“Katherine,” she smiled nicely, “you’re still not concentrating very well. Are you able to see the board okay, dear?”
Great, thought Katherine, now my teacher thinks I’m blind.
“Oh, yes, everything is just fine, really Mrs. Glean. We did a lot of...um, gardening this weekend, and I’m a little tired. You know, with my parents’ award-winning flowers and everything...” Katherine feigned a smile then dashed past the teacher before she could say anything else. She hoped this rather lame excuse would satisfy her teacher for now. She was getting awfully snoopy.
“How persistent can you be?” Katherine wondered as she trudged out into the street, looking for her mother’s car. She frowned. Her mother wasn’t there. She stood in the cold for a few minutes, biting her lip.
Suddenly her mother’s car appeared from around the corner, lurching and careening down the street toward her. The car looked out of control. Students ran for cover, screaming. The car slammed to a stop in front of Katherine, then the back door burst open. Her mother leaned into the back seat from the front, and yelled at her, “GET IN!”
Katherine was too shocked to do anything but obey. She jumped into the car, and they sped off. She noticed her mother’s hair was loose and messy, jumbled all over her face, and she was breathing in a funny, jagged way. She looked flustered and a little crazy. Katherine was worried.
“Mom, what’s wrong...” Katherine started, then stopped. That was when she noticed the large cloth bag in the seat beside her. It wiggled slightly.
Katherine clasped her hand to her mouth. “MOM! You didn’t bring him?!” she shouted. But she knew the answer. Her heart sank. What was her mother doing, bringing the gargoyle in the car to school? At that moment, Gargoth popped his head out of the bag and glared at her.
She tried not to look too horrified. She even managed a weak smile at Gargoth. He stuck his tongue out at her and dived back into the bag. So much for no more rudeness, she thought.
“Mom, what’s going on?” she asked. “Why did you bring him? This can’t be a wise thing to do. Mom?”
Her mother was staring at the traffic, apparently not listening.
“Mom,” she started again, “why is your hair all messy?”
“Gargoth has never been inside a car before,” she said simply. That was all the explanation Katherine was going to get. They drove in silence until her mother pulled the car into a parking spot in front of The Golden Nautilus.
“Bring him,” her mother said to her as she got out of the car, attempting to fix her mussed hair. Katherine could see it was useless to argue, since her mother was already clopping unsteadily across the sidewalk toward the store. Katherine looked toward the bag, then moved closer and peered in.
Gargoth was huddled, cowering and shivering, in the bottom of the bag. Clearly, he was very frightened. Katherine suddenly felt a tiny bolt of sympathy for him. He glared at her, then shut his eyes, just like she had seen Milly do once when she had hurt her tail and was going to the vet.
“It’s okay, Gargoth. We’re just going to look in the store. Nothing will happen to you,” she found herself saying gently.
He looked up at her again, then closed his eyes once more and stopped shivering. He drew his wings tightly around himself and sat still as a statue in the bottom of the bag.
Katherine picked up the bag and left the car. She entered the store behind her mother. It was a dark dungeon of a store, full of strange and delightful things. Books, comics, unusual toys and strange knick-knacks, candles, skulls and superheroes. There were dragons, monsters and other magical creatures. She and her mother nosed around the shelves but could find nothing resembling a gargoyle.
“May I help you?” A young salesman finally appeared, looking bored.
“Yes, yes, we’re looking for a gargoyle? Do you have any?” Katherine’s mother asked.
The young man was looking at her mother closely. “No, no, we don’t,” he said. “We had one last week, but it disappeared.” Katherine’s mother started to look uncomfortable. “But hold on, I’ll check if there are any new gargoyles in stock in the back.” He left them for what seemed like ages.
When he returned, he was carrying a gargoyle. It was the perfect twin of Gargoth. He placed it on the shelf in front of them.
“We just got this one in, but that’s it. The supplier doesn’t make them any more,” he panted. The store room must have been a long way off.
