by J. M. Wilson
He neither debriefed Silverton on the events of the meeting, nor showed him any social courtesy.
Something was not right.
Silverton was a young man with many sides to his personality. He liked the serious side of life, like politics and law. He had a strong sense of responsibility to his fellow Manushi. He also had a head for fun and adventure.
Whilst he watched the girl and the children whiz up the stairwell in their escape, Silverton’s superior mind instantly processed the situation. He heard a Council member who was travelling up the stairwell say;
“This will be something to do with the girl. We were wrong!”
He considered the snippet of information he had heard the day before, before he was asked to leave the chambers, something about contact with a human, and added this to what he had just heard and witnessed on the stairs. He now considered the fact that if he himself were to be caught in the stairwell, the Highest Council would require him to talk. They would want to know who, and what he had witnessed there.
His mind was made up.
Like a gust of wind, Silverton fled the stairwell. His hair, as black as night and as straight as Roman roads, pulled back from his face to the back of his head. At such a speed he caught up with the guilty gang in seconds.
“What do you want?” Dena challenged, as she held the children close.
“Look,” Silverton spoke in a low whisper, “I don’t know what is going on here. All I know is they think this situation is something to do with ‘the girl’. Are you ‘the girl’? And if so, they are looking for you now!”
Indignantly, Dena thanked him.
“I’ll figure it out from here. You can go now.”
Their whispered conversation came to an abrupt end.
The voices of the Higher Council could be heard, close by.
They were talking about ‘going to collect Dena’.
Ruby and Berty were frightened now.
Dena was in trouble, and a stranger had caught them.
Silently they clung to Dena’s side, as they hovered in the darkness.
When the coast was clear, quickly and quietly, Dena dragged the children through the air, searching through the bracken for a hiding place in one of the abandoned homes down by the stream.
Silverton followed.
In this neglected, overgrown part of Myton, Dena found them some shelter.
All four sat in what had once been someone’s front room. Some of the old furniture had been left, damaged, more by dirt and water than broken, but the Earth dwelling was dry and warm now. There hadn’t been any flooding this year, just plenty of sun.
Ruby and Berty sat silently cocooned in tiredness and fear.
All of the joy of what had happened to Ruby, over the past few hours, was now subsiding. She was beginning to feel sad, and when she felt like that, she thought of her mum and dad.
She wanted to go home now, back to her Gran and Granddad.
That brick feeling in her tummy returned, as did the lump in her throat.
She thought she might cry.
She made her excuses to leave the room in search of a toilet.
Ruby needed to be alone.
Berty wanted to be brave, even though he was feeling frightened.
He also wanted to know who this young fella talking to his sister was?
Silverton had introduced himself to Dena and was explaining his position with the Higher Council.
“I haven’t really got a clue what is going on….” he said.
He paused for a second, and studied her worried expression.
He went on.
“…Just that it’s massive! and No problem this big…” he asserted, winking at Berty, “…Should ever be tackled by just a girl!.”
Dena’s mouth opened, as she looked up to tell him off, but as she did, he laughed.
“Gotcha!” he said.
Berty cracked a giggle, and Dena had to smile.
She had to think.
What?
What did she have to think?
She was fast running out of options as to what to do.
She was totally at a loss, and in charge of the safety of two children.
Here in front of her was a very good-looking guy, who wanted to help. He was the new Clerk to the Highest Council, which meant that he also had the credentials for being one of the finest young minds in the county.
Not just handsome, but clever and, well, he looked fit.
Was she supposed to notice, whilst they were at the centre of a crisis?
Well, there could be no denying it. She had.
Dena told Silverton the story, all the way from the beginning to the present.
“Wow,” said Silverton “ Double Wow! This is major! No wonder they are all acting so bizarrely!”
He was genuinely moved by the magnitude of the situation, and how events had unfolded in just a matter of days.
“This is happening so fast.”
Ruby had looked around all of the rooms in the Earth dwelling. Strangely the dwelling was warm, for an empty home. Ruby walked from room to room in the dark, as she thought of her parents.
She too had the gift of ‘night-vision’ now.
She could see enough to imagine, how the family who’s home this had once been, had lived. All the walls were decorated in soft colours. Although not raggy or torn, the curtains that hung daintily at the windows, now looked shabby, as things do when they are abandoned, and not looked after.
‘Abandoned and not looked after’, these words replayed, over and over, in her head. ‘No. She wasn’t that’, she said to herself.
She was just sad.
Most of the time she was OK, happy even.
Yesterday with Berty and the Hummers, she had had the best time ever.
‘That’s how sadness is sometimes’, she remembered her Gran saying.
When all isn’t right, and all wasn’t right, sadness can just creep up on you.
She began to think of all that had happened over these last few months, weeks and days.
Day after day trying to re-enact the first day, and ‘The Wood’.
‘The Wood’ was a mystery.
What did that have to do with anything?
With heaviness in her heart, and desperately trying to be brave, Ruby went to the window.
