Big Change for Stuart (18 page)

‘What I want to know,' said her sister, ‘is where you disappeared to. May waited outside the exhibition while I went to phone Dad, and she said that you never left the room. Obviously I didn't believe her because she's always such a nutcase, but when hours went by and you and Stuart didn't turn up, we came back to look for you, and now I realize that May was actually right. So where were you? And how did you get into a locked shed?'

April shook her head. ‘I can't tell you,' she said. ‘It's not just my secret, it's Stuart's.'

Running footsteps came from outside, and May reappeared with a mug and a large bottle of water. ‘
Here
you are,' she said, pouring a mugful for Stuart. ‘I filled it from the tap.' He drank the lot, and she poured him another.

‘So, Stuart,' said June, looking stern and serious. ‘I think it's high time May and I knew what was really going on. We've told your dad that you're working late at the museum, and we've told
our
parents that April's gone round to your house – not to mention borrowing Dad's keys without him knowing – and we're tired of covering for you both and we want to know the truth.'

Stuart glugged the second mugful of water and held it out for a refill.

‘Because it's not fair, is it, if we keep helping you but you don't tell us anything?' said May screechily. ‘It's not fair at all.'

He drank the third mugful, thought about a fourth, and then realized that he had begun to feel sick. Very, very sick.

‘So come on, Stuart,' said June, folding her arms and using a phrase that she was ever afterwards going to regret. ‘Spit it out.'

Stuart did.

HE DIDN'T REMEMBER
much about the journey home on the bus. He was feeling a bit like a strand of cooked spaghetti and lay limply across the double seat at the back, while the triplets looked at him anxiously.

His father, when he opened the front door to Stuart, looked even more anxious. ‘I'm not sure whether or not to seek professional attention,' he kept saying as Stuart lay on the sofa with a cold cloth on his forehead, ‘or whether this is a quotidian childhood ailment which boiled fluids, sufficient time and simple analgesia will alleviate.'

‘What?' asked Stuart feebly.

‘I am unable to judge whether it's serious or not.
I
think maybe I should make a call to a medical authority.'

He disappeared for ten minutes, and then came back clutching the phone, which he held out to Stuart.

‘Hello?' said Stuart.

‘It's Mum. In Singapore. I've told your father not to panic.'

‘Good.'

‘Now, he said that you got very hot, had no fluids for the entire afternoon and then drank about a litre of water on an empty stomach. Is there anything else I should know, medically speaking?'

‘I was upside down,' admitted Stuart reluctantly.

‘When were you upside down?'

‘Most of the afternoon.'

‘Why?'

He hesitated. ‘It was a sort of game.'

‘Right. Well, I'm not surprised you're feeling ill. Stay cool, take lots of sips of water and have a good night's sleep. Get Dad to phone me in the morning if you're not completely better.'

‘OK.' Stuart's mum was always very sensible and unpanicked about medical things. It was everything else that she worried about.

‘Now, are you eating properly?' she asked.

‘Yes. Dad's cooking lots of healthy things. Lots of them.'

‘And are you having a lovely time with your new friends?'

He hesitated just a fraction before saying yes, and his mum noticed immediately.

‘What's the matter?' she asked.

‘I'm just missing someone,' he muttered, thinking about Charlie, wandering on short legs through a strange and magical world.

He kept thinking about the dog even after his mother had rung off – about how he'd first seen Charlie in the Pyramid, and then, later on, April had heard the click of his toenails in the Arch of Mirrors. Was it possible that all the magical worlds were linked? Could you go into one world and come out of another? And in that case, were there still two chances left to find Charlie?

*

That night, Stuart fell asleep early and slept heavily, and when he came downstairs – feeling slightly weak and extremely hungry – it was nearly midday. His father was in the living room, staring at a blank crossword puzzle while holding a spoon and fork in one hand.

‘Hello, Dad,' said Stuart. ‘I'm better.'

His father looked up in an unfocused sort of way. ‘Excellent,' he said vaguely. ‘I've just realized that
cutlery
is an anagram of
try clue
, so I'm planning an entire cipher based around kitchen utensils. Excitingly, the word
tine
has five different meanings beyond that of being the projecting prong of a fork.'

‘Good,' replied Stuart. He went into the kitchen and poured some cereal into a bowl, and he'd just taken his first mouthful when he realized that there was a large brown envelope in the middle of the table, with his name written on the front of it.

Inside was a copy of the
Beech Road Guardian
and a letter in April's fantastically neat handwriting.