Rebecca’s World

by Terry Nation

  Captain ‘K’ looked around nervously to make sure there were none about.

  “They’re horrible,” shuddered Grisby. “They kidnap people and turn them into GHOSTS too.”

  Rebecca gave a little shiver of fright and thought how lucky she had been that Captain ‘K’ had rescued her in the nick of time.

  Kovak went on with the story.

  “The Glister family saw another chance of making a fortune. They had the last remaining trees cut down and sawn into planks. Then they built the GHOST shelters. People are safe inside the walls made of GHOST wood. Of course, there’s only young Mister Glister left now. He owns everything…everything and everybody really. He charges us to go into the GHOST shelter and then he charges double to let us out.”

  Kovak shook his head sadly and the curly wig he was wearing slipped over his eyes. Grisby pointed to the piece of stick in Captain ‘K’s’ belt.

  “Apart from the GHOST shelters,” he said, “that’s the last remaining piece of GHOST wood in this world.”

  “That’s why the GHOSTS were so frightened when you attacked them with it,” said Rebecca brightly. Captain ‘K’ nodded.

  “It’s not much,” he said, fondly stroking the stick, “but it’s all I’ve got. But I can’t be everywhere at once.”

  “That’s terrible,” said Rebecca. “Isn’t there anything anyone can do?”

  The three men shook their heads in rhythm.

  “The GHOSTS get stronger and Mister Glister gets richer. But even he daren’t walk about when there’s a GHOST raid,” Captain ‘K’ said. “That’s why he’d pay almost anything to buy my stick.”

  They all sank into a depressed silence for a moment. Grisby looked across at Kovak. “Tell her the legend,” he said.

  Kovak removed a large red beard that was getting in his mouth.

  “There’s an old story,” he said, “that somewhere, on an island in the middle of a lake, grows the last remaining GHOST tree on this world. The GHOSTS are supposed to know where it is. Of course, they can’t get near it to destroy it, because if they touch it they dissolve. So instead they keep a ring of guards around it day and night.”

  Captain ‘K’ nodded. “If it did exist, and we could find it,” he said, “we could make enough GHOST swords to protect ourselves. And then we’d be safe.”

  “Doesn’t anybody have any idea where the tree might be?” asked Rebecca.

  Grisby nodded. “They do say Mister Glister’s got a map.”

  “Then why hasn’t he gone to find the tree?” demanded Rebecca.

  “Well, they do say it’s written in the form of a riddle,” said Grisby. “A code that he can’t understand. They do say he keeps the map in a big glass case in his house. Every night he sits there looking at it, trying to understand it. That’s what they say anyway. Oooooooohhhhhhcccch!”

  They all looked at Grisby whose face was contorted in pain.

  “Sorry about that,” he grimaced. “My bunion gave me a little jab. Always does at tea-time. Better than a watch my bunion is.”

  From somewhere across the city came the pure ringing sound of a glass bell. It struck four times. Rebecca jumped to her feet.

  “Goodness,” she said. “Four o’clock. I’m due at Mister Glister’s for tea.”

  Captain ‘K’ pointed to the most magnificent of all the glass buildings. “You’ve not far to go,” he said. “That’s the Glister Palace.”

  But Rebecca hardly heard him. She gave an excited grin.

  “What if I get a chance to see the map,” she said. “I could memorize what it says and perhaps we could work out what it means!”

  Captain ‘K’ looked less than enthusiastic.

  “In the first place, we don’t know for sure that it exists,” he said. “And in the third place, even if you did get a glance at it you’d never be able to remember everything it said.”

  Rebecca looked at the Captain. Puzzled.

  “What happened to the second place?” she asked.

  “Mmmm?” he said vaguely. “Oh…Oh well, I was never very good at counting.”

  Rebecca had another idea. She turned to Kovak. “You’re a spy,” she said.

  “Of course,” he said proudly. “My name is in the Yellow Pages under ‘Spies’.”

  “Then you must have a camera. Spies always do.”

  “Naturally I have a camera,” said Kovak. “I have all the latest modern equipment.”

