“WHAT!” screeched Owlbert. “I’m not a delivery owl. I’m a professional phot-“
“Professional Photographer, I know, I know,” said Ava, cutting him off with a laugh.
“Well if you knew that, then you’d know I’m obviously going to record a video message, and show it to old Ours Noir on his big screen television,” replied Owlbert, reaching deep into the feathers at his side and pulling out a bright blue Go-Pro attached to a silver band, which he strapped to his head.
“Alright. Ready, set, go!” thundered Owlbert good-naturedly, making sure the Go-Pro was on.
Professor Ronald arranged the children in a line, and then Uncle Tempo came and stood beside Ava. Leaning towards the camera, and Owlbert, Tempo said:
“Friends! At long last, the ancient prophecy will be fulfilled! No longer will we be living in captivity, inside the bubble of the Magical world. The door will be unlocked, and we’ll be free to roam the earth beside the majestic animals of old, as we once did! The polar bears were our brothers once – we kept the Logicals from turning your young into coats, and from destroying your forests. Help us, and we will stand beside you once more!”
Tempo put his arm around Ava and continued.
“This is my niece – daughter of Nisara – and she is the gatekeeper! It is her destiny to unlock the door. She holds the key! A key which came to her even as she was hunted down by a foe. An enemy which you know, and will remember. The sorceress Wraithlana! The evil witch hides now in the Enchanted Forest. She gathers her pack of wolves, her spies, and as I say this they are gathered, waiting for us, waiting to devour all and to claim the key!”
The children were terrified, and rightly so. Never before had they heard their Uncle Tempo speak like this.
“Join us! Travel with us through the Enchanted Forest! Your reward will be the renewed relationship between Magicals and Beasts.”
Tempo raised his fist and shook it forcefully in the air. Owlbert stopped recording.
“Mate, even if you don’t convince them, you sure convinced me,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye.
“May there be better days ahead for all of us,” said Charlotte.
They all gathered at the door and watched as Owlbert squeezed his huge body out of it, and then with a horrifying crunch he hopped up onto the roof.
The children looked up as the roof dented with the shape of Owlbert’s claws, and then Owlbert leapt into the air and soared for a moment on the wind, and then he flapped his wings and was out of sight.
Charlotte took out her pencil and pointed it up, and the roof popped back into place. She waved her pencil around the room and the feathers disintegrated before their very eyes, and the stuffing from Owlbert’s nest put itself back into the furniture. Within minutes, the train car looked as it had before Owlbert descended upon it.
“Who’s ready for lunch?” asked Tempo, moving towards the dining car. “I think I’ll go see what my friend Gary has been cooking.”
“I think I’ll stay with Charlotte a moment,” said Ava.
“I could use a coffee,” said the Professor, joining Tempo.
“Ava wants to talk to Charlotte alone,” Robbie whispered to Anja, taking her hand and leading her in the direction Uncle Tempo and the Professor had gone. Robbie and Anja looked back at Ava and gave her a brave smile, then they, too, walked towards the dining car.
Ava looked out the window. The sun had burned up most of the fog, and she could see endless fields of yellow grass in every direction. The ground looked tired and mournful. It looked exactly the way Ava felt.
Ava undid the chain around her neck, letting the key fall into her hand. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out the compass that was there. She sat down beside Charlotte.
“I’m lost,” she said quietly.
Charlotte moved her hand to the compass and turned it over, so that the face looked up at Ava.
“Are you?” she said. “It looks to me like you’re headed east.”
“What I mean is…well, what I wanted to say was…” Ava stumbled.
“That you’re Logical?” asked Charlotte, gently.
“Yes!” said Ava, in surprise. She looked into Charlotte’s face, searching for disappointment. But Charlotte was looking at her affectionately.
“Our destiny comes to us because of who we are, not despite who we are. The key chose you; perhaps because you come from both the Magical and Logical world. Perhaps because you are both brave and kind. Perhaps it is for reasons neither one of us know yet. But if you know who you are, you can’t be lost, because when you know who you are, and when you learn to listen to your heart, you carry your compass inside you. It is your own voice who will guide you in the dark.”
