by Jamie Smart
‘MINE!’ he shouted before launching himself up into the air, and landing face-first in whatever was left of the Flember Day Special.
‘I’m so sorry.’ Dev helped Arnold to his feet. ‘I didn’t know you’d still be up here.’
‘Ahhh, you’ve probably done me a favour.’ Arnold shrugged, picking up a bobbleberry and delicately placed it on top of Boja’s head. ‘I got so obsessed with making this thing. SO obsessed. Forgot about everything around me. And for what? So this great lump could throw himself into it.’
Boja rolled onto his back, cramming great fistfuls of whipped cream into his mouth.
‘Maybe we both got a little overambitious.’ Arnold chuckled, putting his arm around Dev’s shoulder. ‘Difference is, though, I just made a big pile of waffles. You made something … extraordinary.’
Dev felt that sinking feeling in his stomach. The one he must have felt a million times, just today.
‘It doesn’t feel that way any more,’ he replied. ‘It feels like I’ve made a huge mess of everything.’
‘I’ll TELL you what you’ve made, lad.’ The large, wobbling figure of Mayor Bumblebuss stormed through the wilted ferns. ‘You’ve made a DANGEROUS MACHINE. And for that, you are hereby charged with treason.’
28
Persuasion
‘Treason?’ Dev cried.
‘TREASON!’ The Mayor lolloped towards him, waving his bejewelled hand at Boja. ‘That machine sucked all the flember from our village, you built the machine, so you are guilty of treason.’ His big, fluffy moustache barely concealed a smirk. ‘And treason comes with the heaviest punishment. You’re going outside The Wall.’
A handful of Guild members shuffled up behind him. At their helm was an uneasy-looking Bastor.
‘Um, I’m sorry, sir,’ he whispered into the Mayor’s ear. ‘But a charge like treason requires intent. You would have to prove that Dev intended to cause all this.’
Mayor Bumblebuss arched an eyebrow and clicked his fingers. Like a well-trained rat, Zerigauld Sourface scurried out between the Guild’s legs.
‘Oh, but intent we do ’ave.’ Zerigauld unfurled Dev’s bedsheet.
‘If you had been doing your duty, Bastor,’ the Mayor sniffed, ‘you would have gone, like Sourface did, to the remains of Dev’s workshop. And there you would have gathered evidence. Evidence like this – a clear indication of what Dev planned to do, and how he planned to do it. A precise blueprint of his flember extraction machine.’
‘Boja was only ever designed to take a bit of flember. A spoonful!’ Dev protested.
‘Meh, meh, meh.’ Zerigauld hobbled towards him. ‘What ’urts me, boy, what cruelly stains my own good nature, is that you used my ’EART to DO such a TERRIBLE thing!’
He stuck a claw-like finger into the sheet, right where Dev had drawn the golden heart inside Boja’s chest.
‘DIDN’T YOUS?’
Dev silently nodded.
‘A confession!’
‘So, that’s theft –’ the Mayor counted on his pudgy fingers ‘– on top of irresponsible robot building, disrupting Flember Day, fleeing arrest, smashing through half of Eden, oh and, of course, TREASON!’
‘We’ll be chuckin’ you over The Wall!’ Zerigauld cackled. ‘Out into the Wildening!’
The Mayor checked his clock. ‘And since time is of the essence, we’ll skip the formalities. Dev P. Everdew, you’re obviously guilty. Do you have any last requests before we escort you out of the village?’
‘Yes! I just need a few more minutes with Boja!’
Before the Mayor could even say a word, Dev had grabbed Boja’s paw and hauled him onto his feet.
‘Boja, you need to come with me. We need to show them what you’ve learnt.’
Boja followed, but his attention was elsewhere. His fur was matted thick with waffles and cream, and nothing was going to distract him from this glorious turn of events. Whatever Dev was saying, Boja was far too busy to listen, as he plucked off great waffley wodges, popped them into his mouth, and chewed very contentedly.
It worked in Dev’s favour. Boja didn’t notice the dead flemberbugs, or even realize where he was being led, until they reached a hollow in the roots of the Eden Tree. Only then did he catch sight of the huge dead tree looming over them both.
And a clump of hairy waffle fell from his mouth.
