by J. M. Wilson
Berty had broken free from Old Proffers grip, leaving the man huffing and puffing, and shouting after him, ‘about seeing his parents…Again.’
Berty coiled into flight, spinning through the mosses, causing water droplets to spray into each and every direction. Under the mosses in the cool isolation of the hillside with the gentle sounds of the bubbling and gurgling stream, Berty went to search for his sister.
He found her in the first place he looked, ‘The Book House’.
The Book House was a treasured place to many Mytons who valued science, history, myth, fact, and legend. The books were all bound with materials made from the land, mixed together and then left to dry in the sun. Once dry the mixture took on properties much like a leather material and became impossible to tear. It was durable and protective, and when not reading the books, Dena worked binding them to keep them safe for the community, and for future Manushi.
With books stacked high along all the Book House walls, the rooms became muffled and quite, warm with a musky smell. It was a peaceful place where many came to study or just read for pleasure.
Dena loved it all.
The sweet smell of the place.
The tranquility.
The fact that her days were spent filling her head with the gossip and truths of times gone by.
Berty and the others in the village loved her for it too. They were all very proud of her.
She was the youngest person to be consulted by the Highest Council. They had requested some information to inform on a decision for something or other. Berty didn’t know what, just that it was an honour. His family were swollen with pride because of her. She read to the children, and held the attention of her friends with tales from mythology and legend.
She’d probably read of this sort of thing happening before?
By this evening’s supper, Berty thought, all would be explained to him, and it wouldn’t seem quite as exciting after all.
There she sat.
Her head in a book.
Berty loved his sister dearly. He did not tell her though, that would be gross. She was a few years older than him, and she often looked after him when their parents worked. She told him story after story. She scared him and thrilled him with tales made up, and tales of truth.
He spotted her from the back. He would know her anywhere.
Dena’s hair curled and bounced, shining in rich conker shades as it fell around her shoulders. She always wanted to grow it, but it seemed the longer she left it to grow, the more it curled, and always looked the same length.
Berty’s mum and dad constantly told her she was a beautiful young woman who turned the heads of all the boys.
Dena didn’t notice that.
She wasn’t interested .
‘Too busy with books’ they said.
Berty didn’t see that there was anything wrong in that.
‘Who wants to be ‘kissy kissy’ anyway?’
He certainly didn’t, best if his sister didn’t too.
The thought of it made Berty quiver, like he’d eaten a sour berry.
“Dena!” Berty shouted excitedly, “You’ll never guess what?”
CHAPTER 5
THE MANUSHI
‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has!’
(Margaret Mead 1901-1978)
Dena sat in her bedroom. She was worrying about the series of events her brother had excitedly garbled to her.
She loved her room, it was warm and cosy and filled with history books. History was her passion and when not studying in the Book House, she would probably be reading at home for pleasure. Where the books did not cover the walls, a shade of light apple green coloured them. It was a calming and relaxing colour, which so suited Dena. She was known for her thoughtful and calm nature.
Dena thought about what had been said earlier.
Slowing Berty down, she had asked him to calmly retell the full tale again.
“Are you telling one of your untruths Berty?” She sternly asked.
“No!”
“Berty, this is serious. It’s not a game, or a story? Is it?”
“Honestly Dena. If you don’t believe me, come with me tomorrow and see her. Her name is Ruby.”
Dena had never heard of such a thing.
She had never read of such a thing.
She did believe her brother, but she didn’t want to.
This was a troubling tale.
She needed to go and see for herself what was what.
After all, Berty could be in danger.
After a night of tossing, turning and pacing around her room Dena finally managed to catch some sleep. Her dreams were troubled. Usually not a worry passed into her head, but this night a strangely familiar woman appeared, interrupting her subconscious thoughts.
Did she know her? She didn’t think so.
Nothing was said to her.
No story was told.
Just a woman who seemed unable to talk once she had appeared to her.
It was all very odd, and it disturbed Dena.
She did not know why?
After her parents had gone to work, Dena and Berty hurriedly got ready. Berty because he was so excited, and Dena because she desperately wanted to explain away what Berty thought had happened.
She did not want this story to be true.
It had to be a mistake?……. Somehow?
Speeding through the meadows Berty played ‘tig-tag’ with his sister. There was a time when she used to let him win because he was so small, but now he knew she tried to win, because he was so good and so fast. It was quite a journey to get to Ruby’s place, and as a rule, Berty normally used the journey to practice his speed, timing himself from one landmark to another. It was good for his mind to practice meeting obstacles, and reacting quickly so as to avoid them. This was his weakness he thought. He was fast when it came to moving, but when it came to an obstacle, and subsequently finding a way to overcome it, or miss it, well, lets just say more practice was needed. As the incident with old Proffer demonstrated magnificently!
Dena and Berty sat on a broken wall edging the meadow, very near to the end of Ruby’s garden.
