Читать книгу Mia's Optiscope - Natalie Rose - Страница 11

The next day Mia and her mother stopped at the low wall Mia had built the tower on, but a new model had replaced hers, a house of sorts.

‘That’s funny. Rex, who’s been here? Did you see someone?’

Rex purred and watched Mia take the house apart and spread the rubble out.

‘Well you’re no help,’ Mia teased as she scratched Rex’s head.

‘Curious,’ Mum agreed and helped Mia build the tower again.

On the walk home after school the tower was still there and Rex was standing guard.

‘No one came while I was gone?’

Rex purred and ate the half sausage Mia had kept in her pocket from lunch.

‘Oh Mia, really.’

‘What, Mum?’

‘Don’t overfeed that cat.’

‘He wouldn’t eat it if he wasn’t hungry.’

‘True.’

The next day the tower had once again been made into a house. Mia dismantled it and turned the rubble into a truck. She wondered if Rex had been the one to create it and looked around for him.

‘I doubt that, Mia, cats can’t lift stones, even these lighter ones.’

Mia sighed inwardly, she wished it to be Rex. Speaking of which, where was he?

Mum was saying something.

‘...possible he did it if a bird helped him.’

Mia liked the sound of that. ‘A bird, Mum?’

‘Why a crane of course,’ her mum laughed. ‘A crane to lift the rocks.’

‘Oh, very funny mother,’ Mia said dramatically and Mum smiled smugly.

‘Pretty pleased with yourself, hey?’

Mum shrugged then checked her phone, ‘Grandad says nice truck.’

‘You sent him a photo?’ Mia asked, trying to sound annoyed.

‘Mmm hmm.’

‘But seriously, Mum, where is Rex?’

‘I’m not sure, love – I’m sure he will turn up, maybe he’s gone home for a feed?’

Mia frowned in response. Where are you Rex? Mia missed him and was a little concerned about not seeing him.

The next day there was still no sign of Rex at Builders Wall.

‘It’s too early to say he’s missing, love, he might have gone to the vets or maybe he’s on holiday care while his owners are away. I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation.’

Mia traced an arch in the dirt with her foot. Something inside told her Rex wasn’t coming back. He’s missing, not on holiday.

‘Tell you what, if Rex isn’t back by the weekend we’ll search for him – put up some posters and look round. Okay?’

Mia nodded.

‘Have you seen the train?’

Mia smiled to see her truck was now a steam engine. ‘Who’s doing this? Someone is definitely playing a game with us.’

Mrs Glasson looked around, ‘Perhaps a little boy or girl like you lives here and saw your game. Now, they are playing with you.’

‘Maybe.’

‘What if the builders are doing it?’ Mrs Glasson drew Mia’s attention to the site. ‘They’re here every day. Maybe they saw us building and wanted to join in? They have a crane too you know – look.’

Mia narrowed her eyes and gave her mum a friendly scowl. ‘A crane – really, that old joke?’

Mia cast her eyes over the 1970s red brick apartment block they were in front of. There were no little faces peering through the gaps in the painted brick balconies, and all the windows facing the street had their blinds drawn. The street was quiet. No one looked to belong to their game. Across the road the building site was vacant, it seemed it would become a house after all. The foundation concrete had been poured and set with pipe ends poking out ready to take the plumbing. The first rows of bricks were laid and stacks of timber piled up at the side.

Mia considered the builders for a moment then decided, ‘No. No, Mum. It’s definitely a kid. Adults don’t play.’

Mum laughed, ‘What am I then?’

Mia tilted her head, ‘You’re different,’ she offered.

Mum frowned.

‘Well, it’s not that adults don’t play – it’s just, I don’t think many would want to play this game.’ Mia took interest again in the rock and rubble train. ‘It’s so clever, Mum. Only a child could build this.’

Mia played with the train, checking for people inside. She couldn’t find any way of making it better, and so put the roof that she’d taken off back on. She decided to leave a note and found a scrap of paper in her backpack.

Hello,

We like this game, please play with us. The engine is great. This is fun. What is your name? From Mia.

Looking for a convenient, dry place to leave the note they considered the entrance lamp behind the wall and along the path. The lamp turned out to be full of cobwebs, and there didn’t seem to be another spot for the note, so Mia and her mother decided the note was safest tucked between the rocks of the rubble engine.

The next day Rex was still missing.

‘Still think Rex went to the vet, Mum?’

‘Maybe not,’ Mum sighed, ‘maybe someone else fed him today?’

‘But he’s always here. Can you remember a single day he wasn’t?’

‘I’m sure he’s not far, darling,’ Mum reasoned. She tried to ignore the strange feeling that Mia was right, Rex should be here.

Mia looked in the bushes and up the trees. She peered down the side of the apartment hoping Rex would appear.

