The Advent Calendar (11 page)

Some were sleeping. One or two pulled at their chains in a half-hearted way trying to get free. The majority just sat and stared into space. They looked at the three visitors and one or two stretched out their hands to beg but with no real hope in their eyes. Alice and Sam had nothing to say, nothing to offer them.

Col led them through the dungeon stepping carefully between the rows, twisting this way and that in the maze of the foundations. Alice lost count after the first hundred prisoners. They were heading towards the source of the silver light which spread thinly through the darkness. From time to time they glimpsed the source, a high window in the far wall.

‘It’s almost time,’ said Col, at last, stopping underneath the window which was far above them. ‘One minute to midnight. Here, take this.’

He took from his belt two small glass lanterns and gave one to each of them. Alice looked closely. Engraved in each of the six panes of glass was a small key. Two stood open giving access to the centre. ‘But there’s no wick,’ she thought aloud. ‘There’s nothing inside the glass at all.’

‘I know,’ said Col, still whispering. ‘Now stand on this precise spot and hold your lantern high. Keep it very still.’

Sam and Alice did exactly as they were told. They stood a couple of metres back from the window holding the lanterns stretched out towards it with the open panes towards the window. Somewhere in the castle above them, a clock struck midnight. At that very moment, Alice and Sam saw the source of the silver light. A brightly shining star came into view directly overhead, right in the centre of the window high above them.

Alice gasped and turned her head a little away from the light. ‘Hold still,’ said Col. ‘Keep the lanterns absolutely still.’

Like Alice, Sam couldn’t look directly at the star. Instead, he watched the lantern. Something strange was happening. Instead of spilling evenly into the room, the starlight was being bent and drawn towards the open glass. The star’s rays were caught and began to swirl and spin inside. As each lantern caught more and more light, so it began to grow ever so slightly heavier.

‘Hold it still,’ said Col again. ‘Steady now.’

He stretched out his own hand and held Alice’s wrist, supporting her as the lantern grew heavier. Sam was using both hands now and stood with his feet apart. All the starlight flowing into the dungeon was bending and streaming towards the lanterns. Within each glass, the mist of light was spinning, faster and faster like a tiny hurricane. At the very centre, Alice saw forming a tiny, bright speck of silver light: the concentrated fragment of the star’s reflection. As more light streamed in, the brighter and larger the centre grew, and the more the weight of the lantern increased.

Col stood between them now, supporting Alice with his left arm and Sam with his right, gazing up at the window. ‘Hold still just a little longer,’ he said. Alice’s arms hurt. She pulled her eyes away from the lantern and looked back at the tiny window. The star was passing now, disappearing on the other side of the frame. A few last strands of light were drawn into the lantern and then it was gone.

‘Enough,’ called Col. ‘Lower the lanterns very carefully.’

As if she held a bowl of molten silver, Alice held her lantern at the top and bottom and lowered her arms to her waist. Col closed the open panes of glass and sealed them with a tiny catch. He did the same with Sam’s lantern.

Over against the dungeon wall were two long metal poles. Giving one to each of them, Col showed them how to set the pole in the top of the lantern.

‘Lift them high,’ he said. ‘Don’t be afraid. Sam, you go that way, to the right. Alice, you walk to the left.’

Alice lifted the star-lantern high above her head. That part of the dungeon was bathed in a pool of bright, white light. There was the sharp sound of metal striking stone. Alice turned her head and gasped. The chains of the nearest prisoner had cracked apart and fallen off. He stood up, astounded and stretched his limbs, gazing at the light. It was the same on the other side of the passageway. A pair of manacles holding a woman to the wall were shattered. She hugged her arms to her body, rubbing her wrists.

‘Move forward, Alice!’ called Col, no longer whispering. ‘You too, Sam!’

Both of them began a slow procession through the dungeon, taking the light into every nook and cranny. Wherever the light of the star touched chains or manacles, stocks or handcuffs, they were instantly smashed apart. The dungeon was filled with great cracking, splitting and rending sounds.

The prisoners looked on in amazement as they stood and stretched, trying to get the circulation back into their bodies. Sam saw that many of them instantly looked a little stronger.

As the lanterns passed them, they began to follow in two slow processions. Some stayed behind.

