by Freer, Echo;
‘Did you write that?’ he asked. ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could do calligraphy as well. I can get you some work doing that too, if you like.’
‘Actually, a friend of mine wrote it,’ I said, trying to sound nonchalant.
‘Let’s have a look. Where’d she learn to write like that?’
I held my hand over the closed book so that he couldn’t see it again.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said, hesitantly. But, actually, that was a good question; it had never occurred to me that Quill could read and write, let alone produce beautiful lettering like that. ‘Actually, it’s a he, not a she.’
‘Oh,’ Kameran looked surprised. He went quiet for a moment and then said, ‘It must be someone you’ve met here, or else he wouldn’t be able to write in your Geography book. Is it someone I know?’
‘No. No one you’ve met.’ I was on dodgy ground and wanted to change the subject as quickly as possible.
Then - saved by the permafrost - or not! The temperature in the classroom plummeted to sub zero. I wasn’t sure whether Quill’s arrival was going to make things better or worse, but it certainly got Kameran off my case - for a little while anyway. Suddenly everyone was shivering and rushing for their jumpers while Mr Spiggins was rubbing his naked head.
‘I w-w-will not t-t-tolerate this,’ he said through chattering teeth. ‘It’s w-w-one thing to br-br-bring a f-f-fan to lessons, but it’s m-m-much more s-s-serious when people start m-m-messing with the h-h-heating. I will not s-s-say this again - whoever’s r-r-responsible, own up now.’
My conscience was telling me that I really ought to own up. Even though, strictly speaking, it wasn’t me who’d messed with the heating, I was sort of responsible for bringing Quill on to this astral plane. I just wasn’t sure my explanation would cut it.
Just then, the unmistakable voice of Quill sounded right in front of me. ‘Come with me now.’
As my eyes did a quick circumnavigation of the room, he began to materialise sitting sideways on my desk; his legs swinging into the aisle. Oh great! This was all I needed. How did he think I was going to be able to communicate with him in front of an entire class of students - not to mention Mr Spiggins, who’s mind was not only closed, it was five-lever deadlocked!
‘Tis important that you come this minute,’ he said urgently.
Like I can just walk out of a lesson, mid-afternoon! Hadn’t he learned anything by hanging around for a quarter of a millennium? But I couldn’t say that. Instead, I opened my exercise book, just enough that I could write a couple of words but not enough that Amanpreet or Kameran could see.
Can’t right now, I wrote.
‘I need thee to come now.’
I‘m in the middle of class, I scribbled - in case it had escaped his notice.
With that, he jumped down from my desk, tipped his head back and blew upwards towards the light. Mr Spiggins’ wig fluttered where it was hanging on the edge of the florescent tube. Very gently, the white tube began swaying back and forth and Mr Spiggins’ toupee gradually slid towards the end.
‘I’ve h-h-had enough of this!’ Mr Spiggins was shivering uncontrollably. ‘You’ve had your f-f-fun. I’m sending f-f-for the h-h-head!’
The whole class was looking upwards as the wig fell off the light fitting and began tumbling downwards. I watched Quill take a deep breath then give one almighty puff, sending it wafting its way towards the door. At that moment Kevin arrived back with Charlie the caretaker. As they came through the door, the toupee was flapping its way across the room like an enormous hairy bat.
‘What the?’ Kevin ducked down.
‘Aaaagggh!’ Charlie screamed and dropped the ladder.
Quill continued blowing the hair piece out of the door until it hit Charlie in the face.
‘Help me! Help me!’ he yelled as he tried frantically to snatch the wig from across his eyes. He was tottering backwards across the corridor. ‘Get it off me! Get it off - it’s disgusting!’ I watched in horror as he tripped over the ladder and fell backwards, hitting the fire alarm on the wall at the other side with his flaying arms and breaking the glass. Before you could say, twisted fire starter, the whole college was filing out to line up on the playing field.
I was relieved to see Charlie stand up. He was rubbing his knuckles where he’d hit the fire alarm, but other than that he seemed uninjured. As long as no one got hurt, I had to admit, that was a stroke of genius on Quill’s part.
