The Loblolly Boy and the Sorcerer (16 page)

‘But Janice wouldn't have ever seen this telescope before. Won't she wonder where it suddenly came from?'

‘And that,' said the Sorcerer with a wolfish smile, ‘will make it all the more intriguing.'

Clutching the telescope, the loblolly boy ran down the street trusting nobody would be around to see the remarkable sight of a brass telescope floating unaided though the air one and a half metres above the ground.

With a sigh of relief he reached the safety of his father's house and hurried up the drive. He tried the front door but it was locked. On his way to the rear of the house he glanced in through several windows, but could not see Janice anywhere.

Perhaps she wasn't home after all. Perhaps they had been fooled by the sight of her car in the drive.

It didn't really matter, anyway. There was no real need to
have Janice look through the telescope at all. He suspected it was just a nasty whim of the Sorcerer who had a new toy and wanted to play with it. All the same, the loblolly boy needed to make sure. He didn't want to risk anything by not cooperating with the Sorcerer, however nasty his motives.

And then he discovered that Janice was at home after all. When he looked into the back yard he saw her, still in her red velveteen dressing gown and fluffy pink slippers. She was at the clothesline pegging something there. The back door was open.

The loblolly boy hurried down the concrete path and inside before Janice turned and saw the hovering telescope. He made his way quickly to the kitchen.

On the breakfast bar was a half-finished mug of strong black coffee, and a packet of aspirin. He suspected Janice was staying home because of a headache. An empty bottle on the bench beside the sink suggested the cause of the headache.

Quickly, the loblolly boy glanced around the kitchen for the best place to leave the telescope.

Too near the mug of coffee wouldn't do. That would suggest an intruder and might unduly alarm Janice. It needed to be somewhere where she would see it, but not some place she had already checked out that morning. He decided the dining room next door would be better. Janice would have passed through it on the way to the kitchen, but if she were a little woozy, she probably wouldn't have been taking much notice.

The loblolly boy slipped into the dining room and
placed the telescope on the dining room table. It was quite prominent there, the brass softly shining on the green linen tablecloth.

Then the loblolly boy sank into an easy chair to wait for Janice to come back into the house.

It did not take long.

He watched through the double doors as she came in. Her face was pained, she had frown lines on her forehead and her mouth was turned down at the corners in a sour expression. The loblolly boy remembered how awful she had made his life and for a moment almost reconsidered his project.

Janice reached for her cup and took another drink of the black coffee, then wiping her mouth turned and approached the dining room.

The loblolly boy glanced from her to the table, and had a sudden frightening thought, the same thought he'd had about Benjy. Given her horrible disposition and usual grumpiness, what might her destiny be?

It could be a Bengal tiger or a rattlesnake or something equally bad tempered. There was no knowing. And if she turned into something really feral and vicious he could be putting his father in terrible danger. These thoughts were so alarming that he climbed out of the easy chair and stood on top of it. Momentarily unbalanced he suddenly leaned backwards, knocking a porcelain figurine off the little knick-knack rack on the wall behind him.

It was probably a happy accident.

The sudden movement and noise as the figurine fell and
smashed on the floor, was enough to make Janice lift her head in a startled way and look around her.

She first looked blankly for some seconds at the broken china on the floor, and then looking about the room, she noticed the telescope sitting on the dining room table.

‘That's strange,' she muttered. ‘Where on earth did that come from?'

The loblolly boy, his balance regained with one arm steadying himself against the wall, now leaned forward.

Janice crossed to the table, looked curiously at the telescope for a second or two.

‘Benjy must have brought it home,' she muttered. ‘Funny he didn't mention it. What would he want a telescope for, of all things?' Then she gave a tight little grin. ‘Probably pinched it from somewhere,' she said. ‘Little rogue!'

Then she reached for the telescope, and just as the Sorcerer had predicted, put it to her eye.

Janice had time only to say, ‘How bizarre!' before the telescope dropped from her hand and almost in the same instant she disappeared.

The loblolly boy struggled to regain his balance, failed and tumbled to the floor.

He struggled to his feet, his eyes wide with amazement as he stared at the spot where Janice had been standing.

It was not occupied by a Bengal tiger, or a rattlesnake.

