“Hello,” said Miles. “Is that the clock-and-watch hospital?”
“At your service,” answered Mabble Merlin.
As soon as Miles put the phone down there was a knock at the door, and Miles and Karl Bridges picked up George and carried him to Mabble Merlin’s collection van. Miles then took Jasmine off the wall and handed her to Mabble Merlin. Then he gave him Omega Horizon, and then he handed over Claudette de Seconds.
Mabble Merlin sped off in the van to get them all quickly to hospital, and when they arrived Milly was very pleased to see them all.
Patrick’s Early Days
Some of the guests still had room for more sweet, and Miles had fortunately also made a sherry trifle - a very large trifle as this was his favourite sweet. It was tangerine trifle with lots of hundreds and thousands sprinkled on top.
Miles brought in the trifle, and the guests stopped running around so much and started to relax. Patrick and Penelope relaxed too, even though they still hadn’t found Madeleine Short.
Patrick recalled that in his early days as a medical student he had a similar experience that he never got to the bottom of when someone he knew disappeared from the face of the earth. In his life, and particularly lately, lots of things had happened that he couldn’t explain.
He had a feeling Madeleine would reappear, so he thought he’d keep the guests entertained so they didn’t start rushing round the house again, looking for her and standing on watches. At parties he knew there was often one person who was a bit clumsy, and he knew Henry was a bit of a clumsy oaf.
The conversation turned to Patrick’s years as a medical student. Like many medical students, he travelled abroad during his seven years’ medical training. In the USA, he travelled to Florida with a few friends who were also doing their medical training. They went to see the Kennedy Space Centre, Disney World, and Sea Life Centre.
While he was in Florida, Patrick celebrated his twenty-first birthday - a big reason to celebrate. He chartered a yacht for a week, and he invited his seven friends (Mike, Steve, Robert, Luke, Paul, Simon and Logan) to go with him on a cruise. The yacht was piloted by a Floridian yachtsman named Lance Pitt, a very handsome man with blonde curly hair.
It was great for the first few days. It was sunny and warm, and sometimes there was a cool Floridian sea breeze, deep-blue skies and the relaxed atmosphere of the deep South of America.
On the eve of Patrick’s birthday they had a few drinks to celebrate. They had a buffet, told jokes, danced and swam in the sea.
That night, when they were all in their bunks, a strange humming was heard and one of the medical students (an American guy named Robert Walton) went out on deck. He didn’t know that the yacht was now in the fabled Bermuda Triangle, just off the coast of Florida. As Robert went out on deck a light beamed down - an eerie blue light - and he was beamed up by the light, never to be seen again.
Next morning the other guests woke up a little later than usual. They still felt a little groggy from the celebration drinks, and they had a bit of a hangover. They didn’t realise at first that Robert was missing as they were all a bit groggy that morning, but by midday they knew he had disappeared completely. They were totally shocked.
That same night a yachtswoman named Cassandra Hart was on her father’s yacht not far from Patrick Laugherty’s boat. She had been woken by a humming noise and had gone out on deck to investigate. She saw Robert Walton come up on deck and an eerie blue light beaming down from a large saucer-shaped object in the dark midnight sky. She too had been celebrating with friends, and she put what she’d seen down to imagination because she was overtired and she’d drunk a few glasses of champagne. She was trying not to smoke, but she had a cigarette and a cup of hot chocolate to calm her nerves before she calmly went back to her bunk.
She was awoken next day by the police who were investigating Robert Walton’s disappearance.
Patrick told this strange story to the guests at the cocktail party.
“Do you think he would have made a good doctor?” asked one of Patrick’s friends.
“He would have been excellent, but he wanted to go into medical research anyway. He’s possibly in another galaxy now, or in a parallel world - or wherever UFOs come from. He was the best.”
Patrick had also travelled to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and also to Machu Pichu in Peru. He had seen the Pyramids, and he had many Egyptian artefacts. In the dining room he had a huge golden sarcophagus. It was standing in the corner of the room. He had some ancient papyruses on the walls, and one of them depicted Tutankhamen and his wife.
