Beyond the Cherry Tree (3 page)

Chapter 4

The General's Library

J
osh elbowed Matty to get his attention and then pulled him aside. ‘What's going on here?' he asked.

Matty just gazed at his friend, bewildered with his frustration. ‘The tour,' he answered.

‘Look around,' said Josh.

Matty did as Josh asked, then returned his eyes to his friend with the same bewildered expression as before. ‘What?'

Josh pointed to the walls and to the doorways. ‘Look, Matty,' he gasped. ‘Have you ever seen creatures like that before?'

Matty just laughed. ‘Yeah! In the zoo! They're only stuffed animals' heads, Josh. Look, there's a lion and there's some sort of deer, or something that kind of looks like a deer. Do deer have big horns?'

Kyle Thomas turned around swiftly to the two boys. ‘It's
a gazelle.'

‘Really?' said Matty. ‘It looks like a deer.' He put his arm around Josh, ‘Relax, Josh. They're not real.'

Josh just nodded, but he was secretly freaking out.

What's going on here?
he thought.
Why can't they see, like me?

Ms Tredwell interrupted Josh's thoughts.

‘Now, if we can move out of the hallway and in to the main living room, I'm sure you will all be intrigued by some of the many wonderful artefacts that the general collected over many decades of travelling,' she instructed as she guided everyone to the far right corner of the hallway.

Mr Higgins turned around and gestured a
Come on!
to Josh, who was still standing by the entrance of the hallway.

‘Coming,' he answered. The teacher headed into the living room shaking his head.

Josh was just about to follow when he suddenly heard a sort of thumping noise from behind.

He considered ignoring this noise at first, but his curiosity was now on full alert. He thought that this noise was coming from behind him; he felt sure that it would most certainly be of much more interest than whatever Ms Tredwell had planned to discuss in the sitting room.

He turned around and heard the noise again. He glanced over towards the doorway of the sitting room to check if Mr Higgins was looking for him, but Mr Higgins had obviously
forgotten about him, and the door was now almost closed.

Josh heard another thump. He spun around the big empty hallway and fixed his eyes upon a door at the far-left side of the stairs. It was where he thought the noise was coming from.

This door had two signs on it.

A polished, small, brass ‘Private' sign was stuck to the top panel of the door, and on the wall above the door was a
plastic
‘No Entry' sign.

Josh slowly walked over to the door, thinking that this must be one of the areas or rooms that Mr Higgins had been told was not part of the tour.

I wonder why?
he thought as he carefully turned the handle. The door opened effortlessly. A library!

Looking over toward the far side of the hallway once more to see if anyone was coming, Josh stepped into the general's library, then quietly closed the door behind him. He stood in the centre of the book-lined room, his heart racing and his head light as the blood rushed through his veins with venomous speed. He hesitantly awaited the next thump, but there was nothing.

Was it all in his mind? Had the hideous creatures in the enormous hallway caused his mind to play tricks on him?

He began to turn around, gazing up at the vast rows upon rows of shelves packed tightly with books of all
textures and sizes.

At the very top, almost touching the intricately
cobwebbed
ceiling, there were great big thick leathery books with their spines all engraved in golden squiggles.

The general must have been a very fast reader,
thought Josh.

Suddenly, it happened.
THUMP!

Josh spun around. He felt dizzy.

THUMP!

He quickly gathered his senses and looked down towards the very bottom shelf, facing him, near the floor.

Did I just see what I think I just saw?

Resting on the dull parquet floor was a small, thick
hardback
book.

He turned his head to the side, just enough to read the title:

Beyond the Cherry Tree.

Josh knelt down on the floor and reached his trembling hand out towards the book.

He gently lifted the book off the floor and, as he did, felt a warm tingling sensation trickle through his hand and dart straight up his arm. Afraid, he let the book fall.

The instant the book touched the floor, it leapt up onto the bottom shelf and tucked itself back in between two
bigger books, where it had previously been sitting.

Josh fell back onto his bottom and slid backwards across the floor, as far away from the book as he could get. He leaned against a row of uncomfortable books, but he didn't care about comfort – he was shaking with fright.

What's happening here?
he thought frantically.
What kind of magic have I stumbled across? I've got to get out of here!

Just as he was about to get up from the floor, he heard a voice in the room.

A man's voice.

Josh slowly looked up, but there was no one there.

The deep powerful voice spoke again.

Could it possibly be?
the trembling boy wondered.

