The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer (14 page)

However, although one of the gardeners was carrying a rake, it quickly became apparent that they were not going to be of much use.

Their basic method was to shout at Benjy ordering him
to stop behaving like an idiot and to get up and go home. Benjy’s response was to bark even more loudly and to snap angrily at the gardeners. When it became clear that shouting was having no effect, one of the gardeners, showing far more courage than the spectators, stepped right up to Benjy with the intention of seizing him by the scruff of his neck.

Benjy’s response was immediate and savage. He snapped angrily at the gardener’s hand and then sank his teeth into the man’s calf.

The gardener leapt back, yowling with pain, while the other gardener fended the bristling Benjy off with his rake.

There was so much commotion below: howling, shouting, barking, laughter that no one heard the sound of the ambulance before it nosed through the gates of the park, siren wailing, red light flashing.

As the ambulance departed, its cargo having been subdued with the aid of a large sheet and a powerful sedative administered with difficulty, Mel climbed shakily down from the tree. She had been perching precariously and she had been fending off cramp.

Now, on solid ground, she stretched her legs and stamped her feet to try to get the circulation flowing once more.

A policewoman stood nearby, waiting for her to finish these exercises.

At length, she asked gently, ‘Okay?’

Mel looked up with a little smile and nodded.

‘I’ll need to take your name and details,’ the policewoman said, taking out her pen and a notebook. Once Mel had given her name, address and phone number, the policewoman said, ‘This has all been pretty bizarre, and you’ve had a very frightening time, but the boy obviously had it in for you particularly … any idea why?’

Mel shook her head and tried to look thoughtful. ‘I don’t even know the guy,’ she said. ‘I mean, I sort of know who he is and stuff, but I don’t really know him.’

She looked up and the policewoman nodded.

‘Well, could you tell me what happened then? From your point of view, I mean.’

Mel shrugged. ‘It was really, really weird,’ she said. ‘His name’s Benjy …’

‘Yes,’ the policewoman said, ‘we have that.’

‘Well, I was just sort of kicking round in the park looking for some mates, and I sort of looked up and saw him. He saw me so I said “Hi” and we chatted for a bit and then he suddenly dropped to the ground and started behaving like a dog. I thought it was, like, some sort of stupid game so I shouted “Sit!” but then he started lunging at me and barking. Man, I was scared because I knew that it wasn’t a game at all and he was completely out of it, completely lost the plot, so I was out of there. I just ran to the nearest tree and climbed up it.’

The policewoman glanced up the tree.

‘And I’ve been stuck up there ever since with that kid
barking as if he wanted to kill me or something.’

‘And you’ve no idea why?’

Mel shook her head.

‘You haven’t had any problem with him before?’

Mel shook her head again. ‘As I said, I hardly know him. He doesn’t go to my school or anything. I’ve heard stuff about him, though, like he’s been in a lot of trouble and that …’

The policewoman waited.

‘Perhaps it all got a bit too much,’ Mel suggested.

‘But nothing personal? Nothing involving you?’

Mel considered the question. There was probably no harm in mentioning the skateboard incident. She told the policewoman about how Jason and Gavin had tried to take her skateboard off her, but had eventually given it back. She did not mention that Jason’s bag and Gavin’s skateboard had ended up in the lake, nor how this had happened.

‘They were just acting tough,’ she said, ‘and anyway this Benjy kid ran away before anything began. He didn’t want to be involved.’

The policewoman gave her a little smile. ‘Well, that wouldn’t seem to have much to do with this. It’s all something of a mystery.’

‘I think he just flipped,’ said Mel, relieved that it was all over.

However, her relief was short-lived. ‘There was one other thing,’ said the policewoman. ‘Somebody witnessing the events said that you seemed to be holding some object up before the boy’s face?’

Mel’s heart lurched. She should have realised that this question would come.

