Molly and Pim and the Millions of Stars (17 page)

Ernest Grimshaw started up his chainsaw. Molly wrapped her arms even tighter around
the Mama tree.

‘Move away,' Ernest Grimshaw bellowed. ‘What sort of a woman goes to Cuba? The mother
is mad. The family is deranged. The lot of them!'

Ellen's mother stood tall. Her shoulders rose. She glared at Ernest Grimshaw.

‘If you lay a hand on Molly, or any other child here, or that tree, I will call the
police. I'll have you charged with assault. Now, back off.'

Ernest Grimshaw looked as if he'd just received a blow. He staggered back and lowered
the chainsaw. His head quivered indignantly as he bit at his own rage.

Ellen Palmer's mother, who seemed to think it impolite to watch him, turned back
to Molly. ‘Molly, I'm taking you home with us and we'll sort out whatever is going
on. Maude can come too. And, look how well Ellen is now, all thanks to you and your
mother.' She smiled and took Molly by the hand.

Molly let go of the tree. Her arms couldn't hold anymore. There stood Ellen Palmer,
sparkly shoes, a house full of muesli bars, grinning and well and welcoming. There
was Ellen Palmer's mother, with her kind strong arms, taking Molly to the house,
the warm house made of bricks, with rooms and walls and windows and a
television
and buttery cake in the oven. Everything she had always wanted. And there was her
very own mama, her very own special, strange ill-fitting mama, transformed into
a very special, strange, ill-fitting tree.

Molly shook her head. She sank down to the base of the trunk and wrapped her arms
around it. She wasn't afraid now. A great welling of feeling had erupted inside her,
and it rushed up so forcefully that she pressed her hand to her chest, as if to
quell it. Her body began to jerk and her eyes filled with tears.

Out came a sob, and then another. She wrapped her arms even tighter round the tree,
and the sobs finally gushed out and tears streamed down her face, and her body gave
way to it all. She wept as loudly and as fully and as wretchedly as anyone ever has.
Her tears slid down the trunk and sank into the ground at the base of the tree.

‘Mama,' she sobbed, ‘Mama, I need you. I need
my
mama.'

CHAPTER 24

One Tiny Bud

The Mama tree began to shake.

The leaves whirled like tiny windmills. And the branches trembled.

Pim looked up and backed away from the trunk. Ernest Grimshaw's jaw dropped and so
did his chainsaw. Prudence Grimshaw swept to his side and drew him back, croaking,
‘Ernest something bad is happening, something bad.'

Ellen Palmer huddled close to her mother, who put her arm protectively around her
daughter and frowned in disbelief. Molly continued to sob into
the shaking tree.
She seemed to have fallen into a trance. Whatever was happening was happening because
of her tears, and those tears needed to keep flowing to keep it happening.

The leaves whirled and the tree shook. And from the tip of the lowest branch, one
tiny bud began to grow.

The branch creaked with the effort. It drooped and it trembled. And still the leaves
whirled and still the tree shook. It sounded like a rocket preparing for take-off,
whirring faster and faster, as if it might at any moment burst from the ground and
shoot upwards. But one branch seemed to weigh it down, like an anchor. And at the
very end of it, the tiny pale-pink, fleshy bud grew larger and larger.

Soon, it was as big as a football. It began to hum and to glow with a strange shimmering
light, as if each microscopic cell within it was alight and pulsing.

Prudence Grimshaw grimaced and recoiled, and from her throat came a gurgle of revulsion.
She grabbed Ernest Grimshaw's sweaty, sausage arm and tried to pull him back. But
he shook her off, and he crept forward, examining the bud with his small blinking
eyes. Never in his life had he seen something that unsettled him as much. He picked
up his chainsaw, ready to attack the growing bud.

Pim stepped closer. The branch began to crack and tear as the strange fruit continued
to grow. The sound of whirling leaves and splitting branches became louder and more
urgent. Ellen could hardly bare to look at the strange thing growing from the branch,
but at the same time she couldn't tear her eyes away. Finally she cried out, ‘But
what is it? What is it?'

Ellen's mother was completely still. She could
barely speak. ‘It's…I don't know.
But it's growing.' That was all she could say for certain, and she did like to be
certain. She squeezed Ellen's hand.

Molly raised her head. What was all the commotion? She had been so submerged in her
own great storm of weeping that she hadn't noticed anything else till Ellen cried
out.

