Edie and the Box of Flits

by Kate Wilkinson

  ‘He was lost. He’d taken a wrong turning at King’s Cross and found himself at Waterloo. He was hungry so he came back and had some food with us, but he wanted to get back to Hillside to see if he could find your flum. I showed him the way. Couple of days later I got the message via the Underground mice that he’d got himself caught by one of the magpins and taken to the ghost station at Wilde Street. And he wanted me to come all the way to High Barnet to let you know.’

  ‘Of course. Wilde Street! It’s a ghost station,’ said Edie. ‘That’s why it’s not on the map.’

  ‘Yeah, that’s right. All the scavengers and thieves end up in those old empty stations. No one ever goes there and most of them are bricked up. The magpins chose Wilde Street. Trying to undo the hard work we do recycling and cleaning up the litter – and stealing our baby flit nuts.’

  ‘Why do they want them?’ asked Nid.

  ‘Someone wants to use them as pickpockets when they’ve hatched. Tiny fingers. Invisible to adults. What’s not to like? Easy pickings, isn’t it?’

  ‘What should we do?’ said Edie.

  ‘We’re going to attack. Saturday night. Try to rescue Jot and all the other missing young flits.’

  ‘We’ll come too,’ said Charlie.

  ‘Have you got weapons?’ asked Elfin.

  ‘Yes,’ said Charlie firmly.

  Edie felt light-headed with a renewed sense of hope.

  ‘Right, come to Waterloo railway arches on Saturday afternoon. Far end of Leake Street.’ Elfin stood up. ‘I have to get back now.’

  ‘How will you go?’ asked Edie. ‘It’s a long way to fly.’

  ‘I ride on top of the trains,’ said Elfin. ‘Hook myself on with this.’ She pulled a ring pull from a can out of her bag.

  ‘You ride on top?’ breathed Nid.

  ‘Course. It’s easy when you know how. Can be a bit windy, though. High Barnet to Waterloo. Takes you less than an hour. Never inside the trains, though! Too easy to get splatted against a window. I was just hiding in that umbrella until the rain stopped.’

  Nid looked at Elfin with shining eyes as she stood up and flitted off through the hedge on the way to the station. ‘Wo-ow!’

  ‘Come on,’ said Edie. ‘We’ve got to go too.’

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Alexandra Park Road

  T

  hey made it back to Edie’s street just before six, but Edie felt uneasy. She had no idea how she was going to persuade Dad to let her go to the fairy show in Crystal Palace at the weekend and to Leake Street to see Elfin. Not after everything that had happened. She didn’t think she could bear the disappointment.

  Dad opened the door, looking completely different from the man she had left that morning. Ursula seemed to have been forgotten and his suitcase was standing in the hallway. It turned out there had been an urgent call from Mum.

  ‘I’m going to Finland first thing tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Granny Agata fell again this morning and has broken her leg. Mum and I are going to bring her here to recuperate.’

  Edie tried to think about Granny Agata, but a hundred more thoughts raced through her head. How could she possibly look for Impy if Dad planned on taking her to Finland too?

  ‘What about me?’ she said.

  Dad looked at her blankly.

  ‘I can’t miss school.’

  If it wasn’t for the flits, a week off school would have been the best thing ever.

  ‘No, of course not!’ Dad said. ‘You’re not coming, Edie. Benedict’s going to stay for a few days. It’s all arranged.’

  Edie felt sorry about Granny Agata, but she also couldn’t believe her luck.

  *

  Dad left for the airport very early the next morning and Benedict was installed in the kitchen by the time Edie arrived home from school. He had brought with him a rucksack full of clean T-shirts, a packet of sparklers, a guide to British birds and a surprising array of cooking implements. His T-shirt for the day read Yes,Chef! and for their first evening meal he prepared a risotto, chopping and slicing peppers and onions into tiny neat squares, and gradually stirring the rice into a creamy dish. Nid watched from the sugar bowl.

  ‘We’ve got a new manager and she’s awful. Even worse than Ursula,’ Benedict said. ‘And everything’s a gigantic muddle after those birds came in.’ He took a breath. ‘Look at this, Edie.’

  He took a copy of the London Herald out of his bag and smoothed out the front page. Edie caught the words ‘bird attack’.

