by Anna James
‘I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t think you should be smoking in here,’ she said, putting down Grandad’s cup. The man and Grandad stopped talking abruptly and stared at her, before turning to look at each other.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting, Grandad,’ Tilly said, instantly worried she’d been too terse with someone who looked decidedly important. ‘I just wanted ask you something, but I’ll come back later.’ Grandad nodded mutely and Tilly went back downstairs, but only a few moments later she heard her name being called.
‘Tilly!’ Grandad’s voice came down the stairs. ‘Wait for me a sec, will you?’ Tilly paused, so Grandad could catch up with her. ‘Sorry about that, love,’ he said, back to his usual self. ‘I was just deep in conversation and entirely forgot I’d asked for that cup of tea. Sorry if I was strange with you; you know how I get: can’t concentrate on more than one thing at a time.’
‘It’s okay,’ Tilly said. ‘Who was that anyway, and why were you letting him smoke?’
Grandad looked sheepish. ‘Ah, he’s an old friend, and he likes doing things his way, so I let the rules slide for him and turn a blind eye. I know it’s ill-advised.’
‘I can’t seem to turn a corner in this place without interrupting someone else’s conversation,’ Tilly said.
‘What on earth do you mean, sweetheart?’ Grandad said.
‘I barged in on Grandma catching up with a friend yesterday too,’ Tilly said. ‘And that lady vanished as soon as I interrupted; I just seem to make everything awkward.’
‘Which lady was that?’ Grandad asked slowly.
‘I think she was called Lizzy,’ Tilly said. ‘Grandma said she reminded her of Mum.’
Grandad took a deep breath, and then smiled warmly at Tilly. ‘Enough reminiscing – what were you coming to ask me about?’
Tilly showed him the book she still had tucked under her arm.
‘Ah, Alice in Wonderland! Perfect research for the party. Can you believe we’ve never had an Alice theme before in all our years of autumn parties?’
‘It’s one of Mum’s,’ Tilly explained, passing it to Grandad, who opened the cover automatically and saw the photo that Tilly had shown him yesterday. He stilled for a fraction of a moment before placing his palm on the photo, like it was on the cheek of a child.
‘It’s a lovely connection to have, isn’t it?’ Grandad said, holding the photo up to his glasses. ‘Having the same book she’s reading in the photo. She loved Alice in Wonderland too,’ he said, closing the book and pointing at the cover.
‘Do you know why she liked them so much?’ Tilly said, remembering her decision to try and find out more about her mother’s tastes in books.
‘Well, as I said before, she always felt a very personal connection to A Little Princess,’ Grandad said carefully. ‘And why do any of us love Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Magic, mischief, nonsense, all the good stuff.’
‘I wish I could talk to her about it,’ Tilly said.
‘Me too, sweetheart,’ Grandad said. ‘Me too.’ He looked into her eyes quite seriously for a moment before an extravagant stomach rumble invaded the silence. ‘Well then, I suppose I’d best check on lunch. It’ll be ready soon. Pop down before too long.’ He gave her a kiss on the top of her head and set off towards the kitchen.
Tilly found the nearest chair, sat down and began reading the familiar first few sentences. Soon she was as lost in Wonderland as Alice, reassured by the scenes and characters she knew so well, and soothed by knowing that her mother had made the same journey years before.
fter a lunch of creamy leek and potato soup with chunks of home-made bread and salty butter, Tilly headed out to find Jack, ready to beg or steal something sweet. But before she made it to Jack’s café at the back of the ground floor she was struck on the forehead by a jelly bean. Turning in the direction it had come from, she saw a girl in a full-skirted blue dress sitting on the stairs, lazily throwing jelly beans towards the nearest bookcase.
‘Did I hit you? I’m sorry, I was aiming for the cat. Does it have a name? Do you think it likes sweets?’
Tilly stared at her and the girl widened her eyes in impatience.
‘The cat? What’s it called? My cat is called Dinah.’
‘She’s called Al—’ The girl looked directly at her and Tilly felt that little itch in her brain. ‘Alice? She’s called Alice?’
