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SNEAK PRIVEW 2nd and 3rd chapter from 2nd book in Paradox Child series
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Chapter 2
Buster’s story
The next morning Lilly and Maggie ran down the stairs to find Rose washing up in the kitchen; Rose was singing along at the top of her voice to the radio, waving her hands around,
‘Nothing's gonna stop us.’
‘Nothing's gonna stop us, now.’
‘Woh Woh Oh,’
BANG, the saucepan lid she was holding slid out of her hand, hitting the floor and rattling around on itself until it stopped.
The lid made such a noise that Buster, one of the family’s spaniels, shot under the table and started shivering and softly whining. Rose turned off the radio and Lilly and Maggie raced under the table. Lilly cuddled Buster, while Maggie fussed his head.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ Maggie asked Lilly, looking concerned.
‘Oh Buster does not like loud noises,’ she said hugging him tighter. ‘You should see him on Guy Falk’s nights, he hates the fireworks.’
‘Has he always been like that?’ Maggie asked
‘As long as we have had him,’ Lilly replied and then slid out of the table still cradling Buster in her arms and flopping backwards in to the large arm chair.
Mandy, Lilly's other spaniel came over to sniff Buster and licked the end of his nose. Buster let out a soft huffing sound. Maggie came over and sat on the floor by Lilly’s feet and looked into Buster’s deep brown eyes.
‘Arrh,’ she said and the added, ‘he looks sad.’
Lilly lifted Busters head and peered deep into his sorrowful eyes then said,
‘I have not told you how we found him yet, have I Maggie?’
‘You found him?’ quizzed Maggie, ‘I thought you had always had him.’
‘No we have always had Mandy.’ said Lilly. Buster jumped from Lilly’s arms and went to get a chew toy and sit by Mandy.
Lilly continued with the story. ‘One night a few years ago I heard a scratching at the front door, I went downstairs and saw that Mandy was sitting by the door wanting to go out. At the time I thought it was odd as Mandy’s door flap is on the back door and not the front door.’
‘Silly spaniel I said,’ fussing her head, and then as I was turning to go back upstairs I heard whining from outside the door.’
‘I ran back to the door and opened it and there was Buster. ‘
‘Oh wow, do you think someone abandoned him or something?’ Maggie asked.
‘I’m not sure’ Lilly replied and she looked up as Rose was coming into the room, she had finished washing up and was listening to the story. She was carrying a large tray that had marmalade on toast and the tea things.
Rose began to pour the tea and heap spoons full of sugar into the cups and the girls dug into the toast, the butter melted into the hot bread and the marmalade had a tanginess to it. ‘Yum,’ said Maggie, so what happened next?
‘It was sad,’ Rose said, continuing with the story; ’he was in a terrible state, very thin and a dull look in his eyes,’ Rose reached down to fuss both dogs, slipping them a small bit of toast each.
Lilly said, ‘we took Buster to the vet’s the next day, the vet told us that he would be fine, just needed good food, love and gentle exercise as his back legs were deformed and lacking in muscle tissue’.
‘Yes I had noticed he walked a bit funny and he has a slight hump in his back also,’ Maggie commented.
‘I know,’ Rose said continuing with the story again, ‘the vet said that he must have been cooped up for long periods of time in a small space, such as a cage or box and not taken on walks so that’s why he is like that.’
‘OH,’ cried Maggie looking quite upset.
Lilly hugged Maggie, ‘that’s why mum and I decided to keep him and not put up missing posters.’
Rose added, ‘we felt he must have escaped or something and it would be cruel to let his owners take him back.’
‘Like I said he was in a state, he smelt horrid, we gave him a bath but the smell did not improve much,’ Rose said, then added, ‘then Mandy took him in hand/paw and soon cleaned him up!’
Maggie and Lilly finished the last of their tea and Rose began to pour herself a second cup.
‘Talking of the dogs,’ Rose said in a slow stern voice, ‘you best hurry and get dressed you two and take them both for a walk.’
‘Oh alright mum, I can take Maggie to see the Magic Forest.’
‘Magic Forest?’ Maggie said, standing up and making a start for the door to head upstairs, ‘come on Lilly! What are we waiting for?’
Rose quickly said, ‘Just kept an eye out for each other and wear your protection crystals; it’s just been saying on the radio this morning about another child going missing again.’