  Londoners continue to complain of birds flying through the Underground tunnels and causing disturbances. These birds are small with orange beaks and are scavengers, but experts have been struggling to say what type of bird they are, and whether they have anything to do with the extraordinary rise in thefts and pickpocketing recently.

  Benedict patted his guide to British birds. ‘I’ve looked at them all. Blue tits and goldcrests, greenfinches and chaffinches. None of them fit the description at all.’

  ‘They’re magpins!’ Edie blurted out and Nid jumped up and ran behind a jam jar. ‘They have something to do with all the stuff that’s going missing. And so does Vera!’

  ‘W-wait a minute,’ Benedict said. ‘Vera’s a bit odd, but I doubt she’s involved in all this. And what are magpins?’ He picked up his book and looked under M.

  ‘Magpie, mallard, moorhen . . . Are you sure you don’t mean “magpie”? They’re quite large and black and white.’

  ‘No,’ said Edie. ‘I don’t think you’ll find them in any books.’ She longed for Benedict to be twelve rather than nineteen so that she could tell him about the flits.

  *

  It was getting dark and they could hear the Bonfire Night fireworks beginning to pop and bang in the display up at Alexandra Palace. Benedict flung on his coat and picked up the packet of sparklers. ‘Let’s go up to the top of the road to watch them.’

  They stood at the end of the street and Edie lifted Nid onto her shoulder so that he could see the shower of lights exploding above them. Benedict handed Edie a sparkler and they each wrote their names in the air in zigzagging lines of white sparks. Edie wrote the name I-M-P-Y in big letters, looping and stretching her arm upwards and outwards to show how much she cared.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Alexandra Palace to Crystal Palace

  ‘I

  thought I might come along too,’ said Benedict. ‘Just for the morning. I’ve got to see my mum this afternoon and she lives in South London.’

  He was standing in the kitchen mixing pancake batter early on Saturday. Charlie and Edie stared at him. Edie had told him that they were going to a fun fair at Crystal Palace and Charlie had arrived first thing as they had planned.

  As Benedict flipped a pancake he said, ‘What you might not know about me is that I love roller coasters! It’s a bit of a hobby. So I’ll drive you there and go for a ride. How’s that for a bargain?’ It was difficult not to agree, especially after Benedict disappeared upstairs and returned wearing a T-shirt that said in big letters across the front: Today Will Be a Roller Coaster Ride!

  Charlie crumpled into laughter, but Edie felt tense. Today was their one chance to get Impy and the flits back and she couldn’t let Benedict spoil it.

  *

  Benedict parked his yellow Mini near the top of Crystal Palace Park and stood looking out over the fairground. All the rides were spread out beneath them, humming and whirring in a sea of flickering neon lights and tinny music. The smell of burnt sugar and popcorn drifted up the hill towards them. Edie could see the big wheel with its umbrella seats, dodgems with electric points that crackled and sparked and, towering over them all, a roller coaster with loops of red track.

  Benedict was already heading downhill. ‘Big wheel first,’ he said.

  They rode on the big wheel and banged and bashed their way around the dodgem track twice. Nid loved the fun fair. He climbed up the sparking pole at the back of the dodgems, urging them to go faster.

  ‘Are you c
oming?’ Benedict called over his shoulder as he set off towards the roller coaster. It was the most popular ride and a queue of people snaked its way round the fence. It was going to be a thirty-minute wait at least.

  ‘Now’s our chance,’ whispered Edie.

  For a moment Charlie wavered as the roller-coaster cars swooped above his head. Even Nid was tempted.

  ‘Charlie!’ hissed Edie.

  ‘Nah!’ he said. ‘I’ll stay with Edie.’

  ‘OK,’ said Benedict. ‘I’ll see you in an hour.’

  They turned away from the roller coaster and walked quickly across the fairground towards the high street. They had worked out that Frederick Hall was somewhere at the far end of the street, but the pavements were crowded with families walking towards the funfair.

  Edie gripped Charlie’s arm. ‘Look!’ she said, pointing above people’s heads.

  A huge banner was hanging from the side of a large stone building about a hundred metres in front of them. Winter Fair – Small Worlds and Magical Places was written in bold brightly coloured letters. Fairy lights were strung round the door and people were queuing to go in.

