He had dark blonde hair that stood up in several directions, which gave him a wild look, yet he had a friendly and amiable face, and he was altogether charming. The man looked around at the children, smiled, and then bowed low.
“Good afternoon,” said the man who had just been a clock. He straightened up and grinned.
“That was needlessly dramatic,” Professor Ronald said with a sniff.
“Come now, you’re just jealous! But you have been eating tuna from a saucer while I have been ticking away, wishing I’d become a kitchen table!” the man said with a deep, hearty laugh.
Professor Ronald twirled his moustache and stood straighter. “Children, I’d like to introduce you to Tempo - Timelord, fashionista, and…” Professor Ronald paused, “… your Uncle.”
The Smith children gasped.
“Our Uncle??” they said at the same time and in the same surprised manner.
“Your Uncle,” said Tempo, “on your mother’s side, of course. No Timelords on your Father’s side, unfortunately, and speaking of your father, I must express my condolences. This is a precarious mess, and that’s the truth.”
There was silence, which was eventually broken by Anja.
“You might have been more helpful if you’d stopped being a clock earlier,” she thundered. “I won’t thank you for showing up now, after our father’s been kidnapped and our babysitter has quit.”
“Although we’re happy to say goodbye to Miss Potter,” interrupted Ava.
“My dears, my strict orders were to watch over you and not interfere! I must answer to the law; you cannot fault me for that! Magicals are not to involve themselves in the affairs of the Logical world – that is, your world - except in the rare and infrequent event of a catastrophe that would affect both worlds. The kidnapping of your father qualifies, and as my own relations, I should hardly leave you to the sole care of the Professor, capable as he is.” Uncle Tempo’s words echoed around the room.
His kind face was sincere, and as he spoke he knelt his large frame so that he was eye-level with his nieces and nephew, and he looked so earnest that none of the children could accuse him of bad intentions.
“It’s nice to have an Uncle, I think,” Ava said at last, and when the others agreed she asked, “What about our father? How are we going to rescue him? And what is a Timelord?”
“Timelords control time – or rather, they stop time for a moment, so that magic can be used in the Logical world without detection.” Professor Ronald answered. “Magicals must take the utmost care that the Logicals never see magic performed or become aware of the existence of Magicals. It is, quite simply, the first and most heavily regulated law of the Magical world.”
“Heavily regulated!” roared Tempo, an animated laugh shaking his wide shoulders, “What a nice way to say it! Let me tell you, children!” Tempo leaned close and spoke in a low and mysterious manner.
“Unauthorized magical interventions have caused many a witch or wizard to be banished, and the worst offenders are sent far away, never to be heard from again. Rumour has it they’ve been sentenced to jail in Azk…”
“My dear friend, desist!” said the alarmed Professor, cutting Tempo off and causing him to stop in mid-sentence. “This is not talk for children!”
“Did you stop time on Christmas Eve, the night the key appeared?” asked Ava, her eyebrows up and her eyelids down, her face a reflection of her disbelief.
“Most certainly, clever girl!” chuckled Tempo.
“I can’t believe that all this time we were being spied on by our very own clock.” Ava sighed. “So, the next pressing issue is our father. I think we must leave immediately.”
“Indeed we must, Ava, and I do have a plan. The door is located in Canada, the land of our Northern neighbors. We must set out immediately if it can be helped, and along the way I will try to rally aid to our side. We won’t be meeting the old witch alone, not if I can help it!” Tempo pounded the end of his black cane on the carpet as he made this declaration.
“But first things first. I need your passports, and your father’s passport as well. And you must pack your best clothes, and quickly now.” Tempo flicked a stray speck of dust from his coat sleeve and then reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, producing a long, slender wand.
“Are we going to magic our way there?” asked Anja, her voice still sad. A silver mist clung to her like a cloud.
