“My name is Polly Brown, and my friend who needs your assistance is called Toby, although his friends call him Dodo,” said Polly with a smile as she shook hands with Tobias.
“Right then, I will go and make up a bed for him, then telephone the hospital on your behalf.”
“Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help,” said Polly, experiencing an overwhelming sense of relief.
True to his word, Tobias made the urgent call to the hospital and also helped Polly to get Dodo onto a bed as they waited for medical assistance to turn up.
Polly pulled up a chair by his bedside and gently held his cold, limp hand until the white ambulance with the big red cross arrived. She then watched as Dodo was gently positioned on a stretcher by two burly men and then placed in the back of their vehicle. She thanked both the men and then stood with Tobias on the porch until the ambulance had completely disappeared from view.
“Well, I’d better be on my way,” said Polly, turning to the man with the flickering candle. “Thank you again for all your kind help. You’ve been a real gentleman.”
“Just one minute, young lady,” said Tobias Mortimus very sternly. “You cannot leave here until I’ve received payment for my services.”
Polly was very surprised and taken back by his request. “I’m sorry, Tobias,” she said. “But the sad truth is I have no money that I can give you.”
“Well, that’s really not good enough,” retorted the old and very bent over man with the crooked nose. “You see, my wife and I run this house as a profit-making guesthouse. It’s how we earn our living. And let me tell you, it is great value. You get bed, breakfast, and an evening meal thrown into the bargain.”
“But I don’t require a bed or any breakfast or evening meal for that matter,” said Polly, very puzzled by Tobias’s demand for money.
“I’m not referring to you, my dear,” replied Tobias. “No, indeed I’m not. I’m actually referring to your friend Dodo, for he had a bed made up especially for him, and he could have eaten breakfast if he so desired.”
“That’s crazy,” replied Polly. “How could he have eaten breakfast? He was unconscious!” she cried.
“That’s not my fault, is it?” retorted Tobias. “If a guest declines the offer of breakfast, then that really is none of my concern, but they are still expected to pay the same amount as those guests that stay for breakfast. We’re not well off, I’ll have you know. In fact, much of the time we struggle to make ends meet…” Tobias’s voice trailed off as he considered what else he could think of to encourage Polly to pay up. “And my Marg’s cooked breakfasts are the best, with sausages, eggs, bacon, fried bread, and…”
“Well, I think you’re being really unfair,” said Polly, feeling more than a little insulted by his unreasonable demand for money. “After all, he only lay on top of the bed for a matter of minutes while we waited for the ambulance to arrive,” she reminded him.
“It makes no difference whatsoever, young lady,” said Tobias strongly. “The fact of the matter is that I had to make up a bed for him, and he had sole use of a room that could have been let out to another guest,” he informed her. “And may I remind you there is also the cost of the call to the hospital. If I let all my guests off their phone bills, then pretty soon I would be out of pocket.”
“But it was the middle of the night, so surely the room would have still remained vacant,” Polly retorted, feeling very frustrated towards this most uncharitable old man. “How can you be so heartless?”
“Enough of your impudence, girl,” snorted Tobias, baring his full set of rotting teeth as he spoke. “If you don’t pay up immediately, then I will be forced to wake up my Marg, and you won’t like what she will have to say to you,” he huffily stated. “Also I will be left with no choice but to call the police! For don’t think I haven’t noticed that you broke the chain off my gate. This, young lady, is a very serious offense that would be viewed as a crime worthy of a hefty prison sentence,” he snarled, hoping to add full weight to his side of the argument. “So empty your bag now,” he harshly ordered.
Polly bent down and picked up her bag, reluctantly handing it over. Tobias hastily grabbed the bag and immediately upended it, scattering its contents onto the porch floor. He then got down on both knees to sift through her belongings.
“Right, what have we here?” he said, picking up a long, fluffy blue thing.
“That’s the half of Langdon’s trunk that got bitten off by rats,” Polly answered tearfully.