  He started to search his many pockets. He carried an incredible assortment of things. Bits of disguises, old nails, tubes of glue, string, part of a knife, a deaf aid, hundreds of scraps of paper, and much, much more. Finally he found what he was seeking.

  “Why is it when you want something it’s always in the last pocket you look in?” he said crossly.

  “It’s the last pocket because when you’ve found what you want you don’t look in any more,” said Rebecca with annoying smugness.

  Kovak handed her the camera. It wasn’t a bit like the miniature spy cameras she had seen on television. It was a large, black box, very scratched and battered. He quickly showed her how it worked.

  “Alright,” said Rebecca. “If I see the map I’ll try and take a picture of it. You wait here for me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “You be careful,” said Captain ‘K’.

  “It could be dangerous,” said Kovak.

  “Don’t take any chances,” added Grisby.

  Rebecca gave them a wave and hurried across to the front door of the splendid Glister Palace. She was excited now and a bit nervous. She tucked the camera out of sight, took a deep breath, and reached up for the door knocker.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  There was the sound of a key turning in a lock. Then the noise of a bolt sliding back. Another key turned and three more bolts were drawn. There was a rattle of chain, then seven more keys were turned. Nine more bolts were pulled, more chains rattled and more keys released more locks.

  Finally the door swung open.

  Two men stood behind it. One was quite tall and rather fat. The other one wasn’t. It was the tall man who spoke.

  “Good afternoon, Madam.” His voice was gurgley as though the back of his throat was full of water. “Be so good as to step inside. Mister Glister is expecting Madam.”

  It was rather nice to be called Madam, thought Rebecca. It made her feel slightly French.

  She smiled politely and stepped forward into a hallway of breathtaking magnificence. The floors, walls and ceilings were of mirrored glass; so no matter in which direction Rebecca looked, she saw herself reflected. There seemed to be thousands of her. From the ceiling hung what appeared to be hundreds of gleaming chandeliers. They twinkled and tinkled in the slight breeze from the open front door. Ornaments and furnishings encrusted with precious stones added still more lustre to the hallway.

  “Golly!” said Rebecca in awe. Then unable to think of anything else she said it again. “Golly!” It was like being in the centre of a huge diamond.

  The fat man, whose name was Lurk, bowed slightly and in his throaty voice said, “If Madam would be kind enough to follow us, Mister Glister awaits.”

  Rebecca nodded. Cringer, which was the name of the man who wasn’t tall and fat, added, “The house is filled with all kinds of burglar alarms. One step in the wrong direction will set them off. So please, walk only where we walk and do only as we do.”

  Cringer turned and started across the hall. Lurk followed, keeping in step and so close behind him that they might have been Siamese twins. Rebecca tagged on at the rear.

  Their progress across the hall was like a complicated ballet. They took five steps forward and then one back. They made a little hopping step to the right and then a skip and jump to the left. They leaped over invisible rays and ducked under electronic beams. They weaved and woved and zigged and zagged like three blind mice teetering along a tangled tight rope.

  It seemed to take ages to reach the other side of the hall. Rebecca breathed a sigh of relief when,
finally, Cringer opened a door and ushered her through.

  Mister Glister greeted Rebecca with a smile that glittered more dazzlingly than the hall of mirrors. He had changed his clothes since their first meeting and now wore a suit of pale blue with sapphires embroidered on the lapels. They talked for a few moments of this and that, then Mister Glister led Rebecca across to the tea-table.

  It was laid with a banquet, a feast, a mountain of mouth-watering magnificence. It stretched through the alphabet from apricots to zabaglioni. All of Rebecca’s favourites were there. And yet, despite her hunger, Rebecca’s attention had been taken by something else that excited her even more than the food.

  Standing in one corner was a glass case. And in it a map. The map that charted the route to the last GHOST tree in Rebecca’s World.

  CHAPTER NINE

  In the paved garden outside Glister Palace, Captain ‘K’ and Kovak paced nervously back and forth. Grisby sat on the bench staring mournfully at his feet. They were taking it in turn to twitch, a sure sign that Grisby was worried.

