I, Little Dolphus, the intellectual Leafy, was sitting on
the shady branch of an apple tree in
Heather FitzTitania and FitzOberon’s garden when I heard a shout.
“What is it?” I asked Heather, for it was she who had
shouted, as I found when I flew towards the noise.
“Shoo! Shoo!” she was crying at a huge bird, the colour of
a black vulture but the size of a formidable condor, that was staring at her with great contempt.
“Go away!” I shouted at the vulture, and it turned to face
me with a contempt even greater, of course.
“It won’t go!” said Beaurenard Leonado Flynn. “I’ve chased it away
before, but it keeps coming back. And it won’t say what it wants. But it must
have something to do with that fellow you keep in that glass coffin, because it
is on that box that it always perches.”
“Oh, dear!” said Heather, very worried. “Maybe we should get Thistle to deal with it.
She’s tougher than all three of us together.”
“I’m asking you nicely. Please leave,” said Beau to the
vulture. “You’re molesting my girlfriend. Don’t make me chase you away again.
It´s too hot for that today. Go now.
You´ll be back when you please, anyway. We’re getting to know each other,
aren’t we?”
The vulture turned from Beau to Heather. And then it flew
off.
“What can this mean?” Heather went to the glass coffin and
studied Mr. Binky. “He seems to be resting placidly and doesn’t look as if he’s
been disturbed. But he is getting to look very young. If he sleeps himself into
childhood, the vulture might snatch him to feed its young. Oh, what a horrible
thought! This can’t be happening in Apple Island! There are no vultures here.”
“Maybe we should bury him somewhere else,” said Beau.
“I know where!” I said.
Wheras Hum and Rosendo had found their vocations very early
in life and both worked at them with a one track mind, she as a singer and he
as a beautician, Azuline and Esmeraldo were still wondering what to do with
their lives. She had learned how to build ships, but didn’t think she wanted to
dedícate her life to that. He had learned it was better not to be a pirate,
especially if you didn’t need to be one. They would spend most of their time
wandering about their father’s plantation, knowing there was no need for them
to be farmers, but doing some exercise, walking and walking and meandering
about. And then, one day, when they were near the entrance gate, they decided
to walk outside. There was no reason why
they must not do their walking somewhere else on Apple Island. The Island was the safest of places.
“Where shall we head for?” Azuline asked her brother. “Grandma Divina’s? So she will give us some
tutti-fruitti ice cream? She probably
won’t be at home. Grandpa’s golf course? So Rhubarb will give us lunch? It’s
early for that.”
“And Grandpa is cranky,” said Esmeraldo. “We’d better not
trouble him.”
“East, West, North or South?” Azuline asked.
“Let’s follow the sun,” said Esmeraldo. And they followed
it until noon.
“Where are we?” wondered Azuline. “It’s getting very hot
and we don’t know where we are, but though we are safe in this island, and have
only to wish to be back home to get there, we have passed by countless homes, quaint
houses and tall castles, humble huts and impressive palaces, I would like to know where
we are at.”
“We are where the sun has hit its peak,” said Esmeraldo.
“Isn’t that enough for you?”
“It is right on top of that hill,” said Azulime, pointing
at a mound . “Shall we end our walk there?·
They strolled slowly round the hill until they came to the back
that was the real front of it and they saw a large horizontal stone over two
vertical ones marking the entrance to a cave. A cave that held a great yellow light
within.
“Who lives there?” they wondered.
“It can’t be the sun, who has entered that cave. No,
despite the great light, no,” said
Azuline. “The sun is out here and above.”
“I’m going to find out,” said Esmeraldo, always ready for
adventure.
They walked up to the stone portal and a voice called out,
“Please don’t come in. This is a chamber tomb."
“Oh!” said Azuline. She and Esmeraldo exchanged a look
before she asked the voice, “Are you a ghost?”
“No and yes.”
“Oh! How can that be?” asked Azuline.
“That can’t be!” contributed Esmeraldo. And then he added,
“Can it?”
“I’m not dead, but I am the ghost of whom I used to be.”
“And who were you?” asked Esmeraldo.
“If we may ask,” added Azuline.
“Well, since you have,
I used to be a do-gooder fairy. Do you know what that is?
Do-gooders wander around the world
trying to do good wherever they are. Please don’t confuse us with comeuppance
fairies. Those can reward good people but more often chastise the bad.”
“Well, why are you asking
us to go away instead of doing us some good?” asked Esmeraldo.
“That’s just it. You seem to be nice kids, though curious.
You are asking questions but you haven’t barged in here ignoring my petition. I
can’t do you any good. Not anymore. I’m under a curse. I can’t do good to
good people . Only to bad people. So
I’ve built myself this tomb and I’ve retired from the world of the living. I’m
not dead, so I have no place in the underworld and just sit here. I can’t do
good even to myself and I don’t want to
favor bad people and help them with their wicked plans. Or become evil myself.”
“Oh!” exclaimed
Azuline. “That…that is quite a problem you have. And…I think… the next question
we should ask is if we can be of help to you. Can we do you any good?”
I, Little Dolphus told all this about the cave tomb to
Heather and Beau.
“Perhaps the do-gooder in there is a real do-gooder and
won’t mind sharing the chamber tomb he or she is hiding in with Mungo Binky. There
aren’t many tombs in Apple Island. Barely any at all, except for the Marvel on
Chalice Hill, to my knowing,” I said to Heather and to Beau.
“If we take the coffin to the dolmen right now, while the vulture
is gone, maybe it won’t know where to find it,” said Beau. “We can make it and
ourselves invisible while we move it. This may be an emergency we have here.
We’ll have to act fast.”
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