part 5

The car bumping as Karen drove off the ferry woke Mary from a bad dream - a huge spiderweb dangling with bundles like sad grey fruit, soft and swaying, and a sign saying Home Sweet Home stuck crookedly near the bottom. The sticky threads spread wherever Mary had tried to run, and there was always the feeling of someone watching her, though when Mary turned, no one was there. But it all faded away in the bright warm sun when she opened her eyes.

This was the island! It was quiet in the car, everyone looking out at the little town for the first time. Colours were brighter here than on the other side of the sea. Pretending
to be still asleep, Mary looked up, through the car window. Along the road infront of the harbour was a row of big pastel coloured buildings like squares of iced cake, some roof tops having railings like party tiaras, lacey black against the blue sky. What at first Mary had thought were dark jewels in these tiaras she saw were black birds, as they flew from roof to roof another. Her look went to the space infront of green hills sloping down to the
slate roofs, as a flock of pigeons unfurled in  a blur of soft grey, purple and turquoise, as if for fun, turning in the light, then vanished over the rooftops. And on all the highest chimneys was a seagull, neat as sea captains in their white uniforms, watching over everything with far-seeing bright yellow eyes. Mary hoped the friendly seagull had got here safely. Was it one of the ones she could see? She wondered how seagulls called each other and suddendly thought,“I don’t know its name!”

Dale parked at the side of the road and they got out. The sun was so warm Karen said Mary would soon dry out, running on the smooth short grass, calling after them, “Don’t roll about in the dirt!”
There were palm trees, but smaller than on Pirates of the Caribean, and no coconuts. They played tig for a while, but Jake wanted to go to look at the palm trees. He wrapped his arms and legs round the slopiest one and began to get higher.
“You climb that one, Mary!” Mary thought she had better not incase the coat Karen had
bought her got messy. Jake climbed slowly higher and higher while Mary looked round and saw some of the black roof birds on the grass, watching Jake as if they were visitors to a zoo and Jake was an interesting animal.

Then Mary heard a twanging, raspy voice say “Joke?” Mary looked round but couldn’t see anyone, so she turned back to the tree, but the voice came again, not from Jake. “Oi! Joke?” One of the roof birds was on the grass, looking up at her with bright brown eyes. Mary crouched down and the bird hopped closer, opened its pointy black beak, and the words “Got a joke?” bounced out.

She and Mum used to have fun taking turns to make up jokes at Mary’s bath time. There
had been no jokes for weeks now, but the bird was watching her so hopefully, “Ok!” said Mary. She looked around, trying to think of something while the bird waved its beak about cawing “Joke! Joke! Joke!”
“Shhh, Jake will fall out!” Mary said.
The roof bird looked up at Jake, “Nah, that’s taking ages!”
“That’s rude!” Mary said, but the bird’s eyes twinkled even brighter while its black tail feathers span round and round like an egg whisk. Mary was sure it was laughing. Thinking of Jake up the tree gave Mary an idea, “Why don't you ever see hedgehogs hiding up trees?”
The bird jumped up and down happily cawing “I know! I know!” for ages, until Mary asked, “Do you know?”
“No!” said the bird
”Shall I tell you?”she asked, and the bird nodded happily. Mary said, “Because they are so good at it!”
“Ahhhhh! Joke!” sighed the bird and stood on one leg with its eyes closed as if it
was overcome.
After a bit, Mary said, “Your turn!”
The bird opened its eyes and stuck its other leg out, and waggling its long black toes at Mary, said “Aha!” as if it was a policeman finding a clue, “What’s this?”
“It’s your leg.” said Mary
“No! It’s my other leg!” said the bird. “This is my leg!” It lifted up the leg it had been standing on, to show Mary, but that meant there were no legs holding it up, so it fell over backwards and landed with both legs in the air. “Ow!” Mary giggled, and all the birds standing around shouted "Joke!! Joke, " and "Oncaw!" So  it stood up, bowed to them all and then fell over again, and again, till another bird walked sideways up to Mary and, not looking at her, said "Would you like a poem?"
“Yes, please!” said Mary, which made the new bird look very proud.
It stuck its chest out, said “Ready!” loudly, then looked at Mary to make sure she was listening, before, as if it was a famous filmstar posing for a photo, it pointed its beak up, down, left, right. It then did a little cough, and began :

“I wandered lonely as a fart
That floats on high o’er vales and hills
When like a falling paper dart
I landed on some huge nostrils.
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
you should’ve heard that giant sneeze.”

The bird bowed slowly, then walked away with its beak pointing
down as if it was thinking important thoughts. All the birds cawed with laughter, and Jake shouted "Chase them away, Mary!" and they flew off.

Jake’s feet were as high as Mary’s head. He said “I want to come down, now!” But he didn’t. He held on tighter. Mary ran to find Dale, who was sitting with Karen on a bench. Karen rolled her eyes, but Mary thought, as she walked back with Dale, that it was her that they was cross with, for not trying to climb the tree. Dale lifted Jake off and swung him round and round so he whooped. Mary wished her Dad could have done that, with her, but he wasn’t strong enough.

Karen came over and gave Jake and Dale a hug so Mary walked away a bit. There was a round raised up pool, with an upside down concrete christmas tree shape in the middle. She put her finger in the water, it was cold.

