Talisman Chapter 6

Chapter 6 I was back in my own time. And the last crew member (I must ask her name) was thanking me, and taking the thing I was holding from my hands. Talisman Mallerby, and Miss Aislaby were gone completely. The last crew member headed for one of the empty niches. A strange rumbling noise came from somewhere under my feet, and then lights came on. “You didn’t tell me that ‘being a little unhappy’ was code for ‘being a total nutter’. You have no idea what Talisman and I had to put up with!”
“Yes, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want to frighten you.” Her calm and slightly superior air was beginning to annoy me.
“I think I’d like to go home now.”
“You can’t. Ship won’t let you. You’ll have to stay here until she’s finished with you.”
I put my hands on my hips and glared at her.
“Well, if I’m not home by tonight, a lot of people are going to be looking for me. And here is one of the places they’ll look.” For the first time, the last crew member looked alarmed. “We can’t have people coming here looking for you!”
It’ll spoil your plans, I thought. But maybe I’d misjudged her.
“Ship won’t let them – and I don’t like to think of what she’ll do to stop them. We’re going to have to think of something.”
“In the next four hours? My train leaves at half past five. And by the way, what’s your name? I can’t keep thinking of you as The Last Crew Member.”
“Then how about Perdita?”
Talisman’s Latin lessons sprang into my mind.
“But that means lost.”
“Precisely. And now I have got to get you to understand what Ship is like by now.”
Ship was a sentient being, she explained, and very long-lived. But she had been so starved of power for so long, that she was now operating on the most basic of levels – survival at any cost. She was like a wounded and dying animal – but an intelligent and powerful one. Trying to cross her purposes would be very dangerous. The doors to the downstairs rooms had reappeared, but not the front door. I sat on the chair in the dining room and tried to work out what to do. How could I stop Harry and Sapphire looking for me? Of course they would try and find me – they cared about me. I began to see Aunt Violet in them – despite the tough times they’d both been through, they’d gone on choosing to give and to care. And I didn’t want to hurt them – or to let them get hurt by Ship, who was probably capable of electrocuting them or something. But Perdita had said it would be at least a week before Ship could send me to the next time – it was a long way back, and Ship needed to build up the power necessary to get me there. In the end, I phoned Sapphire while I knew she’d be at work and left a message on her phone, saying that I was staying at a friend’s for the night. It bought me a little time. By now, I was hungry, big time, so I went in search of something to eat. I found it hanging on a tree in the orchard, and then I went and checked out the kitchen garden as well. The early plums I ate raw, and the potatoes I baked in the oven (thankfully, the power and water were still on) and ate cooked. Without butter or salt, they weren’t very tasty, but it was food. I would have liked to be able to clean my teeth too, but had to settle for a cold water wash. Then I needed to see it there was anywhere to sleep. I finally found a bed in one of the little attic rooms on the top floor. It looked like it had belonged to one of the servants about a hundred and fifty years ago! I didn’t fancy getting under the bedclothes, so I lay on top of it and dozed, somewhat chilly, all night long. Next morning, I went downstairs, feeling grubby, tired, chilly and hungry. On the landing, I went into the room that Aunt Violet and Talisman had called the Blue Bedroom. It was such a contrast to the way I remembered it. Tears pricked at my eyelids, as I thought about how the room had used to look. It had been one of the best guest bedrooms. I went into Aunt Violet’s bedroom, but there was no trace of her there any more. Looking at the time, I knew I could phone Sapphire and get away with leaving a message – she wouldn’t be awake yet after last night’s late shift, and neither would Harry for the same reason. Then I did start crying – Aunt Violet’s room came back to me so vividly: not just the way it looked, but the smell of her perfume, and her kind loving voice.
This had to stop! I was going to go and put my foot down. I wasn’t going to be bullied any more. “This is ridiculous! There’s nothing for me to eat. There’s only water to drink. I’ve got no toothbrush, no toothpaste, no toilet paper even – I had to go and find some big leaves before I could use the toilet last night! I’ve only got the clothes I’m standing up in…” I was all set to go on for quite a while, but Perdita broke in on me.
“I know. But I can’t turn Ship from her purpose. Believe me, I’ve tried. That’s why I sent your parents away, while you were too young to be used by Ship – and Ship took her revenge on them for that. Ship’s not rational any longer.
If we had internet access, I could fix the food and clothes and so on problem for you. But I don’t know how to stop someone coming to look for you. And I think that Ship will kill them if she has to – she’ll do anything now to survive. Including not letting you go. How can you stop your family looking for you?” “They will look for me. I know they will. Harry and Sapphire care about me.”
