Anja thought they should cover their ears and run, but Ava stared into the darkness of the baggage car and announced that she was going to see who or what had made that terrifying noise, and she took a deep breath and marched across the metal grate and disappeared into the baggage car. Anja couldn’t leave her sister, so she followed.
Inside, in the dim and dusty light, the girls saw rows and rows of suitcases and boxes, stacked high and held against the wall by a mesh rope. They walked slowly, inspecting what they could see, and looking for anything suspicious.
“There’s nobody in here,” said Ava at last, as she came to the end of the train car. She stood in front of a large wooden crate that took up the whole front wall. “Maybe the noise we heard was just the wind whistling.”
But then the screeching sound came again, much louder, and much closer. In fact, it was coming from the wooden box! A thud, and a thump, and a horrible scratching sound followed the ghastly noise, and the wooden box began to rock back and forth. Anja turned and fled, and Ava was close behind her, but before Ava ran she caught a glimpse of a brass label, nailed to the wooden crate. It said only four words:
Property of Charlotte Holms
Ava bolted the door closed as she left the baggage area, and then bolted the door of the passenger car closed once she was safely back. Then, the girls ran.
They ran until they reached their own cabin, and there they flung themselves down on the bottom bunk bed to catch their breath, forgetting that Professor Ronald was sleeping off his birthday celebration. The girls collapsed onto the bed and the next moment they heard the Professor’s muffled voice say “Help! I’m being attacked!”
Ava and Anja peeled themselves off their poor Professor and apologized. The Professor accepted this apology with grace and dignity, and then, he burped.
“Sorry,” he said, quite embarrassed. “I seem to be suffering from motion sickness.”
“Maybe Charlotte has something in her purse for that,” said Anja, and then, “speaking of Charlotte, we just found…” but she stopped before she had a chance to explain about the wooden crate. Ava was tugging on her sleeve and motioning her to be quiet.
“Don’t tell the Professor we were sneaking around!” whispered Ava. “We’ll ask Charlotte ourselves!”
So the girls made their sick professor comfortable, promised to bring him dinner in bed, and went off to find Charlotte.
But Charlotte was nowhere to be found.
They looked for her everywhere, but she had disappeared. Ava and Anja whispered to themselves, wondering where she had gone, and what she had packed in her luggage, and what the miserable creature in the crate could possibly be, but they couldn’t come up with any explanations.
By dinner time they still hadn’t found Charlotte or solved their mystery, but they promised each other they would return to the baggage car in the morning and see for themselves what was in the wooden crate.
The dining car was full of passengers, but Robbie and Uncle Tempo had managed to find a table. Or, rather, they were still at the table they had been at lunchtime. By the time they had finished eating all the birthday cakes it was nearly supper, and they didn’t see any point in leaving and giving up their table, so they stayed as the kitchen staff cleared their dishes and set the table for dinner.
“You’ll both go to bed with a sore stomach,” said Ava, shaking her head as her and Anja sat down.
“My dears, there’s only one cure for too much cake, and that’s a hearty supper!” said Tempo, beaming at the girls. Robbie nodded his head in agreement.
“We’ve ordered soup, salad, chicken, and rolls!” Robbie said, and Gary said there’s pie for dessert!”
“Who is Gary?” asked Anja.
“He’s our new friend, the head of the kitchen!” said Robbie cheerfully, and a few moments later Gary appeared with their plates balanced on his outstretched arms.
“How lovely to see you again,” Gary said, placing their meals in front of them.
“We never left!” laughed Tempo, putting a heaping forkful of chicken into his mouth.
“I know,” said Gary with a sigh.
The meal was wonderful, and the girls were hungry. They ate everything on their plates and were just discussing which pie to order when there was a rattling sound, followed by a flurry of hair and shoes and pencils, and there in front of them appeared Charlotte.
“Hello, children,” she said, smiling. “And Tempo,” she said, smiling less.
The girls began to tell her about their strange afternoon, but they started to talk at the same time and nobody could make sense of what they were saying.
“I do want to stay, but I must be off again,” Charlotte said before the girls could say anything more about the crate. “I only came to see how you were doing.”
“Do you have anything for the Professor? He’s feeling sick, I don’t think he travels well,” said Ava, remembering the poor cat.
“Of course! The Professor should have said so earlier!” Charlotte reached into her purse, which also seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and produced a small purple pill.
“It’s gravol,” she explained. “Tell him to take half and he’ll feel better in no time.”
Then Charlotte stood up and walked towards the door to the dining car, and then there was that strange rattling sound again and Charlotte disappeared.
Tempo shook his head. “That woman is undoubtedly, undeniably up to something,” he said.
Anja and Ava looked at each other and silently agreed.
When dinner was over, the girls left to bring the gravol pill and a dinner roll to Professor Ronald, and Robbie and Uncle Tempo soon followed, walking slowly and holding their stomachs. They were indeed sick from too much eating, and both Robbie and Tempo barely had enough energy to put themselves to bed.
Professor Ronald, however, after eating and taking the medicine exactly as Charlotte had recommended, felt much better. He hopped down from the bed and suggested that the girls follow him to the observation car.