I followed everyone out of the building and as soon as the register had been taken and the fire engines had departed, people began filing back into college for last lesson.
‘Follow me,’ I heard Quill saying, so I dropped back from the rest of the group and followed him across the field towards the gate.
‘Hey, Mimosa!’ Kameran called out. ‘Where’re you going?’
Good question, I thought to myself.
‘Keep walking,’ Quill told me. ‘Tis not far.’
But Kameran wasn’t easily put off. ‘Hold on a minute! Wait for me.’
I turned to face him and waved my arm signalling for him to go back. As I crossed the threshold of the college grounds, Kameran, the college building and all the houses surrounding it seemed to fade from view. I was once again standing in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by rough grassland. There were a couple of farm buildings to my right and a woman was standing on the doorstep of a single storey cottage with a heather-thatched roof. She had a tattered shawl clutched round her and heavy black boots on her feet. It was obviously winter because there were no leaves on the trees and the smell of wood smoke hung heavily in the air. In the distance, a man and what looked like a girl about my age were trudging along a road.
Again, I was struck by the quietness and tranquillity of the scene. A crow was cawing in a tree nearby but other than that, there was total silence.
‘Come,’ said Quill as he drifted across the grass in the direction of the man and girl.
‘Where are we going?’ I asked.
But before he could reply, Kameran’s voice sounded from behind me.
‘What the hell’s happening? Where am I?’
Oh no! How on Earth was I going to explain this?
10
‘What is this trickery?’
I could see that Quill wasn’t exactly over the moon about Kameran following us into the middle of the eighteenth century - but it wasn’t what I’d had in mind either. And I wasn’t exactly over the moon about Quill saying I’d tricked him.
I gave him one of my looks. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, only I didn’t feel remotely sorry; I felt furious. ‘Are you suggesting that I tricked you into bringing Kameran along?’
Quill gave me an equally withering look back. ‘’E be here, baint ‘e?’
Never let it be said that I can’t give as good as I get. ‘Yes, he’s certainly here, but let’s see, who was leading the way? Oh yes, you! And who’s the one who makes wigs float about the room and winds rage through schools and spring days feel like Alaskan winters? Hmmm, let me see... oh yes, it’s you again! So don’t you accuse me of trickery!’
Quill’s eyes narrowed - I think he was trying to look threatening but, to me, he looked even more smoulderingly gorgeous.
‘Who are you talking to?’ Uh oh! I’d got so mad with Quill that I’d almost forgotten Kameran. He was looking pretty bewildered. Oh boy - how was I going to explain this one?
‘You can see me, right?’ I asked him.
‘Durr! Course I can see you,’ Kameran replied.
‘But you can’t see him?’ I pointed to Quill.
Kameran looked beyond Quill to the man walking along the road. ‘I can see some old bloke wearing a brown smock thing.’
I shrugged. ‘OK, I’ll take that as a no.’ I turned to Quill and pointed to Kameran. ‘But you can see and hear him,
right?’
‘Aye - as clear as Ah can see thee. And tha canst be sure, ‘tis not a happy sight,’ Quill said, glaring at Kameran.
I looked from one to the other. This was going to require some very careful negotiation. ‘Well, he can’t go back on his own, so I’ll have to go with him and ...’
But before I’d finished speaking to Quill, Kameran interrupted. ‘No way! I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going back. This is way more exciting than Spiggins’ Geography lesson.’
I’m not normally one to do I-told-you-so, but I couldn’t resist. ‘You see, I told you history was more than just a load of dead people.’
Quill folded his arms and glared at Kameran. ‘No good will come of this.’
