“Kitty? Kitty, are you there?” I called into the darkness.
And then a voice called out to me. A voice I knew. A voice I’d missed so very much.
“Nate? Nate, is that you?”
I blinked into the deep, black hole. “Mum?”
And then someone grabbed my ankles.
“It’s all right. I’ve gotcha,” said a man, and I felt myself being dragged on my stomach, away from the hole in the floor.
“No! It’s my mum! My mum is down there! I’ve got to help her!”
I spun around and faced the health and safety man. He held tightly on to my arms.
“It’s all right, we will help her. But you ain’t going to be any help if you fall in as well, are you?”
I sat there, stunned, as the man got down on his hands and knees and crawled toward the hole. “Hello? Hello, can you hear me? My name’s Colin. Are you okay?”
I could hear coughing. My mum was coughing.
“I think … I think I’ve broken … I’ve broken my leg … I fell through the floor. I fell through … I’m so cold … I need water …”
Her voice sounded strange. The words were slurring into each other.
“You just sit tight and we’ll get help. Don’t you move and don’t you panic. We’ll get you out of there!”
Colin edged away and then he fumbled in a pocket of his bright, fluorescent jacket.
“My son! Nate! Nate, are you there?”
I stood up and Colin put his hand on my shoulder, making sure I didn’t go any closer.
“I’m here, Mum. I’m fine!” I shouted.
“I’m going to take your boy outside where it’s safer, and I’ll phone for help. I’ll be right back, I promise!”
I shook the man’s hand away. “No! I’m not going anywhere.”
Mum coughed again. “Nate, do as he says. Please …” And her voice faded away.
Colin held my arm and we walked back outside as he called an ambulance. He then got a bottle of water and some cookies from his car and grabbed a thick coat from the back seat.
“Right, you sit in my car and keep warm. I’m going to go and drop these down to your mum, and I’m going to keep her talking until help gets here. Okay?”
I studied Colin’s face carefully. He looked a bit flustered, but I could tell he was doing his best. And he had kind eyes. I nodded. And then he shut the car door and I waited.
Everything went a bit crazy after they rescued Mum. I opened the car door to try to see what was going on, but a police officer told me to wait there. She sat with me for a while, telling me my mum was going to be fine and that they’d phoned my grandma, who was on her way. Eventually the paramedics appeared, carrying Mum on a stretcher. I could see a silver foil blanket over her and some other red ones on top of that. I didn’t care what the policewoman said—I dove out of the car.
“Mum! Mum? Are you okay?” I said, running over to the stretcher.
The paramedic had placed a small plastic mask over her face. I could see she had blood running down her cheek. Her eyes were shut. She looked so cold and pale.
“Mum! Mum, it’s me!”
One of the paramedics put an arm on my shoulder and was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I just wanted my mum to open her eyes.
“Mum! Wake up!”
The hospital smelled of coffee and disinfectant. I sat on a plastic chair beside the nurse’s desk and waited for Grandma to come back. She’d gone to the vending machine to get a cup of tea. There was a large swinging door and people kept coming and going back and forth, back and forth, and every time it opened I looked up to see if it was her or not. I was a bit nervous that she wasn’t going to come back.
I got my Freaky Things book out of my backpack and found the checklist about survival. I was trying to work out if Mum would have had everything she needed:
1) Shelter
2) Water
3) Food
4) Fire
5) Attitude
She would have only had two in that deep hole. Shelter, even if it was a tumbling-down house, and attitude. She wouldn’t have given up. Would two be enough to survive? I knew you could live for a while without food but not so long without water. And it had been so cold. How long had it been? Two or three days? I was feeling muddled. And every now and then Kitty’s face came into my mind, but I couldn’t deal with thinking about her right now.
The large swinging door opened again, and the next person that came through I recognized. It was Grandma. She held a little plastic cup of tea, and she blew on it as she walked over and sat beside me.
“She’s going to be all right, isn’t she, Grandma?”
Grandma put an arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “Of course she is, Nate.”
They wanted Mum to stay in the hospital overnight because she was very dehydrated. Her leg was broken and they’d put a big cast on it that went from her ankle to her knee. We could go and see her, but only for a little while because she was very, very tired.
When we walked into the room, Mum turned her head on her white pillow and she smiled.
I stopped by the door. I was feeling overwhelmed with everything, and I didn’t want to cry so I dug my nails into my palms. Grandma put her tea down and went over and stroked Mum’s forehead. They said something to each other but I couldn’t hear what it was, and Grandma gave her a kiss. There was a bag of fluid hanging on a metal stand next to the bed, and the long tube snaked down and into her hand. Mum looked over at me, and I took a few steps closer.
“Oh, Nate. I’m so sorry …” she said, and she reached out for me, but I stayed where I was. I suddenly felt angry for everything she’d put me through. “I’m so sorry. You must have been so frightened not knowing what had happened.”
I shrugged. “It’s all right. I’ve been fine.”
Grandma made noises about her tea not having any sugar in it, and then she headed to the door. I think she was just pretending about the sugar so that we could be alone. The door closed behind her with a shush.
