Daisy Malone and the Blue Glowing Stone

by James O'Loghlin

  Love and bests, Mum

  P.S. Not a word to your father! He must be panicking enough already, poor thing.

  P.P.S. Give Ben a hug and a bone and a walk from me.

  Of course, now Daisy had another dilemma: Should she open the third envelope, the one with ‘Professor Trevor Blont’ written on it? She thought about it for a half of a third of a fraction of a teensy tiny minutely small bit of a nanosecond, and then ripped it open.

  Dear Trevor,

  If my daughter Daisy has brought you this letter it is because I have disappeared or something else nasty has happened to me. Rats!

  Let me explain. As you know we have been working on uncovering more of the underground rooms and passages at the Gloomy Gulch site. One morning during our most recent dig, Janelle and I were scraping and dusting away at the floor of one of the chambers, uncovering large square stones on the floor. It looked like a dead end, but just to be sure I tapped each stone with my pick. One of them made a hollow sound so I jammed a crowbar under it and managed to lever it up. Underneath was a narrow staircase leading downwards!

  Janelle needed a toilet break, so I told her I’d wait until she got back and she headed to the surface.

  So I waited. For about ten seconds! Trevor, I know exploring alone is against the rules but it was our last day and I just couldn’t bear to waste time! I grabbed the crowbar and my lantern and headed down the stairs. After about twenty steps I came to a stone door. It didn’t have a handle, so I prised it open with the crowbar.

  Inside was another stone-walled room, about the size of a medium-sized bedroom. In the middle of it was a circular, waist-high stone platform, on top of which was a pile of smooth white stones the size of plums.

  I picked up one of the stones and heard a tremendous crash behind me. A metal screen had fallen to cover the entire wall, including the door I had come through! Picking up the rock had triggered a booby trap!

  I tried to lift the screen, but it wouldn’t budge. After a moment of panic I calmed down. I knew Janelle would soon return and find me. And she did. Soon I heard her outside. Luckily we could hear each other through the screen so I explained what had happened and she went to fetch help.

  While I waited, I turned off my lantern to save batteries. Trevor, you know what it’s like underground without light: darkness so total that when you hold your hand right in front of your eyes you can’t even see its outline.

  Well, it wasn’t like that. Coming from the pile of rocks was a blue glow. I turned the lantern back on and reached out to move the rocks to see what was underneath. Then I stopped. Moving one rock had caused the metal screen to fall. Would moving others trigger another booby trap? I had no way of knowing, but I thought it unlikely. Besides, I was burning with curiosity.

  Quickly, I pulled a handful of stones away. In the middle of the pile was a blue glowing stone, the size and shape of an egg.

  Some objects can glow in the dark. When I was little I had a glowing bear. It glowed because it was regularly exposed to light, and was able to store it. But this stone was in complete darkness all the time. Yet it still glowed.

  I picked up the stone. As I did so I felt the most extraordinary thing. It was as if a surge of power was rushing through me. I don’t know how to explain this, but as I held the stone I knew – I knew – that it contained great power and that that power could be used to do extraordinary things. To test whether I was correct or was just going mad, I focused on my own strength, walked over to the rock wall and punched it. It didn’t hurt my hand at all, but my fist dented the rock!

  Still holding the stone I took a step back, and jumped. The ceiling was at least twice my height and yet my head nearly hit it. I stared at the glowing stone. What?! How?!

  Still holding it I walked over to the metal screen, slid the fingers of my other hand underneath it and pulled up. Nothing. I still couldn’t budge it.

  Soon Janelle returned with some of the camp workers and as they cut through the door, I wondered if I should report my discovery. If I did, what would happen to the stone? Who would end up controlling it? What would it be used for? It was obviously an object of immense power, and there are so many ways power can be misused.

  Wrongly or rightly, I decided that before I let it out of my hands I needed more time to think. I wrapped the stone in my handkerchief, then thrust it deep in my pocket. Shortly afterwards a hole was cut in the screen and I escaped. The next day we came home. I was tempted to conduct further experiments into what the stone could do, but I thought the safest thing would be to simply hide it for the moment. So I put it in our attic.

