep laugh came from somewhere inside. “I was an armchair for a few years but I grew rather tired of being sat upon. And with a name like Tempo, why not a clock? I am the last living Timelord, after all!”
Professor Ronald hopped up on to the fireplace mantle. “It was you who stopped time, then?” he asked.
Tempo guffawed, “Of course! I had to let the wizard in. He put a spell on the door, you know, so she can’t get in unless the girl invites her.”
Professor Ronald looked surprised then, and said “So! The rumors are true. She’s back!”
Tempo lowered his voice and hissed, “Not just back, but here. She knocked on the door yesterday, disguised as an old woman, to deliver a package of cookies, of all things! I saw it myself.”
This news caused the Professor to be very distraught. He jumped down and began to pace the living room floor.
He always paid attention to the news. He’d known the old witch Wraithlana was seeking the key, searching the world for the one who would break the spell. Professor Ronald had known the time had come, he had felt it. It was why he’d come to train the gatekeeper. But Wraithlana must have been watching, keeping her evil eye fixed on the Smith house, waiting for the moment when the key would appear. The Professor stopped to think.
“There’s something else.” Tempo said at last. “The night of the time stop the key materialized! Right here on this very fireplace, right under my nose!”
Professor Ronald nodded. “Yes, that much I knew. I can’t tell you why, but I suspected it was here the minute I arrived. So I looked, and saw it in her room myself.”
He stopped to stare out the window, and said almost to himself, “After these long years, I didn’t think it was possible.”
Tempo rumbled, “You doubted the prophecy?”
Professor Ronald turned back to the clock. “No, I have faith in ancient magic. But I never believed I would live to see it come to pass. And yet, here I am.”
“And here I am as well!” replied the clock.
The Professor nodded. “And so are the children. It’s time I speak to them, I think. We don’t have a moment to waste…”
The clock chuckled.
“… and I must start teaching the children how to use their gifts. I dare say we are running out of time.” the Professor continued.
“These are strange days, indeed,” the clock replied.
The Professor shook his head slowly, then said, “I suppose we must make our way to the door between our world and this world, and something tells me we’ll be doing that sooner rather than later.”
“Do you know where the door is?” asked Tempo.
“I certainly do. It’s been well-hidden in the most un-extraordinary place in the universe,” said Professor Ronald.
“Maine?” teased the clock.
“No,” replied the Professor, “Canada.”
The two friends continued their conversation long into the morning, but were soon interrupted by a scratching at the front door. The clock froze and the cat leapt from the mantle and landed on the carpet below.
After more scratching, and some swear words that shouldn’t be repeated, the front door swung open and Miss Potter entered.
Miss Potter slammed the door closed behind her, and stomped her boots on the rug before taking them off. She threw her jacket across the couch and made her way to the kitchen, where she poked her head into cupboards and snooped through drawers, taking what she wanted and leaving a trail of crumbs across the counter.
Professor Ronald was growing to dislike Miss Potter with every passing second, and before he could help himself, he sniffed in her direction and shook his head.
; Miss Potter looked at him. “Mangy stray,” she growled at the Professor, slamming the cupboard closed and taking a handful of crackers to the couch.
The Professor ignored her insult and returned to his post at the window, to watch for Robbie.
It wasn’t long before bus rumbled down the street and deposited Robbie at the end of the driveway. As Robbie walked towards the house, he saw the cat and waved. Robbie liked animals, and particularly cats, but he had a feeling that Ronald was a very special cat. And it turns out, Robbie was right.
Robbie came into the house and placed his backpack on the hook.
“Miss Potter?” he called from the front hall.
“Ign hegh” Miss Potter replied, her mouth full of crackers.
“Right,” said Robbie, “well, I’m home. Have you made lunch?”
“No!” said Miss Potter, coming around the corner to see him. “There’s nothing here to eat, really. Now you’d better go make lunch for yourself, Roland, because I have important work to do.”
Then she flung herself down onto the couch and pulled out her phone.
“My name is Robbie,” Robbie said with a sigh. Miss Potter ignored him.
Robbie went to the kitchen to make himself a cucumber sandwich, as he did almost every day that Miss Potter was there. He carefully cut off the crusts and spread the mayonnaise over the bread. Then he sliced the cucumbers and laid them in rows of three. There was only one right way to make a sandwich, Robbie knew.
“I don’t suppose you could make an extra one for me,” came a very polite request from the floor.
Robbie turned to see the cat sitting in a very distinguished manner beside him.
“It would be no trouble at all,” replied Robbie, and he went about cutting the crust off two more slices of bread.
“I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced, young Robbie,” Professor Ronald spoke again, “although you certainly did get my name correct yesterday. I’m very impressed. I am Professor Ronald, most humbly at your service.”
The Adventures of Ava Smith: The Secret of the Enchanted Forest Page 2
