Like Father (15 page)

Fox faltered, and that was when Rick spotted his chance.

“Hey!” he called. “Hey, Josh! Look who’s here. It’s your daddy. Josh, come and see your daddy.”

Danny stared at him, horrified, and then, following a movement of Rick’s and his father’s eyes he turned.

Josh darted away from Val and Oma and ran across the paved area, chuckling away as he did so. “Daddy?” he called. “Daddy?”

Danny’s father stared down at the little red-haired boy.

Rick swung an arm up and batted the axe away from himself, then ducked, twisted, and pulled himself free. Staggering, turning, he backed away, stumbling on the path. “I...” he croaked. “I...” He looked around the small gathering, then turned and sprinted away.

“Daddy?”

Danny’s father stooped, holding an arm out to the little boy. Josh went to him, still chuckling away, waving a little hand as he was swept up off the ground.

Please don’t let him work out who Josh actually is, Danny thought.

DC Fox took a step closer. A step too close.

In a single movement, Danny’s father straightened with Josh held in the crook of his arm and with his other hand he swung the axe upwards, straightening his arm, extending his reach.

Danny flinched as the axe made contact. The soft thud it made against the police officer’s face would be with him forever. The faint, surprised gasp as she fell back, and then slumped to one side into the roses.

It was over in an instant, and it was only in the long seconds afterwards that Danny saw DC Fox move a little after landing, saw the rise and fall of one shoulder as she breathed and he knew that, for now at least, she lived. It was only then that he made sense of what he had seen: the blade, pointing the wrong way so that the blunt end had struck the officer, not the finely-honed cutting edge.

And now: a piercing wail burst out from Josh.

“So...” said Danny’s father, holding Josh high on his left arm as the toddler squirmed and cried. “Who are you, then, young man?”

“Put him down, Tony.” This was Val, standing with Oma by the chapel door. As Danny looked up at her, he saw Cassie hiding inside.

“Put him down, Dad,” he said. “It’s over. Rick will have
phoned the police
by now.” He doubted that, but he did hope that his emphasis on those words might prompt Cassie into phoning for help, if she hadn’t already.

“Val?” said his father, now. Josh was making a choked sobbing sound now, looking from adult to adult, confused. “Is that you, Val? Am I dreaming again? It always seems so ... real. Val, I’ve come for you, and for my little boy. Val, we’ll go away. Start all over again. We’ll be a happy family. You just need to give me a chance.”

“Put him down, Dad. Will you put the little boy down?”

“You...” His father’s expression changed now. His eyes narrowed, his skin became more flushed. He squinted at the axe as he raised it again. There was blood on the blade from where he had struck DC Fox.

“You keep talking to me,” he said. “My head.”

“It’s me, Dad. Danny. Your son. Put the little boy down.”

His father shook his head.

Josh was growing frustrated. He twisted, and called, “Mummy? Danny?”

Just then, Oma slumped against the wall and Val caught her, held her, guided her so that she sat down slowly instead of falling.

“I’ll have your tongue,” Danny’s father told him now. “Just like the others.” He shook his head again, as if trying to dislodge something.

“Do it then,” said Danny. “But you’ll have to put the boy down first.” He put his hands out, as if to take Josh.

The boy wriggled, and Danny’s father eased his grip enough for him to twist free and run to his mother.

“It’s okay, Dad. It’s all over. It’s Danny. You know who I am, don’t you?”

“The voices...”

“I know. In your head. Hodeken. I know about him, Dad. I know all about him. He’s real. He’s tormenting you. Don’t let him, Dad. Stand up to him.”

Just then, Danny was aware of a flickering in the corner of his vision, something flashing through the rose bed.

A small figure. A little man with a pointed hat.

“You can beat him, Dad.”

And Hodeken stood by his father’s side. “It’s no good, Danny. That’s the trouble. Can’t you see? He hears me but he doesn’t believe. He won’t let himself see me. Here I am, trying to help, and he just can’t let himself see!”

Danny glared at the little figure, its twisted, gnarled old features, its eyes that claimed to understand but didn’t really understand a thing.