“What happened, Mum?” I said. “What were you doing at the big house?”
Mum closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. “I went to the shop and got some food, and then as I was driving past the big old house, I suddenly wondered if there was any firewood around there that we could use. They’d forecast snow and I knew we needed to keep the wood stove going as that was the only heating we had.”
I kept silent. Listening.
“I looked around outside, but there wasn’t anything small enough or dry, so I went in to see if there were any old bits of furniture we could burn … and then I realized it wasn’t safe. I was about to leave when … when the floor gave way …”
She closed her eyes and tears rolled down her cheeks. I reached out and held on to her hand.
“I couldn’t move. My leg … My leg hurt so much and I couldn’t get out. The doctor said it was lucky I was wearing a thick coat. And that you came, Nate. Another day without water and …”
I squeezed her hand tightly, and she looked up at me.
“What did you do, Nate? You must have been so worried. Did you find anything to eat?”
“Yes, there was loads in the cupboards. And I burnt all the wood we had and kept the place nice and warm.”
“You did that? All on your own?”
I nodded.
“And the chicken laid some eggs, so I had them as well,” I added.
Mum smiled. “It’s your birthday too. I’m so sorry, Nate. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
I tried to say that it was fine and that my birthday had been fine, but I had a huge knot in my throat, so I just nodded again.
“I thought you’d gone back to him, Mum. I thought you’d left me to go back to Gary.”
Her forehead creased as tears trickled down her cheeks. “Go back to him? Whatever made you think I’d do that? Oh, Nate. I didn’t mean to leave you. And we’re never going back to him. Okay? Never.”
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She stared at me and I stared at her, and then she mouthed the words:
I love you.
And I mouthed the same words back.
Grandma had booked us into a local hotel, and on the drive there I told her everything that had been going on at home with Gary. I even told her about the light bulbs. She didn’t say much, but when we got to our room, she called my dad in America, who said he was leaving on the next available flight. She asked me if I wanted to speak to him, but I just shook my head.
Our room in the hotel had two beds, and that night Grandma lay next to me and asked me why Mum hadn’t told her about Gary. I didn’t know what to say, so I shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep.
I lay awake for hours worrying about Mum. What if she suddenly got worse in the night? What if something happened to her?
My head hurt remembering when the man in the orange jacket opened the door of the house. Of course no one lived there. How could I have been so stupid? The place was practically falling down. But what did that mean about Kitty? Who was she? Where had she come from?
I must have dozed off, but I was woken in the early morning when Grandma’s cell phone began to ring. I rolled over. Grandma was dressed and sitting on her bed with her back to me. As she spoke to the person on the other end she rubbed her head and said “Okay” over and over. I stared at her back and felt sick. I couldn’t tell if it was a bad phone call or a good phone call.
Grandma hung up and turned to me.
“That was the hospital,” she said, and I felt a flood of relief as she smiled. “They said your mum is doing well, and she can go home later today.”
I grinned back at her and then jumped out of bed to get dressed.
On the drive to the hospital Grandma kept asking if I was okay.
“I’m going to suggest to your mum that you both come back and live with me. For a while, at least. Does that sound like a good idea?”
My heart leapt. “That sounds like a great idea,” I said and I gave her a big smile.
We drove straight from the hospital to the cottage, as we needed to pick up our things. The doctor had said that Mum needed to go for another X-ray on her leg and he talked about physical therapy, but we could do that at the hospital that was closer to Grandma’s house.
Dad arrived just before we left. He was shaking a bit and he gave me a very long hug. He knew all about Gary because Grandma had told him on the phone. I told him it hadn’t been true what I’d said about Gary being like a father to me and that I’d only said it to make him feel bad. He smiled and said he understood. On his way from the airport he’d checked out our house, but when he got there Gary was loading up his car.
Dad confronted him and Gary said he’d been planning to get away from us and “this stupid town” all along. He said it was a relief that Mum and I had left because now he was free to go on to bigger and better things. Dad laughed at him and started to say he was a coward and a bully, but Gary sped off before he could finish.
Dad was sure that would be the last we’d ever see of Gary. Dad was here for a whole two weeks, so he said he’d come and see me at Grandma’s and I gave him an extra big hug when he said that.
We pulled up outside the cottage and Grandma gasped. “I can’t believe you stayed here all on your own, Nate. How did you manage?”
I didn’t think it actually looked that bad today. The sun was shining and there were even a few green shoots poking through the slushy snow, trying to hurry winter out of the way to make room for spring. Mum twisted around from the passenger seat.
“How’re you doing?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” I said. And I was.
“Right, let’s go inside and get our things together, shall we?” she said, getting her crutches ready. Grandma began saying that Mum should wait in the car, but I think she realized that Mum wanted to go in, even if she had to take it slowly.
The kitchen door was still slightly ajar and I pushed it open. The washing-up bowl was still sitting beside the garbage can, but there was no sign of the chicken.
Being back in the cottage was really weird. Grandma started tutting about the state of the place, and Mum just looked like she wanted to sit down. I was hoping that there would be some sign of Sam—I had so many questions to ask him, but I didn’t think it was likely.
