Seconds later she was looking up and waving good-bye to Langdon as he disappeared from sight into the man-eating machine. Polly was also just about to disappear from sight when she was suddenly spotted by a security man who was halfway through searching a lady’s purse. The man’s jaw fell open in sheer disbelief, and he immediately abandoned his investigative search to race as quickly as his legs would allow him over to where Polly happily lay outstretched, about to be swallowed up into the machine. By the time he reached the conveyor belt only Polly’s lower limbs were still visible, much to the horror of all the onlookers, for the upper portion of her body had long gone out of sight. Although it was very dark and dismal inside the man-eating machine, the young girl’s smiling face, complete with detailed bone structure, could be viewed quite nicely on the televised scanner!
The uniformed man lunged at Polly, grabbing her by the feet. But to his utter despair, only her shoes came off in his hands. And with each passing second, there was becoming less of Polly to grab hold of. A woman who was watching screamed before fainting. Nobody went to the poor woman’s aid because all eyes were firmly fixed on the Polly crisis. In fact, the lady fainting had been good news to some of the eager spectators, for with her now lying flat on the floor conveniently out of the way, they now had a much better view of the drama that was unfolding before their very eyes. Some even hurriedly reached into their bags to get out their cameras, for this was one picture they certainly wanted in their photo albums!
The uniformed man tried again, and this time he was more successful, for he managed to get a firm grip on both of Polly’s ankles. He wasted no time in giving an almighty tug. Thankfully it worked, and Polly found herself moving from great darkness into light as her torso was dragged free from the conveyor belt with its man-eating manacle!
As Polly was pulled back down the moving line, she smiled up at the faces of all the curious spectators who had gathered around to watch the rescue and took the time to wave in the direction of the flashing cameras. The onlookers unanimously agreed that she had been a very lucky girl who had been saved just in time, thanks to the quick-thinking uniformed gentleman.
Polly sat up and continued to wave at everybody, thinking how nice and friendly they all were at this airport. That is, with the exception of the uniformed officer, for he had, only scowls for Polly, as he picked her up from the offending and still-moving machine. He took it upon himself to rather harshly plunk her back down on the ground, well out of harm’s way. His quick action had certainly saved Polly from serious injury, something Polly seemed quite unaware of. Yes, she had no idea that she had almost brought security at the airport to a complete standstill! All she knew was that she was trying to be helpful and obedient, and this rather rude man had grabbed her by the ankles, giving her an awful fright.
After placing her back on her two feet, the security guard explained to Polly that the machine was only intended for luggage. This confused Polly further, for no way did she view Langdon as “luggage.” Oh no! He was, after all, her very special elephant who required the same amount of respect as anyone else!
Polly was then steered to the area where she had been meant to go through, and where she could be searched if necessary. She had no choice but to obey, for the uniformed gentleman had both his hands firmly on her shoulders as he moved her in the right direction. Once she had been searched up and down by a lady with what looked like a gun (although quite what they were looking for, she had no idea!), she was then reunited with her schoolbag and Langdon. She hugged him tightly and promised him that she would never allow him to be separated from her ever again! She thought she might even write a letter to the airport authorities explaining that this should not be allowed to happen to any child ever again, as favorite toys were very afraid when they were separated from their young owners. Yes, she would definitely write a stiff formal letter as soon as she got home from her journey to Piadora.
Polly found a vacant seat and made herself comfortable while she waited to be called to board the plane. The area she sat in was crowded mainly with families who were about to go on holiday. Suddenly there was an announcement over the loud speaker. Polly listened intently as did the other passengers.
“Attention, all passengers! We are sorry to have to inform you that your flight has been delayed, and will not be departing until 1800 hours.”
Polly looked up at the clock on the wall and quickly realized that she now had another two hours on her hands. All those sitting nearby began to moan and groan, and she heard many suggesting to their equally fed-up partners that they might as well go back to the duty-free shop. Polly had no idea what this shop had in its store, but she decided she might as well follow the crowd and find out.
Polly stopped short of the entrance and looked up. Yes, it definitely said duty-free. Polly then wrongly assumed that this must mean that everything in the shop was free, and therefore everybody could help themselves to whatever their heart desired. This made perfect sense to her, for she now understood why, after the broadcast, there had been a mass exodus from the waiting area to come to this shop.
“How nice they were to be so considerate and generous,” thought Polly as she came to the conclusion that this must be the airline’s way of apologizing for the inconvenience the travelers were now suffering due to the delay.
As she walked down the aisles of the shop, she saw many of the travelers filling up shopping baskets with cases of beer, bottles of liquor and fine wines, as well as long boxes of cigarettes. “Is it any wonder that so many people have medical problems when they’re giving this stuff away for free?” Polly thought to herself. They should come and see for themselves the terrible effects of years of hard drinking and the toll of misery this had brought to her friends around the campfire. And then they might realize just how much misery and unhappiness this disgusting-tasting stuff could cause.