  But of course there is more.

  When I returned to the Gloomy Gulch site a few days ago, I went back to the chamber where I found the stone to look for some clue as to what it is. I am sure there was another fresh crowbar mark on the door, and that the pile of white stones on the platform was not as I had left it. Someone else had been in the chamber.

  I searched the room, tapping on stones and prying into cracks, and found something that might be a clue. It’s some written information that I can’t quite work out, but I’m sure it’s relevant. I will show it to you when we meet!

  Trevor, I think I am being watched and followed and I am sure that it is because I found the stone. Sometimes, I walk into the hills or into Gloomy Gulch, and I am certain – nearly certain – that I see someone behind me. Last night I woke up and I’m sure I could hear someone breathing just outside my tent. I coughed loudly and I heard them creep away.

  I’m scared, so I want to make sure someone else knows where the stone is, which is why Trevor, my friend, I am telling you. It’s in our attic behind the cross beam nearest the front of the house in a canvas bag. Putting it there was a huge mistake! Because if someone is after it, the last thing I want is for them to trace it to where my family lives! So please, Trevor, I know you might have trouble getting up into our attic, but ask Daisy to help you get it and then please, please hide it somewhere safe.

  Trevor, I’m so sorry to drag you into this but I know you will help. Maybe I am imagining everything and no one is after it or me but it’s better to be safe than sorry! And please don’t breathe a word of it to Brian. He wouldn’t cope.

  Thanks and good luck,

  Jackie

  Daisy and Ben sat silently on the couch. This is what Daisy was thinking:

  1. The blue stone is somehow very powerful and now that scary man, who doesn’t seem very nice, has it.

  2. Mum is in danger.

  3. I need to do something.

  This is what Ben was thinking:

  1. I’m hungry.

  ‘We have to try to find those horrible men who took the stone,’ Daisy said eventually.

  ‘Only one of them was horrible,’ said Ben. ‘The other one was just stupid. And no we don’t. We have to take that letter to Professor Blont. That’s what your mum wants us to do.’

  ‘Yes, but first we should at least try to find out where they went with the stone. You might still be able to pick up their scent, but the longer we leave it the harder that will be. So let’s just see if we can track them, and then we’ll go and tell Professor Blont.’

  Ben sighed. ‘Can I have something to eat first?’

  Chapter 6

  LOLLIES AND A PHONE CALL

  After Ben had gobbled some mince (and he really did gobble it. Dogs have no table manners. In fact they don’t even have tables.) they went out the back door and Ben started sniffing. A dog’s sense of smell is about a thousand times stronger than a person’s, which is why it’s very important never to fart anywhere near a dog’s nose.

  When they were up in the attic, Ben had got a bit of a sniff of both Sinclair and Dennis. For him, smelling someone was similar to you or me seeing their face. Once you’ve done it, you remember it a long time.

  Ben sniffed about outside the back fence, and th
en looked up at Daisy, frowning. ‘They have very strange scents. Like nothing I’ve never smelt before. It’s … weird.’

  ‘Never mind that,’ said Daisy. ‘Which way did they go?’

  Ben set off up the hill.

  ‘Did they go this way?’ asked Daisy.

  ‘No they didn’t, but they’re controlling my brain and making me lead you away from them. Yes, of course they went this way. That’s why I’m going this way. If they had gone the other way, I’d be going the other way.’

  ‘All right. No need to get your knickers in a knot.’

  ‘I don’t wear knickers, thank you very much. Unlike you humans, I don’t feel the need to cover bits of myself up. I am nude and proud.’

  ‘That’s wonderful, Ben. Just don’t lose the scent, okay?’

  ‘Lose the scent! Coming from someone who can barely smell a burning sausage on a barbeque! Huh!’

  They passed the track that ran across the hill and continued upwards. At the top of the hill they had a view that was only a bushfire away from being wonderful. As it was, there were trees on all sides but they could still catch glimpses of their street, their suburb, their city and even their ocean. But this was no time for sightseeing. There were thieves to catch, a stone to recover and a whatever-else-that-was-going-to-happen to happen.

