Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express

by Alison DeLuca

  ***

  athed and dressed, Miriam sat in the schoolroom drinking the promised cup of tea while Mana read an essay. She felt more awake, and eventually she pulled her journal in front of her, in order to write for a bit.

  The door opened quietly, and Neil entered. “May I come in?” he asked tentatively. “Simon’s off with Miss Cantwell, again. Are you all right?” he added.

  “I think so,” Miriam replied, taking another long slurp of tea.

  “Good morning, Neil,” Mana said, smiling at him. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  He shook his head. “I’m fine,” he said. He sat down next to Mana and looked through the books that were piled next to her.

  “Are you sure you’re fine?” Mana asked.

  He breathed a long sigh. “I think I’ll write to my parents and tell them that I’ll come home soon.”

  Mana looked at him sharply over her glasses. “That seems sudden.”

  “Simon ignoring you, eh?” Miriam asked

  “He spends all his time blabbing with that woman.”

  Miriam snorted. “That woman! That’s exactly how I feel too. Thank goodness I have Mana to talk to, even if she does ask lots of questions.”

  “What questions?”

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to say that!” Miriam cried. “I just blurt things out, Mana.”

  “It’s all right,” Mana said. “I think that Neil should be in on the secret.”

  “What secret?” Miriam and Neil asked at the same time.

  Mana frowned. She appeared to consider for a moment, and she said, “I know now what is being planned for the company, and why they are running the Night Watchman Express; also, why we were able to see Lampala from the beach that day. And, I do think returning to your family, as soon as possible, is a very good idea, Neil.”

   “I’ll write to them today, at any rate,” he said. “But what do you mean by that, Miss Postulate? What is it? Can you tell us?”

  Mana appeared to consider. “We need to be as quiet as possible,” she said. “I’ve told Miriam this already, but if we listen and watch everyone, the Cantwells above all, perhaps I could confirm some ideas I have. Once I can do that, I need to return to Lampala to settle some issues there.”

  “To Lampala!” Miriam whispered. “Leaving me behind?”

  “Just for a short while,” Mana said.

  “But that’s a trip that would take weeks!” Neil objected. “I know the sea, and –”

  “There are other ways of travelling,” Mana said. “I’ve had some suspicions for a while, and what happened last night made me more certain that I must act, and soon. Now, I just need some sort of proof.”

  “But proof of what?” Neil demanded.

  “Just keep your ears and eyes open, as I said, and let me know what you discover.”

  “Can we go poking about?” Miriam asked hopefully.

  Mana shook her head. “Make certain that you do absolutely nothing that would raise any doubts in anyone’s mind about our innocence,” she said.

  “But you could, you know, cloud their minds while we looked,” Miriam argued.

  “Cloud their minds?” Neil asked, bewildered.

  “Oh, Mana can do mind control,” Miriam said impatiently. “I saw her do it once.”

  “Mind control! Good night!” Neil said. “What’s next? We have a secret plot, mind control, those weird circles on the beach –”

  “What circles on the beach?” Miriam said, turning towards him. “What are you talking about?”

  Neil clapped his hand over his mouth. “I wasn’t supposed to say anything!” he cried.

  “It’s MY beach!” Miriam said, turning pink. “You were keeping secrets from ME?”

  “It’s just something that Simon and I noticed,” Neil mumbled. “I didn’t mean to keep any secrets from you, but Simon insisted that we didn’t tell anyone.”

  “Oh, he did, did he? Well, who is he to say what you can or can’t tell me?”

  “Miriam,” Mana said.

  Miriam subsided, but she shot a dark look at Neil. “I can’t believe you didn’t say anything to me,” she muttered. “I thought we were friends.”

  “I’ll show you later if you like,” Neil offered. “Now that Simon has gone all peculiar over that Barbara female, you and I can observe them instead.”

  “Very well,” Miriam said, unwilling to forgive him, but longing to know what he was talking about.

  “I’d like to see them as well, if you don’t mind,” Mana said.

  “Oh, rather, Miss Postulate!” Neil said, coloring.

  Miriam, watching him, realized that Neil found Mana just as attractive as Simon found Miss Cantwell. Humph, she said to herself.

  “Can we go there this morning?” Miriam asked.

  “Lessons first, if you feel energetic enough,” Mana insisted.