Attica - By Garry Kilworth Page 0,123

you’ve been very kind to an old man. You too’ – this was directed at Jordy – ‘I’m sure you had a part to play. I’m sure you all worked very hard up there. It’s not an easy place to get around. That place changes you, doesn’t it? I like to think for the better. I’m sure you’ll all thank me for what I’ve done for you, one day.’

‘You could have warned us,’ Jordy said a little huffily.

‘Oh no,’ replied Mr Grantham, ‘that would have spoiled it for you, now wouldn’t it? Where’s the challenge, else?’

Jordy left it at that, though he did not entirely agree with Mr Grantham’s reasons. The young people left the old man and returned to their parents feeling rather good about themselves. That evening Ben took them all to a restaurant to celebrate a little rise in his salary.

When Chloe went to the salad bar, she almost bumped into a family of five filling their bowls. She recognised four of them. The cheeky boy was there scowling at the beet-root and grimacing at the spring onions, with George the father standing behind him, and Chantelle the spirited little girl who WOULD BE HEARD – and of course Jane.

The scruffy small boy, jaw jutting out in defiance, was talking with his mouth full of food as he began to eat directly from the salad bar, dipping his fingers into the beetroot and onions. ‘I never took no old walrus. What would I want a rotten old walrus for? It must’ve got lost somewhere or someone else took it. Maybe it exploded? Maybe it swum off somewhere, down the plughole in the sink, swum back to the Eskimos where it come from?’ He let out a raucous laugh which no one joined in with. His protests were not over, however, and the grumbling continued. ‘Who’s to know? All I know is I din’t take it. Wun’t want it, would I? A rotten old walrus? Huh. You always blame me for everythin’. Why not blame her or her?’ He pointed to his sisters with a fork. ‘Maybe,’ his eyes lingered on Chantelle, ‘maybe she et it. She eats everythin’, she does. She’d eat Big Ben an’ the Houses of Parlyment if you give ’em to her in a sandwich …’

Chantelle, in her father’s arms, blew her brother a wet raspberry which sprayed the salad bar and Chloe instinctively covered her plate.

Chloe, remembering the carved walrus now, wondered where it had gone, at the same time as admiring the boy’s inventive language. The boy was eventually silenced by his father, who said he did not want to hear another word about the damn walrus, from anyone. The walrus was gone and that was that. He would buy another carving for Jane, just as expensive, just as nice. If they could get another walrus, fine, but if not, Jane would have to make do with a seal or a sea lion or something similar.

While he was talking Chloe studied the older sister of the boy.

She was about Chloe’s age but they looked nothing like each other.

‘Hello, Sarah,’ whispered Chloe, moving closer to the girl at the salad bar. ‘How are you?’

Sarah looked up, startled.

‘Do I know you?’ asked Sarah. ‘I don’t think …’

‘Just a little,’ replied Chloe, who couldn’t help smiling. ‘You might say our paths crossed – once upon a time.’

Sarah continued to look puzzled, then finally she shrugged and drifted away, to join the rest of her family. Chloe was later thrilled to notice that Sarah and Jane were smiling and laughing together. Clearly they were enjoying one another’s company. There was pleasure written on George’s face too, as he contemplated his family.

I wonder if I helped to do that? thought Chloe. I’d like to think so.

In the meantime, Jordy was looking into the eyes of a slim young waitress taking his order. Sadly he found them wanting.

Seven months after the children had left Attica, Mr Grantham died peacefully in his bed. He left the pocket-watch in his will to Alex.

‘He got the wartime stamp as well,’ Jordy pointed out.

The stamp proved to be very valuable, having been franked by the British Post Office, the Swiss Post (acting as a neutral go-between while the countries were at war) and finally the Deutsche Bundespost. Susan could have sent the letter via the Red Cross but in her distressed state had put it through the normal overseas mail instead. It must have lain in some corner of a foreign sorting office for several years and was only returned to Susan in 1948, a few years after the war had ended. This last was scribbled on the back of the envelope and dated by some postal employee.

Alex got so much for the stamp in an auction the whole family benefited. They purchased the other half of the house from Mr Grantham’s relatives so they had more room.

Jordy was the first to congratulate his brother on bringing good fortune to them all. ‘Good on yer, kid,’ he said, ‘you can borrow my cricket pads anytime.’ Alex thanked his brother kindly, but politely declined the offer.

Chloe simply hugged him and told him she loved him, which made Alex squirm.

Dipa and Ben were delighted with all their kids, but that they had always been.

Table of Contents

By Garry Kilworth

Dedication

1 Encounters in a Garden

2 Crossing the Threshold

3 Sky with a Thousand Windows

4 Board-combers into Bundles

5 Quest for the Golden Bureau

6 Pursued by Mad Mannequins

7 On the Mountain of Shadows

8 Scissor-birds that Blood Your Head

9 The Boy in the Wooden Mask

10 Punch and Judy, I Presume?

11 Dancing Rats in the Moonlight

12 Bortrekkers and Electric Dust Storms

13 The Collector of Souls

14 Visit to the Underworld

15 Cold Draught Then a Warm Reunion

16 Atticans in Khaki Coats

17 Swarming of the Ink Imps

18 Rafter Kings and Rafter Queens

19 Voyage over the Great Water Tank

20 Attack of the Music Makers!

21 Saviour of the Wooden World

22 The End of the Beginning