‘You don’t seem very sure about it,’ the girl said, peering at Tilly. ‘But never mind that, because my name is Alice too. How curious.’
‘Alice,’ Tilly repeated.
‘Yes … Al-ice …’ she said again slowly. ‘And … what … is … your … na—’
‘Matilda,’ Tilly interrupted.
‘Whatever your name is, there is always time for good manners; it’s very rude to interrupt.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Tilly said. ‘It’s nice to meet you, Alice. Um, would you like a cup of tea maybe?’
‘Nice to meet you, Matilda,’ Alice replied, and bobbed a neat curtsy. Tilly tried to copy, but just ended up doing a small, awkward bow. ‘And thank you, but no thank you. I don’t tend to eat or drink in new places until I’ve thoroughly got my bearings.’ Alice looked Tilly up and down. ‘We both seem to be around the same size, though, which is a good sign. Trouble always starts when you are out of proportion with who you are talking to.’
‘Are you looking for a book?’ Tilly asked.
‘Not especially, although I’m never averse to finding a book along my way; they can come in handy sometimes, except you never know what’s inside until it’s too late, in my experience.’ She sighed extravagantly. ‘Do you know, someone once told me that explanations take such a dreadfully long time that one should focus on adventures, and I’ve rather come around to their way of thinking. So, if you’ll excuse me …’ And with that Alice skipped towards the back of the bookshop, passing a round little man with a very neat moustache who was coming the other way. The little man gave no indication of having seen her, but gave a neat bow in Tilly’s direction.
‘Excusez-moi, mademoiselle.’
Tilly’s head spun, but as she turned round to watch the man leaving she found herself face to face with the red-headed girl from that morning. They stared at each other.
‘You,’ the girl said, sounding surprised.
‘You!’ Tilly said. ‘You’re back! You seem so familiar to me from somewhere; what school do you go to?’
The girl tilted her head to one side and stared hard at Tilly. ‘I go to school in Avonlea,’ she said. ‘Near my home at Green Gables.’
‘And your name is Anne …’ Tilly said slowly.
‘With an “e”,’ Anne reminded her.
‘Anne, with an “e”, from Green Gables. Anne of Green Gables?’
The girl nodded, still openly staring at Tilly. ‘But who are you?’
‘I’m Tilly! With a “y”. From here!’
‘But you remember me. And, now I am here, I remember you,’ Anne said in wonder.
‘As I said, we literally met this morning,’ Tilly repeated. ‘But how can you be Anne of Green Gables? She’s not a real person.’
‘Well, I’m absolutely really here,’ she said, reaching out and touching Tilly gently on the arm.
‘Is this a joke?’ Tilly said, looking behind her as if she would see hidden cameras somewhere, or wondering if it was part of some elaborate set-up by Grandad to entertain her during the holidays. ‘You’re from a story?’
‘Why, yes,’ Anne replied happily, not seeming at all perturbed by this fact, and settling herself on the stairs.
‘You’re real. But you’re not real. You’re from a book. But you’re here,’ Tilly said, feeling like her brain wasn’t quite keeping up with what was happening in front of her.
‘Well, why on earth does being from a book mean I’m not real?’ asked Anne. ‘I’m as real as you or this shop, or Julius Caesar or the Lady of Shalott. You can touch my hair, if you’d like, and you will see i
t is ever so real – to my eternal frustration.’ Tilly had to admit that Anne’s physical presence was undeniable.
‘Right,’ Tilly said, sitting down next to Anne, determined to try to wrap some logic round what seemed to be happening. ‘Well, what were you doing in Green Gables before you came here? How did you get out?’
‘I was sitting in the orchard, imagining all the places I might visit when I am older. And then I was here!’
‘But how?’ Tilly was almost bursting with frustration.
‘I don’t know, I just was. I think it is rather marvellous. If you like, I can invent a thrilling story about how I got here with magic spells and a glittering portal. Maybe some kind of benevolent but cursed princess living in a tower who writes poetry and is only allowed a single glass of water each day—’
Tilly interrupted her before she got even more carried away. ‘But how will you get back? Won’t there be gaps in your book spoiling your story somehow, you being here?’