“You’ve got to stop them! Can’t you think of a reasonable excuse why you might have run away?”
"I’m under sixteen. I’m not allowed to live on my own!” Perdita really had trouble grasping this one. “I’m supposed to be at school on Monday morning.”
“School. Summer school. Aren’t there things called Summer Schools? You could be at one of those. We’ll get the professor in to educate you in the gaps between Ship sending you back in time – and it would be company for you too.”
“And just how do I find a convincing reason for not being at home…” I began, rather sarcastically – and then it hit me. I suddenly realised how I could manipulate Sapphire. Perdita watched my face change.
“You’ve thought of something, haven’t you?” I went upstairs to the entrance hall – there was no reception at all down where Perdita was – and phoned Sapphire again. She should be up by now, and Harry should be at work unless his shifts had been changed.
“Sapphire, it’s me. Listen, you’re not going to like this, but you have to listen, and you have to help me.”
Sapphire’s a lot tougher than Harry, and I think she’s been through a lot more too. She fussed a bit and then said I was to tell her exactly what was up.
“That first day when Brett came round, just to see you? I’d come home from school sick, and was in bed. I heard it all.” I heard her gasp, but I carried on. “Sapphire, I’m not going to let him ruin our lives. You’re so good for Harry, and Harry loves you so much.” Now she was crying. “So let’s try out of sight and out of mind for a bit. Tell Brett I’ve …I’ve won a place on a summer school. No. No-one would believe that. Tell Brett I’ve got a job at a summer school – free lessons in exchange for washing up, bed-making and cleaning and so on.” “But where are you? Are you all right? Tallie, it’s a wicked world out there.”
“Yes, I am okay. And I’ve got a summer job – cleaning, and dish-washing and so on – I just said I was sixteen, that’s all. I get food and lodging, and work clothes, and some money too – and it’s out in the country and really pretty.”
“And what about school? Didn’t they wonder why you weren’t at school?”
“I’m sixteen, remember? I’ve just done my GCSE’s, and I’ve got a long summer break. So I’m trying to earn a little money towards going to college in two years’ time.”
“And references?”
“Well, they were desperate,” (gosh, I was getting good at all this lying), “as the girl they’d employed had just cancelled on them, so I got one of my friends to pretend to be the newsagent where I’d been a really reliable papergirl for the last two years.” Actually, as we both knew, I’d been a really reliable papergirl for six months, and then her nephew had got my job. I didn’t like lying to Sapphire. And I didn’t like telling her I knew about Brett and his threats to her. But even less did I like the idea of her or Harry getting hurt by Ship.
“Look, I’ll phone you every day – or text if I’m too busy to phone, but I will phone as often as I possibly can, so you can hear that I’m okay. Can you top my phone up for me though? – it’s a bit remote here. And if it goes all pear-shaped, I’ll tell you, I promise. Sapphire, will you keep Harry happy, though? Tell him the summer school story as well? I don’t want him upset or worrying. And Sapphire – I do love you both.”
That made her cry again. But by the time she rang off, she had agreed to support my story, and to keep Harry happy.
“But you’ll have to talk to Harry as well as me, so you’ll have to have a good story for him.” I went back down to Perdita.
“I’ve fixed it. I’ve got them to stay away and not look for me – for a few weeks at least. But I have to phone them each day to let them know I’m okay. So I’ll need a new phone charger. You said you could fix food and things with internet access? Here – can you use my phone?” Perdita took it off me and examined it carefully.
“Yes. Ship’s computers can interface with this. Give me an hour or so, and we can buy everything you need.” And an hour later, Perdita was pulling up shopping websites. And the food would arrive in six hours’ time! We ordered loads of stuff – Perdita said I didn’t have to be uncomfortable – a new duvet, pillows, sheets for the bed in the attic, food, soap, shampoo, toothpaste and toilet roll!!! And clothes for me. After being a different Talisman Mallerby for so long, and after wearing such nice clothes for most of it (though I preferred a bra to a Liberty bodice, and modern knickers to the undies she’d worn), I wanted flat shoes and less – well, revealing – clothes. Cleaning stuff as well – that kitchen was filthy, and the toilet was no better – and a new phone charger. That was Sunday, and probably the longest weekend of my life. After all, I had spent months of it living as Talisman Mallerby in 1929. (And what had happened to her? I desperately wanted to know.) I cleaned the inside of the fridge, ready for the food coming, and also inside a couple of cupboards, with the ripped up old sheets from the bed. I also scoured the house for odds and ends of furniture and brought them all down into the kitchen. It was too lonely up in the attic. Fortunately, the bed took to pieces (with a little persuasion) so I could get it downstairs in bits. But by teatime, the shopping had arrived. I ate cold food for tea, but it wasn’t dug up out of the garden, and tomorrow, that kitchen was going to get a serious clean.
