by Phil Ford
The snake lights poured out of the old, shrivelled woman, a torrent of writhing blue lights that spun through the air towards blindfolded Sarah Jane…
The others averted their eyes.
And no one saw Maria burst through the doors of the great hall and lurch towards the Gorgon, keeping her eyes fixed on Bea’s mirror and the reflected image of the room, before throwing herself in the way of the snake-lights and turning the mirror on them.
‘Rock on!’ she screamed.
In a burst of unearthly blue light, the snake-lights were reflected back at themselves and the Abbess. There was a hideous scream and suddenly the lights had gone. In their place was the Abbess turned to stone.
Luke cried out, ‘Maria! You’ve done it! You’ve killed it!’ In the same moment he found he was able to break away from the nun that held him. Clyde was free too, and tore the blindfold away from Sarah Jane, then began to untie her.
Around them the nuns seemed lost, disoriented.
Sister Helena was looking around her, frightened, ‘Where am I? What happened?’
Clyde got Sarah Jane free; she took Sister Helena’s shoulders, ‘The Gorgon has lost its control over you. You’re free.’
But it wasn’t over yet.
The room was filled with the hideous wail of Gorgons. More Gorgons. Hundreds of them.
Clyde turned towards the portal, ‘They’re coming through!’
And in its glow they could see writhing snake-like shapes growing stronger.
Maria threw herself at the portal and tore the talisman from it. Instantly the light died, and with it the sound of the Gorgons.
Sarah Jane wrapped her arms around Maria, and hugged her tight.
‘But, what about your father?’
Maria looked at her watch — it was 3.45.
‘Come on,’ she gasped. ‘Quick!’
Chapter Fifteen
Wonderful things
They stood in a ring around the stone statue that had once been Alan Jackson. Maria held the talisman in one hand. Clyde looked at his watch.
‘You’ve only got a couple of minutes.’
But Maria hesitated, ‘What if it doesn’t work?’
‘If it saved Bea, it will save your father,’ said Sarah Jane.
Maria bit her lip and refused to imagine anything but the power of the talisman transforming her father back to flesh and blood. She took a breath and placed the chain around the statue’s neck. The talisman lay on Alan’s chest and began to glow instantly. A moment later its light spread out, wrapping around the statue, shimmering and swirling. And then Alan fell to the floor, flesh and blood once more but unconscious.
When he came to a little while later he was alone, lying on the bench in Sarah Jane’s garden. He looked around him, confused, his head throbbing. How did I get here?
He picked himself up. His joints ached like old, unoiled machinery, but he got himself going. He felt fine by the time he got to his own kitchen door — but he still had no idea how he had wound up asleep in Sarah Jane’s garden. The last thing he remembered was looking for Maria.
Stepping in to the kitchen he found Chrissie. She was scowling, which was bad. Her bags were packed, which was good.
Where the heck have you been? I’ve been out looking for you. It’s been ages!’
‘I fell asleep,’ he told her. ‘Must have been overdoing it lately.’
Maria came through the door.
‘Oh,’ Chrissie cried. ‘Another one of the Disappearing Jacksons! ’
But Maria ignored her, throwing her arms around Alan, ‘Dad!’
‘Maria,’ he said, ‘I’m so sorry about earlier.’
‘No, Dad. I’m really sorry. I thought I’d lost you!’
He gave her a puzzled smile, ‘Don’t be silly. It was only a tiff. You’re never going to lose me.’ Chrissie watched, feeling excluded. Time for her quid’s worth, ‘Maria, do you know what that woman over the road has in her lounge?’
Maria knew what Chrissie meant straight away, though she couldn’t believe that her mother had actually been snooping around Sarah Jane’s house. Well, if she’d seen a statue of Alan, it wasn’t going to be there now, was it?
As Chrissie hauled Maria and Alan across the road, Maria tried to tell her mum that she must have been seeing things, but Chrissie wasn’t in any mood to listen. And when Sarah Jane opened the door to her, Chrissie all but forced her way into the house and stormed into the lounge…
But all she found were Luke and Clyde playing Alien Devastation 3. There was no statue. Chrissie’s eyes were round with disbelief.
‘Pity really,’ said Alan. ‘Do you think I’d look good as one of those Greek statues, Maria?’
He struck a pose and Maria told him she preferred him just the way he was. Then somehow they got Chrissie out of there, still protesting that she had seen a statue and demanding to know what Sarah Jane had done with it.
