Sky Lights (6 page)

‘Now we really are in trouble!’ said Amy almost in tears.

‘My mum will be so mad at me,’ screeched Shelley. ‘You promised us Peter. Remember? You promised we’d be back by morning.’

‘I know,’ replied Peter calmly, ‘but how was I to know there would be a fairy dust heist? It’s never happened before. I shouldn’t have stayed in Edinburgh so long. It’s your fault really, Amy. If you had agreed to meet me earlier, I would have been back here sooner.’

Amy’s lip quivered. ‘That’s not fair Peter. We didn’t ask you to come. It was all your idea.’

‘Well?’ said Jack trying to hide the panic that he felt. ‘Never mind that now. How will we ever get home again without the fairy dust?’

‘As I said, I can make more,’ answered Peter. ‘But it will take time and it does require courage. It will take me at least two days to gather enough of the ingredients to fly us all back.’ Peter looked thoughtful. Suddenly he smiled and clapped his hands. ‘I know,’ he announced. ‘If you all agree to help me, perhaps we can do it quicker. Maybe I can get you home before nightfall.’

‘Of course,’ said Amy. ‘We’ll all help. But what about our parents? They are going to be so worried when we are not in our beds in the morning.’

‘We shall send them an email!’ said Peter gleefully.

‘Email? Can you email from here in Never Land?’ asked Jack.

‘Of course. How do you think I found you all? Remember I was searching online for Wendy’s family? Not everything in the Never Land is the same as it was a century ago. We shall send an email straight away and at least stop them worrying!’

‘Oh yeah, sure,’ said Jack sarcastically. ‘And do you think they are going to believe it? That we are here in Never Land with Peter Pan, having flown through the night sky covered in fairy dust? Anyway, they won’t even think about going online when they find us gone. They’ll be busy phoning the police and calling all our friends’ parents, and crying, and ….’

‘Well, what harm can it do to send an email? It’s better than doing nothing,’ said Amy. ‘Somebody will see it eventually.’

‘I’ve got a better idea,’ interrupted Shelley. ‘Let’s send a message to Jody too. She is always online and is bound to read it. She can phone our parents to tell them we are ok and get them to check their emails.’

‘So that’s what we’ll do,’ said Peter. ‘Tinks! Take Jack to my computer and he can send the message. Girls you come with me to sign the Fairy Dust Seeker’s Agreement and then we shall begin the work at once.’

Following Peter, Amy and Shelley looked at each other and mouthed the words, ‘Fairy dust seeker’s agreement?’

‘Oh yes,’ said Peter, as if he had heard them. ‘The ‘Fairy Dust Seeker’s Agreement’ is a most important document and everybody who seeks for dust must sign it first. It is the law.’

Peter snapped his fingers and another fairy, quite different from Tinker Bell, suddenly appeared and landed on his shoulder. This creature had a more greyish complexion and looked a lot older than Tinker Bell. She held a very tiny scroll which, as she passed it to Peter, grew bigger and bigger until it was the width of a normal sheet of paper.

‘This is Duster Bell, the keeper of the agreement,’ said Peter, unrolling the scroll. Handing it to Amy, he said, ‘Here, read it yourself. Read it aloud.’

While Jukes and Noddler stayed behind in Never Land to search for more fairy dust, the other four pushed on through the night sky towards Scotland, unaware that two of the original six were missing. They travelled in silence throughout the nerve wracking journey, each keeping one travelling companion in sight at all times. Peter had often said to the lost boys that the journey to ‘the other world’ took no time at all and it seemed that way when Skylights suddenly called out, ‘Look, me messmates. There it is! There’s Edinburgh Castle. Let’s swoop down. No one should see us at this time of night.’

The pirates slowed as they prepared to land. A passerby looked up from Princes Street and saw the silhouettes of four strangely dressed grown men flying through the sky with no visible sign of support; no hot air balloon, no parachute, no hang glider, not so much as a kite. Thinking he had had too much of the hard stuff he hurried off home, swearing not to touch another drop.

One by one, the pirates alighted on the ramparts and jumped down out of sight into a vast courtyard. ‘Now then me hearties, that wasn’t so bad was it?’ asked Skylights, in a very good humour now that he was one step closer to fulfilling his dream.

‘Not bad at all,’ answered Fitzsmee. ‘I wish I had tried that fairy dust years ago. I might have done a bit more travelling in my time.’

‘Hey, whaur’s Jukes and Noddler?’ asked MacStarkey. ‘What’s keepin’ them?’

