Simply the Quest

by Maz Evans

  The blacksmith listened at the gate, where he could hear his prey scuttling around.

  ‘Right, you pair!’ he said as he laid his hand on a nearby lever. ‘Film this, you nosy beggars!’

  With a great wrench he pulled the lever and stood back to admire his handiwork. A giant stone ball rolled down a slide, hitting a button at the bottom that sent a hammer shooting up to ring a bell. The swaying bell knocked over a weight, which flew through the air, hit a target dead centre and released the iron net over the bushes.

  Hephaestus allowed himself a satisfied chortle as he opened the gate to catch his game. This was going to be—

  ‘Elly!’ Josie suddenly shouted from the door, her hair wild and her face frantic with worry. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Don’t worry, pet,’ said Hephaestus, hobbling over to her. ‘The boy’s fine, gone off gallivanting with his pal.’

  ‘The keys!’ screamed Josie, coming out into the yard. ‘You didn’t lock the door!’

  ‘I was just getting some fresh air, m’love,’ soothed Hephaestus. ‘We’ll have everything shipshape in one minute. Don’t you fret, now.’

  ‘Elly?’ cried Josie, going back indoors. ‘Where is my son!’

  Hephaestus dithered – he should go after her – but unless he tied up his net, those two dingbats would get away. The Gods were in the house and he’d only be a moment. He was still pretty nippy for an old-timer. Whatever anyone else said.

  He lurched as quickly as he could over to the net and pulled a second lever.

  ‘Gotcha!’ he cried as the net shot up into the tree above with a whistle. ‘What the . . .?’

  Hephaestus looked at his catch. Where the two despicable dunderheads should have been was an angry badger and a rather confused rabbit.

  ‘Snordlesnot!’ yelled the blacksmith, lowering the net back to the ground. He was about to reset his trap when something else caught his eye. A tiny red light, shining over on the other side of the field. It was Horse’s-Bum and Boil. And they were aiming their camera straight at him.

  ‘Come over ’ere, you two!’ yelled Hephaestus, watching the pair of them scamper off into the woods. ‘I’ll give you some footage all right . . .’

  He looked back to the farmhouse. He’d only be a minute – once he’d caught up with Stupid and Stupider, he’d be straight back to Josie.

  Hephaestus ran through the open gate, thinking of his boss’s face when Zeus discovered he’d let those two dunderheads get their footage. If anyone was getting a thunderbolt, it was going to be him.

  Especially as he forgot to shut the ruddy gate.

  28. The Whole Truth

  After a silent walk back across the fields, Elliot and Virgo arrived at Home Farm to find the Gods arguing around the kitchen table. At the sight of Elliot, they sprang apart.

  ‘You’re home,’ said Athene. ‘Thank goodness.’

  ‘Please will you talk to us, Elliot?’ said Zeus. ‘There’s nothing we can’t straighten out with a natter.’

  ‘Come and sit with us, Elly,’ said Aphrodite. ‘We only want to help.’

  ‘I need to talk to Mum,’ said Elliot.

  The Gods looked at each other, but no one moved.

  ‘Alone,’ said Elliot firmly.

  Zeus sighed and nodded to his children.

  ‘We’ll be in the shed, mate,’ said Hermes, putting his hand on Elliot’s shoulder as he led Virgo and his family out of the kitchen.

  Elliot went to the front room, where Josie was watching the TV. He switched it off and sat next to her on the sofa.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she started, getting up from the sofa and pacing around the room. ‘Have you watered the plants? You know what Grandad will say . . .’

  Elliot calmly pulled his dad’s watch out of his pocket and laid it on the table, setting the stopwatch to seven minutes. He rummaged in his satchel and pulled out the wishing pearl. He’d thought of doing this so many times. But he knew that he could only do it once, and that seven minutes would never be long enough. Today, it would just have to be.

  Clasping it in his fist, Elliot whispered softly to the pearl.

  ‘I wish,’ he said slowly, ‘to have my mum back.’

  The pearl jingled in his hand. He turned to look at Josie, who suddenly stopped in the middle of the room. She slowly lifted her head and took a deep breath, looking around her as if for the first time.

  ‘Mum?’ said Elliot. ‘Are you OK?’

  Josie turned to her son and smiled. ‘Never better,’ she sighed happily. ‘Hi, baby.’

  ‘Hi, Mum,’ he said tearfully. She was back.

