“Hmm,” Nim said as they casually walked away. “That sure must have been a fine pen.” She’d never seen one chained by gold before. “Never mind. We’ll find someone else with a pen, just not as fine as that.”
Nim searched the crowd until she spotted a man in a rather nice-looking fur coat. Nibbles spotted him too. Without a word he was off. This time Nibbles didn’t play around, and his pale tail quickly disappeared beneath the folds of the man’s coat. A moment later he reappeared with a thin black pen clutched triumphantly beneath his arm.
The weight of the pen slowed Nibbles down, but he soon made it back to Nim. The man didn’t even know his pen had been taken.
“And that,” Nim said, as she reached down and gave Nibbles a fond scratch behind his ears, “is why you’re the second-best thief in the city.”
“But still not the first,” a boy whispered in Nim’s ear.
Nim turned to see Blink crouched beside her. He was still wearing Otto’s green coat. The hems of several other coats stuck out from beneath it. Blink smirked at Nim. Then, in a flash, he snatched the pen from Nibbles. Nim tried to snatch it back, but she was too slow.
“And I’m still quicker than you as well,” Blink said to Nim. Then – in a blink, just like his name – he was off.
Nim knew there wasn’t a moment to lose. She scooped Nibbles into her pocket and raced after the thieving little thief. Her legs were quick, quicker than most, but she quickly fell behind the boy she chased.
“Silly boy,” Nim said as she darted after Blink. He was a flash of emerald green amongst a sea of grey. If he hadn’t stolen such a fine coat, he would have been much harder to follow.
As if he had heard Nim’s thoughts, Blink stopped. He tore off the green coat, stuffed it under his arm, and then set off again. This time, instead of being a blur of bright green he was a blur of unremarkable brown. Still, Nim kept close behind as Blink left the main square. But no matter how quickly Nim moved her legs, Blink moved his even faster. It wasn’t fair. Being weighed down by eight coats should have made him slower. As it was, the layers of material seemed to speed him up.
“We’re never going to catch him,” Nim said breathlessly as she chased him down another alley. “Blink’s faster than everyone.” By now her lungs were aching in the cold air.
In the end, Nim need not have bothered. Blink got so far ahead that by the time she turned on to another street, he was long gone.
Nim leant against a wall to catch her breath. When she pulled away, she noticed something sticky on her coat. Nim touched the stain. It made her fingers black. She jumped with fright.
So focused on catching Blink, Nim hadn’t paid attention to where they were going. She stood before a black building with a brass sign on the door. Even without reading the words Nim knew it said: Frau Ferber’s Boot Polish Factory.
Nim knew this factory wasn’t like any other factory in the city. It wasn’t a factory where grown-ups went to work during the day and left at night with a few coins in their pocket. This factory was full of children who never left at all and never got any coins for the work they did.
“Blasted Frau Ferber,” Nim mumbled. She was probably the only person in the city Nim hated more than Blink.
Nim wanted to get away as quickly as she could. But she was also curious to see beyond the factory walls.
The windows of Frau Ferber’s factory were as grimy as the hands of the children who slaved away inside. Nim couldn’t wipe the grime away, but through the dark haze she could make out the shapes of those on the other side.
Two long tables ran the length of the room, both cluttered with glass jars. Some were full and others were empty. Nim counted twenty children busily trying to fill them all.
She was about to turn away when she spotted a familiar face amongst the workers. It was the boy who had owned the fine green coat.
As though he could sense Nim watching, Otto looked up. Their eyes locked. Sadness and anger flooded his face. Nim had to look away. She knew exactly how he felt, because once, many years ago, she had sat at that same table.
11
A NIBBLE IN THE NIGHT
Nim tried her best to forget the boy she had seen inside Frau Ferber’s factory. She tried every trick she knew to keep her mind on other things. For the next two days coats did not just take up one quarter of her thoughts. They took up over three quarters.