“Go away!” he snapped. “Leave us alone. We don’t want you. We don’t want you interfering and making a mess of our lives. You’re not needed – can’t you see?”

Hodeken stared at him.

“Just leave us alone. We don’t need you.”

His father grunted, snatching Danny’s attention away from the kobold.

He had raised the axe.

He was staring at Danny, pure madness in his eyes.

“Oh yes you do,” chirped Hodeken.

He jumped up and slapped Danny’s father on the cheek. When the man looked down, he seemed to see something on the path and he stooped for a closer look.

Hodeken darted around behind him, sprang into the air and gave him an almighty two-footed kick in the seat of his trousers.

Danny’s father went sprawling on the paving slabs and Danny leapt on top of him.

The axe ... it had slipped from his father’s grip. In the instant Danny saw it lying on the path, he reached for it, found the base of its handle and managed to flip it over, beyond their reach.

Winded by the fall, his father gasped for air, but then with frightening strength he swung an arm, catching Danny in the side with his elbow.

He swung again, and then bucked his body and almost managed to throw Danny clear.

Danny hung on, desperate. It could only be seconds before he was toppled, and then his father would do whatever it was he wanted to do.

Then there were hands on his back, and legs and feet in the corner of his vision.

Someone pulled at him, and someone kicked him in the hip, sending a bolt of pain the length of his body.

He fell back, clear, and an elbow or a knee caught him in the face. He ducked his head and struggled out from the pile of fighting men.

Lying on his side, he looked back and saw policemen, three or maybe four of them, pinning his father to the ground. He slumped back, almost blacking out with the pain in his side and his head.

He felt a hand on his chest, gentler this time.

Cassie.

“You never told me you were a bloody hero,” she said, and flung her arms around him, sobbing.

23 Hinzelmannchen

They made Hodeken bread. They borrowed the strong organic flour, the yeast and the recipe from Jade. They mixed the ingredients and kneaded the dough, taking it in turns to press and fold, to knock it back and knead again.

As they left the bread to bake, they sat in the window seat in Danny’s room. Outside, the sun was low, the light magical and golden through the trees.

“So what did you see?” Danny asked her.

“I saw what happened,” Cassie told him. “I saw you arguing with your father, persuading him to let Josh go after he had knocked out the policewoman. I saw him ... I saw the way he swung the axe up high and he was about to swing it down ... at
you
, Danny. And then as he swung, you sidestepped him, or ducked, or something. It wasn’t clear. It was so fast. And he went flying over you and you were on him and holding him down until the police came.”

When the timer rang out, they went back to the kitchen and took the bread from the oven.

“So,” said Cassie. “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?”

Danny went to the fridge, and took out a carton of milk. “We’re going to say goodbye to Hodeken,” he said. “I’ve been thinking through some of the stuff we found, and some of the things Hodeken has shown me. He’s devoted himself to my family for half a century, probably far longer. Despite all the harm he’s caused, he’s protected us when he could. I think we should recognise that. Without Hodeken, Oma and her sister and brothers probably wouldn’t have survived the war.”

He poured the milk into a simple china cup. “When Eva called to him during the war, they had to ask him three times in succession and they made him an offering. Kobolds like the simple things, plain food like bread and milk. They don’t like complications. I think our world is too complex for him. He’s trying to do his best but he just doesn’t get it. I think that if we ask him in the right way we might get through to him. Eva managed it, all those years ago: we just need to do it the way she did.”

“So are you going to tell me where he’s hiding?”

Danny tore the loaf in half and put one piece on a plate. He took it with the cup of milk and nodded for Cassie to follow. He remembered Oma pushing over Luke so that he fell into the flowers and then running away like a schoolgirl. He remembered how ill she had been, but how she had recovered after Eva’s death, and taken to looking after what remained of her family, how fiercely she tried to keep things together.

Across the landing, he paused before Oma’s bedroom door, knocked with the toe of his shoe and entered.

She lay in the darkened room, her blanket pulled up to her nose. When he entered, Danny saw the briefest of flickers, as she closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.

“Hodeken?” he said gently. “We’ve brought you supper. This is Cassie, my friend. I think you’ll like her.”

Oma didn’t move.

