The Unseen World of Poppy Malone: A Gaggle of Goblins

by Suzanne Harper

  “Dear, dear,” she said absently, clucking her tongue. “That sounds dreadful. Come here and taste this stew—do you think it has enough salt?”

  “It was dreadful! In fact, it was a complete nightmare! Not to mention that Muddle can’t seem to learn how to break a guitar string or scare a cat, no matter how much I work with him. And after all that, what do I have to show for today’s work! Just this!”

  He reached into his coat and pulled out a round lid from a plastic food storage container.

  “Well, at least you came back with something,” she said soothingly. She took it from him and held it up in front of the fire, turning it this way and that in order to admire it. “What a nice shade of blue! This will be a lovely addition to my collection. Thank you, dear.”

  “That’s all right,” he said. “Glad you like it.”

  She opened a cupboard door to reveal stacks of plastic lids in all shapes and sizes. “I just wish I could be Above Ground to hear what those mortals say tonight when they’re putting away their leftovers.”

  Glitch snickered at the thought.

  “‘Now, where is the lid for this container?’” she went on, imitating the puzzled owner of the missing lid. “‘I know I put it in the cupboard just yesterday! I swear, they just seem to disappear on their own sometimes!’”

  Glitch laughed, then stretched his arms above his head, and tilted his head back and forth to work out a crick in his neck. “Ah, it’s good to be home.”

  He took off his long red cap and tossed it on a small table, followed by his white beard, then his jacket (which had clearly been padded, since his round belly disappeared as well).

  He made a face at each item as he pulled it off and muttered, “I absolutely loathe wearing camouflage.”

  “I know, dear, so horrible. I don’t know how you stand it,” Bother said absently. “Why don’t you get changed for dinner?”

  Glitch disappeared through a dark doorway and returned a few moments later looking transformed. He had brushed the white powder from his hair, revealing a mop of dark curls, and washed his face, scrubbing away his rosy cheeks. He looked altogether slimmer, younger, and more elegant.

  “Sit down,” she said. “Your dinner’s getting cold.” She turned to call through the door. “Muddle! It’s time for dinner!”

  “Ah! That smells good.” He settled into one of the chairs and gratefully dipped his spoon into the stew.

  She poured a cherry-red liquid into two glasses and handed one to Glitch. He raised his glass to her.

  “A toast,” he said, grinning. “To Treasure and Trouble!”

  His drink was halfway to his mouth when Franny sneezed.

  The Malones froze. Glitch’s eyes swung to the window, narrowing in suspicion. Before they could even think about running, he had crossed the room, flung open the door, and was standing in front of them, his hands on his hips.

  “Oh, wonderful,” he said in disgust. “This is all I need after a day like today. Well, don’t just lurk around in the dark. Come inside and let us take a look at you.”

  Slowly and reluctantly, Poppy, Will, and Franny stepped forward into the light.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Oh no, not more humans!” said Bother. She glared accusingly at Glitch. “Really, this is too much! Where in the world are we going to put them all?”

  “I don’t know,” he snapped. “I didn’t invite them here, you know. They just showed up.”

  Together, the two goblins turned to stare at their unexpected guests with equal parts curiosity and worry. Only Muddle seemed happy at the turn of events. His face was shining with delight.

  “Can we keep them?” he asked eagerly.

  “No, we cannot!” said Bother.

  “Please?” he asked. “I’ll take care of them, I promise.”

  “You say that now, but we all know who will end up feeding them and taking them for walks,” said Bother, still staring at the three children standing in front of her.

  They stared back at her. Suddenly, Franny’s eyes narrowed. She leaned down to look more closely at Bother’s ears. A silver heart dangled from her right ear and a fake diamond glittered on her left ear.

  “Hey!” Franny said. “Those are my earrings! I was looking for them everywhere yesterday!”

