Blind Man's Buff

by Barbara Gaskell Denvil

A few more minutes, and they landed in the small pretty garden in Hammersmith. Nathan rolled off, absolutely delighted, and dashed indoors. The kitchen light was on, and the door was open, which surprised him.

  And there stood Granny Octobr, wiping her hands on her apron.

  “Roast lamb, roast potatoes, parsnips, peas and gravy,” she said with a great big smile. “And for afterwards, I’ve made a strawberry cheesecake.”

  Nathan absolutely fell into her arms. But then he heard Ferdinand complaining about being squashed in her apron pocket, so Nathan staggered over and collapsed on a chair. ”How did you know I was coming here?” he gasped. “It was only a few days ago I left you in Peganda.”

  His grandmother regarded him with an even bigger smile. “I’m not that useless, my dear. We have all been searching for you for eight days. Desperately worried, of course, and your poor mother used all the magic she could to track you down. With no success. Until Hermes received your message, and came rushing in to tell us.”

  Hermes deposited himself beside the warmth of the oven and its roasting feast, and added, “Naturally, my illustrious lord, I had joined the search. But since I now know you were underground, it was not surprising that I couldn’t see you. I flew across Lashtang many times, but found nothing. Then came your message. ‘He’s alive’, I told everyone.’ And everyone was sure you would wish to come home here after such a dreadful experience. So the illustrious Altabella Octobr prepared to greet you, my lord.”

  A sudden noise drowned out his last words, as the other door burst open and Poppy, Alice, Alfie, John, Peter, Sam and Sherdam rushed in.

  “Beat ya to it,” shouted John with delight.

  “We’ve already had some cheesecake,” said Poppy. “But we’ve left you a little bit.”

  “Ever so nice it is, too,” said Sam.

  It was after dinner when they were all sitting around relaxing, stuffed full and hardly able to move after having eaten too much, that Nathan told the full story of what had happened to him, and what had happened to old man William Octobr. Finally he asked, “Does anyone know anything about something called Tansle?” No one had, although Sherdam frowned, saying he thought William Octobr, the last accepted and crowned Octobr emperor, had such a name in his deposed family. “No,” Nathan shook his head. “Well, actually, yes he does. But that’s not the person I was thinking of. And actually, this isn’t really a person at all.”

  “Nathan, don’t be confusing,” complained Granny. “Tell us properly.”

  Nathan shook his head. “I’m not sure how to describe it. Yaark and Wagster and Clebbster all change and turn into different things. I’ve almost got used to it. But this was different.” He reached out and helped himself to another slice of strawberry cheesecake, thinking as he munched. Eventually he said, “She’s two things. Either a little girl, about seven. But then she blinks six times and turns into a huge wolf thing with three heads.”

  “That’s weird,” said Alfie.

  “Poor little girl,” said Alice.

  “Not sure about that,” said Nathan. “She wanted to eat me.”

  Sherdam held up one hand. “Indeed, yes. I know who you mean,” he said, and pulling out a chair, sat down at the table next to Granny. “It’s the old race of Sparkan,” he continued. “I thought they had all died out. When the Hazletts discovered the Sky Island of Sparkan, they killed off the people. Unhappy souls, they were all rather simple, you know, and couldn’t talk except in grunts and barks and growls. I have no idea where this last one might have been found.”

  “The Sky Island?” asked Peter. “Isn’t that the volcano where Clebbster goes for a sauna?”

  “Yes, Sparkan. And the three-headed wolves used to live there. So perhaps they are not all wiped out after all,” said Granny. “Just like the Epilogs who were thought extinct, but are definitely not.”

  “Well, Braxton has this one,” explained Nathan. “He uses it to frighten William Octobr and make him do what he wants. Otherwise he says Tansle will kill the old man’s son and granddaughter. But what he did to me was disgusting anyway. If it wasn’t for Hermes, I would be dead. I would have been Tansle’s dinner. And there were other vile things in the tunnels. I nearly didn’t make it.” His memories were making him feel quite sick.

  “More strawberry cheesecake?” suggested Granny.

  Chapter Four

  It had started to snow.