‘I’ll just go back after I am here. And I don’t think it can spoil my story; I rather think only I can spoil my own story.’
Tilly sighed and put her head on her knees, and then thought of something.
‘Did you see the other girl that was here?’ she asked. ‘Alice?’ But when she raised her head Anne was no longer there.
n hour or so later, with a slight smell of burnt sugar in the air, Jack sent Tilly round to Crumbs with some pop cakes. It had taken him a few batches, but he had finally perfected them so that when you bit into one you got a mouthful of lovely sticky honey. As Tilly stepped on to the street the fresh air and streams of people clutching takeaway coffee cups and mobile phones were reassuringly solid and familiar. Pushing open the door to Crumbs, she saw that Oskar was in his usual spot, this time doodling on a notepad.
‘What’s that I spy?’ Mary said. ‘Is it an offering from Jack?’
‘Yes!’ Tilly replied, holding the cake box up. ‘Pop cakes fresh from the oven! They’re best now while the honey is still a bit warm.’ She opened the box and Mary took one.
‘Jack sent enough for Oskar too,’ Tilly said loudly, and he looked up hopefully.
‘Let me bring you two some drinks to have with them,’ Mary said, pulling another chair up to the table Oskar was sitting at and nudging Tilly into it.
‘What are you drawing?’ Tilly asked him as she took her coat off. Oskar spread his arms over the paper, like he was trying to stop someone copying a test at school.
‘Nothing much, only scribbling. Just something to do,’ he said.
‘Oh, okay,’ Tilly said, embarrassed at having made him uncomfortable. She messed with the ends of her hair as he painstakingly smoothed a bent corner of paper.
‘So, uh, what’s your favourite kind of cake?’ Oskar asked awkwardly after a pause.
‘Carrot cake, I think,’ Tilly said, surprised at the line of questioning. ‘What’s yours?’
‘Red velvet.’
‘I like that too,’ Tilly replied, unsure how the conversation had dried up so much since that morning.
‘I like carrot cake too.’
The silence seemed to solidify around them.
‘Anyway, I’m not really very hungry,’ Tilly said, standing up and banging her knee against the table as her coat sleeve got twisted round the back of her chair. ‘I was just bringing the cakes over for your mum. See you in school.’
‘Don’t go,’ Oskar said abruptly, watching Tilly untangle herself. She stopped wrestling with her coat. ‘I mean, I just wanted to ask which book you decided to read for English homework,’ Oskar said, picking at his fingernails.
‘I think I’m going to read one of my mum’s old favourites,’ Tilly said. ‘You know I found that box of her books the other day? Well, I thought I might choose one of those that I haven’t read yet. Maybe Treasure Island?’
‘I love that one,’ Oskar said.
‘You’ve read it?’
‘Well, I’ve listened to the audiobook, if that counts.’
‘It definitely counts,’ Tilly said.
They both fell silent as Mary brought them two glasses of orange juice and two pop cakes on patterned plates.
‘Everything okay?’ she said.
‘Yes, fine, thank you,’ Tilly replied automatically. Then, after a moment, she asked, ‘Mary, who’s your favourite character from a book?’
‘What a tricky question.’ Mary paused in thought as Tilly and Oskar ate their pop cakes. ‘I think it would have to be Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Have either of you read it?’
Oskar hadn’t, but Tilly nodded her head, although she hadn’t actually read it; she’d only seen the TV version that her grandma watched every Christmas.
‘Do you ever think about what you would say to her, if she was real?’ Tilly asked.
‘I can’t say that I ever have before, Tilly, but it’s an interesting question, isn’t it? I suppose I would ask her what it was like in her family, and what Mr Darcy was really like. I must admit, Tilly, that part of the reason I love her is how much she reminds me of your mum.’
‘What?’ Tilly blurted, remembering the conversation with her grandma earlier.