Sitting on the carpet where Janice had been moments before, was a very confused-looking and very large white rabbit.

‘It works!' he cried to the Sorcerer. ‘It works!'

‘Calm down, little man,' said the Sorcerer. ‘Not so excitable. Calm down and tell me what happened.'

‘Janice has gone!' the loblolly boy blurted. ‘Disappeared!'

‘Good,' said the Sorcerer. ‘That was the plan. And?'

‘She's turned into a white rabbit!'

The Sorcerer raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘A white rabbit, eh? That's unexpected. I thought from the way you'd described her that she would have at least changed into a rat.'

The loblolly boy looked at the Sorcerer in some confusion. He couldn't remember telling him anything much about Janice.

‘Never mind,' said the Sorcerer easily. ‘A white rabbit is good enough. In fact it will be very useful.'

‘Useful, how can it be useful?'

‘You're forgetting my trade, dear boy,' said the Sorcerer. ‘Remember, I'm a magician. I always have a need for a white rabbit. Janice will come in very useful for pulling out of hats.'

The loblolly boy looked at him to see whether or not he was joking, but it seemed the Sorcerer was perfectly serious.

‘Anyway,' said the Sorcerer. ‘We'd better go and have a look I suppose. You did secure her, didn't you?'

‘Secure her?'

‘Ensure she couldn't run away. She could naturally be a little disoriented right now and panic. We wouldn't want to lose her.'

‘She's shut in the dining room,' said the loblolly boy. ‘She can't get away.'

‘Good,' said the Sorcerer, clapping his hands. ‘Let's go, then.'

At that point, though, he gave the loblolly boy a disapproving look. ‘I see that you haven't brought the telescope back with you?'

‘It's still in the dining room where she dropped it on the floor, I suppose,' said the loblolly boy.

‘You should have brought it with you,' said the Sorcerer sharply. ‘It could be very dangerous in the wrong hands!'

The loblolly boy felt quite reproved and shrank into himself a little, reminding himself yet again how tricky it was dealing with the Sorcerer, how one false step could upset things.

They walked to the house and made their way to the kitchen. The loblolly boy was now unsure how to refer to Janice. Should it be ‘it' or ‘she'? He decided that ‘she' was a little more respectful.

‘She's in there,' he said, pointing to the double doors.

The Sorcerer unzipped his large bag.

‘Good,' he said. He opened the door carefully and peered in.

‘Excellent,' he said.

Perhaps the rabbit was in a state of shock. She did not appear to have moved an inch since the loblolly boy had rushed away to report to the Sorcerer. She sat on the floor next to the table looking up at them with large, puzzled pink eyes.

The Sorcerer walked up to her gently, then swiftly bent down and seized her by the scruff of her neck, thrust her into the bag and zipped it up. Then he retrieved the telescope, and tucked it under his arm.

‘How long will it be?' asked the loblolly boy.

The Sorcerer looked a little puzzled. ‘How long will what be?' he asked.

The loblolly boy pointed to the bag.

‘Before Janice …'

‘Before Janice what?'

‘Well, before Janice becomes Janice again,' he said.

He was thinking how Benjy's transformation had faded after a day or so. He thought Janice's might take a little longer as Benjy had only behaved like a dog. He hadn't been physically altered.

Then he looked up to see the Sorcerer laughing.

‘But she won't,' he laughed. ‘She's found her true destiny. She's a rabbit now.'

The loblolly boy looked at him. He wasn't sure what was worse: the knowledge that Janice was going to be a white rabbit for the rest of her existence, or that the Sorcerer
obviously thought this was very funny.

‘You're not serious?' he whispered, but already with a growing apprehension that he almost certainly was.

‘I'm sure she'll be very happy,' said the Sorcerer. ‘All she'll have to do is jump out of a hat occasionally and for that she'll get full bed and board and the run of a reasonably capacious hutch. Ideal, I would have thought.'

The Sorcerer was smiling amiably, but his dark eyes were bead-black.
I don't think they ever twinkle
, thought the loblolly boy.
I don't think they know how
.

‘What happens now?' he asked.

