“I can’t believe you want to leave so early, Polly, when the fun has only just begun!”
“Yes, I know, but I’m finding the longing to get to Piadora once again overwhelming, so I think I’ve been a little foolish to stay as long as I already have.”
“Well, suit yourself then, Polly, but I paid a king’s ransom for these tickets, so I’m staying until it’s over,” was his only response as he continued to sing along, his eyes still firmly fixed on the stage in front of him.
Polly felt both sad and lonely as she left her two friends and headed away from the crowd. And as she made her way to the bottom of the hill where she had abandoned Ralph, a lady cornered her.
“Come this way, love. We’re showing free movies, and you’ll get free cotton candy thrown into the bargain,” the lady shouted in Polly’s ear.
Now that little piece of information not only had Polly’s heart racing faster than ever, but her feet as well, for there was no way she was going to be put through such an awful ordeal ever again. As she raced as fast as her feet would allow toward the hill that she had originally slid down, she almost missed Ralph sitting by a clump of bushes, well out of view.
“Did you enjoy the candy-coated peanuts?” asked the familiar sounding voice.
“Ralph, is that you?” she cried breathlessly.
“Come and sit down beside me, Polly, until you’ve caught your breath,” he said as he patted the ground beside him.
Polly slumped down at his side. “Are you mad at me, Ralph?” she asked as soon as she had calmed down.
“Mad at you! Why would I be mad at you?” Ralph came back at her quickly.
“Well, for one thing I abandoned you to go to this concert, didn’t I?” Polly stated.
“Polly, you didn’t abandon me. I chose not to go, and there’s a difference,” he replied.
“Well, you were right not to come,” said Polly despondently. “Because although I enjoyed the concert to begin with, eventually I found myself feeling quite disgruntled and sad as the evening progressed. Oh, and before I forget, some idiot knocked my bag of candy-coated peanuts right out of my hand. I never even got to eat any,” she said, sounding most disgusted.
“Polly, that idiot you are speaking of was me,” Ralph rather sheepishly confessed.
“Oh Ralph, how could you be so mean?” Polly furiously cried out to show her annoyance.
“Well, I did it for the best reason. You had already got yourself tied up in knots with Soogara, and I did not wish for you to find yourself in yet another sticky mess.”
“And what precisely do you mean by that?” Polly angrily cried.
“Well, have another hard look at Mr. Forget All Your Cares and Woes, and tell me if you recognize him,” Ralph ordered.
“Oh my goodness! I do recognize him! It’s Vanaspi!”
“Yes, and you can be certain that if he is here, so is Soogara.” Ralph commented.
“Yes, she must be, for I was offered more cotton candy while I was on my way to find you,” sniffed Polly. “Look, Ralph, please accept my apology. Sometimes I’m so dumb, and I don’t think straight.”
“Apology accepted. But in the future, it might pay you to listen to an old man’s advice. Sometimes you need saving from yourself, Polly.”
Polly nodded. “You’re right on that one.”
“I know there are times when you think that I’m just a prehistoric, out-of-touch old man, but I have some wisdom inside this old head of mine.”
“Well, even if you are a prehistoric old man, you still have the heart of an angel,” she said with a beaming smile.
Chapter 32
LANGDON’S EPITAPH
RALPH WALKED WITH Polly until they found a comfortable bench, and, despite it being a very cold night, Polly stretched out on the bench, placing her bag under her head to act as a pillow. Then with Ralph’s warm coat around her she fell sound asleep. Ralph sat on the ground beside her and stuffed scrunched-up newspaper down the top of his shirt to keep warm as he watched guard over her.
As a new dawn broke, Ralph gave Polly a gentle shake to wake her up.
“Leave me alone,” she whimpered. “I’m tired, and I want to go back to sleep,” she drowsily moaned as she shifted her body over and closed her eyes.
