Mimosa Fortune and the Smuggler's Curse

by Freer, Echo;

  ‘Ah needs thi ti come wi’ me.’ His voice sounded from somewhere above my head.

  Talk about lousy timing!

  ‘Would you excuse me a minute,’ I said to Kathy. ‘I really need to go to the loo.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Kameran said - obviously picking up on the Quill factor too.

  ‘What?’ Milly and Amanpreet chorused.

  Do you see what I mean about him being the most indiscreet person in the world?

  Wanda shrugged. ‘So what’s the big deal? We’ve lived in places where a couple of dozen people have had to share one hole in the ground.’

  ‘Eewwww!’ Milly screwed up her face.

  ‘Gross!’ Amanpreet looked as though she might faint any second.

  ‘A little too much information, thanks Wanda.’ I glared at her. OK - maybe Kameran isn’t the most indiscreet person in the world after all. ‘I think Kameran meant he wanted to go after me - didn’t you?’ I said, pointedly looking at Kameran.

  ‘I’ll wait outside,’ he said. At least he had the decency to make an apologetic grimace before he followed me out of the room.

  As we went upstairs I could just hear Milly saying, ‘I knew something was going on between those two!’

  But right now, there were more pressing things on my mind than Milly and Kameran’s love life. Once upstairs, I pulled Kameran into the bathroom with me and locked the door.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ I asked, crossly.

  ‘Whatever’s happening to my friend, I want to be in on it,’ he said in a hoarse whisper.

  ‘No way!’

  But before the conversation could continue, Quill materialised in front of us.

  I tried to keep my voice low but I was pretty annoyed with him for wanting to take me back in time at such a crucial moment. ‘How can you even think of wanting me to go back in time with you? Don’t you know what’s going to happen? Joel’s going to die very soon if I don’t do something.’

  ‘Ah baint asking thi ti go back in time,’ he said, dryly. ‘Ah needs thi ti go forward, into t’future.’ He raised an eyebrow and looked directly at me. ‘Tis thy fault Joel Chapman’s destiny’s bin altered.’

  Oh great - my day was getting better and better!

  13

  ‘My fault?’ Nothing like dumping the responsibility on someone else to make the situation better, is there? ‘How on earth can it be anything to do with me?’ I protested.

  ‘If tha’d just done tha job and not interfered, there wor every chance t’Chapmans and t’Proudfoots would’ve settled their dispute in t’near future,’ Quill said, harshly. ‘But, nay - tha had ti try and fix things.’

  I was furious. ‘Whoa there, Blame Boy! There are two things I have to say to you - one, what do you mean, my job? And two; you have got to stop talking like that - you are really really hard to understand.’

  Quill stood there smouldering. If he hadn’t been looking so furious, he’d have been absolutely gorgeous. When he spoke again, his voice was more level. ‘’Twas your job to lift t’curse and teach t’Chapmans and t’Proudfoots to respect each other.’

  ‘Mimosa was doing that,’ Kameran came to my defence.

  But Quill wasn’t going to let me off the hook. ‘Aye, but she wasn’t prepared to wait and let t’Universe unfold as it’s meant to. She got a bee in her bonnet about sorting out Kathy Chapman’s money problems.’

  ‘I was only trying to help,’ I pleaded.

  ‘Baint your responsibility to sort out other folk’s problems,’ he went on. ‘Folk have to learn how to solve their own problems - that’s how they learn in this life. If you’d stuck to doing what you know; guiding ‘em to make t’right decisions, then you could’ve shown Joel and Kathy how to forgive and break t’curse. Then their money problem would’ve sorted itself out.

  I was confused. ‘But I’d read Joel’s cards,’ I reasoned. ‘I’d seen that there was nothing beyond his twenties. I knew he was going to die prematurely and I couldn’t just sit back and let that happen.’

  Quill shook his head. ‘Just because you can’t see round t’next corner; it dun’t mean there’s nowt there.’

  Uh oh! I was beginning to see where he was coming from. ‘So, are you telling me Joel wasn’t going to die an early death?’

  Quill shrugged. ‘His future wor undecided. It depended on t’choices he made.’ He sighed. ‘Now though, thanks to you, ‘tis very much decided.’