Ava rose to her feet.
“I hear my own voice,” Ava said.
“And what does it say?” asked Charlotte.
“That my father is still alive,” answered Ava, making a fist around the key with one hand, and a fist around the compass with the other.
She turned to Charlotte.
“And I’m going to save him,” she finished.
Chapter Twelve
A
va marched through the train. She passed Tempo in the dining hall, who was harassing Gary for an omelette. She passed Robbie and Anja, who were sitting on the couches on the lower level of the observation car, playing a rousing game of Go Fish. She passed the Professor, who was just coming out of the bathroom after combing his fur and styling his mustache. Ava didn’t let herself be distracted by anyone, and she marched on until she reached her bunk bed. Then, she put her hair into a ponytail, smoothed down her shirt, and got to work.
With her notebook in her hand, Ava wrote down all the questions she had whirling around in her sharp mind. Ava wrote down everything - even if the question was silly, or seemed to have no answer, Ava wrote it neatly in her notebook. Brainstorming, her teacher had called it. She scribbled and scrawled and rewrote and underlined, and by mid-afternoon Ava was surrounded by pages of her notebook, which she had placed before her like pieces of a puzzle she had to solve. The compass and the key were in the middle.
By the time the sun set, the train had entered Manitoba, and Ava had selected three of the most important pieces of paper. She folded them and put them put them in her pocket, along with the compass. The key she put back onto the chain, which she placed once more around her neck. Ava gathered the rest of the paper and crumpled the pieces up, her full hands searching for the garbage can. But, before she could dispose of them, Tempo walked in.
“Ava! I didn’t see you at lunch, or at dinner! Don’t tell me Charlotte has you writing stories for her,” Tempo said, patting his full stomach. He’d been in the dining car all day.
“No,” said Ava. “This isn’t for Charlotte. This is for me.”
Tempo looked at Ava with her hands full of scrunched up paper. “You don’t need to worry about anything,” her Uncle said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Once we get you children through the Enchanted Forest, you’ll…”
But Ava interrupted him, shaking her head from side to side. “No,” she said, strongly. “You think you have to keep us safe by locking us in a castle while you fight Wraithlana. But I don’t belong in that castle. I’m not like you.”
“What do you mean, Ava?” Tempo asked, confused and concerned.
“I’m Logical, like my father.” Ava replied.
Tempo sat down on his bed. He was stunned. “How can this be possible?” he asked, more to himself than to Ava. “Your mother, she always said you were so special. And I have watched you for years from the wall – I know you’re special!”
“I’m special because I’m me, not because I’m magical. Our talents don’t make us who we are. Our hearts do. Robbie and Anja are magical, but to me, they’re just Robbie and Anja, and I loved them long before I even believed in magic. And my mother loved my father, enough to leave your world behind forever, and he wasn’t magical at all.” Ava walked over to the garbage, threw down
her handful of paper, and dusted her hands off with a clap.
“I heard your speech to Owlbert,” she said, facing her Uncle. “You talked about alliances, but you didn’t talk about an alliance between Magicals and Logicals. And you didn’t mention my father once. In my family, we don’t leave school to go on vacations to secret magical lands. And we don’t let our family members get killed by evil witches. And we don’t choose sides between groups of people; we choose between right and wrong.”
Tempo was astonished.
“Prepare yourself,” said Ava, finishing her speech. “Because this Logical is going to fight alongside you to defeat evil.” She made her hand into a fist and pointed her thumb to her chest.
Applause erupted from the doorway, and Ava turned to find her brother and sister, and her Professor, cheering her.
“And that,” said Professor Ronald, “is why the key chose you.”
The little Smith children got ready for bed, and Ava went in search of a snack, since she had missed every meal since breakfast. Her steps were quick, her heart was light, and her mind was clear. It felt so good to be yourself. Ava felt like she could fly.