But it was the last straw for Chrissie. Her bags were already packed and she got Alan to call her a cab as soon as they were back over the road. She told them that she had had Ivan on the phone earlier in floods, begging her to come home. What else could she do? But as she got into the taxi she told Maria again that she knew what she had seen over the road, and she warned her for the second time that day that there was something weird about Calamity Jane. Maria didn’t get mad this time, she hugged her mum and told her that she loved her.
Later that evening, Maria returned to Sarah Jane’s and found her with Luke in the attic. He had some questions about the talisman, which he fingered curiously, its green glow playing across his face.
‘If the talisman was the key to the Gorgon’s portal, how come it could also turn Mr Jackson back to flesh and blood?’
Mr Smith was out of the wall. Since the talisman had been returned to him he had been able to complete his analysis, ‘All matter has an atomic default. Some alien technology — including that of the Gorgons — uses this default to turn things on and off. Such technology can reverse cellular distortion.’
A light went on in Maria’s head, ‘You mean it can make things the way they used to be?’ She turned to Sarah Jane, excited, ‘Maybe it could help Bea!’
But Sarah Jane was doubtful, ‘Maria, Bea has Alzheimer’s. Besides she had the talisman all that time.’
‘In a tin box,’ Luke said. ‘Maybe she hasn’t actually touched the talisman in all these years.’
Maria was determined. ‘She helped save my dad, Sarah Jane. Please, we have to try. Like you said, there is always a chance.’
Sarah Jane smiled. Yes, there was always a chance. And perhaps Maria was right; they owed it to her to help Bea, if they could. And an hour later she and Maria were slipping into Bea’s room at Lavender Lawns. She had Bing Crosby playing on the old record player, but she looked up and smiled a welcome. But Sarah Jane knew that didn’t mean she knew who they were.
‘Hello, Bea. It’s Maria. I’ve brought something that belongs to you.’
‘Oh, is it my compact?’ Bea said. ‘I’m always leaving it lying around. Edgar says I’ll lose my head one of these days.’
‘It’s something Edgar gave you,’ Maria told her, and revealed the talisman.
Bea’s eyes glowed with recognition and sentimental memories, but they were pushed aside by fright, ‘No! You must put it back where I hid it. Put it back! In case they come!’
But Sarah Jane took her hand, ‘It’s all right, Bea. The Sisters are never going to come looking for it again. The Gorgon is dead.’
A tear fell from Bea’s eye, ‘Is it true?’
Maria felt her own eyes filling with tears as she reassured Bea, and passed the talisman to her. Bea’s long fingers clasped it to her chest, her eyes closed and more tears coursed down her slender cheeks.
‘Edgar gave it to me,’ she said. ‘Oh, we saw such things together. Wonderful things. People made of light, mermaids leaping with dolphins, young Yetis frolicking in the snow… ’
The smile that came with her w
onderful memories began to fade, ‘But he’s been gone so long, and I’ve always been so scared to wear this.’ She gazed at the talisman, it glowed dark green as her fingers caressed it. Maria felt herself holding her breath.
‘You know,’ said Bea, ‘he put this around my neck, and kissed me for the very first time, and told me that he loved me.’
She slipped the chain over her head. The talisman settled on her breast, her hands around it. And Maria and Sarah Jane watched as the light within the talisman flickered and died. Bea didn’t notice.
I will always love you, Bea.
She heard his voice. He had whispered in her ear, just as he had that first time. She heard it as clear as day. She knew that the girl and the woman with the auburn hair hadn’t heard him. But that didn’t matter, it didn’t matter at all.
‘Thank you for bringing him back to me,’ she said.
And they left Bea with her memories.
They walked down the staircase from her room, and out on to the gravelled drive. It was a beautiful night. The sky had been sprayed with a million jewels. But Sarah Jane could see that Maria was disappointed, there had been no miraculous transformation, the talisman had been alien but it hadn’t been magic.
‘You shouldn’t be upset,’ Sarah Jane told Maria. ‘The talisman didn’t cure Bea, but it did something amazing, all the same. It gave her peace.’
Maria could see that. The talisman may not have been enchanted, but the look on the old lady’s face as they left her had been magical.
‘She was lucky, wasn’t she?’ said Maria. ‘Having Edgar.’
‘I suppose she was,’ said Sarah Jane, digging the keys to the little blue car from her jacket.
Maria bit her lip, unsure of whether to say what she was thinking, and then found she was saying it anyway, ‘Don’t you wish you had found someone special to share it all with?’
Sarah Jane looked at her over the top of the car, and smiled. ‘I think I have,’ she said. For the second time.’