When, hours later, Polly woke up again, she discovered that Ralph and his coat were gone. She rubbed her eyes and noticed a gold cage with a note attached standing on the ground beside her. As she peered closer, she clapped eyes on a small yellow and green bird who was not sitting on the perch provided, but remained huddled in the corner of the cage, his face and beak buried deep into his breast. Polly sat up straight and then removed the string with the attached note. She opened the note and was surprised to discover that it was from Ralph.
Dear Polly,
I did try to wake you up this morning, but to no avail. Sorry I had to take my coat back, but the sun was shining and you seemed perfectly content and warm as you lay on the bench well out for the count. I will catch up with you later at the castle ruins in Carabunga Dike. It’s position is clearly marked on your little map, so you shouldn’t get lost.
Polly momentarily abandoned the note to check her map and was very relieved to find that as Ralph had stated, it was indeed marked by a big circle. She then continued to read his note.
Before you set off, I do I have a few requests I wish to make. Before you start to object, as I’m more than certain you will, I want you to think carefully about our visit to Mr. Shoestring, as well as our tour around Gold Gulley.
Hodgekiss sends his love and says he is really looking forward to your arrival in Piadora. He also tells me that the preparations for the banquet are going very nicely, and not to worry about a party dress for he also has that problem in hand. However, in the meantime he has a couple of things he needs you to do for him.
The first request is that he needs you to take care of Herbert, his pet bird, for him. Hodgekiss tells me that Herbert is suffering from a very bad case of nerves and has not been his old self since he was rescued from the old people’s shelter, where he lived for many years.
Sadly, while he lived there a number of the old folks did not fully appreciate his singing voice, so they would prod him through the bars with their walking sticks and bash his cage with their upturned walkers, which not only frightened him but also hurt his feelings, for he is a highly sensitive little bird. When these terrifying acts of violence failed to shut him up, they resorted to being very mean and regularly confiscated his bird food, hence his noticeable weight loss.
Now Herbert seems to be suffering from deep depression and has seemingly lost all will to live. This is where you come into the picture. Hodgekiss thought you might be the perfect person to help him overcome his melancholy, as he badly misses Herbert’s shrill tweets and will not rest until he sees him well again and full of the joys of spring.
He has left a little book for you to browse through at your leisure, and you will find this resting on the floor of the cage. Please take time to thoroughly read it. Hopefully it will be a very useful tool in helping towards Herbert’s full recovery.
Now if you are finding this unusual request hard to agree to, there is worse to come. I promise you, Polly, that if it were not absolutely essential, Hodgekiss would not even think of demanding such a difficult thing of you. Even as I put pen to paper I find myself shuddering inside at the impact the following request will have on you. Here goes: before you continue on your journey to Piadora you must say good-bye to Langdon, and to cap it all, Hodgekiss is further recommending that you bury him!
Polly dropped the note to the ground. There was more to the letter, but Polly was in no fit state to finish reading it.
“Say good-bye to Langdon? I think not!” she gasped, at the same time wrenching her hands together as she felt a tidal wave of emotion threatening to erupt from within the deepest recesses of her soul.
“How could Hodgekiss do this to me?” she furiously yelled. “I thought I could trust hi
m, and now he has betrayed me. I can’t believe he’s done this to me after all Langdon has been through. Hodgekiss, you’re nothing but a rat!” she screamed. “And if you had any decency about you then you would never have asked such a terrible thing of me. Well, forget Piadora, for I am heading home to the castle,” she shouted, at the same time giving the cage an almighty kick that sent it rolling across the path.
“You’re on your own, Sherbert Dip,” she yelled out loud before picking up her bag to walk away from the bench and a very dizzy Herbert who was still reeling from his sudden and very unexpected flight across the pathway.
As she marched down the path at a furious pace, she thought back to Gold Gulley and then Mr. Shoestring with his melting pot. Polly momentarily faltered as images of all the abandoned ships and boats flooded her memory and added their weight to her growing personal conflict.