  ‘I just hope they’re here!’ whispered Edie as they waited to buy a ticket.

  Tinsel and more fairy lights were draped across the doorways and round the walls of a large hall.

  Running right round the edge was the first of the ‘small worlds’ – a train line with platforms and signals, railway workers, station buildings, clusters of cottages and fields with cows in. A steam train the size of a toothpaste tube rattled past, pulling six coaches behind it, whistling and belching steam as it went.

  Stalls with small theatrical stages dotted the rest of the hall, displaying miniature street scenes, gardens and a banquet with tiny plates of roasted meats and cake. There was a racetrack with wind-up horses, a police station equipped with little whistles and helmets and a hairdresser’s peopled by tiny rabbits. Right in the centre of the hall stood a huge doll’s house with four floors of perfectly furnished rooms and gold taps in the bathroom. Knots of visitors crowded round every exhibit.

  ‘This is brilliant!’ said Charlie. He stared in at the bathroom, touching a golden tap with his little finger. Edie was scanning the room for Juniper. Her eyes came to rest on a crowd of children in the far corner. She took a sharp intake of breath when she heard a familiar bossy voice. ‘Come along, please. Be amazed at my real-live fairy show.’

  ‘Charlie,’ she hissed. ‘I think Juniper is over there. Can you go and look?’

  She felt Nid take a flying leap from her pocket over to Charlie. ‘Don’t let anyone see you, Nid,’ she whispered. ‘There are children everywhere.’

  She watched as Charlie pushed his way through the crowd to stand at the edge of the semicircle. He stood on tiptoe for several minutes and when he came back he spoke quickly.

  ‘I saw them,’ he said. ‘Both of them. She’s put them in a weird sort of fairy display. And Juniper’s all dressed up too. Nid’s still there hiding under the podium.’

  Edie was so desperate to see Impy again that she pushed her way through the adults and knelt down so that she was hidden behind a girl in a Puffa jacket. She peered between the heads of the smaller children.

  A glass tank stood on a table covered with wire netting and, on the base of the tank, there was a scattering of rocks and pebbles and a fairy pool that had been lined with silver foil. Clumps of moss were stuck to the largest rock with glue, and the plastic toadstool from the Instagram picture was positioned on a dot of Blu Tack. Juniper had painted a small screen with watery splotches of green just behind it and stuck on some cut-out butterflies. Edie felt sick. It looked awful. A crude sign was pinned to the front of the glass tank.

  Real-live fairy glade. 50p a look. Children only!

  Juniper stood slightly to one side of the tank wearing a shiny green ballgown with puffed sleeves and clutching a plastic wand with a star at the top that lit up when she pressed a button. In her other hand she held a feather. She waved the wand wildly from side to side.

  ‘Oh, little fairies, I summon you to the fairy glade,’ she said in a tremulous voice. ‘Come forth, Goatsbeard!’

  ‘Goatsbeard?’ Edie crinkled up her face in disgust.

  Speckle suddenly appeared from behind the screen dressed in the red pixie hat and coat. He skipped round the fairy pool and made a few tentative star jumps. Next Juniper invited the audience to meet ‘Blossom’ and Impy appeared with an upturned buttercup on her head and a furious scowl on her face. She stomped her way across the tank and plonked herself down on a pebble. It was all Edie could do not to leap up and snatch the horrible wand out of Juniper’s hand.

  ‘Come on, little Blossom. Fly for the children,’ said Juniper in her strange voice, and she tickled Impy on the nose with the feather. ‘Look, isn’t she pretty?’

  Impy sneezed and turned her back on the audience. Juniper banged on the side of the tank and her voice became bossy and harsh as she prodded Impy with her wand. ‘Fly, little Blossom.’

  Slowly Impy stood up, pushing her buttercup hat out of her eyes. She fluttered her wings and lifted up into the air with her arms folded in front of her chest.

  Edie had to bite her lip in order not to shout out. It was then that she saw Nid clambering up the slippery folds of Juniper’s shiny ballgown.

  One of the children cried out. ‘Look . . . another fairy! On your dress!’

  Juniper took this turn of events in her stride and, ever the impresario, she gleefully introduced a third act, snatching Nid up by the seat of his trousers.

