Forest Shadows (19 page)

‘I need you two to do something humungous.' Snook lowered his voice. What he had to say was top secret. He looked Shrimp squarely in the eyes. ‘I want you to do a bit of acting.' He turned to Skinny. ‘And I want you to help embarrass the pants off Twitchy.'

‘Yeah? Whatcha mean?' Shrimp asked.

Once Snook had told them, he asked, ‘So, are you two game, or not?'

‘Of course we are,' Shrimp said, ‘but it'll cost.' Skinny nodded.

‘Great! Name your price.'

Shrimp and Skinny held a brief conference. ‘You do our maths homework for a month,' they both said together.

‘Done,' Snook agreed, immediately thinking of Jars, who was good at maths. ‘Now get goin'. We're runnin' outta time.'

A
t exactly nine o'clock, Jars and Snook took their seats in the year ten home class. Both were aware of the stares and sly smiles that were still coming from the other students. Even their home teacher, Miss Sweetman, seemed to be looking down her nose at them.

Interrupting the roll call, the classroom's loudspeaker burst into life. ‘Attention, this is Mr Twichette. I wish to see the two Kelly students in my office
immediately
.'

A hum immediately went around the room with students whispering and giggling with each other at this latest juicy development. Normally, Snook would have given them his
wait
until I see you outside
look, but this time he didn't. He turned, a drawn out half-smirk on his face. The general hubbub stopped. His classmates looked shocked, baffled.

‘That's better,' Miss Sweetman said, although she, too, looked a little confused with Snook's behaviour. She pointed to the door. ‘Off you go, you two. You're wanted.'

Pushing their chairs back, Jars and Snook stood and left the room. Once outside, they crossed the quadrangle and entered the office block. Jars noticed that the school secretary's desk was empty. ‘I wonder where Mrs Cherry has gone,' she said, thinking it a little strange.

Snook smiled and knocked on Twitchy's door. ‘You'll find out sooner than you think.'

Not waiting to be asked this time, Snook pushed the door open and they walked into the office. They saw straightaway that the headmaster had a visitor, the owner of the jewellery shop, Mr Pearson. He was sitting in a chair, his back straight, knees together. He didn't look happy.

Snook didn't seem surprised when Mr Twichette pointed a violently shaking finger towards a table on the far side of the room. Jars could hardly believe what she was looking at. There, neatly arranged on the table, were Mr Pearson's stolen crystals.

Wringing his hands and muttering to himself, Mr Twichette strode over to the table. ‘H-how do you explain this?' Snatching at his spectacles, he turned to Snook. ‘H-how did these get here? They didn't suddenly appear on their own!'

‘I've been in class,' Snook said, which wasn't a lie.

Jars could see Twitchy's anger increasing. His eyes were stretched, frantic-looking, literally screaming his frustration. He jabbed a still-shaking finger towards the cluster of precious stones. ‘When Mr Pearson saw his goods that have suddenly materialised in my office, he naturally assumed they'd been here for some time. Furthermore, he thought that I had neglected to inform him of that fact, which, of course, is false. How they
did
get here is what I want to know.' He fixed Snook with a stare that would have frightened the pants off anyone. ‘Now, why do you suppose I find myself suddenly thinking of you, Kelly? Answer me. Why?'

‘Dunno,' Snook said, his voice calm, not scared in the least. ‘I didn't put 'em there. Neither did Jars. How could we do that, Mr Twichette, without you knowing? Anyway, like we told you before, we didn't steal 'em. Why would we?'

Mr Pearson, who had been sitting quietly listening, interrupted. ‘All this arguing isn't really necessary, is it? After all, I have my stock back. That's the main thing.'

Mr Twichette, who had taken to pacing the room, hands gripped behind his back, stopped and stood in front of Mr Pearson. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other; then spreading his arms out wide in frustration, finally spluttered, ‘Humph. I suppose so.' He stared and then in a scathing, cutting tone said, ‘Both of you get out of my office, immediately!'

Snook wasn't about to let it go and stayed his ground. ‘Do you believe us now, that we're not thieves? If you do then I think you should tell the whole school that we're innocent, 'cause we're really coppin' a lot of aggro out there.'

Twitchy's last words hung in the air as they made their way back to class. ‘Get out! Get out! And don't let me see you in my office again! Ever!'

Mr Twichette's secretary, who'd returned to her post by now, looked puzzled when they passed her cubicle, even more so when Snook, with a grin said, ‘You can let Shrimp go back to class now. Tell him he's just made a remarkable recovery.'

One thing was still puzzling Jars, and when they were in the playground, she asked, ‘Snook, how come Mr Pearson turned up at Twitchy's office? He wouldn't have known his stuff was there.'

‘Oh, I told him. I rang him yesterday. I told him to come to the office at nine o'clock. I disguised my voice so he wouldn't know it was me. And this morning, while Twitchy was at his staff meeting, Shrimp and Skinny did me a favour. Shrimp's job was to stagger into the office block, makin' out he was sick. Then, when Mrs Cherry did her duty and took him to the sick room, Shrimp was to put on an act. You know, groanin' and twistin' about like crazy to keep her busy. While all that was goin' on, Skinny's job was to sneak into Twitchy's office with the crystals. It worked real good. Top actor, that Shrimp.'