  Ben trotted over to a tree and lifted his leg. ‘Sorry, I just have a really strong urge to mark this tree.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I have no idea. Instinct again, probably. It just seems really important.’

  When Ben had finished, he put his nose to the ground. ‘We’re lucky not many people use this track. Their trail is still pretty easy to follow.’

  He led the way down the other side of the hill along a thin track. Daisy had been this way many times. At the bottom of the hill was a line of back fences and a lane that led through to a busy street. Without any hesitation, Ben trotted up the lane and soon they emerged onto the street.

  Daisy looked down at Ben in a way that a twelve-year-old girl might look down at a talking dog when she was expecting it to say, ‘Follow me. They went thataway.’

  But Ben just shrugged his shoulders, because he wasn’t sure whichaway they went. Hundreds of people walked along this street every day and he couldn’t pick up even a faint whiff of Sinclair or Dennis.

  Daisy looked around and her eyes came to rest, as the eyes of any girl or boy would, on the lolly shop at the mouth of the lane. The existence of that fine establishment was of course the reason she climbed and descended the hill so often.

  Suddenly Daisy remembered how Dennis had kept pestering Sinclair for lollies, and Sinclair had said that he didn’t have any but that he would get him some later. No doubt that pestering had continued as they walked up the hill and down the other side. And then they would have emerged right next to a lolly shop.

  It was worth a try.

  Daisy entered the shop, leaving Ben outside. It was like entering paradise. Gobstoppers, sherbets, licorice, freckles, toffees, chocolates of all kinds and lolly bananas, lolly raspberries, lolly peaches, lolly sausages, lolly bread rolls, lolly dining tables, lolly pianos, and lolly broccoli surrounded her. There were so many lollies in the shop there almost wasn’t room for anything else such as light, floor or air. Daisy squeezed herself down the ceiling-high aisles towards the back of the shop where Mrs Pearce sat behind the counter, munching on a chocolate carrot. Daisy had never seen Mrs Pearce without a lolly in her mouth. She was living proof that everything grown-ups said about lollies being bad for you was a lie. Mrs Pearce was eighty-six years old but looked twenty years younger. She was fit and healthy, and her teeth, which had been sucking on lollies for nearly a century, were big, white and gleaming. Maybe it was all the chocolate vegetables she ate.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Pearce.’

  ‘Hello, Derek,’ said Mrs Pearce in a friendly voice.

  ‘It’s Daisy, Mrs Pearce,’ said Daisy.

  ‘Yes of course! Sorry, Derek.’

  ‘Daisy.’

  ‘Sorry. Daisy. Silly me. Who was I thinking of? Oh yes. Derek Jacobi, the great English actor. You remind me of him.’

  ‘Why’s that, Mrs Pearce?’ asked Daisy.

  ‘Why? Because you both have two legs, of course.’ Mrs Pearce threw her head back and roared with laughter. ‘It’s true.’ She pointed at Daisy’s legs. ‘Look! There they are. Right there between your tummy and your feet. And just the other night I saw Derek Jacobi on the tele-visiony thingy and I noticed that, believe it or not, he had exactly the same number of legs in exactly the same position as yours! No wonder I get you two mixed up!’ She gave another cackle.

  ‘Yes, no wonder. Mrs Pearce, um, could I ask you something?’

  ‘Of course, Derek dear.’

  ‘Yesterday, late morning, I wonder if you noticed two men come in here. One would have been quite old with a white beard and the other would have been younger with curly brown hair, and sort of stupid looking.’

  ‘Let me think.’ Mrs Pearce crinkled up her brow. ‘Here we go, now.’ She closed her eyes, concentrating. ‘Ooh! It’s starting.’

  ‘What’s starting?’

  ‘The thinking, of course. Here it goes. Whoosh! Oh, yes, I’m thinking now, Derek. I really am!’

  ‘And …’

  Mrs Pearce’s eyes snapped open. ‘Yes!’ she said definitely.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Yes!’

