The Pearl in the Attic

by Karen McCombie

  “Are you frightened?” Pearl asked Dolly, her eyes wide with excitement.

  “Not a bit! It’s the most wonderful feeling. To be so high above everyone and everything, to see the birds spin around and spy on me, wondering what I am doing in their world … it’s quite, quite magical,” said Dolly, with a faraway look in her eyes. “And it’s certainly better than being a waitress!”

  “You were a waitress before this?” Pearl repeated.

  Ruby was as startled as her friend. She could barely imagine a performer like Dolly doing such a mundane job, but said nothing, due to the pins she had placed in her mouth.

  “Yes – in the tearooms,” said Dolly, pointing at the palace. “I worked there till last Saturday.”

  “What?” Pearl exclaimed. “How? I mean…”

  Dolly’s shoulders heaved as she laughed.

  “I can hardly believe it myself!” she said. “But it’s true; when my shift finished in the tearoom, I came by here, where Colonel Cody was setting up this attraction. Another girl was practising the trick, but she did not want to go through with it. Then the colonel saw me watching, and asked if I was an adventurous sort. Luckily for him, I am. And so with a bit of training, I found myself in the air in no time!”

  Standing behind Dolly’s shoulder, Ruby saw the expression of amazement and longing on Pearl’s face. Perhaps being shut up in the attic with only the clouds and birds for company these last weeks made her yearn for the freedom Dolly had.

  “And now, after this, you go to France?” she asked breathlessly of the aeronaut.

  “France, and then we tour the whole of Europe,” Dolly announced. “And Colonel Cody hopes to take us on to Australia after that.”

  Pearl’s blue eyes widened, as if someone had told her of the greatest secret.

  “Australia? Really?” she gasped.

  But Ruby was now gasping for her own reasons. She could see Colonel Cody himself striding over to them, touching his tan leather hat in greeting.

  “Pleasure to meet you, ladies,” said the colonel in a rich, rolling American drawl, addressing Ruby and Pearl as if they were more than just young, gawky shop girls. “Any friend of Dolly’s is surely a friend of mine.”

  Ruby, her pinning now done, shyly came around and shook the hand that was being offered. Pearl did the same, her dimples twinkling in her cheeks.

  “Now, I’m thinkin’,” the colonel continued, scratching his splendid beard and shooting a mischievous look at Dolly, “might you ladies be interested in making this last performance of the week one the folks here’ll be talkin’ about for years?”

  Dolly was laughing, already sure of what he was asking, even if Ruby and Pearl had no clue.

  “Yes!” Pearl burst out, without knowing what task he was suggesting.

  “Ah, now both of you are very lovely ladies, but perhaps you, my dear,” Colonel Cody said directly to Pearl, “are just a little lighter. Will you come over this way with Dolly and me… ?”

  Before Ruby knew it, she was handed the shawl that had been plucked from around Pearl’s shoulders, and was being ushered to wait near the carriage by one of the men with their shirtsleeves rolled up.

  “What’s happening?” she asked him as she saw Colonel Cody talking earnestly to Pearl. Dolly must have felt Ruby’s concerned stare, and gave her a carefree wink.

  “See the trapeze?” said the man, pointing at the balloon, which hovered now at around the height of two men from the ground.

  From the bottom of it hung a sort of swing, consisting of ropes tied to a bar.

  “Yes,” muttered Ruby, unnerved now as she saw another fellow fit a type of bag on to Dolly’s shoulders, while Colonel Cody continued to talk to a nodding Pearl.

  “Well, Dolly holds on to the trapeze, is lifted into the air by it, then—”

  “LADIES and GENTLEMEN, BOYS and GIRLS!” Colonel Cody now turned and boomed to the waiting crowd. “All this week the lovely MISS DOLLY SHEPHERD has been ASTONISHING audiences daily with her daring flights… With NO thought to her own safety, she has…”

  As the colonel boomed on with many choice words about the spectacle they were about to see, Ruby’s ears grew deaf. All she could see was that Pearl was being strapped to Dolly by means of a tight harness, as Dolly talked insistently to her and Pearl listened just as earnestly.