‘But why? That all seems so complicated.'

‘I wanted to embarrass Twitchy. After all, he was pretty nasty to us, wasn't he?'

‘Yes, Twitchy didn't exactly play fair with you and me, but getting back at him like that just seems kind of wrong.'

‘Howdya mean?'

‘It sort of makes us like he was.'

‘I suppose so, but at least it's all over now.'

‘It's not over yet, Snook, not quite. But it nearly is.'

T
hat Tuesday evening after school, Snook and Jars, sitting on separate chairs in the Kelly living room, were watching television. Snook's parents and Arnie were out. They were saying goodbye to Reg, who was catching the Burnie bus from Queenstown. From there, he was going to catch the late flight back to New South Wales. It was 8.15pm.

‘Well, we did it,' Snook said.

‘Did what?'

‘You know. We found the treasure, got Twitchy off our backs and caught some crooks.'

‘Yes, but I feel sorry for Arnie. He's still really upset about his brother being arrested.'

‘I reckon he'll be right. Dad'll see to that.'

‘Quenton's had a terrible shock, too. Finding out that his dad was mixed up in another crooked scheme has really upset him.'

‘He's used to terrible shocks and he's got a thick skin.'

‘Don't be so callous, Snook.'

‘I don't mean to be; it's just that he rubs people up the wrong way. It gets so you don't know how to act with him at times – or even what to say to him. He's so negative.'

‘You're right, but maybe he'll come good. His mum's already trying to change his ways.'

‘Yeah, startin' with a diet!'

‘Speaking of diet, did you notice that Mr Wu didn't have any food in his place?'

‘I didn't spot any, but he was always drinking that tea of his.'

‘The sassafras tea? He wasn't really. I don't know about you, but I never saw him actually drink it.'

Snook shrugged and screwed up his face. ‘Maybe he just liked walkin' in the forest collectin' the leaves from the sassafras trees or maybe he just liked makin' it. Who knows?'

Jars didn't answer. She was thinking about Mr Wu and something he had said. It had shocked her at the time. They'd been sitting around the camp fire and it was something like:

I come here … not to live … to die.

Suddenly she knew. It all made sense now. From the very first she'd known Mr Wu was different, but this? It seemed so incredible. In a low, distant voice, she told Snook what she now knew:
‘He was a ghost, Snook. Mr Wu was a ghost. So was Po-Yee.'

Snook head jerked up. ‘Whatcha talkin' about?'

‘Think about it, Snook. Mr Wu told us as much. He said that he wasn't of this world, that he was very, very old. And he always knew where we were, what we were doing. How could he do that? I'm convinced, Snook, Mr Wu was an appa-rition, a Chinese man who'd died a long time ago, who'd been waiting to be taken by
The Collectors
. I think he had decided it was time to leave this world and go to … wherever. That's why he gave the crocoite to them – to fix their spaceship. He knew that once they'd done that they would take Po-Yee and himself with them.'

Snook had gone a little fidgety. ‘How'd those other stones, the ones that were pinched, get back to the shack? Did Wu Han bring them?'

‘No, I don't think so. I think that was the aliens. The crystals they stole (or borrowed by the looks of it) were of no further use to them, and for some reason they wanted us to have them.'

‘Maybe Mr Wu asked them to give the crystals back.'

‘Yes, maybe, and you know what?'

‘There's more?'

‘I think Quenton's dad and that Grimshaw woman saw them, the aliens, and that's why they ran away from the shack. That's why they left Mr Wu's rock collection – the treasure – behind.

At that moment, a commanding voice interrupted the regular television programme:
Good evening. Here is some breaking news. The mysterious, flashing lights of Cray Bay have returned. The phenomenon was first (originally) reported last Thursday evening when they first appeared over the small fishing village. There are no new explanations for the strange occurrence …

Jars' stomach churned. He knew we'd be here. He knew where to find us. She crossed over to the window and looked out. An orange moon surrounded by stars sat high in the sky, and there, a stone's throw from where she stood, was the spaceship, hovering and flashing its orange and red lights. A lump formed in her throat and her mouth was suddenly dry. Mr Wu's saying goodbye.

Then, like an exploding balloon, the object blasted from the darkness towards the moon and the stars to some unknown place.

‘Where's it goin'?' Snook wondered aloud.

‘I don't know, maybe Heaven, but I know one thing for sure, wherever it is, he hasn't gone there to die. It's like he told us:
Stars not die, they always there, they live
. It's the same with Mr Wu. He'll always be there, too.'

She walked over to a side cupboard by the television set; then, bending slightly, she picked up an orange and red crystal. She held it close to her body. Fighting back tears, she turned to face her cousin. ‘He gave us the crocoite to remember him.' She crossed over to the window again and with a faraway look said, ‘They've gone, Mr Wu and Po-Yee, to somewhere we don't know about, but I think they'll be happy. He sort of told us that, and Snook …'

‘Yeah?'

‘It's all over now. Definitely.'