Mrs Frumenty would have had a fit if she could have seen the state her kitchen had got into. But I had a whole battery of cleaning stuff – cloths, brushes, soaps, polishes, cleansers, bleach, rubber gloves – and a whole day with nothing to do. I plugged in my earphones, switched on my music and made a start. Until I cleaned up all these pans, plates and jugs - not to mention the benches – I couldn’t really cook anything, so I’d start there. The kettle first, so that I could boil some water in it, and have hot water for the other jobs. I sat down to a late lunch – still cold stuff: I hadn’t done the cooker yet – feeling rather proud of what I’d achieved so far. Then I phoned Sapphire and gave her a fairly factual account of my morning – I missed out things like washing down the walls, and played down the actual amount of dirt I’d shifted. After that, I was ready to attack the other half of the kitchen. The floor however – which had got noticeably dirtier as I had washed down the walls – was going to have to wait until tomorrow. I could get into the kitchen garden now, and the brambly wilderness that had once been the tennis court, and the old orchard, but no further than that. The kitchen garden was an overgrown jungle, and bore no resemblance to the one MacTavish and Jacob had so lovingly tended. Amazingly enough, there was the odd self-seeded plant struggling up among the brambles, dandelions, docks, (nice big leaves, those docks had!) and other weeds. I decided to see if I could rescue any of them – when I wasn’t inside cleaning! I had made myself a little bedroom corner in the kitchen. I’d found the old wash-stand in one of the attic rooms, and cleaned it up, along with the jug and basin. A bath was out of the question – I’d never be able to heat enough kettles of water to fill it – but a bowlful of hot water worked okay. These walls really needed painting though – a shame I didn’t have any paint or brushes. But on the other hand, Perdita had internet access, and some way of paying for things…maybe I could do something about the walls after all? I’d started painting the walls in the bedroom end of the kitchen – okay, it was probably going to need another coat, and I’d redesigned my T-shirt and jeans somewhat – when I heard footsteps in the hall. A delivery? But normally, whenever a delivery came, Ship locked me into whichever room I was in, so that no-one would see me. I’m not quite sure what the delivery people thought of Perdita, when she signed for things! But this time, the kitchen door was still there. He was tall, grey-haired and dressed, well - unusually.
“You must be Talisman,” he said, before I could even begin to ask him any questions.
“I’m the professor. Professor Saturn Navelli.” He caught sight of my expression and laughed. “My brother is called Jupiter. Our progenitors were serious about astronomy. Ship and Perdita said that I would be needed. I’ve been studying the history of the Mallerby family for quite a while now.” Instantly, I forgot about everything else.
“The Mallerby family? Then do you know what happened to the Talisman Mallerby who came here from India in 1929?”
“Come into my study.”
And the door into the study had reappeared! It looked almost like it had in Aunt Violet’s time, only a bit shabbier, and the paint on the windows was cracked and peeling. The professor pulled a few books off the shelves and began looking through them.
“1929, 1929…here we are. Oh my, her life had its adventurous moments. She had a governess – a distant cousin actually – who went insane while she was supposed to be taking care of Talisman. She went to Cambridge to study mathematics – unusual for a girl, then – oh, and during the Second World War, I discovered recently, she worked at Bletchley Park. Her parents came back from India not long after she came here – oh yes, and she had three much younger brothers, who were all born here.”
So Talisman had survived! I’d love to know more about the mad governess, though. I’d ask him another time, maybe. Life acquired a routine after the professor arrived. We’d do lessons together in the morning – and boy, was he an inspiring teacher – then he’d work on his researches in the afternoon, and I’d work in the garden, or paint walls, or sand down the kitchen furniture, as I wanted to paint that too – whatever took my fancy. Then in the evenings, I’d read, or play chess with him – I was learning the moves!
It was easy to talk to Harry and Sapphire, and convince them that I was alright – all I had to do was tell them the truth about my days. I told Sapphire that the couple I was working for were teachers, and that the wife had been very ill and was recovering from a major op. and that was why they needed the help with the housework, and why it was so urgent to have someone.
About five days after the professor arrived, I was working in the garden when I heard my name being called.
“Talisman Mallerby.”
I straightened up and looked round, expecting to see the professor at the back door. But as I turned, all I saw was blackness. “Talisman de Malherbe.” Someone was coming towards me, saying my name. But where was I now? And when was I now?