Nary, Nary, Quite Contrary

by David J. Wighton

  # # # # # # # #

  As agreed, Lucas was back at the ship by noon. "This is actually real food," Theo said. "Where are the cans of pork & beans and bottles of peanut butter you were planning to buy?"

  "I kinda like the food at the student union," Lucas admitted sheepishly. "They're open for limited hours during the holidays. I put all of this stuff on our food plan."

  "I thought you were going back to Kingston, not to Toronto."

  "I wanted to close up the research on Sandman so I could concentrate on this. I figured the horse and buggy driver would be long gone."

  "Was he?"

  "No. I found him easily. He's on the same job as he was when he murdered Basher's mom."

  "He murdered her?"

  "He drove the carriage."

  "You can prove this?"

  "I have TiTr pictures of him killing Sparkle, but I have zero chance of using them in a court of law."

  "Are you going to quit now?"

  "Nope. I figure I can tie Sandman to a crime now."

  "What will you do?"

  "The carriage driver knows the truth. I figure he might be willing to share that information with me."

  "Do you want to do that today?"

  "Nah. William and TG are coming up for your meeting with Marie. I'll visit him tomorrow. He's not going anywhere. By the way, I picked up the dog collars that Wizard sent by overnight express."

  "Good."

  "Wiz included a note," Lucas added. "He wrote that he would have delivered them personally, but he had cracked some knuckles in both hands."

  "Weird. How'd that happen?"

  "He didn't say. He wrote this instead."

  I have some things to say to both of you about what you've been doing with Dreamer, but I will wait until you're home for Christmas.

  Lucas looked a question at Theo who asked a question in return. "Did Wiz send the note before I messaged Mom and Dad."

  "Looks that way. Why does he want to talk basketball with us? He's never been interested in that before."

  "Dunno. The chief snoop will know."

  "I'll talk with Winnie, you prepare lunch?"

  "Sounds like a plan."

  # # # # # # # #

  William and TG came back with Theo and Lucas to the Wilizy/Asia after their meeting with Marie and Nary. Theo had briefed the two ahead of time, including telling them about the deer visiting the island when the women needed food and the talk about Voodoo. Theo had asked both of them to observe Marie closely and tell him what they thought of her afterwards.

  "I still don't know what we're going to do with two old women and Nary after we rescue them," Theo started. "They can't stay here on the island. They have no food here and no way of growing it."

  "Perhaps the Wilizy Foundation could find a home for them?" TG suggested.

  "Bubba Franklin's old camp is empty," William added.

  "Marie wants to go back to where she used to live," Lucas reminded everybody. "Won't that place be full of the people who thought she was useless and too old?"

  "She wasn't budging on that," Theo reminded them. "She doesn't know where it is, but she's going back to her home. Says that she's going to die there. Says that we're going to take her. Says that it's been foretold."

  # # # # # # # #

  "Marie? Impressions?" Theo, running the meeting.

  "I'll start with the obvious," William said. "Looks to be pure white in colour, probably Melissa's height, mostly skin and bone. Wrinkles everywhere. Gray hair, turning white. She looks about the same age as Granny so that would put her about what?"

  "Mid 70's, I think." Theo guessing.

  "How'd you figure that?" Lucas asked.

  "Mom's about 40. Granny told me one time that she had had Mom when she was in her early 30's."

  "Marie is not a crazy person," TG said.

  "Yeah. She understood the plan. She also seemed to understand when I told her how I was planning to set it up for you to take off their dog collars." This, from William.

  "You know how some people have dull eyes." Lucas started. "Basher's eyes are like that. His eyes will look at you when you're talking, but nobody's home behind the eyes. Marie's blue eyes were following everything you said. I think she's smart."

  "You're right. She's a smart old woman. She'd have to be smart to survive for fifteen years in this desolate place. With or without Voodoo." TG would know smart; he had been around smart people all of his life.

  Theo focused them, "In her youth, what did she look like?"

  "I can answer this one," Lucas jumped in. "White skin, blue eyes, probably good looking."

  "Anybody notice the eyebrows?"

  "Fair hair," TG said.

  "That would make her white, blue-eyed, and blonde when she was young," Theo summed up. "Does that ring a bell for anybody?"

  "Her home couldn't be part of the same group that Granny is chasing. It's way too long ago. Did Marie know anything about where her home might be?"

  "I've talked to her a couple of times," Theo answered TG. "She has said nothing about her past except wanting to return to it. But, ..."

  "But what?" Lucas couldn't wait while Theo drew out the suspense.

  "A white, blue-eyed, formerly blonde woman arrives at this island at the age of about 60 and immediately gives birth to a black skinned, black-haired girl. Is that even possible?"

  "If the father were very black, it might be possible," William said. "The genetics might work but the odds are against it. But giving birth to a baby at the age of 60 seems even more unlikely."

  "I don't know if this would make a difference or not," Lucas said. "But if you catch Marie's eyes in the right light, they aren't blue. They're bright red."

  # # # # # # # #

  They talked about Nary as well. "What's with her name?" Lucas asked.