Mum looked at me for a minute, checking if I was all right.
“We won’t be long, okay?” she said, and I nodded.
Grandma picked up the parcel on the table that had been left in the empty coal bunker by the delivery man. She turned it over in her hands.
“Someone sent a parcel to William. I wonder who?” she said, squinting at the address. She began to rip the packet open.
“I think I’m going to go and have one last look around outside,” I said. “I won’t be long.”
Mum looked worried, but I smiled so she could see I was all right and then headed out to the garden.
The birds were singing so loudly in the woods, it was like they’d all decided to get together and make a forest choir. I made my way through William’s Gate, past the tire swing.
I could see Kitty in the distance.
She was standing by the same tree where I’d met her just a few days ago. Her brown satchel was over her shoulder, her hat was pulled down tightly on her head, and she had her shovel in her hand.
And then I saw her color.
She hadn’t been freezing all those times before. Her lips weren’t blue from the cold—that was her glow. I could see it clearly now. But Kitty’s glow was like Arthur’s; it was faded.
“Nate!” she said, a big grin across her face when she spotted me. “I’m so glad you’re here! Are you back for good?”
She leaned on the shovel’s handle, just like she had before.
“No, Kitty. I can’t stay,” I said, studying her closely. Her eyes were bright and shining.
Shrugging, she sighed deeply and scraped the shovel half-heartedly in the dirt. I took a step closer.
“So … you’re … you’re one of them?” I said.
She looked up at me, but she didn’t say anything.
“You’re … You’re imaginary. Right?” I continued.
Her shoulders dropped and she nodded. “I was the best imaginary friend anyone could wish for. And I loved my friend dearly.”
I smiled. “It was Charlotte, wasn’t it? You were Charlotte’s friend? That’s why you were so determined to finish the treasure hunt.”
Kitty nodded. “I miss her, Nate. I miss her so much.”
She stared at the ground, her face sad.
“I’ve been on my own now for years. Many, many years.”
She looked back up at me, hopeful.
“It was great though, wasn’t it, Nate? Solving the treasure hunt together? I really enjoyed having a friend again.” Her forehead relaxed a little.
“But why didn’t you tell me who you were, Kitty? Why say you were James’s daughter?”
She put her head to one side as she thought about it. “I think … It’s been so long … I’ve been here for so long, all on my own, that maybe I forgot who I was. Do you think that’s right?”
I opened my mouth and closed it again. I couldn’t find the right words. She’d seemed so real to me; maybe that is what happened. That she had been here so long she’d forgotten she was imaginary.
I cleared my throat.
“I don’t know. Maybe? I don’t really know, Kitty,” I said.
She sighed and her gentle blue glow faded a little. “And now you’re leaving.” Her pale eyes blinked at me.
“Yes. I have to go.”
She dropped her head.
“But … But … Now that you’ve remembered who you are again, maybe you just need to find someone else who needs you,” I said. “Someone else who needs a friend.”
She looked puzzled for a moment, but I could see her blue eyes beginning to twinkle again. “Do you think?”
I nodded. “Yes! There must be hundreds of
kids out there who need you. Thousands!”
Her color was slowly returning. “I guess so.”
“And you’re not going to find them in a deserted wood, are you?”
She thought about it and smiled, but then her face quickly fell again. “But I don’t know how. I’ve forgotten how to, Nate.”
I thought back to my birthday and when I was talking to Sam about Arthur. Everything he’d said came back to me.
“You’ve got to let go. You’ve got to let go of Charlotte. If you let go, then you are ready to find someone new!”
“Let go? Are you sure?” she said.
I nodded, grinning.
“Okay … I’m not sure how. I’m not sure how to …”
I watched as she closed her eyes and took a few breaths. She could see something in her mind, I was sure, and she was moving her lips.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. So quietly I could hardly hear her. “Goodbye, Charlotte.”
Her face widened into a broad smile, and as it did, a blue glow shone out of her like a brilliant light. I laughed and blinked as it dazzled my eyes.
“Ha! You’re doing it, Kitty! You’re really doing it!”
She opened her eyes for a second, the bright blue sparkling in front of me, and she opened her mouth to say something, but then she was gone. Her brilliant color faded away into the trees.
I stood there for a moment, getting my breath back from what I’d witnessed. Had that really just happened? I laughed and clutched my chest as I took some deep breaths. And then I sighed.
“Goodbye, Kitty,” I said. “And thank you for being my friend.”
When I got back to the cottage the front door was wide open and Grandma was just closing the trunk of the car.
“Right. We’re all done. You ready, Nate?” said Mum from the passenger seat.
I looked up at the gray cottage, the dark ivy glinting in the sunlight.
“I just want to check I haven’t left anything lying around. Is that okay?” I said.
Mum watched me for a moment, and then she nodded.
I went through the door and made my way upstairs. I tried not to think about it too much, but what I was really doing was looking out for a flash of yellow to see if Sam was still around.
The Light Jar Page 16