  “Today is the sixth day of December,” said Alice, “St. Nicholas Day, and the start of the Christmas Season.”

  Poppy looked up from her book. “Really? You started Christmas so early? We don’t do that anymore. We just do Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and maybe a few bits and pieces on Boxing Day.”

  “Boxing Day? Oh, I think you mean St. Stephen’s Day. Everything changes so much over the centuries.”

  “It’s a shame,” said Poppy. “But look. We still get freezing weather.”

  The snow was settling on the tops of the branches, as if all the bare and leafless twigs were being painted white. Below, the lawn was also turning white with the green patches of grass barely showing through. Near the path were the prints of birds who had come searching for food.

  “We should put out seed,” said Nathan, walking over. “The poor birds often go hungry in winter.”

  There were delicious smells floating out from the kitchen, where Granny was cooking again. “We never go hungry,” said Sam. “That’s wonderful. I remember when I was little, I never had enough to eat. I was always so hungry. It was like a pain going right through my stomach. Sometimes I knocked at the big houses to ask for scraps. I even went to the palace once.”

  Poppy frowned. “Did they feed you?” she asked.

  “Oh yes,” Sam nodded. “They took me into that huge warm kitchen next to the fires, and gave me a pie and some bread and ale with clean water from the well.”

  “I suppose we can stay here a bit longer before going back to Lashtang?” asked Peter. “It’s so warm in the house and such comfy beds and everything. And we don’t have to think about rebellions and fighting.”

  “Nor worrying about when the Hazletts are going to turn up and do horrible things to us.”

  “I suppose we can stay a bit longer,” decided Nathan with a grin. “After all, it’s our parents and the other adults who do all the planning. They don’t need us.”

  “Alright, how about we go and look at the palace here?” suggested Poppy.

  “Or the city where all the Christmas decorations are up,” said Nathan.

  “And the Christmas trees,” agreed Poppy.

  John was immediately curious. “You gets trees fer Christmas? Does you burn them? Or eat them?”

  Nathan laughed. “We decorate them. Come on, let’s get a bus and go to Oxford Street and Knightsbridge and Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace.”

  “The Duke o’ Buckingham’s got a palace?” asked Alfie. “In our time, he were a right nasty bloke, and he got his head chopped off. A traitor. Reckon he deserved it.”

  “I don’t want to think of executions,” complained Poppy. “Put coats on, and scarves and hats and gloves and boots, and we’ll go exploring for Christmas and buy presents.”

  Standing at the bus stop was not the warmest place, and they all stamped their feet and rubbed their hands together, and watched the steam come spiralling between each other’s lips. “You looks like a dragon wiv all that smoke out yer face,” laughed John.

  “And you look like a woolly bear,” grinned Nathan, “Between that woolly cap and that woolly scarf all I can see is your nose.”

  Sam adored the buses. It was his favourite ride. He didn’t like the tube train as it gave him claustrophobia, but on the bus he liked to sit upstairs and clap when it whooshed around corners. “Better than the ladder,” he exclaimed.

  “Everything’s better than the ladder.”

  “Even the Sky Train?”

  Everyone was most impressed by the huge Christmas tree in the middle of Trafalgar Square, with its
twinkling lights, and all the shops lit up and decorated with swinging bells, glitter, lights and holly. They stared into all the gloriously detailed pictures presented in the store windows, and stood for some time outside the great palace, staring up with their mouths open to catch the sting of freeze on their tongues as the crystal dither of soft white snow fell around them.

  “Presents,” cried Poppy. “I want to buy something for everyone.”

  “And me.”

  “Don’t forget to find a present for Mouse.”

  “And Mavis.”

  “Who’s Mavis?”

  “The echidna.”

  “Isn’t she back in Lashtang?”

  Pointing at brightly coloured stockings, clockwork toys, model aeroplanes, books, pens, pencils and big warm boots, everyone chose their presents. “I’m going to take a camera next time,” insisted Sam. “No one in Lashtang or my old home knows about cameras. I want to surprise them all.”

  “They’ll think you’re a demon and throw you into gaol.”