During the day she looked at every coat she saw and memorized its features. At night, she fell asleep trying to recount the different colours and buttons and fur trims. And when she finally did fall asleep all she dreamt about were coats.
But it didn’t work. No matter which coat she fell asleep dreaming of, by the following morning she awoke to the thought of only one: that wondrous green coat and the boy who had owned it.
The truth was, Nim felt partly to blame for Otto ending up in the factory. Of course, she hadn’t actually taken him there and locked him inside. But she couldn’t stop thinking that if something had been different about their first meeting – if she had given all his silvers back or if she’d specifically warned him to keep away from children whose hands were stained black – he might never have ended up in there.
In the end, Nim realized there was only one way to get Otto off her mind. She would have to help him escape.
Otto was woken by a nibble on his toe. At first, he thought he was dreaming. But when the nibbles grew stronger and began to climb his leg, he knew he was wide awake.
Otto kicked out his leg. The nibbling stopped and he sat up in bed.
The other children remained asleep. Thin shards of moonlight shone through the blackened windows. In the faint light, Otto saw a small shape lying on the floor.
Despite the new coat he wore, Otto recognized the old, grey rat lying motionless before him. It was Nibbles: the thief who had stolen his coins.
Otto thought Nibbles was dead: that he’d killed him when he kicked him across the room. But as he watched, the old rat opened his eyes and slowly sat up. With trembling whiskers, and his tail sticking out between his legs, he looked up at Otto.
“What are you doing here?” Otto hissed. “If Nim sent you to rob me again, I’m awfully sorry, but I have nothing left for you to steal.”
But instead of taking something from Otto, Nibbles gave him a small piece of rolled-up paper.
Otto took the paper from the rat’s claws. A note was written on one side. With no pen of her own, Nim had to borrow Skid’s pen to write it:
If you want to escape go to the cellar
“This is a trick, isn’t it?” Otto said to Nibbles. “You and Nim are just as bad as Heinz and Helmut, possibly even worse. You’re trying to send me to the cellar so I’m eaten by the rats.” Otto’s eyes widened with an idea. “That’s what you were trying to do just now, weren’t you? You were trying to eat my toe. Well, I’m not falling for this. Get out and go away.”
On that note, Otto lay back down and closed his eyes. He needed as much sleep as he could get if he wanted to keep passing the counting. He didn’t have time to waste on sneaky and cruel tricks.
12
THE GIRL WHO WAS EATEN BY RATS
“Up,” Heinz yelled as he opened the door. “Get up!”
Otto crawled off his mattress and stood.
“Good sleep?” Gunter asked.
Remembering his late night visitor, Otto shook his head. The note had kept him awake for several hours. He was about to show it to Gunter when Heinz yelled at them again.
The children quickly raced out of the room.
“Not you.” Heinz grabbed Gunter and pulled him back.
“Huh?” Gunter said. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d got ready as quickly as the others, and he hadn’t even been the last one out the door.
“Mother wants to see you in her study.”
The chatter between the other children stopped. They all turned to Gunter. The older boy looked pale.
It always ended this way. You grew up in the factory and your h
ands grew too. When they got too large you’d get a tap on your shoulder. You’d be led up to Frau Ferber’s office and you were never seen again.
The children wanted time to say goodbye. They wanted to say they would miss Gunter. They wanted to say they didn’t want him to go. Otto wanted to thank him for helping him and sharing his dinner when he was given none. But they didn’t get that chance. Helmut marched them downstairs while Heinz led Gunter away.
“Maybe he’ll come back,” Otto said as he filled another jar with boot polish. He tried to ignore the way his own hand pushed against the rim of the jars. His fingers were growing almost too large to fit.
Klaus raised a sceptical eyebrow. Four days had passed since Gunter was taken to the third floor and he hadn’t been seen since. They all knew he wasn’t coming back. They also knew if they didn’t get out of the factory they would eventually disappear as well.
To keep their minds off the loss, the children worked even harder at filling their jars. Otto was busy sticking labels on to his own when a shadow fell across one of the factory windows. He looked up and saw a girl staring back at him. A rat stood on her shoulder.