He hesitantly glanced over at the far wall of the library.

Right above a shelf lined with crystal decanters of whiskey and brandy and a small crystal glass sat a portrait of the
general
just like the one in the hallway, but smaller. Josh noticed that the medals that stretched from one side of the general's uniform to the other appeared to be glistening, especially the last one to the right.

Josh jumped back with fright, as the painting twitched its long curly moustache, and its lips began to move. Then it spoke:

‘Don't be afraid to grasp your destiny, boy!'

What's happening?
thought, Josh.
This place is haunted!

Josh's initial desire was to get up and run straight out of the library. But Josh Bloom was curious, and it was that very curiosity that had lured him into the library in the first place. It was that curiosity that stopped him from running away.

So, very cautiously, he leaned over towards the bottom bookshelf and reached out one hand towards the book while trying his very best not to take his eyes off the portrait.

He held the book in his hand. No tingling this time.

He began to flick through its pages.

Nothing!

It seemed that all the pages were blank.

What kind of book is this?
thought Josh.
Is it a book at all? Surely to be a book, a real book, it must have words in it!

Just as he was about to put the book back on the shelf, it started to jump in his hands. It hopped from one hand to another and back again. It was almost as if he was trying to hold a hot loaf of bread that Aunt Nell had just baked.

Then the book just stopped, and its pages began to flick all by themselves, getting faster and faster and faster. The number of pages seemed endless. Josh didn't remember
flicking
through so many. Where were they coming from?

He held on tight as the book shook violently in his hands. He felt like the bones of his hands were piercing through his skin, as the whiteness of his knuckles gleamed bright through his flesh.

Suddenly the book stopped shaking and the flicking pages began to slow down; just before completely stopping, one page shot up into the air, gently floated its way down to him and softly rested on his head.

Josh let go of the book and took the page from his head.

The book leapt back into its place on the bottom shelf.

Josh watched in awe as the title,
Beyond the Cherry Tree
, slowly faded until finally it vanished all together from the spine of the book.

He felt that same tingling sensation in his hands.

He looked down at the page he was holding.

On the top of the page, glistening in golden words, he read,

‘The Destiny of Joshua Bloom, Beyond the Cherry Tree …'

And, beneath these fascinating words, there were more glistening words. Just as Josh was about to read on, he heard his name being called.

At first he looked up at the portrait, but the voice wasn't coming from it. It just sat on the wall, not twitching and most certainly not speaking, just looking like a painting, as it should.

Josh heard the calling again.

It was distant, but getting closer.

He jumped up, folded the page and tucked it safely into
his trouser pocket. Then, very slowly, he opened the library door and peeped out. It was Mr Higgins.

Josh waited for a few minutes and watched his teacher frantically pace around the hallway of the manor. As soon as he noticed him opening the main door and heading outside, he slipped out of the library and jogged across the hallway in search of the rest of his class.

Chapter 5

The Riddle

I
t was quarter to eight and Henry was late.

Claudia Pennington had invited Uncle Henry and Aunt Nell to a special dinner at the manor in memory of her dear, long-lost father.

Henry was in the kitchen struggling to close the top button of his shirt, part of a most uncomfortable suit that Nell had rented for him.

Henry didn’t like suits.

He wanted to attend the dinner out of respect for the general, but it was the whole fuss that was attached to the evening that bothered him.

Henry Bloom loved living by routine. Being a simple
gardener
was enough for him. It made him feel comfortable. Henry knew plants. Some would even say in the village that Henry understood plants and plants understood Henry, and that is why the gardens of Cherry Tree Manor were highly
acclaimed from town to town for many miles around.

But now, on this very important night, Henry had to try and squeeze into this most uncomfortable suit that, quite frankly, made him look like an oversized penguin.

‘Josh,’ Henry called out with a hint of frustration and pain.

Josh was in the living room being lectured by Nell over his disappearance at the manor.

Mr Higgins hadn’t fallen for Josh’s story about being sick in the toilet.

‘Josh,’ Henry called out again.

‘Go and see what your uncle wants,’ insisted Nell. ‘But I’m not forgetting about today, Josh. We’ll talk more when I get home tonight.’

Josh ran into the kitchen.

‘Yes, Henry?’ said Josh, trying to hold back a smile as he watched Henry’s face turn a hint of blue, trying to close his top button.

‘See if you can do this last button.’

Henry sat on a chair and Josh tackled the button,
thinking
,
Should I tell Henry about the book and what happened in the manor today? Would he believe? Surely he would!

