Tag: book1

Chapter 25 Jackanory Square195

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Benet walks to The Stump and stands on top of it. That’s the signal that everybody is to be quiet, because story time is about to commence. He doesn’t need to say anything. Dutifully, a complete hush descends over Jackanory Square.

Benet scans the whole square, there is silence everywhere, the terrace of the Find Thyme Café is packed with people, and nobody is talking. Various people are sitting on the steps of the Town Hall, members of staff from the Chamber, the library, the museum, and the research institute. So many people, that there are rows of them standing at the back.

The owners, Honey and Tigger are standing to one side of the entrance to Magnum Opus, and their adult children Julia and Marcus are standing on the other. The staff and all the customers are silent, eagerly anticipating Benet’s latest, almost true true story.

Benet sits down on The Stump and the kids create a tidal wave of whispers. He looks at them disapprovingly, and then everything goes quiet again. One or two birds chirping, and nothing else.

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Chapter 25 Jackanory Square194

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The Stump is placed outside the Law Courts at  the eastern end of Jackanory Square. Although they’re tiny the Law Courts are housed in a grandiose building. It’s a near perfect replica of the Town Hall at the other end of the square, just smaller. Although it is a faithful copy, with stylish columns, a portico, and a mini clock tower of its own.

From The Stump the gentle incline towards the Town Hall creates a natural amphitheatre where the older kids at the back can easily see over the heads of the smaller ones. The kids can see the clock above the Law Courts and Benet has a perfect view of the Harrison Clock above the Town Hall. Not Mr Harrison’s original, but a modern replica made by Harrison Time Pieces.

TomBaker wheels out a time machine laden tea trolley from his bakery.

AuntSylvie and NurseCathy arrive first with around twenty youngsters, a mix of orphans and their school friends, and predictably dotty Miss Gibson is trying to help, even though she doesn’t like noisy children. The Colonel and Miss Gibson are not related. They met when he left the Sidooryn and moved from Mannin into the retirement home at the Noble Coliseum. Miss Gibson thinks she’s helping out, so they all indulge her whilst the Colonel does his best to referee the match.

Predictably, FullyCharged is at the front of the queue! He’s the first to drop two pennies into the hat and pick up a time machine. He races to the middle of the front row, quickly followed by Hayley.

“Back a few rows please,” says AuntSylvie, “you’re both eight years old now, the tiny tots get the front seats.”

Not that there are any seats! DocDan is doing his best to help seat the right kids in the right place in spite of being assisted by Miss Gibson.

In no time at all, there are about a hundred primary school pupils sitting on the ground, sucking their time machines. Nearly a full house! Rory checks the tea trolly. Not many left over, he might not get a second one this time.

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Chapter 25 Jackanory Square193

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Chapter 25
Jackanory Square

Yesterday, Benet arrived in town.

The word spread like wildfire. It was impossible to keep it from the kids, because Rory, TomBaker’s eight year old son, helps out making the time machines. As soon as Rory knew, all of his friends knew, and then the whole of Lancaster knew.

Around Jackanory Square the shops and cafés have been preparing for the influx. Betty knows that the Find Thyme Café will have more guests than usual. Julia and Marcus are setting out extra tables and chairs in front of Magnum Opus, just as the Colonel and Miss Gibson arrive. DocDan is wheeling out a small trolley from the Central Library, bringing a long rope and The Stump.

He’s not a doctor! Doc is short for “document”.

DocDan is the assistant librarian and he knows the library inside out. If somebody needs a particular book or document, DocDan will find it quicker than anybody else. Half of the time he doesn’t even need to look up the index. He was nicknamed DocDan by the real doctors who work at the research institute next door.

“Good to see you Benet!”

“Dan! How are you?”

“I’m fine, how are you?”

“Frazzled. As usual!”

That’s Benet’s standard response. On a good day he’s frazzled, and on a bad day he’s double plus frazzled. It’s only when story time is over that he lightens up. If anything doesn’t go quite right he always blames his old frazzled brain. If it all goes well, he’ll claim to have succeeded, in spite of his befrazzlement.

According to Benet, that’s a genuine English word! If he’s challenged he just says, “well it is now! The English language is fluid you know! Always changing!”

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Chapter 24 Fate Rewards the Brave190

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“Oh, this is terrible, if it’s bad, it’s terrible, if it’s good, it’s terrible! I don’t know what’s worse!”

“This isn’t making any sense, what’s good, what’s terrible?”

“At work this afternoon, I had an unexpected visitor. He was asking about shipments of silver, and zinc. He wasn’t asking about provisioning at all!”

“Who?”

“MaxChaos!”