‘Split me infinitives, trust them to keep us waiting,’ answered Skylights. ‘We’ll give those slow coaches five minutes, me messmates. There’s work to be done and most of it needs to be done under cover of darkness. We have places to go and people to find before the sun comes up. Then, when it gets dark again, we’ll be ready to put our plans into action.’

‘Fellows,’ whispered O’Mullins, ‘I don’t like it.’

‘Don’t like what?’ asked Fitzsmee.

‘Don’t like it here. I fear it is haunted by a ghostly presence,’ he muttered.

‘What was that ye said? All ye wanted wus a costly present?’ asked MacStarkey. ‘We’d all like that. Ye’ve just got tae wait an’ see what ye get.’

‘No,’ shivered O’Mullins. ‘I said a
ghostly presence
.’

‘Don’t worry, the ghosts here’ll like us,’ said Skylights. ‘They won’t harm a fellow pirate.’

‘You mmmmean, this castle
is
hhhaunted?’ stammered O’Mullins, hiding behind MacStarkey.

‘Probably,’ answered Skylights nonchalantly. ‘You see, in February 1720, a ship called the Eagle was captured in Argyll with twenty one pirates on board. They’d sailed with the notorious pirate-captain of the Caribbean, ‘Black Bart’ Roberts. Before being ‘hanged by the neck upon the gibbet’ on Leith sands, they were thrown into Edinburgh Castle dungeons. I have heard it said their spirits still roam these ramparts.’ Skylights was enjoying the effect the story was having on O’Mullins. He lowered his voice. ‘Maybe we can persuade the ghosts to help us. After all Pan has fairies helping him.’

O’Mullins was not convinced it was a good idea but he kept his mouth shut about ghosts from then on. ‘Well then, what now, Skylights?’ said Fitzsmee, scanning the sky in vain for any sight of Jukes and Noddler. ‘What’s the plan?’

‘Right-o, me bullies, time to start work. MacStarkey and Fitzsmee, you stay here in Edinburgh. Use all your wit and cunning to find the whereabouts of this place,’ said Skylights, handing MacStarkey a piece of paper with the address of the Roslin Institute. ‘Sneak inside and get the home address of Professor John Dante. Find out what you can about his family. We may need to use them too,’ he added with a wink. ‘Once you have done that, find a place where we can lie low, then meet back here just before dawn to report on progress.’

‘That’s a tall order for one night,’ said Fitzsmee. ‘What are you and O’Mullins going to be doing?’

‘We are off to follow the bridges to Dundee,’ replied Skylights. ‘According to what I heard on the news, the ticking crocodile is being brought there; to be investigated at the university’s Marine Research Department. Is it really a crocodile? Is it a new species of crocodile? Is it a very old species….maybe even a dinosaur? What it
is
, me hearties, is of no interest to me. I really don’t care one bit. But I do care what is in its stomach. O’Mullins and I are going to steal the stomach and bring it, and its contents, back here for Professor John.’

‘Well, good luck tae ye. Watch you don’t spill the stuff,’ said Fitzsmee. ‘I think I’d rather do our job than yours after all.’

‘Time is precious. Let’s get started, O’Mullins,’ urged Skylights. ‘See ye all back here in a few hours then. Maybe even Jukes and Noddler will be here by then.’

‘Come on Fitzsmee, we’ll go and hae a wee nosey aboot,’ said MacStarkey.

While MacStarkey and Fitzsmee set off down the Royal Mile, Skylights and O’Mullins took off from the ramparts and headed north. Staying beneath cloud level they kept a lookout for landmarks and before long spotted two bridges spanning a wide river.

‘Look! The first pair of bridges,’ said Skylights. ‘Just follow them and we won’t go wrong.’

‘Which one?’ asked O’Mullins.

‘What do you mean which one, ye dim witted dodo? They are both heading north. It doesn’t matter which one. Just follow the direction of these bridges over the River Forth, and keep going.’

They flew silently over fields of sheep and cows, over villages of sleeping houses, over hillsides painted white with frost. Empty roads stretched beneath them like random scratches on a sheet of paper. Every now and again tiny moving lights traced these scratches before disappearing into the distance. ‘Hey Skylights, what’re these lights down there? Are they fairies?’ asked O’Mullins.

‘No. These’re the lights of cars. It’s what they use for transport in this world. We’ll need something like that to get the stomach back to Edinburgh,’ answered Skylights. ‘But look ahead now O’Mullins. Can you see two more bridges? That’s the bridges over the River Tay, and the next stop is Dundee. We’ll be there in a flash.’