  Bother took a nervous step back, her hands cupped protectively over her ears. “I wouldn’t know about that,” she said vaguely. “Actually, they were a gift—”

  “I can’t believe it,” Franny said. She turned an outraged face to Poppy. “That goblin stole my earrings!”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” said Poppy. “All the lost keys and spilled sugar and blown fuses—they’re behind everything that’s been going wrong at our house.”

  “Well, I think it’s very childish,” Franny said. “Annoying people for no good reason!”

  Bother snorted. “Oh, we’ve got a very good reason,” she said. “If you want to talk about mischief, just take a look at what you mortals get up to. Always starting a war or building a shopping mall or inventing something horrible, like fluorescent lighting—”

  “Okay, okay.” Will sighed. “We get it!”

  “Just think what you’d manage to do if you didn’t spend half your lives looking for socks or searching for keys,” Bother said. “If it weren’t for goblins, the world wouldn’t be worth living in.”

  “Excuse me,” Poppy said. “This is all very interesting, but I think we’re losing track of the main point here—”

  “And now we’ve got three more of you horrible creatures down here!” Bother shot an exasperated look at Glitch. “Whatever happened to the warding you placed on the portal?”

  Glitch ran his hands through his hair. “Muddle and I had to open it when we returned from scavenging. They must have slipped in right behind us.” He scowled at the Malones, adding bitterly, “They just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and now we have to deal with them. What a mess!”

  “It’s not our fault,” Franny said indignantly. “We didn’t ask you to kidnap Rolly.”

  “We’d be glad to leave right now,” said Will.

  “Wait, don’t tell me,” Glitch said, holding up a hand. He pretended to think for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “I know!” he said. “You’ve come to rescue your little brother! No, no, don’t try to deny it. I’ve seen that expression of heroic valor before.”

  “We’re not denying anything,” Poppy snapped. “Of course we’re here to get him back.”

  “And how, I wonder, are you going to do that?” Glitch asked. “Even supposing you could find your way out of our caves, what makes you think we’d let you take Rolly with you? We went to quite a lot of trouble to get him, you know.”

  Poppy shuddered. Part of her wanted to ask exactly why the goblins had gone to so much trouble to get Rolly; part of her was afraid to find out.

  “If you don’t let us take him, we’ll get help,” Will threatened.

  “Yes!” Franny said. “We’ll tell our parents! We’ll tell the police!”

  Glitch and Muddle snickered. Even Bother bit her lip as if trying not to laugh.

  “What?” Franny said, her face reddening. “What’s so funny?”

  “And what will the police do when you tell them that goblins have stolen your brother?” asked Glitch. “If they take you seriously, which I doubt, they’ll go to your house. And what will they find? Your parents, who don’t know what you’re talking about. Your brother, alive and well and looking exactly the same as always. And you three. Children with perhaps too much imagination for their own good.”

  The Malones could think of nothing to say to this.

  “Now, now, don’t look so upset,” Bother said. “We’ve been stealing mortal children for a long, long time, you know. It makes sense that we’d be quite good at it.”

  “Well, I think that’s terrible!” said Franny. “I don’t know how you can brag about kidnapping a sweet little boy like Rolly away from his
family who loves him!”

  This would have been a more touching speech, Poppy thought, if Franny hadn’t delivered it in such a throbbing voice. She sounded as if she were auditioning for a part in a play.

  Apparently, Glitch thought much the same thing. “How very touching,” he said in a sarcastic drawl. “So. You’ve decided that you like your little brother after all.”

  “Of course we do!” Franny said, raising the level of anguished grief another notch or two. “We love him!”

  “I’m only asking,” Glitch continued, “because I seem to remember hearing someone”—he looked pointedly at Franny—“calling him a pest.”

  “I didn’t mean it,” mumbled Franny, who began studying the toes of her sneakers with fierce concentration.

  “And I think I heard someone else”—Glitch turned his small glittering eyes to Will—“complaining about how Rolly has complicated all your lives.”

