Noah Barleywater Runs Away (13 page)

‘One of these, ma’am?’ I asked, holding out my hand and offering her a perfect purple sprig of lavender.

‘Astonishing,’ said the Queen, shaking her head.

‘
What can I tell you?’ I said, smiling at her. ‘I’m pretty quick.’

A couple of years later, I happened to be in Rotterdam for the Rotterdam Centennial Races and went to visit the Prince. It turned out to have been a very good set-up. He’d learned a lot at the hands of his tutor, but had done it on the glass roof of the castle, staring at the skies throughout. Really, everyone was happy. Even Poppa, when I arrived home.

‘You’re a day late,’ he said, smiling at me but looking relieved nonetheless.

‘But only a day,’ I said.

‘You came back,’ he said, embracing me. ‘That’s all that matters. You kept your promise.’

‘A boy in my class met the Queen,’ said Noah, remembering the day Charlie Charlton had come into school wearing a suit and tie and with his hair combed straight for once in his life. ‘He presented her with a bunch of flowers and said, “We’re so delighted you could make the journey, ma’am.” It was in the local newspaper.’

‘Different queen,’ said the old man, shaking his head. ‘The king and queen I met are long gone now.’

He reached across, took the puppet from Noah’s hands and looked at it fondly for a moment, running a finger along the carved design of the regal outfit before letting a great sigh escape his lips. He handed it back to the boy, who placed it flat on the table next to the puppets of Mrs Shields and Mr Wickle.

‘It sounds like your father must have been very glad to have you back,’ said Noah. ‘Was he very lonely without you?’

‘Well, of course,’ said the old man. ‘Parents
become very lonely when their children are away, don’t you know that? And he didn’t have many friends either. Of course, there was the donkey who had greeted us on our first day in the village. Although he was really more my friend than my father’s as we were about the same age. And there was a dachshund too, who always stopped by for a chat. He and Poppa got along very well.’

‘I met the dachshund this morning,’ said Noah eagerly. ‘He was the one who told me all about the tree outside your shop. He was very helpful. Although he seemed to take offence very easily.’

‘Yes, he can be a little touchy, but he’s a very decent dog really. He’s a particular friend of mine. In fact, the dachshund and the donkey are probably my closest friends these days.’

‘My closest friend is Charlie Charlton,’ said Noah. ‘He can play the trombone and he started to teach me earlier this year, although he said I still have a long way to go if I’m to be even one tenth as good as him.’

‘Well, that will never happen now, I don’t suppose,’ remarked the old man. ‘Since you’ve run away, I mean. I can’t imagine you’ll meet too many strangers on the roads willing to give you trombone lessons.’

Noah nodded slowly and frowned. He hadn’t thought of that.

‘Anyway, the donkey and the dachshund were company of a sort for Poppa while I was away,’
the old man continued. ‘But I think I always knew that it wasn’t the same as my being there to help out with the shop and play chess with him in the evenings. Parents can have all the friends they want, they can have every donkey and dachshund in the world come to visit them, but nothing makes up for not having their children near by. Why, I suppose your mother and father will be feeling that just now. They’ll have noticed you’ve run away, I expect.’

‘Yes,’ said Noah, glancing at his watch. ‘Yes, I expect they will.’

‘And do they have many friends to keep them company?’

‘A few,’ admitted Noah. ‘Although no animal friends. We don’t go in for that type of thing at the edge of the forest. It’s mostly humans who talk to each other back there.’

‘Yes, I remember,’ said the old man. ‘That was one of the reasons I was so happy to move here when I was a boy. More variety. But still, if they have a few friends, like you say, then I imagine they’ll forget all about you in time.’

Noah looked up in surprise, the words hitting him like a block of wood in the face. ‘I don’t think they’ll forget me,’ he said, feeling upset. ‘I don’t think they could ever forget me.’

‘Not even if you never returned home?’

‘I’d still be their son,’ said Noah. ‘Nothing can change that.’

‘
Perhaps they would have another son?’ asked the old man.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Noah, shaking his head. ‘No, that’s not going to happen.’

‘Well, then,’ said the old man. ‘Of course, I don’t know them. I don’t know anything about them other than what you’ve told me. But you’re the one who’s running away from home, not me, so I can only assume that you have a good reason for it.’

