Instalment 7 of The Blight of Beacon

end of Chapter 3 - The Chase

“Hi!” Katie told them breathlessly before disappearing upstairs.
Miranda and David both jumped up to follow her, their curiosity piqued by the trail of dirt Katie had left behind her.
“Hey – where are you two going?” Mr Crundle asked quickly.
“To listen to my new album,” David said, at the same time as Miranda said, “To feed my hermit crab.”
“The album can wait. Herman can wait,” Mr Crundle told them as sternly as he knew how. “You know that you must do your homework before anything else when you get home.”
They sank back into their chairs unwillingly and tried to focus on their homework, seething with impatience to get upstairs. Finally, with one very sloppily written History essay, and one extremely poorly completed set of algebra problems, they stuffed their books back into their satchels and raced up to Katie’s room. David banged on the door and was rewarded with a face-full of talcum powder. A moment later, Katie opened the door a crack.
“Come in,” she said, scanning the hallway beyond them for bystanders.
“What on earth are you doing?” asked Miranda, staring around Katie’s room as she locked the door behind them. David was having a sneezing fit, creating a cloud of talcum powder.
The bedroom looked like a gardener’s hut. Plants had been uprooted and lay amongst scattered dirt over Katie’s desk. She had dissected the roots of some, mashed the petals of others using Mr Crundle’s mortar and pestle, and cracked open seeds and nuts of still other plants. Miranda investigated a chair upon which a selection of powders and liquids had been placed, from baking soda to soft drink. David flopped onto Katie’s neatly made bed with a chuckle.
“I’ve got to hand it to you, Pickerwick,” he told Katie. “You’ve got a good set-up here, all right. You can do anything you want in here. I might get a lock put on my door and tell Dad I’m “finding my way in my own environment” too.”
“So,” Miranda cut in impatiently, “tell us what it is you’ve got hidden in here.”
“Sorry?” Katie said absently, using a t-shirt to mop up something sticky that had spilled on her desk.
“Come on,” said David. “We saw something moving about in here under the door earlier. What is it?”
“Oh.” Katie looked at them guiltily.
“Yes – ‘oh,’” said Miranda. “It nearly scared us to death. What sort of animal is it?”
“I promise I have no animals in this room,” Katie said brightly, as though she thought they might leave her alone if she said this.
“Well, there’s something in here. Cough it up.”
Caught, Katie could only give a resigned sigh. She turned and addressed her bedroom. “Breasil,” she called softly. “Breeeeaaasil!”
Nothing stirred. David and Miranda waited.
“Breasil!” Katie called more sharply.
Again, nothing. Katie turned to them apologetically.
“He only comes out when he wants to,” she told them.
“But what is he?” Miranda persisted.
“A leprechaun,” said Katie.
“You what?” David exclaimed incredulously.
“Where did you find it?” Miranda goggled.
“Him, not it. And I didn’t find him – I hired him,” Katie told her. “For luck. I wasn’t sure how I’d go in Commonwold, so I hired him before I left home. I didn’t tell anyone,” she added. “Leprechauns can be troublemakers and I thought they might not let me bring him. But he’s really been very good.”
“Has he brought you luck?” David wanted to know.
“Oh, yes,” smiled Katie.
She didn’t say anything else, but just went back to clearing up the mess. Miranda picked up a half-empty soft drink can and sat beside David, taking a sip.
“Mum would have a fit if she saw all her poppies and roses chopped up on your desk,” she remarked. “What exactly are you making?”
“It’s a While-I’m-Away potion,” Katie told them, using her hand to sweep dirt onto the floor. “It makes it so that people won’t miss me while I’m back in Oldenwold. Things will go on as though I’m not even gone.”
“Brilliant,” said David, taking the can off Miranda for a swig, and then burping loudly.
“What’s in it?” asked Miranda.
“I’m quite pleased with myself actually,” said Katie. “I’ve managed to put the potion together out of things I’ve found around the house and in people’s gardens. The ingredients are slightly different, but the effect should be the same. The only difference I can find is that it tastes a bit stronger than the one I’d normally make. I think it’s the clover seeds that’ve done it.”
“How does it work?”
“Well, I just drink it. It works on everyone I come in contact with over the next day or so. The Crundles, our teachers, our schoolmates. So, I’ll have to make sure I’ve seen everyone who might miss me within the next twenty four hours.”
She went back to brushing dirt into her wastepaper bin.
“How do you undo the spell?” Miranda wanted to know. “So that people notice you again.”
“Oh, it wears off in around four or five days,” Katie told her.
“So, even we won’t think about you for those few days?” asked David, impressed.
“That’s right. It’s very useful stuff. The only way you’d know I was missing would be if you were to drink the potion too. It has a kind of group effect – it includes anyone who drinks from a single batch in the spell.” She glanced at Miranda and David as she spoke, then she stopped. “Where did you get that can?” she asked slowly, staring at the soft drink can in David’s hand.
“Off the chair. Why?” frowned Miranda. “Oh!” she added, realizing.
David looked at the can resignedly. “Don’t tell me,” he said. “We’ve drunk your potion, haven’t we?”
“You have,” said Katie. “How much did you drink?”
“Just a sip or two,” said Miranda.
“That’s all it takes,” Katie replied. “That’s all I drank, too. It doesn’t really matter. It just means that no one will think of you whenever you’re not about. What about you, David? Did you take much?”
“Erm…” He shook the can ruefully. “I finished it.”
“Ah.” Katie watched him with an alarmed expression.
“Katie?” squeaked Miranda. “Is it dangerous?”
“Oh, no, it’s not dangerous!” exclaimed Katie reassuringly. “But I think David has probably had far too much. You might cause some strange reactions. People might forget you even while you’re still around.”
