Читать книгу The Gargoyle Overhead - Philippa Dowding - Страница 9

Master of the Candles

Gargoth and Katherine were back on Cassandra’s roof a few days later, with the stars twinkling overhead and the city blazing off in the distance to the west. The lemonade pitcher and apples were laid out again. Katherine and Cassandra were relaxing comfortably in folding chairs, but Gargoth’s cushion was empty.

He was working feverishly on his pile of unlit pumpkin candles, moving them around the roof, placing a single one here, then there. He would put one down, lean his head to one side, then move the candle again a few centimetres in a different direction. Sometimes he would lie down flat on the roof to line up the candles, or sometimes climb up the small chimney ladder (which made Katherine very nervous) to see his creation, all the while with his lit pipe clamped tightly in his leathery lips. He was concentrating very hard, not paying any attention to Katherine and Cassandra at all. It was almost like they weren’t there.

Although they knew better than to ask, Katherine and Cassandra were very curious about what he was doing. Was it a piece of art? Was it some ancient game? By now the candles were covering the entire roof in some sort of sequence, but it didn’t make any sense to them. Since Cassandra had provided the candles, Gargoth hadn’t said another word. He just went about his mysterious business, so until he decided to tell them what he was doing, they would just have to wait to find out.

Instead they were talking about soccer camp. “They play soccer all day, then swim all afternoon at the university pool. It sounds hard, but it’s really fun. Two professional soccer players are running the camp this year, and we get to play an exhibition game on their field. A professional field, Cassandra!”

Cassandra smiled. Katherine sighed. “I might not be able to go, though. Mom and Dad have to go to my mom’s cousin’s daughter’s wedding in Saskatoon or something. I’ve been begging them to let me stay home, but they won’t let me stay alone. Also, we aren’t sure what to do with…” she hesitated and glanced over at Gargoth.

Since he was a good way across the roof, she dropped her voice to a whisper and said, “We aren’t sure what to do with Gargoth for an entire week, though. He knows we’re leaving, and I don’t think he’s all that happy about it...”

The week before, her mother had told him they were leaving for a holiday. He’d stormed into the bushes at the back of their little yard and wouldn’t come out for hours. He’d sulked and pouted and wouldn’t even stroke their calico cat Milly (and they were great friends). And he hadn’t talked to her mother since.

It was a little awkward. They couldn’t take him away for a whole week. He was a gargoyle, not a pet, after all. Even if they were used to him walking and talking and being very much alive in their backyard, Katherine doubted that the nice people at the wedding would be all that okay with it. Besides, Gargoth was terrible in the car. They’d only tried that once, and it hadn’t gone at all well. She couldn’t begin to imagine what he would be like in an airplane.

“So, I’m going to miss the best soccer camp ever, and we’re kind of stuck about Gargoth…” Katherine finished.

They looked over at the gargoyle, who was deep in thought, struggling with an armload of smiling pump-kins. The crate was half empty, he had used so many.

Cassandra put down her knitting. “You know, you could both stay here for the week. Gargoth could stay up here on the roof, doing whatever it is he’s doing with the candles. And I have an extra bedroom in my apartment downstairs for you.”

Katherine gasped. “Do you think so, Cassandra? That would be so great. We’d have to ask Mom and Dad…it might not be so easy to convince them…”

Just at that moment, Gargoth waddled over and stood before them with a single smiling pumpkin candle in his claw. He turned it over and lit it with the coals in the stump of his pipe.

“I’m finished,” he said. “Could you help me set my beacon ablaze?”