“I wish we could, but cats cannot apparate, and the Professor must come with us. We will have to travel in the traditional Logical way,” answered Tempo, pointing to a spot on the floor with his wand. “And, I happen to know that we cannot cross the border into Canada without…” and with a flick of his wand there appeared on the floor a small crate.
“…the proper pet carrier!” he announced with a wide grin.
“No!” cried Robbie and Professor Ronald at the same time.
“Poor Professor,” Robbie said, kneeling beside the cat.
“Yes, poor Professor,” said Professor Ronald.
“There is no time to delay!” boomed Uncle Tempo. The girls turned to go and pack their things.
“I’ll pack for you, Robbie,” Ava said and taking Anja’s hand in hers she led her sister upstairs.
Anja moved as fast as her sad little legs would carry her, helped along by Ava’s determined grip, which caused her to stumble every other step. The darkness followed them like a thundercloud, rising up the stairs to the bedroom as the girls made their way to pack their suitcases.
Ava stopped in the upstairs hall, wrapping her arms around her sister.
“Don’t worry, Anja,” she whispered, her cheek resting on Anja’s head. “We’ll find father, and we’ll get him back. I promise you.”
Ava squeezed her tight, and then ushered her into her room.
“Remember – pack your best clothes, which I assume means our fancy clothes, if we’re to be as presentable as our Uncle,” Ava instructed, then left to go to her own bedroom.
Ava selected her clothes quickly, sorting them into expertly folded piles. She looked around the room, feeling as if she were embarking on an adventure for which she was ill-equipped. Her eyes searched the shelves and desktop for something which she could put her hope in, something that would make her feel like there was a chance she would succeed.
It was so frustrating, to be forced by a situation she could not control to take part in matters for which she felt so unprepared and unsuited for. Robbie had his predictions, Anja, she’d recently learned, was a walking thunder-head. Ava felt that she lacked some magical gift and that she, too, needed something.
Ava stood still, her eyes searching, her mind trying to remember something her mother had told her long ago. You’re never lost if you know which way North is, she’d said to her. Ava smiled. She moved towards her desk and opened the drawer, the one where the golden key had stayed hidden for so long, and reached in to scoop up a metal disk with her hand. Her mother’s compass. It was smooth, and heavy, and the face with its four points looked up at her as if to say “don’t worry, I know the way.”
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves,” said a voice from the door. Ava turned to find Professor Ronald watching her. “Henry David Thoreau said that.”
“I suppose he meant that we should be brave and go on adventures to find our true selves,” responded Ava, “but the world seems so much larger today than before. All my textbooks made the earth seem so small and uncomplicated. Now there are more worlds than I imagined and more secrets than I knew there could be. I always thought if I knew everything, I’d feel powerful. But now that I know more, I just feel …overwhelmed.” Ava put her hand into her pocket and felt the little key.
“The world and her secrets could never fit into one book, or into one lifetime,” said the Professor, hopping up on Ava’s bed, “and it’s not for any one person to try to understand it all. We must keep our head up, put one foot in front of the other, and go forward on our journey. Now, you don�
�t happen to have a map to go with that compass, do you?”
“A map of Canada? I think I do,” said Ava, brightening. “It’s in the back page of one of my school books! I could –“
“You could tear it out instead of bringing the whole book? Good idea. Now, select Robbie’s clothes and let’s be on our way. Your sister looks like she’s going to rain at any moment.” Professor Ronald jumped down and went out the door of Ava’s room, leaving Ava to finish packing.
When she had her clothes and Robbie’s clothes tucked in to her suitcase, Ava took the key from her pocket and slid it onto her necklace, to keep it safe and sound, and put the compass in one pocket and the map in the other. She was ready.
Ava walked to her sister’s room and saw Anja, sobbing and sniffling, throwing her clothes from her dresser to her bed, a storm of socks and t-shirts flying through the air and into her suitcase. When the suitcase could hold not even one more thing, Anja threw herself on top of it to close it and zipped it up with a howl. The air in her room was damp and dark, Ava noticed. Professor Ronald was right. Anja did look like she was about to start raining.