Gary was closing up the kitchen, but he found an apple for her to eat, and poured her a glass of milk.
“I’m really going to miss you guys,” he said to her. “We’ll be through Manitoba in a few hours, and by the time tomorrow’s breakfast is over you’ll be in Ottawa.” Gary sighed. “You children are the best behaved travellers I’ve ever seen, and your Uncle is one of a kind. I even like your Professor, although he does remind me of my Great-Aunt’s tabby cat, Fluffy.”
Ava laughed so hard she choked on her milk. “Don’t let the Professor hear you,” she giggled.
When her snack was over, she said goodnight to Gary and walked towards her cabin. On the way, she looked around for Charlotte, because she wanted to show her what she had written on the note paper in her pocket. But Charlotte was nowhere to be seen.
Where does Charlotte go at night? Ava wondered to herself, as she opened the door to her room. Everyone was sleeping, except for Tempo. He had waited up for her.
“I just wanted to say, Ava,” he began, “That your mother was my best friend in childhood. When she left to be with your father, it broke my heart. I’ve never recovered. I miss her every day. I know she would be very proud of you,” Tempo said, holding back tears. “But I wonder…”
“Yes?” asked Ava, getting into her pajamas.
“What if your mother didn’t have to choose? What would her life have been like, if she could have stayed with her family and been with your father? How would your lives been different, if your father had been as welcome in our home as she was in his home?” Tempo shook his head. “We’ve forgotten what it’s like to choose love over fear. But your mother, she knew.”
Ava climbed into her bed. Tempo was right. Her mother had known all along. And now she knew, too. Ava drifted off in a deep, peaceful sleep.
Dawn broke, brilliant and bright. The train had slowed – it was travelling through the city – and from the open window the Smith children could see blue sky and green treetops.
“Everything back into the suitcases!” called Ava as they got dressed. “We’re getting off when the train stops!”
“Please, no,” said Professor Ronald, nervously eyeing the pet carrier.
Tempo laughed. “Not this time, old friend! Your days of being caged are over.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his wand, and in one wand stroke the crate had disappeared.
“And I’ll thank you not to produce that again,” sniffed the Professor.
“I could put you on a leash,” threatened an amused Tempo.
“Enough now, let’s have breakfast!” said Ava, shooing everyone out the door, suitcases in tow.
Charlotte caught up to them on their way to the dining car, her beaming face greeting them.
“Good morning!” she chirped, polishing the handle of her purse while she walked. “Are you ready for the day?”
Tempo looked apprehensive. Robbie and Anja looked excited. Ava looked fierce. And the Professor looked dignified, still wearing his red bowtie.
The children went through the door, crashing and banging their suitcases against the narrow frame.
“One at a time!” barked Ava, and Anja groaned as Robbie moved to go first.
“My dears, this is so troublesome. Are you planning on carting these everywhere with you, even through the forest? Please, give them to me. We’ll put them in my purse,” Charlotte said.
They looked at her purse.
“Are you sure there’s room?” Anja asked, twisting around between the two suitcases that were now blocking her in.
“Of course there’s room. I ordered the extra large purse for a reason,” said Charlotte, opening her bag. “Just drop them in! They’ll sort themselves out.”
The children did as they were told, and their large, hard-topped suitcases disappeared into Charlotte’s purse. “Please go to the house wares section,” Charlotte called after the suitcases, and then zipped her purse back up. “Breakfast?” she said, pointing towards the dining car.
Breakfast was a sad affair. Gary would not stop crying, and his tears fell onto the toast, which Professor Ronald then refused to eat.
“I can’t help it,” Gary sobbed, dabbing his eye with a dinner napkin. “I’m just so sad to see you go.”
Charlotte took a sip of her tea and let out an exasperated sigh. She took the pencil from her hair, which was wound up like a donut at the back of her neck, and pointed it at Gary.
Instantly, he stopped crying.
“The kitchen is closed,” he huffed. “There’s no more food. Don’t ask.”
“But you need to bring more toast,” said the Professor, “These pieces have teardrops on them.”