‘What’s with all the negativity?’ I asked Quill, but he turned his back on me, so I spoke to Kameran. ‘OK, now you know how you’ve been really open-minded about my tarot readings and palmistry and stuff?’ Kameran nodded. ‘Well, if you stay, you’re going to have to open your mind about three hundred and fifty eight degrees further for this little beauty.’ I kept it as light as I could, explaining all the mysterious happenings he’d witnessed at the cottage, at school and on the cliff in a bright and breezy voice. I hoped that if I said it as though it was the most natural thing in the world, he might not get totally freaked out. ‘So there you go - Quill’s just like you really, only this particular incarnation of his was a couple of centuries before your present one.’
I waited for his response but from the look on Kameran’s face, I’d slightly misjudged the freak-out factor. He was standing stock still with an expression that I’ve only ever seen on rabbits who were sitting in the middle of the highway as a ten tonne truck was thundering towards them on full beam.
‘Kameran?’ I waved my hand in front of his face. ‘Hey, once you get your head round it, it’s no big deal.’ I prodded his arm. ‘Come on. Snap out of it.’ But still there was nothing.
‘Tha should never ‘ave brought ‘im,’ Quill chastised.
‘OK, enough of the period lingo. I know you’re mad at me but I’ve got enough stress at the moment. And, anyway, you promised to talk nicely.’
Things were getting distinctly tetchy but fortunately, at that point, Kameran started to come round again. He blinked a couple of times and then spoke very slowly.
‘I’m just going to assume that when I wake up, all this will have been some weird dream.’
I’ve never been one to miss an opportunity. ‘Oooo - Wanda does dream interpretation. You could go to her and see what she makes of it,’ I suggested.
Quill shook his head in exasperation. ‘I have business to attend to. Now, art’ tha coming wi’ me?’
I looked from Quill to Kameran. What a dilemma. I really really wanted to go with Quill but I didn’t relish the thought of having to give Kameran a running commentary on everything Quill said and did.
‘Hang on a minute!’ Kameran said, looking definitely more animated than he had been a couple of minutes earlier. ‘I can see something.’ He pointed to my right hand side, which was where Quill was standing.
‘Some thing?’ Quill said with disdain. ‘I baint some thing.’
‘Oh wow!’ Kameran was leaping about the field. ‘I heard that too!’ Then added, ‘Sorry mate; didn’t mean to offend you.’ He came right up to Quill and began moving his hand in and out of Quill’s chest and through to the other side. ‘This is amazing. I mean, does that hurt?’
‘Kameran!’ I was shocked. ‘Don’t do that. He has feelings, you know. He is a living being - well, when I say living ...’
Kameran cocked his head on one side and looked at me. ‘You mean living as in dead?’
‘Jeez! Don’t be so peridontic,’ I said.
‘I think you mean, pedantic,’ Kameran corrected.
Quill had a face like a blizzard on the north face of K2. ‘When tha’s finished,’ he said tersely, ‘come wi’ me.’
Before I knew what was happening we were standing in front of a five-barred gate across what was, at best, a muddy lane and, at worst, a long narrow bog. The man and girl were walking towards us.
The girl spoke nervously. ‘What wil’t be like, faither?’
‘Eh, lass, Ah’ve nivver bin further than Pickerin’ let alone York.’ The man shook his head, dismally. ‘’Tis a sorry venture, if nowt else.’
‘Will t’folk be grand?’
‘Aye, but no grander than Squire Cholmley up at Abbey ‘Ouse. Fret thissen not; tha’s a clever lass and an honest one. Tell t’truth an’ tha won’t go far wrong.’ He tweaked his daughter’s cheek affectionately. ‘Tha’ll be all reet. Ah’ll be there with thi.’
The girl hung her head and I thought she looked as though she was crying.
Suddenly, Quill passed through the gate till he was right in front of her. ‘Oh, Jenna, my love. Do not weep.’
I watched as the girl walked straight through him, her eyes still downcast. Hold on a minute - my love? Hadn’t he flirted with me only a few days ago and told me that I was a comely maid? And now, here he was, calling someone else his love - right under my nose! I felt my stomach tighten into a knot of irritation. Then I checked myself. What on earth was going on? How could I possibly be feeling jealous of someone who, if she were still alive, would be wrinklier than a pickled walnut?