Danny put the plate and cup on the chest of drawers by her bed, and perched himself on the edge of the mattress.

He remembered those last images from his dream of Berlin. Great Aunt Eva hurrying to pack, shortly before the knock came on her door from the state security police. Eva, slumped against the wall, hugging Hodeken and then, in the blink of an eye, the kobold was gone and she was hugging herself.

All the time he had been with them, he had hidden in the most secure place of all.

He had hidden within.

Danny took the self-bored stone from his pocket and held it to his eye. Before him, the shape of his grandmother flickered, as if it were only weakly held together.

And there: a form that at first he could only vaguely make out but which grew steadily stronger, he saw the little man.
Hinnzelmanchen
. Staring warily back at him.

“Hodeken,” said Danny. “It’s time to leave.”

“You said you didn’t want me,” said the nasal voice. “You said you didn’t need me, but you did, didn’t you?”

Danny had been right. Hodeken had retreated to his hiding place, and he was sulking.

“We didn’t need you,” said Danny. “You were only putting right a situation you had created.”

“I was only doing my best,” said the little man. “I was only trying to make your dream come true. Is that such a bad thing to try to do?”

“No,” said Danny. “It’s a very noble thing to do. We appreciate all that you have done for us in the past, but we don’t need your protection any more. It’s a big and complicated world out there and you are out of your time. We have other ways of dealing with things now. You just make things worse when you get involved.”

“You’re not cross with me?”

Danny thought. This creature had wrecked his family, destroyed his father. “I’m sad,” said Danny. “Very sad. You meant well, but you’ve done so much harm ... caused so much pain. Do you see what you’ve done to us?”

He had to stop.

A short time later, he continued. “I just wish I’d understood sooner. But I was so wrapped up in my own little world that I didn’t see what was happening. I’ve spent the last three years being so terrified that I would turn out like my father that I’ve forgotten to try to turn out like
myself
.”

He turned to Cassie then, and took her hand. “The poem’s right: our parents do mess us up, but we mess ourselves up, too.”

“It’s been hard,” said Hodeken. “Maybe I could have a rest...”

“Just one thing,” said Danny. “Would you do us one final favour before you leave?”

Hodeken’s face lit up. He smiled. He winked. He said, “Close your eyes and make your wish, and I’ll do my best. As long as it’s not too complicated!”

Danny closed his eyes and wished.

After a short time, he opened them again.

“You’re really going to be okay?” said the small voice.

“Yes, I am. We are.”

“Truly?” he asked again.

“Yes.”

“You don’t need me?”

At the third time of asking, Danny hesitated and then he nodded.

He lowered the self-bored stone and studied his grandmother’s face. For a few more seconds she breathed peacefully, and then there was a rattle in her throat, a half-cough, and she stopped.

Cassie gasped, and Danny squeezed her hand. He had hoped and hoped that it wouldn’t happen like this, but he had suspected that it would. He swallowed. He had lost so much.

“Hodeken’s been keeping her going for three years,” he said. “If he goes, she goes, too.” When Eva had died, the kobold must have moved his attentions to her sister, which explained why she had suddenly roused herself from her various illnesses and rallied in the face of adversity to look after what was left of her family.

He looked at his grandmother again through the hole in the stone, but all he saw was a little old woman, lying in her bed, not moving, not breathing, not
being
.

24 Normal again

Cassie came, the next morning. They had breakfast with Val and then Danny and Cassie gathered up Josh so that they could take him out to leave Val free to make arrangements for Oma Schmidt’s funeral.

“You will call Christian and Dieter, won’t you?” Danny had asked earlier. Val had nodded and assured him that she would. For Oma’s sake. And who knows? Maybe, after all this, Oma’s brothers would respond and the family would start to pull together again.

“What a way to spend your half-term,” Val said as Danny, Cassie and Josh left. “All this...”

“It’s a first for me,” said Cassie.

Danny led her down the stairs by the hand, aware of his watching mother and realising that it only bothered him a bit.

“Have you heard anything about your dad?” asked Cassie, as Josh ran off across the grass ahead of them.