  “What’s the time?” asked Captain ‘K’.

  Kovak looked at his wrist watch. “July the twentieth,” he answered. “It only tells the date,” he went on apologetically. “The hands fell off.”

  Grisby glanced across at Glister Palace and spoke the question that was in all their minds. “I wonder if she’s alright?”

  Captain ‘K’ gave a smile that he didn’t really mean, trying to reassure them. “Of course she’s alright,” he said. And then, unthinkingly, asked Kovak again what time it was.

  “August the eighth,” said Kovak. “I’m never sure whether time passes quickly or whether there’s something wrong with my watch,” he added.

  “Well, if she’s not out of there by October the thirty-first, we’re going in to get her,” said Captain ‘K’ determinedly. Grisby’s feet started to twitch still faster.

  As it happened, Rebecca was fine. She was doing her very best to sample everything on the tea-table, and all of it tasted as good as it looked. In an effort not to make Mister Glister suspicious, she carefully avoided looking towards the glass map case; but already a plan was beginning to form in her mind.

  Mister Glister refilled Rebecca’s teacup, and then went on telling her about himself.

  “You see,” he said, with a sad little smile, “people misunderstand me. They think I’m cruel and miserly. They think I take their money and keep them poor because I hate them. It’s just not true. I love poor people. Poor people make me feel rich, and when I feel rich love gushes out of me like a fountain. So it’s my duty to make everybody poor, so they can all share my love.”

  Mister Glister paused, his eyes moist with tears. Then, with a little sob in his voice, he went on. “I have a dream,” he said. “Call me silly and sentimental if you will, but one day I hope that everybody in this world will be penniless, hungry and in rags. With poverty on that scale I could love them all!”

  He threw his arms open in a wide gesture as though to embrace millions. Unfortunately, one of his hands crashed into a three-tier chocolate cake and brought it crashing down into the trifle. Mister Glister seemed unconcerned. He licked the chocolate off his knuckles. He smiled his sad smile again.

  “I’ve dedicated my life to making people poor,” he said. “But it’s not easy.” He rubbed his hand across his eyes to wipe away a tear, leaving a streak of chocolate across his cheek.

  Rebecca had listened with only half an ear to Mister Glister’s views on life. She was sure that everything he said was quite sincere, but wasn’t certain that being loved by Mister Glister was adequate compensation for being hungry and dressed in rags. However, her attention had been mainly on perfecting her plan, and now she was sure she was ready to act.

  She pretended to reach across the table for another piece of cake. Then with a little jerk of her elbow, she knocked her teacup off its saucer. The hot tea flooded down onto Mister Glister’s trousers. He gave a shriek of pain and leaped three or four feet into the air. Rebecca was profuse in her apologies and quickly found a napkin to try and dry him off, but the brown tea stain spread across the powder blue of his trousers.

  Under the circumstances Mister Glister remained remarkably polite. He muttered something about ‘accidents will happen’. Then, saying he was going to change, he excused himself and left the room.

  The moment the door closed, Rebecca moved swiftly to the glass case. She tried to remember Kovak’s instructions on how to use the camera. The catch that held it closed wouldn’t open. She pulled it and prised it and pressed it, but it stayed closed. She gave a nervous look towards the door as the precious seconds slipped past.

  Rebecca gave the camera a hard bang on the floor. The catch clicked open. She put the viewfinder to her eye and focused on the map. She was just about to press the shutter when the lens fell off. It rolled across the floor and under the table.

  She dived after it with the speed of a frightened rabbit going into its burrow. After a frantic search she found it, and hurriedly twisted it back on to the front of the camera. Again she pointed the camera at the map; then released the shutter. She took one picture, then another.

  Then she heard footsteps approaching the door. Quick as a flash she raced back to her chair, just as Mister Glister entered the room. Rebecca did her best to assume an expression of great innocence.