‘He’ll be back, darling, maybe he’s at home in the warm. Why don’t you build something else?’

Mia shrugged her shoulders, ‘Will you help me?’

‘Of course,’ Mum agreed.

Mrs Glasson helped pull the train apart then watched Mia fiddle with the scraps trying to decide what to build. Once Mia knew what to do, Mrs Glasson passed pieces of brick and rubble in the order Mia asked. When the structure wobbled, she offered her hands for support. She smiled to see Mia bite her lip in concentration the way she did, and was happy that, for the moment, Mia had forgotten Rex.

Days later there was still no sign of the cat. Mia and her mum searched Meeks Mountain and the laneways and side streets that ran off it. On the weekend they asked at the café across the road if anyone had seen a big white cat with black and reddish markings.

‘I haven’t,’ said the man behind the coffee machine, ‘and I’m here most mornings to open up. Why don’t you ask my sister while I serve this man, she closes the shop. Oi, Christi.’

Christi was clearing a table and looked up, ‘What, Roma?’

‘This young lady has something to ask,’ Roma said turning to take an order.

Mia showed the pretty lady Mum’s phone, ‘We’re looking for this cat. Have you seen him?’

Christi studied the photo, ‘He’s a beauty, big too. I’d know him if I saw him. Sorry, haven’t seen a cat like him round here. We’ll be sure to keep an eye out. Why don’t you put up missing cat posters?’

‘Been doing that,’ Mrs Glasson said, handing her a brochure.

‘Good. Can I keep this one?’

‘Please,’ Mrs Glasson said.

A rush of people came in. ‘We’ll call you if anything,’ Christi said.

‘Thank you,’ Mia called as she followed her mum out to post the missing cat notice on poles and trees in their neighbourhood.

By Monday morning there was still no sign of Rex and there had been no phone calls in response to the missing cat ad either. There was however a reply on Builders Wall. Mia pulled the folded sheet of paper out of the rocks, toppling the space ship. On it were two lines written in large scrawling hand:

Dear Mia,

My name is Joseph. I like to build models.

Mia was amazed, ‘Who do you think he is, Mum?’

With a twinkle in her eye Mrs Glasson shook her head. ‘I don’t know, love.’

‘He couldn’t be an adult though, could he?’ Before her mum could answer Mia pointed out the writing. ‘See, the handwriting is too big, look. And only kids build models.’

‘Is that so?’ smiled Mrs Glasson.‘It’s not really a game for adults is it?’

Mia talked about Joseph all the way home that day. Mum had been excited too and couldn’t stop thinking about it. She was glad the note had been on Mia’s mind as it had been on hers too.

The next day Mia raced up Meeks Mountain, to see what new creation had been left for her. Her mum had a hard time keeping up but was grateful she no longer needed to coax her daughter up the mountainside. She reassembled the rubble into something different, a boat. The next time a table, something, and anything that would match Joseph’s clever creations. The weeks flew by, the posters of Rex began to fade and Mia soon abandoned her search for the cat who started the game. All at once it was the end of first term at school.

Mia wrote a note to Joseph:

Happy Easter, Joseph.

I can’t come for a couple of weeks. I’m going to visit my Nanny and Grandad.

From Mia

She tucked the note in the rock basket she had made along with a card, three chocolate eggs and a photo of the eggshell she had decorated for her school competition. I won first place! she had written on the back.

‘Do you think he’ll like the card and chocolate, Mum?’

‘The card is thoughtful and kind, Mia, and almost everyone loves chocolate,’ Mum reasoned.

During the fun and excitement of the school holidays the game Mia played with Joseph was almost forgotten. Mia and her mum traveled up the coast to stay with Mum’s parents. Long days were spent at the beach and evenings curled up on the sofa watching movies. On days they stayed home Mum helped tend the gardens with Grandad while Mia helped Nanny in the kitchen. The slow pace of coast life was a good break but by the end of two weeks Mia was itching to get back to her new life. On the first day of term two, Mia raced up Meeks Mountain to find Joseph had created a square tower, and inside he’d placed a gift, a toy, a pocket pet. It was a tiny yellow cat with big eyes and a large head that wobbled back and forth. There was also a note:

Hello Mia,

I saw this when I went to get some bread, do you like it? How were your holidays? Joseph

Up went Mia’s eyebrow, ‘Joseph went to buy bread? How can a kid just go buy bread?’

‘Maybe his mum asked him to?’

Mia frowned, not in the least convinced. She felt cheated, as though she had been tricked. ‘Was it you all along?’ she asked her mum. ‘Are you Joseph?’

‘Of course not, darling,’ Mum promised.