  “…you will witness a feat SO rare,” Colonel Cody boomed on, “as not ONE but TWO young ladies take this risky journey into the skies…”

  And then the two girls smiled – and before Ruby could think to rescue her friend, the trapeze bar was placed in Dolly’s now uplifted arms, Colonel Cody’s voiced reached a crescendo, a deafening roar came from the onlookers and the balloon was released from its tethers and rose fast and high into the sky.

  “Pearl!” Ruby tried to call out, as she saw her friend wrap her arms around Dolly’s neck and her legs around her waist. But shock made the words stick tight and hard in Ruby’s throat.

  Then the fear left her.

  Slipped away like dark mud sluiced by clear spring water.

  As the balloon soared, Pearl soaring with it, Ruby saw the ribbon tumble from Pearl’s braid and flutter towards the ground. Her thick braid quickly unfurled, and her long red hair tumbled free, like a shining red banner.

  And Pearl was laughing. Laughing as if the world was a wonderful place, as if amazing things were possible for ordinary girls like her and Ruby. As if she were free.

  Watching her friend ascend to the clouds, a smile broke out on Ruby’s face that was so broad, her muscles ached.

  For Pearl’s joy was Ruby’s joy, and always would be, from this day on.

  If Pearl soared, so would Ruby.

  The crowd gave another roar as Dolly dropped her hands from the trapeze, and for a moment their speed felt too much, too fast, Pearl’s hair whipping alarmingly, like a distress call—

  And then a great puff of cloth, the parachute it was, opened wide, and gently, gently brought Dolly and Pearl drifting back down to earth, to land with a soft tumble and a multitude of cheers.

  As soon as the straps holding Pearl and Dolly were unbound, Pearl ran to Ruby and Ruby ran to Pearl.

  Lost in a hug, heart beating against heart, without saying a word both girls knew that their futures were as entangled as they were at that moment…

  The Same, With a Twist of Different

  I can’t wait to hug Nana as tightly as Ruby hugged Pearl.

  I can’t wait to tell her the latest chapter of her story made me cry.

  I can’t wait to tell her that I just can’t wait till the next clue, and the next chapter!

  Oh…

  Having just hurried into the ward, I instantly slow down. Nana’s bed is empty, and neatly made up.

  “Where is she? What’s happened to her?” I splutter, as the four of us stop dead.

  “Well, well, well!” I hear a familiar voice call out from the other side of the ward.

  Thank goodness…

  Nana is over by the window, and in her sky-blue PJs she looks a bit like she’s in nurse’s scrubs. She even has the footwear; she’s not the type to go for comfy slippers, and instead Mum brought in the neon-yellow Crocs Nana had directed her to yesterday.

  The one major giveaway that identifies Nana as a patient is – of course – the fact that her arm and fingers are in plaster and in a sling.

  “Looking for an escape route, Patsy?” Uncle Dean jokes.

  “Just enjoying the view, darling!” Nana says theatrically, sweeping her good arm out towards what I can see is the London skyline. The Shard, the London Eye, the BT Tower … they’re all there, like a postcard image. “AND I’m enjoying being up and about and feeling more like myself!”

  That last comment – it’s directed at Mum.

  Nana’s blue eyes zone right in on her, as if she’s daring her to even think she’s got dementia.

  “Anyway, Dean, Scarlet, Zephyr … let’s go and sit down. Have a chat,” says Nana.

  Mum�
��s jaw clenches.

  “Here, Ren, you take this seat,” says Dean, spotting the snub and trying to usher Mum into the seat next to Nana’s bed.

  Nana sees through the ruse and gingerly perches herself at the end of the bed, the corner facing away from Mum.

  “Scarlet, when are you going to turn me into a mermaid like you?” she asks, patting at her pinned-up hair. “Then maybe in the summer holidays, you and I could take a trip to the seaside. Visit Dean and Zephyr in Southend.”

  “Melbourne, Patsy,” Zephyr corrects her with a grin.

  “Melbourne, of course! D’oh!” Nana laughs off her mistake. “Get me off these pills! Get me home! And once I’m home I could go online and book the flights. How would you like that, Scarlet? Us two mermaids going off on our own big adventure?”

  There’s a screech of a chair as Mum gets up and hurries out of the ward.

