when he had some time we’d go to the Science Museum in London – somewhere like that. He loved engines, just like me. And books, he liked books too, like Chloe. He used to share things with us.’
Amanda’s eyes twinkled. ‘Maybe he didn’t like either, engines or books? Maybe he was interested because you two were interested? He sounds like a good dad to me. You had a lot of him. I didn’t have a father, not one who I knew, so you’re lucky you got what you did.’
Alex stared at Amanda, realising why she was a board-comber.
‘Yeah, I guess.’ He tried to imagine what it would have been like to have no father at all, not even a step-dad like Ben. ‘You had a bad time, eh?’
‘It wouldn’t have been so bad,’ she replied, ‘if they hadn’t beaten me so often …’
She shook in anger, stirring her colourful ribbons and rags: little flags of rage fluttering at the past.
Bullies, he thought. Even worse than people who did nothing for a man having a heart attack. There were bullies at his school who could make your life a complete misery. These days there were lots of kids who had no dads at home and no one thought much about it. But the bullying still went on, just the same. If they didn’t call you one name, they’d think of another: the colour of your skin, the fact that you had freckles and ginger hair, the fact that you wore glasses – anything, really. And if taunting didn’t stir you, they often resorted to threats and violence. Bullies were another reason why you wanted to escape from the world, if you didn’t deal with them.
‘Well,’ said Amanda, bringing him out of his reverie, ‘we’re here.’
He looked up. ‘Where?’ he asked, surprised.
‘That patch of darkness is where you go.’
Alex blinked hard. ‘In there? My house?’
‘That’s where you came from.’
‘Oh.’
The time had come to say goodbye.
Alex unslung the African mask from his shoulder.
‘Well, Makishi, I can’t take you with me – you’d just become a wall-hanging down there.’
‘I do not want to part from you, Alex, but I do not want to adorn a wall.’
Alex handed Makishi to Amanda. ‘You’ll look after him, won’t you?’
She nodded. ‘I’ll wear him sometimes.’
‘Well, he’s a boy’s mask really, but I’m sure he’ll like it better here than down in my world.’
‘And we must say goodbye too, Alex.’
Alex said weakly, ‘Oh well, here goes – see you, then.’
‘No,’ she replied seriously, ‘we won’t see each other again, I’m afraid, but I did like meeting you, Alex. I haven’t spoken to a human in – oh, I don’t know how long – but I enjoyed our time together. Now you must go back to what you know, and me to what I know.’
‘You make sure that old Organist doesn’t come back,’ he said fiercely. ‘You keep those Music Makers on their toes.’
‘I will,’ she laughed. She touched his cheek with her fingertips. ‘Goodbye, Alex.’
And she was gone, a pretty creature of many-coloured rags running across the boards, heading for a forest of standard lamps.
Safe inside the forest, she turns and looks at him standing there, until finally he enters the dark patch behind him.
‘What was all that about?’ asks the owl.
Oh, you know. What if you were to meet another owl?
‘I’d scratch her eyes out.’
No you wouldn’t. It’s just that he had that smell, you know, of down there. That faint odour of real world about him. I miss my mother, and my grandmother.
‘You can go down, if you want.’
And leave you? And my lovely watches? No. But he was a nice young man, wasn’t he? Very exotic. I think he had ancestors from the Orient.
She sighs and thinks about a favourite watch which is covered in stars and moons and comes from that part of the world.
‘Well, I didn’t like him,’ says the owl emphatically. ‘I thought he was drippy. Didn’t seem to know what he wanted.’
That’s just part of being young. You’ve been old for so long you can’t remember what it’s like to be young.
‘I’m just glad he’s gone.’
Didn’t you like him at all?
The owl ponders and a little truth comes out.
‘Well, he was quite humorous sometimes. He made you laugh.’
And you?
‘Just a little.’
‘Owls don’t laugh.’
CHAPTER 22
The End of the Beginning
Once Alex was in the darkness of his own attic, he could see the square of light which was his doorway to the real world. He made his way towards it and paused on the