Chapter 9. Ben to the Rescue
Ben’s journey was enlivened by the puppy, which attempted to throw itself into the stream of traffic, with a total disregard for its own safety. After two narrow misses with irate motorists Ben tucked the puppy under his arm where it leaned around and snuffled enquiringly at the pocket containing Jamie. Molly started grizzling and rubbing at her eyes. A van pulled into the kerb beside him. It was Tessa’s father.
‘Want a ride?’ he asked.
‘Yes please,’ said Ben thankfully. ‘Um, what about the pram?’ he asked.
‘No problem,’ replied Tessa’s father, ‘I’ll sling it in the back.’ He reached down and strapped Molly firmly into the front seat. Ben climbed in beside her and held the puppy down on the floor with a foot on its head. After one whine of protest the puppy subsided in a panting heap.
‘Where’s Tessa?’ asked her father.
‘Um, we’re playing hide and seek,’ invented Ben. ‘I have to meet her at the old office block on Spring Street in twenty minutes if I can’t find her,’ he added with a stroke of genius.
‘You got stuck with babysitting, did you?’ Tessa’s father nodded at Molly.
‘Yes’, said Ben, reflecting that this was the first true statement he had made to Tessa’s father all day.
Back at the shop Tessa’s mother came out to greet them.
‘Oh, isn’t she sweet,’ she gushed, picking up Molly and cuddling her. ‘Who does she belong to?’ she asked Ben. There was an awkward pause.
‘Er, a sort of cousin of ours,’ replied Ben.
Tessa’s mother smiled understandingly.
‘The poor little thing is nearly asleep,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you leave her here with me and go and get Tessa? By the time you get back I’ll have some lunch ready for us all. And take that puppy back where it belongs’, she added firmly. ‘This is not the sort of place to have a dog running around.’
Ben’s shoulders drooped as he walked back to the elevator. So much for Tessa’s parents letting her have a puppy. Somehow he still had to find Tessa and another ball to undo the changes to Molly and Jamie. He risked a look in his pencil case as he entered the lobby. Jamie was curled up on the paper tissue with his arms over his head.
Ben cheered up.
‘At least it’s easier without a pram,’ he thought, ‘and maybe Tessa’s Mum will enjoy Molly so much she will want to keep her.’
He pushed the fourth button on the panel and a grinding of gears and series of jerks began as he was carried upward.
Before long he arrived at the door, where the puppy tried to jump up and lick the door handle. Ben took a deep breath and opened the door. The puppy leaped forward into a forest clearing and snuffled happily, sneezing at the scent of the thyme and leaping to try and catch the tiny birds that flitted around the trees. Ben saw the cherubs with their outstretched arms but there was no sign of Tessa. A circular patch on one cherub’s hand showed where a ball had been.
‘Well she must have taken the ball,’ he thought, ‘but where is she now? I’d better find her first before I take the other ball.’ He looked around but all he could see were trees, with no apparent way out. Ben sank down onto the thyme beside the sundial to think. The puppy pounced on a piece of cord sticking up from the ground and started to chew it. ‘That’s one of Tessa’s shoelaces,’ cried Ben ‘I’d recognise it anywhere. At least I know she’s been here. Tessa,’ he called, ‘Tessa, where are you? Can you hear me?’
The only sound was the rustling of leaves from a small tree standing next to the sundial. Ben looked around, frowning. Where could Tessa have got to? Kicking at the ground absently his foot hit a tree root. Looking down he saw that tied neatly around the tree root in a tidy bow was Tessa’s other shoelace. Ben was puzzled. He climbed to his feet and looked at the tree closely. The tree had two large branches like arms that waved at him imploringly. The tree bark was the same colour as Tessa’s pinafore while the leaves had a coppery tinge the same colour as Tessa’s hair.
Ben could hardly believe what he was seeing.
‘Tessa, is that you?’ he asked the tree. The branches waved at him. A few ginger leaves floated down to rest at his feet.