  “Well, he has,” Will said stubbornly. He paused, then added, “I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”

  Shifting his gaze to Poppy, Glitch went on relentlessly, “And I’m almost certain I heard some other person saying that perhaps you should have left him in the woods to find his way home.”

  “It was just a joke,” she said weakly.

  Glitch shrugged. “Nonetheless,” he said. “Your wishes were heard and your wishes were answered—”

  “Don’t try to blame us for this,” Poppy snapped. “Fine, we complained about Rolly. We didn’t ask you to kidnap him!”

  Glitch pursed his mouth at this, but finally nodded. “True enough,” he said. “All the same, you have nothing to complain about now, especially since you still have a brother, a very nice one, as a matter of fact.” He smoothed his ruffled shirt complacently. “Much better than the one you had before.”

  “We don’t want a better brother,” Poppy said. “We want Rolly.”

  “Do you, indeed?” Glitch’s pointed white teeth flashed in the firelight. “Well, then. Let me take you to him.”

  They set off within minutes, after Glitch and Bother had managed to settle Muddle, who had badly wanted to go with them.

  “Please?” he had whined. “Pleeease? I want to play with Rolly. Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!”

  Bother had raised an eyebrow and pointed to the small wooden chair by the hearth. “Time to do your homework, Muddle,” she said sternly. “You can’t play with Rolly every minute of the day, after all.”

  Muddle had grumbled and complained, but he had finally sat down in the chair and pulled a reel of fishing line from his pocket. Muttering under his breath, he had started to tangle the line; within seconds, he had created a snarled mess.

  “That’s right,” Bother had said proudly. “Just keep it at it, Muddle, and you’ll be the youngest gremlin allowed to go on a trip Above Ground all on your own.”

  Muddle still looked a bit disgruntled, but he had settled down to his tangling with a resigned air. Glitch then led Poppy, Will, and Franny out the door, farther along the tunnel they had previously traveled, and then right into a smaller side tunnel. The darkness, as soon as they were five steps away from the welcoming light of the goblins’ home, seemed deeper than ever. Glitch held a long pole with a cage dangling from the end. The cage was filled with fireflies, which cast a flickering green light on the stone as he led them through a series of twisting tunnels.

  “Step lively now,” he called over his shoulder. “You wouldn’t want to be left behind. Not down here in the cold and the dark.”

  As they followed Glitch deeper into the cave, the air seemed to get colder with every step, as if they were walking down into a place where it was always winter. It was hard to believe that they had left a blazing hot summer day just a short time ago, or that it still existed somewhere up above them.

  Poppy slowed her pace a bit until the others had moved several yards in front of her. Carefully, she took off her backpack, reached inside, and pulled out a small sack of her father’s Roman coins, grateful for the impulse that had made her dash back to the house and take them from his study. She wasn’t even sure why she had taken them—vague ideas of bribing the goblins had run through her mind—but now, as she left one near the tunnel wall, she thought they would come in quite handy. She was concentrating on memorizing every turn they took, of course, but it wouldn’t hurt to leave a little trail behind. . . .

  As they followed Glitch, they occasionally passed several small wooden doors. Poppy eyed them, wondering where they led. They looked similar to the entrance to Glitch’s home; like Glitch’s door, each one had a goblin head carved into the rock next to it. Maybe the cave was filled with little goblin houses, she thought. Or maybe—her pulse quickened—maybe the doors led to other tunnels or secret passages. Maybe one of those doors could lead them back to the surface and back to freedom. . . .

  Of course, Poppy thought, her spirits sinking, tunnels or passages could lead up or down. They could be built to connect different parts of the cave or created to confuse unwelcome visitors.

  Poppy scowled at the carvings as she walked past, then glanced at Glitch, strutting along in front of Will and Franny. The firefly cage swung to one side, casting shadows on his face. For a second, he looked exactly like one of the stone carvings, although his expression was far more smug than any she had seen so far.

  He thinks he’s caught us, she thought. He thinks he’s smarter than we are. Well, we’ll see about that. . . .