“Well, that’s no use to me,” said Tobias as he contemptuously threw it over his shoulder. “And I suppose this is the rest of Langdon,” he said wearily as he held the badly bitten torso of Langdon in the air for further inspection.
“Yes sir, it is,” wailed Polly, watching on horrified as Tobias discarded Langdon’s damaged body in a similarly offensive manner to that of his trunk.
“Hmm, a book on survival, a torch, a pen and gold diary, a penknife; indeed, did you not know, young lady, that this is classed as an offensive weapon?” he said, holding the penknife up into the air. “The police will be really interested to know that not only did you break into my property but that you were also carrying a dangerous knife! And let me tell you girl, you could possibly face charges for potential grievous bodily harm, and that, I believe, carries a mandatory life sentence,” he seethed, lying through his teeth to frighten her further.
“Oh, please, Mr. Mortimus, I promise you that the penknife does not belong to me. I was just looking after it for my friend Dodo,” cried Polly, by now feeling shaken up by his hideous threats.
Tobias ignored Polly’s desperate pleas as he continued to rummage through all her earthly belongings in search of something potentially valuable.
“Right, what else do we have here?” he said, muttering away to himself. “No, there is nothing here of any use to me,” he snorted, feeling deeply dismayed as he got up from the floor with the intention of confronting her further. He was determined to exact his rightful payment, and she wasn’t leaving until he got it!
Suddenly his eye caught hold of her ring. “What is that you have on your finger?” he demanded to know with a terrifying glint in his eye.
“Oh, it’s only a ring a friend gave me. It only has sentimental value, I assure you,” she replied, twisting the ring around on her finger as she attempted to answer his question.
“I’ll decide whether it’s worth anything or not,” said Tobias with a snarl. “Now hand it over!”
Polly reluctantly agreed and tried hard to remove the ring from her finger. “It’s well-and-truly stuck,” she cried, pulling at the ring as hard as she was able.
“You’re not getting away that easy, girl,” Tobias hissed. “Come over here and let me have a go.”
Polly proceeded to walk the few paces towards him. He roughly grabbed hold of her shoulder and, taking a firm grip of her hand, then tried with all his might to forcibly remove the ring from her finger. No amount of force worked. The ring was most definitely stuck, just as Polly had told him.
Tobias was getting angrier and more frustrated by the minute. He even resorted to a ridiculous attempt at biting it off Polly’s finger. Drawing Polly’s hand up to his mouth, he fixed the ring firmly between his teeth and gave an almighty tug.
“Ouch!” he yelped as he reeled backwards in pain, clutching his mouth with both hands and spitting out one of his rotten teeth. “You little brat! Your ring has broken one of my teeth,” he angrily cried out as he continued to stumble back and forth with the pain. “Now you’re going to pay my dentistry bill as well.”
Polly picked up one of her handkerchiefs from the ground and handed it directly to him so that he could try to stem the flow of blood from his tooth socket.
“Right, now empty out your pockets, girl,” he demanded, slightly calming down as the pain began to subside.
“But I’ve nothing in my pockets except pebbles,” exclaimed Polly.
“Just do as I say, and that’s an or
der!” Tobias impatiently shouted.
Polly obliged and immediately began to empty her pockets of all the pebbles she had collected. Then she stretched out her arm and opened up the palm of her hand to reveal her collection of pebbles. Tobias was instantly flabbergasted and took a giant step backwards. For there among the pebbles was a rather large and splendid-looking diamond with the word endurance inscribed on its sparkling surface.
“This will do very nicely,” he announced with a wicked glint in his eye, his face lighting up with sheer delight, for he was indeed a very shrewd man, and he knew a valuable jewel when he saw one. “Yes, God really does help them that help themselves,” he said with a mean chuckle.
“Here, take it,” sniffed Polly, “for it’s of no use to me, and if it means that you will allow me to go on my way, then it’s yours for the keeping.”
Tobias readily agreed and even went as far as helping Polly to collect up her belongings, for he was so excited to have won what he considered to be the jackpot of all jackpots.