Alice chose her own route through the great dungeon, twisting and turning between the great stone pillars so every part was touched by the starlight from the lantern. As she doubled back she saw that, whilst all of the prisoners had been set free, not everyone was following the procession. Col was bringing up the rear. He bent to speak to each person who had stayed behind. Some he was able to persuade to get to their feet and join the procession. Some simply stayed where they were, for one reason or another unable to follow. Despite the joy and wonder of the moment, Alice felt a sharp pang of sadness for each one who chose to stay in that dismal place.

On the other side of the dungeon, Sam was also scouring every dark corner for those who were held captive. Col danced ahead, now and then pointing out one place or another which was still hidden. Then, as he beckoned to them, Alice and Sam joined their lights together in the centre of the great space. They followed Col as he led them forward, now in as straight a line as they could manage with the pillars and foundations in the way. Behind them, the two processions became one. The silence of the dungeon was broken by the sounds coming from the crowd: quiet sobbing, whispering, soft cries of wonder.

Col led them to what seemed to be the main gateway to the prison: a heavy wooden portcullis, covered in heavy chains and padlocks. The crowd behind them fell silent again. Alice could feel the hope beginning to flow away. Col turned round to face them. ‘Point the lanterns at the gates,’ he cried. ‘Use the word of command: Ephathah!’

Sam and Alice caught the note of excitement in his voice and lowered their lanterns, pointing them like lances at the bars, chains and padlocks. ‘Ephathah!’ they cried together. ‘Ephathah!’ called the crowd. There was a loud crack. Something like lightning shot out from the end of each pole. Alice and Sam braced themselves as the poles jumped backwards in recoil. The gates and locks and bolts and chains were reduced to a pile of debris. From behind them came an enormous cheering which went on for at least five minutes. Hope was rising again.

Col led them forward again over the rubble of the gates and down a dark passageway. Fifty metres further there was another door, this one made of steel. ‘Ephathah!’ cried Sam and Alice. ‘Ephathah!’ thundered the crowd and it was destroyed. The cheer behind was even stronger.

‘There are nine gates altogether,’ cried Col above the noise as he led them onwards. It seemed to Alice that she was seeing every kind of prison door; every kind of chain; every lock; everything that had ever been used to hold a person captive. Every single one was shattered by the starlight and the word of command. Each shattered barrier brought them closer to the surface.

The ninth doorway was an immense stone boulder rolled against the mouth of the tunnel. Col stood well back. The lanterns were lowered for a final time. This time the whole crowd behind them cried in unison three times with Col and Alice and Sam in the lead: ‘Ephathah! Ephathah! Ephathah! The stone was shattered. The cold, fresh air rushed into the dungeon.

Sam and Alice led the great crowd of prisoners out into the fresh night air. Instead of armed guards or just emptiness, Alice saw immediately that there was an immense welcoming party in the open air. There were tables piled with food in one direction. There were baths and showers in another. There was a first-aid tent. Each prisoner was met with blankets and a warm embrace and taken wherever they wanted to go first: some chose food and drink, others a medical examination, the majority headed for a bath and new clothes. There was singing and feasting far into the night.

Alice and Sam followed Col round for a while as he supervised all that was happening and stopped for a word, now with a prisoner, now with one of the helpers. From time to time, one of the prisoners would come up to them, tears in his eyes, shake them by the hand and say thankyou in a language neither Alice nor Sam could understand.

‘Well done, both of you,’ Col said at last, ‘and thank you.’

‘Wouldn’t have missed it for the world,’ grinned Alice. ‘Fantastic.’ Then she yawned.

‘I’ve kept you out too long,’ said Col. ‘Hold hands and hold tight.’ He reached out his hands and took the lanterns from each of them.

As they let go, the scene on the cold hillside quietly faded. Alice felt immediately the warmth of the gas fire in the front room, the carpet, the sofa. She felt suddenly very tired and very hungry. Sam was dozing in the armchair.

Megs and Josie came into the room together and switched on the light. ‘Come on, you two. You must be shattered falling asleep in the front room.’

Sam and Alice both blinked. A tenth door was open in the calendar. Set right in the centre of the opened prison bars was a pair of manacles on a stone floor. The manacles were shattered and the prisoner had gone.

