balls!” she shouts after Jack and Lefty.
The two boys leave the office and Yersinia rushes into the adjoining store room, hoping to find a lost or forgotten airtime voucher. Her looks did not improve in the course of the evening.
“Did we say anything wrong, maybe?” Lefty asks when he passes Wesley. [In Yersinia’s book, definitely. She is terrified of the word ‘hope’.]
But Wesley only mumbles through his grimace: “Shut up.”
Gugu is waiting for them around the corner of the main building.
“All the guests have left; even that character with the forked tongue and his lady friend with the weird hair. He just held onto his hat and fled through the rose garden. So what happened in there? What is she going to do to Wesley and Delinquency?”
“We don’t know, but we must find out,” says Jack resolutely.
“Oh, and another thing,” remarks Gugu. “I saw Molluscum leave for the Wood of Words again. Maybe she gave him one of those diamonds to go and get some airtime…”
“She seems desperate enough,” snorts Jack.
“Oh how will I EVER get an invitation to his palace with you idiots around?” comes Yersinia’s wailing from inside the office. “Or to the Lady-Macbeth-look-alike-trials?”
A midnight rendezvous – behind Pop stores
“You tell me, tell me how to get out! I’ve been waiting for this chance for thousands of years…” Molluscum bends over Apatheto in a threatening way. “Every time I get out. I get that woman’s blasted air time, but then the Wood calls me back, and I cannot ignore it! I must obey! YOU, you help me, or I kill you!”
Apatheto smiles calmly.
“I can’t help you when I am dead, my friend. Nonetheless I will help you. Just think about it; I need a favour from you as well. You see, the Wood of Words won’t allow any of my transmissions through to Disconnetedania I need to send Jack the word – the one that can free from the wall. I’ve heard about the incident at the party. Someone’s going to need that word, and it’s urgent…Tell me, do you navigate by the stars when you walk the Wood of Words?”
“Of course I navigate by the stars! There is no other way!”
“You are mistaken my friend. There is another; one that is free from the deviance. It is your only way out. Jack has the secret to the way out; he must just find it. Go tell him the word!
Yersinia’s revenge
Delinquency and Wesley stare after Jack and Lefty as they leave the room; Wesley looks rather nervous, but Delinquency does not make the slightest effort to hide her bored indifference.
“What did we do wrong?” Amoran whispers nervously.
“Who cares?” Delinquency blows another gum bubble. “What you do or don’t do – does it matter? She’s gonna explode anyway. If I would be so lucky to hold that sword in my hand, I’d kill HER. I’d kill her first.”
Wesley, however, looks worried. He was not supposed to lose the fight. It had all been rigged in his favour. What is even more puzzling is how that sword went right through him without harming him. Is Jack some kind of magician? And why didn’t he kill Wesley? He had the best chance he would ever have. But the thing that spooks him the most, is that it indeed feels as if something inside him is dying; something like an attitude; HIS attitude; the one he was used to...; the one that gave him confidence and that made him fight. He must pull himself together; that’s all.
Yersinia returns from the neighbouring store-room, where her hopes of finding a mislaid airtime coupon were disappointed miserably.
“What do you know about this rigged duel?” she demands.
“It wasn’t us!” Amoran is now very nervous. “We know nothing!”
Yersinia does not seem to hear a word of what Amoran is saying. She has jerked her head backward, so that the two snakes stand up straight, facing each other.
“What is that in your pocket? A cell phone? And that after I have explicitly forbidden…” She pauses, and suddenly changes her tone of voice. “Oh, well…. Maybe you should just put it on my table. Say, does it have airtime?”
Amoran is now shaking visibly.
“Yes, ma’am, and it was repaired by a very good technician [We all know who that was, don’t we?] just before I came here.” He hastily puts the cell phone on her desk.
“Oh well, I am sure you just forgot to hand it in. I shall keep it safe for you. You may go, Amoran.”
As he leaves the office feeling greatly relieved, Yersinia pockets Amoran’s phone.
“As for you two; I no longer have any use for you. You! Boy! How dare you tell me you had lessons? And along comes that common little twit, who has never handled a sword in his life, and toasts your hides for you! And you: girl, behaving the way you did at MY points scoring function! I could have lost all those fake… all those extremely valuable diamonds! No! I’ve had it with both of you. You will both follow me. Doubt and Fear, heel!”