Back from the Dead
After Patrick told all the guests his yachting story they wondered if Madeleine Short had disappeared for ever.
Henry said, “I have an idea. I think one of the ladies has the poison in her handbag.”
Charles Sayre, who had seen Cherry Scrimshaw hiding the trinket box and had popped it back into her handbag, stood up and said, “Yes, gentlemen, I know who the murderer is. She had the poison in her handbag and still does.”
“That’s just rubbish,” said Cherry.
“Well, will you empty the contents of your handbag on to the table?”
“Of course I will. I’ve nothing to hide.”
Cherry emptied her handbag, and out tumbled the trinket box.
“Oh, my God!” she screamed.
She was a very good actress. In fact, she screamed so loud that Raj Peshwari was shocked. She had seemed so quiet and petite and sweet, but she was suddenly like a wild animal.
“What!” he exclaimed.
Henry had the tiny little key, so he opened the trinket box and there was the bottle of poison.
“So it was you!” exclaimed Raj Peshwari.
He had really liked Cherry, but he wasn’t so sure now.
“It’s just a game, Raj!”
“But where is Madeleine Short?”
“Crikey, I don’t know, Raj! She probably got bored and went home.”
“I think I might know,” piped up Raj.
Suddenly Dr Rama Singh appeared. He’d finally stopped speaking on the phone. He saved the day by speaking to Raj in Gujarati about his wife in India.
“How are you getting on with Cherry?” asked Rama Singh.
“Well, she murdered Madeleine, so I guess I don’t want to be with the murderer.”
Dr Singh started to laugh, and he couldn’t stop.
“It was just a game,” he laughed.
“Well, when Madeleine reappears from out of the wardrobe I’ll forgive her.”
“OK,” said Dr Singh. “Perhaps Cherry could be an actress. That sounds like a good profession for her. What does she do?” he asked.
“She’s training to be a doctor.”
“I don’t think she should with a bottle of poison in her handbag.”
“It’s only a game, Dr Singh - remember,” said Raj Peshwari.
Meanwhile Madeleine Short finished singing in the jazz club, and got ready to leave. She was wondering how she would get home. She walked outside Jezebel’s Jazz Club and stood for a few seconds debating what to do. She believed the watch could somehow transport her back.
She was just looking at it, when suddenly a van pulled up and Mabble Merlin got out. He was dressed in 1920s clothes, and as she looked the van was suddenly transformed into a 1920s taxi.
“Are you looking for a lift home, Madeleine?” he asked. “Well, look no further.”
Madeleine jumped into the taxi, Mabble Merlin pressed a button and the car whizzed along through the night.
Mabble Merlin asked if Madeleine had enjoyed singing in the nightclub and if it had been a dream come true.
“That was such a blast!” said Madeleine. “I have had the best night ever. But I think Mike will be glad to have me back again, and so
will the guests.”
The car whizzed down back lanes and round bends, and it hardly touched the road. Madeleine looked out of the car window and noticed a full moon. It was October 31st - Halloween - the night when strange things happen.
Soon Mabble Merlin reached the Laugherty home. He and Madeleine walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell. They could hear the noise of the cocktail party going on inside.
Miles opened the door.
“We’ve looked high and low for you, Madeleine,” he said. “I’m glad to see you.”
“Miles, can you just say to the others that I fell asleep upstairs in one of the closets?”
“Of course I can, Madeleine.”
Madeleine walked into the room and Mike said, “Oh, hello, honey, I’ve missed you tonight.”
“I fell asleep in the closet upstairs.”
“Oh, dear! I thought you must be asleep upstairs somewhere, honey,” said Mike.
Cherry turned to Raj Peshwari and said, “Are you happy now Madeleine’s back safe and sound?”
“Very happy! So how about you and me?”
“Well, I’m interested in you,” said Cherry.