“MaxChaos? What’s so bad about that?”

“He gave me a love letter!”

Stunned silence!

Followed by more stunned silence!

Staring at Conning with incredulity, KristalClear can sense creepy crawlies climbing up the back of her neck, becoming tangled and trapped in her clean, beautiful, long, deep brown hair. She can feel a cold, wet haddock taking hold of her hand, tugging her towards a chilly Irish Sea. Her feet are twitching as she senses quicksand begin to ooze up and engulf her shoes, with an insurmountable force pulling her down.

“That’s interesting,” she says, “tell me more!”

Once again, not knowing whether to laugh or cry Conning can feel tears of anguish battling to cascade down her delicate, pretty face. She fights them back.

“It was awful! He obviously wrote it himself, without any help. You know he’s not good at reading and writing.”

“What did it say?”

“I can’t tell you, childish gibberish, something about buttercups … that’s enough!”

“Yes, and how does that make you feel?”

Conning’s mind is wandering. She doesn’t answer the question. Her thoughts are already racing in a different direction. She’s thinking the horoscope said “played well, this may be a stepping stone”.

Conning blurts out, “oh no, is this supposed to be good news? What did I say? I told him he has BO! Well, I didn’t say ‘you have BO’, I said he smelt of fish. He’s probably too thick

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Chapter 24 Fate Rewards the Brave189

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“NutJob just gave me today’s paper. What do you know about CelesteEmbrace?”

Pinching the skin beneath her chin, and raising her eye brows Conning says, “ooh, embracing him now are you? Don’t talk to me about your love life! I don’t have one!”

“No it’s a name, CelesteEmbrace.”

“Celeste Embrace? Is it the name of a novel?”

“You’ve never heard of her? CelesteEmbrace? She writes a column for The Lancastrian.”

“What sort of column?”

“She does horoscopes.”

“Ooh, show me, what does mine say?”

“Your birthday’s just after mine isn’t it, but you’re not a Virgo … you’re a Libra! Ooh! That’s the first one we looked at earlier!”

Conning presses her to read it out, “what does it say?”

Libra

Thrilling news awaits you, though it may raise anxiety levels at first. Sometimes the best things come from unexpected directions. Your determination and positive energy will help you make the most of a new opportunity. Played well, this may be a stepping stone to an explosive new development for you, or for somebody close to you. Keep your options open, and be mindful what you say. Fate rewards the brave.

Puzzled, Conning says, “well it was unexpected, but it wasn’t exactly thrilling!”

“What are you talking about?” asks KristalClear.

“Oh nothing. I shouldn’t have said anything. Can we just leave it?”

“No, you can’t just stop now, and not explain. You have to tell me!”

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Chapter 24 Fate Rewards the Brave188

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On one hand she’s delighted to be at the centre of attention. Setting aside the disarray of schoolchild follies, she can’t recall ever having received an adult love letter before. On the other hand she’s petrified, because it’s from MaxChaos! Uncultured. Cavalier. Chunky.

And stupid!

In spite of which he has a sweet, sympathetic side which he shows sporadically. He’s genuinely friendly, and he possesses an unbending will to protect the ones he cares about. But he still hasn’t learnt the importance of personal hygiene. He smells, his hair is long and ragged, he’s never been to a barber, and he has no idea that a deer skin jacket has to go to the cleaners once in a while.

Conning resolves to bin the letter. No, burn it! Nobody should see it, nobody should even know that it ever existed. It has to be destroyed, and then the whole thing has to be kept quiet. But she can’t bring herself to do it. A personal letter from a romantic admirer. A deranged, scatter brained, romantic admirer, who has a habit of setting booby traps. But nonetheless, a romantic admirer.

It’s folded in half, put back into the small pink envelope it came in, and quickly hidden.

She reads it again, later that evening back at home, and again debates destroying it. However, it’s put back into the envelope, which is then placed inside a delicate white purse that Conning has never used. That’s put inside one of the small, sparkly handbags that she bought when she was much younger, and finally it’s all hidden beneath the woolly sweaters in the bottom drawer of the wooden chest in her room. Nobody will ever find it. But she’ll know where it is, in the unlikely event that she would want to look at it again.

It’s Saturday evening and Conning heads out to catch up with her friends, whilst committed to staying silent on the question of love letters. She’s the first to arrive at the Find Thyme Café just ahead of KristalClear.

As the two of them find a table overlooking the market square KristalClear takes out the newspaper

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Chapter 24 Fate Rewards the Brave187

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“How would I find out who’s shipping what? Could you help?”

“Mum knows more about this than I do. She’s been doing this job for years. Write down what you’re looking for. No promises, but I’ll see if there’s a way to find out. What metals in particular?”