Yersinia marches the two of them to the gate of the rose garden, with Doubt and Fear guarding them, so that there is no possibility of escape. She has grabbed each of them by the scruff of the neck.
“Leave me alone, “moans Wesley. “This is child abuse!”
“You have NO idea what that means….YET,” retorts Yersinia.
The snake-woman-who-has-lost-her-charm pushes her back against the gate of the rose garden. It swings open. She flings Wesley inside with unexpected violence coming from her evil, bionic power. He cuts himself against one of the rose bushes. Next is Delinquency.
Yersinia starts cursing aloud in some official language unheard of in South Africa. [And the South Africans have eleven official languages; they are still working on getting the 12th acknowledged: the language of Love.]
“I’ll have that pesky little Gullible with you soon!” she threatens.
“Oh well, so much for a romantic walk in the rose garden,” muses Jack, who has been following at some distance on the outside of the garden wall.
Yersinia grabs Wesley and Delinquency by the hair and marches to the end of the grove, where a huge concrete mixer can be seen.
“Take these slaves!” Yersinia calls into the barrel of the mixer. “Take them! And the third one is on his way!”
A toneless, hollow voice emerges from the mixer.
“Give me these two. I HAVE NO RIGHT TO THE THIRD ONE. Don’t bring him near me! DON’T bring him here!” Only the last sentence has emphasis, and a distinct emotion is discernable: Fear.
“Who? Jack Gullible? I am counting on you to take Jack Gullible!”
“You will NOT DREAM of that! Or you will never be Lady Macbeth!”
“WHAT? How is this possible? You are certainly mistaken, Mr Pestis!. [Well, well. Too much partying, maybe?. Hiding in a concrete mixer. That is so past lame.] He is just a stupid boy…” [who always manages to make her airtime disappear, who somehow cannot be a slave, not even here, inside her school.]
“I am never mistaken, wench. Get him AWAY from here!”
On the outside of the wall, Jack drops down on all fours, finds a hole to peep through the wall and then remains silent. How can he help Delinquency? He will let himself in, whether this monstrous voice from a concrete mixer likes it or not.
“Then at least sort these two out, son of a coward!” Yersinia shouts, frustrated.
She grabs Delinquency by the arm and shoves her so that she stands right in front of the concrete mixer. A most shocking thing happens, which nearly causes Jack to call out in alarm, but someone has grabbed him from the back, and is now covering his mouth with a big hand.
The mixer has spewed out a huge amount of concrete, in such a way that it was flung around Delinquency’s neck, like an overweight, deadly necklace. She has fallen flat on her stomach because of the weight of this very fast drying concrete and is now lying in the mud, a huge distance away from where Jack is, struggling to come erect again, but to no avail. The concrete necklace is weighing her down. It seems to be growing in
size, and the opening for her neck is simply too narrow for her to pull her head through it.
On the outside of the fence, Jack hears a muffled “Ssshhh…” as someone is trying to persuade him to be quiet. He is allowed to turn around, just to look into the eyes of none other than…Molluscum Contagiosum.
“The word is ‘hope’. Quick! Tell them that, but whisper, before all the concrete sets! Hope!” whispers Molluscum and then releases Jack. He quickly disappears between some buildings, apparently on his way to the kitchen.
Next a terrified Wesley is made to stand in front of the mixer.
“I am sorry, Mrs. Pestis, I mean… Look, I can do much better…just give me one more…”
“I heard the owl scream, and the cricket’s cry.” [Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2, Line 16]
That’s the only consolation that Yersinia shouts at him.
The concrete hits him from a different angle and he lands near the spot where Jack is hiding. Jack, in fact, is staring into his yowling, tear-deluged face. Wesley is kicking up such a racket, and such an amount of mud, that he fails to notice Jack, who is right in front of him.
“Wesley! Stop it!” Jack picks up a pebble and flicks it at Wesley’s nose. He stops wailing for a second, looking astonished, but in that second Jack whispers: “The word is ‘hope’. Say it! Quickly!”
Wesley hasn’t noticed Jack yet, and doesn’t understand where the voice is coming from, but fortunately starts crying out between his shameless sobs: “Hope, hope, hope.”
The same instant the concrete stops drying,
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