Andy woke with a start, momentarily disoriented until he remembered he was at Tim’s house. He looked at the end of his sofa bed and smiled. His school clothes were lying on the end washed, and ironed. Tim was across the other side of the room, still asleep and snoring slightly.
Andy looked at the alarm clock. It was only 6.00 a.m. There was no noise, so he guessed everyone else was still asleep. He got out of bed very quietly and got dressed. Sitting at Tim’s desk, he got the Talisman out of his school bag and laid it out in front of him. As before, it began to feel alive in his hands, but became inanimate when he put it down. He wondered if it was his imagination. Whatever it was, it gave him the creeps.
After a quick search he found a pencil, a ruler and a piece of paper and set to work carefully drawing a picture of the Talisman. He took a number of measurements and copied them onto the paper. Once he had the outline done he filled in the detail. He carefully drew the dashes and dots and noted the pattern in which they were laid out. He also made notes with arrows pointing to the bit of the Talisman they were referring to.
‘Feels alive when picked up.
Looks like metal but feels like something else.
Circles on front look like a bike lock or combination lock.
Leather cord and clasp look out of place… too modern
Dashes and dots in a pattern on the front.
Looks painted on.’
Once finished, Andy looked around for something to put the Talisman in. He found an old cake tin. He opened it up and found it was full of small tins of paint and brushes. Tim made model airplanes. He was pretty good at it, though Andy teased him for being a geek. Andy took the paints out of the box then fished around in his school bag and found his gym socks. He picked up the Talisman and wrapped the socks around it, then put the smelly bundle in the box.
After closing the lid, Andy put one of Tim’s marker pens in his pocket and made for the door. Opening it as quietly as he could, he listened for noise. Nothing stirred, so he slipped out the door and down the stairs. Passing through the kitchen he stopped at the pantry and grabbed two slices of bread.
“My cover story,” he said to himself as he left a few crumbs around the bread drawer.
Slipping quietly out the back door, he walked out through the Meadows’ back garden, which was a sprawling affair casually filled with a massive variety of flowers and trees. At the far end of the yard was a huge old oak tree with an old garden shed beneath it. Andy stopped and considered it for a moment.
‘No, it’s still on the property,’ he thought and carried on.
At the end of the yard was a tall fence with a gate in the middle of it. Andy walked through the gate and closed it behind him. On the back of the Meadows’ property was a river. In this part of town it was reasonably wide with willows and bull-rushes along its banks. On each side of the river was a public walkway which lay in the narrow area between the river and the houses which backed onto it.
Downstream the Nova also flowed through Andy’s part of town, but instead of live trees, dead cars, fridges and TVs littered the banks.
Andy looked both ways. No one was coming, so he walked a few hundred metres up the river looking about.
Yes. That’ll do.
He was standing where the land between houses and the river was reasonably wide and covered in big old oak trees. The area was also thick with leaves and scrub. Andy only had to walk a few metres off the track for it to disappear behind him.
Near a tall fence was a particularly gnarly oak tree. It seemed to offer Andy what he was looking for so he walked over and inspected it. He found a hole near the base of the tree between two huge roots.
“This is almost too good to be true,” Andy said to himself as he pulled some leaves away.
Andy pushed the tin into the hole. It was a good fit, but about a third of the tin was still visible so he pasted a thick layer of composted leaves and mud onto the tin. The effect was remarkable and the tin literally disappeared.
Andy stood back and leaned against the fence to look at his work. It looked natural and was a job well done. Now to make a mark so he would be sure he’d find the right spot. He took the pen out of his pocket, pulled the cap off and made a small line on the fence, horizontal with the ground at about the same height as his eyes.
Andy was walking back to Tim’s house when he suddenly remembered the bread. He stopped and pulled the mangled slices out of his pocket. Spying a duck nearby, he threw a bit to it. The duck raced over to the bread and gobbled it down. Without any announcement several more ducks swooped in from whereabouts unknown and the fight was on.
Having done his good deed for the day, Andy turned and went back through the gate. He made sure a few breadcrumbs were on his school blazer. He’d been gone half an hour so the family would most likely be up by now.
Walking back into the kitchen, Andy found Mr Meadows already dressed for work. Mrs Meadows was still in her dressing gown. They were surprised to see Andy.
“You’re up early young fellow,” Carl said as he opened the morning paper.
“Yeah, woke up before dawn and couldn’t get back to sleep,” Andy replied.
“You weren’t uncomfortable were you?” Kim asked.
“No thanks, just no Sirens or Harleys to lull me back to sleep.”
Carl took a sip of coffee.
“What were you up to outside?” he asked.
“I thought I might as well go and feed some ducks,” Andy lied smoothly.
Kim shot Andy a firm look.
“That explains my pantry open with crumbs all over it! And your blazer! I cleaned that last night. You may be a guest Mr Anderson but don’t think I’ll treat you any different to my own children.”
Andy’s face flushed. His lie had burnt him a little and he was embarrassed, but he was also relieved. His mother would have been much worse.
“Sorry Mrs Meadows,” he said. “I won’t do it again.”
“You can feed the ducks if you want,” she replied. “But clean up after yourself. Now go and wash your hands for breakfast. They’re filthy.”
Andy did as he was told and returned to have breakfast. About ten minutes later Tim’s sister Lauren came into the kitchen still dressed in her pyjamas and rubbing her eyes. When she finally focused she saw Andy smirking at her, munching his toast.
“Morning, Lauren,” he said.
“Muuummm, Daaad!” she screamed, “You didn’t tell me stink psycho boy was here!”
“That’s nice,” said Andy. “You’re a bit of a breath monster yourself at this time of the morning.”
Lauren’s eyes went wild in anger. Her mouth opened and moved but nothing came out. She just screamed and ran back to her room. Carl was laughing hard and wiping tears from his eyes.
“Breath monster,” he repeated. “That’s a good one. I’ll remember that.”
Tim came down a minute later.
“What’s all the noise?” he asked.
“Just your sister’s usual morning happy person routine,” his father replied.
Breakfast continued without interruption. Carl finished, then kissed his wife goodbye and left for work. Kim had an ongoing argument with her daughter who insisted breakfast be brought to her in her room because of Andy’s presence. By 8:15 they were in the car fighting the morning traffic to get to school with Lauren sulking in the front seat. The boys sat in the back saying nothing to each other for fear of another eruption from Lauren or annoying Kim.
As soon as they were out of the car they burst into conversation.
“Your sister doesn’t half wind your mother up,” said Andy.
“You haven’t seen the half of it,” said Tim. “That was mild today. Where’s the Talisman? I got a fright when you were gone this morning. I wondered what’d happened to you.”
“I thought about what you said last night so I got up early and hid it.”
Tim was surprised.
“Where?” he asked.
r /> “In the hollow of an old oak tree up from your place,” Andy said. “I’ll leave it there for a few days to see if it’s missed before I go back to it.”
The boys went off to their classes and met again at break time. They sat in a small corner of the paved area of the school surrounded by old stone buildings and argued long and hard about what to do about the Talisman. The final decision was to give it a week. If they had not been approached or questioned then they would consider it safe. They made a pact that if things turned bad they would stay strong and not rat each other out. Andy was sure he could resist interrogation, but he wasn’t so sure about Tim.