“Thank you,” her mother said. “Where did you order them from?” she asked as nonchalantly as possible.
“This one came from New York somewhere,” he said, then walked away to help another customer.
When they were alone, Katherine’s mother bent down and whispered to Gargoth. “There’s another gargoyle here, he looks just like you. Look...”
She held the bag up close to the shelf, and Gargoth popped his head out, face to face with the little gargoyle. In an instant, he was out of the bag, with his hands clasped tightly around the statue’s neck, snarling and snapping his teeth together like a possessed demon. Then things really got interesting.
Chapter Eleven
Near Escape
Several things happened at once.
Katherine’s mother was quicker than Gargoth, and she grabbed him, but only managed to grab him by a wing. This made him angry, and he snatched up his statue twin and started to swing it over his head at her.
Katherine was trying desperately to get the bag back over Gargoth’s head, but with his wing spread out and swinging the other statue with all his might, he was too big and cumbersome to fit.
A teenager wearing a black T-shirt and black lipstick had been watching Katherine and her mother over the nearest comic book rack. Now she was running back toward the counter and the young salesman yelling, “Hey! Come see this!” at the top of her lungs.
A second later, Katherine and her mother saw the store owner running towards them, waving a broom.
“What’s he going to do with that?” Katherine wondered. Before she knew what was happening, her mother grabbed her, the bag, and the struggling gargoyle, who was still clutching the statue, and was pushing them towards the door.
“Drop it! Please, Gargoth, drop the statue!” her mother was pleading, as they ran down the sidewalk, Katherine in the rear. Katherine looked behind her for a moment, then back at her mother just in time to see the gargoyle statue fly into the air—Gargoth had thrown it in his rage. Katherine rushed forward to catch the statue and was nearly knocked over by its weight. She placed it gingerly on the sidewalk before tearing off after her mother.
As they sped off in the car down Queen Street, Katherine saw several employees burst out of the store, with the owner at the head, still brandishing his broom. The young salesman bent to pick up the statue that Katherine had caught and placed, unharmed, on the sidewalk.
“At least we didn’t steal anything,” her mother gasped, breathless, her eyes on the road. “So we didn’t do anything wrong...”
Katherine sank back into her seat, taking time to breathe. Then she looked over at the bag, now containing Gargoth. It was shaking. Expecting him to be cowering and frightened, she looked in the top to say something calming.
There in the bottom of the bag was a strange sight. Gargoth of Tallus was laughing.
And if you’ve ever seen a gargoyle laugh, you know it’s not a pretty sight.
Chapter Twelve
The Flightless Bird
That night at dinner, Katherine’s mother was trying to explain to her father what had happened at The Golden Nautilus that afternoon.
“He GRABBED the other statue?” he was asking in disbelief. “Marie, why did you take him there? What was the point?”
“I was hoping that he would see the other gargoyle and want to stay, that’s all. I mean, if it had been alive, he would have wanted to stay, wouldn’t he? I don’t know...or maybe we could have found out where he was from, then return him there. It didn’t seem like a bad idea at first...” She trailed of
f, upset.
Her father sighed, then leaned over and spoke gently to his wife. “It’s okay, I guess. Clearly, they aren’t going to arrest you for anything, and at least we know a few things now.”
“What?” asked Katherine, looking up from her pasta.
“Well, we know that Gargoth is the only real gargoyle at The Golden Nautilus, that he was made in New York, and that the supplier isn’t making them any more.”
“If he is alive, there must be other gargoyles that are alive, don’t you think?” Katherine asked. “Maybe there are some others like him in other stores in Toronto. It might be worth trying to visit some of them to see.”
“I’ll look on the Internet to see if I can find out who supplied them to Canada,” her mother said.
For his part, Gargoth wasn’t very helpful. After they’d arrived home from The Golden Nautilus, Katherine’s mother spent a full hour trying to get more information out of him. She sat in the backyard on a lawn chair beside his pedestal and questioned him about everything that had happened to him.