Nell walked into the kitchen, her coat already on.

‘All done,’ smiled Josh. He decided not to say anything, especially in front of Nell.

Josh stood anxiously at the window and waved out, as
Henry and Nell drove off into the twilight.

He reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out the page.

Sitting on the edge of Henry’s old armchair, he began to read the glistening words that riddled on the page:

Josh’s stomach danced with all sorts of feelings:
excitement
, fear, happiness and confusion. They were all partying inside him, and this made him really feel sick. Over and over again, he read the enchanting words.

What will I do?
he thought.

Up to now, Josh Bloom was neither adventurous nor brave, yet this page begged to differ. He paced up and down the room. This was indeed the strangest and biggest thing that had ever happened to him in his entire thirteen years of life. He thought about his life in Charlotty. It was sometimes a little boring and other times a lot interesting. But never adventurous!

Finally, Josh stopped pacing.

I’m going,
he thought.
I have to go! But what about Nell and Henry? What would they do if they found out?

His thoughts rattled on in his mind.

Why would they ever find out?
he then thought.
I could just go and see, and get back before they do.

That was that!

Josh put on his jacket, and grabbed the torch from his shoebox under his bed. He tucked the page back into his
pocket and closed the hall door behind him. He ran around to the side yard and unlocked his bicycle, then cycled off into the darkness, heading for Gorse Hill.

Gorse Hill was no easy cycle, but Josh had cycled its steep roads many times before and that had rewarded him with extra-strong legs and excellent fitness. Fitness, however, doesn’t help much on a dark journey and Josh was more than happy when the moon appeared from behind a cloud every now and then to highlight some of the many
treacherous
hollows in the road.

Every bend that Josh cycled around was taken cautiously as he knew that Henry’s old Ford would surely struggle with the merciless hill and he didn’t want to bump into his aunt and uncle. It had let Henry down several times before, and Mr Farrow would have to come in his tow truck and haul the car back to Number 7, Fennel Row, where Henry would tinker under its bonnet way into the early hours of the next morning until, finally, its engine would splutter a breath or two.

Josh sighed a breath of relief as the muscles in his legs once again began to relax and Gorse Hill levelled out just past the last bend. Straight ahead, he could see the old oil lamps on the two entrance pillars that had been lit to welcome the evening’s guests.

As he approached the main gates, he jumped off his bike
and wheeled it around the back of a large cluster of
neatly-clipped
spotted laurels that gathered in groups on the top of a mulched slope, just inside the left gate.

Josh rested his bike on its side. It was well out of sight.

He kept his torch off as he walked along the near edge of the woods that wound around the left side of the manor. He could see shadows of people near the brightly-lit windows in rooms downstairs. As he trekked farther into the woods, he glanced back to make sure he was well out of sight. Then, with a sigh of relief, he switched his torch on. Josh looked back once more at the manor, then turned away and headed into the dark woods.

Every few minutes, as he ventured deeper and deeper into the woods, Josh stopped and shone the torch down at the page that trembled in his hand. He had walked a long way through the woods, and still there was no sign of the lily pond mentioned in the riddle.

He was quite familiar with most of the grounds of Cherry Tree Manor from helping Henry in the summer time, but he knew nothing of a lily pond beyond the woods. Henry had never spoken of such a place.

Still, he kept walking. It was a cold night and the crunchy twiggy floor of the woods was beginning to hurt his feet. All of a sudden, Josh was walking on softer ground. There was no crunching noise anymore.

He stopped and re-read the riddle.

Follow the silent path …

Josh walked a little farther. He noticed that everything was quiet now. No owls hooting from the trees. No badgers brushing through the ferns that lined the floor of the woods, and no crunching beneath his feet as he walked.

He shone the torch along the soft, thick, mossy, silent path until finally it led him out of the tall, dense woodlands and through a cluster of smaller, thinner trees that bordered the path all the way to flickering water.

The lily pond,
he thought.

The full moon came out from behind a cloud to greet Josh and shine its light down on the pond, as if the dark sky had reached into its pocket and switched on its torch, too.

Leaning over the water in front of Josh was a large willow tree with no leaves. Its golden branches arched over the pond and glistened beautifully in the moonlight.

He slowly walked under the weeping arch of the tree and noticed that all the branches were golden.

‘Which one do I choose?’ he whispered.

Then, as if on purpose, the moon retired behind a cloud.

It was dark again.