  ‘So what can we do?’ Kameran asked.

  Quill looked at Kameran and shook his head. ‘’Tis not for you to do owt. ‘Tis Mimosa’s as caused this, ‘tis her as has to sort it.’

  I stared down at my feet, avoiding Kameran’s eye and trying hard not to give him an I-told-you-so look. Then the full impact of Quill’s words hit me. Uh oh! He was looking at me and shaking his head. Boy - he had the most fabulous eyes! If I hadn’t been feeling so guilty about poking my nose into Kathy and Joel’s business, my tummy would’ve been doing back flips.

  ‘Joel wor never meant to go to sea,’ he said, flatly. ‘By arranging for him to go to t’Low Countries, you’re t’one as brought his death forward. Tha’s got to try to make amends. Come.’

  ‘Whoa!’ I groaned as, once again, I was propelled through time and space. Although I’d found all this zooming about, exciting at first, the novelty was starting to wear off. Even for someone who’s as experienced as I am in most types of travel, it was a pretty weird sensation. Imagine being on a roller coaster - you know the point when you lurch over the top and plummet downwards till it feels like you’ve left your tummy behind? Well, it’s like that, only fifty-seven thousand times worse - with the added factor of total disorientation when you arrive! Not a good feeling, especially when you’ve just overdosed on Wanda’s delicious, rum babas.

  I blinked, frantically, trying to get my bearings. One minute I’d been pressed in between Kameran and a shelf full of toiletries in Kathy Chapman’s bathroom; the next, I was standing on the edge of the cliff overlooking Saltwick Bay in the pitch dark - waiting for my stomach to catch up with me! There was a gale howling and, even though I knew Quill would be able to hear me on a telepathic level, it’s hard to break the habit of shouting.

  ‘OK - I know where we are, but when are we?’ I bellowed. ‘And how do we go about saving Joel?’

  ‘’Tha dun’t learn does tha?’ Quill said. ‘’Tis not your job to save Joel. We’re here to offer Joel a choice. ‘Tis all anyone can do. Then ‘tis up to t’individual whether or not they tek it.’

  ‘Are you saying that, even if we find Joel, we can’t save his life if he doesn’t want us to?’ I asked. This was serious stuff.

  ‘Aye.’

  ‘Wow - that’s heavy!’ I said, but what I was actually thinking was that heavy wasn’t the word - mind-blowingly, stomach-churningly, horrendous beyond belief, was the word!

  If what Quill was saying was true, by interfering in Joel’s destiny, I’d endangered his life. And now there was nothing I could do but hope that he made the right choice between staying and passing over.

  ‘We have to find him,’ I shouted above the wind. ‘What time is it?’

  ‘’Tis two o’clock on t’morrow.’ Quill’s eyes never moved from staring out to sea.

  ‘Shouldn’t they be landing about now?’

  ‘Have patience,’ Quill replied. Then pointed out to sea. ‘Look - yonder.’

  I could hardly see a thing. Clouds were scudding across the slender crescent of the new moon, so there was hardly any light to see what was going on. All I could make out was that the wind was whipping the waves into foaming white tops long before they crashed onto the rocks below us. The memory of Quill falling down the west cliff was still fresh in my memory and I had no intention of following his example, so I stepped back from the edge.

 
‘I can’t see anything, can you?’ I yelled in Quill’s ear. Then a flash of light over to our left caught my eye. ‘Look!’ I cried.

  The light was small but it was flashing on and off and, once again, we were shooting forwards until we were on a rocky outcrop at the edge of the beach. There was a man standing in front of us flashing a torch out to sea. He was wearing oilskins and the spray from the sea was pounding the rocks and splashing up, drenching him.

  ‘Who is that?’ I was still shouting above the gale force wind and the crashing of the waves.

  Quill’s eyes were scanning the ocean as he spoke. ‘’Tis t’man as helps Master Dobson unload t’contraband; Harry Hutton’s his name.’

  I was feeling impatient - we were supposed to be finding Joel, not standing on a windswept rock watching some modern day smuggler in a sou’wester doing Morse code.

  ‘Look, I know your sympathies are going to lie with the smuggling fraternity but don’t you think you should be out there zipping about looking for Joel? If it’s two o’clock on Sunday morning, we can’t have much time.’