  Poppy eased another coin out of her pocket, then stopped and pretended to tie her shoe. She tucked the coin into a crevice between two rocks, then stood up and checked that she’d be able to spot it later.

  She hurried to join the others before Glitch noticed that she was lagging behind. Unfortunately, she was so intent on catching up with them that she almost ran into Franny, who was tiptoeing cautiously around a large puddle in the middle of the tunnel.

  “Watch where you’re going!” Franny spat.

  “Sorry,” whispered Poppy.

  “You should be!” said Franny. “It’s your fault that we’re going to be trapped down here! Trapped forever. In a cave. With goblins.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Poppy. “I have a plan.”

  “Oh, great. You have a plan,” Franny said sarcastically. “It was your plan that landed us here. Trapped forever. In a cave. With gob—”

  “Shh!” Poppy pinched Franny.

  Franny yelped.

  Glitch stopped. “What’s going on back there?” he demanded.

  Franny and Poppy looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. “Nothing,” they chorused.

  The goblin grinned at them. “Glad to hear it,” he said. “We wouldn’t want any mischief, now would we?”

  “Of course not,” said Poppy.

  “All right, then.” He smirked at her, then turned back around and started moving at a faster trot. “Let’s get going.”

  Poppy looked at Franny and raised one eyebrow. Franny looked at Poppy and rolled her eyes.

  “Sorry,” Poppy whispered. “But I do have a plan. Trust me.”

  And she reached into her pocket for another coin.

  They had walked for another fifteen minutes according to the luminescent dial of Poppy’s watch before they turned one last corner and stopped, their eyes momentarily too dazzled to see.

  Poppy blinked. They were standing at the edge of a cavern that glowed with light. Throughout the room, guttering candles had been placed on boulders or set in candlabras. Dozens of small niches—each one holding a candle or small oil lamp—had been carved in the stone walls. The flickering light went up at least two stories before the walls disappeared into the darkness.

  “Welcome,” Glitch said, “to Goblin Hall.”

  Poppy heard a stifled laugh somewhere to her left. She jerked her head around, but saw nothing but candlelight reflected in glistening rock walls.

  “What was that?” she asked sharply.

  Glitch stopped and turned to smile his pointed white smile at her. “Wha
t was what?” he asked, his black eyes gleaming with amusement.

  He’s laughing at me, she thought, and raised her chin a haughty half-inch. “Nothing,” she said. “Where’s Rolly?”

  “All in good time,” Glitch said. “All in good time.”

  The cavern was filled with shadows, which shifted and fluttered in the flickering light. She thought she saw something scuttle along the wall, but when she turned her head, she saw nothing except several large boulders and another iron-banded door.

  She turned again, but it—whatever it was—was already gone.

  Still, she seemed to catch glimpses out of the corner of her eye of something—something more than shadows—moving about, just on the edge of her vision. And yet, every time she turned her head to see what was moving, she found herself facing nothing but rocks, boulders, and a stone wall.

  Poppy suddenly remembered a night when she was seven years old. She, Franny, and Will had been sent to stay at her grandmother’s house during a summer when her parents had traveled to South America to track the mysterious and elusive Mono Grande. She had gone to bed on that first night, tired and ready to fall asleep. But when she had turned out the light, she had seen it: a witch, lurking in the corner of her room, ready to pounce on her as soon as her eyes drifted closed. . . .

  Poppy could still recall with perfect clarity how she had lain straight and still in her bed, afraid that the slightest movement would let the witch know that she knew that the witch was there. She had tried to calm herself by listing all the reasons why witches didn’t exist or, if they did, why it was impossible for one to be in her room. It didn’t work. No matter what she told herself, she could see the wicked profile, the pointed hat, the long black cloak. . . .

  Then her grandmother had opened the door to say good night. Soft light had spilled in from the hall, and Poppy had seen that the witch was nothing but a coat hanging on the back of a closet door.