"Crow Girls part 3" by Laura Peregrin

Chapter Five

      The twins were back at school on Monday. Henry caught a glimpse of them in the corridors between classes, but he didn’t catch up with them till lunchtime. They were, as ever, surrounded by their flock of followers, plus a few older boys as well. They all seemed to be examining something Cora held in her arms, but after a minute or two he realised that they were examining her arm itself. A few girls had bright felt-tip pens, and were giggling over something they were writing on the plaster cast.

      Henry hovered uncertainly, a few paces away from the crowd. He couldn’t interrupt all those people, all those girls. But what he had to say was important. He tried to catch a twin’s eye. Someone laughed raucously. Henry felt a blush begin somewhere under his collar and begin its inevitable spread, like hot red ink through water. He clung hard to the memory of the dream, or whatever it was, and shuffled forward.

      “Katie! Cora! I’ve got to talk to you,” he hissed. Suddenly, every single person was looking at him. A snigger rippled through the watchers.

      “Go away!” Katie snapped, looking nearly as embarrassed as Henry felt.

      “But it’s really important,” Henry muttered. “It’s about the dov …”

      “Shhh! Not now, Henry,” Cora said quietly, as if trying not to seem like she was saying anything at all. To Henry’s amazement, she looked apologetic. “Later. We’ll come round or something …” Both twins turned back to their friends, turning their backs to Henry.

     As he slunk away, Henry heard the loudest giggle yet, followed by a shriek of “No way!”, and more laughter.

*

     “Eat that up, Henry, before it goes cold,” his mother snapped. Henry pushed the beans further round the plate.

      “I’m not hungry, Mum,” he muttered.

      “Honestly, it’s not like you at all – whatever’s the matter with you these days?” she sighed. Henry stared at his plate.

       When the doorbell rang, Henry nearly fell over his chair in his haste to get up. “I’ll get that!” he yelled.

       “No,” his mother stated. “I think I’ll go.” Henry sat down, his face livid.

       “Henry, there are two girls here to see you.” He pushed into the hallway.

       “Don’t worry about your dinner. I’ll clear it all up, no problem,” his mother called after him.

       “Thanks, Mum!”

       Henry and the twins sat on an uncomfortably rustic bench at the far end of the garden, behind a screen of climbing roses.

      “So what’s so important that you had to ask us at school about it?” Katie challenged.

       “I had to find you. You said you’d explain everything, and then you didn’t show up.” Katie sighed and looked cross. “But the dove did,” Henry added before either girl could interrupt. Both girls went pale. Henry suppressed a smile of triumph.

       “You mean another dream?” Cora asked.

       “No. He was actually here. He came to the door and Mum thought he was a teacher, and I tried to get away but he was always there…”

       “Hold on. Slow down!” Katie interrupted. “Your Mum just let him in?”

       “Yes. It’s like he was using some kind of mind control or something. Like aliens do on T.V.” Henry realised how far-fetched it sounded in the garden sunlight. “And she didn’t notice when I screamed,” he added reluctantly.

       “They can do stuff like that, when they want to,” Cora mused. Katie looked sceptical.

       “But why would they want to? They know he hasn’t got the feather anymore.”

       Henry felt he was loosing the initiative of his story. “He said he needed to talk to me. He said I was special. He showed me something, sort of inside the computer. Like a dream or something. Then my Mum was yelling about lunch, and he was gone.” Henry let a tiny shadow of disappointment into his voice.

        Both twins looked wary.

        “What did he show you?”

        “I can’t remember properly,” he admitted. “There was a city. All sort of greyish. But very peaceful…”

            The twins studied their sparkly nail-polish intently.

            “Well, if you can’t remember what it was, it can’t have been very important, can it?” Katie snapped weakly.

            “I know it’s important,” Henry insisted. “And I know you know it’s important.” He glared at the twins. “Have you been to the city?” He asked.

            “We’ve tried,” Cora admitted. “They don’t like us going there, so we have to sort of sneak in.”

            “Why don’t they like you visiting? He seemed keen to show it off to me…”

            “We think it’s all dull and the most boring place ever, so we like to … well, liven it up a bit.” Katie looked defensive, but proud.

            “Ahh…” Henry had a feeling he knew how the twins might ‘liven up’ something that they thought was dull. He’d heard stories about how they’d livened up classes. One English teacher had resigned. “So that’s why they were chasing you, isn’t it?”

            “Yeah, but we hadn’t hurt anyone, and he hurt Cora, and he stole my feather, too. We’ve never stolen anything. It’s not fair! We just try to make it more interesting for the poor people there. I mean, it’s like somewhere your parents would go on holiday or something. Nothing ever happens!”