“Nim,” Otto said through gritted teeth. She was the last person he wanted to see.
“What’s that?” Klaus asked.
“Nothing.” Otto looked back down at his jars.
Otto tried to focus on his work, but every few seconds his eyes were drawn up. The girl was still there. Eventually, Klaus noticed and followed Otto’s gaze.
“Do you know her?” Klaus asked.
“Not really,” Otto mumbled.
“She looks familiar,” Klaus said.
“Did she rob you too?” Otto asked.
Klaus shook his head. “I’ve never been robbed, except by Frau Ferber.”
“Well, she’s a nasty girl,” Otto said. “First she robbed me and then she tried to trick me into going down into the cellar.”
At the mention of the word “cellar” Klaus’s eyes flashed with wonder.
“What is it?” Otto asked.
“I remember now,” he said. He looked at the girl in the window and then at Otto. “That’s Elke.”
“No it isn’t. That’s Nim.”
“Not when she was here, she wasn’t. Remember, Frida?” He elbowed the girl sitting next to him. “She’s the one who was sent to the cellar.”
Frida glanced at the window.
“That’s her, all right,” she said. “We thought she’d died. Frau Ferber said she was eaten by the rats.”
“What do you mean?” Otto asked.
“Elke lived in this place for years,” Frida said. “Slept on the mattress next to me. She was one of Frau Ferber’s best workers: had some of the quickest hands she’d ever seen. She was always trying to get out of here. One day, she tried to smash a window with her bucket. Frau Ferber was so angry she sent her to the cellar. When Heinz and Helmut went to let her out the next day, she was gone. We all thought she had been eaten by the rats. But maybe … she escaped.”
That night, while Klaus and Frida distracted Heinz and Helmut with claims of an inaccurate counting, Otto slipped away from the table and sneaked over to the cellar door. If Frida and Klaus were right about Nim – if she had somehow escaped the factory from her place in the cellar – maybe her note wasn’t a trick after all.
Otto tried to turn the door handle, but it wouldn’t move. Even the cellar was kept under lock and key. He realized there was only one way to get in there. He would have to break the rules.
13
FRAU FERBER’S CELLAR
Otto didn’t like breaking rules. But if breaking the rules meant he would escape Frau Ferber’s factory and find his mother, he was willing to do it. And he knew just what rule to break.
The most valuable thing in Frau Ferber’s factory was her boot polish. If one drop fell on the floor, a child was docked ten jars at the counting. This punishment wouldn’t help Otto. He would have to spill far more to get the punishment he was after.
Otto had shared his plan with the other children and invited them to join in. But they were scared: so scared of what Frau Ferber would do if they failed. So, Otto would have to do it on his own.
The day after he’d heard the story about Nim, that she used to be a girl called Elke, Otto woke early. He was the first child down the stairs in the morning. He was the first child to line up at the vat of boot polish. And he was the first child to reach the tap. Only today, instead of filling his bucket with blacking paste, Otto threw it on the floor.
“Pick it up,” Heinz said.
Otto ignored him. He reached out to the vat of boot polish and pushed against it with all his strength. The vat didn’t move.
“Get back in line,” Helmut warned.
Otto pushed against the vat again. But still, it wouldn’t move. Otto feared his idea wouldn’t work, but then one side of the vat lifted off the floor.
“Watch out!” Otto yelled to the children waiting in line.
Slowly, the vat rose higher. Frau Ferber’s children raced to their tables and jumped up amongst the jars. A moment later, the vat thumped on to the ground. The walls of the factory shook, a section of rotted floorboard gave way and a river of boot polish flooded out.
Black goop rolled across the floor. It pushed up against the sticky walls and rose above the bottom step of the staircase. It even trickled beneath the front door and out on to the street.
Otto looked over at Heinz and Helmut. They hadn’t been quick enough to jump on to one of the tables, and their boots were now caked in paste. They were seething with rage.
