Читать книгу The Lost Gargoyle Series 3-Book Bundle - Philippa Dowding - Страница 13

The Golden Nautilus

Katherine and her parents spent that weekend trying hard to act as though nothing odd or unusual was going on. They had decided not to mention Gargoth again until Monday, so the rest of the weekend came and went as normally as possible, considering the events of Saturday morning. Katherine found she didn’t even want to look out the back window, and she and her parents were really, really polite with each other.

Her dad was quiet all weekend, but her mother seemed unnaturally chatty and perky, doing the talking for all three of them at every meal. She got like that when she was especially nervous about something.

Milly didn’t want to go out the back door.

Oddly, Katherine found she didn’t want to leave the house either. When her friend Rubie invited her over on Saturday night for a sleepover, she didn’t want to go anywhere. She made up an excuse and stayed in.

The only tricky bit of the weekend came on Sunday night. The family was invited to the neighbours’ house for Sunday night dinner, and her mom and dad couldn’t think of a good enough reason to say “no” on such short notice.

The McDonalds were probably the best neighbours anyone ever had, anywhere, in the history of neighbourly kindness. They were quite a bit older than Katherine’s parents, and they had no children of their own, so Katherine was always terribly spoiled when she went to their house. Mr. McDonald always gave her a special treat, and often Mrs. McDonald had rented a new movie or game for her to play while the adults were talking over dinner. It was always a highlight of the week for Katherine. They had babysat her often when she was little. She got to stay up late, snuggled warmly on the couch between these two fine people, and watch late night TV, which was strictly forbidden when her parents were home.

They were the kind of neighbours who watched the house when Katherine and her parents went away on holiday. The kind of neighbours who took Milly into their home on short notice. They were, in fact, the kind of neighbours you could call on any time of the day or night, and they’d be happy to help.

They were her second family.

But for the first time in her life, Katherine found herself being shy when Mr. McDonald asked if the asters were still in bloom.

Later, when Mrs. McDonald asked if she could come and see the flowers because she liked them best in their final blaze of glory, both of Katherine’s parents yelled, “No! It’s not a good time right now.” Then they had to apologize and explain they were just a little on edge because it hadn’t been a good growing season for them, and they had been hoping to win another “Small Garden” award this year.

Katherine caught her dad mopping his brow with a napkin after that little lie.

They left early, as their good neighbours stood bewildered in their doorway, waving goodbye.

For his part, Gargoth had stayed motionless on his pedestal almost the entire weekend, occasionally discarding apple cores, which slowly piled up around his feet.

Finally, Monday came, and the family was able to get back to some degree of normal life. At breakfast, Katherine’s mother said she was going to visit The Golden Nautilus after work and see if she could find out anything about Gargoth, such as where he came from. It was the first time in two days that any of them had mentioned him.

“And Katherine, I want you to come. When I get you from school, we’ll go straight there.”

Katherine’s dad shot her an “I’m sorry” look, then bolted for work, clearly glad to be out of the world of gargoyles and back into the world of science and students. This was likely because there was little risk of anything inanimate coming to life in the safe, predictable world of his classroom (with the possible exception of some senior students at the back of the room who hadn’t said a word all term).

It was possibly Katherine’s longest day in school ever. It seemed like it would never end. In history class, the last period of the day, Mrs. Glean droned on so long about the prairies and pioneer life, that Katherine decided it must have been the most boring time in Canadian history. She jumped when the boy sitting next to her hit his head on the desk with a loud “thud”. Asleep.

After what seemed like years, the three-thirty bell rang and Katherine dashed for the door, but unfortunately not before Mrs. Glean could corner her, once again wearing a worried expression.

“Katherine,” she smiled nicely, “you’re still not concentrating very well. Are you able to see the board okay, dear?”

Great, thought Katherine, now my teacher thinks I’m blind.

“Oh, yes, everything is just fine, really Mrs. Glean. We did a lot of...um, gardening this weekend, and I’m a little tired. You know, with my parents’ award-winning flowers and everything...” Katherine feigned a smile then dashed past the teacher before she could say anything else. She hoped this rather lame excuse would satisfy her teacher for now. She was getting awfully snoopy.

