Jimmy,
The Glue Factory and Mad Mr Viscous, chapter two
Chapter Two
Retribution!
Next day, the two boys returned to the coalmine, close to where they were had been the previous morning, and Jimmy, true to his word, retrieved his bucket…
Skirting furtively behind the guards’ hut, Jimmy spied their two buckets nestled amongst a huge pile of so many others confiscated ones. These men obviously meant business, but had they no idea what they were depriving the poor, unfortunate people of? Heat is what they were depriving them of, and it made Jimmy so angry.
Grabbing hold of Eric’s bucket, and then handing it to him, Jimmy whispered, “Listen.” Furtively peering through the grimy, frost coated window of the guards’ hut, he said, “I have an idea…how we can teach these two,” he pointed to the guards seated inside, ensconced in front of a potbelly stove, drinking cups of piping hot tea, “a good lesson.”
Frowning, Eric whispered, “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Jimmy nodded. Unconvinced, Eric added, “It could get nasty – even dangerous!”
“With a mischievous grin, Jimmy replied, “Danger is my middle name.” Then he tapped three times on the windowpane.
“What are you doing?” Eric cried out in a panic, running around like a headless chicken.
Still grinning, Jimmy said, “Watch and find out…”
Eric watched all right, from behind the corner of the hut around which he had beat a hasty retreated. Jimmy, however, crouched low beneath the window, listening.
A Man’s face, appearing in the window, tried to see through the frosty particles and the dirt, to ascertain if anyone was outside, but having no wish to end his tea beak so abruptly, and seeing no one, he returned to his comfortable seat in front of the stove.
“Who was it, Joe?” the second man asked.
“Dunno,” he replied, “Couldn’t see a thing, Fred.”
“Bats,” said Fred, with a sniff of his nose, “They’re all over the place, out there. Smelly beggars, I tell you, the lot of them…”
“Hmm, could be,” said Joe, retrieving his cup from the top of the stove, and taking another gulp of his beloved tea. “Ah, that’s better.”
The matter of the tapping having been resolved, the men settled down enjoying their tea and the warmth of the stove.
Feeling braver, Eric crept out from behind the corner. “What was all the about?” he asked.
“To allay their fears.”
“To allay their fears!” he said, exasperated at his friend’s weird behaviour.
“Yes, of course,” Jimmy explained, “Listen to me… If they happen to hear any other ‘little noises’, they will think it’s just more bats, and that opens up a window of opportunity for us…”
“It does?”
Jimmy nodded.
“Are you sure it will be safe up there?” Eric asked, giving Jimmy a hitch up the side of the hut, onto its roof. “It looks awfully slippery!”
“Shush, now hand me that bucket.”
Eric passed him the bucket. It was not either of theirs, but another, smaller one, that Jimmy had decided was perfect for the job in hand. Offering its handle to his awaiting, open mouth, Jimmy held it tightly between his chattering teeth, for the metal was so very cold. Shimmying his way up the wooden shingled roof, Jimmy made his way inch by inch towards to his objective – the chimneypot.
All of a sudden, one of the shingles broke loose and it slid noisily down the frosty incline. Jimmy froze with fright. Eric darted behind the corner again. The renegade shingle’s downward decent suddenly stopped – caught, captured by the gutter.
“Did you hear that?” said Joe, staring up at the ceiling.
“Yeh, more bats I’d hazard a guess,” Fred replied. “Put some more coal in the stove. Make plenty of smoke. That’ll sort out the smelly beggars.”
Returning to his previous position, Eric whispered to his accomplice, “Phew, that was close!”
Offering no reply, Jimmy continued his perilous ascent where, thankfully, no more shingles broke loose.
Sitting, straddled across the roof apex, Jimmy shuffled the last few inches towards the chimneystack, and when he reached it, his objective, holding on to it for dear life, he stood up and inspected the chimney pot itself. Acrid black smoke was bellowing out from it; the extra coal was doing its job wonderfully. Jimmy began coughing.
“Don’t cough, Jim,” Eric whispered, in fear.
Holding his breath, trying to avoid inhaling anymore smoke, Jimmy’s chattering teeth relinquished their grip on the bucket. Then, without father adieu, he placed it inside the chimney pot. It was a perfect fit, an airtight fit, a smoke-tight fit, and he was able to breathe again.
Seeing this, Eric called up, (and more than a whisper, this time), “Come on, Jim, let’s be away!”
His attention, his concentration distracted, Jimmy lost his balance, slipped and began sliding down the frost-covered roof.
Seeing this, Eric almost fainted with fright.
The gutter; at the very last second Jimmy caught hold of the gutter, saving him from a nasty fall on the hard, frozen ground. Then with a swing and a twist of his body, he let go of the gutter and jumped the last few feet to the safety of dear mother earth.
“Don’t you ever again do anything like that!” Eric chided. “I almost died with fright!”
“Did you hear that?” Joe asked, looking towards the ceiling.
“I told you,” Fred answered him abruptly, annoyed with the string of interruptions to his beloved tea break, “I told you, it’s only those bats.” Then he added, “Put some more coal in the stove, sort them out once and for all!”
Squatting in front of the stove, Joe fiddled with its little door, but it remained stubbornly shut. “It’s stuck,” he complained. “I can’t open it!”
“Do I have to do everything myself,” Fred bemoaned, striding across and pushing his workmate away.
It opened; Fred opened the stove’s door all too easily, offering the smoke, which had been accumulating inside, free reign into the hut. It went everywhere; billowing out from the stove, the thick, acrid smoke filled the hut in a matter of seconds.
“Where are you, Fred?” Joe called out through the smoke-filled room, to his workmate. “I can’t see a thing!”
His eyes streaming tears, Fred shouted, “It’s the end of the world, a volcano must have erupted. Run, Joe, run for your life!” And they did; the two men ran out from their hut so fast they never saw the two boys standing outside.
With another mischievous grin, Jimmy said, “There, I told you they’d get their comeuppance! Come on, let’s get some coal…”