There, to her utter surprise, she saw it. ‘The Wood.’
Just as before!
There was a ditch in front of it, darker than last time, but then it was dark now.
She did not know how, but it was there.
Considering she had looked for it since that very first day, and afraid that in some way, if she took her eyes off of this vision, she would somehow lose it, she jumped out of the window.
“I can see it! ‘The Wood’. Dena! Berty! ‘The Wood’!” Ruby shouted with excitement.
Without thinking, just thankful that it was found again, she ran to it, for now she might find some answers.
Dena, who had been deep in conversation with Silverton, hadn’t noticed Ruby had not returned to the room. She had been startled by Ruby’s excited cries, and by her hollering about “The Wood”.
Dena and Berty jumped up, following the sound of her voice.
No Ruby.
They ran from one room to another.
Silverton joined in the search.
The trio soon realised that Ruby was gone.
There was no sign of Ruby.
There was no sign of “The Wood”.
CHAPTER 8
PLANS TO FIND RUBY
‘It is common sense to take a method and try it.
If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.
But above all, try something!’
(Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882-1945)
It was the very early hours of the next morning, and after an uncomfortable night in an empty house, in the deserted area of the settlement, the three Manushi were feeling dismayed about Ruby.
Berty was looking at his sister as h
e asked,
“What are we going to do?”
Disillusioned by the actions of the Highest Council, both Dena and Silverton were in agreement.
They could not turn back now.
Not without answers to what had happened.
And not without Ruby.
“Firstly” Silverton said, with the firmness and confidence of a commanding officer,
“We have to leave Myton. Here, we are in danger of having our memories wiped, like what happened to you Dena. If that were to happen, then we may never find Ruby. Secondly, we have to find a way to ‘The Wood’ and thirdly, we have to find something to eat.”
In full agreement with Silverton, the trio readied themselves to leave.
There would be Mytons searching for them now.
To lessen the chance of them being seen and captured, the three had agreed that the best form of escape would be via ‘the underground’.
There was not much use for ‘the underground’ in Manushi society.
Earth materials were, at times, mined from below.
Travel down in the labrynth was really quite slow and dusty.
‘The underground’ was a myriad of tunnels created by the Earth’s creatures. At times these creatures stumbled across Minushi settlements, but with gentle coaxing, were encouraged to move on. These animals, although respected, had little intelligence, and could easily be manipulated away from their living areas. There were times when the Manushi had used their tunnels for mining purposes. As a rule, these species, and the Manushi never really needed to mingle.
And so didn’t.
Travelling through the mole tunnels was an arduous task.
Slow and dirty.
The Moles were of no threat to the Manushi, but trying to get through a tunnel with a mole in it was no easy feat! The three of them followed the twist and turns of the tunnels avoiding Moles, Earthworms, and other underground creatures. The tunnels had a lot of height to them, so there was no problem moving that way. The problem was the dust, the smell, and the monotonous chatter of a eleven-year-old boy.
Ever inquisitive, Berty was full of questions.
“Why do the Moles poo in their own tunnels?”
“Is it because they never turn back, so they don’t have to walk through it?”
“How do Moles turn around in these holes?”
“Do you think Mole poo stinks?”
Yackity, yackity, yackity, chat, chat, chat.
And so Berty went on.
Most of the time he asked questions, and didn’t wait for answers, but at times he did wait, and either Silverton or Dena would attempt to deliver the information Berty requested.
This time Silverton answered.
“No” said Silverton, using an emphasised posh voice “ I think Mole poo has a unique odour, and if harnessed as a perfume for men, I think it could powerfully attract females. Fancy a daub of it Berty? Behind your ears?”
He smiled at Dena, as they both watched Berty’s reply.
“Oh gross!” shuddered Berty, and moved away from Silverton quickly, as he was pretending to pick up the poo!
The three emerged from the tunnels, filthy, and desperate for clean ‘wee’ and ‘poo’ free air, as well as food and drink. And a good wash.
The water was cold that time of morning.
The sun had not had a chance to warm it up.
Having found their own leaf with enough morning dew collected in it to clean themselves, they quickly set about ridding themselves of the dust, Mole dirt, and any other rodent muck that had settled on them and in them. Breathing the air down there had left round dirt circles around their nostrils, and mouths, as well as giving them dirty, gritty eyes.
Silverton and Dena were slightly embarrassed at what a fright they might look. Quickly, they set about the task of finding their own water-filled leaf to clear the dirt from their bodies.
And off their clothes.
Much like birds when they bathe, the water was thrown over their hair and onto their faces, and down their arms and legs. As the water hit their bodies it separated into individual beads of water, each disturbing, gathering up and rolling off the body with it’s dirt parcel. After several speedy splashes, and a really good shake, they were as clean as a whistle, and dry as a bone.
The same was not to be said for Berty.
Berty appeared to be quite content to be filthy, as he stuffed his face with mouthfulls of berries.
Dena looked at her brother as he went about his business, without a care.
He flitted from bush to bush, filling his face with food.