  I start, wondering if I should go after her … but then I know Nana is the one who’s in here on her own, feeling scared and uncertain about what’s going on, and trying to bluster her way through it. Mum is capable and strong and can manage. She’s probably out in the corridor now, counting to ten.

  “I’m just going to go to the gents’ – back in a mo,” says Uncle Dean, heading out after Mum instead, which leaves me and Zephyr alone with Nana.

  Please, please don’t let her ask about Mr Spinks or Angie, I suddenly start to fret.

  Luckily, my new favourite cousin has plenty of conversation up his sleeve.

  “Patsy, I hope it’s OK, but Scarlet showed me your story today,” he says. “It’s really brilliant!”

  We were up in my room for ages, Zephyr reading through every chapter so far of The Pearl in the Attic as I stared out of the window, hoping but failing to see the wide wings of Angie amongst the grey blur of pigeons swooping and gliding from rooftop to chimney pot.

  And then together we read Chapter Six – the best one so far.

  “So you shared our little secret, did you, Scarlet?” says Nana, raising her eyebrows at me, though she looks pleased rather than annoyed. “A new player for our little game, eh?”

  “Yes!” I say, relieved that she’s fine with that, since I don’t want her to be cross with me over this, when she’s going to be mega cross with me pretty soon if Angie stays away. “And Zephyr worked out your last clue; he guessed that ‘rise’ was something to do with the bread oven in the bakery.”

  “Clever boy,” Nana beams. “And isn’t the old bakery wonderful? When I open my vintage and collectables shop I thought I could use that as a workspace and teach art classes to children!”

  I don’t dare look at Zephyr and I bet he isn’t daring to look at me. Nana probably wouldn’t be very impressed to know all her ‘vintage and collectables’ are currently being crushed into there to free up the flat so it looks presentable to some nosy social worker on Monday.

  “I adored that last chapter,” I say to Nana, to take her mind off the subject of the bakery. “I loved that the girls had had such an adventure, and that Ruby finding a friend in Pearl was this one brilliant thing to happen in a really bleak time.”

  As soon as I say that, I look shyly at Zephyr, and realize it’s kind of the same – with a twist of different – for us…

  “Oh, I’m so glad you both like the story!” says Nana, beaming at us. “It’s been really special to me, writing it this last year, ever since…”

  Nana trails off, blinking.

  “Ever since what, Nana?” I ask her, curiosity wriggling in my tummy.

  Nana’s smile beams full watt again, and she taps her nose.

  Aha! She’s playing another game with us.

  “Can I ask you something, Patsy? Is The Pearl in the Attic based on real events?” Zephyr asks, just as intrigued with Nana’s writing as I am.

  Nana looks at him long and hard, then slowly shakes her head from side to side.

  “That, my darlings, is for me to know and you to find out. You’ll need to … to kick-start those brain cells!”

  Me and Zephyr swap grins across the top of her head, both totally up for our joint challenge.

  “Well, for a start,” says Zephyr, getting his phone out of his pocket, “I found out the ‘Brandt’ bakery was for real, and so—”

  “Shhh!” says Nana, without looking at the images on the screen. “Boring adults coming! Don’t let them find out about our game!”

  Ha! She’s pointing at Mum and Uncle Dean, who are walking back into the ward.

  “Can you at least give us the clue for the next chapter?” I whisper quickly.

  Nana fixes me with her sky-blue stare.

  “Hmm … I might make you wait a little longer for the next one, my sweetheart,” she says, and turns to face the “boring” adults…

  “Regular or aloe vera?” asks Zephyr, holding up two types of loo roll on either side of his head.

  We’re in an aisle of the supermarket with a shopping list Mum gave us, while she’s locked away in her tidy white bedroom up in the flat with her computer and spreadsheets and Uncle Dean is off to the nearest storage company, getting cardboard boxes for the next phase of tidying.

  I try and muster a smile, but it’s hard to come by. It’s late Saturday afternoon and Angie still isn’t back. We got away with it during our earlier visit to the hospital, but what about this evening? What if Nana asks about Angie then?

  “Aw, don’t be like that,” says Zephyr, dropping his arms. “Don’t let me make important life decisions like which loo roll to choose all by myself!”