  ‘There’s allus time ti change t’future,’ Quill remarked, holding my gaze till all my tetchiness disappeared and I thought my insides would go into meltdown. ‘Every choice we mek in life, changes t’future. ’Tis past as can’t be altered.’

  Oh boy - he is so gorgeous when he gets all deep and meaningful. Uh oh! But then I got the distinct impression that he wasn’t referring to Joel this time - he was trying to tell me something about my life.

  ‘So what are you saying?’ I asked.

  But before he could reply, he turned and pointed out to sea. ‘Look!’ he said softly. ‘Follow t’beam of Harry Hutton’s tinder.’

  I screwed up my eyes and squinted into the night. I could just make out the white painted bow of Gwendora, the small fishing coble Teddy had named after his mother and grandmother. It was riding the waves a few hundred metres out to sea and seemed to be heading straight for us. I strained my ears and could just make out the put put of the diesel engine as it neared the beach.

  ‘Help!’ I heard above the pounding of the waves.

  ‘That be them,’ Quill said. ‘They be calling for help so they must already be in trouble.’

  ‘Really? You think?’ OK - it was cheap shot and I’m not proud of it, but you have to remember the strain we were under out there. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘But don’t you think we should try to stop Teddy landing in this weather? If they weren’t in trouble before, they will be if he comes in too close to these rocks.’

  ‘Nay, ‘tis what cobles were made for; landing in t’shallows and weathering storms,’ Quill reassured me. Then added, ‘Tis not Master Dobson’s fault they be in danger.’ Oh great, another dig at me.

  At that point, Harry Hutton turned off his torch, climbed down from the rock where he’d been keeping watch and ran out to sea until he was thigh deep in the water. As the Gwendora neared the land, I could see Teddy standing in the stern. He threw a rope to Harry and then jumped out into the shallow water.

  Suddenly, we were next to them and I must admit, I was very grateful that we were a few hours in the future because there was no way you’d get me standing waist deep in the freezing cold water if I could actually feel it.

  Teddy was talking urgently - or rather, shouting urgently. ‘T’lad’s got no sea legs, ‘Arry. He wor throwing up summat rotten and t’next thing I knows, ‘e’s gone. ‘E must ‘ave fallen ovverboard. Quick, get in an’ give us an’ ‘and to look for ‘im afore I call out t’lifeboat and land us all in it.’

  ‘’Ow long since ‘e went ovver?’ Harry called, as he pushed the coble back out to sea and jumped in next to Teddy.

  ‘I can’t be sure - ten minutes? Mebbe longer?’ Teddy started up the engine and, before you could say, ‘Man overboard!’ we were along side them in the boat.

  ‘’E’ll not last long in these temperatures,’ Harry warned. ‘We’d best radio t’coast guard.’

  ‘Yes!’ I shrieked. ‘Call the coast guard. Call them now!’ But, of course, they couldn’t hear me.

  ‘Nay.’ Teddy shook his head.

  ‘What!’ I couldn’t believe that Teddy wasn’t going to radio for assistance. I looked at Quill in desperation. ‘He can’t do that! How selfish! He’s so afraid of going to prison that he’s going to risk Joel’s life? Just wait till I tell Wanda what sort of a slimeball she’s going out with this time!’

  ‘If I go down,’ Teddy continued, ‘our Kevin’ll be all right with me mam and dad, but if young Joel goes ti Young Offenders Institute, ‘e’d never ‘ack it. And t’shame’d kill ‘is mam. Nay, let’s at least give ‘im a chance. ‘E wor wearing a lifejacket, so provided ‘e doesn’t do owt daft and try ti swim ti shore, ‘e should be all right for a while yet.’

  OK - so maybe I’d been a bit hasty in my judgement of Teddy and he did have Joel’s best interest at heart.

  ‘Where is Joel?’ I asked Quill. ‘Surely if you can whiz us backwards and forwards all over the last millennium, you can pinpoint exactly when and where he fell overboard.’

  Quill looked anxiously out to sea. ‘This baint like history, tha knows. Things that’s ‘appened are mapped out and set in stone, so it’s easy to find where tha wants to go, but t’future’s uncharted territory.’