  Theo had asked Marie about the name, so he knew the answer. "Marie smuggled a picture book inside her clothes when she was brought to the island. She wanted to be able to teach her child to read when she grew up. Her hut fell into the swamp when Nary was an infant. Marie dived in to retrieve the picture book but was unable to bring it up quickly enough. The only thing still legible in the book was a scrap that said, Nary, Nary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?"

  "Isn't it supposed to be Mary, Mary quite contrary?" William asked.

  "Water damage," Theo replied. "The Ms looked like Ns so that's what Marie taught Nary to read. When Marie asked her daughter what name she'd like to have, that's what she said."

  "She can read?"

  "Nary can read that one sentence. She can't read anything else because there's nothing else here on the island to read. She can't write. She can't do arithmetic. But somehow she can drive a buck across an alligator-infested stream of water onto an island where a beast will magically appear, kill the buck, and then disappear."

  "You do like her," Lucas said.

  "I admire her. But I still wouldn't want to be stranded alone with her on this island if she were hungry."

  # # # # # # # #

  Night had fallen. William and TG had returned home some hours ago. Before they left, William had preset the ship's power conversion equipment so that it would put out exactly the power that Lucas would need. TG said that Theo's plan would work and he thought the bosses in the copter deserved everything they were going to get.

  "I want to check something out," Theo said to Lucas who was eyeing a kitchen full of dirty dishes with some distaste. "You wanna come with me?"

  Theo had cooked some food for William and TG since the time zone change was going to play havoc with their sleep and eating. William and TG had said it was better than what they could have cooked. Lucas admitted that he probably wouldn't die. Since Theo had cooked, that meant Lucas had to do the dishes.

  "Do I get out of doing the dishes if I come?"

  "No. And no fair putting them in a sling and dipping them in a lake." Lucas had tried that once when Dreamer was living with them and she had had a minor fit
.

  Theo changed his mind. "I'll make you a bet. I want to TiTr back to last night when Nary was driving that buck to the river. We couldn't figure out why it didn't escape down the riverbank, remember? I'll write down how I think that Nary did it. If I'm wrong, I'll do the dishes tonight and tomorrow. If I'm right, you do them for both nights."

  "What if I guess the right answer?"

  "Do you have any idea?"

  "Well..., no."

  "Bet or no bet?"

  "Bet."

  Theo wrote something on the paper, turned it over, and put it on the one spot on the kitchen counter that wasn't already occupied by something needing to be cleaned. Lucas stepped into Theo's sling and they disappeared.

  # # # # # # # #

  "The buck is coming to the river now," Theo observed. "It's going to break left, now right, now left, now right. Do you see anything?" They were observing at treetop level but the night was very dark.

  "Some logs on the river bank, perhaps?"

  "Going back two minutes. Let's take a closer look at those logs this time."

  ...

  "Alligators."

  "Lying completely out in the open. When the deer approaches, ..."

  "... they open their mouths."

  "And the deer tries to escape to the other side only to find..."

  "... another alligator. Perfectly positioned."

  "You think those alligators were on the river bank by a lucky fluke?" Theo asked.

  "Not a chance."

  "Going back in time twenty minutes," Theo said.

  ...

  "The alligators just emerged out of the river, climbed up the bank, and sat in the sand." Lucas described.

  "Two on one side of the funnel and two on the other side."

  "Nary knew exactly where they were because she drove the deer in an almost straight line through the woods into their funnel."

  "We didn't see them from the ship because they're cold blooded and gave off no heat signature."

  "You know the little hairs on your arms?"

  "Sticking straight up right now."

  # # # # # # # #

  Lucas had a thought. "You know, if we followed the next deer coming to the island, we might find out where the beast has been hiding."

  "Think it through, Lucas."

  ...

  "We'd be flying into the beast's killing zone in slings that the beast can probably see," Lucas admitted. "And we don't know how high it can jump, or if it's hiding in a tree, or anything else about it. Do you think it was the beast that was watching us that first night when we decided to camp high in the sky? Didn't you think it was Nary?"

  "I don't want to find out the hard way," Theo said.

  "Man, this place is weird."

  # # # # # # # #

  This time it was Theo thinking out loud. "You know how Marie said that she had a spell that allowed her to hide when the men in the copter came looking for her."

  "Yah."

  "She said that we shouldn't worry about where the three of them will hide once we take off their dog collars. Do you think... "

  "... that she'll hide everybody inside a spell of some kind?"

  Theo continued. "You know how we couldn't find any sign of a big, warm-blooded animal when we were looking for the beast?"

  "That could have been because it was hidden inside a spell?" Lucas, on the same track as Theo.

  "And you know how neither of us wants to believe that there can be a Voodoo spell..."

  "... but there's no other possible explanation."

  "So if we believe that Marie is going to hide herself, Nary, and the other old woman inside a spell, and if we wanted to prove that she can make a hiding spell, why don't we..."

  "... put some trackers on them so that we'll know exactly where they are?"

  "If we watch them as they flee away from their huts, and all of a sudden they disappeared ..."

  "... that would mean there is Voodoo on this island."

  "Do we have any trackers?" Theo asked.

  "William left us a crate of electronic gizmos, including some drones."