She swallowed, and said. ‘I had a little propeller thing, that’s all. You know, those little things that spin in the wind. That’s right, I was showing it to him. Just a toy.’

‘Okay,’ said the policewoman. ‘Where is it? Could I see?’

Mel looked about her. ‘I don’t have it any more,’ she said. ‘I must have dropped it when he started to chase me.’

The policewoman, too, looked about but there was no sign of anything. ‘I don’t suppose it has any bearing on all of this,’ she said. ‘Are you okay now? Can we give you a lift home or anything?’

Mel shook her head. ‘No, I’ll be fine.’ She gave the policewoman a small smile. ‘Just a little stiff.’ Then she added, ‘Do you think my little propeller might have caused him to …’

The policewoman laughed. ‘Good heavens, no. I just wanted to check everything out.’

Mel smiled. ‘I just wondered that’s all.’

‘No,’ the policewoman said a little more soberly, ‘I imagine from the way he was behaving that he was probably on something.’

‘On something?’

‘Some drugs. Even quite young kids are getting hold of them now.’

‘Wow,’ said Mel.

‘A very good lesson,’ said the policewoman. ‘Well, goodbye now, Melanie. Take care.’

‘Bye,’ said Mel. ‘I’ll try.’

During this interview, the loblolly boy had been standing not far away. There had been a few people milling about still, one or two straining to hear Mel’s version of events. However, now as the policewoman moved off, they began to drift away as well. The loblolly boy pointed towards the swings and Mel nodded.

Shortly afterwards, they were seated on a bench not far from the swings and the children’s paddling pool.

‘She thinks Benjy’s on drugs,’ said Mel, with a wan little smile.

‘I know,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘Are you okay?’

They sat in silence for a while. A pair of ducks approached hopefully but the two of them had nothing for the ducks.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Mel.

In the excitements and fury of the last forty minutes she’d been so concerned about her own safety, she hadn’t really thought of what it all meant for the loblolly boy. Remembering now what the whole exercise had been about, she realised that his hopes had been dashed yet again. Dashed so badly there was probably nothing more that could be done. They’d had one last shot at getting Benjy to cooperate and they had blown it.

‘Yeah,’ said the loblolly boy.

‘Bummer,’ said Mel.

‘Yet again,’ sighed the loblolly boy.

‘We did try,’ said Mel.

‘We were stupid, as usual,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘We should have guessed what sort of a bloody dog Benjy would be.’

Mel gave a grim little laugh. ‘The sort of dog the dog control guys put down,’ she said.

‘He really went for you, didn’t he,’ said the loblolly boy.

‘I reckon,’ said Mel. ‘It was not nice.’

Again they sat in silence for a time.

‘What’ll happen to him?’ asked Mel.

‘Don’t know,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘I guess he’ll go to the hospital and they’ll give him something. I hope the
being-a-dog
thing wears off.’

‘They’ll probably treat him like some of those guys who lose the plot or something,’ said Mel.

‘I don’t know,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘I mean, people on drugs — the drugs wear off after a while, but Benjy’s not on drugs …’

‘I know who might know what to do,’ said Mel.

The loblolly boy nodded. ‘I reckon we ought to go and see him. And there’s another thing …’

‘What’s that?’

‘I’d like to know why he ran away when you were stuck up that tree,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘That wasn’t very nice. It wasn’t nice at all.’

‘No,’ said Mel.

‘Perhaps the Captain was right after all,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘Perhaps I should be fearful of him.’

‘Not because he’s mean, surely,’ said Mel.

‘No, he’s not mean,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘But I’m
beginning to think he’s a loose cannon.’

‘And full of pathetic jokes,’ said Mel.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

P
LAN B

W
hen they reached the Gadget Man’s shop and pushed at the door, they were surprised to find it locked.

‘Strange,’ said Mel.

‘Perhaps he doesn’t open on Sundays,’ said the loblolly boy.

‘He was open earlier on.’

‘That’s because he was expecting you.’