He was sulky from his misadventure and still frightened. Unfortunately, he wasn’t very helpful and tended to talk in riddles, and even outright lies. Finally Katherine’s mother gave up and left him with a fresh bag of apples to keep him company.
“I don’t know what to do with him. One thing’s for sure,” she said with a smile at Katherine, “no more car trips, and no more trips to The Golden Nautilus.”
“Mom, why was he so mad at the other statue?” Katherine asked.
Her mother looked sadly at her. “It’s hard to say exactly. It seems that someone stole his image somehow, without his permission. I think he finds it terribly insulting to see himself recreated in a statue. He says he was kept against his will in an awful place for a long time.”
“Couldn’t he fly away?” Katherine asked, surprised.
“Oh, he can’t fly!” her mother said.
“He can’t? How come?” Katherine asked.
“I guess he never learned,” her mother said mildly and went back to her dinner.
Throughout the evening, Katherine found herself wandering to the back window to check on Gargoth, who was pacing sulkily back and forth among the dwarves.
Chapter Thirteen
Gargoth's Request
The rest of the week went by quietly with no further adventures.
Gargoth lived peacefully enough in their backyard, eating bags of apples and dropping the cores here and there among the statues. Once or twice Katherine caught him lobbing apple cores, using the mended dwarf for target practice, but her mother scolded him, and he sheepishly promised he wouldn’t do it again.
In fact, he promised to be still and quiet during the days, and only move around at night, so the neighbours wouldn’t become suspicious of him. Indeed, he was as good as gold, and as still as a statue most of the time.
He seemed content just to be himself, known finally to the family as a living, breathing thing. He was no longer so rude and surly, although if you caught him napping, he was apt to snap at you if you disturbed him.
After the near disaster at The Golden Nautilus, Katherine’s parents decided it would be best to leave Gargoth in the backyard, where he couldn’t cause any more trouble. This meant that any research they were going to do to track down his origins would be done from the comfort and safety of their computer, on the Internet. After a few short days, it began to seem almost normal to have a gargoyle living among the dwarves in their yard.
Even Milly asked to be let out at the back door, although she still refused to go anywhere near the gargoyle.
Katherine only talked to him once during that first week. She went back to his pedestal one chilly night after dinner, wearing her warmest coat, and took up a place on the swing. The leaves were falling from the tree now, and the evening was chilly enough for snow. Halloween was in one week.
“Gargoth,” she started, “have you ever tried to fly?”
He looked at her mournfully. “Perhaps. A long time ago.”
“But…did you learn?”
He sighed deeply. “No, Katherine. It can take a lifetime to learn to fly, and only another gargoyle can teach me. Otherwise I am doomed to fail.”
Katherine thought about this for a moment. “Why does it have to be another gargoyle?” she asked.
Another sigh from Gargoth. “Because you must be taught by another who...” he hesitated, “who cares for you.” He sunk his head into his leathery claws. “And I have no one.”
He cast his eyes up to the sky. “It will snow soon, Katherine. I will be covered with a chilly winter blanket tonight.”
For the first time it occurred to Katherine that he might be uncomfortable living outside, especially now that the cold weather was coming.
“Gargoth, do you feel the cold? When it snows, I mean, will you be chilly?” she asked.
“Chilly? No, Katherine. I feel neither heat nor cold, only hunger and thirst, and your kind mother has seen that I do not suffer there.” He waved toward a bag nearby, bursting with apples and a full jug of water.
They were quiet for a while, listening to the sounds of the city. Gargoth stirred on his pedestal, then he spoke again. “There is one thing I would like, though.” He looked almost shyly at her, his heavy eyelids drooping slightly.
“Yes?”
“I would like to visit more gargoyles, in more stores in this city.” He glanced at her sideways with a tiny curl of his lip.