As the father approached the gate, another man who had been sitting on a log by the side of the road, stood up. Resting on a gnarled old stick he opened the latch on the gate and limped forward allowing the couple to pass through. The girl’s father placed a coin in the old man’s hand.
‘Noo then, Tom,’ the gatekeeper said, nodding his head in greeting. ‘Tha’s off ti t’Sessions, ist tha?’
‘Aye,’ the father replied.
‘’Tis a bad job,’ the older man commented. ‘God’s speed an’ may justice be done.’
The man and his daughter set off along the road and Quill again drifted forwards, so that he was right in front of the girl. ‘Jenna, ‘tis me.’
But once more he was about as substantial as a bad smell as she walked through him without resistance. Quill spun round, his eyes following her as she and her father walked heavily along the road, her skirts hitched up and their boots caked with clay.
‘Well, I think we can assume you know them,’ I said, trying to keep the telltale ring of jealousy out of my voice. ‘But are you going to let us in on who they are?’
‘Jenna and I were handfasted. We were to be wed next Midsummer’s Eve,’ Quill explained. Uh oh! There was that little knot in my stomach again. I really needed to get a grip on the reality of the situation. ‘She’s on her way to York Assizes to give testimony of good character.’
Phew! At least there was some good news. If she was going to be a character witness, at least that meant Quill had survived the fall - even though he must have been arrested for smuggling afterwards. But then an even worse thought came to me - all the stuff he’d been saying earlier about the Hanged Man! Oh no! Surely he wasn’t going to take me to see him being hanged - that would be even more horrible than seeing him falling down a cliff.
‘Just hold on a minute,’ I said to him. ‘Let’s make one thing clear - I don’t really want to go to your trial unless there’s a happy ending. So if Jenna’s going to come up with the goods and get you off, then fine, but if not, I’m outta here.’
Quill looked at me as though I’d lost the plot. ‘’Tis not my trial. ‘Tis Isaac’s.’
‘Isaac’s?’ I queried. ‘So, what happened to...’ But even as the question left my lips, I knew the answer. ‘Oh no! You’re already dead, aren’t you? Did you die when you fell down that cliff? You did, didn’t you? How could you do this to me?’
Kameran was quick to come on my side. ‘Aw, man! That is so out of order.’
Quill shrugged; his eyes still firm
ly focused on Jenna as she disappeared from view. ‘’Tis not about you, or me.’
‘So why have you brought us here?’ I asked - not unreasonably. ‘I mean, it hardly warrants dragging me out of school, just so that you can have another gleg at your girlfriend.’
‘Nay, that’s not why I brought thee. But right now my heart is too full of love and sadness to speak. Pray, give me a minute.’ Which, to be honest, I thought was a bit much. After all, he’d had two hundred and fifty years to get over her, so what good would another minute make?
I was just about to say so when we were all suddenly zoomed through time again and, the next thing I knew, we were standing on a balcony above a large room, which was heaving with people. They were mostly men but there were one or two women who looked like rather tatty characters out of Cinderella with their big skirts and lace collars. At the back, there were scruffier people and even a few children, all crammed in and all pushing and shoving and shouting, ‘’Ang ‘im!’ I fanned my hand in front of my nose - the smell of bodies and sweat was worse than the boys’ changing rooms when the drains are blocked.
‘Eeew! Where is this place?’ I asked Quill.
‘Assize court at York,’ he replied, looking round distractedly.
‘Look,’ Kameran said, pointing down across the court room. ‘There’s that Jenna girl and her dad.’
At one end of the room was a panelled enclosure with several very grand chairs behind it and, directly in front of it, was a table with a load of men in white wigs. Around the room were other panelled boxes, some had men sitting down while others were rammed full of people standing. I could see Jenna and her father squashed in at the back of one of these and before I could say anything, we were all three of us standing next to them.
At that moment three men in long white, flamboyantly flapping wigs entered the room. One was wearing scarlet robes while the others were in flowing black gowns. They made their way along the bench and sat on the chairs in the raised enclosure at the end of the room.