‘Remember what you did in the Spindletree Forest?’ Dev said. ‘When you brought everything back to life. All the lights? All the colours? How magical it all looked?’
Boja kept staring up at the tree.
‘Do you think you can do that again, but from up here? Release your flember through this tree, so it all flows back down into the village?’
‘STOP THAT! WHAT ARE YOU TELLING THE MACHINE?’ the Mayor shouted, striding up towards them.
Still staring at the tree, Boja’s eyebrows sank into a deep frown. ‘Not a machine,’ he huffed.
‘And do you remember when we were at the treehouse, with Mina?’ Dev spoke quicker now.
A smile pinched into Boja’s cheeks.
‘How happy she was when you shared some of your flember with her? Well, think how happy you’ll make the whole village, just by sharing a bit more.’
He tugged on Boja’s finger.
‘It’s all down to you, Boja.’ Dev smiled. ‘Only you can save our village.’
Tears began to wobble in Boja’s eyes. ‘Scared,’ he mumbled.
‘I know.’ Dev winced. ‘You shouldn’t have to do this. I’m so, so sorry, Boja.’
‘I’m not.’ Santoro barged past the Mayor. His sword was as long as he was, and nearly as wide, yet he swung it as if it weighed nothing.
‘Out of my way, Dev,’ he growled. ‘I’m going to carve up your machine.’
29
A Good Heart
‘That’s the stuff!’ Mayor Bumblebuss cheered. ‘Get our flember out of that thing and you’re back in the Guild, lad! With honours!’
Other villagers had started to appear. Some from the mob who had followed Boja through the cemetery, and others from the village, who had seen his bright flember glow from a distance. And yet, no one in the crowd appeared to share the Mayor’s revelry.
They were quiet.
They were curious.
‘He’ll give his flember back.’ Dev spread himself in front of Boja. ‘He will!’
‘I’d rather just take it,’ Santoro snarled.
‘Get away from him!’ Commander Sam shouted, sliding down into the dirt beside them. Reginald followed, then Arto, Alice, Mina and Fervus. They formed a line in front of Boja.
‘Boja’s our friend!’ Reginald punched at the air with both his shoes on his hands. ‘And Space Fleet stand by their friends!’
‘SPACE FEET!’ Arto cheered.
Santoro rolled his eyes. ‘You do realise you’re all so short that I can just aim above you, right?’
He didn’t have the chance to try. With a click of the Mayor’s fingers the Guild descended upon the Space Fleet cadets, lifting each of them up off the ground. Then they turned on Dev, wrenching him from around Boja’s waist. Dev screamed, which brought forth from Boja a huge, ground-shaking roar. But the rest of the Guild held firm, their swords outstretched, the bright, blazing bear unable to get past them.
And then, in an instant, all Boja’s fury was gone.
Panic gripped him instead, and he turned, clambered onto the thick roots of the Eden Tree, then shuffled up its trunk. Higher and higher he went, to the very top, to the thinnest branches that would take his weight.
Where he then clung on for his very life.
The Mayor made a noise not unlike a chicken being kicked. ‘IT … IT RAN AWAY!’
‘He’s SCARED!’ Dev cried out from the tussle.
‘He SHOULD be.’ Santoro embedded his sword into the side of the tree with an almighty THUNK! Then he hauled it back out and THUNKED it back in again. ‘GET DOWN!’ he yelled. ‘GET DOWN, GET DOWN!’
Dev thrashed around, trying to break free
from the Guild but they wouldn’t let go. All he could do was stare at the brightly lit bear hiding way, way up in a tree.
Swaying from side to side.
Staring back at him in absolute terror.
Dev slumped to his knees. His mind was racing, trying to think of something, anything to undo this mess. But there was nothing. All his brilliant ideas and now, when he needed one the most, there was nothing.
Santoro had been right.
Their dad would have been so disappointed in him.
‘It’s over, Dev,’ his mother whispered, kneeling beside him and slipping her arms around his waist. ‘You’ve done so well. You’ve tried so hard. But the flember was never Boja’s in the first place. It belongs to the village.’
She pressed her cheek against his.
‘We need it to live.’