“Otto!” they screamed. Their voices barrelled up the rotting staircase, so even Frau Ferber could hear the commotion. “You’re going to the cellar!”
Heinz pushed Otto down the cellar stairs. A second later, Helmut pulled him back out. Otto thought they’d changed their minds, but Helmut had other ideas.
“Shoes,” he said.
“Huh?”
“Give me your shoes. You ruined mine so now I get yours.”
“But they won’t fit,” Otto said. His feet were a lot smaller than Helmut’s.
“I don’t care.”
Before Helmut threw him on the ground and ripped the shoes off, Otto handed them over. It felt like everything he had owned when he lived in Dortzig was slowly being snatched away by the people of Hodeldorf. If he stayed much longer he feared he wouldn’t have anything left.
“Now get in.”
This time when Heinz pushed Otto into the cellar, no one pulled him back out. The door closed behind him and a key turned in the lock.
Otto was cast into darkness. Rats hissed and scampered around him. Otto’s legs buckled. What if Klaus and Frida were wrong? What if they’d been mistaken? What if Elke and Nim were two different people? Was he about to be eaten alive?
A rat scampered over Otto’s foot. He felt its claws latching into his old socks. At least Helmut hadn’t taken those too.
“Nibbles?” Otto whispered. “Is that you?” He reached down into the darkness, and his fingers closed around fur. The rat he touched wasn’t wearing a coat. He quickly let it go.
Otto slowly climbed down the stairs. Rats scampered over his feet, but none tried to eat him. The dirt walls felt warm, like there was a sun in the ground heating them. If Otto wasn’t so scared it would have been quite comfortable down there in the dark.
Otto wondered what he should do. The note said he had to go to the cellar. It didn’t mention anything after that.
Otto waited in the warm cellar for what felt like hours. As the minutes passed his fear grew. Nim wasn’t coming to get him. It had been a trick. He was either going to wait in the cellar until he died of thirst and starvation or eventually Helmut and Heinz would let him out. Then he’d have to face the wrath of Frau Ferber. He didn’t know which was worse. He felt silly for trusting the note and sad that this was how it would end. He would never get the chance to find his mother. They would both die alone and lost in Hodeldorf.
<
br /> At some point Otto was pulled from his awful imaginings by the sound of something metal clanging to the ground.
“Who’s there?” he said, panic flooding his body.
“It’s Nim,” came the hissed reply. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Otto felt a hand grab hold of his own and lead him through the darkness.
“You’ve got to crawl through here,” Nim whispered. She had to keep her voice low, in case Helmut or Heinz heard.
Otto ran his fingers along the warm, dirt wall. He felt a gap just wide enough for him to fit through. He crawled down into the passage.
“How did you find this place?” Otto said as they crawled through the tunnel.
“When I was sent down here it had been raining for days. Water had started to fill the cellar. I thought I was going to drown. The rats did too. They were climbing all over me. But the water wasn’t rising. I couldn’t understand. It was still raining outside; I could hear it. The water was slowly draining out. That’s when I found the cover to the drain. Someone must have installed it when the factory was built to stop the cellar from flooding. I don’t think Frau Ferber knows it’s there. I pulled off the cover and found this tunnel, and then I crawled out with the rats. When we got outside most of the rats scampered off, but one of them stayed behind. Nibbles hasn’t left me since. I think he wanted to escape the factory as much as I did.”
Otto realized Nim was more than just a thief. She’d had a hard life: probably harder than he could ever imagine. No wonder she had kept one of his coins. She’d had to fight to survive the factory, and she was still fighting to survive on the streets.
The passage led to a small alley which ran behind Frau Ferber’s factory. Otto stepped out into the cold sun. The day had almost passed and was coming to an end. Nim started to place the metal grate over the passage they had escaped through. Otto asked her to stop.
“We need to cover it back up,” Nim said. “Otherwise Frau Ferber might see.”
Otto Tattercoat and the Forest of Lost Things Page 6