Out of consideration for its occupant, the Sorcerer thought it best to return to the city with his overnight bag. He told the loblolly boy that he would meet him back at the bus shelter within the hour and that meanwhile the loblolly boy should try to find out where Benjy happened to be.

The loblolly boy, still shocked, nodded and leapt into the air. He rose higher and higher and then hovered there as the Sorcerer strode a few metres down the street to where a low-slung Citroën was parked. When he reached it, the Sorcerer stood by the driver's door and, shading his eyes, gazed skywards, giving the loblolly boy a cheerful salute, before climbing into the driver's seat. Within a few seconds the car was speeding away towards the city.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

U
NDERHAND

O
ne boy on a bike was not easy to find. The loblolly boy flew hither and yon over the neighbourhood but saw no sign whatsoever of Benjy. He flew down and investigated Benjy’s ex-school where, as Ben, he had experienced the embarrassment of the interview with the principal, Ms Proctor. He didn’t really expect to find Benjy skulking around but felt he had to try.

In the end, the loblolly boy flew down and landed on a rugby goalpost on the sports field. He swung down and sat on the crossbar, trying to work through the events of the morning.

Janice was now a large white rabbit with floppy ears and pink-red eyes just a little lighter than her dressing gown.

From now on, if the Sorcerer could be believed, Janice would always be a white rabbit. Janice as Janice had disappeared from his life. His father’s too. How would his father cope? Of course, he would be hurt by her sudden disappearance, but would he be devastated?

He hoped not.

If the Sorcerer could be trusted, and that was a big if, then an Exchange, a final Exchange with Benjy was something that could take place soon. He hoped it would. His father had been hurt by Benjy, hurt by Janice, and would now be hurt by Janice’s sudden disappearance.

After the Exchange, the loblolly boy thought, he’d have a lot of work to do.

The school’s sports field acted as a buffer between the
classrooms
and the road. While he was sitting on the cross bar, the loblolly boy suddenly saw Benjy still on his bike riding past the school. Benjy, luckily had his eyes on the road, or preferred not to look at his ex-school, for he did not give it as much as a glance.

The loblolly boy rose into the air a considerable height to follow Benjy. At first he thought Benjy might be heading back to his house, but instead he turned into the bigger road that was the bus route. He followed this for some way until he came to a small collection of suburban shops. Here he dismounted and after locking his bike to a stand, he went into a large fish and chip shop.

The loblolly boy dropped down and cautiously looked in the window. It seemed an odd time to be buying fish and chips. Surely he would not long have had breakfast.

But Benjy had apparently not gone in to order fries. The shop had a battery of coin-operated video games, and Benjy was now standing before one of these trying to control a computerised version of a racing car as it sped around a wild fast-moving track littered with crashes and other obstacles.

Benjy looked to be set there for some time and, guessing that the Sorcerer could have already returned, the loblolly boy hurriedly backed away from the shop window and took to the air once more.

His timing was perfect. He had almost reached the bus shelter, when he saw the Sorcerer’s Citroën pull up and park a few metres short of it.

The loblolly boy was able to land in time to speak to the Sorcerer through the driver’s window.

‘I’ve found Benjy.’

‘Where is he?’

‘Not far from here. He’s in a fish and chip shop playing video games.’

‘Can you show me where?’

‘Sure.’

‘Hop in!’

The loblolly boy hurried around to the passenger side and climbed in beside the Sorcerer. He gave him the initial directions and the Sorcerer put the car into gear and they were off.

‘How’s Janice?’ asked the loblolly boy after a time.

‘Doing fine. I think she’ll adjust very well. I’ve put her in a hutch with a carrot and a small chopped salad.’

It almost made the loblolly boy smile to think how
ordinarily Janice would have detested such food.

‘She’d probably have preferred fried chicken.’

‘Not any more, I think. I believe ultimately she’ll be very grateful for the change in diet.’

‘It’s just up here.’

The Sorcerer found a place to park not far from the fish and chip shop and cut the engine.

‘He’s still in there, I guess,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘At least his bike’s still chained to the stand.’

‘Wait here,’ murmured the Sorcerer. ‘It is my turn, this time. We want nothing to go wrong this time.’