  ‘You remember them?’

  ‘Indeed I do. Do you know why?’

  ‘Um, because you have an excellent memory?’ hazarded Daisy.

  ‘No, dear. I have a terrible memory. Haven’t you noticed I keep calling you Derek? I mean, really, what’s that about? Not only is Derek not your name, you’re not even male! No, the reason I remember those two men is that there were two of them and neither of them was a child.’

  ‘Oh, I understand,’ said Daisy uncertainly, because actually she didn’t understand at all.

  ‘You see, Derek dear, adults don’t tend to come into lolly shops alone. They usually only come with children. In fact, there’s only one type of adult who comes into my lolly shop without children. Do you know what type that is?’

  Daisy shook her head, but not so hard as to damage anything.

  ‘An aunt! See, parents only come in when they have their children with them, grandparents don’t come in at all because they can never remember where the shop is, and uncles always think it would be a nice idea to buy their nephews and nieces some lollies, but when it comes down to it, they’re always running late and they can’t find anywhere to park. So that leaves aunts. And those two men who came in yesterday definitely did not look like aunts.’

  ‘Do you remember anything they said or did?’

  ‘Well, they were breathing. I’m nearly sure of that.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘They bought some lollies, of course. I mean that’s what you do in a lolly shop, isn’t it? If you’re after a toaster you’d be right out of luck!’ She threw her head back and cackled again. ‘The young one was very excited. And they were sweating. It was dripping off them. Disgusting! One of them nearly sweated on my foot!’

  ‘Can you remember if they said anything about where they were going, Mrs Pearce?’

  ‘That would be very unusual, dear. People don’t normally say, “Could I please have eight caramel butters, two jelly snakes and a chocolate iguana and by the way, when I leave here I’m going to go to the bread shop and then to my friend Eric’s house for lunch.” That sort of thing doesn’t happen much, Derek.’

  ‘Oh well. Thanks, Mrs –’

  ‘But wait!’ Mrs Pearce exclaimed dramatically, leaping to her feet and knocking over a jar of chocolate telephones. ‘I do remember something! I do! I do! I do! The older one with the beard said, “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream. Merrily, me
rrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”’ She smiled triumphantly down at Daisy.

  ‘Are you sure that’s what he said, Mrs Pearce?’

  Mrs Pearce’s brow furrowed as she rubbed her chin. ‘Let me see. Am I sure? Am I? No! No, in fact actually I think the “Row your boat” thingy might be a nursery rhyme. Or the name of a type of soup. Or a small town in Greenland. Or something. No. I’ve got it now. As soon as they paid for the lollies the younger man started gobbling them, and the older one said something like, “Can’t you wait until we get to the hotel? It’s just round the corner.”’

  ‘Just around the corner? Are you sure that’s what he said?’

  Mrs Pearce frowned. ‘Of course I’m sure, Derek. What do you think I am? A half-mad old woman who runs a lolly shop?’

  ‘Er, no, Mrs Pearce, not at all. Thank you so much.’ Daisy turned and raced outside the shop, becoming the first child ever in the fifty-five and a half years Mrs Pearce had been running the shop to leave without buying or stealing any lollies.

  Daisy shared the news with Ben and then they started to look for corners they could go around to look for hotels. They walked up the street, looked around six corners and saw exactly zero hotels. Then they turned and trudged back down the street, past the lolly shop. Well, Daisy trudged. Ben just keep padding along in his usual way, but his tongue was hanging out, which meant he was getting tired.

  The first cross street back past the lolly shop was called Cross Street. Ha! Who’d have thought! They turned right into it and found another dead end which contained three shops, eight houses and a three-storey building with a giant picture of a man’s face on it. The face looked very cross, and below the picture was a sign that read, ‘The Cross Hotel’.

  ‘That could be it!’ exclaimed Daisy.

  Ben turned quickly, hissed, ‘Follow me,’ and started walking back out of Cross Street.

  ‘What are you doing? This might be it,’ Daisy said, following.