  “I want a watch. A digital watch with a battery that’ll last forever.”

  “They’ll throw you into gaol with Sam.”

  “A radio, perhaps.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t get any programmes to listen to back then, would you!”

  “A walky-talky then, like Braxton had.”

  But Nathan didn’t even want to think about Braxton. Remembering Braxton and Tansle made him feel sick. They enjoyed everything, but they knew their time in modern London was limited.

  It was some time they had been back from Lashtang and had not yet returned to friends in medieval London. Since the rebellion had been called off because of Nathan’s abduction and the problem with William Octobr, it was accepted that no one would return to Lashtang yet. Messina, Bayldon and most of the others had remained to plan another rebellion which they hoped could not be discovered or spoiled, but Alice and Alfie were very keen to return to Bishopsgate and her home.

  The snow had turned to a soft drifting mist, its crystals like tiny dazzling tips of cotton wool. For a moment everyone stood on a street corner, heads up, gazing into the sky. “It’s like the veil,” smiled Nathan. “All the snowflakes, just floating like all those dragonflies.”

  “Tis the ladder I needs,” said John, shaking his head to blow off the snow from his woolly hat. “Or maybe just yer granny. Have to get back home afore me pa goes off sailing again.”

  “There ain’t no one sailing nowhere till Spring,” said Alfie.

  “But why not have two Christmases,” laughed Nathan. “One here, and then one in your time. We could stay here till December 12th, and then go back to medieval London for the rest.”

  “We’ll talk to Granny when we get back to the house,” nodded Poppy. “I’m sure she’s decided to go back to Lashtang anyway, to help organise the rebellion. I think it might happen soon after the New Year.”

  “They won’t never get it going that quick,” objected Alfie.

  “One last thing,” pointed Alice. “Let’s try that big shop before we catch the bus. In the window it says we can meet Father Christmas inside.”

  Nathan laughed. “O.K. But you can’t believe –,” then he saw the excitement in all their faces and said no more. He didn’t want to spoil their fun. After all, there had never been any mention of a Father Christmas back in medieval times, so none of them had learned what it meant.

  It was a shop that Nathan didn’t remember ever seeing before. Led by Alice, eager to discover the real Father Christmas, everyone trooped through the aisles between counters full of toys of all sorts. They stopped frequently on the way, looking with excitement at everything. Only Nathan and Poppy had ever seen most of these objects before, and were thrilled to see so much together.

  Finally they reached the lifts and took one up to the second floor where the notice said Father Christmas was waiting. The lift itself was a pleasure for nearly everyone, and Peter was grinning as wide as his lute. “Better than the ladder,” he said, grinning.

  On the second floor they all hurried out and followed the painted arrows on the floor to where a small fence surrounded the big chair where the gentleman himself was sitting. Large, fat, white-haired with a fluffy beard he sat, all dressed in red, he was a very cheerful looking soul.

  “Welcome, welcome,” boomed Father Christmas. “Come and tell me what you want from me in your stockings this year.”

  This confused Peter, who had rushed to be first in the queue. “My legs,” he said with some hesitation. “What else do you want me to put in my stockings?”

  “No, no, dear boy,” said the fat man through his beard. “For a gift. A surprise gift.”

  Everyone else had crowded around except for Nathan, who was waiting outside the little wooden fence. “That’s a nice throne,” giggled Poppy, pointing to the fancy chair where Father Christmas sat. “My mother has a throne just like it.”

  The man frowned. “And what’s your name, little girl?”

  Poppy giggled again and pushed Alice in front. “Her name’s Alice. Tell her what you’re going to give her for Christmas. A lovely surprise, I hope.”

  But it was Nathan, leaning against the fence, who spoke first. “Very odd,” he mumbled to himself. “There’s no other kids here. No one. Just us.”

  Which is when Father Christmas threw off his hat, his false beard, all the pillows that had been tied around his middle under his coat and hopped up from his throne. “Shall I tell you what I’m giving you this Christmas, Alice Palice Parry-Warry? Oh yes, a big secret it is. But you’ll love it, so you will. At least, you’ll have to promise to love it. That’s what the king wants.”