The girls, suitcases and passports in hand, rejoined the group in the living room. Professor Ronald and Tempo were having a lively discussion about how to get to Canada.
“We can’t fly, no. I simply hate airplanes. I get motion sickness,” the Professor was saying.
“Well I can’t drive a car! I’ve been mounted to a wall for years!” Tempo exclaimed.
“I know how to drive,” Professor Ronald replied.
“I’m sure I could figure out how to drive my father’s car,” interrupted Anja. “It’s still in the garage!”
Ava shook her head. “None of us should drive. We should call a taxi!” she said.
“A taxi to the train station, and then a train across the border!” cried Tempo, and when nobody disagreed, the matter was settled.
Chapter Six
A
taxi was summoned, and the five of them made their way to the dreary driveway to wait. The Smith children were solemn and unhappy. None knew how they might succeed in rescuing their father, and Ava was doubly burdened, since she saw herself as the only responsible person there. Professor Ronald was certainly a wise and interesting character, but he was a cat, after all, and despite her Uncle’s presence, Ava was unsure how dependable he might be, having been a clock for so many years before.
Despite her fears, Ava intended to carry on and bravely face whatever lay ahead of them. She stacked their luggage in a neat pile at the end of the driveway and then turned to look at the little huddle which was her family.
Anja was still sobbing, although quietly now, and the stormy clouds that had gathered in the living room seemed to have followed her outside. Robbie, who stood next to her, clasped her hand in his little one and tried his best to comfort her, but to no avail.
Uncle Tempo was preoccupied with the map Ava had handed him as they had locked up and left the house, and Professor Ronald was looking quite miserable in the little carrier which lay at Tempo’s feet.
Ava put her hand under her coat collar and made a fist around the golden key which hung from the chain around her neck. She knew she must find within her the strength to face their journey, or else she might lose her father to the strange fate he faced with Wraithlana, and that was too terrible to think of. So, straightening her back and thrusting her chin up, she resolved not to give into the temptation to cry, and instead she began issuing orders.
“Anja! Do use a tissue, and not your clothes!” she began, addressing her sister, who was trying to dry her wet cheeks with her coat sleeve.
Then, to Robbie, “Come, let me zip up your coat properly, and you can sit atop the suitcases and wait for the taxi to come.”
Her words were stern, but her touch was soft, and she very carefully fastened Robbie’s jacket up to his little chin and then lifted him to a comfortable spot on the top of the pile of suitcases.
Seeing he was safe, she made her way to the carrier which housed Professor Ronald, and attempted to lift it.
“Young lady, let me down!” Professor Ronald said with as much dignity as he could muster under the circumstances. “I won’t be carted around like a family pet! It’s unpleasant enough, being stuffed in this contraption, without the added insult of being swung to and fro by your unsteady hand!”
Ava was about to defend herself, saying that she most certainly was not going to swing him “to and fro,” and that she had a very steady hand, thank you very much, but compassion kept her silent. She supposed it was terrible, to be trapped in a little plastic box, with a metal grate separating the Professor from the freedom of walking on four able feet. She put him down and moved on.
“Uncle Tempo,” Ava said, rather loudly, in an attempt to distract him from the map, which he had been holding upside down. “Fold that away, and put it in your pocket for now. Do you have any money? How will we pay the taxi driver? How will we buy tickets for the train?”
Her tone and practical line of questioning brought forth an amused smile from her Uncle.
“My dear Ava, so like a Logical,” said he, folding the map as he spoke. “Don’t you worry! Money is a secondary currency in the Magical world, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use it in this one! Here! Watch closely, and perhaps your fears about whether we have enough money for our adventure will be put to rest.”
Having concluded this strange speech, he produced from his pocket the same wand he’d used earlier, and with a swish and a flick and an utterance of some ancient spell, there appeared another suitcase at his feet. He looked at Ava triumphantly with a wide, beaming smile, and motioned for her to look inside.