  Josie rushed over to the sofa, sat beside her son and held out her arms. Elliot collapsed into them, clinging to her as his body shuddered with sobs.

  ‘Don’t worry, my darling,’ whispered Josie. ‘Everything’s going to be fine. There’s nothing that love can’t cure . . .’

  He sat up and looked into his mum’s clear, untroubled face. He went to wipe his nose on his shirt, but found a tissue pressed gently into his hand.

  ‘No snotty sleeves, thank you,’ smiled Josie.

  Elliot glanced over at the watch. Six minutes left.

  ‘Mum, I need to talk to you,’ he started slowly. ‘About Dad.’

  ‘Of course you do,’ she said softly, stroking his cheek. ‘You must be so confused.’

  Elliot felt his heart surge as he looked into his mum’s smiling eyes. ‘I know what he did,’ he said.

  ‘There so much you don’t know, Elly, so much I haven’t told you . . .’

  ‘I still don’t understand,’ said Elliot. ‘Why did he do it?’

  ‘The same reason anyone does something wrong,’ said Josie. ‘Because they can’t see another way.’

  She wiped Elliot’s tears and held his hands in hers.

  ‘The night of the robbery, we were all having supper in the kitchen. Well, you were throwing yours on the floor – you were only two. Your dad was trying to get you to eat your carrots by distracting you with his watch – it worked every time.’

  Elliot smiled. So he’d always loved that watch.

  ‘Suddenly, Stanley Johnson bursts through the back door with one of his thugs – like all bullies, he never did anything alone,’ scowled Josie. ‘He says that he needs your dad to do a job for him, that it’s time to repay his debts.’

  Elliot glanced at the watch. Five minutes.

  ‘What did Dad say?’ he said.

  ‘I can’t tell you that,’ smiled Josie. ‘Let’s just say it was a firm no.’

  Elliot felt a surge of pride. If only he didn’t know how this story ended.

  ‘Stanley just stood there, smiling,’ said Josie angrily. ‘But next thing we know, the thug has grabbed you out of your high chair and is flying you around the room. I’m not going to lie, Elly. I launched myself at him like a mother tiger. I hope he still has the scratch marks.’

  Elliot couldn’t help but smile. His mum was so awesome.

  ‘Stanley told your dad to reconsider, just as this idiot starts throwing you up and catching you,’ said Josie, angry tears coming to her eyes. ‘Says that he wouldn’t want his friend to drop you. Says that he’s a very bad man . . .’

  Her voice trailed off as she let out a shaky breath.

  ‘So your dad went with Stanley,’ said Josie tearfully. ‘That was the last time he was in this house. He made a terrible mistake and we all paid a terrible price. He never meant to hurt Felix . . . Your father’s a wonderful man, Elliot. You have to believe that.’

  Elliot looked at the watch again. Four minutes. Not enough . . . Josie followed his gaze.

  ‘Before he went, he pressed that watch into my hand,’ she said. ‘He told me to give it to you when you were old enough. It was as if he knew he wasn’t coming back. Then he kissed me, told me he loved us and was gone. And the worst part? It was all my fault . . .’

  ‘What?! Your fault?’ Elliot cried. ‘Why would you think—’

  ‘Stanley Johnson could never have
got to you,’ said Josie, ‘if I’d only remembered . . .’

  ‘Remembered what?’ Elliot whispered.

  Josie took a deep breath. ‘If only I’d remembered to lock the door.’

  Elliot’s heart thundered in his chest. The keys. The door. She’d been trying to keep him safe. She always had.

  ‘Dad wants to come home,’ said Elliot slowly. ‘Should I let him?’

  Josie’s eyes spilt over with fresh tears. ‘I’ve wanted nothing else for ten years,’ she cried. ‘It’s been so hard . . .’

  Elliot fell into his mother’s arms and the sadness poured out of their souls. His body heaved with heavy sobs as he felt Josie’s tears run into his hair. Wordlessly, they cried. They cried for a lost past, they cried for a difficult present and they cried for an unknown future. After months of living their lives in different keys, Elliot and his mother were finally in perfect harmony.

  The watch signalled three minutes. Josie started to sing softly into Elliot’s hair.

  ‘Hush, little baby, don’t say a word. Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.’

  A distant memory stirred from his younger years. She used to sing this to him when he was sad. She had such a beautiful voice.

  ‘And if that mockingbird don’t sing, Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.’

