Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express

by Alison DeLuca

Epilogue

  What Happened to Nelly

  elly was asleep, dreaming of looking down at a great cage that hung down from a huge cliff. Was there – someone in the cage?

  She opened her mouth to scream, feeling herself falling off the cliff, and was jolted awake. Lord bless us and save us, she said to herself, sitting up in the dark and putting one hand over her heart. No more cocoa and marmalade pudding after hours, she thought. That was a nasty dream, make no mistake!

  She started to pull up the covers and lie down again, but she heard a small sound from below. Her heart beat quicker. Well, I can’t just lie here with those doings underneath me she reasoned and got out of bed.

  Nelly padded downstairs and stopped on the landing by Miss Miriam’s room. The door was closed, but Nelly had the feeling that something had happened there recently.

  Her mother, back at her home, had always told her she was a great girl for her ‘feelings’. Once, she had picked out which of her sisters had taken her new hair ribbon, just by looking at them. And once, she had found the gold sovereign that her father had buried and forgotten, just by walking over the spot.

  She felt the same vibration now, a kind of movement in the air. Without hesitating, she turned the handle and peered into the room.

  “Jesus, Mary and Joseph!” she said. Miriam’s bed was empty, and the girl was nowhere to be seen.

  Nelly cautiously approached the window. No, nothing there, thank goodness. For a moment, she had feared that the young girl was hanging in a cage –

  Now stop that, Nelly said, giving herself a mental shake. That was a dream and nothing more than a dream. A cage! What next?

  She turned to go, and stubbed her toe painfully on something left out on the floor of the room. “Oh, the brute!” Nelly said, hopping on one foot and holding her toe.

  The door opened. Mrs. Marchpane marched in. “What is all this noise?” She noticed the empty bed. “Where is that dreadful child?” she added. “And – what are you doing here?”

  Nelly let go of her toe and bobbed a curtsy. “If you please, ma’am, I heard a noise and came down to investigate, begging your pardon, ma’am. And I hurt meself in the dark, on that –”

  She pointed to the CROWN PHOENIX. Mrs. Marchpane gasped and bent down. “Is that what I think it is?” she murmured. She picked up the typing machine and looked at it, turning it this way and that. “Yes, I believe it is!”

  She looked around, and recalled to whom she was speaking. “Go back to bed at once,” she snapped at Nelly. Breaking into a run, she dashed out of the room, shouting, “Virgil! Virgil, come quickly! Come and see! This changes everything!”

  -- End of Part One --

  Part Two

  Big Star Island

  Map of Lampala and Mixiamani