She didn’t think she had ever seen him in such a dishevelled state in his whole life before.
It took a lot of cajoling, but eventually she managed to get him to clean off the dirt.
In a fashion.
After Berty’s rushed, ‘spit and polish’ of a wash, the three gathered some more ‘berryballs’ from a bramble bush, and ate.
The eating made them silent.
Each sat appeasing their own hunger, and contemplating their next move.
Dena looked out over the Lincolnshire Wolds from her resting place, high in a Conker tree.
It swayed gently in the morning breeze.
She looked at all of the Conker kernels, plump and green, holding their precious cargo. It would not be long now, she thought, before the tree would give up its seeds and drop them to the Earth. The sky across the landscape was misty in the morning sun. Where the skyline met the Earth there was no line of distinction. One golden field after another lay before them chequered in design by the hedgerows. Clumps of green in the distant could be seen, flashed with red, laden with berries. Woods where dotted on the landscape and rose from the golden fields. Any of these could be ‘The Wood’ thought Dena.
The Humans’ Oil Storage Tanks , stood high on the hills. These enormous tanks had been painted a deep green. Dena thought that this had been done to camouflage the dramatic eyesore. However, the vibrating hum in the air of the mechanics of these structures could clearly be heard. The green paint could hardly disguise that. Further in the distance there were the wind turbines. These new structures had been rising from the Earth all over the planet as the Human race had begun to panic about energy and resources. The Humans had definitely impacted upon the Earth in recent times, and many of the Manushi had fretted over this. For now though, all Dena had time to fret over was the disappearance of Ruby, and the puzzle which surrounded her existence, and it’s relationship to herself.
‘What to do? What to do?’ She repeated in her head.
All fed and watered, the trio looked at each other.
Dena spoke first. “Lets pool our information. What do we know?”
“Her mum sent her to find you,” piped up Berty.
“Which suggests?” Silverton said, “Her mum and you know each other, and that there has been Manushi and Human contact before.”
“That’s outrageous! I haven’t spoken to a Human. Ever! I’ve never been seen by one. That can’t be right,” protested Dena. “But it is odd that Ruby was told to look for me…That she knew my name!”
“Could have wiped your memory?” Added Berty.
That was something that couldn’t be ruled out now.
“How could they have done that? That’s not our way. It never has been. Why have they done it this time?” Silverton had been very disturbed by this revelation from the beginning.
“Dena, when you were listening on the stairs, what was said? What I mean is, when you said you heard them talking about, it not being far from, did you catch far from where?”
Berty was trying to be grown up and helpful.
Dena looked at her little brother. He was a bit dirty still and looked very tired.
He was trying to help her and his friend.
“No, Berty I didn’t” she replied.
“Are you sure that they weren’t talking about FarFrom?” Asked Silverton.
“Never heard of such a place.” Said Dena.
<
br /> “Not a place, a person. ‘FarFrom’ Wright. Tinzel Wright, commonly known as FarFrom ’cause that’s what he is known for, being far from right.”
Dena had never heard of the name, which Silverton found strange, as he was a bit of a legend.
He went on to tell the tale.
“Tinzel Wright as a young man came to our county from far away. He looks different to us, so the tale goes, with different coloured skin and a strange accent. He is what we would describe as an exotic Manushi. At first he was greeted and made welcome, as are all of our foreign visitors. He settled down, worked hard, and very quickly was recognised as a superior mind. His area of expertise, and special interest, was the science and the power of the mind. He was known to push the boundaries of science in ways we had not done in these parts before, and to be fair, in ways that made the local elect feel very uncomfortable. Eventually, after many run-ins with the Highest Council, he was banished from our society as not fit to practice his work or socialise in our law abiding community. From what I have read and heard, he saw the laws that we live by as a set of shackles that hindered his scientific research.”
Silverton concluded his report whilst looking directly at Dena, and saying,
“I would suggest that faced with the unparalleled happenings of the past few days, that ‘FarFrom’ is likely to be involved. We find him, and I think we will find Ruby. And where do we know Ruby has gone? To ‘The Wood’.”
“Well, we are back to where we started then?” Said Dena.
“We need some help,” said Silverton, “and I know just the place where we can get it!”
Silverton became the leader.
Speeding through the countryside like peas from a peashooter, the three made great headway. This led them to a small dwelling, somewhere inbetween Myton, and Silverton’s settlement of Urton. As they travelled, a large crater could clearly be seen in the distance.
That must have been there a while thought Berty? A small copse of trees and bushes grew from it now.
“Look at that!” he said, “Wow! A real crater. From a real asteroid! I’ve read about these.”
“You may well have, ”Dena said, “but this crater was not created by an asteroid. It is, in fact, a Bomb-hole. The Lincolnshire countryside was dotted with them after the Second World War. Right up until the early 1980’s, lots of these craters could be seen. Today though, the Humans have filled them in, to make good use of their land. This field doesn’t looked farmed, does it Berty? That’s probably why it’s still here.”