‘He should be expecting us now,’ said Mel grimly.

‘What’ll we do?’

They peered through the bleary window and could see just a little of the dark interior. There were no lights on and there was no sign of the Gadget Man.

‘We knock,’ said Mel determinedly. ‘We knock until he comes.’

However, although they knocked until their knuckles were sore, there was no response.

‘He must be hiding from us,’ said Mel. ‘The wimp!’

‘Possibly,’ said the loblolly boy, ‘although he may just have gone out again.’

‘I don’t think he’s the sort of guy who goes out much,’ said Mel. ‘Is there any way of checking?’

‘I don’t know,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘I’ll have a look.’

He left Mel on the footpath outside the shop, and flew up above the building. There was a small yard out the back on to which the windows and a door of the Gadget Man’s apartment opened. The loblolly boy landed and hurried over to the windows. One looked into a small kitchen, but he could quickly see that the kitchen was deserted. He checked out the other windows, only to find an equally deserted living room not counting the gorilla, and a bedroom.

He stepped back out into the yard peering up at the second storey. He flew up and landed on a narrow little fire escape platform to check it out.

He found himself staring into a large room, clearly the Gadget Man’s workshop for it was filled with bits and pieces and strange devices. There were boxes, overloaded benches and tables, and all kinds of odd looking machines large and small, and on the walls racks of tools hung
higgledy-piggledy
.

More importantly, the Gadget Man himself was leaning over a workbench engrossed in some enterprise.

The loblolly boy tapped on the window, clearly surprising the Gadget Man who started with alarm before quickly turning around to locate the source of the noise.

He stared over his half-round glasses in confusion at the window, but when he identified the loblolly boy, he came hurrying over.

He mouthed something through the glass, but the
loblolly boy had no idea what he was saying and gestured at him to open the window. It was an old-fashioned double-sash window, and the Gadget Man had to struggle with it. Clearly it was rarely opened. Eventually though, the bottom sash was lifted up and he said, ‘Goodness me, Loblolly Boy, you did scare me. This is a most unorthodox way of visiting. Why did you not knock at the door?’

‘We did,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘We knocked and knocked and knocked. You just didn’t hear us. Mel’s down there at the moment.’

‘Oh my goodness, is she? She managed to get down from that tree, then?’

‘Yes, eventually,’ said the loblolly boy. He wanted to add,
no thanks to you
, but thought he’d give the little man the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

‘Oh, excellent,’ said the Gadget Man.

‘We’d like to talk with you,’ said the loblolly boy.

‘Would you? Oh, yes, I suppose you would,’ said the Gadget Man, and then, remembering Mel still waiting down below, he added, ‘Well I suppose we’d better go down and let her in. Can you climb in through the window?’

The loblolly boy could and did, and then he followed the Gadget Man down the dark flight of stairs and into his apartment. They walked through the shop and the Gadget Man unlocked the shop door.

‘It took you long enough,’ complained Mel. ‘Where were you guys?’

‘He was upstairs,’ said the loblolly boy, ‘working on something in his workshop.’

‘It was the device,’ explained the Gadget Man. ‘I felt it needed tweaking.’

‘Tweaking?’ asked Mel. ‘Why? So Benjy could go
tweet
tweet
instead of
woof woof
?’

The Gadget Man ignored this. ‘Come in, come in,’ he said. ‘I’ll put the kettle on.’

When they were settled in the living room and the Gadget Man had finished fussing with his tea making, lemonade pouring and cream cracker serving, Mel asked abruptly, ‘What’s going to happen to Benjy?’

‘Happen to Benjy?’ asked the Gadget Man.

‘Yes, is he going to stop being a dog?’

‘I can’t really say,’ admitted the Gadget Man after giving the matter some thought. ‘He might.’

‘
Might
?’

‘Well, this is new territory for me, really. I had to adapt a completely different sort of device. Obviously, it didn’t quite work out as expected. That’s why I’m trying to adjust it right now,’ he explained.