“HayWire said that sodium or potassium would be ideal!”

Thinking that MaxChaos wouldn’t even know what sodium or potassium are, she’s rightly suspicious. Why is HayWire involved? What are they up to?

“You’d better write it down. I can ask around, even before mum gets back.”

“I’ve already written it down.”

He passes her a small envelope, and before she has time to open it, he’s on his way out of the door.

“See you later!”

This is just plain weird!

MaxChaos wouldn’t normally visit the reception desk at InfiniDash, he’d go straight round to one of the warehouses. He wouldn’t normally be on his own, he’d be part of a team. And he wouldn’t normally write things down, let alone write something in advance. He’s not particularly good at literacy.

Mystified, Conning looks at the envelope. She opens it. It’s a love letter!

From MaxChaos! Remarkably, within the space of just 37 words, it demonstrates all the adult, and juvenile, and infantile thoughts at work inside his chaotic head!

            Twinkle twinkle little Buttercup
            How I wonder when we’ll next meet up
            Wise and pretty and incredibly bright
            I was thinking that we might
            Go out somewhere nice to play
            But can that wait until pay day?

Overwhelmed, Conning doesn’t know if she should laugh or cry!

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Chapter 24 Fate Rewards the Brave186

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Meanwhile, MaxChaos has been looking for an excuse to speak to Conning, the pretty girl with the long brown hair who works part time at InfiniDash, the shipbroker. If NutJob can secure a pretty girlfriend, with beautiful long brown hair, then MaxChaos thinks it can’t be that difficult. He’s been to InfiniDash a few times, to help with delivering provisions to ships, but he doesn’t yet fully understand the difference between a shipbroker and a shipping company.

Stepping inside the door at the main reception he sees Conning working the desk alone. Normally Mrs Moore works the desk. This looks like a perfect chance. MaxChaos is trying to play it cool. A clumsy sort of cool. A chaotic cool. The sort of thing that led to his nickname.

He steps up to the desk.

“Where’s your mum, I thought she’d be here?”

“She’s got a week off.”

“A weak cough? Will she be here tomorrow?”

“No, not a weak cough, a week off, she’s spending a week on Mannin.”

“She’s manning? She’s looking for a man?”

“Max, stop winding me up. You know what I mean, you’ve been to Mannin haven’t you?”

He places his right forearm and elbow on the counter and leans forward. Then he deliberately flutters his eyelids.

Conning has seen this sort of thing before. The singing duo gets a lot of unwanted attention from the boys in their informal fan club. Conning has learnt to nip this sort of thing in the bud.

“Don’t invade my personal space … you smell … of fish! You smell of fish. Don’t try to get flirty with me!”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about.”

“Fish?”

“Mannin! There’s a silver mine on Mannin isn’t there? And Zinc? What else is there, metal wise?”

“Oh, I don’t think we’ve been asked that before? You want to import metals? We just supply ships with what the crew needs, we don’t always know what their cargos are!”

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Chapter 24 Fate Rewards the Brave185

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“Interesting character! And HayWire, who’s he?”

“Samuel Clark. Also known as HayWire. He’s eighteen years old with no police record. His parents both work in the tanning industry. At school he was both brilliant and awful. Excelling in some subjects and bottom of the class in others. He graduated two years ago.”

“Brilliant at what?”

“Maths, physics, engineering, mechanics. He’s apprenticed to Harrison Time Pieces, and apparently he’s a quick learner. He’s doing well. He lives at home with his parents, though from what I hear, family life is fraught. He seems to spend a lot of time at work, putting in extra hours when he doesn’t have to, and he’s trying to teach himself advanced skills. He’s experimenting with batteries and alternative energy sources.”

“He’s also keen on trying alternative materials like bone. Through family connections, he gets access to various bone and stuff from NickTheKnacker. HayWire is the one who studied the text books and worked out how to make hydrogen with limited resources. In his specialist field he’s incredibly intelligent, a savant! He prefers to be called HayWire, he’s proud of the name, fond childhood memories of something. I wouldn’t recommend calling him Samuel or Sam.”

“HayWire and MaxChaos are both friends with NutJob and Kristal.”

“Are they now?” remarks CandiCrush, “we need to get all of them in for a brainstorming session. No big plans, make them think this is a one off, because it might be a one off. However, if we can get an Inventors Club going on a Wednesday afternoon, we might all benefit from their regular involvement. Ted, find out more about these two explosives experts. If Toni says they’re sound we should be able to get security clearance for both of them? And get NutJob cleared too. Kristal’s on the system already.”

Corky returns.

CandiCrush smiles, “tea anyone?”

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