‘When my mum cancelled the Easter holiday, I thought that was strange,’ said the boy, looking down at the table. ‘And when she turned the swimming pool into a beach, well, that was just downright odd,’ he added. ‘But I didn’t think too much about it at the time. I thought she was just having fun. But after the fair—’

‘Your mother took you to a fair?’ asked the old man.

‘Yes.’

‘Well, that sounds like fun,’ he said.

Noah nodded. ‘It was,’ he said, breathing heavily through his nose, for the memory of that afternoon still made him feel very upset. ‘The day itself was very good. It was how it ended that ruined it.’

Mrs Barleywater showed up unexpectedly in Noah’s schoolyard in the late morning, just after his class had been let out for lunch, and told him that he was to come with her because they were taking the afternoon off.

‘We’re doing what?’ he asked in astonishment, for his mother had never allowed him to take time off school before, not even on the day when he didn’t want to go in because he hadn’t done his homework and had sat on a thermometer for five minutes to pretend that he had a temperature.

‘A beautiful sunny day like this isn’t made for school,’ she said. ‘We should make the most of the good weather, don’t you think? I thought you and I could do something together.’

‘But I have double maths in the afternoon,’ said Noah.

‘So? Do you like double maths?’

‘No,’ he admitted. ‘Not even a little bit.’

‘Well, then. Come on, let’s go.’

‘
But my bag and my books,’ he said, looking back towards the classroom and the headmaster, Mr Tushingham, who was marching their way with an outraged expression on his face.

‘They’ll all be there tomorrow,’ she said. ‘Quick now, before we’re caught.’

They ran out of the school gates, hand in hand, as Mr Tushingham chased them to the car park, not liking what he was seeing one little bit, and he called out Noah’s mother’s name as loud as he could, sending the birds flying from the branches of the trees in fright, but she pretended not to hear him as she switched on the ignition and pulled out. And they would have made it too, only Mr Tushingham practically threw himself on the front windscreen so she had little choice but to stop and roll down the window with a sigh.

‘Mrs Barleywater,’ the headmaster said, panting and gasping for breath, for he looked like he hadn’t taken any exercise since he was about Noah’s age. ‘What on earth do you think you’re doing? It’s the middle of the school day. You can’t just drive off with the boy.’

‘But the sun’s out,’ she said, looking up at the sky where the clouds had parted and a blanket of pale blue stretched into infinity above them. ‘It’s a sin to be stuck indoors on a day like this.’

‘But it’s against the rules,’ protested Mr Tushingham.

‘Whose rules?’ asked Noah’s mum.

‘
The school’s rules,’ he replied. ‘My rules!’

‘Oh, never mind about them,’ she said, dismissing all this nonsense with a wave of her hand. ‘Why don’t you jump in the back seat too, Mr Tushingham? You can come with us if you like. No? Are you sure? All right then. Goodbye!’

And with that she put the car into reverse and pulled out onto the road, driving down the street as Noah turned his head round from the back seat to see the headmaster standing with his hands on his hips, watching them disappear with a look of fury on his face.

‘He doesn’t look happy,’ said Noah.

‘Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,’ said Mrs Barleywater. ‘I’ll write you a note for tomorrow. Besides, if I want to spend a day with my son, I will, and no school principal will tell me otherwise. We don’t have a single minute to waste, you and I.’

Noah frowned. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked.

‘By what?’ she replied, looking up and catching his eye in the rear-view mirror.

‘That we don’t have a minute to waste.’

‘Nothing in particular,’ she said, shaking her head quickly. ‘Only that life is short, Noah, and we should spend as much time as we can with the people we love, that’s all. I think I’ve gone through my whole life without realizing that, but now … well, now it’s suddenly become very clear to me. School will still be there tomorrow, there’s no need
to worry about that. As will double maths. But today you and I are going to have a little fun.’

Noah decided not to argue with her because, after all, he was getting a day off and he hadn’t even had to pretend to have a temperature for it, so he pulled his tie from around his neck, opened his collar and looked out of the window as they drove along. ‘Where are we going anyway?’ he asked when he realized they were driving along unfamiliar roads.