She hesitated. “But you know my mom and dad want you to stay here, in the backyard. You’re not supposed to go anywhere.”
He didn’t seem to hear her. “You know how to use the underground locomotion machine? Don’t you?” Katherine thought for a moment and realized he must mean the subway.
“Yes, I do,” she answered.
“Then, you can take me,” he said slyly.
“Oh sure, Gargoth! You want me to smuggle you onto the subway and travel around the city with you looking at gargoyles. I really don’t think so! Not after the way you acted at The Golden Nautilus! I don’t want to get arrested!”
“I promise to behave,” he said quietly, “and a gargoyle never breaks a promise.”
“No way,” she said simply.
There was a long pause, then Gargoth spoke again. “I would not ask you to do this for me, Katherine, but I believe there may be one among the gargoyles in a certain store in this city who can teach me to fly. We may be able to find her.”
With the word “her”, Katherine jumped off the swing and walked toward Gargoth. “What do you mean, ‘her’?” she asked him. He turned his face away and would not answer.
She tried again. “What do you mean, Gargoth? Is there another gargoyle like you in Toronto? Do you know her? Where do you think she is? Tell me!” she insisted, impatient now.
Gargoth spoke quietly. “You do not need to shout, Katherine. I am unsure how much to tell you. I did not tell your mother, because I know she will not take me to find her. But I am telling you because you are a child, and you still think and believe like a child. You may be able to help me. But we will have to do it together, alone.”
Katherine was just about to answer when her father opened the back door and called her in for bed.
“Coming, Dad,” she yelled. She turned back to Gargoth, who reached out and took her hand. It was the first time he had touched her. His claw was leathery and cool. “Please think about it, Katherine,” he said in his gargoyle voice, then dropped her hand and looked away.
“Okay, I’ll think about it,” she said then walked slowly back to the house.
What else could she say?
Chapter Fourteen
Hallowe'en
Halloween fell on a Saturday, and the day dawned cool and sunny.
It was a glorious day for carving pumpkins and getting the house ready for trick-or-treaters. Kather-ine had arranged to go trick-or-treating with her best friend Sarah, who lived just down the street, and Sarah’s little brother Benjamin.
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Katherine and her parents spent the day decorating the front yard and front porch of the house. Their usual trick was to fill a garbage bag with leaves and poke a single jean leg stuffed with newspapers and an old work boot out of the bottom of the bag. They also hung a skeleton from the front tree and swathed the house in fake spider webs. Every year, Katherine’s dad said it was the last time they were going to use the awful sticky stuff because it was almost impossible to get rid of, but every year they used it anyway. Shreds of fluffy web puffed from every corner of the house all year long, as a constant reminder of Halloweens past.
At lunch time, Katherine looked into the backyard and noticed Gargoth looking very agitated. He was pacing quickly (as quickly as a short-legged gargoyle can) back and forth between his pedestal and the maple tree, all the while looking up into the sky. When he reached the tree, he looked quickly behind him, then started back to his pedestal. After she’d finished her soup and sandwich, Katherine went out to talk to him.
“What’s the matter, Gargoth?” she asked.
He stopped his pacing and slumped to the grass. He looked very worried.
“Katherine, I feel that something terrible is going to happen.”
“Why?”
“Because there are strange smells and noises in the air. There are strange creatures flying above me and stranger creatures still wandering by on the street.”
At that moment, a noisy flock of Canada geese flew low overhead, heading for a landing in Lake Ontario to the south. It was not the first flock that had passed overhead that day, since the geese were beginning to migrate south for the winter in the last days of fall.
Gargoth dove into the bushes beside his pedestal, quaking with fear. Katherine parted the bushes and pulled him gently to standing.
“Gargoth, get a hold of yourself. They’re just geese. See?” she said, pointing up as the familiar V-shape disappeared south of them. He refused to look up but continued staring steadfastly at the ground.
The Gargoyle in My Yard Page 4