Polly mumbled a good-bye, and then feeling nothing short of the greatest relief she walked down the pathway and hurriedly opened the gate she had used to gain entry onto his land. She wasted no time getting as far away as possible from the uncharitable Mr. Mortimus and his unfriendly guesthouse.
On her way out, she bent down and picked up the abandoned hammer, choosing to hide it under a gooseberry bush for safekeeping, for now she was more than a little reluctant to be caught carrying such a tool in her bag.
“If an innocent penknife can get me life without parole, then heaven knows what sentence carrying a hammer might bring!” she muttered as she imagined herself being placed in a gas chamber or hangman’s noose or, worse still, the guillotine!
Polly shuddered as she allowed her imagination to run riot. She made a mental note to remind herself of the exact location of the bush that hid the hammer, just in case Justin wanted it back. With the hammer now safely tucked away under a bush, well out of sight, she continued to wearily trudge down the long and very winding lane, still anxious to get as far away as she could from Mr. Mortimus and his very inhospitable establishment.
Tobias Mortimus, on the other hand, placed the precious diamond under his side of the bed, tucked away in one of his shoes for safety. He could hardly wait for the new day to dawn so that he could show Marg his exciting find. Now with this treasure in their possession, they could give up their business and retire to live like kings. He found himself quite unable to sleep as thoughts of how to spend his newfound wealth flooded his mind. “A new car, a new house, a luxury holiday, a white yacht—yes, the possibilities are indeed endless,” he excitedly thought as he rubbed his sweaty hands with great glee before reaching over to blow out the wick of his candle that still burned brightly on his bedside locker.
The next morning he was up and already in his thick, cozy dressing gown long before the birds even had time to open their eyelids and let out their first twitter. He then excitedly raced downstairs to make his wife a cup of tea, something he rarely did these days. After all, it was a woman’s job to wait on a man’s every need, wasn’t it? As they quietly sipped their sweet tea in the bed with the pillows puffed up behind them, Tobias used this precious and tender moment to share with Marg all the events that had taken place during the night while she was tucked up in bed sound asleep.
“Darling, close your eyes and open your hand, for I am about to give you a wonderful surprise that will change our lives forever.”
Marg quickly obeyed, and after closing her eyes she took a deep breath, for her excitement was equal to that of her husband’s. Tobias then reached down and placed a hand under his side of the bed. Then with his fingers outstretched he searched for his shoes and, upon finding them, he picked them up one at a time to give them a shake, for he could not be certain which shoe contained the hidden gemstone. Yes, it was the left shoe, for he could hear something hard rattling around. Without getting out of the bed, he lifted the shoe high up into the air and loudly bellowed, “Surprise! Surprise!” as he hastily emptied the contents of his shoe into the palm of her outstretched hand.
Marg opened her eyes and instantly froze on the spot.
“Argh!” she screamed in the highest decibels, for her eyes had just made contact with a most terrifyingly hideous insect. Then before another sound could pass from between her quivering lips, the cockroach quickly made its way onto her pajama top in order to make her full acquaintance. Quaking with fear, Marg reacted by hastily throwing off the bedclothes to leap out of the bed, accidentally knocking her teacup over as she did. The remains of her tea flew high into the air before pouring down all over her dear husband’s head.
Tobias sat in the bed feeling most bewildered and stunned. As tea dripped down from his seriously lined forehead, he struggled to understand all that was happening to him. He shook his head from side to side, feeling profoundly distressed that only the night before he had gone to bed a man with considerable riches well beyond his wildest dreams, only to wake up the following morning and discover he was still nothing but a pauper. He was therefore very understandably at a complete loss for words.
This was not to be the case where poor Marg was concerned, for she was now running around the room screaming and yelling endless insults in his direction. She only stopped to briefly bend down and pick up one of her shoes, which she then hurled in his direction.
“Take this, you stupid imbecile!” she cried as her shoe flew through the air.