‘There’s a fair in the city today,’ she said. ‘I read about it in the morning paper and thought we ought to go and see it. It’ll be quiet since everyone else is in school.’

‘Brilliant!’ said Noah.

They parked the car at the station and took a train into the city, and Noah’s mum didn’t even argue with the man sitting opposite them when he kept talking on his mobile phone, or with the woman on the other side of the carriage who kept making nasty sucking sounds with her chewing gum, because she said that sometimes it was easier just to live and let live. Instead she chatted away with Noah and they played train games together as if she was only eight years old herself.

When they got to the fair, though, she only went on one of the rides and left Noah to go on all the rest himself. ‘But rollercoasters are no fun on your own,’ he insisted. ‘Please, Mum. We have to do it together.’

‘I can’t,’ she said, not sounding quite as energetic as she had when they had driven away from the school that morning. Her voice sounded very tired and she looked like she had eaten something that didn’t agree with her. ‘I’m not feeling very well, Noah. But look, we’re here to enjoy ourselves and I don’t want to spoil it for you. Go ahead – you can have fun for both of us.’

‘We could sit down for a few minutes if you want,’ suggested Noah, pointing towards an empty bench behind them. ‘Then go on something else together. You might feel better after a break.’

‘It’s probably best if you go on the rollercoaster alone,’ she said. ‘I’ll watch you from down here, I promise. I’ll wave up at you. Afterwards, I’ll try one of the other rides with you if I’m feeling up to it.’

Noah wasn’t very pleased with this but he didn’t want to miss out on a journey on Space Mountain, so the next time it stopped to let passengers on he climbed into the front, hoping he wouldn’t be left alone in it as he’d slide across the seat when the rollercoaster turned on its side, but then a little girl of his own age stepped in beside him, finishing some candyfloss as the attendant pulled the bar down in front of them.

‘Hello,’ said Noah, trying to be friendly. ‘I’m Noah Barleywater.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said the little girl, giving him a sickly smile, ‘only I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.’

And that was the end of that until the loop-the-
loops began, at which point she grabbed his hand and screamed so loud in his ear, he thought she might shatter one of his eardrums.

The rollercoaster had been going much too fast for him to see whether his mum had been watching from the ground or not, and when he got off after three goes round, he was staggering a little from left to right, like his Uncle Teddy did every Christmas night when he left the house to make his way home. And when Noah finally got his balance back, she was nowhere to be found. He looked on either side, in front and behind, up and down the street, and frowned, biting his lip, wondering where she might have got to. It wasn’t like his mum not to be where she had said she would be, and he didn’t like the idea of going looking for her in case she came back in the meantime and was worried about what had happened to him. They might never track each other down again.

He sat down on the bench where he had left her, a forlorn expression on his face, and as he did so he saw a woman wearing a white uniform marching quickly towards him, her face all twisted up in concern. He didn’t like the look of her at all and turned his head away, hoping she would pass him by quickly, but instead she stopped in front of him and bent down, just like he knew she would.

‘Are you Noah Barleywater?’ she asked.

‘No,’ he said.

‘Are you sure?’ she said, frowning. ‘You look just
like the boy I’ve been sent to find. I was given a description.’

Noah said nothing, just looked at the ground, trying not to think about anything at all. Hoping the ground would swallow him up.

‘Are you sure you’re not Noah?’ the lady asked a moment later in a more gentle voice.

‘I am,’ he admitted, nodding a little.

‘Oh, good,’ she said, her face breaking into a relieved smile. ‘I thought you must be. Will you come with me?’

‘I can’t,’ explained Noah. ‘I’m waiting for my mum.’

‘I know,’ said the woman. ‘She’s had a funny turn, that’s all. Nothing for you to worry about. She’s waiting for you in the medical tent. She asked me to come and get you.’

Noah said nothing for a moment, sure that the whole world was conspiring in a secret he wasn’t part of, but finally he agreed to go with her. The fairground woman tried to hold his hand as they walked along, but he made it very clear that he was having none of that sort of nonsense and put his hands in his pockets instead. Every so often he turned his head back to check the bench in case his mother had reappeared, but when he stepped inside the medical tent a minute later, there she was, lying on a bed with a doctor standing over her.