“No, forget everything,” she yelled angrily while shaking her head in sheer dismay. “It was all just one big crazy dream anyway. So let the dream die,” she whispered most despondently. “For I no longer care about Hodgekiss or Piadora.”
Polly strutted a few more paces before stupidly turning around to take one final look at Herbert in his cage, and instantly she became filled with remorse. How could she pour out her anger on a defenseless little bird? At the end of the day the little chap was after all innocent of all crimes and had never done anything to harm her. Polly made a deep groan before slowly and most miserably walking back toward the cage. As she stood towering above the cage, everything inside her screamed out, “Walk away. Walk away while you still have a chance. Herbert is not your responsibility.”
“Yes, that’s right. He is not my concern. After all is said and done, I never actually offered to look after him, did I?” she reasoned with herself. “Therefore, I am not the least bit responsible if anything bad were to happen to him. No, Hodgekiss would have to take all the blame.”
She was about to abandon Herbert to his destiny when other more disturbing voices began interrupting her train of thought. “Leave him here, and he will surely die,” they seemed to be chanting. The chants were getting louder by the second. “Yes, poor Herbert is used to being ill-treated, so he can handle a bit more, and when he does die of hunger or exposure, no one will care, for he is only a sad little bird.”
“Stop it. Stop it right now!” yelled Polly, clutching her head with both hands. “I can’t carry my bag and Langdon as well as Herbert’s cage. No, I only have two hands. I can’t do everything,” she resentfully added.
Polly slumped back down on the bench and placed the dome shaped-cage containing Herbert by her side.
Herbert, who had managed to roll over and get back on both feet, remained huddled in the corner of the cage, shaking from head to foot. His tender ego was very bruised as he struggled to come to terms with what had just happened to him. Suddenly their eyes met, and in that brief moment in time, Polly knew there was no way she could leave Herbert to his fate. No, if it meant struggling for a while until she reached the castle ruins, then so be it. For deep inside, she knew she would never forgive herself for walking away and turning her back on this scrawny and sorrowful little mite who needed some mercy shown to him.
Polly opened the cage door and tried to stroke Herbert on the head with her finger, but Herbert cowered even further.
“Well, I guess you are now my sole responsibility, Sherbert. So you could say we are now joined at the hip,” she said, making a wearied sigh as she stared directly into his beady little eyes. Her eyes then made contact with the little book that was lying on the cage floor. So she opened the cage door and squeezed her hand in, picking the book up between two fingers. As soon as she had taken the book out of the cage, she read its title out loud to herself, “Champ.”
Being the curious young lady that she was, she opened the book and began to read.
Are you struggling with all the difficult circumstances in your life?
Polly gave a nod.
Are you constantly defeated, depressed, and suffering from low self-esteem?
Polly gave her mental assent by nodding again.
Well, don’t despair, for help is at hand. Here are the ten healthy steps to transforming your life. And if you follow these simple guidelines, pretty soon you will find all melancholy disappearing, and you will be singing like a bird. Step number one. Find a mirror and stand directly in front of it. Then, smiling like a Cheshire cat, say out loud: “I am a wonderful and exciting person who radiates love and warmth to all I meet.” This little exercise must be done three times a day for the next thirty days.
Polly stopped there to take a quick and furtive glance at sad, hostile Herbert. Their eyes met, and they stared at each other for quite a while. Eventually Polly broke the ice by shaking her head and making very rude and derisory comments regarding Herbert and his sorry condition.
“Sorry, Sherbert, but I guess I see you as a bit of a dipstick. I can’t really see any hope for you.”
Herbert did not flinch at her very undermining comments, preferring to remain huddled and motionless with his beady little eyes still permanently fixed on Polly.
“Well, anything is possible, I guess,” she said resignedly. “So do me a favor, Sherb. Get up from your backside and quickly totter up your ladder and onto your perch while I adjust your cage mirror,” she commanded, poking her hand into the cage to change the position of the small mirror and to wipe it clean with her index finger. “There, that’s better. Now you can take a good look at yourself.” She sighed.