Something inside Dev started to crumble. And as it did, it took other parts of him with it, until all of his insides tumbled deep, deep down into the lowest reaches of his soul. He let out an exasperated gasp, tears streaming from his eyes. His mother pulled him in, burying his face into her shoulder.
‘I can’t save him,’ Dev sobbed, his whole body shaking uncontrollably for what may have only been moments, but seemed like forever. Eventually he lifted his head up and looked at the Eden Tree, up towards the big, red, amazing bear at the top of it.
The big, red, amazing bear who was still staring right back at him.
No panic in his eyes any more. No fear.
Just a kindness.
‘I’m sorry,’ Dev winced.
Boja nodded his head, said something Dev couldn’t hear, and then gripped onto the tree a little tighter.
And a great flash of light consumed Shady Acres.
DOOMPF! it went.
And another.
DOOMPF!
Huge, blinding bursts of flember, pulsating out from Boja’s fur.
DOOMPF!
DOOMPF!
DOOMPF!
‘That sounds –’ Dev wiped at his eyes. ‘– like his heart.’
And then.
The Eden Tree lit up like a thunderbolt. Its branches curled out, bustling with sparkling white leaves. Its roots shimmered like long, winding rivers. In waves it came, with each deafening DOOMPF of Boja’s heart. Grass sprang up beneath the crowd’s feet. Bilderflowers, pojoboplants, towering redferns, each growing bigger and brighter than before. It spilled from Shady Acres like a flood, flushing through the trees, twisting the corn stalks back into shape, glittering across the surface of the rice paddies. Emerald green moss rolled through the Old Woods like a carpet. Water bubbled up into the streams. Down into Middle Eden, ivy crawled across the houses. The generators spluttered back into life. All the lantern strings flickered above the streets, each of them now burning a bright, beautiful blue.
The clouds above Shady Acres broke and sunlight – warm, rich sunlight – shone down upon the cheering crowd. It lit up the flemberbugs, the flipping, flopping flemberbugs. Their bodies glowed. Their legs clicked. And then one by one they were up, and they were away. CLIK-CLIK-CLIK, in one glorious wave above the trees and rooftops of Eden.
Over The Wall.
And then somewhere far, far away, where they belonged.
But Dev barely noticed any of it. He had been watching Boja the whole time. He had been listening to the DOOMPFS as they became fainter, and fainter. With each one, Boja had slid a little further down the tree. Still he clung on to the trunk, but the branches flipped him one way, then the other, until finally his huge, saggy body slid all the way back down to the roots.
His once blazing flember now barely a glow.
With one almighty push, Dev broke free of the Guild, ran across Shady Acres and threw himself into Boja’s red fur. Listening for whatever heartbeat he could find.
But it was just a whisper.
Boja was dying.
30
You Can’t Save Everything
‘OK that’s enough.’ Dev tried to pull Boja’s arm away from the tree. ‘Boja, stop now. You’ve given enough back.’
‘ALL OF IT!’ the Mayor roared. ‘Every last drop of the stuff, back where it belongs!’
‘But he’s DYING!’
The Mayor snorted. ‘Not fast enough.’
‘Boja, get away from the tree,’ Dev pleaded. ‘Let GO of it!’
He stopped pulling and instead he pushed. Leaning his whole weight in, yelling, screaming, channelling every last ounce of energy. But a big heavy bear weighs as much as a big heavy bear, and Boja wouldn’t move from the tree.
‘LET GO!’ Dev screamed through a mouthful of fur.
Boja looked down at him, and slowly, ever so slowly, a wide, goofy smile spread across his face.
‘Shhh-aring,’ he slurred.
‘But you’re dying,’ Dev sobbed. ‘You’re DYING!’
Whatever Boja said in reply, it disappeared into a whisper. His eyes closed, and his breathing slowed, and to Dev’s horror the last few wisps of Boja’s flember started to slip away.
And then something else slammed into him. Santoro. His arms buried into Boja’s side, his heels dug into the ground, his whole body leaning in for the push.
‘Dad would want me to help,’ Santoro growled, and with a renewed strength Dev piled in too, both of them wrenching Boja away and tumbling his massive body onto the ground. The tree plunged back into darkness – bare, withered darkness, its leaves fading from the branches as if they’d been ghosts.
