"The pleasure is all mine," the Guardian said. "Come back any time!"
There were fewer children playing with their loved ones in the walled garden. Some of them had gone back to their own time in the real world, back to the family that was always there for them. Charlotte and Ben were about to do the same.
"We can come back any time, can't we, Daddy?" Charlotte said.
"That's right," he said as he knelt down and held them in a warm embrace. "I'll be here waiting for you. Now, be nice to each other, be good to your Mummy, and tell her I'm very happy here. Can you do that for me?"
They both nodded in agreement.
"Good," he said, "and go easy on her with the questions when you get back. She's been worrying about this day for the last two years and I'm sure she'll have plenty of questions for the two of you."
"We'll come back and see you very soon," Charlotte said.
"I love you both very much, and Mummy too," he said. "Forever and ever."
Charlotte and Ben both said, "I love you too" and hugged their father even tighter.
"Now, close your eyes," he said, "and wish yourselves back to the real world."
They each closed their eyes, took a deep breath, and they were gone.
Part Four
Back to the Real World
Chapter 23
"Excuse me," came an unfamiliar female voice in the darkness. There was silence for a moment, then the voice said it again.
"Excuse me."
Charlotte opened her eyes. The blazing sunshine came as a shock and all she could see was the dark outline of someone standing over her. She heard her mother's voice.
"Sorry, I think we fell asleep," Alison said. "Is everything okay?"
"I have to ask you something."
"Sure. What do you want to know?"
"We think someone has been going round the park scattering ashes today. I realise this is a sensitive matter, but was it you?"
"Scattering ashes?" Alison said, without answering the question.
"Yes," the woman said. Charlotte realised she was the member of staff who had welcomed them into the park. "We sometimes have visitors that want to scatter the ashes of their loved ones in the park. Most of them do it around the wooden hares, and it looks like someone has done that today."
"People do that, do they?"
"Yes, they do. It happens more often than you might think."
"Well, I'm sorry, I can't help you," Alison said. Charlotte noted the fact that her mother hadn't lied to the woman, at least not technically. The woman left them alone.
Ben was still asleep. Charlotte rubbed her eyes and looked around. The garden was just as it had been when they had their picnic. The remnants of their lunch were scattered over the rug, but it felt like so long ago that they had sat down in the walled garden.
The look on her mother's face was one Charlotte had never seen before. It was filled with love, hope, and expectation. Alison wanted to ask her daughter a hundred burning questions, but asking any one of them would make her sound like a crazy person if Charlotte and Ben had just had an afternoon nap and nothing more.
Charlotte's heart was pounding as she said, "Daddy is very happy. He said he loves you very much."
Alison's hands went to her mouth. Her eyes squeezed shut, but tears still made their way past her eyelids and down her cheeks. She grabbed her daughter, held her tight, and sobbed. Then she wiped her tears away and said, "What else did he tell you?"
"He said you were one of the children of Hare Hill when you were a little girl."
"That's right," she said. "My mother died when I was ten and my father brought me here to scatter her ashes, just like we did today. Your granddad was a child of Hare Hill, too. He never told me how he knew about the magic of Hare Hill and, to be honest, I never wanted to know. At least, I didn't until my eighteenth birthday. I asked him over and over again, but he said he didn't know. It's something that has been passed down from generation to generation, but nobody knows how it all started."
"What was it like for you?"
"It was amazing. A miracle. I thought my mother had left me forever, but then I found out I could still see her, play with her, and talk to her for another eight years. She helped me so much through my time at school, being a teenager, and everything to get me ready to be an adult. Sure, your granddad was still there for me, but somehow I just made more of the time with my mother. I guess it was because I knew it would end."
"What happened the last time you saw her?"
"We didn't really talk all that much. It was the day before my eighteenth birthday. We just walked around the park one last time and watched the sunset together. Then we said our last goodbyes and I woke up in the walled garden. At that moment, I would have given anything to go back again, but I knew that if I ever had children and they lost someone close to them, I would give them the same chance I had."
Alison laughed to herself. "You should have seen the look on your father's face when I told him about this for the first time,” she said.
"He said he thought you were crazy," Charlotte said.
"He told you about it?"
"He said he trusted you and now he knows you weren't crazy."
"We used to come here a lot, for picnics or just for a walk in the sunshine. From time to time, I would see single parents here with their children. They would play, eat their picnic, and fall asleep. The first time we came here after I told your father about the magic, I saw a father with his little boy. They sat in the shade of that tree over there and the little boy fell asleep. I told your father to watch the little boy when he woke up."
"What happened?" Charlotte said.
"He was only asleep for about ten minutes. Well, he was asleep for about ten minutes in the real world. When he woke up, he looked like he'd just got back from another world. We couldn't hear what the little boy and his father were saying, but we could tell something really big had happened. They hugged and cried. As they left the garden, I heard the boy asking his father when they could come back again."
"Daddy said you wanted to wait until you thought Ben and I were ready."
"That's right. I had to wait until all three of us were ready. I thought you would be able to deal with it, but Ben was too young and it hurt me too much to think you would be able to see your father without me. But the more time that passed, the more you two weren't getting along. I wanted to leave it a little bit longer. I was worried what it would do to us all, but I couldn't deal with the two of you fighting any longer. I hoped it would bring you together."
Ben stirred. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. He stared at Charlotte and his mother in turn, then turned to Charlotte and said, “It really happened, didn't it?”
“Yes, it really did,” she said, and all three of them hugged.
"We're sorry, Mummy," Ben said.
"It's okay," Alison said. "I just want you to be happy, no matter what happens."
Alison got to her feet. They packed the remains of their picnic away and left the walled garden. As they walked through the gate, Ben tugged Charlotte's sleeve.
"What's up, Ben?" she said.
"Look," he said.
He was pointing at a sapling that had been planted in the ground next to the path. It was the tree he and Charlotte had planted together. Somehow, they had planted it in the dream world, and now it was beginning to grow in this world.
They followed their mother along the path, which led past the stone statue. All three of them stopped to look at the face carved into the stone.
"Did he help you or just talk in riddles?" Alison said.
"Was he there when you saw your Mummy?" Ben said.
"Yes, he was. He seemed a little odd, though. I guess being stuck in that statue does that to you. I always meant to ask him where the magic came from, and why he was stuck in the statue, but I never thought of it when I was there. I guess I was too concerned with seeing my mother that I never really thought about the place itself until it was too late."
<
br /> "Maybe we can find out for you," Ben said.
"Maybe," Alison said. "But don't spoil it for yourself by asking too many questions. Does it really matter how the magic works?"
The question hung in the air for a moment, until Alison said, "Come on, let's go home and you can tell me all about your adventures."
The Children of Hare Hill Page 9