Herbert, however, was having none of it. He just continued to stare in her direction. “Now, be a good birdie and do as I’ve asked,” she pleaded. “Go on, jump up onto the perch.” Polly might as well have been talking to herself, for Herbert had not the slightest intention of budging—not even one inch.
“OK, Sherbert Dip, have it your way,” she said through gritted teeth, for she was becoming thoroughly exasperated with him. “I guess we’ll have another try later when you’ve stopped sulking,” she added resignedly, feeling very frustrated with what she perceived as downright defiance on Herbert’s part.
Polly placed her bag over her shoulder, and with Langdon under one arm and her hand firmly fixed on the cage handle, she got up from the bench and began to walk in the direction of the dike and the castle ruins.
“Sherbert, I am going to take you as far as the dike, but you need to know now that after that I’m calling it a day and going home,” she sniffed. “So I don’t want you to think I’m abandoning you, because I’m not. Ralph is meant to meet up with us there, and that is my opportunity to hand you back over to him, OK?”
Polly walked and walked, dragging her heels as she despondently made her way to the dike. After what felt like an eternity, she finally decided that she needed to rest, for she was now staggering under the weight of her load, and the heat from the sun had made her feel horribly sticky and uncomfortable. After finding a suitable place, she unburdened herself first of the cage then of her bag and Langdon.
“Right, Sherbert, I think this is as good a time as any to redress the issues that got you in this mess, so be a good boy and do me the honor of climbing up that small ladder onto your perch.”
Herbert continued to ignore her.
“OK then, Dipstick. If it’s war you want, then you’ve got it!” she shouted giving the cage an almighty wack that sent shudders down Herbert’s spine.
Polly then chose to sit with her back to the cage, thinking that ignoring him might well be the answer. It did not work. Finally, it was Polly who caved in and decided to have one more final attempt to help Herbert.
“OK, Sherb, let’s look at the next chapter in the book and see if the suggestions it makes are any easier for you to follow.” Polly picked up her small book and turned to chapter two, again reading it loud for the benefit of Herbert.
Well done, you’ve passed the first step with flying colors. Now, don’t you feel much lighter and better for that? Now, it’s time to take th
e next step toward achieving your personal goal. Again this will involve a mirror.
Polly slammed the book shut and moaned, “This has absolutely no chance of working, Sherbert, if you continue to refuse to jump on to your perch and face the mirror,” she said, staring straight into his beady eyes. “Yes, I think I can say I’m wasting my time, and for what? A skinny, pathetic wimp of a bird who quite clearly has no intention of helping himself onto the road of recovery,” she said, throwing the book to one side, and picking up Langdon to console herself. “Here, take a look at Langdon,” she ordered, thrusting poor Langdon up to the cage bars. “Why, he has been through the most terrible ordeal, risking life and limb, and yet he has come through it all shining.”
Still Herbert showed no interest in any of her ranting and railing. Polly begged on her knees, rattled the cage, jumped up and down, and continued to yell at him. He remained as cool as a cucumber, quite lost in his own little world.
“Well, you’re obviously either stone deaf or a very stubborn bird, if ever there was one,” she said sarcastically. “At least eat some of your bird food before you utterly waste away, you little stick insect,” she cried as she attempted to coax him toward his seed tray by tapping loudly on the side of the plastic container.
Herbert continued to ignore Polly, preferring to bury his head deep into his bright yellow breast.
“Well, I’m certain eating seeds, as well as berries, came up in my SAS survival book. So would you mind if I help myself to some of yours as you don’t appear to want it?” sniffed a very incensed Polly.
Polly crunched on a handful of the birdseed and instantly spat it out. “Ugh, this stuff is gross. No wonder you’re seriously depressed, Sherbert. I would be too if I was forced to eat nothing but birdseed all day. Poor Corporal Beanpod! To think he’s expected to eat this stuff as well when he’s on jungle maneuvers. Well, that makes him a real hero in my eyes—either that or a complete idiot.”
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