An incredible cracking sound filled the sky and its mighty trunk split right down the middle, curling it into two halves of the same, dead tree.
Everyone held their breath, praying that Shady Acres wouldn’t turn again too. It didn’t. The grass remained green, the flowers bloomed, and all that grew around the remains of the Eden Tree still hummed with just the right amount of flember.
A few villagers audibly sighed with relief.
‘MY TREE!’ Mayor Bumblebuss finally shrieked. He turned towards Boja, his red face wobbling with anger. ‘Guild! Seize that machine! IT STILL HAS THE TREE’S FLEMBER!’
The Guild shuffled nervously.
‘WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Confound you, I’ll do it MYSELF!’ The Mayor grabbed a sword and charged towards Boja. But Santoro was ahead of him, swinging his own sword just short of the Mayor’s nose.
‘You could have been a hero,’ the Mayor growled, running his blade against Santoro’s. ‘All you had to do was take apart that machine.’
‘His name is Boja.’ Bastor stepped alongside Santoro, his sword drawn and pointed towards the Mayor. ‘And he’s not a machine.’
‘Of course it is!’ the Mayor shrieked in such a high pitch it was barely audible. ‘You saw the plans. Guts full of metal. Like a MACHINE!’
Bastor didn’t flinch. ‘He was going to sacrifice himself for our village. He made that choice. No machine would do such a thing.’
Others from the Guild followed Bastor’s lead, their swords drawn with his. And then the villagers, too, gathered alongside. Percy kept his distance, and Zerigauld started crawling away, but aside from them every adult, every child, and a goat, circled around the Mayor.
‘That bear is alive,’ Arnold piped up.
‘A living creature,’ Rosa added. ‘Just like the rest of us.’
‘BUT … Fnnpp … RRFFFF!’ the Mayor spat and burbled. ‘This is DISSENT! I’ll throw you ALL outside The Wall!’
Bastor removed his Guild helmet. ‘Mayor Simpius P. Bumblebuss, I … I believe you to be acting against the will of the people,’ he said. ‘And so, by section … section …’
‘Twenty-three,’ Amy whispered.
‘Section twenty-three of the Eden constitution, I request three more Guild votes to have you removed from your post.’
Without a second’s hesitation, every hand in the Guild rose into the air. And behind them, every villager’s too. Bumblebuss’s mouth fell open, setting off a chain reaction across his seven chins.
He turned back to Santoro. ‘A
nd you,’ he snarled. ‘You double-crossing coward. Your father would be ashamed!’
Santoro stared intently back. ‘Nah.’ He smiled. ‘I think he’d be proud.’
‘I SHOULD HAVE THROWN YOUR WHOLE FAMILY OUT—’ The Mayor was cut short by a slap across the cheek.
Amy Everdew stood beside him, her face a dark crimson, her teeth gritted. Her body heaving with rage.
‘You STOP talking about my family,’ she said.
Bastor carefully unstrapped the Mayor’s helmet, wiped the sweat from inside and then put it on in place of his own.
‘Mayor Bumblebuss, thank you for your service, but I shall stand in until the Guild votes for a new Mayor of Eden.’
Upon his nod, two Guild members stood alongside Bumblebuss, lowered his sword and politely gripped his arms. Bumblebuss, now looking less like a mayor and more like a sad old man in a fancy dressing gown, stared around in shock.
Dev, however, was far more concerned with Boja, the huge, immovable lump lying face down in the grass. He couldn’t hear a heartbeat, couldn’t even feel Boja breathing.
There was nothing.
He gently shook the bear back and forth, trying to get a response. ‘Please,’ he sobbed. ‘Boja please.’
The crowd fell silent.
Even the breeze seemed to stop.
Then, suddenly, Boja’s whole body lurched forwards with a HICCUP. He rolled onto his back, exhausted, half asleep, staring into the sky.
HICCUP!
‘You’re OK!’ Dev screamed, flinging himself into Boja’s belly, revelling in the gentle DOOMPF DOOMPF DOOMPF of his heart. His fur was fluffy, his eyes were glinting, his tummy was rumbling and his flember had calmed right, right down.
‘I SHARED!’ Boja chuckled.