The city of Dundee stretched out along the north bank of the river. Skylights and O’Mullins circled the town centre not really sure what a university would look like. They saw buildings with tall pointy bits reaching up to the sky. Were they universities? Other buildings seemed to be made mostly of glass behind which stood silent motionless people on guard duty. Were these universities? Skylights made a signal to O’Mullins and they dropped from the sky into a large square area, empty apart from a few benches, and some tubs of plants. It was enclosed on three sides by imposing buildings.

‘Let’s look for a sign that says University,’ said Skylights.

O’Mullins suddenly grew very excited. ‘Hey look, Skylights. There’s yon big fellow from the Dandy. What’s his name? Desperate Dan, that’s it! We can ask him where the university is.’

‘I think you’ll find he’s not alive. That’s just a statue,’ replied Skylights trying to be patient. ‘But, look there are some signposts over there. Come on!’

Skylights became aware of voices, lots of voices talking, laughing, shouting and even singing. To his left he saw a crowd of young people pouring from a building on to the street and heading their way.

‘Quick, hide in here,’ he said, pulling O’Mullins away from the statue into a dark passageway behind it. ‘Best if we’re not seen. We don’t want to have to answer any awkward questions.’

But they were too late. One of the young men in the crowd had spotted them and shouted to his companions. ‘Crikey, did ye see yon funny guys? They looked like pirates fae lang ago.’ The revellers, capering with each other, staggering from side to side, and making lots of noise, reached the pirates’ hiding place.

‘Whaur are they pirates then? Ye’r seein’ things,’ said a girl. ‘Ah telt ye no tae hae that last pint.’

‘Eh’m no seein’ things. Eh’m tellin’ ye. Eh saw them. They ran up that close. Come on we’ll chase them an’ ye’ll see what Eh mean.’ The young people staggered towards the close talking loudly as they went. Skylights and O’Mullins shrank into the darkness hoping they would not be discovered. The ground beneath their boots was strewn with empty curry boxes and chip papers. Discarded drinks cans rolled at their feet. They backed into a corner. Silently Skylights raised his gun and O’Mullins drew his cutlass. They would not give up their mission. Not without a fight.

From another direction came a very different voice, serious and commanding. ‘Hoi! Tone it down you lot or we’ll nick you, for breach of the peace.’ The party animals and two police officers faced each other on the pavement right outside the close where Skylights and O’Mullins were hiding.

‘What’s all the noise about then? What are you up to?’ asked the second police constable in a more pleasant manner.

‘It’s the works’ Christmas night out, officer. We’re on our way home now,’ said a young woman, trying hard to speak clearly and remain upright. ‘Sorry about the noise, sir.’

‘I should think so!’ said the first policeman. He pointed to the close.

‘People are sleeping up there.’

‘No, no, offisher,’ said the young drunk who had seen O’Mullins and Skylights. ‘They’re no sleepin’. Eh jist saw them runnin’.’

‘Ye saw who running?’

‘Eh saw the twa pirates. An’ they wuz armed. Ye should arrest them cause yer no allowed knives are ye offisher?’ said the drunk. ‘Hiccup!’

‘Are you telling us you saw two armed pirates going up this close?’ asked the second policeman.

‘Yesh, ain had a cutlass, and the ither ain had a kind o’ an auld fashioned gun, like they had in the Pirates o’ the Caribbean. An’ the ain wi’ the cutlass was speakin’ tae Desperate Dan o’wer there.’

Skylights and O’Mullins were scared to breathe as they pushed themselves hard against the back of the close, sure that they were about to be caught. But they breathed a sigh of relief when the policeman spoke again.

‘Do you know the punishment for wasting police time, laddie? We could slap an ASBO on you. Take my advice, young man. Get home and sober up before you get yourself arrested. Pirates with cutlasses indeed!’ The policeman turned to the rest of the crowd, ‘And that goes for all of you. Time you were home. I’d advise you to leave the city centre as soon as you can.’

O’Mullins smiled to himself. Perhaps they did have a pirate spirit protecting them after all. ‘Hey what’s an ASBO?’ he asked.

‘It must be the Scottish equivalent of the cat o’ nine tails,’ replied Skylights. They waited a few minutes until the coast was clear. Skylights grabbed O’Mullins by the arm, ran out of the close, and together they soared into the night sky. ‘I know where to go now,’ said Skylights. ‘The signpost pointed in this direction.’ No sooner were they up, than it was time to come down again. Skylights could see one or two people walking in the street below. ‘Let’s go round the back of the buildings,’ he whispered to O’Mullins. They landed unseen and found themselves in a huge campus with buildings on all sides. Together they wandered from one building to the next looking for the right place. They passed the College of Life Sciences, School of Computing, Department of Mathematics and then, ‘There it is...the Department of Marine Research,’ said Skylights reading the brass plate on one of the smaller buildings.