Magic in the City

by Heather Dyer

  Jake’s bedroom was unrecognizable. The bed had been removed, leaving dusty floorboards. The shelves were empty, the walls were bare and there were boxes stacked in the middle of the room with GAMES, SCHOOL STUFF and BEDDING written on them. Jake opened a box marked BOOKS. “I think I’ve got a photo album in one of these boxes,” he said. “There might be a picture of your house in it.”

  He tipped up the box, and the books slid onto the floor. There were Archie comics and National Geographic magazines and lots of illustrated books with titles like Wolves and The Vikings and The Story of Flight. But there were no photo albums.

  “It must be in another one,” said Hannah.

  While they were opening the next box, Horatio flipped through the books. He kept pointing at pictures of cars, trains, airplanes and bicycles and asking, “What’s this?” and “What’s that?” Eventually, he picked up a book called Exploring Space. On the front was a picture of an astronaut sitting in a rocket. “What’s this man doing?” he asked.

  Jake glanced at the book impatiently. “He’s an astronaut. He’s exploring outer space.”

  “Outer space?” said Horatio.

  Jake waved toward the window. “Up there. Above the clouds.”

  While the others continued searching for the photo album, Horatio studied pictures of the rings of Jupiter, meteors with fiery tails and planet Earth suspended in the darkness like a blue-green Christmas bauble.

  “Here it is!” said Jake at last, pulling his album out from beneath the World Atlas. He and Hannah turned the pages hopefully. But it was immediately clear that none of the photographs would do. Either Hannah or Jake or Simon was in every one.

  “We can’t go into a picture where we already are,” said Hannah. “Something terrible might happen.”

  “And even if we weren’t in the picture,” Jake pointed out, “we’d still be going back in time.”

  This was something they hadn’t considered. Neither of them wanted to end up in the past again.

  Jake closed the album. “We’ll have to go next door,” he said, “and ask the Reillys if we can call your parents.”

  Hannah nodded. Her parents would find it difficult to understand how they had traveled all the way to Canada, but they had no choice. Jake chucked the album back onto the pile. But just then, another book caught Hannah’s eye. It was the World Atlas. “Wait a minute,” she said. “What about this? Will the camera take us someplace on a map, do you think?”

  “I don’t know,” said Jake.

  Hannah looked up “Buckingham Palace” in the index. There were two page numbers, and the second reference was for a road map of the center of London. The map showed the River Thames, with all the bridges, and there were even tiny drawings of the major landmarks. Hannah recognized St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament. Buckingham Palace was there, too, by Hyde Park Corner.

  “Let’s try it,” said Hannah. “Come on, Horatio.”

  Horatio looked up, startled. “What?”

  “We’re going back to London,” said Hannah.

  Horatio stood up, clutching Exploring Space. “No,” he said. “I won’t go. I want to stay in the New World.”

  “It’s all the new world, now,” said Jake. “You’re in the future.”

  Horatio’s eyes widened. “I’m in the future?”

  “Yes! Now let’s get out of here.” Jake found a pen and drew an X on the map, just in front of Buckingham Palace. Then he propped the atlas open on the windowsill. “Aim the black cross here,” he said. “And be careful. We don’t want to end up in the Thames.”

  Horatio put Exploring Space back on the floor. Then he lifted the camera to his eye, went close to the map and adjusted the focus. Hannah and Jake both linked their arms in his.

  “Ready?” said Horatio.

  Jake looked around his bedroom one last time and took a deep breath. He nodded. “Ready,” he said.

  CHAPTER 17

  LONDON

  The next moment, the children landed — whump! — face down in a flower bed near the Victoria Monument. Groaning, they got to their feet. Hannah had had the wind knocked out of her, and Horatio’s hat had fallen off.

  “What happened?” gasped Hannah, securing the belt of her robe.

  “I guess the camera had to set us down flat,” said Jake. He shook the dirt out of his hair. “A map is only two dimensional, after all.”

  “Where are we?” said Horatio, replacing his hat. “And why is everything so quiet?”

  The others looked around. London was completely silent. Nothing moved.

  “Time has stopped,” said Hannah.

  “That means Simon’s still here,” said Jake. “Quick! We’ve got to find him before time starts again.” He set off toward the main gate at a run. Hannah grabbed Horatio’s sleeve, and they hurried after him.

  A crowd was standing motionless outside the gate, along with several news reporters, a camera crew and a police officer wearing a high-visibility jacket. Cautiously, the children edged through them. Horatio’s puffed sleeves were rather bulky though, and when he brushed against a large man wearing shorts with knee-high socks, the man began to wobble. Fortunately, Hannah and Jake managed to set him on his feet again before he sent the whole crowd toppling like dominoes.

  Eventually, they made it to the gate. They ran across the forecourt, in through the Grand Entrance and up the red-carpeted stairs two at a time. Hannah caught a glimpse of herself in one of the enormous mirrors. Instead of the timid-looking girl she had seen reflected earlier, she now saw a wild thing with windswept hair and a filthy robe. But there wasn’t time to worry about that. They flew through the Portrait Gallery and the Ballroom and the West Gallery, shouting: “SIMON! SIMON!” But there was no sign of him.