Molly's face was tear-stained and dirty; her eyes were red-rimmed; her hair stood
out in knots. She said nothing. Her mouth was just a little bit open, and her eyes
were wide and calm as she caught sight of the astonished faces around her. But instead
of sharing their alarm, she tilted her head as if the trance still had her, and stood
up, twirling slowly on one foot, to face the thing they were all staring at.

It was now the size of a foal, kicking within its own skin, struggling and wriggling
on its stalk. The strange, flickering light grew brighter, and the hum reached a
high pitch, a boiling-kettle squeal. Molly held out her arms, as it grew even
bigger.
It seemed to be too heavy now for the stalk to hold it.

‘Get back,' Ernest Grimshaw shouted at Molly. How could he let a young girl get closer
to the thing than he was? He started up his chainsaw. ‘I'll get it,' he yelled.

Whether Ernest Grimshaw really was going to cut it, no one will ever know. Pim suspected
Ernest Grimshaw was too afraid to go near the strange fruit, but, just in case, he
dived at Ernest Grimshaw's gumboots and brought the horrible man down in a thudding,
cursing pile of pummelling arms and pig-like grunts.

Ernest Grimshaw's legs flailed and thrust, and Pim held tight like a cowboy riding
a bucking bronco.

The growing thing now shone like a small sun, casting a pulsing light into the whole
garden. The tree winced and shivered and creaked above it. Molly thrust her hands
towards the light.

Ellen gasped in horror. Wasn't Molly scared
of it? Then Molly, still holding her
hands to the light, began to sway and stomp and shake. Was she dancing? No one knew
what she was doing, least of all Molly.

The light began to turn red, and the hum became higher in pitch as if something was
gaining speed. And the more Molly twirled and leapt, the more it grew, the higher
it hummed and the brighter it shone.

It seemed to be building towards some sort of terrible explosion. The tree swayed
and let out a thunderous crack. Ellen screamed and flung her hands over her ears.
Prudence Grimshaw let out a shrill cry and clawed at Ernest Grimshaw, who was still
grunting as he battled with Pim on the ground.

Molly began to crumple. She sank towards the ground as if her strength had been zapped.

And then, in one final jolt, the sky lit up as bright as a bolt of lightning. For
just one second there was an eerie silence. No one could see
anything. The sky was
as white and bright as silver. And in that one dazzling moment of silence and brightness,
the tree disappeared.

And out of the air fell Molly's mama.

She landed on her bottom on the grass. Then she stood up and frowned, rubbed at her
bottom and limped towards Molly, who had fallen in a lump on the grass. Maude dashed
to her side, wagging her tail furiously.

‘Well,' Molly's mama said to the stunned crowd, after she had gathered Molly up,
‘I'm not usually one to make an entrance, so please forgive me if I don't invite
you all inside. I need a bath, and I think Molly does too.'

CHAPTER 25

Prudence Grimshaw's Gumboots

Molly and her mama were a wild and dishevelled pair. No one seemed to know what had
happened or what was real and what was not.

Prudence Grimshaw took one look at them and immediately fainted. Ernest Grimshaw
scrambled to his feet and backed away in horror. He took Prudence under the arms
and dragged her, like a sack, out of the garden. In fact, the last view anyone had
of the Grimshaws was Prudence Grimshaw's green gumboots caught in the gate as Ernest
tried to angle and jiggle her around it.

A few days later there was a
For sale
sign on their house, and Ernest and Prudence
Grimshaw never even returned to claim their turtle, which did reappear, only it had
yellow cockatoo feather wings stuck on it and it was raised on the flagpole.

Pim was thrilled by the great transformation that had happened before him. He was
the only one who had not taken fright at all. He picked up the chainsaw and laughed.
‘Mr Grimshaw forgot his weapon,' he said. ‘Good thing he remembered his missus.'

Ellen Palmer and her mother stood frozen and gaping; though after a minute, Ellen
Palmer's mother remembered her manners and she closed her mouth and tried to smile.
She kept looking at the spot where the tree had stood, and then she looked at Molly
and her mama. She shook her head, and walked gingerly towards them holding out Ellen's
bunch of yellow roses.

‘Your tree just vanished…that whole huge tree… just went…into the air…' she said.
She stopped to
make sure this was right, turning her head back to the spot and pointing.
‘And you appeared.' She shook her head, knowing this wasn't possible. But it had
happened; she saw it with her own eyes.