“Anja,” the Professor said as they walked, speaking quietly to make sure nobody else could overhear, “its time you learned to control your powers.”
Professor Ronald led the way up to the observation deck, his tail swishing back and forth as he climbed the stairs two by two. Anja followed him, eager and excited. Ava came last, one hand holding the stair rails to keep her steady, the other hand curled around the golden key on her necklace chain.
The world was turning out to be much different than she had imagined, Ava thought as she watched her sister and the Professor scanning the room to make sure they were alone. It seemed like every moment was filled with something stranger than the last, and it was hard for Ava to get used to it.
Ava knew that Robbie and Anja belonged in the magical world. Tempo and the Professor and even Charlotte seemed to fit so well into her family. The only person without a magical power was her, and Ava was beginning to suspect that she wasn’t magical at all. Ava sat down a little ways from Professor Ronald and Anja, and looked out the long window at the setting sun. Where did she belong?
At the Professor’s instruction, Anja laid down in the middle of the aisle and looked up to the sky through the glass dome of the ceiling.
“If you can control your thoughts, you can control your emotions,” began the Professor, “and if you can do that, you can control your weather.” He paced back and forth by Anja’s head, sounding very much like a Professor.
“Fear and anger are often the easiest emotions to feel, but they are also strong emotions and they can become difficult to manage very quickly. But, the best way to learn is to jump right in. So, think of something that makes you sad, or upset,” said the Professor.
Immediately, Anja thought of her father. Storm clouds gathered above the glass ceiling.
“I’ve seen you create a better storm than that! Think of something that makes you angry,” challenged The Professor, and Anja thought of Wraithlana.
The clouds
darkened, and thunder rolled. In a few moments the tinkling sound of rain was heard on the glass above.
“Now, think of something that makes you happy. Think of your happiest memory,” the Professor said gently. “Focus. Don’t watch the clouds, don’t think about the rain. Find a good memory, and get lost in it.”
Ava watched as Anja closed her eyes, and she watched as her sister tightened her eyebrows together in concentration.
The rain continued.
“Think of your mother. Think of your father. Think of…” Professor Ronald paused.
“Think of Christmas,” said Ava.
Anja heard her and smiled, her eyes still closed.
Anja did think of Christmas. She thought of Ava, singing to herself as she wrapped gifts. She thought of the tree, beautifully decorated. She thought of Robbie rushing to his stocking, thrilled with each thing he found in there, and their father, his warm arms wrapping around all of them in a giant hug.
Ava looked up.
The dark clouds were still there, but the rain was lighter, and right in the middle of the storm there was a light forming. It grew brighter and brighter, and then it became so brilliant that it cut through the darkness and the drops of rain turned into golden pearls, and the clouds turned pink and a rainbow burst through the ceiling and reached down to envelop Anja.
Anja opened her eyes.
Professor Ronald said quietly, “Happy memories are very powerful, and memoires full of love are the most powerful of all, because love is even stronger than fear.” He looked up to the sparkling sky above and smiled.
Ava looked at her sister, lying in the glow of the rainbow. She looked up at the golden raindrops, the pink clouds, and the brilliant light of Anja’s memory hanging in the sky.
“Do you remember last summer when we were at the lake, and Robbie learned how to swim?” Anja asked Ava, interrupting her thoughts. She was still lying on the floor. “Do you want to see what that memory looks like?”
Ava smiled at her sister and lowered herself to the floor beside Anja, and the girls remembered happy memory after happy memory, and the rest of the dark clouds were carried away by a soft, sweet wind.
From outside the train, a cold pair of eyes watched as the curious weather changed rapidly, over one single glass-domed train car. Late into the night, after the sun had set, a strange light danced across the train roof and strange clouds made strange shapes in a strange mist. The cold eyes narrowed. The cold eyes blinked. Then the cold eyes disappeared into the darkness to report all that had been seen.
Chapter Ten
W
hen Ava opened her eyes, the sun was shining, and she was tucked into her bed. She remembered that late last night, her Uncle Tempo had found her and Anja lying on the floor of the observation car, and had carried them down to their cabin and had placed them in their beds. She also remembered the perplexing secret of the wooden crate in the baggage car, and with a start she sat up. Ava was determined to solve this mystery, and she was determined to do it today.
While Ava brushed her teeth, she thought of a plan. While she combed her hair, she made a list. While she searched through her suitcase for a clean outfit, she reflected on all that she knew about the world and all that she had read in her school textbooks, and she came to the conclusion that Charlotte was absolutely and positively keeping a wild and dangerous animal locked in that wooden crate. Ava wanted to inspect the crate once more, and then she wanted to confront Charlotte.
It was one thing to do magic indiscriminately and out in the open. It was quite another to put the lives of train passengers in danger by transporting hazardous wildlife. Ava felt that it was lucky they had discovered the crate, because now they could convince Charlotte to do the right thing. What the right thing was, Ava didn’t know, but she felt certain that Charlotte would.
Anja heard her sister rustling down below, and she looked out over her top bunk and yawned.
“Wake up, sleepy!” chirped an enthusiastic Ava.
“Mehugheh,” mumbled Anja, which meant, “Don’t talk so loudly so early.”