  Eventually they stopped, breathless.

  “He’s got to be here somewhere,” said Hannah. “Unless he’s gone home. You don’t think he —”

  “Shhh!” said Jake. “Listen.”

  Faintly, in the distance, they heard voices. Jake opened a set of French doors and stepped outside. From across the garden came the sound of laughter.

  “It’s him!” said Jake.

  They hurried across the lawn and through a gap in the hedge — and there was Simon. He was sitting at a wrought-iron table with an elderly lady. Between them were the remains of afternoon tea: a silver stand crowded with tiny sandwiches with the crusts cut off, a plate of cake crumbs and a pot of tea. Two corgis barked as they approached.

  “Simon!” said Jake. “What are you —?”

  The lady turned around.

  “Er … Hi,” said Jake.

  “Your Majesty!” said Hannah, shocked.

  “Jake! And Hannah!” said the queen. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.” The queen looked at Horatio then, in his wrinkled leggings and puffed sleeves. “And who is this?”

  “Horatio Montague, Your Majesty.” Horatio removed his hat with a flourish and bowed low. “Sir Walter Raleigh’s cabin boy.”

  “We got him from your painting,” explained Hannah.

  “I see,” said the queen, who looked as though nothing could surprise her now. “Would you care to join us for a cucumber sandwich?”

  “Thank you,” said Hannah. “But we must get home. First, though, we need to take Horatio back to the Falcon.”

  Horatio clutched the camera to his chest. “I’m not going back there,” he said, aghast.

  “But you have to!” said Hannah. “Where else will you go?”

  “I’ll come with you.”

  “Oh, no, you won’t,” said Jake.

  Horatio looked hurt. “But you promised.”

  “We did not promise,” said Jake. “We said you could come back with us. We didn’t say that you could stay with us.”

  “Oh, dear,” murmured the queen.
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  “Even if we wanted you to stay,” said Hannah, “our parents wouldn’t let you.”

  “She’s right,” said Jake.

  “And anyway,” said Hannah. “What about your parents? Won’t they wonder where you are?”

  “I don’t have parents,” said Horatio sadly. “I have benefactors. They won’t miss me.”

  “What about your friends, then?” said Hannah.

  “I don’t have any friends,” said Horatio. His chin began to tremble, and he took out a filthy handkerchief and blew his nose.

  Hannah looked at Horatio helplessly. “All right,” she said. “You can come with us. But only until we figure out what to do with you, okay?”

  Horatio cheered up instantly. “Aye aye, Captain,” he said.

  “Come on, Simon,” said Jake. “Let’s go.”

  “Do we have to?” said Simon. He had ice cream all around his mouth.

  “Yes,” said Jake. “We do.”

  Simon belched softly, got down off his chair and threw his arms around the queen. “Thank you for having me,” he said.

  The queen hugged him back. “No, Simon,” she said. “Thank you.”

  “Goodbye, Your Majesty!” said Hannah.

  “Goodbye,” said the queen. She waved until the children were out of sight. Then she took the stopwatch out of her pocket and checked the digital display. “I wonder how long we can stop time for?” she mused. “I think we’re due for a little holiday. What do you say, girls?”

  The corgis barked in agreement.

  CHAPTER 18

  THE NEW WORLD

  Hannah, Jake, Simon and Horatio went out through the palace gate and picked their way back through the crowd. But as they were collecting their bikes, they felt their ears pop, and suddenly the world was moving at full tilt again. Horatio clung to Hannah, startled by the roar of passing cars.

  “Where’s the stopwatch, Simon?” said Jake.

  “I don’t have it,” said Simon.

  “What do you mean, you don’t have it? Where is it?”

  “I gave it to the queen.”

  Hannah groaned.

  “The queen?” cried Jake. “What did you give it to her for? She’s already got everything she could possibly want!”

  “She doesn’t have time.”

  “She’s got exactly the same amount of time as the rest of us,” said Jake.

  “Not to herself she doesn’t.”

  Jake was furious. “You’ll have to go back,” he said, “and tell her it was a mistake.”

  “He can’t do that,” objected Hannah. “You can’t take something back once you’ve given it away. And anyway, we’d never get into the palace now.”

  Of course, Hannah was right. Jake did try, but his way was barred by the police officer at the gate. “Sorry, son,” said the officer. “The palace is closed this afternoon. There’s been an incident.”

  “I don’t want to see the palace,” said Jake impatiently. “I want to see the queen. She knows me. Ask her, if you don’t believe me.”

  The officer smirked. “If you know her so well,” he said, “why don’t you give her a call?”

  The crowd chuckled.

  “Send her a text!” said the man wearing shorts and knee-socks.

  The laughter grew until Jake retreated, red-faced.

  “I told you they wouldn’t listen,” said Hannah. “We might as well go home.”

  So they set off on their bikes, with Horatio perched on Jake’s handlebars. But when they got to the main road, the traffic made it too dangerous to cycle, so they all dismounted and wheeled their bikes along the sidewalk.

  “My parents have probably called the police by now,” said Hannah gloomily.