Lilly and Maggie held their crystals up to show Rose, then smiling ran passed her and up the stairs giggling.
Chapter 3
The Magic Forest
The Magic Forest, or so it was called by the locals, was a small woodland only a mile from Lilly’s house and so it was not long until the girls and dogs reached it.
It was a sunny day but not hot and there was no wind. The spaniels soon disappeared to look for squirrels and rabbits and there was not another soul in the woodland.
‘Perfect day for a spot of archery,’ Lilly said as she reached into her velvet bag and pulled out her bow and three arrows.
‘Oh,’ cried Maggie excitedly, ‘can I have a go?’
Lilly smiled and took out a piece of chalk out of her pocket and marked a cross onto a medium sized tree a couple of meters away from were Maggie was standing.
‘Do you think you can hit that?’ she asked Maggie
‘I’ll give it a try,’ Maggie said excitedly.
Lilly walked back to her bow and picking it up took aim and fired three perfect shoots bang into the middle of the cross. Then walked over pulled them out and handed the bow and an arrow to Maggie who was now stood in awe of her.
Maggie lifted the bow, Lilly corrected her stance, so that she stood sideways to the tree. Maggie concentrated.
‘Breathe,’ Lilly told her, and let out a small laugh.
It was true that Maggie was tense she was also gripping too tightly onto the bow and slightly shaking with excitement.
Lilly took the bow from her, ‘you need to relax and not be afraid of the bow, you were holding it too tightly; try and imagine that you are holding a mouse and if you told it too loose then the mouse will escape and too tightly its eyes will pop out.’
Maggie smiled and Lilly continued; ‘the bow will only do what you want, when you’re ready, fire the bow, and breathe out slowly.’
Lilly stood sideways to the tree and lifted the bow up, pulling the string backwards until her hand brushed her cheek. Then she handed the bow to Maggie again.
Maggie had a second try, this time she pulled the bow string back to her cheek as Lilly had done.
‘That’s better, chin level, you need to be able to see where you’re firing,’ Lilly commented.
Lilly put the arrow ready for Maggie, steadying it with her finger.
Maggie breathed out and the arrow flew from the bow and ricocheted off the tree.
‘Oh,’ said Maggie disappointed, lowering the bow, ‘that was harder than I thought.’
‘You did great Maggie, ‘Lilly said, retrieving the arrow from the ground.
Lilly had always wanted to share her love of archery with someone but other than her mother and her gran, this was her first time she had been able to do so. He mum and gran had never encouraged Lilly to have friends over and were quite an insular family. A lot probably to do with the fact that they did a lot of magic and feared repercussions from the largely Christian neighbourhood.
Maggie continued to practice while Lilly went off to look for the dogs.
After a while Lilly appeared back with Mandy and Buster, who were panting madly and covered in mud and bits of bramble. Maggie was sat on a log staring at something.
‘What is it?’ Lilly asked her as she got closer.
Maggie pointed to a large oak tree and half way up it trunk the girls could see there had been cut marks in the shape of a square that had long grown over.
‘Why has the tree got a square on it?’ Maggie asked
Lilly ran up to the tree, stood on tip toes and reached her hand up to rub the surface of the bark.
‘There must be something hidden in it,’ she said in a deep voice.
‘Can you do that? I mean hide things in a tree?’
‘Yes, my gran told me about a posh house that was built especially for the owners, and they had had a model of the house commissioned. When the house had finished being built, they cut a hole in the tree trunk and placed the model inside and stuck back a piece of the bark and it grew over just like this’ Lilly said patting the tree gently.
‘Oh what do you think is in there?’ Maggie asked, walking over to stand at the bottom of the tree with Lilly. ‘Maybe,’ she said in a slow drawn out voice,’ next time we come we can cut it open and find out?’
‘We can’t do that Maggie, it would hurt the tree.’ Lilly looked thoughtful and remarked, ‘it’s strange I had not noticed it before, I have been coming to these woods all my life.’
‘Must have done a ‘man look’!’ Maggie joked.
‘A ‘man look’? What’s that?’
‘You know it’s like what my dad used to do, my mum would ask him to get the jam or something out of the fridge and he could never see it, even although it was right in front of him,’ Maggie teased.
The girls laughed and walked home.