Ava unzipped the suitcase and saw, to both her dismay and amazement, stacks of dollar bills, neatly wrapped in bundles of one hundred. She looked up at her Uncle. Were they to pay for everything with piles and piles of single dollars, handing thirty or forty bills to the cab driver? How embarrassing. She wondered if she could explain to Tempo that it was more typical to hand over a twenty dollar bill than twenty one-dollar bills.
“I thought you weren’t supposed to do magic in this world,” she said instead.
“Well, only as a last resort,” responded Tempo. “And creating a suitcase of money takes hardly any magic at all.”
Ava was about to give him a lecture, but her thoughts were drowned out by the sound of Anja’s crying, which had moved from silent sobs to loud wails with the arrival of the taxi.
“Anja, please try to cry more quietly,” said Ava, removing as much money as she could fit into her pockets and resealing the suitcase. She stood and offered her sister a hug, but Anja was too distressed to be held.
Though she shrank back from Ava’s touch, and was overcome with emotion, Anja had not lost the ability to express herself.
She howled, “I cannot be consoled! This tragic day will remain in my heart forever, and none of us may live to see the end of this trip! What forsaken land do we travel to – this Canada – and how will we survive it! We’ve never ventured beyond our own state boarders! And who will rescue father from that evil witch! Oh, I wish with all his magic our Uncle could turn back time, and we could wake up yesterday to prevent this madness from occurring!!”
And with that, the storm clouds burst, and poured forth a rain so severe that everyone was forced to run to the waiting taxi to seek shelter.
“I’m not allowed to turn back time! I can only stop it!” shouted Temp as he ran to the taxi.
They all piled in, Tempo in the front seat with Professor Ronald on his lap and the children in a sad row in the back. Ava, once she had fasted seatbelts and checked to make sure all the luggage had been loaded properly, gave directions to the train station.
“Horrible weather here,” said the cab driver cheerfully, “but don’t worry, there’s a break in the clouds in front of us.”
But Ava had come to realize that the rainy weather would follow them as long as Anja remained crying, and e
ven though she saw the sun shining in the distance, she had no hope it would still be bright when they arrived.
The peculiar rain clouds did follow the taxi to the train station. Professor Ronald was particularly dismayed when Tempo placed the pet carrier on the baggage cart and left him in the rain, dashing back to the taxi to attend to the children.
“Oh, for the love of…” the Professor started, but then remembered he was now in public and began to meow pitifully.
Uncle Tempo helped Robbie and Anja from the cab, while Ava emptied her pockets and thrust handful after handful of dollar bills in to the front seat of the taxi. With a sympathetic parting glance at the cab driver, who was counting the crumpled bills, Ava rushed to the terminal to join her family, and together they made their way to the ticket counter.
“Four tickets to Vancouver, please” said Tempo in his booming voice. “And one pet,” Ava added, coming to stand beside him.
“That’ll be one thousand, five hundred, and forty nine dollars,” intoned the ticket agent.
Ava groaned.
“Of course, my good sir!” Tempo exclaimed, slapping the counter with a wide hand. Turning to Ava, he said, “My dear, bring the man the money!”
Ava slowly removed sixteen bundles from Uncle Tempo’s magic money bag, and shuffled back to the counter, handing over the money without making eye contact.
The ticket agent looked at the piles of money, raised his eyebrow, and peered over the ledge to look at the unusual group of people in front of him.
The small boy with the wide eyes stood beside the cat, who was meowing incessantly in his cage, and the blonde girl was draped forlornly over the luggage, looking sadder and sadder by the moment, and the girl with the neat jacket and long curls, who had handed him the money, was staring at the floor, while the tall, foreign-looking man was beaming at him with a ridiculous smile.
The Adventures of Ava Smith: The Secret of the Enchanted Forest Page 4