Reaching over into the back seat, he gathered the large overnight bag and the telescope. Then he opened the door and made his way determinedly towards the shop. Pausing briefly only to glance through the window, he pushed open the shop door and entered.

Benjy was still engrossed, operating the car with two hand-held levers attached to the machine. It looked to be a very energetic operation and Benjy’s hands moved adroitly as his body swayed from left to right. The Sorcerer watched him with some amusement for a few moments. The woman behind the counter looked at him expectantly and he said, ‘Shortly I’ll order, but first I’d like a word with this young man here.’

Sensing the Sorcerer’s closeness or perhaps hearing what he’d just said, Benjy’s attention faltered and he turned around to look at the Sorcerer.

‘Me?’ he asked.

The Sorcerer nodded. ‘Just a little word,’ he said easily.

‘What?’

The Sorcerer gestured with his head and asked, ‘Is that your bike out there? The one chained to the stand?’

‘It might be,’ said Benjy suspiciously. ‘What about it?’

‘Oh, nothing really,’ said the Sorcerer. ‘Nothing
untoward
.’ Thus far he had been holding the telescope behind his back. Now he brought it forth and showed it to Benjy. ‘It’s just that as I was walking past I noticed this telescope lying in the gutter right by the bike. I wondered whether it might have fallen out of your saddlebag?’

This was extremely unlikely, mainly because Benjy’s bike did not have a saddlebag. Still, at the sight of the telescope, his eyes widened and he muttered, ‘It could be … Could I have a look?’

The lie was so transparently delicious that the Sorcerer almost laughed. Instead, he said, ‘Of course.’ And he handed Benjy the telescope.

For a few moments Benjy held the telescope. He extended it then pushed it together again. The Sorcerer tolerated this
painfully false performance with quiet amusement, waiting for the moment, which had to come, when Benjy would lift the telescope to his eye and look through it.

And then the moment did come. With a small shrug at the Sorcerer, Benjy lifted the telescope as if he were a boy in a crow’s nest and put it to his eye.

The woman behind the counter had been reading a magazine. All at once she was startled by a raucous screech that completely filled the shop. She jumped and then looked over the counter towards the strange man who had been talking to the kid at the video game.

The kid had gone although she hadn’t noticed him leave, but the man was still standing there and before him on the floor was a large sulphur-crested cockatoo filling the shop with its ear-piercing screeching.

‘Hey,’ she shouted to the man. ‘What do you think you’re doing? We can’t have animals in the shop. We serve food here!’

‘Please forgive me,’ the man said smoothly. ‘A thousand apologies. Little Benjy here must somehow have worked his way out of my bag.’

‘Well, get him back into it. He’ll drive us all mad with that racket!’

While the woman watched balefully, the Sorcerer seized Benjy by the legs and deftly avoiding his stabbing beak, managed to push him into the bag and zip it up.

He bent down and retrieved the telescope and then moved to the counter as if nothing much had happened.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘He’s usually much more placid. I’ll
have one piece of fish, half a dozen mussels, and a scoop of chips if you don’t mind.’

When the Sorcerer re-emerged from the shop, the loblolly boy saw that he was carrying his overnight bag, the telescope and a packet of fish and chips. The bag looked a little bulkier than before.

He watched as the Sorcerer approached. There was a very self-satisfied air about the way he was walking and he had a smug smile on his face.

‘How’d it go?’ he asked as the Sorcerer opened the Citroën door.

‘According to plan, I feel,’ said the Sorcerer, stretching over to place the bag on the back seat. As he did so it gave a muffled squawk, and the loblolly boy was a little alarmed.

‘What’s in it?’ he asked.

‘Why, Benjy of course,’ replied the Sorcerer. ‘What a silly question.’

‘Benjy?’

‘Yes, Benjy. But, naturally, not Benjy as you know him.’

That was perfectly obvious. Benjy as the loblolly boy knew him would not have fitted into an overnight bag.

The loblolly boy glanced nervously over his shoulder at the twitching bag. ‘What is he?’ he asked.

‘Benjy is a cockatoo.’

‘Cocker what?’

‘A cockatoo, and from an initial meeting, I’d say a sulphur-crested cockatoo?’