“How persistent can you be?” Katherine wondered as she trudged out into the street, looking for her mother’s car. She frowned. Her mother wasn’t there. She stood in the cold for a few minutes, biting her lip.

Suddenly her mother’s car appeared from around the corner, lurching and careening down the street toward her. The car looked out of control. Students ran for cover, screaming. The car slammed to a stop in front of Katherine, then the back door burst open. Her mother leaned into the back seat from the front, and yelled at her, “GET IN!”

Katherine was too shocked to do anything but obey. She jumped into the car, and they sped off. She noticed her mother’s hair was loose and messy, jumbled all over her face, and she was breathing in a funny, jagged way. She looked flustered and a little crazy. Katherine was worried.

“Mom, what’s wrong...” Katherine started, then stopped. That was when she noticed the large cloth bag in the seat beside her. It wiggled slightly.

Katherine clasped her hand to her mouth. “MOM! You didn’t bring him?!” she shouted. But she knew the answer. Her heart sank. What was her mother doing, bringing the gargoyle in the car to school? At that moment, Gargoth popped his head out of the bag and glared at her.

She tried not to look too horrified. She even managed a weak smile at Gargoth. He stuck his tongue out at her and dived back into the bag. So much for no more rudeness, she thought.

“Mom, what’s going on?” she asked. “Why did you bring him? This can’t be a wise thing to do. Mom?”

Her mother was staring at the traffic, apparently not listening.

“Mom,” she started again, “why is your hair all messy?”

“Gargoth has never been inside a car before,” she said simply. That was all the explanation Katherine was going to get. They drove in silence until her mother pulled the car into a parking spot in front of The Golden Nautilus.

“Bring him,” her mother said to her as she got out of the car, attempting to fix her mussed hair. Katherine could see it was useless to argue, since her mother was already clopping unsteadily across the sidewalk toward the store. Katherine looked toward the bag, then moved closer and peered in.

Gargoth was huddled, cowering and shivering, in the bottom of the bag. Clearly, he was very frightened. Katherine suddenly felt a tiny bolt of sympathy for him. He glared at her, then shut his eyes, just like she had seen Milly do once when she had hurt her tail and was going to the vet.

“It’s okay, Gargoth. We’re just going to look in the store. Nothing will happen to you,” she found herself saying gently.

He looked up at her again, then closed his eyes once more and stopped shivering. He drew his wings tightly around himself and sat still as a statue in the bottom of the bag.

Katherine picked up the bag and left the car. She entered the store behind her mother. It was a dark dungeon of a store, full of strange and delightful things. Books, comics, unusual toys and strange knick-knacks, candles, skulls and superheroes. There were dragons, monsters and other magical creatures. She and her mother nosed around the shelves but could find nothing resembling a gargoyle.

“May I help you?” A young salesman finally appeared, looking bored.

“Yes, yes, we’re looking for a gargoyle? Do you have any?” Katherine’s mother asked.

The young man was looking at her mother closely. “No, no, we don’t,” he said. “We had one last week, but it disappeared.” Katherine’s mother started to look uncomfortable. “But hold on, I’ll check if there are any new gargoyles in stock in the back.” He left them for what seemed like ages.

When he returned, he was carrying a gargoyle. It was the perfect twin of Gargoth. He placed it on the shelf in front of them.

“We just got this one in, but that’s it. The supplier doesn’t make them any more,” he panted. The store room must have been a long way off.

“Thank you,” her mother said. “Where did you order them from?” she asked as nonchalantly as possible.

“This one came from New York somewhere,” he said, then walked away to help another customer.

When they were alone, Katherine’s mother bent down and whispered to Gargoth. “There’s another gargoyle here, he looks just like you. Look...”

She held the bag up close to the shelf, and Gargoth popped his head out, face to face with the little gargoyle. In an instant, he was out of the bag, with his hands clasped tightly around the statue’s neck, snarling and snapping his teeth together like a possessed demon. Then things really got interesting.