  Oh, great! Now he tells me!

  ‘Come,’ he said.

  This time we found ourselves actually standing in the Gwendora right next to Joel. The little coble was rearing up and then crashing down so that even rushing about through time was a preferable sensation. Poor Joel had my full sympathy. He was hanging over the side and, to put it politely, very generously sharing his supper with the marine life of the North Sea.

  ‘Not far, lad,’ Teddy called to him. ‘Soon as we get ti Saltwick, I’ll put you out with t’cargo and ‘Arry can get you ‘ome. I’ll not let you suffer any more than’s necessary.’

  But Joel didn’t answer, he just groaned and hurled again.

  ‘Too far back,’ Quill said, zooming us forwards again.

  The next thing I knew we were in the middle of the sea. It was really weird - I didn’t feel wet or cold and yet I was bobbing up and down like a cork next to a bright orange buoy which was flashing its warning light, right in my eyes. It was OK for Quill - he was hovering just above the water. I was about to ask him if I could still drown even if I wasn’t actually here yet, when another flashing light caught my eye.

  ‘There he is!’ I called as I was tossed about like a rag doll. ‘Over there!’

  Joel was floating face down in the water, his yellow lifejacket rising and falling as the wind continued to whip the waves higher and higher. I gnawed my bottom lip anxiously. It didn’t look good and yet I was helpless to do anything.

  ‘Do something!’ I yelled at Quill. ‘Get his face out of the water. He needs to breath.’

  ‘Bain’t nowt I can do,’ he said, matter of factly.

  ‘Can’t you blow him to safety or something?’

  ‘’Tis up to Joel now,’ he said.

  ‘What!’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How could it be up to Joel when it was clear he was totally out of it? This was awful. I couldn’t just sit there and watch Joel die. ‘Can’t you appear to him or something?’

  ‘Spirits can only be seen by them as wants to see.’

  ‘Brilliant!’ I said. ‘So why did you bring me here if there’s nothing we can do?’

  ‘By, tha dun’t do patience, dust tha?’ he said. ‘Trust!’

  As he spoke, I saw Joel give a jolt and then a shudder. Phew! What a relief - he was coming round. Quill was right; I really do need to trust more.

  ‘He’s alive!’ I cried, turning to Quill.

  But Quill wasn’t sharing my enthusiasm. He was staring beyond me, towards where Joel was floating in the wat
er; an expression of intense concentration on this face. I followed his gaze to see Joel’s whole body vibrating in the water. Then a white vapour seemed to be being drawn upwards from the crown of his head.

  ‘What’s going on?’ I screamed. ‘What’s happening to him?’

  ‘’Tis his spirit,’ Quill said, quietly.

  ‘No - you can’t let this happen,’ I cried. ‘Take me back further, then we can bring him round - or stop him falling in the water altogether. Or - take me back to Friday evening and I won’t tell Teddy about Joel. I’ll let him go to Holland on his own and I won’t get involved again - ever. I promise.’

  Quill shook his head. ‘Nay - what’s done is done.’

  14

  I felt completely empty, as though all the energy had been drained from me. I’ve lived through earthquakes, been on the run from criminals and lost count of the number of times I’ve been arrested but, watching my friend pass over was probably the single most terrible thing that has ever happened to me. Knowing the pain and loss his mother and friends were going to feel was like a gaping wound in my heart - and that’s before we even go down the whole ‘it was my fault in the first place’ route. I’m not usually given to crying, but I was pretty close at that point.

  ‘You mean we’re too late?’ My voice was little more than a whisper.

  ‘Nay, ‘tis t’perfect time,’ Quill said, the faintest trace of a smile at the corner of his mouth.

  ‘Huh?’ I was just about to accuse him of having a morbid sense of humour when the white vapour that had left Joel’s body began to form into a shape that was unmistakeably Joel. And he was looking round, bewildered.

  ‘Hey up!’ Joel’s spirit gave a start when he saw Quill floating next to him. ‘Who the heck are you? And where am I?’

  ‘Break it to him gently,’ I said to Quill.

  But it was Joel who replied. ‘Mimosa? What the heck’s going on?’ Then he looked down and saw himself floating face down in the yellow lifejacket. ‘Whoa! Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.’