11 December

Alice got soaked to the skin the minute she left school on Tuesday. Her umbrella blew inside out on the way to the bus stop. There was an icy north wind stinging her cheeks. It was the first really cold day of the winter. By the time the bus came she was soaked and shivering. She warmed up a bit on the bus ride but then had to walk into the wind and sheets of rain all the way home. Great puddles had formed in the road. She was caught twice by cars sending up a curtain of freezing cold water.

Megs and Sam were at work and there was no message. Josie had been there at breakfast time – a good sign, Alice thought – but she must have gone off to work as well. She was an optician’s receptionist in the town. Alice peeled off her dripping clothes and had a hot bath, then changed into her jeans and T-shirt and made tea and toast.

‘That’s better,’ she thought, clasping her hands round the mug. ‘Feeling’s coming back.’

There were some letters on the kitchen table. The postman must have arrived before Megs went out. Alice looked through them. Two Christmas cards already. One had a picture of a reindeer. The other had a large comical snowman. Both were from the great aunts. They always had time to get really organised for Christmas. Three bills and a credit card statement. Alice looked carefully at that one. Megs never said much about money. She knew things were tight but she’d no idea they owed this much. Ouch! There were a couple of pieces of what looked like junk mail for Sam. Right at the bottom there was a note personally addressed to Megs in writing she didn’t recognise. The envelope had been opened but the note was back inside it.

Without a second thought, Alice took out the single piece of paper and read it through.

Dear Megs,

You might not remember but we met briefly on Friday when your car wouldn’t start. I couldn’t find your phone number in the directory so forgive this note. I wanted to ask you a favour and wondered if I could call in briefly on Tuesday evening around 7 p.m.? Please ring if it’s not convenient. The number is 020 8625 3856.

Yours truly,

Andrew (Watkins)

Alice read the note through a couple of times and thought about what it could mean. Strange. What kind of favour did he want to ask? Her mind went back to the car park and that moment after the car had started.

Mr Watkins fancied her mum? Yuk. Emergency. Alice reached for the phone.

‘Suzie? It’s me. I just got home and found a note for my mum. It’s from Mr Watkins.’

‘Fit Mr Watkins? From school? You’re kidding. My mum met him at the parents’ evening and thinks he’s really cool. She was ever so cross when I said he didn’t teach me.’

‘He’s calling round tonight. He wants to ask Mum a favour.’

‘Do you think he fancies her?’

‘Dunno. What shall I do? I’m not sure she’s ready to go out with anybody – still less a teacher.’

‘Hide the note.’

‘She’s already seen it. It was open when I got home.’

‘You’ll have to disrupt the evening then. Send him away. Throw a fit or something. Misbehave and put him off. It could be fun. I’m always putting Dad’s girlfriends off him.’

Alice heard the front door bang. ‘Home,’ called Megs.

‘So we have to do all the questions on page 46,’ Alice said deliberately and rather loudly.

‘Has she come in?’ said Suzie.

‘That’s right,’ said Alice.

‘Best go then,’ said Suzie. ‘Good luck. Give me a call and tell me how it goes.’

Megs sounded unusually cheerful. ‘Had a good day, darling? Excellent. Listen – er – someone might be calling round toni...’

‘I know,’ said Alice, casually, ‘I read this by accident.’ She waved the note.

‘Oh, well,’ said Megs. ‘It’s not quite polite to read people’s mail, darling. But yes – er – that Mr Watkins is calling around seven. Wonder what he wants. He didn’t say anything to you at school?’

‘Nothing,’ said Alice. ‘But it’s not me he wants to see, is it?’

Megs blushed ever so slightly. ‘I need to tidy up, have a bath, change out of these wet things. You OK with your homework?’

‘Think so,’ said Alice, smiling. ‘You carry on!’ She needed time on her own to plan.

Sabotage was her scheme of choice, of course. Why be merely annoying when you can be disruptive? However, it might be better to save that one for the first ‘date’ if things went that far. Distraction was a possibility. For a moment, Alice reflected on the thought of hurling herself down the stairs just as the doorbell rang or cutting her finger on a kitchen knife, but then her mind filled with images of Mr Slimy Watkins calling the ambulance and even coming to the hospital. ‘No,’ she smiled to herself, ‘let’s not do anything to help him. On this occasion, it might just be enough to settle for Operation Gooseberry. Constant presence. No time alone.’