  They walked as quickly as they could, but Horatio kept stopping to look at things. He was intrigued by the cartoons playing on a TV in a store window. He eavesdropped on a man talking on a phone and pointed at a woman with pink hair. Simon wheeled his bicycle at Horatio’s side, explaining everything like a miniature tour guide, while Hannah and Jake walked on ahead.

  “What are we going to do with him?” hissed Hannah.

  “I don’t know. You’re the one who said he could come with us.”

  “What was I supposed to say? We couldn’t just abandon him.”

  “Well, he came out of a picture,” said Jake. “Why don’t we send him back into a picture?”

  “What sort of picture?”

  “That sort?” They were passing a drugstore, and in the window there was an advertisement for tissues, featuring a basket of fluffy white kittens.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” said Hannah.

  “Or we could send him there.” Jake pointed to a poster on the side of a bus shelter. It was an advertisement for underarm deodorant and it showed a roller coaster full of people with their arms in the air.

  “That’s just mean,” said Hannah.

  They walked on, deep in thought. “There must be somewhere he can go,” said Hannah. “It would have to be a safe place, though. Somewhere he can make friends and have adventures and nobody will wonder where his parents are. Somewhere he can be free.”

  “The only places like that,” said Jake dryly, “are in books.”

  Hannah gasped. “That’s it! A book!”

  “What?” said Jake.

  “We’ll send him into a book.”

  “What sort of book?”

  “A children’s book.”

  “A fairy tale, you mean?”

  “No!” Hannah shuddered. “Horrid things happen in fairy tales. I was thinking of somewhere more like Narnia. Or what about Winnie-the-Pooh? Or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?”

  Jake looked doubtful. “What if he doesn’t want to go?”

  “Why wouldn’t he? You can do what you like in a book. Nothing really awful ever happens, and there’s always a happy ending.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” admitted Jake. He almost looked as though he wished he could go into a book himself.

  “Anyway,” said Hannah, “it’s Horatio who has to decide. Let’s ask him.”

  They turned around. Simon and Horatio were outside the Cinema Deluxe. They appeared to be discussing a poster showing a spaceship flying past an enormous orange planet. The poster was advertising a film called The New World.

  “SIMON!” yelled Jake.

  Horatio looked directly at them. Then he ducked into the Cinema Deluxe. Jake cursed. He and Hannah turned their bikes around and made their way back to Simon.

  “Now where’s he gone?” said Jake.

  “He said he wanted to see The New World,” said Simon.

  “We’d better go and get him,” said Hannah. So they propped their bikes against the wall and went into the theater. The lobby was full of people milling about. But where was Horatio?

  “There he is!” said Simon, pointing.

  “HORATIO!” Jake yelled.

  Horatio turned and ran straight past the ticket collector and into Theater Three.

  “After him!” said Jake.

  But the ticket collector barred the way. “Oh, no, you don’t!” he said. “Tickets, please!”

  “We don’t want to see the film,” explained Hannah. “We only want to find our friend.”

  “No ticket, no entry. That’s the rule.”

  “All right, all right,” said Jake. “One ticket, please.”

  “I’m coming, too,” said Simon.

  “And you’re not leaving me behind,” said Hannah.

  “Three tickets, then,” said Jake.

  “Four,” said the ticket collector. “Don’t forget your friend.”

  Since Jake was the only one with money, he had to take off his shoe and spend his emergency £20 bill. Then they all went through the doors into Theater Three.

  CHAPTE
R 19

  ALL IS LOST

  It was dark inside the theater. There were a few teenagers eating popcorn at the back, some children with their parents … and Horatio. He was sitting on his own near the front, with his mouth agape and the light from the screen flickering across his astonished face.

  “Wait here,” Jake said. “I’ll go and get him.”

  The others watched as Jake edged down the row. When he reached Horatio there was a short exchange. Jake took hold of Horatio’s arm, but Horatio shrugged him off.

  “Sit down!” said someone in the row behind.

  Horatio jumped up and ran along the row. Toward the end, a man and his daughter were eating popcorn. Horatio leaped over them, sending popcorn flying into the air.

  “Hey!” yelled the man.

  “Security!” called someone else.

  The doors opened, and a security guard rushed in. Horatio turned and sprinted up the aisle, but the guard ran after him and caught him by the collar. Horatio twisted free and ran along an empty row, but a second guard was advancing from the other end. Horatio was trapped. There was no escape.

  Or was there?

  Slowly, Horatio turned toward the screen and put the camera to his eye.

  “NO!” cried Jake.

  “No photos!” yelled the guard. He rushed at Horatio and made a grab for the camera. But to his surprise, his hand closed on nothing but thin air. The guard looked around, confused. The boy had vanished! He shone his flashlight under all the seats and into the row behind. There was no one there. Only the grubby felt hat in the aisle was evidence that Horatio had been there at all.

  But Hannah, Jake and Simon knew where he had gone. They were watching the film. Horatio was at the controls of the spaceship, and he seemed to be looking directly at them from the screen. He grinned and waved. Simon waved back. Then the spaceship turned and sped off at the speed of light. And that was the last they saw of Horatio Montague and the Magic Camera.