Ben groaned.
‘I’ll bet she broke that ball,’ he said aloud. ‘If one ball turned her into the tree perhaps the other one will turn her back. It’s worth a try anyway.’
Ben strode to the sundial and gently twisted the golden ball loose from the cherub’s outstretched hand. Holding it carefully he walked over to the tree.
‘Tessa, can you break the ball?’ He held the ball hopefully up against one of the branches. The branch waved desperately but the ball didn’t break. Ben tried to balance the ball on the branches but it slipped off to roll onto the soft thyme below it.
‘Bother,’ said Ben. ‘I’ll have to throw the thing.’ Taking a few steps back he aimed at the trunk and threw the ball as hard as he could. There was a loud ‘pop.’ The ball broke in half and a pink mist rose from it and rapidly encircled the tree. Ben watched in fascination as through the mist Tessa’s shape began to materialize. First there stood a tree with scuffed sneakers, one of them without a lace. Next there was a tree wearing a brown pinafore and finally there stood Tessa as the pink mist evaporated.
‘Ow,’ yelled Tessa. ‘What did you do that for? You nearly broke my leg!’ she fell to the ground clutching her ankle where a large black bruise was forming.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Ben indignantly, ‘but how was I to know it would hurt you. I was trying to break the ball. Anyway it worked. You’re back to normal.’
‘Why didn’t you break a branch off one of the other trees and use that, you idiot?’ screamed Tessa.
‘I didn’t think of that,’ confessed Ben. ‘What was it like being a tree?’
‘Horrible’, shuddered Tessa, ‘but lovely at the same time. Sort of safe and deeply rooted and not having to bother about anything. Where’s Molly,’ she went on, ‘and Jamie? Did you change them back at the same time?’
Ben looked crestfallen. ‘I didn’t think of that,’ he admitted. ‘Jamie’s here in my pocket, I think he’s still okay.’ He opened the pencil case and Tessa peered inside.
‘Oh gross, that’s disgusting,’ she yelped. ‘He’s being sick in a corner of the pencil case.’
‘Well don’t wave it around like that,’ said Ben reasonably. ‘You’re probably making him seasick. Anyway, you can hardly talk. You’re covered in bird droppings.’
‘Oh yuck,’ screamed Tessa, and pulling up handfuls of thyme she desperately wiped at her shoulder. Ben laughed. He couldn’t help it. Tessa looked so funny and the puppy was trying to climb on top of her in a frenzy of excitement. Tessa looked murderously angry then she too began to laugh. When they were at the weak giggly stage Ben confessed he had left Molly with Tessa’s mother.
‘We’d better get back then,’ said Tessa getting to her feet, which felt surprisingly thin and insubstantial. Hearing a burst of music, the puppy ran over to the roots of one of the trees and began to dig. Soon it had uncovered a large hole opening into a tunnel that led down under the tree.
‘I don’t want to go down there,’ said Tessa in horror.
‘We haven’t much choice,’ replied Ben. There doesn’t seem to be any other way out. Come on, you can hold my hand if you like.’
Tessa took Ben’s hand and allowed herself to be dragged down into the hole. After a few minutes of wriggling in the dirt, the hole opened into a tunnel wide enough to stand up in.
The puppy ran along in front of Ben while the sound of chiming bells grew louder and louder.
‘It’s funny really,’ said Tessa, ‘I’d always imagined that having a magic adventure would be exciting – all wishes coming true and happiness and everything. Instead it’s dirty and uncomfortable and nothing but trouble.’
Ben agreed heartily.
‘I’m trying not to think about it. I keep hoping it’s some sort of nightmare that I’m going to w
ake up from.’ As he spoke, the tunnel ended and he and Tessa crawled out onto a stretch of white sand. The first thing they saw was a grotesque snarling face and a pair of clawed hands reaching out towards them. Tessa screamed.