  “Oh, that’s a very nice suit,” she said. Mister Glister was wearing trousers and jacket made of pink silk, with a check pattern formed by rubies.

  He sat beside her and cut her another slice of cake. Rebecca gave him a sidelong glance. He was staring at her rather strangely. His eyes unblinking. And he wasn’t smiling. His look made her decidedly nervous.

  * * *

  “What’s the time?” Captain ‘K’ asked Kovak for the twentieth time.

  “October the fifth,” he answered.

  “Getting close to zero hour,” said the Captain. “Now, has anybody got a hairpin?”

  Grisby looked at him. “This is no time to worry about your hair,” he said.

  Captain ‘K’ gave him a cold look. “I need it to pick the lock on the front door,” he said icily.

  “No need for that,” said Kovak. “I have a skeleton key somewhere.”

  He started to search his pockets. In the seventh pocket he located something that he took out and held in the palm of his hand. He stared at it in horror. A noisy gulp came from the back of his throat.

  Captain ‘K’ glanced at the small yellow cylinder. “What’s that?”

  Kovak gave a still louder gulp.

  “It’s the film. I forgot to load it. Rebecca’s using an empty camera!”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Rebecca noticed that Lurk and Cringer had entered the room and were standing near the door. “They must be waiting to clear the table,” she thought. She pushed her plate aside and stood up.

  Mister Glister was still staring at her, his face very serious.

  “Thank you for a lovely tea,” said Rebecca. “I’ve very much enjoyed talking to you and I hope we meet again. Now it’s getting late and I must be going.”

  She gave her very nicest ‘thank you’ smile and moved across to the door. Lurk and Cringer stood like a barricade in front of it.

  “Excuse me,” Rebecca said. They didn’t move.

  Mister Glister rose slowly from his chair.

  “I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay here for a little while,” he said. His voice sounded very sinister. “You see, your friend Captain ‘K’ has something that I very much want.”

  “His GHOST stick,” Rebecca said instantly.

  “Exactly,” leered Mister Glister. “He won’t sell it to me no matter how much I offer him. Now I think he might give it to me. Not to put too fine a point on it, you have just been kidnapped. The ransom, the price for your release, is the GHOST stick. Captain ‘K’ is a sentimental fool and will have no hesitation in handing it over in exchange for you.”

  He snapped his f
ingers at Lurk and Cringer.

  “Take her to the dungeons,” he ordered.

  Lurk grabbed at Rebecca’s arm, but she pulled away from him swiftly and started to run. Lurk and Cringer darted after her. Mister Glister tried to intercept her, but she dodged past him and dived under the table. The three men followed her.

  Rebecca came out from under the table like an express train coming out of a tunnel. She snatched up a huge, cream sponge cake. As Lurk’s face appeared from beneath the table-cloth, she hurled it at his head. It made a very satisfying ‘thloppp’ noise.

  Cringer was out next and dived at Rebecca. She neatly side stepped and he crashed against the wall. Mister Glister moved up behind her. He tried to hold her arms, but she slipped free, scooped up an enormous jelly trifle and tipped it over his head.

  Rebecca backed away to the far end of the room, trying to edge towards the door. Before she could reach it, Lurk got to it and turned the key. Mister Glister wiping the jelly from his face moved cautiously towards her. Cringer advanced from another direction. Lurk closed in behind.

  Mister Glister made a sudden dash forward. His foot landed in the slippery mess of the cream cake and he skidded forward as if on skis. He slithered uncontrollably across the room and crashed violently into the glass map case. It shattered into a million pieces.

  Rebecca started to run around the table again, Lurk and Cringer in hot pursuit. As she ran, she caught the corner of the tablecloth in her hand and heaved with all her might. The mountain of food started to topple. Not able to halt their mad dash, Cringer and Lurk ran into an avalanche of cakes and trifles, jellies and blancmanges.

  But for all her efforts, Rebecca could do no more than slow down her pursuers. Finally, all three of them had recovered enough to drive her into a corner from which there was no escape. Lurk and Cringer took her by the arms and marched her towards the door. Lurk unlocked it.