The Two American Tourists
That same Halloween, Cynthia and Tobias Chimes were standing outside the Sands of Time Hotel in Bayswater. It was between a Chinese restaurant called The Blue Oyster, and a French restaurant called The Parisienne.
It was 8.30 in the morning and Tobias and Cynthia, who were on holiday from Brooklyn, New York, were waiting for a taxi to take them to Wiltshire. They wanted to visit the historical sites of Salisbury, Stonehenge and Avebury, and they also hoped to go to a medieval fayre. They were so excited as they waited on the steps in front of the revolving hotel door.
They both looked left and then right, and Cynthia did a double take and looked left again when she saw a shop that she knew for sure wasn’t there the night before. If it had been there, they surely would have been in it, as they were looking for souvenirs to take back and it was exactly the kind of shop they had been looking for. It was sandwiched between the Sands of Time Hotel and the French restaurant. They both looked at the shop, then looked at each other.
“Wow!” they said simultaneously. “Wow!” they said again.
They looked at the shop and the name of the shop (the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop) and they looked at each other, and they were flabbergasted. Lots of things happen in a big city like New York, but they’d never seen anything like this.
They both spun round and rushed back inside the hotel through the revolving doors to ask the hotel owner, Claude Monet, if he knew there was a Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop next door.
The hotelier stopped painting for a while and said, “I don’t think so.” Claude Monet was French and he shrugged his shoulders in a very French way. “But anything is possible in London,” he said. “Even the rain can rain upside down!”
Tobias Chimes said in his very loud and broad New York accent, “Well, I’ll be blown away by that, but there it is now - right next door.”
“Maybe you should take a look around. Tomorrow it may be gone - just like the clouds that sail by,” said Claude, and he turned away to finish the painting he was painting.
He wore a beret, a moustache which curled up, a stripy shirt like the ones mime artists wear and trousers with braces. The painting looked like the street outside, complete with the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop next to the French restaurant. It also showed the Chinese restaurant on the other side of the hotel. Claude’s painting was very good.
The American duo took out their cameras and rushed back outside. They decided there and then to postpone the trip to Stonehenge. Tobias phoned the taxi company, who answered straight away.
“Hey, is that the taxi company, Travelling Light?” asked Tobias.
“Yes, it is.”
“Well, Toby and Cindy Chimes won’t be going to Stonehenge today. Something unexpected has turned up - real unexpected. We’ll put it on ice for a few days.”
“OK, as you wish, Mr Chimes. Have a great day,” said the man from the taxi company.
Tobias and Cynthia decided to wander around the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop for a day or two - or possibly three or four. It occurred to them that they might never come out and that they could end up being whisked up in the shop to another galaxy. They had heard of musty old police boxes that flew through space and travelled far and wide, and they didn’t see why a shop shouldn’t do the same. Suddenly they wanted a whole new life, travelling around the galaxies and to other universes and maybe travelling back in time. Their imaginations were running riot.
The American duo - ‘Calamity Cindy and Tricky Tobias Chimes’ - were an adventurous couple. Tobias was a freelance photographer and Cynthia was an artist. She was very creative, and she had studied art, design and drama. Tobias had studied photography and graphic design. They worked for themselves, and recently they had decided to take a year out to gain new experiences. As they travelled, Cynthia sketched and painted and Tobias took photographs. London was the ideal place - enigmatic and lovely. Tobias took some amazing photographs, even in the pouring rain. Londoners didn’t bat an eyelid when he took pictures of them.
Tobias had a theory that clones were infiltrating society. He had other theories too. He was quite a philosopher.
He had tousled sandy-blonde hair and glasses, and he had a bit of a tummy on him. With his photography equipment slung over his shoulder, his hat, his baggy trousers and his T-shirt, he looked like a typical New Yorker.
Cynthia had thick blonde hair in a pageboy style and a very nice complexion. She had been brought up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. She used to go horse-riding regularly, but owing to the easy life of painting and drawing, and of course the fridge being too handy, she had put on a few pounds. She loved cakes, cookies, candy ... in fact, anything sweet, so she was a bit on the plump side.