  "Those will do."

  # # # # # # # #

  Back at the ship, Lucas was doing the dishes because Theo had written alligators on his slip of paper. Theo was relaxing in a hammock testing out a drone.

  "Did Winnie tell you what's up with Wizard?" Theo was only asking to see if the recording function on the drone was working the way it was supposed to.

  "He had asked Dad to teach him how to box. He was practicing by flailing away angrily at the big bag as hard as he could, but he hadn't toughened up his hands first. Like Dad had told him to. Doc says he'll heal up fine."

  "Why'd he attack a big bag of heavy sand?"

  "Winnie didn't know. He tried to learn basketball first; then he tried to learn judo. Both Granny and Momaka told him that he should try another sport."

  "Wiz was angry because he's not athletic? He should know that by now. Everybody in the family knows it."

  "It doesn't make sense. Winnie says that he hasn't been himself recently."

  "Well whatever made him mad, it has nothing to do with us. We've been in Toronto the whole time."

  Back to the Table of Contents

  Chapter 34

  Annika was waiting at her locker five minutes after the last bell when Reese came out of the library and down the hall. They walked down the back staircase together. She was wearing a gray skirt, gray knee-high socks, black shoes, and a white blouse. Since December was a little cool, she was also wearing a royal blue blazer. All part of the school uniform.

  Annika was a little taller than Reese with dark brown curly hair that fell down to the bottom of her ears, brown eyes, a button nose, and a tiny chin. She had a round, brown face. In addition to her pinky ring, she wore a braided friendship bracelet on the wrist of her other hand and a little silver locket around her neck.

  Reese wore the boy's school uniform – black shoes, black socks, gray slacks, white shirt, royal blue blazer, and a tie of his choice. Today's choice was purple. He thought it was his best tie. He was wrong. Bright purple and royal blue don't go all that well together but he ran out of the house before Winnie could check him over. His hair was the usual: strands of hair pointing in 100 different directions.

  Annika had decided that she'd open their conversation by talking about the school's former principal and its former math teacher. Supposedly some parents had complained to the school district about both of them. When news about kids playing strip poker in the woods surfaced afterwards, everybody thought that this was the reason the principal had been transferred. The district had wanted the principals of the two middle schools to just switch jobs, but the principal of South Penticton Middle School abruptly decided to retire instead. That meant that they needed a new principal at North Penticton. Only one person applied and that's how young Ms. Paulson had been given the job. All the kids loved her even though she had immediately shut down access to the woods. The teachers weren't big fans of her principalship. She'd walk into classrooms to see what the teachers were doing. Without warning even!

  As for the math teacher, he also had to change jobs with a teacher at South Penticton. Nobody knew why he had been moved. Rumour-ably, the teacher coming into North Penticton didn't want to come but she was only 28 and was too young to retire. Other than that, the rumour mill had been quiet since the move.

  But those transfers were old news. The new news was that both Mr. Hunfrey and Mr. Rogers (the former principal and the former math teacher of North Penticton M.S.) had disappeared one night. All the kids were still buzzing and some nasty rumours were beginning to circulate.

  "Did you hear about Mr. Hunfrey disappearing?" Annika opened the conversation confidently.

  Reese thought about that before answering. "Yah," he said.

  "I heard that he had attacked a whole lot of women teachers. You know – in a very bad way." Then she waggled her eyebrows. "Do you think that's what happe
ned?"

  Although the idea of sex can surface frequently in grade 6 conversations, it has two modes of appearance. With girls, the word is spoken in girl huddles, with whispers, some giggles, and usually some exchanges of conversations like this:

  "She did what?"

  "No!"

  "Really? I heard..."

  With boys, the concept of sexual activity is always accompanied by sniggering. In grade 6, the word does not occur in cross-gender pairs – like when somebody was walking somebody home for the first time. The eyebrow-waggle was the go-to backup.

  Reese thought about that rumour of the principal attacking women teachers before answering. "I dunno anything about..." and he waggled his eyebrows. Reese may have been slow to respond, but he was eyebrow-waggle literate.

  "Do you think he attacked one of our school's teachers?"

  Reese thought about that before answering. "Nah."

  Poor Reese was especially handicapped here in the conversational challenge facing him on his first ever walking home encounter with a person of the feminine persuasion. He was walking beside a girl and thus open to ridicule if anybody in the school saw him. For Reese, this was a familiar feeling, so perhaps it wasn't much of a deterrent to him talking. But Reese knew everything that had happened in that school. He was the one who had spilled the proverbial beans. The complaint to the school district had come from somebody in his family. Questions about how Reese or his family had learned of the school's dirty little secrets would draw instant attention to his family who had secrets of its own to keep. He had to be sure that he showed no knowledge of anything remotely connected to what had happened. So dear reader, I must tell you that anything that Reese said on this walk would follow a ten second delay while he thought about what would be safe to say. I won't bother telling you each time that he stopped to check what he was planning to say for land mines. I'll put in ten little dots before he answers instead. Personally, I expect that Reese would have preferred to just grunt, but his training on becoming an uncommunicative male had not progressed that far. He wasn't grunt literate yet.