Dale called her name. Karen had her purse and asked Mary and Jake to hold out their hands, then gave both of them lots of coins, thick gold coloured ones and thinner
silver ones, and some brown ones, too, more money than Mary had ever held. She could feel their round edges digging into her palms as she tried not to drop any. She looked at Karen amazed. “Thankyou so much!”
“You’re welcome!” said Karen.
“Thanks Mum” said Jake, dropping one and running after it.
Karen laughed and said, “This is holiday money for you to spend on anything you like!”
Jake caught the coin and asked hopefully “Icecream?”
Dale said “You’ve only just had one! Yous two talk about all the things you might buy while your Mum and me have a sit in the sun!”

Mary and Jake sat on the edge of the pool. Jake put his coins down, chose one, and dropped it in the water. Mary was shocked, “What did you do that for?”
“A wish. If you drop money in a pool you can have a wish, so I’m wishing for icecream every day!”
Mary had never heard of this! But then she saw there were already coins on the pale bottom of the pool, like freckles on the moon. Other people had made wishes here, it must work! “Are you allowed to wish for anything?”
“Yes! Why don’t you make a wish?”
“Will Karen be cross?”
“No, Mum said it’s your money now, anything you like!”

Mary shut her eyes. Her heart was beating hard, she couldn’t believe it! A wish! She chose the shiniest golden coin, held it tight over the water, thinking, thinking, thinking of Dad and Mum, and let go. “plop.”

She waited to feel their arms round her, but she didn’t. She opened her eyes and looked around but couldn’t see them. They weren’t here. She got another coin, the biggest silver one, shut her eyes and whispered “Please, please, please!” then dropped it in. When she opened her eyes, Jake asked “What you wish for?”
“To go home.” she whispered
Jake thought for a bit,
“Maybe it’s a bit hard, so you need more money?” Mary gathered up all her coins and threw them in a shower “plop plop plop plopppopopop!” She and Jake waited, and a
tear trickled out.
Jake said “You can have my money too, if you like! That’s sure to be enough!”
Mary was so grateful she gave him a hug “Are you sure? What about icecreams?”
“I want you to go home, too!” said Jake, “Here, you have some, we’ll throw them together! One, Two, Three, Wish!”

The coins fell like metal rain all over the pool, but even when every ripple had gone, still nothing had changed. Mary cried then, and Jake held her as if he was a grown up.

When Karen came over to see if they were Ok, Jake told her what they’d done and she sighed, “You won’t get anymore!” then she said to Mary, “If it’s the best thing for you, you will go home, just have Faith.”

They went back to the car as the sun had gone in, and it was getting colder. There were two roof birds sitting on the edge of a litter bin. Mary thought they looked like two people choosing what to eat in a cafe. They looked up and one called, "Keep your pecker up chickita!", which made her feel better. In the car Jake pointed to the birds and asked Dale what they were. "Jackdaws."
"He must have meant joke daws!" Mary thought.
Dale started the engine “Let’s find where we’re staying and get settled in, it should only be a couple minutes drive”. But they had only gone past a few buildings before whisps of grey wrapped around the windows. Soon the car was in a grey pocket, and Dale was driving very slowly.
Another car’s headlights came towards them like fish eyes in the deepest parts of the sea, and vanished. Even Jake was quiet. Mary could tell Karen and Dale were worried. Dale said sharply, “I’ve no idea where I’m going!” Karen reached down to turn the satnav on, but its words were so muffled no one could understand, then it went quiet. “Must be interfering with the satellite!” said Dale, “Try your phone?” But Karen’s phone
had no signal.
Jake said in a scared voice, “Mum? Mum? Why’s it all small?”
Karen said,“It’s just fog, Jake, probably happens here all the time, because of the sea.”
Dale added, “Why don’t you and Mary look out for a signpost? That would really help us!”

But it was if they were in a toy car that was stuck in a lump of grey play dough, pressing on the windows. Mary wondered if the wheels were even going round. Then a tall post flicked through the nothingness outside her window, but only for a blink then it was gone. She waited for someone else to say something, but no one did. She tugged Jake’s sleeve. “Did you see that?”
Jake jumped, “What? A ghost?”
Karen twisted round and glared at Mary, “Don’t frighten him, Mary! What is it?”
Mary leaned back, “I... I think there was a signpost...”
Dale slammed on the brakes. “Where?”
“Just, just back there, I’m not sure?”
“Why didn’t you say so then?” Dale sounded cross, “I can’t back up in this! You’ll have to come out with me and find it again!” Dale undid his seatbelt and Jake howled
“Nooooooo! Don’t go, the ghosts will get you, Dad!!!” and started rocking and kicking in his seat. Dale and Karen tried to calm him down, but he was getting into a big state.
Dale looked at Mary, “Was it nearby?” Mary nodded.
Karen shook her head, “Dale-”
Dale frowned at her, then looked back at Mary. “Could you find it again, just make sure it really was a sign, then come get me? I’ll keep the lights on, so you’ll know where we are, and the window open. No, Jake, Mum and me will stay here.”
Inside the car it was like a thunderstorm without the thunder, everyone was so scared. Mary didn’t want to go outside, but she didn’t want to stay inside either, with Jake so
frightened, kicking and crying and Karen and Dale not knowing what to do. Feeling
very brave, Mary said to Jake, ”It’s OK! I will go!”

In the end Karen had to get out of the car, to help Mary get out, but then sat back in her seat with the door open, “You sure you’re OK?” Mary nodded. Karen said “Brave girl, well
done! We’ll be right here! Just find what you saw and come right back!”
Mary could hardly see her feet, the fog was so thick. When she breathed in it stuck in her throat like a sort of grey not sweet candy floss. She walked two steps to the side of the road, then looked back. She could still see the car and waved at Karen, then began to go back down the road