‘Sulphur-crested?’ asked the loblolly boy.

‘It’s a very loud and somewhat annoying bird, I believe from Australia.’

Benjy was a cockatoo.

What on earth did that mean. ‘How is that going to help me?’ asked the loblolly boy.

‘You’ll see,’ said the Sorcerer mysteriously.

Then he turned the engine on, and seconds later the car and its passengers were heading back to the city.

‘I wonder,’ remarked the Sorcerer.

The car was waiting at the lights, an intersection from the square near the centre of the city.

‘What?’ asked the loblolly boy.

It had been a nervous ride, partly a result of the Sorcerer’s flamboyant driving, partly because he was often focused on extracting a chip or a mussel from the packet on his lap, and partly because of the occasional flurry of furious squawks emanating from the bag in the back seat. Benjy it seemed was not merely a sulphur-crested cockatoo, but a very angry sulphur-crested cockatoo.

‘I’m wondering where we should effect the Exchange,’
mused the Sorcerer out loud.

‘The Exchange?’ asked the loblolly boy, again glancing apprehensively at the twitching bag.

‘Yes,’ said the Sorcerer, ‘the Exchange. That’s what this exercise has been all about, hasn’t it? To find some way for you to Exchange with Benjy.’

‘But,’ protested the loblolly boy, barely unable to tear his eyes away from the bag. ‘I don’t want to Exchange with this Benjy. I want to Exchange with the other Benjy!’

The Citroën took off with a lurch. ‘What you’ve just said,’ said the Sorcerer, ‘makes no sense whatsoever. It’s a contradiction.’

‘I mean,’ said the loblolly boy, increasingly nervously, ‘I want to Exchange with Benjy the boy, not Benjy the sulphur-crested cocker whatsit!’

The Sorcerer eased the Citroën into a parking space outside a small repertory theatre.

Then he turned to the loblolly boy and said patiently, ‘But, dear little loblolly boy, it has already been established that Benjy the boy has refused point blank to Exchange with you. However, I am quite certain Benjy the
sulphur-crested
cockatoo will be more than cooperative.’

‘But I don’t want to be a sulphur-crested cockatoo!’ protested the loblolly boy. ‘I want to be Ben!’

‘You won’t necessarily be a sulphur-crested cockatoo, little loblolly boy. Have more faith than that. And even if you are, I’m sure it would only be for a brief duration. Indeed, almost the briefest of durations.’

The loblolly boy looked at him suspiciously. ‘I thought
you said that Janice would be a white rabbit forever.’

‘Not forever,’ said the Sorcerer. ‘I wouldn’t have said that.’

‘You did!’

‘She will not be a rabbit forever,’ said the Sorcerer easily. ‘She will die one day as all rabbits do and possibly go to rabbit heaven, although in her case, I doubt it.’

‘That’s what I mean,’ said the loblolly boy. ‘She’ll be a rabbit to the end of her days.’

‘I don’t follow your drift?’

‘Well, I don’t want to be a sulphur-crested cockatoo for the rest of my days. I think I’d rather be the loblolly boy.’

‘But you’re overlooking the rather obvious point that Janice was a human, and a rather foolish human. But you’re the loblolly boy. You can’t compare the two.’

‘I can’t see it makes that much difference when you Exchange,’ muttered the loblolly boy.

‘Trust me,’ said the Sorcerer confidently. ‘I do know what I’m about. And don’t forget, I have a point to make and a contest to win.’

He turned the engine off and reached for his bag. ‘Let’s get ourselves out of the car now. This is the place.’

The Sorcerer pointed to the small theatre. It was called
The Gaiety
and it was a stucco building painted creamy yellow. Glassed cabinets with rather crudely printed posters pinned inside them advertised forthcoming productions.

The double-hung doors were locked, but the Sorcerer pulled out a large key.

‘I have the privilege of performing in this establishment from time to time and have acquired a key,’ he explained.
‘It seems a place where the Exchange can take place not only privately, but in an appropriately theatrical atmosphere. It is high drama is it not?’

He ushered the loblolly boy in and secured the door behind them. The place was very dark and smelt of old carpet and talcum powder. The Sorcerer switched on some lights and then said, ‘This way.’