Jimmy, The
Glue Factory and Mad Mr Viscous, chapter
five
Chapter Five
Psst!
Making their way out from the marquee, the two boys, Jimmy and Eric, were, like everyone who had been in the audience, chatting excitedly about the many strange things they had just witnessed. “Eric,” said Jimmy, glancing over his shoulder, thinking someone was calling him. “Eric, do you remember that woman, the one with the two heads?”
Remembering it – and so vividly, Eric replied, “Will I ever forget?”
“Yeh, I suppose you’re right,” said Jimmy, “she was a bit strange…”
“A bit strange? She had two heads, you can’t get much stranger than that!” said Eric, exasperated by Jimmy’s penchant for understatement.
“Well, yes, if you put it like that,” he replied, “But even if you ignore the extra head, she was still a bit weird…” Without allowing him time to reply, Jimmy continued. Whispering, he said, “Did you notice that she cast no shadow?”
Then he remembered – the two boys remembered – no one performing at the circus that afternoon, apart from the ringmaster that is, had cast any semblance of a shadow.
Stopping, looking back over his shoulder, Jimmy thought he heard someone calling him, again. “Did you hear that?” he asked
“Hear what?”
“I, I don’t know… I thought I heard someone, someone calling me, wanting me.”
“Calling you or wanting you?” said Eric. “There is a difference, you know.”
“I, I don’t know…” said Jimmy, frustrated by his ignorance on the matter, and annoyed by what he considered to be a foolhardy line of questioning. “All that I know,” he continued,” “is that I heard someone calling me – I am sure of it.”
“If you ask me,” said Eric, “Those marbles of yours are getting a bit loose.”
“That’s your answer to everything, that you don’t understand,” Jimmy retorted, “I’m surprised you didn’t say the performers...” he pointed to the marquee, “...were losing their marbles!”
“Psst.”
“What was that?” Eric asked.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Shush,” Eric whispered, “I can hear something…”
Jimmy, cocking his head to one side, also listened.
“Psst!”
“There it is again,” said Eric, his pulse quickening.
“That’s what I heard, before!” said Jimmy, feeling vindicated.
Then they saw her, the very same woman who had sold them the tickets, earlier, but this time, a cat, and a black one at that, accompanied her. On seeing the cat, Eric was totally convinced she was a witch. Cradling the cat in her bony old arms, while stroking it, she creakily asked, “Well, boys, how did you enjoy the show? And has it changed your lives forever?”
Stammering with fright, Eric’s garbled reply made no sense at all.
Turning to face Jimmy, the old woman sought a clearer response.
“It was very good,” he said. “In fact it was excellent – the best circus that I have ever seen!”
Smiling slightly (Eric thought her face might crack from the effort), she said, “I can see that you are a child of distinction, a child who can see…possibilities.”
Scratching his head, Eric felt stumped, bamboozled by her words, thinking the old woman had most certainly lost her marbles, and by the look of her dowdy appearance, many years ago!
Jimmy smiled.
“What are you smiling for?” Eric asked.
“What am I smiling at?”
“Pardon?”
“Still smiling, Jimmy said, “You should have asked me what I was smiling at.”
“Is there a difference?” said Eric, feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the situation that he found himself in.
Pointing to the rear of the marquee with one of her long bony fingers, answering for Jimmy, the old woman said, “There is, if you care to take a look…to go see...”
Eric looked, but he saw nothing, nothing at all… nothing apart from another old woman – looking, staring directly at HIM!
“Her?”
She nodded.
“She’s wants to see – ME?”
She nodded again.
“But…”
“Go, go see her!” the ticket seller ordered. “GO!”
“Jim,” Eric called out. “What do you think I should do?” Jimmy, however, smiling benignly, contentedly, offered no reply.
“Leave him be.”
“But…”
“GO!”
With that, Eric began making his way across to the second woman, who was, as far as he was concerned, a second old woman too many.
The closer he got, the more Eric felt he was approaching the first one’s twin sister, and by the time he was standing in front of her, staring into her wizened old face, he was totally convinced she was her twin. Down to the very last wrinkle, wart on her chin and creaky old voice, this woman was the same as the first one, the ticket seller. The only thing different between the two was that this one did not have a cat.
“Come closer,” she said creakily, “I want to ask you a favour…”
Gulping hard, inching that bit closer, Eric said, “A favour?”
Speaking lower, quieter, she said, “Yes, my dear, I want you – and your friend, to go on an errand for me…”
Gulping again, Eric said, “A favour? An errand?”
She nodded.
Looking back over his shoulder, Eric saw his best friend, afar, standing in the same place, and still smiling vacantly, but the ticket seller was gone; she was nowhere at all. Turning round, returning his gaze to the second old woman, Eric almost jumped out of his skin, with fright, for the first one’s black cat was now cradled in her arms. Stroking it, she asked, “Well?”
“Well – well what?”
Are you going to run that errand?” she asked, stroking the cat, which purred contentedly.
Trying not to commit to something that he knew absolutely nothing about, yet trying to extricate himself from the situation he found himself in, Eric agreed, saying, “Okay, I will do that errand – but Jim has to agree, also.”
Stroking the cat, smiling (and without breaking her face), she said, “He will, he most certainly will…”
Having returned to his friend, Eric poked him in the side, saying, “Jim, that old woman... she wants us to go on an errand.”
Snapping out from his trance, Jimmy asked, “What old woman?”
“That one, there,” said Eric, pointing, but she was gone.
“Here,” said the first woman, having reappeared as mysteriously as the second one had vanished, “take this.”
“What’s that?” said Eric, eying a piece of paper in her hand.
Passing it to him, she said, “It’s a note…instructions for your errand. My sister told me to give it to you.”
“Your sister?” Eric asked, scratching his head, struggling to keep up with their appearances and disappearances. “Where did she go?”
“She was called away…”
“Let me see,” said Jimmy, snapping the note from out of his hand. “I want to see what this is about.” Studying the note, Jimmy began smiling, and he said, “You can tell your sister that I – that we will be delighted to run that errand.”
Studying Jimmy’s face, Eric feared marbles were disappearing, being lost at an alarming rate.