Alice smiled to herself as she rehearsed all the different reasons she had to stay in the kitchen. It was bound to be the kitchen. Megs seemed incredibly happy as they finished tea. ‘You run along now, Alice. I’ll clear up tonight.’

‘It’s OK, Mum,’ she said, cheerfully. ‘I’ll help you clear up. I need the kitchen table for my homework this evening. I need to spread out.’

‘Oh,’ said Megs. ‘I thought I might, well, you know, talk to Mr Watkins in the kitchen.’

‘You carry on,’ said Alice. ‘I’ll still be able to concentrate. Then I can ask you questions if I get stuck – and he’s not going to be here very long, is he? He only wants to ask a favour.’

‘OK then,’ said Megs, with a weak smile. ‘You stay in the kitchen.’

The kettle was just coming to the boil at seven o’clock exactly when the doorbell rang. ‘I’ll get it,’ said Alice and shot out of the room. Sure enough, it was Mr Watkins.

‘Hello, Alice,’ he said. ‘Is your mum in? I left a note. Ah – Mrs Carroll.’

‘It’s Megs,’ said Megs, wrenching the door open and pulling Alice back by the shoulders. ‘Come on in, Andrew. Very nice to see you. Close the door behind you and come through.’

Megs marched Alice through into the kitchen, gripping her by the shoulders, pushed her down into a chair and held her there. ‘A bit too hard if you ask me,’ thought Alice, grinning.

‘You don’t mind if Alice sits with us while we talk, Andrew?’ said Megs with a grimace. ‘She’s got rather a lot of homework this evening and for some reason she needs to do it in the kitchen tonight. Tea or coffee?’

‘Coffee – er – please. White. No sugar. Had a good day?’

‘Not bad,’ said Megs. ‘Not bad. We’re getting busier in the run-up to Christmas.’

‘Mum, I don’t understand question six,’ said Alice. ‘What does it mean?’

Megs leaned over Alice’s shoulder and gripped her arm, very tightly indeed. ‘Do you mind if I look at question six later, darling? Move onto question seven, why don’t you?’

‘But Maaaum. I don’t understand question seven either,’ Alice said sweetly.

‘Why don’t I have a look?’ said Mr Watkins. ‘What subject is it anyway?’

‘Biology. Alice’s least favourite subject,’ said Megs. ‘Here’s your coffee.’

There was the sound of the front door opening and closing. ‘Home,’ called Sam. ‘Where are you, Alice?’

‘In here,’ called Alice.

Sam stuck his head round the kitchen door. ‘Sam, this is Andrew Watkins,’ said Megs. ‘He teaches at Alice’s school. Andrew, this is my brother, Sam.’

‘Hi,’ said Sam. ‘Alice, can I have a word? Front room. Now. OK?’

Alice looked panic stricken. ‘Can’t now,’ she said, trying to look meaningfully at Megs and Mr Watkins and then back at Sam. ‘Loads of homework.’

Just for a moment, Sam took in the scene. Both his niece and his sister were giving him meaningful looks. Both clearly wanted him to do something but he hadn’t the faintest idea what it was.

‘Suffering swordfish,’ he muttered. ‘It’s a text message, Alice. It’s just arrived. Very urgent. For immediate use. Come on.’

Alice knew she had to go. ‘OK,’ she said, flinging down her pencil. She looked hard at Mr Watkins. ‘I expect I’ll be back in a second or two’ and retreated backwards out of the room.

‘Sam, why did you do that?’ she hissed as soon as they were in the front room. ‘Did Mum put you up to it?’

‘Put me up to what?’ said Sam. ‘There really is a text message and it really does say “4NOW”. See for yourself. And the door is there, look!’

Alice looked, first at the phone and then at the calendar. There was a new door in the bottom left quadrant: a simple blue square made of wood. ‘Col had better not be in on this as well,’ she said. ‘OK then, let’s go. Read out the numbers.’

‘Six, six, colon, one, two.’