‘Yes, I always thought that Bea had a similar sense of humour to Lizzy’s and your mum was a very sharp observer of people, Tilly – honestly, she used to make me giggle describing some of the customers who came into Pages & Co. Goodness, it would be fun, wouldn’t it, to be able to talk to Lizzy Bennet? Although I wonder if she would be like I imagine her, if I actually met her.’
‘I bet she wouldn’t,’ Oskar said. ‘I think if you met your favourite character they’d just be disappointing. It would be like meeting a famous person. They wouldn’t be as nice as you thought and they probably wouldn’t want to talk to you anyway.’
‘Well, I think it’s a lovely idea. If only it were real, eh, Tilly?’ Mary laughed and went back to the counter. Tilly looked at Oskar appraisingly.
‘Oskar,’ she whispered, ‘what would you do if it was real?’
‘If what was real?’ Oskar asked, confused.
‘If you could really talk to your favourite characters!’
‘I dunno. Ask them stuff? It’s not, though, is it? That’s the whole point.’
Tilly kept going. ‘But maybe it is.’
‘But really, Tilly, it isn’t. Why are we going round in circles like this?’ He sounded bemused.
Tilly took a deep breath. ‘I’m seeing characters from my favourite books,’ she announced.
Oskar slowly looked up at her, as though he wasn’t sure whether she was having him on. ‘Tilly—’
‘No, don’t look like that,’ Tilly interrupted. ‘I swear, I was reading my mum’s old copy of Anne of Green Gables when a girl called Anne with red hair turned up in the bookshop. And then I read Alice in Wonderland and a girl called Alice wearing a big blue dress appeared! Oh! And I think my grandad might have been talking to Sherlock Holmes as well, and then my grandma was talking to someone she said reminded her of my mum like—’
‘Your grandparents think they’re seeing book characters too?’ Oskar said nervously.
‘Oh no. Well, I don’t know, I haven’t asked them. I need to do some more investigating first.’
‘Was it your mum’s copy of Alice in Wonderland as well?’ Oskar asked after a pause.
‘Yes, from the box of her old books,’ Tilly explained impatiently.
‘And my mum gave you that photo of her yesterday, didn’t she?’ he went on.
‘Yes. And …?’
‘Well, don’t take this the wrong way,’ Oskar said quietly, ‘but do you think maybe it’s just been a bit of a weird time with all this stuff about your mum coming up, with the books and the photo, and, um, maybe the characters aren’t actually in the shop, you’re just imagining them a bit harder than usual. I mean, I definitely had an imaginary friend when I was little – he was called Xavier and he was from Newcastle and he was ginger – but anyway you don’t need to be embarrassed wi
th me. I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have my mum around.’
Tilly’s face flushed hot. ‘You don’t believe me?’
‘It’s not that I don’t believe you, it’s just …’
‘I should have known you wouldn’t understand,’ she said, standing up.
‘Why?’
‘Because no one ever does.’
‘Sorry,’ Oskar said, sounding as embarrassed as she felt, ‘it’s just … You know that you’re not really talking to fictional characters, don’t you?’
Tilly grabbed what was left of her pop cake and walked out without saying goodbye.
illy didn’t pick up her mum’s copy of Alice in Wonderland again. Instead she chose a brand-new book that she’d never read before and that her mum had definitely never read. She took it over to her favourite sofa only to find it already occupied. At one end was Anne, picking at the ends of her hair. At the other was Alice, looking around impatiently. Tilly waved, a little startled to see them together.
‘Oh! How curious,’ Alice said. ‘You’re just the same as before.’
They both stared at Tilly.
‘Why wouldn’t I be the same? I don’t know why you’re so surprised. I should be more surprised that you two know each other,’ Tilly said, and Anne and Alice exchanged another look as if seeing each other properly for the first time.
‘Have we met?’ Alice said, peering into Anne’s face.
‘How can you not know if you know each other?’ Tilly said. ‘That doesn’t make any kind of sense.’
‘A bit of nonsense never hurt anyone, did it, carrot-top?’ Alice said cheerfully, yanking one of Anne’s plaits.