Beyond the Cherry Tree (4 page)

Chapter 6

The Willow Wand

J
osh started to wave his torch, bouncing its light from branch to branch, but still he noticed nothing special about this tree.

I wonder if the riddle is mistaken?
he thought.

Suddenly, he heard a whisper coming from behind him. It came from the water.

He turned swiftly and dropped the torch. He knelt down and frantically searched the ground beneath him. It was pitch dark now; Josh had neither the light from the moon nor his torch. Then to his great relief, his fingers rolled over the torch and he grasped it. Just then, he heard the whisper once again.

Take the Willow Wand,
were the words that waved across the water.

Josh jumped up, his heart racing and his fingers
nervously
twitching. He tried to switch the torch back on, but
it wouldn’t work.

Then, it appeared, right in front of his eyes.

He could see a glistening, golden, long, narrow end of a branch of the willow tree, slightly dipping in the water.

He walked over to the light. It was radiant and magical. Tiny bugs and insects danced in its light above the water and their reflections looked like magical miniature fireworks exploding up from the bottom of the pond.

Is that really a magical wand?
he thought.

Very gently, Josh wrapped his fingers around the golden wand. It simply left the branch and was no longer a part of the tree. Standing upright at the water’s edge, Josh raised the wand above his head.

At first he felt a little silly, doubting what he was doing.

I must believe,
he kept thinking over and over in his mind.

‘Pathway be there to the Cherry Tree and beyond,’ he announced not once, but twice. He swiftly waved the
glistening
golden willow wand down and pointed it at the still water.

Nothing! Not a sound or a sign.

Everything was as before the boy had spoken.

This is crazy? I’m crazy!
he thought.

Without thinking about it too much, tremendous courage came over him as he raised his left foot forward toward the water. He wasn’t going to give up. He didn’t want to turn
back. He had come this far and he wanted this adventure, this magic, to go on. This had happened to him and it made him feel special. This was special. Something that Aunt Nell couldn’t forbid him from doing.

Josh repeated the words through his mind, and then blurted them out just as his foot touched the water of the lily pond.

‘Pathway be there to the Cherry Tree and beyond.’

There was no splash, no chaos, no dreadful disaster.

Josh’s left foot stood firm on the surface of the lily pond as if it was on solid stone.

It worked!
he smiled.

Quickly and excitedly, worrying that it might not last, he put his right foot forward, and that too felt like walking on stone.

The path was laid before him. It was a path of faith. Josh’s faith, and he wasn’t going to hesitate in taking it. One foot after the other, he walked across the water for a distance until he was met by dense mist which enveloped him like a
blinding
cloak of fear that couldn’t be shaken or shed. Josh walked through the blindness for what seemed like ages. He could not see in front, behind, above or below and he was cold. He was colder than before and afraid. The sense of excitement, adventure, and jubilation of his achievement up to now was beginning to wane.

How long does this go on?
he thought.
This is a very big pond
.

After such a long silence, he heard a noise.

Not a voice or a whisper like the one from the water, but a distant and faint repetitive noise, coming from the right, deep within the mist.

Josh stood still, his ears cocked.

What’s that noise?
he thought.

He turned towards the direction that the noise was coming from and started walking towards it, through the mist. As he got closer and closer, the noise became louder and clearer. Josh was beginning to think that he knew what this noise could be.

Could it be a frog or maybe a toad?
he thought.
It sounds like a toad! Surely I haven’t wandered in search of a toad?

Josh was annoyed with himself.

I should have kept going the other way!

Just as he was about to turn back, the toad made a big, noisy croak. As it did, Josh found himself stepping out of the blinding mist and onto thick lush grass. His heart raced as he began to panic and he wondered if he’d gone too far.

Yet still he found courage to keep going as he thought of the general’s great words in Henry’s story –
Adventures are not for going backwards
.

He walked five steps, the flowery grass brushing his legs like a cat would brush against its master.

Then he stopped and looked up.

He was standing in front of a gigantic tree. Josh recognised this type of tree. There were many of its kind in the grounds of the general’s manor. It was a cherry tree.

It must be the tree from the riddle!
he thought.

Josh had never seen such magnificent beauty. This tree was quite different to the others he had seen. It was bigger.
Enormous!
And it sounded alive – just like the general’s house. Of course, all the other trees were alive too, but Josh felt that he could actually
hear
this tree. There was a calming, humming sound coming from its trunk. Every now and then, a sudden adventurous gust of breeze would swirl through its leaves and Josh could hear the most beautiful and enchanting music echo from branch to branch.

This tree was so magical and here it was hidden away behind the mist that stopped at the water’s edge, right behind where he was standing.

Josh looked over his shoulder at the mist. It hovered over the water’s edge as if it was guarding the tree, protecting it from everything and everyone on the far side of the lily pond.

Should I go back?
he thought again.

‘Why me?’ whispered Josh, looking up into the tree as soft petals fell from its flowers. They whispered soft answers in some language he didn’t understand as they passed his face.

‘This is not a question worthy of an answer on this side of
the tree,’ said a deep, croaky voice.

Josh took a few steps back, away from the tree.

‘Did you say that?’ he asked, all bewildered.

First, there was a laugh, and then there came a rustle in the grass near Josh’s feet.

He looked down.

Beneath him was a toad.

It smiled up at Josh then climbed its fat bulging body up onto a large mushroom at the foot of the tree.

The toad laughed again.

‘Of course it didn’t. Trees don’t talk. But I am quite sure if they did talk, they would have very little to say,’ said the toad. ‘Mysterious and magical things are trees, but not talkative.’