            “Do the people there help you?” Henry asked.

            “No. But they don’t help the doves much either. In fact, they don’t seem to notice anything. It’s like they want to be dull,” Cora explained.

            “Maybe they like it there?” Henry suggested.

            “Maybe they do. And that’d be fine – they could have their city of dullness, and we’d live here in the world where stuff happens. But the doves want everywhere, the whole world, even dreams, to be like that.” Cora looked gloomy.

            “Like double Maths, for ever and ever and ever,” Katie added.

            “So you’re going to stop them?”

            “Someone’s got to!” Katie cried. “And if it’s just us, well, we’ll just have to be good at it.”

            “Not just you,” Henry added quietly. “I said I’d help you, didn’t I? At least I’ll help you get your feather back, even if I’m not much good at any of the other stuff.”

            Cora looked thoughtful. “You said he used your computer as a gateway to the city. Do you think you could do that again? Everyone says you’re very good with computers,” she said sweetly.

            “Yeah,” Katie agreed. “We’re not.”

            “I’ve no idea what he did to it! I don’t know …”

            “You wouldn’t have to do much. It sounds like he left in a hurry when your Mum came in, so he probably left the gate half-open. You won’t have to make a new gate, just push the old one a bit. And as he made it for you in the first place, it shouldn’t be difficult.”

            “I could try …” Henry tried not to show his confusion.

            “Come on then!” Cora grabbed his arm, and they all raced across lawn, the first heavy drops of rain splashing into their hair.

Chapter Six

            “It won’t work!” Henry kicked the computer. Outside, the first rumbles of thunder sounded like an echo. Cora looked embarrassed. Katie was examining a dusty plastic robot that she had found on top of the bookcase.

            They had tried switching the computer on, switching it off, connecting it to the internet. They had stared intently at it, focusing all their will on the gateway they knew to be there. They had lounged nonchalantly against it, discussing the shortcomings of various members of the school staff in a slightly strained tone. Henry had pleaded, threatened and finally resorted to violence. The screen remained blank.

            “Maybe it knows you’re here,” Henry suggested.

            “What do you want us to do, hide under the bed?” Katie retorted. She put the toy down heavily, then picked it up again and started fiddling with its Triple Action Super Laser Cannon.

            “Couldn’t you just sort of make you self small?” Katie looked bemused. “You know, like pretending you’re not there so people don’t see you. It’s easy. I do it all the time” he added wretchedly. He couldn’t imagine the twins doing it

            “Maybe you need to make yourself big,” Cora suggested.

            “Yeah, and we’ll sneak in behind you,” Katie grinned.

            “O.k.” Henry took a deep breath, and seated himself in front of the computer again. He tried to remember how it had felt, in the dream when he was flying. He tried to imagine huge wings, wings shielding the twins. No, he realised. Mustn’t think of the twins. The twins who were giggling at something on the bookshelves. “Shhh!” he hissed.

            Try again. I’m not sitting in the chair, I’m flying. Huge wings soaring. Not in the chair. The chair he sat in. He in his white coat and his fine hair. His grey, drowning eyes … were they grey? Did it matter? Eyes you could get lost in, like the deepest part of the wood. No, more like an alley in a city you didn’t know. A city where it all seems the same and you can never finish exploring…

            The seat was cold, and rigid. A metal bench. He felt a surge of triumph, immediately followed by disappointment. He was sitting, not flying. Even when he came here, he was still just Henry. Just himself.

            “Do you need to be anything else?” a soft voice asked him. The man in white was seated next to him, close enough to touch.

            Henry tried to answer this. He felt overwhelmed by the complexities, the strangeness, the burning embarrassments, of being Henry Smyth-Wooton.

            “Let it go,” the man whispered. He was holding Henry, and already the confusions seemed to be leaking away. He looked up, into his eyes. The closeness was intense, unbearable. He never wanted it to end.

            “Let him go!” The shout was so raucous it was almost a shriek, or a squawk. The man leapt up to face the twins. Henry had never felt so cold, so alone in his life. He slumped on the seat.

            The twins rushed forward. Katie hesitated, glancing towards Henry’s unconscious, pale form.

            “Look what you’ve done to him,” the dove hissed.

            “Look what you’ve done!” Katie was almost incoherent. Cora took her arm.

            “The feather,” she reminded her sister. “It’s what we came for. We’re nothing without it,” she said softly. The dove stood calmly, watching them with mild interest. He reached one hand towards Henry’s hair in a nonchalant gesture that could have been a caress, or a claim. In his other, he held the feather. It glittered in the city’s half light, like Katie’s eyes.

            The dove turned towards her, his movements excluding Cora.

            “Your choice,” he stated.