  As Brewster Hazlett began to jump and dance around his small holly-decorated space, everyone else turned to run. But the little gate was locked. So they tried to jump over the top. Nathan, out on the other side, helped them but both Sam and Alice fell over and got stuck, while Brewster continued to hop around cackling with laughter.

  “Oh, have a happy nappy wappy Christmas, away in a manger and rest all you merry gentlemen. Or perhaps I should say arrest all merry gentlemen, and the holly and the ivy can drink what’s left of the wassail cup.”

  Everyone now finally out of Brewster’s little compound, they rushed to the lifts, pressed the button, and scrambled inside. Nathan pushed the button for the ground floor.

  But instead of going down, the lift went up.

  “Whooshing here, whooshing there,” said the ladder in that familiar voice of complaint.

  “Oh no,” squeaked Poppy. “Where are you taking us?”

  Nathan was pushing all the buttons he could find, and rattling at the door, but the lift kept rising faster and faster and the door did not open. Sam had collapsed on the floor and John was kicking at the back wall. “Take that!” he yelled.

  “No need for temper,” objected the ladder. “I’m simply obeying orders and taking you all back to medieval England. It won’t take long at this speed.”

  “I done says how I wanted the ladder,” John said, mouth open, “but not yet. I ain’t ready.”

  They all stared at each other. “That’s stoopid,” sniffed Alfie. “We was going there anyways in a day or two.”

  “And now we won’t get dinner tonight,” moaned Sam. “Granny promised to make steak pudding and mashed potatoes with mince pies and custard afterwards.”

  “I’s hungry too,” John nodded. “But it ain’t too bad. We was coming back here anyways.”

  “But not like this,” said Poppy. “We’re carrying all our shopping, and wearing all the wrong clothes.”

  “Oh dear,” sighed Alice. “I have a short pleated skirt, woolly tartan tights, little ankle boots with a fur lining, a big red jumper, a sheepskin coat with toggles, brown gloves and scarf and a red hat with a pompom. I’ll be arrested.”

  “If we go straight to your place,” muttered Peter hopefully, “we can run straight in and change. I’m wearing those funny shoes you people call Nike. Everyone at home will thin
k I’m deformed.”

  “But reckon we always starts off in Bandy Alley.”

  Nathan addressed the ladder, though it meant talking to a lift, and he felt rather stupid. “You’re not taking us to Bandy Alley, are you?” he asked.

  “Certainly not. A very boring place,” said the ladder with a rattle.

  “Home, then?” begged Alice. “My house, please?”

  “Humph,” said the ladder with a hiccup. “Can’t say. Obeying orders.”

  “But you can’t leave us in the middle of the city,” said Alice. “Not dressed like this.”

  “I don’t know,” said the ladder crossly. “You always ask for a whoosh, and now I’m giving you a lovely fast whizz, and you still don’t like it.”

  “But what about where we arrive?”

  “Well, I can tell you this,” relented the ladder. “It won’t be the middle of London. The rest is a secret. I had to promise and I always have to obey orders from the rulers of Lashtang. I don’t have an easy job, you know. So stop moaning.”

  Poppy smiled. “Come on, cheer up everybody,” she said, looking around at everyone squeezed beside her. “We can’t complain because we wanted to come back to medieval London anyway. And if we’re not being dumped in the middle of the city, we’ll be fine. We can run home and change our clothes.” Her smile widened. “And then, on Christmas Day we can stay at home and give each other all our presents anyway, since we’ve got them all with us.”

  “In big fancy plastic bags with shop’s names on them,” laughed Nathan. “So I hope you’re right, Pops, and no one sees us.”

  “And we ain’t even got Hermes wiv us to get a message back to Granny.”

  “Nor Mouse to cuddle at night.”

  Peeping out of the little window in the door, they could see something becoming clear outside, with houses, streets, and the glimmer of a river. “Nearly there,” said the ladder. “Take all your rubbish with you. I don’t want anything left behind.”

  “Got my Mars Bars,” said Peter, patting his coat pocket.

  “I’d sooner have the kitten.”

  “But I don’t have my beautiful lute with me.”