“If you’ve got me down here for no reason Berty I’ll fill your bed with itching grit.” Dena sternly said.
“Dena, honestly. Watch! At first she might not see us ’cause, she uses her mind sometimes, and then sometimes she forgets to focus. I’ve had to remind her.”
“What, she can hear you, but can’t see you, at first?”
“Sometimes yeh, but when she uses her mind properly she can see me and hear me!” Berty explained.
“Well, that doesn’t sound right, well none of it sounds right….” Dena chuntered on about how unreal this tale was when Berty nudged her,
“Look, here she comes.”
Ruby was running down the wet path, without Nutmeg. Ruby figured she did’nt like getting her paws wet. Once again, she had protested at Ruby’s request to go out by hiding between her granddads legs.
“See you Gramps,” she shouted to them, as she shot out the back door.
“Where you going today Ruby Red?” her Gran called after her.
With a backward glance, whilst charging out, she shouted.
“Meeting a new friend. His name’s Ellabert!”
What did she say?” Asked Ernie.
“She’s met a friend called Albert.” Kate replied.
“That’s good. I’m glad she’s making friends.”
“It’s an old fashioned name that, isn’t it Ern? You don’t hear the name Albert much nowadays.”
Ruby picked up the stick and swirled it in the puddle. Again all the never-ending questions about the oddness of happenings in her life swirled around and around in her head.
She heard Berty say just before she saw him:
“She’s doing good today. She’s using her mind.”
> Dena watched the Human child as she went through what looked like a ritual.
Why had Berty thought the child was using her mind whilst stirring a puddle with a stick?
She did not know.
Humans had never much interested Dena. She had read a few things about them, but nothing had captured her interest really. The girl had red leg coverings and a pink top on, with a hat that looked somehow like a ducks bill.
‘Humans,’ she thought. ‘They really did look loud and slightly ridiculous’.
Again the water swirled.
And so did Ruby’s head.
Again, all the things she needed to know, and all the questions still without answers, swirled around in her thoughts, and now there was Berty?
It was easier now she could concentrate on seeing Berty.
This time, very quickly, she went from seeing a blurred mass, to seeing grassland and trees, to staring at two small people who stared right back!
Ruby thought Berty looked pleased with himself. The girl looked older than both of them. She looked like the two of them had yesterday.
The girl looked astounded.
With some trepidation in her voice, the older girl quietly asked,
“Can you see us?”
“Yes,” Ruby said matching the older girl’s quiet manner.
“Berty, are you going to introduce us?” Dena said.
Berty had a rather ridiculous grin on his face, as if he was quite pleased about something. When Dena spoke to him, it was as if he had been jolted out of his smugness.
“Oh!.. Yeh!.. Sure. Ruby, this is my sister Dena. Dena, this is Ruby, the Human girl I told you about.”
In that instance a shudder ran from the top of Dena’s head to the tip of her toes.
Her world, its order, and its rules, just flipped upside down.
To Berty this was just a great adventure, but to Dena, this new reality was a serious situation.
The Humans and the Manushi had co-existed, since forever.
But never had the Humans known.
Never had the Manushi conversed with the Humans.
Humans are big and loud and destructive. Many times, over the centuries, the Manushi had had to use their minds to manipulate and cajole the Humans, for their own survival! As the Human race had expanded and colonised most of the world’s landscape, the Manushi had been squeezed into smaller and smaller settlements. Nowadays many Manushi had taken to living in much more isolated settings, so as the impact, and contact with the Human race, was as little as possible. Manushi in Lincolnshire had been lucky perhaps, on the whole. The Human race had always, and presently still did, value the Lincolnshire countryside for its richly fertile lands, growing many food crops. This suited both races. Often the Manushi would harvest from the Humans crops also, but as their needs were so little, Humans did not notice.
Dena felt a sense of doom.
This changed everything.
A happening of this magnitude could send panic throughout the Manushi communities.
This situation had to be thought about. Managed even, if that was possible?
But how?
Dena began to rise to meet the girl’s eyes.
Once at eye level she hovered and stared. She looked like a big little girl, but was she?
“Where are you from?” She asked, in a very serious tone.
“Wonderby village is where I live. I live with my grandparents,” Ruby replied, feeling slightly intimidated by this, hovering, older girl.
“What were you doing at ‘The Wood’?” Was Dena’s next question, as she began to interrogate Ruby.
“Exploring.” She replied.
With that, Dena turned to Berty, who had began to shuffle uncomfortably under her stare.
“Berty, what exactly were you doing at ‘The Wood’?”
Lifting his gaze to meet his sisters, Berty replied,
“I only followed her because she part-way used her mind to get here, and I’d never known a Human do that before.”
Dena moved around to look at Ruby again. If there was something bad about this girl she could not see it. She did not know if she would be able to see it, but all she could go on right now was instinct.
Dena turned to Ruby and spoke again. Her tone was calm, but commanding.
“You had better start from the beginning Ruby. Tell me all about how you have found yourself to be here…And why?”