Considering her hysterical state of being, her aim was surprisingly accurate. Her shoe not only hit the poor man, but now knocked his teacup clean out of his hand, the contents of which were quickly soaked up by his blue and white striped pajamas. She then thundered along the upstairs landing and into the bathroom, yelling all the way. Slamming the bathroom door with a vengeance, she then turned on the innocent laundry basket to beat it with her bare fists. She kicked it over, cursing as the contents spilled out all over the bathroom floor.
Tobias Mortimus wisely chose to remain in the bed, well out of harm’s way. He nursed his head between his hands, feeling sickened to the very pit of his stomach as he tried desperately to come to terms with all that had taken place. As he continued to shake his head from side to side in utter disbelief, he had the awful sinking feeling that although his guests would be served a mighty fine breakfast, he would probably be going without. Also, the prospect that he might well have to go without both lunch and supper plunged him further into the deepest of despair, for he knew exactly what to expect if his wife was in one of her moods, so as he sat unconsolable in his soaking wet pajamas he knew without a shadow of doubt that today of all days her mood was now positively thunderous!
Chapter 30
THE GULLEY OF LOST DREAMS
POLLY LIMPED HER way back to the crossroads, all the time wondering which fork in the road she was meant to take. “Am I meant to take the left, or am I meant to take the right?” she said out loud as she struggled to remember who precisely had given her advice and what that advice might have been. “Oh well, at least I am away from that dreadful guesthouse and that horrid little weasel, Tobias Mortimus,” she said in an attempt to comfort herself.
Finally, she arrived at the crossroads and sat down, still feeling thoroughly confused as to which way she should go. Unable to make a decision she decided to reach into her schoolbag and find her diary, for if nothing else she needed to remind herself by writing down where she had hidden Justin’s hammer so that it could be returned to him at a later date. And as she was rummaging around for the book her, eye hit on a pebble that sat just inches away from her bag. Polly picked it up and discovered the word faithfulness inscribed on its smooth surface. Polly smiled to herself, for she was no longer surprised when these unusual stones seemed to mysteriously appear. She felt certain its discovery would more than likely be explained as soon as she opened up her diary. She was not to be disappointed.
The princess had found the last few days immensely challe
nging as well as frightening, for she had been beguiled and bewitched by the dreadfully wicked Cotton Candy Queen, who had promised her great beauty in return for her soul, a very foolish exchange if ever there were one! Yes, the princess had almost sold her birthright by mistakenly believing that eating cotton candy would give her the beauty she so desperately wanted. Look where her foolishness landed her! She had been taken captive along with Dodo and Langdon, and left to die in a rather dank dungeon. Her only hope for survival was to eat rats or at least suck on their eyeballs, something the young princess was not in the least prepared to do! Luckily help was on hand, and she was rescued by a very kind Frenchman named Napoli. Together they battled the Queen, who revealed herself to be an old dragon named Soogara who would use any evil method at her disposal to prevent the young and desperate princess from escaping.
However, the princess had shown herself to be very courageous and innovative, using her head as well as her pebbles to slay the giant dragon, David-and-Goliath style! However, her ordeal was not over yet, for having said good-bye to Napoli, she then discovered that Dodo’s health had taken a turn for the worse and there was no help in sight. The princess was left with no choice but to carry and drag poor Dodo (we’ll turn a blind eye to pushing him down a hill) until she found help.
Finally the princess believed that help had arrived when Freddie Fruitless and his entourage turned up at the scene. To her horror, he had no intention of doing any charitable act of kindness whatsoever. No, this sad and sorry character would not be happy until he had thoroughly humiliated the princess, forcing her to grovel in the mud before abandoning her and her seriously ill friend to die. This extremely sickening act was something that, at a future date, he would very much live to regret.
The princess was finally helped by two young lads who took her by car (an impressive Mini car with excellent suspension and very nice alloy wheels) to the house of Tobias Mortimus. Again the princess was to find herself sickened by this most uncharitable man when he, rather rudely, demanded payment for his help in getting Dodo the care he urgently needed.
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