“Teardrops! That’s absurd. And cats are strictly not allowed in the dining car,” said Gary, stomping off to the kitchen.
“That is our cue,” said Tempo, stuffing a piece of cried-on toast into his mouth. “Let’s get off this train.”
So Charlotte, Tempo, Professor Ronald, Robbie, Anja, and Ava shuffled to the exit, and when the train pulled into the Ottawa station they were the first ones off.
“Sweet land!” said the Professor, hopping onto the platform. “From this day forward, I’ll only walk on my own four feet!”
“That’s going to be interesting,” said Tempo, “because we’re crossing the Rideau and the Ottawa river. Do you want to swim?”
Professor Ronald began to panic. “Certainly not!”
“Don’t fret, Professor,” said Charlotte happily, “We’ll take a taxi, of course. It’s only a twenty minute drive from here to the forest. And I have just the thing for you in my purse…”
“Don’t say it,” whispered the Professor, his ears flat against his head, which was shrinking into his body.
“…I just have to find it,” mumbled Charlotte, looking into her purse.
“No,” said Professor Ronald.
“Ahh! There it is!...” Charlotte pulled a beige crate from the depths of her bag. “…the pet carrier!”
Professor Ronald couldn’t help it. He meowed.
Tempo hailed a cab, and the five of them piled in, the Professor once again in a crate, sitting on Tempo’s lap in the front. He refused to make eye contact.
“Look out the window!” Charlotte said as they drove past a massive grey building with pointed spires and cathedral doors.
“What is that place?” asked Ava in amazement.
“They’re the Parliament buildings!” pronounced Charlotte, smiling as she watched Ava’s face glow with awe.
“Maybe one day you’ll work there, Ava,” said Robbie, reaching through the crowded backseat to hold her hand.
The taxi drove across a long bridge, which took them out of Ottawa and into Gatineau, Quebec. They took a left, then a right, and then pulled into a parking lot, right under a huge sign that said “Parc de la Gatineau.”
“Ce sera vingt dollars,” said the taxi driver as they piled out. “That’ll be twenty dollars.”
Tempo reached into his pocket and pulled out thirty dollars, and the taxi driver drove away smiling.
“I’m sorry, but where is the Enchanted Forest? This is a provincial park,” Ava pointed to the sign they stood under.
Tempo and Charlotte both chuckled.
“This is the Enchanted Forest,” said the Professor, stepping out of the crate Anja had just unlocked. “Hidden in plain sight! To the Logicals, it looks like an oasis of serene bike paths and swimming lakes. But if you leave the trails…you’ll find the forest is quite different.”
Ava looked at the joggers and cyclists that were passing by.
“How will we know where to go, if there are no trails to guide us?” she questioned.
“Ahh!” said Charlotte, unzipping her purse. “I have just the thing for that!”
The Professor ran behind Robbie and shivered.
Charlotte placed her open purse on the floor and said, “Map!” and the bag coughed up a map in a puff of smoke.
“Thank you,” Charlotte said, reaching for the map, which she then handed to Ava.
Ava unrolled the map and spread it flat on the ground beside Charlotte’s purse, and everyone crowded around to look at it.
“I suppose we’re to enter the forest here,” said Ava, pointing to herself on the map. She was eager to start out.
A voice from above them answered her.
“This way, friends,” said the tree towering overhead, “Welcome to the Enchanted Forest.”
And then his long branches bent low to the ground and parted the shrubs on the forest floor by his roots, revealing an old, overgrown pathway that lead into the heart of the woods.
They each stepped forward, one by one, through the divided brush and bramble, and when Tempo, who stepped through last, was on the inside of the forest the tree snapped back up and the shrubs bounced back into place, sealing them off from the park road.
Ava rolled up the map and stuffed it into her pocket, alongside the compass, and the paper notes from yesterday. She was starting to think she needed a Charlotte Purse of her own.
The Adventures of Ava Smith: The Secret of the Enchanted Forest Page 9