  I’m suddenly aware that we’re not totally alone. A dark-haired woman, the café owner I met this morning, has stopped beside us.

  “Ah, yes, shopping can be a very serious business,” she says, nodding sagely, going along with Zephyr’s goofing.

  “Oh, hi!” I say, feeling a little awkward and shy. “Um, this is my cousin. Patsy is his grandma too. Zephyr, this is the lady who found Nana. She owns the café at the end of the road.”

  I don’t know what I expect Zephyr to say; a simple hi? A thanks-for-looking-out-for-my-gran? I don’t expect him to launch into an immediate interrogation.

  “So, do you know anything about the history of the shop that Patsy owns?” he asks. He’s totally up for Nana’s challenge now. He’s so determined to find out if the story is based on reality.

  “Um, well, no, not really,” says the woman, taken aback by Zephyr’s lack of small talk. “I mean, it was always a baker’s shop, I heard. Just one family owned it since long, long ago. But it’s been closed ever since we’ve had our place, and that’s more than twelve years now. Why do you want to know?”

  “Just interested,” says Zephyr, sounding a bit disappointed that his line of enquiry had turned into a dead end so soon.

  “I suppose you could ask Tom…” she says thoughtfully.

  “Who’s Tom?” I ask.

  “Tom Blake; he was the last to run the bakery. He still lived in the flat upstairs, long after he retired,” says the café owner. “He sold the place to Patsy, before he moved to the old people’s home.”

  When she says old people’s home, she nods, as if it’s just along the way.

  Which means a piece of the puzzle of The Pearl in the Attic might be just along the way too…

  And then his phone bleeps and Zephyr’s in such a rush to answer it that the loo rolls tumble out of his hands.

  “It’s a text from Patsy!” Zephyr announces too loudly. “She says, ‘Tinkle-inkle-inkle…’”

  The café lady frowns. A guy who’s stacking the shelves further along stops to glower our way.

  But Zeph and me stare at each other, knowing we’ve just had the clue to Chapter Seven.

  It’s just a shame that the bell Nana is referring to is silent just now, with no one – or no bird – home to ring it…

  The Pearl in the Attic

  Chapter 7

  Their hair flew free as they ran home, rippling down their backs with every hurried step.

  I
t had been Dolly who tugged the bow that bound Ruby’s braid. It had happened before she knew it, as she hugged and congratulated her friend.

  “See?” Dolly had said to Colonel Cody, as he looked upon the two girls, arms still around each other, one’s hair a thick band of red to her waist, the other’s a thick wave of chestnut brown.

  “Ah, yes! My, my!” Colonel Cody had remarked, looking upon Ruby and Pearl as if he had been presented with two precious gems.

  And then he had said something to the girls that was quite the most unexpected and extraordinary thing either of them had ever heard…

  “Why not?” Pearl breathlessly appealed now to Ruby, holding up Colonel Samuel Cody’s calling card as if it were a golden ticket.

  She had been badgering Ruby all the way back from the palace.

  “Because the colonel did not mean it. Because girls of our age do not go off with strangers. Because it is a crazy scheme. And dangerous,” said Ruby, as they hurried along Hornsey High Street towards the closed shop and flat above.

  At first, when Colonel Cody had presented his card to the girls and asked them to consider joining his touring show as a double act, Ruby’s whole chest ached at the romance of the idea.

  But her head quickly proclaimed that the very notion was impossible, as well as foolhardy.

  “You are not a girl to be afraid, Ruby!” Pearl tried to flatter her. “Before the colonel came over to us, didn’t you say you would give anything to be up on that trapeze too?”

  Ruby had.

  But in that same way she might wish she were royalty and that Alexandra Palace was her home.

  That she could eat the cakes of Brandt’s Baker and Confectioner for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

  That there were dungeons or at least cellars under Alexandra Palace where her uncle could be locked away and the key mislaid…

  “And anyway, Ruby, you speak of the danger of going off with Dolly and the troupe,” Pearl continued, “but what of the danger of staying here? Living under the same roof as our uncle is as safe as living with a … a wolf, never knowing when he might turn on anyone within his reach.”