Mia was worried – the friend she thought she had was not who she thought he was. Mrs Glasson, seeing the change in her daughter, suggested Joseph’s mother had bought it with him. Though Mia didn’t one hundred percent feel it was the case, she was satisfied with this explanation and the game continued like before. Winter school holidays approached and Mia decorated her models with paper snowflakes for Christmas in July. Joseph joined in and adorned a model of a Christmas tree with tinsel. In the last week of semester one, Mia wrote to Joseph to say they would have to start again next semester:

Hi Joseph,

Guess what, Dad surprised me and Mum with tickets to Singapore! We leave tomorrow. Merry Christmas in July!

From Mia

p.s. Mum says we should meet when we get back.

On the first day of term three Mia pulled on a dress and stared at her reflection, her uniform was already at her knees. She scribbled a quick note for Joseph:

Hello Joseph,

Are you still there? I had a great holiday in Singapore! I missed our games.

Mum says I’ve grown heaps, my dress is six inches shorter.

When can we meet?

From Mia

The first few days flew by, meeting new classmates, getting to know her new teacher, and connecting with old friends. Mia checked the wall everyday hoping to see Joseph, but by Friday her letter was still there, untouched, unread.

Each day the letter became more and more faded, the paper yellowed and crumpled from the elements. After a week of rain, Mia rewrote the note, adding are you okay?.

Mia tucked the new note into the rocks, ‘Did I say something wrong, Mum?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well I told Joseph we should meet when we got back from holidays.’

‘Oh, well – no, that’s perfectly fine. I’m sure Joseph is looking forward to meeting you. He’s probably still on holidays.’

‘Yeah, maybe. Hey, has anyone called you about Rex?’

‘Rex?’

‘Yeah, you know, the cat.’

‘I know who you mean, it’s just that it’s been so long. What made you think of him?’

Mia frowned, ‘He showed us Builders Wall and he introduced us to Joseph.’

Mrs Glasson smiled, ‘That’s a nice way of thinking.’

‘He did bring us to the wall didn’t he?’

‘I suppose... No, no one responded to the ad.’

The rest of the walk to school Mia looked for the signs they’d put up for Rex but it seemed they had all been removed and replaced by posters or ads. She found one on a tree in Paine Reserve.

‘The rain’s ruined it,’ Mia said.

‘Sun’s got to it too.’

‘We should put more up, Mum.’

‘Well I don’t think that would help, it’s been too long, love, if no one has seen him yet then it’s probably because he moved out of the area.’

‘How do you know no one has seen him?’

Mrs Glasson fingered the tattered fringe of phone numbers, ‘The tags are still on this one.’

Mia drew a circle in the dirt around the trunk, ‘I don’t know...’

I know he had something to do with meeting Joseph, she thought to herself.

Mum smiled, ‘You know, he’s probably in a new home, lounging happily on a sunny balcony.’

Mia frowned and followed her mum towards the school. Where are you, Rex?

‘Mia, I’ve been thinking. Maybe it’s time you started walking to school on your own.’

‘Alone?’ Mia frowned.

‘Yeah, you’re a big girl now and school is only up the road. Don’t any of your friends walk to school themselves?’

‘Yeah, some...’

‘Do you want to try? We could start tomorrow.’

Mia shook her head, ‘Not tomorrow.’

‘Okay, no problem, we can try another time. I like walking with you anyway.’

Mia put her hand in her Mum’s.

‘Come on, let’s see if anyone’s taken a number.’

All the trees they’d tagged with lost posters along Meeks Mountain were untouched. It wasn’t until much later that they would learn what had become of Rex. Mia let herself be distracted by the start of term three, spending time with her friends and getting used to her new found independence. Walking up Meeks Mountain on her own was a challenge at first and always seemed to take much longer than when she was with her mum, but by the third day it seemed ordinary and she swapped Joseph’s note for a new one. Week two she replaced the note again and the next day it disappeared. Mia wrote another and the next day she found it gone. Encouraged, she began to write daily, telling Joseph what was going on for her. Her teacher, her classmates at school and being chosen to present at assembly. She also told him about starting dance class and what she liked to eat at her favourite restaurants. It was as if he were her diary keeper. She didn’t mind too much that she got no letter back. As long as the letters were disappearing Mia was sure Joseph was getting them.

On the last week of term there finally came a reply. An envelope peeked out between the stacks of rubble on the wall. In her excitement, Mia yanked the paper, toppling the tower. She tore open the envelope and laughed to see it was from Joseph. The handwriting was more scrawling than usual, but with the help of her mum, Mia read the words:

Dear Mia,

I have missed our games too. I’ve been unwell. I’m very pleased that your principal wants you to speak at assembly, she’s one smart lady to pick you. Will you meet me tomorrow morning, here?

Leave your reply on the envelope.

Joseph.