She had decided to do some very gentle exercises when she got to London - when she had the time, of course. She had devised an exercise plan and a healthy-eating regime. The exercises were brand-new ones she’d devised after she’d read a t’ai-chi book. From the very simple Chinese exercises detailed in the book, she had created her own system, which she called the Simple Secret Exercise Plan. For example, an exercise for bingo wings (that is, flab on the upper arms) and flab on the front and back of legs was named ‘Hitch a Ride’ and she explained it like this: firstly, form a fist with both hands as if you are thumbing a lift (fingers tucked into palms and thumbs upright). You get the meaning so far? Then bring your forearms upwards to literally bounce off your upper arms. As you do this action you bend your legs and drop your backbone down - easy-peasy lemon squeezy.
Every now and then Cynthia would do about ten Hitch a Ride repetitions - gentle enough and simple enough to do whilst waiting in the hotel lobby - for instance, whilst Tobias popped out to buy the London Times.
It was surprising how the exercises cottoned on with the staff in the hotel, and all the staff seemed to want to learn.
There was also an exercise named ‘The Clap’ where you clap in front of your leg and then lift up your leg and clap behind your leg. And then there was another exercise named ‘The Digger’ where you make your hand and arm into the shape of a digger. Your hand would be like a shovel going towards the ground.
Then there was the ‘Pluck a Grape from a Vine’. Just imagine this: you have a grapevine and you pluck imaginary grapes from it. Then of course you could crush the grapes, stomping on them. That’s good for your feet.
Another good exercise for your feet was ‘Roll a Pencil’. You have to imagine you have a pencil under your foot. Cynthia would say, “Imagine you have a pencil under your left foot or right foot and you are rolling the pencil very slowly with your foot. This exercise is for balance. When you get better at it you c
an imagine you are rolling with a stick of Blackpool rock or even a church candle and see whether you can keep your balance.”
Then for neck exercises - so you don’t end up with a turtleneck - you can blow a French-style kiss. That is, you move your head as if you were kissing someone on both cheeks. You have to imagine you are kissing a famous person, such as a beautiful pop star (imagining the person in front of you will keep you focused).
Cynthia also had an exercise called ‘The Funky Chicken’. You have to walk like a funky farmyard chicken, strutting up and down. At the same time you can sing, “Walk like a funky chicken, drop your backbone down, even though you look ridiculous, you may lose weight and look stupendous.” Cynthia would strut up and down in the lobby of the Sands of Time Hotel, and soon enough all the staff and guests would be joining in, strutting up and down like funky chickens. They all thought Cynthia was hilarious.
In this way Cynthia was beginning to lose weight. Every day she was a little bit fitter than before.
Tobias also took part in the exercises. It was amazing how contagious they were.
Cynthia was always cooking up something new, and she was thrilled to think her figure would soon be slimline. Her hair was her best feature - thick and shiny and a lovely shade of blonde. Her skin was glowing - she definitely had good-quality skin and she had lovely twinkling eyes. She thought to herself, ‘I’m not a cheap cut of meat.’
Tobias was handsome despite being overweight. He was addicted to anything sweet. He took five sugars in his tea. He definitely had a sweet tooth - or rather, many sweet teeth. He had thought of using honey instead of sugar, but it was just a thought. He loved chocolate, cakes (especially sponge cakes), custard pies and flapjacks.
When he worked as a freelance photographer in New York, he sometimes worked late into the night - sometimes working with other shutter bugs and having late-night snacks at late-night cafés and eating a lot of chocolate bars in the late-night cafés. New York is the city that never goes to sleep. He also loved anything greasy, such as burgers and greasy chips from greasy-spoon cafés. In short, he loved junk food. He thought he should maybe see a hypnotherapist to help him lose weight. He was eating non-stop and it was getting on his nerves.
The Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop Page 12