How did Polly actually know this stuff tasted quite disgusting? Well, although Polly had only ever tried alcohol once, her little faux pas had made her so unwell that she had never quite been able to put this little indiscretion behind her. Her guardians’ eldest daughter had held her wedding reception at the castle, and many of the children were called upon to act as waiters and serve both food and drink. Polly had been delighted when she had been handed a whole tray of glasses filled to the brim with Sherry, which was intended for the guests but had in truth been drunk by her good self. Had she been caught, she would have paid dearly for her indiscretion. But on this occasion, as her guardians were more concerned with mingling with the guests, she wasn’t missed when she slunk out of the room carrying the tray of refills brimming over with the sickly sweet liquid. She had found a nice quiet spot away from all the merriment, and then she sat down in a corner and decided to try some. The first glass was gone in seconds, and this was shortly followed by the next, which turned out to be one too many.
A short while later Polly attempted to get up from the floor, only to discover to her sheer horror that she couldn’t. She panicked, thinking this stuff had, for her sins, paralyzed her for life. A short time later, she passed out and remembered nothing else.
By the time she came round, the wedding feast was well-andtruly over, and thankfully nobody had discovered her. Eventually, she found she could move her legs, and, despite a crashing headache, she was able to pull herself up from the floor. She immediately felt sick as all the furniture and walls began to playfully sway backwards and forwards, making her feel truly dizzy and more nauseated then ever! She decided that the best thing she could do was get out of the castle into the fresh air, so she staggered to the front door of the castle, and, once outside, began to walk down the hill. She had only taken a few faltering steps when she toppled over and, unbelievable as it might seem, began to roll headfirst down the hill.
Polly had been very lucky to escape serious injury, for the hill was very steep indeed. Apart from sustaining a few bruises, she escaped lightly with no broken bones or the loss of any more teeth. She had to admit tha
t her headache, which had already been pretty awful before her leave of absence, had now gone from bad to worse. She was forced to crawl back to the castle on her hands and knees. Not, I might add, a very ladylike thing to do. Once home, she then made it up the creaky oak stairs and crawled slowly along the corridor, barely making it into the dormitory. Feeling now quite ill, she threw herself onto the bed. She heard the crack as she accidentally managed to hit her head on the adjacent wall, taking her headache from a level five to a level ten in a matter of a split second!
Polly had stayed in bed for the rest of the day, feeling terribly sick as the ceiling spun above her. It would be many days later before she felt like her old self, such were the effects of her little indiscretion.
Therefore, as she stood watching the travelers in the shop fill baskets with bottle after bottle of this stuff that makes you feel extremely unwell, she found herself very puzzled as to why all these travelers wished to make themselves sick when they were about to go on holiday! No, it made no sense at all to Polly’s way of thinking.
As she cared little for any of the goods that the grown-ups were loading into the baskets, she decided to wander into the toy section of the shop. And after spending a considerable amount of time browsing through the rows of interesting items, fascinated by all that was on offer, she came across a small blue torch that she considered might well come in handy at some point on her travels. Besides which, she had accidentally forgotten to pack her torch. It was still hidden under the pillow at home, ready for nighttime reading sessions. So Polly took her schoolbag from her shoulders and, after opening it, placed the torch inside her bag along with the rest of her possessions. She then walked out of the shop, feeling pleased as punch at having found such a useful item.
She was walking back toward the waiting area when suddenly she felt a strong hand come to rest firmly on her shoulder and heard a very fierce voice speak, “Excuse me, miss, but please will you step this way with me?”
Polly swung round to see the face of a security guard looking angrily down at her. She had no idea why he was so upset, so she sincerely informed him that although she would love to come with him and perhaps have a cup of tea, she was unable to, for she had a plane to catch. The man became even angrier with Polly, his face going a deep red as he told her that he had no intention of giving her a cup of anything. He just needed to search her bag.
Before Polly could utter another word, she was frogmarched back into the shop and then taken into a tiny room to be searched. Polly still could not understand what was troubling the gentleman. Was it that the plane had been delayed? For she understood perfectly, after all, this had upset a lot of the passengers.
“Stand here, miss, and hand me your bag,” said the uniformed man rather gruffly.
Polly willingly obliged. She then watched on as this most fearsome man upended her schoolbag, scattering its contents all over the floor.
“Look,” said Polly, feeling quite agitated and annoyed, “you are welcome to help yourself to anything that I have, with the exception of Langdon, for he is mine for keeps,” she said, preferring to keep the elephant close at hand as she hugged him to her chest. “None of my stuff is worth very much, but if your need is greater than mine, then I will willingly part with any of my other possessions that might take your fancy,” she said wide-eyed and very innocently.
Poor Polly still had absolutely no idea whatsoever that she was in big trouble. The frightfully angry man continued to ignore her as he sifted through her personal belongings. Polly soon realized she wasn’t getting through to him and decided to try harder.
“Look, I don’t know if I should tell you this. Not that it’s a secret anymore, for many of the other passengers have already found out. But everything on the shelves in the duty-free shop is going for nothing! Can you believe it?”