Ruby sat on a damp bit of old wall, beside Dena and Berty, and told them everything. All about her parents death, and moving in with her grandparents. The strange things that had happened. Time standing still. Floating. Helping with her granddad’s deafness. Hearing the voices in the meadows, ending up at ‘The Wood.’ Seeing Berty, and the constant pull to come to the bottom of the garden.
“It started the first night I got here. I sleepwalked to the fence. My Gran and Granddad finally stopped me…And that’s it Dena. You now know what I know. No! You don’t. There is one more thing.” She said, as she remembered.
“On that first night my mum came to me in a dream. I think it was a dream, although it seemed real. She told me to find ‘Goldenella Perkin.’ Do you know her? My grandparents have never heard of her!”
Dena and Berty froze at this last bit of information.
Fear, disbelief, and a bit of excitement engulfed the two Manushi.
They looked at each other.
Ruby continued. “My mum said I would find out her secret, and to find Goldenella Perkin. She will protect you, that’s what she said…Yeah! That was it.”
She nodded to herself, and her small interrogator. She was pleased that she had remembered everything so clearly.
Catching the silence coming from these two new friends, and seeing their frozen looks, Ruby asked,
“What? What?”
In a slight daze and absolutely bewildered, Dena and Berty spoke together, Berty was pointing at Dena.
“Goldenella Perkin!” Dena said, pointing at herself, “Dena for short.”
Wow! was all Dena could think at first.
This was just too much.
First she is having a conversation with a Human child, and then she hears she is the one the child is looking for?
For protection?
I’ve never protected anyone in my life, she thought. I work with books for goodness sake.
What can I do?
She felt utterly helpless and useless, as she rubbed her head with her hand.
“I have to think… Ruby, have you told any Humans about this?”
Slinging her head back, and with a slight laugh, Ruby replied;
“My family would think I was bonkers if I told them about any of this!”
Then, more seriously, and with searching, questioning eyes, Ruby continued.
“Dena, why have I been told to look for you?”
Dena had no idea.
And said as much.
Berty was grinning from ear to ear.
“This is so cool! Nothing like this ever happens in Myton. You wait till I tell everyone!”
Quickly, and with a stern tone, Dena turned to Berty.
“No Berty you can’t. This is very serious. If Ruby needs protection, she is in danger. That means we could all be in danger. We cannot involve anybody else. Oh boy! Let me think about this.”
Dena paced in a hover, backwards and forwards for a few seconds. Then, she said, “Ruby, for now I think you had best go home. Stay away from the bottom of your garden until tomorrow. I Will be back to meet you.”
Ruby did as Dena had asked, and began to walk back the way she had come. She did not know how she could stay away from the bottom of the garden though.
Watching Ruby walk back to the puddle, Dena took some deep breaths. She did not have a clue what to do. She needed to research, back at the Book House. Human and Manushi exchanges, contact, whatever, and kind of go from there. All these thoughts swam through her mind as she sat with Berty, watching Ruby slowly make her way back home.
Ru
by swirled the puddle with the stick. She didn’t know why really. It was, she supposed, as Berty had said, the key to her being able to see and hear the small people. Then with a childish urge, Ruby jumped into the puddle. As her feet hit the water, she then expected the path underneath to meet the soles of her Converse boots, just like they had before. She had red jeans on today. The splash wouldn’t make the same mess as it did on her white ones. It was really all she thought about.
But there was no path at the bottom of the puddle. She just went down and down and under. From inside her throat a pulling sensation took hold of her body.
Down.
Down she went, swirling round.
Deeper and deeper as she was sucked into the whirlpool in the puddle. Water swirled around her body, her face. She could breathe but had no idea what she could see or hear. Whirling, swirling, funnelling, pulling her under and then, then, she felt herself rise, surging through the water upwards.
As she felt the sinking of her own weight on the way down, she experienced a lightness and an agility on the way up. The feeling reminded her of when her dad used to play dunk with her in the swimming baths. He’d dunk her in and then pull her up out of the water and throw her up into the air and she would fall back in a huge splash. Only, when her dad had done it, the feeling of being sucked under and pulled by water was only on the outside of her skin. This suction felt like it consumed all of her body, inside and out.
She felt sick.
Her stomach lurched.
She felt sure she was going to throw up.
It all stopped.
Ruby shook herself to free her body of all the water. Like a duck, or a goose, the droplets rolled off her body like rain off feathers.
In an instant, she was dry.
She looked at Dena and Berty.
They looked wide eyed and horrified, as they gawked at her, gawking at them.
What had happened?
Dena and Berty stared at Ruby, and then looked down. Ruby followed their eyes and looked down also.
‘OMG,’ she thought.
Creepers! She was doing it again.
Floating.
Actually, she was hovering, only now, she was the same size as her new friends!
Dena closed her eyes and bit her lip and said out loud.
“Oh No! What now?”