“The sun is up, and we have things to do!” replied Ava, opening the curtains to reveal the bright morning sun. In the night, the train had gone through the mountains, and they were travelling across the bluffs and valleys of Alberta. Ava looked out the window and saw green hills sparkling with dew.
“What a beautiful day!” she said aloud.
Anja sighed, and slid herself off the top bunk and landed in a heap on the floor.
“I’m coming,” she said.
“Great,” said Ava. “Meet me in the dining car for breakfast in five minutes, and then we’ll go off to the baggage car.”
She stuck a notebook and a pen into her pocket, and then swung open the door and left Anja, who immediately tried to go back to sleep.
“Five minutes,” Ava said, poking her head back into the room.
Anja got off the floor and stomped to the bathroom, and Ava closed the door and hurried off to the dining car.
“Good heavens!” said Gary, greeting her with a look of despair. “Is your ravenous Uncle joining you this morning? If so, I must prepare my kitchen. I’ve never seen a man eat so much food! And we are completely out of dinner mints!” he said, wringing his uniform in his hands.
“Don’t worry,” said Ava, “It’s just me right now, although my sister will be joining us very soon. And I have a feeling my Uncle will be eating properly from now on,” she added.
“One can hope,” said Gary, bringing her a menu.
It took Anja eight minutes to join her sister for breakfast, but she was dressed in clean clothes and she looked like she may have brushed her hair. Ava ordered both of them a fruit bowl, and then took out her notebook and got down to business.
“I’ve written down a few of the animals it could possibly be, based on the noise and the size of the crate” she said, reading it out loud to her sister while Anja rubbed her eyes.
Here was Ava’s list:
1. Grizzly Bear
2. Giant Wolf
3. Small Elephant
4. Shark
“The last one doesn’t seem likely,” said Anja, taking a bite of cantaloupe from the dish Gary had just brought.
“Stranger things have happened on this trip,” replied Ava, taking a bite of honeydew. She put the notebook back into her pocket, and then, as an afterthought, grabbed a butter knife from the table and put that in her other pocket.
“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared,” she said when Anja gave her a questioning look.
The girls finished their breakfast, wished a wonderful morning to poor Gary, and set off towards the baggage car.
They found the metal door with the port window, and they opened it without any difficulty. The girls stood in the windy doorway and were debating who would cross the grate first and open the metal door to the baggage car, when all of a sudden there was a loud crash and, once more, that horrible shriek, and then, the door to the baggage car burst off the hinges and landed with a clang against the wall of the train before bouncing wildly into the ditch below the tracks.
Ava and Anja looked at each other and ran. They had only gotten a few steps, however, when the awful shrieking sound came again, and when the girls looked back a great pair of wings erupted from the doorless baggage car and a giant pair of yellow claws reached towards them.
Anja couldn’t help it – she was terrified – and before she could stop herself thunder rolled overhead and a giant crack of lightning lit up the sky above the train.
The lightning blinded Ava, who stumbled and plunged knees-first to the floor, and Anja wailed and crouched down beside her, sure that the terrible beast was going to snatch them up.
Ava tried to right herself, but her long hair had come undone and was swirling in frenzied spirals around her face as the wind rushed passed them, and she couldn’t see properly. So she reached for Anja, and feeling her sister’s hand, she gripped it tensely.
“Think happy though
ts!” Ava screamed at the top of her lungs.
Suddenly, there was a grunting noise, then a huffing noise, and then the wind stopped.
The girls saw that the massive body of the beast was blocking the door, and they hugged each other and looked up at an enormous, solitary eye that was not even a foot away from their panic-stricken faces.
“Where is she,” hissed the beast, scratching the floor with one of his giant claws.
There was another crack of lightning above the train.
“I said…” the beast began, but he was interrupted by shouts from an approaching mob.
The mob turned out to be Charlotte, Tempo, Robbie, and Professor Ronald.
“OWLBERT!” roared Charlotte, “I demand an explanation!” She took her pencil out of her hair and pointed it at the door, which closed itself immediately.
“Oh, I’ll give you an explanation,” the beast said, turning his head to face hers. Then the girls saw that he actually had two eyes, one on either side of his feathered head, and a large beak between them.
Owlbert folded one wing so that the curve jutted out like an elbow, and the feathers rested on what would have been his hip, if bird beasts had hips, and with the other wing he reached up to smooth down the ruffled feathers on his head.
“You don’t know what it’s like,” he began, “hour after hour in that cramped, dark compartment. A bird like me can’t be caged, you know. It’s TOR-CHA.” He meant to say “torture”, of course, but Owlbert was imported, and he had an accent, which made him seem friendlier, thought Ava.
“Owlbert,” said Charlotte, trying to be patient, “that cage was made especially for you. It’s exactly your size. And you promised me you would behave.”
Now Charlotte put her hands on her hips. “You must go back,” she told him.
“Can’t,” said Owlbert, crossing his wings in front of him and shaking his head. “I broke the cage, and then I broke the door. I won’t go back. I’m your business partner, not your pet.”
The Adventures of Ava Smith: The Secret of the Enchanted Forest Page 7