‘Isn’t it a bit late for that now?’ asked the loblolly boy.

‘Oh, I don’t know …’ said the Gadget Man.

‘Anyway,’ said Mel. ‘I hope you can. The whole thing was so awful. I mean the way he leapt at me with those awful narrow eyes and baring his teeth like that.’

She shuddered at the memory.

‘Yes, I do apologise. I should have really anticipated that.’

‘So should I,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘Benjy is such a low down rat, I should have realised he’d turn into a rotten vicious dog.’

‘Perhaps, perhaps,’ said the Gadget Man, ‘but you may be misjudging him. No, and again I apologise, I do think the fault probably lies with me. I am afraid I may have been rather foolish, letting my enthusiasm for the project
override
my caution.’

The loblolly boy looked at him curiously. He recalled the Sorcerer’s warning about the Gadget Man and his enthusiasm and how he often missed the target.

‘What do you mean foolish?’ asked Mel.

The Gadget Man looked a little embarrassed and shuffled somewhat. ‘Well you see, remember when I said I thought I may have had a hypnosis device?’

They nodded.

‘Well, when I looked it was nowhere to be found. I may have even been imagining things. So, discovering I didn’t have one, I needed to construct a new device entirely. Or so I thought. Because at that moment I remembered, fortunately, I did have a similar device I’d once put together at the request of some army or other. I forget which …’

‘Army?’ asked Mel. ‘What do you mean?’

‘This army, whichever it was, doesn’t matter really … This particular army wanted a device to turn ordinary
non-violent
type people into efficient soldiers,’ explained the Gadget Man.

Mel stared at him. ‘Efficient soldiers?’

‘Yes,’ continued the Gadget Man. ‘Brutally efficient soldiers.’

‘And?’ said the loblolly boy.

The Gadget Man nodded. ‘Yes, this was the device I adapted. It already was designed to change personality, so I adjusted it so that it would change the subject into believing he was a dog. Unfortunately I neglected to adjust the setting that turned an ordinary person into a brutally efficient …’

‘Killing machine?’ asked Mel.

‘I suppose,’ said the Gadget Man, ‘you could express it that way, although it does seem a little strong.’

Mel thought of the way Benjy had snarled and lunged at her. ‘It doesn’t seem a little strong to me,’ she said.

‘I guess that little stuff up wouldn’t have helped,’ said the loblolly boy.

‘Anyway,’ said the Gadget Man, ‘as soon as I saw the way the boy was behaving, I hurried home with the device in order to recalibrate it. I was just, I believe, on the very verge of success when you interrupted me with this very pleasant visit.’

‘I’m really glad about that,’ said the loblolly boy, ‘but where does that leave Benjy?’

He also wanted to ask,
but where does that leave me?
But didn’t bother. In a sense it was the same question.

‘I really don’t know,’ said the Gadget Man.

‘In hospital,’ said Mel.

‘Oh, dear, is he?’ asked the Gadget Man.

‘They took him away in an ambulance,’ said Mel. ‘It was the only way I was going to be able to get down from that tree.’

‘So, what are you saying?’ asked the loblolly boy. ‘A few more tweaks and we can turn Benjy back into Benjy?’

‘Or at least into a more reasonable dog?’ asked Mel.

The Gadget Man looked at them with some surprise. ‘Oh, dear me, no,’ he said. ‘No, I fear that what’s done is done. No, I’m trying to recalibrate the device so that it doesn’t have this unfortunate effect next time.’

‘Next time?’ asked Mel.

‘Yes, next time,’ explained the Gadget Man. ‘You know, with another subject.’

The loblolly boy looked at the Gadget Man with incredulity. ‘Why on earth would we want to turn somebody
else
into a dog?’ he asked. ‘The whole point of the exercise was to turn Benjy into a dog so that he might be more cooperative and Exchange! The last thing we’d want to do is to point that little thing at other people and be surrounded by barking idiots on all sides!’