The officious man looked up at Polly and frowned, but still not a word passed from his pursed lips as he continued to riffle through her possessions. Polly continued on, undeterred.
“There’s a big notice outside the shop. Come and take a good look, and then you can see for yourself if you don’t believe me! And the shop is filled to overflowing with all kinds of goodies, all far more valuable and much nicer than anything that’s in my schoolbag. That’s a promise. So please don’t waste any more time on me,” she pleaded. “Otherwise, there will be nothing left in the shop for you to take,” she wailed with a growing sense of urgency in her voice.
The angry man looked up from where he was crouched on the floor as he searched rather thoroughly through all her possessions, and he shook his head in pure disbelief. Polly didn’t seem to notice his expression, choosing to ramble on some more.
“Look, if we quickly go now, there’s bound to be something fairly nice left, for all the other passengers are grabbing as much as they can in large wire baskets. If you come with me, I can show you. I am even happy to carry a basket for you if that will help!” said Polly in a last-ditch effort to soften the heart of this stern-looking man.
“That will not be necessary, miss,” said the security officer very officiously, his face deadpan as he held up the offending item. “This torch has not been paid for. I am therefore placing you under arrest, and although you have a right to remain silent, anything you say will be used as evidence against you in a court of law. I have called for the assistance of a police officer, and when he arrives, he will be taking you into custody.”
Polly felt her knees buckle, and she then passed out.
With the help of smelling salts, administered directly under her nose, she came round to discover many people gathered round and staring directly down at her. Some passengers even had the audacity to prod and poke her as though she were some gone-off piece of meat. She came to her senses and sat up, still having no idea what had happened to her. The last thing she remembered was having her schoolbag emptied by an officious looking man who, for some reason, seemed really upset with her. Then she remembered nothing else, for everything went blank.
The policeman, who had been called to the scene, dutifully informed her that she was under arrest for having stolen a torch from the duty-free shop. It was left to Polly to tearfully explain that because the notice above the shop had said Duty-free, she had therefore genuinely believed that everything in the shop was free for the taking. She had wrongly presumed that this was why all the passengers had been loading up the wire baskets with gifts.
“I thought that the airline decided to do something really kind and generous because many of the passengers were very miffed by the announcement that the plane had been severely delayed,” she sniffed in her miserable attempt to explain herself.
She felt absolutely terrible that as a result of her misdemeanor she would now be branded a thief. She then became even more concerned and upset at the thought that she would probably be sent to prison for many years, or worse still, the Tower of London—and for life! Polly began to cry at the thought of being locked away in that frightfully old and gloomy tower that had in the past been home to many a traitor to England. She was not entirely sure that she would cope very well if she were to spend the rest of her days shackled in irons in the dank, smelly dungeons of the tower with hundreds of deathwatch beetles as her only companions. And the thought that she might well be forced to catch and eat these disgusting creatures, along with the odd sewer rat, made her cry even louder, for Polly sadly realized that if all this were to happen she would never get to go to Piadora. She also hoped that England did not routinely use the hangman’s noose or the guillotine as a method of serving out justice to such hardened criminals as herself!
“There, there,” said the policeman in the hard bell-shaped custodian helmet as he gently patted her on the back in a bid to comfort her. “I will speak to the management and explain everything. I am certain they will understand.”
“Look, I have the money to pay for the torch, and you can have this ring as well, if you like. Please take it,” she implored, holding out her very shaky hand so t
hat he could see for himself that she really did have the money to pay for the torch. “Please take it, for I really need to have a torch for my journey; really I do. Especially as I rather stupidly left mine back at the castle,” she cried. “And here, take an extra pound note and buy the manager a nice box of chocolates, for I hate to think I have caused him such distress,” she tearfully said as she wiped her eyes with her handkerchief.
The British bobby could clearly see that she had made a genuine mistake, and it took a lot of effort on his part not to break out into a smile. As he took the money from Polly’s hand, she made a further request.
“I know I don’t deserve it, but please while you’re sorting out this dreadful misunderstanding on my behalf, is there a tiny chance that you could pick me up a packet of chewing gum for my journey? I would be very grateful if you help me.”
The police officer obliged, smiling down at her as he took another pound note from her outstretched hand. He then disappeared off the scene, presumably to go and sort things out with the management and also to purchase a packet of chewing gum for Polly, for he was, like most British bobbies, a very kind and understanding man, indeed!
Meanwhile, Polly still sat on the floor being observed like an insect under the microscope by all the morbidly curious passengers who had joined the crowd of people anxious to know what the disturbance was about. Worse still, their numbers were growing by the minute. Polly felt utterly humiliated as she continued to sit on the ground surrounded by people, all wishing to intently stare at her. And as she sat alone and afraid, she thought to herself that she would never wish to become a pop star, for she would hate to draw such large crowds as they did wherever they went. Was it any wonder they went wild and smashed up their rooms when they finally arrived at their hotel?
Polly Brown Page 36