  ‘And here is Cowslip, who likes to try to escape. No you don’t! Naughty Cowslip!’

  Jamming a petal hat on Nid she lifted the netting and dropped him into the tank with the others, resealing the top. When the other two saw Nid they rushed over to him and Impy flung off her buttercup hat so that she could envelop Nid in her arms. Nid couldn’t resist a circuit of cartwheels round the tank.

  The children gasped, laughing and clapping. The adults either marvelled at their imagination, cooing and whooping along with them, or peered into the tank frustrated that there appeared to be nothing to see and that they were left out of the joke.

  ‘Thank you. THANK you,’ said Juniper. ‘That’ll be fifty pence, please!’

  Juniper had turned the flits into performing animals.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Crystal Palace

  E

  die knew she had to be very careful. Causing a scene in front of all the kids and their parents would only make them think she was stealing Juniper’s show. She slipped away unnoticed and hurried back to Charlie.

  ‘Now she’s got Nid in there too! We have to get them out of there,’ she hissed.

  ‘But how?’ said Charlie. ‘I hadn’t expected it to be this busy.’

  ‘We need to create some sort of distraction,’ Edie said.

  Charlie looked around. At the far end of the hall was a ‘kitchen cafe’ selling fairy cakes, finger sandwiches and pots of tea.

  ‘We could smash crockery?’

  ‘It would make a noise, but it wouldn’t be enough,’ said Edie.

  On one side of the hall was an archway that led through to a much smaller anteroom lined with cupboards and shelves. It was deserted. Charlie tugged at Edie’s arm.

  ‘There might be something in those cupboards we could use,’ he said. ‘I’ll go and look. Keep a watch for me.’

  Edie moved to the side of the hall beside a display of mice dressed in tiny Santa suits. From here she could see directly into the side room and she watched as Charlie checked through the first three cupboards. In the distance she could hear Juniper’s bossy voice inviting more visitors to the real-live fairy glade. Charlie closed the first three cupboards, but spent some time rummaging around on the bottom shelf of the fourth. Edie could see one of the organisers circling the room and coming this way.

  ‘Charlie,’ she whispered sharply.

  In seconds he had shut the fourth
cupboard and was back at her side holding something under his jacket. The organiser wandered past them.

  ‘I think I’ve got something that will cause just the sort of distraction we need,’ he said quietly. He opened his jacket to show Edie a small megaphone, a box of matches and a firework fountain. On the side of the fountain was written Chimney of Fire in silver letters.

  ‘It was in the Scouts cupboard,’ he said. ‘They must meet here. It was probably meant for a fireworks display.’

  ‘What are you going to do with it?’ asked Edie.

  Charlie was already scanning the room. ‘Just go and stand by that fire alarm,’ he said. ‘And when I give you the signal hit it!’

  Edie went over and stood by a small square of glass on the wall. Beside it dangled a silver hammer. Excitement prickled at the back of her neck, but she also felt fear. Fear that Charlie’s plan would go wrong and they would end up at the police station and would never see the flits again.

  Charlie moved along the wall until he was standing by the miniature railway track, and Edie could see him waiting for the train to slowly loop its way towards them from the other side of the room. As it came closer she saw Charlie light the firework fountain with a match.

  A small blue light flickered on the touchpaper as the model train came towards them, clickety-click, clickety-click, until it was only centimetres from Charlie. It drew alongside him and he jammed the lit fountain into the engine cab.

  It ignited, and with a fiery whoosh the train sped up and hurtled round the track, and a fountain of sparks shot up towards the ceiling. It spat and crackled and the Chimney of Fire became a huge column of gold and silver light. It was spectacular.

  Charlie’s plan had worked and he waved wildly at Edie.

  I’ve always wanted to do this, thought Edie as she smashed the glass of the fire alarm with the hammer. Immediately the alarm sounded.

  ‘Fire!’ yelled Charlie through the megaphone. ‘Please can everyone evacuate the hall? Evacuate the hall immediately.’

  There was pandemonium.

  The train was circuiting the hall with the Chimney of Fire reaching higher and higher towards the ceiling and smoke was beginning to billow about. There was a strong smell of gunpowder. Charlie grabbed Edie and pulled her behind the large curtain.