‘I see,’ said the Gadget Man stiffly. ‘So I’ve been wasting my time? Really my dear young people, if that’s the way you feel about it, then I don’t know how I can help you any more.’

There seemed little more to say or do. Not long after the
Gadget Man’s admission, the loblolly boy and Mel made their escape.

Once back on the footpath, Mel said, ‘I think he’s as bonkers as Benjy!’

The loblolly boy shrugged. ‘Loose cannon, but I did hope …’ he said.

Mel looked at him. ‘I know. It’s like the rug’s been pulled from under your feet.’

‘Yeah, and you come crashing down on your back with your feet in the air.’

They stood in silence for a while and then Mel checked her watch. ‘I’d better get back. I’ll take the bus. Mum’s a bit tetchy at the moment.’

The loblolly boy nodded. ‘I guess so. Better not make things worse.’ He sounded wistful, and Mel saw how he was hurting.

‘I’m really sorry,’ she said.

‘As you said before,’ he replied, ‘we gave it our best shot.’

Mel looked up and down the road, but there was no bus in sight. ‘I wonder if Mum’s heard all about it yet.’

‘Will it matter?’

‘That policewoman could have called, I suppose,’ said Mel. ‘You know, she was okay, that policewoman.’

‘If there’s any problem, just tell your mum what you told her,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘That it really had nothing to do with you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when Benjy decided to go bananas.’

‘I suppose so,’ said Mel, ‘but Mum doesn’t always see things that way. She’ll give me heaps because I
was
in the
wrong place at the wrong time.’

‘It’ll be all right,’ said the loblolly boy reassuringly.

‘What’ll
you
do?’

He shrugged. ‘Don’t know. Kick about the place for a bit. I guess I’ll wait around to see whether Benjy gets better or not.’

Mel nodded. ‘Yeah, I’d like to know that, too.’ She glanced down the road again. ‘Hey, there’s a bus,’ she said. ‘I’d better rush. See you!’

‘Bye,’ called the loblolly boy as Mel hurried away.

He stood and waited as the bus passed him and pulled up at the stop further down the road. It was only as Mel climbed aboard with an unobtrusive half-wave in his direction that he realised that they hadn’t arranged to meet again.

The loblolly boy flew yet again back to the park. Back to the drawing board, he thought miserably. Worse, because there didn’t even seem to be any drawing board any more. No direction, no plans, no ideas, no hope.

He wondered idly where the hospital was. That was at least something to think about. Not today, though, he was too down to even consider it, but perhaps tomorrow. He would take to the sky and somehow find the hospital Benjy had been taken to. This wouldn’t in any way further
his cause, of course. It was just something to do to satisfy his curiosity.

He didn’t bother about the linden tree. He’d spent far too much time in it already. Instead he made for the bench near the stopped floral clock. He’d sit there to see the later afternoon out.

When he got there, he found somebody waiting for him.

The Sorcerer was sitting there, almost as he had been the last time, impeccably dressed in his white linen suit, his silver topped cane held before him. The only difference was his buttonhole. Whereas on the previous occasion he had been sporting a pink carnation, he now wore a small scarlet rose.

The loblolly boy was so despondent he no longer cared enough to be apprehensive of the man.

‘I suppose you’ve come to gloat?’ he asked.

‘Well, you must admit I gave you fair warning?’

‘Fair warning? Fair? I understood you don’t play fair.’

‘Never, little man, except when I have an underhand reason for doing so.’

There seemed no answer to that. The loblolly boy sank down into the seat beside the Sorcerer without attempting any further conversation. He guessed by now that the Sorcerer, like the Captain, did nothing by accident and his waiting for him on the bench would have been quite deliberate. Sooner or later the Sorcerer would make his purpose known.

‘It was really quite a remarkable performance,’ observed the Sorcerer at length.