Josh gazed in awe at the creature in front of him.

Thoughts filled his mind.

Where has this riddle led me? Where is this strange place of
talking
toads and stony water paths and things that just aren’t real back home?

The toad smiled at Josh, widening his big bulging eyes as if he was expecting conversation.

Josh shook his head in disbelief.

‘Careful!’ warned the toad. ‘Your journey has not yet begun, and disbelief only leads you down a short and
regretful
path.’

Josh felt his right hand tingle. He looked down and noticed
that the willow wand was glowing.

He had totally forgotten that he was holding it. He reached into his pocket and took out the crinkly page.

To reach your destiny that awaits you,

Not only you, but others must believe.

These were the last two lines of the riddle.

Is it really glowing or is it just the moonlight playing tricks on me?
he thought.

‘I must believe,’ whispered Josh.

The toad perked upright on his stool.

Suddenly, everything flashed in Josh’s mind like a memory that was real.

It
is
real!
he thought.

Josh looked at the toad and raised the willow wand above its head. It began to glow stronger.

‘I
do
believe,’ he heralded.

The toad smiled, but shook its fat head and said nothing.

‘I
do
believe my destiny,’ stuttered Josh. He was trying so hard and yet the toad still smiled, shook his fat head and said nothing.

With one final burst of words from Josh, he waved the wand again and pointed it at the toad with great intention.

‘I
do
believe my destiny is beyond the cherry tree.’

The wand discharged golden sparks that crackled through the air, and Josh fell back onto the grass, his whole body
tingling 
from head to toe. He lay flat on his back, staring up to the sky. It was snowing petals from the tree.

When the tingling left his body, Josh grabbed hold of the flowery grass and pulled himself back up. He was soaking wet. He looked around for the toad, wondering what harm he might have caused it.

The toad was nowhere to be seen.

A cloud of sparkling, golden dust spun and danced over the mushroom where the toad had been sitting.

Josh was stunned.

What happened to the toad?
he wondered looking down at the willow wand. It was no longer glowing.

The dancing golden cloud began to slow down and as it did, it grew larger and larger.

When it was about half Josh’s size, it stopped spinning.

Then, it happened: it spoke again.

‘You do believe, and so do I,’ said a voice.

‘Is that you, toad? asked Josh. ‘Where are you?’

The sparkling cloud exploded and standing on the
toadstool
was a small, skinny and twig-like creature with great big green eyes and large round ears that curled towards its face. It had a flat stumpy nose that looked like Henry had just snipped it with his clippers.

‘Who are you?’ asked Josh. ‘What have you done with the toad?’

The creature raised its hands in the air and smiled.

‘I am the toad, but the toad is no longer me,’ it riddled. Then it merrily hopped and skipped on the mushroom. ‘It was a necessary disguise on this side of the Great Tree – always good to fit in with one’s surroundings, although I take no pleasure in being a toad.’

Josh was confused.

‘I don’t understand.’

The creature stopped dancing and jumped onto the grass, which reached up to its ears.

It waved its way over to Josh and put out one of its hands.

‘Bortwig,’ announced the creature. ‘Tree elf.’ It smiled while still holding out its hand.

‘Tree elf?’ repeated Josh.

‘That’s right,’ said Bortwig, moving his hand away. ‘Tree elf or tree keeper or door master or ninth servant of the Great Tree after Hamvelin, number eight, who died at the young age of one hundred and eleven.’

‘One hundred and eleven,’ laughed Josh.

‘It’s not funny, you know,’ insisted Bortwig. ‘I’m one
hundred
and forty-two this year and not getting any younger. Now, are you going to shake my hand or not, Master Bloom?’

Josh reached out his hand and shook Bortwig’s. It was warm, very warm. Much too warm for such a cold night.

‘You know my name. How?’ asked Josh.

Bortwig looked over his shoulders and became twitchy and uneasy all of a sudden.

‘Another question not worthy of an answer on this side of the Great Tree.’

Bortwig turned and ushered Josh with a wave of his hand.

‘It’s time, Master Bloom.’ Then the creature walked closer to the tree.

‘Time for
what?
’ asked Josh, with frustration in his voice.

‘Time to go beyond the cherry tree, Master Bloom,’ smiled Bortwig. ‘Isn’t that why you are here? Didn’t you say that is where your destiny is?’

Josh walked over toward Bortwig.

‘Why are we standing here?’

‘Quiet now, Master Bloom!’ hushed Bortwig. ‘Great work to be done … magic and stuff.’

Bortwig reached out his hand and touched the shiny
polished
skin of the tree’s trunk.

Slowly, the gleam of the trunk dulled and a line of
button-like
markings appeared above Bortwig’s hand.

As if he was tapping in some kind of code, Bortwig pressed his fingers randomly against the buttons in all sorts of orders, then stepped back. The buttons disappeared back into the tree and its shiny appearance returned. A knot fell from the tree’s trunk, leaving a small hole. The skin around the hole began to turn in circles and the hole became bigger and
bigger until finally it stopped, leaving a big, round opening.

Bortwig walked closer to the hole and then stepped inside the tree.

Josh didn’t move. He just stood in front of the tree,
mesmerised
.

Bortwig’s head appeared back out from the tree.

‘Come along then, before it closes.’

‘You want me to go
into
the tree?’ asked Josh.

‘Hurry, Master Bloom,’ insisted Bortwig. ‘You must go into the Great Tree to go beyond the Great Tree. It’s the only way.’