Danny shook his head. “I think they’ve got him locked up as safely as they possibly can, just to be sure. It’ll sort itself out. He’ll be moved to another prison and I’ll be able to start visiting him again – I’ll find an adult who will accompany me. They won’t let me go on my own. It’ll all be back to normal before we know it.”

“Normal,” said Cassie, and grunted.

“Yes, ‘normal’,” said Danny. “Whatever that is.”

~

They walked around the grounds, following a path that took them through the trees to the orchard, and there they saw Little Rick. He had his beekeeper’s gear on and was puffing smoke into one of his hives to pacify the bees.

Josh ran up to him and started running round in circles making buzzing sounds.

Rick straightened, took his hat off and beamed at them.

“Hey, Danny! Cassie! How are things today after our little bit of excitement? I was going to call in later. I heard about Omaschmidt.”

Danny looked at him, and then at Cassie whose face had gone purple and looked just about ready to explode. He grinned at her, and watched her expression shift from outrage to puzzlement.

“You’re not welcome here,” said Danny to Rick. “I want you to leave us alone. Me. Val. All of us.”

Rick was still smiling, but with less confidence now.

Behind him, the buzzing had grown just a little more persistent, just a little louder, as first one or two, and then a growing mass of bees gathered on top of the hive.

It was stupid to hope that things could ever be perfect. Life had its ups and its downs and you just had to cope. But it didn’t seem such a bad thing to hope for a few more ups than downs. It might just start to balance out all the low points they had endured.

And life at Hope Springs could be pretty good for them if they were only given a chance. A bit of peace.

It didn’t seem too much to wish for.

Rick was uncomfortable now. Looking around. He knew something was up, but he hadn’t quite worked out what it was yet.

Danny stepped back, pulling Cassie with him. “Josh?” he called. “Over here, Josh.”

A great big lump of bees broke away from the top of the hive and flew straight up in the air. They hung there for what seemed like forever as more and yet more flew up to join them.

Rick looked up at them. He had probably never seen anything like this before. He looked worried.

He had good reason to be worried.

The swarm dropped, plunging through the air.

Rick made a strangled yelping sound, and darted out of their way.

The swarm swooped low over the ground and then swung back up into the air again.

Rick looked at it, and then at Danny, and then he began to run.

The bees followed him, and dived down, and he ducked and tripped and sprawled in the mud. He scrambled to his feet again and ran, and soon he was lost from sight.

That was the last that was ever seen of Little Rick at Hope Springs. Nobody ever did explain why he had just gone off, never to return. He was so popular and liked by everyone, after all. And nobody could explain, either, why every last one of his bee-hives had been abandoned from that day onwards, too.

Only Danny knew, but he didn’t tell anyone. Wishes should be secret things and they should not be shared with anyone if you want them to come true, and if you want them to stay true.

~

Danny woke and washed and dressed and shoved today’s books into his school bag. It was June now and they were well into the second half of the summer term. Already, Danny was looking forward to the long summer holiday.

He looped the ready-knotted tie over his head and tightened it. His blazer was still too small, but it should see out the term.

He went through to the kitchen and made himself coffee and toast. “You okay?” asked Val, looking up from her notes.

He nodded. Yes he was, he realised. He was okay.

Outside, the usual group was heading for school, a short distance ahead. He hurried his stride to catch up with them.

“Hi, everyone,” he said, to Jade, Won’t and Tim as he joined them.

He listened to the two brothers, arguing about cricket again. Partway round the village, Won’t turned to Danny and said, “You coming to the cricket on Saturday? It’s the Grafton-on-Severn festival.”

Danny shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m going to visit my dad on Saturday.” David and Sharmila were taking him. This would be his first visit since Oma had died. They’d spoken on the phone a few times, though, and Danny’s father seemed calmer now, more settled since Hodeken had gone.

“Ha! Makes a change from him coming to visit you, doesn’t it?” Won’t laughed, dodging out of the way of Danny’s bag as it swung towards his head.

Danny laughed too, gathering up his bag again. “Yes,” he said. “I think this is the best way round, all in all.”

Ahead of them, Cassie was waiting with Jo Lee at the start of the lane across the fields to Grafton-on-Severn. Danny found himself grinning. A stupid, dumb grin which he just couldn’t get off his face.