  She sang until the tears dried and his body stopped shaking. She sang until the world turned the right way up. She sang until he was just a boy who needed his mum.

  ‘Elly?’ said Josie softly. ‘I need to ask you something.’

  Elliot checked the watch. Two minutes.

  ‘Yes?’

  Josie pulled him up and took Elliot’s face in her hands. ‘Elly – I need to know.’

  ‘Know what?’ asked Elliot, wiping his face.

  ‘What’s wrong with me, Elliot?’

  Elliot’s whole body clenched. ‘Nothing, Mum – you’re fine . . .’

  Josie smiled. ‘We don’t lie to each other, Elly,’ she said. ‘I’m not fine. I know it. Everything is so . . . wrong. My head is full of something . . . Life feels . . . strange. Blurred. Scary. Like someone else has moved into my body. I don’t feel like me.’

  ‘You’re going to be OK,’ said Elliot. ‘I’m going to take care of you.’

  ‘I know you will, sweetheart,’ said Josie. ‘But that’s not your job. That should never be my son’s job.’

  He had less than a minute left with his mum. He was going to hold on to her for every second.

  ‘Elliot,’ whispered Josie.

  ‘Yes, Mum,’ said Elliot, holding her tighter.

  ‘I need you to do something for me. Something important.’

  ‘You should have told us about Elliot’s father,’ Athene said to Virgo as the Gods hurried back to the farmhouse.

  ‘With respect, if I always told you every irregular thing Elliot did, we’d speak of nothing else,’ said Virgo. ‘And you’d certainly never use the lavatory after him. How can deploying the flushing mechanism be that hard?’

  ‘We shouldn’t have left them,’ said Aphrodite. ‘Josie has been so confused lately . . .’

  ‘Yes, we should,’ said Zeus. ‘He needs her. More than he needs us right now.’

  They arrived at the back door and walked quietly through the house to the front room. Elliot was lying on Josie-Mum’s shoulder.

  ‘When the time comes,’ she said to her son. ‘I really need you to . . .’

  Zeus cleared his throat. ‘Everything all right in here?’ he said. ‘We were just—’

  ‘Not now,’ said Elliot, holding his hand up to Zeus – most impolitely, Virgo thought. ‘Yes, Mum – what?’

  ‘Who are these people?’ said Josie.

  ‘Don’t worry about them, Mum, just talk to me,’ said Elliot urgently, looking at the watch on the table. ‘We don’t have long . . .’

  Josie-Mum rose from the sofa and confronted the Gods. She looked different, Virgo realized. Younger. Stronger. Scarier.

  ‘You need to get out of here right now!’ said Josie. ‘This is my home and my son and you have no right—’

  ‘It’s OK, J-Hoops, it’s us,’ grinned Hermes. ‘Your mates.’

  ‘I’m not your mate! Get out of my house!’ yelled Josie.

  ‘Mum, please,’ said Elliot, appearing highly distressed. ‘They’re fine. What did you want to tell me? We only have a few seconds . . .’

  ‘It’s OK, baby,’ said Josie-Mum kindly, returning to Elliot on the sofa. ‘I just need you to—’

  A small bell rang on Elliot’s watch. Josie-Mum immediately sprang up from the sofa and started running her hands through her hair as she paced around the room. Now Virgo recognized her.

  ‘Where are the keys?’ she cried, pushing Elliot away. ‘We can’t just let anyone in – where are the keys?’

  Virgo watched Elliot’s head drop into his hands. He looked as if the air had been sucked from his body. Josie-Mum was frantically pacing the room, turning over ornaments and throwing magazines off the table. Virgo felt an unpleasant sensation seep around her heart.

  ‘Mum – it’s OK,’ Elliot said flatly. ‘We’ve got the keys.’

  ‘No, we haven’t!’ she shouted. ‘Anyone can get in here – who are all these people? What are you doing in my house? Get out!’

  ‘What did you do that for?’ Elliot hissed at the Gods. ‘I had her . . . I had her back . . .’

  ‘We were worried,’ said Athene. ‘We just wanted to help . . .’

  ‘You call this helping?’ whispered Elliot, trying to take Josie-Mum’s arm as she started throwing cushions from the chairs. ‘Mum! Mum – you need to calm down. Everything’s OK . . .’

  ‘EVERYTHING IS NOT OK!’ screamed Josie-Mum.

  ‘It is, Mum,’ said Elliot, trying to hold her hand. ‘We’re safe and well and everything is going to be—’

  ‘LET GO OF ME!’