“This could be fun.” David was grinning.
The first indication that Katie’s potion was working properly was when they went in search of a meal later that evening – only to find that Mr and Mrs Crundle had not only eaten their dinner, but washed and dried the dishes and were settling in to watch the late movie.
“Where’s our food?” David demanded indignantly.
Mr Crundle stared at them with total perplexity.
“Oh, blimey – I’m sorry, you lot!” he exclaimed, jumping up. “I don’t know what happened – I must have thought you were having dinner at your friends’ houses or something.”
He bustled into the kitchen and started scrambling eggs for the three of them.
“We’d better stand where he can see us,” muttered Katie. “Or he’ll forget what he’s doing it for.”
“We missed a nice vindaloo,” mourned David, sniffing the air.
“Have you done your homework?” Mrs Crundle asked them, also looking a little dazed, as though she had not expected to see them. “Katie, you really ought to take your school uniform off when you get home, dear.”
“Want sausages, you two?” Mr Crundle asked, appearing at the doorway.
“There’s three of us, Dad,” Miranda said gently.
“Oops, so there is!” Mr Crundle started, noticing David standing behind her.
“Oh, David!” said Mrs Crundle, also becoming aware of him for the first time. “Be a love and take out the dustbins for me, will you?”
David scowled. “Forget my dinner, but they don’t forget to give me a job, do they?” he muttered darkly as he left the room.
It wasn’t to be the first time people in David’s life would forget about him over the next couple of days. But this was unexpectedly pleasant. He gloried in freedom from homework – no one ever asked to see his – and grinned in class as teachers passed straight over him, calling on his classmates to answer questions. But there were clear disadvantages to the While-I’m-Away spell too. His parents continued to forget about him at mealtimes and when it came to washing his underwear. Mr Crundle forgot to pick him up from football practice every day after school, and David had to walk home in the early evening drizzle, arriving sour-faced to find that a place was not even set for him at the dinner table. Miranda and Katie could not help smirking as they ate their share of the nightly meal. The spell was working quite well for them. Miranda found that they were much less of a target for Elspeth’s nasty plots, as she simply didn’t think about them when they weren’t there. It made a nice change to only have to listen to her snide whispers when they were actually in Elspeth’s line of sight. Even Miss Goody would leave Katie alone if she sat hunched down in her seat and remained mostly out of view for the duration of their history lesson.
“Well, I think you’ve seen everyone you need to work the While-I’m-Away spell on,” Miranda told Katie on the following Monday. “We’ve had all our classes since you took the potion, obviously you’ve seen Mum and Dad, we’ve popped into Lizzie’s Lunches, chatted with the neighbours, the social worker from the foster agency visited, thank goodness, and you even made up that rubbish about wanting to redesign the Oodles uniform so you could see Ms Lycaon and all the school office ladies.”
“It was a nice design I made up too,” Katie said regretfully. “Yellow and purple stripes and a sweet little peaked cap. I’m surprised they weren’t more interested, actually. Yes,” she added with some satisfaction. “It’s a pretty thorough job I’ve made of it. Funny how much hard work it is when you really put in the effort. My cousin and I tried to use a While-I’m-Away so we could go and see a touring goblin show once. But we didn’t bother to really cover ourselves and we were missed before we’d even gone one mile out of town.”
“How long did you say it lasts for?” asked Miranda.
“Just under a week,” Katie replied.
“That only gives you until Thursday, if we count from the day we drank it. Friday at the latest.”
“Yes,” sighed Katie. “I hope I see a Shimmer soon. It would be a nuisance to have to make up another batch of the potion.”
“Let me help you, if you do need to make some more,” Miranda told her. “I want to see what goes into it. Besides, we can use some of the equipment I’ve got. I have a scalpel and some petri dishes and test tubes and stuff.”
“All right.”
“Where did you learn to make the potion?” Miranda asked, secretly impressed.
“My cousin Tieran,” Katie answered. “He’s a bit of a whiz with potions.”
“You’re close to your cousin, then?” Miranda asked. “Any brothers or sisters?”
“No, it’s just me,” said Katie. “I live with my aunt and uncle and three cousins.”
“What about your mum and dad?” Miranda couldn’t restrain her curiosity any longer.
“My mum disappeared a few years ago,” Katie told her sadly.
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Well, she’s not necessarily dead,” Katie added quickly. “She’s missing. They say she fell into a bottomless pit. But the witnesses were unreliable.”
“Did they search the pit?” frowned Miranda.
“It’s bottomless,” Katie reminded her scathingly.
“But –” started Miranda, but Katie went on, ignoring her.
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “Maybe she is dead. Maybe she did fall into the pit.”
“Oh.” Miranda watched Katie reflectively, rather at a loss. She hadn’t meant to stir up sad memories, and now she didn’t think she ought to ask about Katie’s father. “Er…what do we do now?”
“Now?” Katie shrugged grimly. “Now we just sit tight and wait for a Shimmer.”It was not to be a long wait.

Dear readers, please be patient for a little time now while I do a significant rewrite. I'm going to change my novel by relocating it in Australia and cutting out a substantial amount of words, in order to make it more appealing to Australian publishers. It is currently 95,000 words and the accepted figure for young adult fiction is more like 70,000. So I'll be working hard and ruthlessly for the next month or so. I'll let you know as soon as I'm posting again. In the meantime, if you absolutely cannot live without reading the rest, let me know and I'll email you the manuscript to read at your leisure.
Thanks for your support!
Sasha