To Alice’s surprise the number six sprang back up again the first time she pressed it but stayed down the second time, like the other numbers. She held Sam’s hand as she pressed the final number and both of them tensed and looked anxiously at the floor.

Nothing happened. No gap in the floor. No coloured smoke coming out of the calendar. Just a tiny crack, Alice thought, at the top of the blue panel.

There was a sharp tap on the window. Sam went over and peered through. ‘There’s a rope ladder,’ he said, puzzled. ‘Just outside the window.’

‘Those windows don’t open,’ said Alice. ‘They are painted shu – oooh...’

Just as she said this, the large sash window in the middle of the bay slid open by itself. Alice climbed out first, put one foot on the rope ladder and began to climb, with Sam following close behind. It stretched up as far as she could see.

‘Hold tight,’ came a familiar voice. ‘Can’t stay here long.’

As they climbed higher, the ladder itself began to move upwards. Alice stopped climbing and leaned back to see what was happening. The rope ladder stretched above her for about twenty metres. It led to a large wicker basket. Above the basket was the faint outline against the stars of what looked like a huge balloon stretching into the night sky.

Sam could hear the roar of the balloon’s furnace. It was gaining height already. He looked down and already the rooftops were growing smaller beneath them.

‘Hold on,’ called Col, over the side of the basket. ‘Don’t climb. I’ll pull you up.’

There was a faint whirring sound. Alice gripped the sides of the ladder tightly as she was winched aboard through the trapdoor in the bottom of the basket. She stepped onto the basket floor and peered over the side. They were passing through a very thick layer of cloud. Sam joined her a second later as Col refastened the trapdoor.

‘All aboard,’ he said. ‘That was close. Nearly spotted.’

‘It’s not that easy to hide an enormous balloon in an English town,’ said Sam. ‘Where are we going?’

‘We’re there,’ said Col. ‘Look!’

Alice and Sam blinked as the balloon emerged from the thick cloud – to their great surprise – into the bright light of a new day and a different world. Suddenly, it was early morning. The sun was peeping over the eastern horizon behind them and the light was spreading over the hills and plains below. Alice saw immediately that they were very high, but the balloon was losing height as they moved deeper into the countryside.

‘What can you see?’ asked Col.

‘It’s beautiful,’ said Sam, as the dawn light raced over the land below them. Hills and valleys, deserts and dunes stretched in every direction.

‘It’s so dry,’ said Alice. ‘Nothing is growing. There’s no sea, no river, no streams.’

‘No trees,’ said Sam. ‘No crops or flowers.’

The landscape was deserted – a vast tract of barren desert stretching for hundreds of miles.

‘It’s amazing,’ said Alice as they flew on in silence carried by the wind. She was looking back at their flight path. The warm east wind made her hair stream out behind her face. ‘Like a silent planet. Nothing lives. Nothing grows. Has it always been like this?’

‘For thousands of years,’ said Col, pointing. ‘Look, ahead of us. We’re nearly there.’

The balloon was descending as they flew. Alice and Sam moved to the front of the basket. They followed Col’s arm in the direction of their flight.

There, in the centre of the desert at the top of a hill were some ancient ruins in a strange pattern. They were different from everything else in that strange and silent world. Clearly they were not part of the natural landscape. Long ago the building had fallen down. The stones left behind were half-covered by sand.

‘Ancient ruins,’ said Alice. ‘There must have been people here long ago.’

‘The great temple,’ said Col, clearly moved by the sight. ‘See the pattern,’ he pointed. ‘You can still make it out.’

‘That looks like a great wall,’ said Sam, ‘with gates in the centre of each side. We’re coming in over the east gate.’

‘That’s the temple itself in the very centre,’ said Alice, ‘where the stones are thickest.’

The wind had been fading for some time. Suddenly it dropped completely and the air was still. ‘Hold tight,’ said Col. ‘I’ll bring us into land.’

Alice and Sam gripped the edge of the wicker basket as Col pulled some cables and released more air from the canopy of the balloon. They flew low over the centre of the ruined buildings. Col set them down, exactly as planned, on the west side.

‘Come and see,’ said Col, helping them out of the balloon. ‘Take your shoes and socks off though and leave them here.’