  Josie-Mum yanked her arm away with huge force, striking Elliot hard around the face. He fell to the floor, holding his cheek.

  ‘Wha—?’ said Josie-Mum, running her hands through her hair.

  ‘Elliot!’ shouted Athene, diving towards him. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘STAY AWAY FROM MY SON!’ shouted Josie, pushing Athene aside to kneel beside Elliot.

  Virgo looked to the other Gods for guidance on how to proceed, but they were apparently as paralysed as she.

  Josie-Mum cradled Elliot in her arms and started rocking frantically. ‘Elly? Who did this to you? Who hurt you? Shhhh, my darling, shhhh. Mummy’s here now . . . Hush, little baby . . . hush, baby . . . Mama’s gonna buy . . . mocking rings . . .’

  Virgo tried to smile at her friend. But Elliot merely lay blankly in Josie-Mum’s arms as she rocked him back and forth, the tears already drying on his dark red cheek.

  Virgo quietly took out her What’s What.

  ‘How can I help?’ she whispered into the parchment. But if an answer did appear, she couldn’t read it. Her vision was too obscured by the multiple droplets of water gathering in her eyes.

  Indeed, her eyesight was so sub-optimal at that moment that Virgo also couldn’t see the small red recording light of a video camera shining through the window. Nor the triumphant smiles of Patricia Porshley-Plum and Boil as they shook hands on a job well done.

  ‘Elly,’ said Aphrodite, knocking on his door that evening. ‘Elly, can I come in?’

  Elliot lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, as he had been doing for hours.

  ‘Elly?’ Aphrodite’s pleading voice came again. ‘Please?’

  Elliot pulled himself slowly off the bed and walked towards the door. He caught his reflection in the mirror as he passed. His fingers ran over the red mark on his cheek. He opened the door to the Goddess of Love.

  ‘Hi.’ She smiled sympathetically. ‘Some day, huh?’

  ‘Some day,’ said Elliot.

  ‘Everyone’s downstairs,’ said Aphrodite. ‘Come and sit with us.’

  ‘How’s Mum?’ asked Elliot.

  ‘She�
��s fine – fast asleep now, everything’s calm,’ said Aphrodite. ‘Please come down.’

  ‘I don’t really . . .’

  ‘Please,’ pleaded Aphrodite, taking his hand. ‘Athene’s filled her cauldron with hot chocolate. It’s not even that burnt.’

  Elliot shrugged and followed the Goddess down to the kitchen, where all the Gods were assembled around the table.

  ‘Where’s Virgo?’ he asked.

  ‘Asleep,’ said Athene. ‘Since becoming an adolescent mortal, she constantly eats and sleeps.’

  ‘And is always right,’ said Elliot with a weak smile.

  ‘Of course,’ winked Zeus. ‘Always. Can we get you anything?’

  ‘No, thank you,’ said Elliot. ‘I shouldn’t have shouted. I know it wasn’t your fault. It was just . . .’

  ‘We completely understand,’ said Zeus. ‘You have absolutely nothing to apologize for. But we do.’

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Elliot.

  Zeus looked nervously around his family. ‘The thing is, old bean, we’ve been talking and we all feel—’

  ‘Some of you feel,’ said Hermes, unusually stiffly. ‘I am totes not on board.’

  ‘Most of us feel,’ said Zeus, ‘that we need to do a bit more to help your mum.’

  Elliot’s heart swelled up. ‘You’re going to cure her!’ he said. ‘I knew you could do it, I knew it! Let’s go now, she won’t mind if we wake her up . . .’

  Aphrodite’s hand reached for Elliot’s over the table. ‘No,’ she said gently. ‘We can’t do that.’

  Elliot slowly withdrew his hand. ‘You can’t?’ he said. ‘Or you won’t?’

  ‘Mate!’ shouted Hermes. ‘No way!’

  ‘If any of us had the power, don’t you think we would have done it the moment we walked through your door?’ gasped Aphrodite. ‘We love you. We love Josie. We would never let you both suffer. Is that what you think?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think,’ said Elliot quietly, sitting down.

  Athene came and crouched down next to him, taking his hand in hers. ‘This is an incredibly confusing time for you,’ she said. ‘You’ve been dealing with things that people four times your age would struggle with. You’ve done an incredible job looking after your mother. You’re a wonderful, wonderful boy.’