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“Yes. Yes, yes. I’m. Going to get her.” said Brendan turning to go. He stopped and slowly turned back. He pointed a finger at Wurgurrawoh and while sweeping the finger from Wurgurrawoh to Jane to Gertrude and back to Wurgurrawoh he said “No talking about me while I’m gone. I love hearing people talking about me.” He turned again and swept off disappearing behind a large tall book case.
Wurgurrawoh sighed and looked at Jane. Jane clutched her hands to her chest “Oh, I love him!” she giggled.
“I heard that!” came Brendan’s voice from somewhere far away in the shop.
)0(
Jane was beaming a huge smile of utter joy. “He, is the angel Hasdiel?”
Gertrude and Wurgurrawoh looked at each other in their wordless meaningful way again and this time Jane did notice it.
“What’s wrong?” she said in a soft yet concerned way.
Wurgurrawoh gently nodded at the cat. Gertrude look back at Jane and almost in a whispering despondent voice said
“It’s complicated.”
“Please tell me?” said Jane quietly.
Gertrude wiggled her bum a little, getting herself more comfortable and knocking a small china ornament of Big Ben off of the top of the book shelf she was sitting on, which Wurgurrawoh dexterously caught and put on a book case next to him, and said “Sit down and I will explain.”
Jane looked around at the utter chaos of the shelves, display cabinets, clothes racks and stuff that they were standing in, there was a lot of ‘things’ everywhere but no sign of anything remotely like a seat.
“Oh…“ said Gertrude realising what Jane was looking for “I forget that you lot don’t just sit on, in or where you like.” The cat looked at Wurgurrawoh “The Arena?”
“Why not?” replied Wurgurrawoh and he stepped towards Gertrude and picked her up again.
“Arena?” Jane asked slightly confused.
“Oh that is just what Brendan and Brenda call it.” answered Gertrude. And the three of them slowly started to make their way deeper in to the shop’s chaotic interior.
After a little while Jane realised that she was lost. She had no idea in which direction the front door was now let alone how to get to it, and really strangely, for her, she wasn’t worried – like she would normally be about being lost, even in a shop.
Jane was following Wurgurrawoh who was leading the way, still carrying Gertrude, down a narrow corridor made of tall book shelves and display cabinets. Just over his shoulder she could see that it looked like a dead-end up ahead. There was the back of, what she assumed was, a huge kitchen dresser blocking the way. Just as she thought Wurgurrawoh was going to walk into it he nimbly sidestepped and disappeared from view. “Hey wait.” she squealed in panic. But as she got to the spot she saw that there was a narrow space just big enough for her to move down sideways. She carefully stepped sideward into the slender gap, and because her claustrophobia had woken up was getting ready to scream at her she counted her sideways shuffling steps. ”One. Two. Three. Four.” This is fine. I’m fine. Nothing to worry about. she lied to herself “Five. Si..” the space before her opened up and she stepped forward, with much relief, into -for want of a better word- a large clearing.
After the confines of the claustrophobic space she had just step out of the ‘Arena’ looked huge. The space was rectangular and about fifty foot wide and at least sixty foot long. All along each side like enclosing walls stood large bookshelves, cabinets, kitchen dressers and wardrobes. The wardrobe at the very far left-hand side corner of the space was the most ornate and the biggest Jane had ever seen. In front of these ‘walls’, scattered about, were lots of chairs; armchairs, dining chairs, kitchen chairs and even a few baby high chairs. The rest of the floor space was empty but covered by a massive Persian carpet. Most of the carpet was bright red but there were patterns and colours everywhere that made the eyes boggle.
Wurgurrawoh was standing on the left hand side of an old wooden Victorian high chair and Gertrude was sitting upright and rather proudly on the little ‘table’ bit of the high chair. Jane moved towards them and stood on the right side of the high chair. She looked about her in wonder “This place is an absolute Aladdin’s cave!”
“Don’t’ say that!” yelled Gertrude and Wurgurrawoh at the same time making Jane jump with the sock of it. Wurgurrawoh and Gertrude stared intently at the beautiful Persian carpet. As Jane stared at the carpet too she saw a small ripple in the dead centre of it. She heard Gertrude whisper “Oh shit.” as more ripples slowly moved out across the fabric in circles; it was like water in a flat pond after you drop a pebble into its glass like surface. The ripples slowly moved towards the edges of the carpet and when they got to the corners all four of the corners lifted a few inches and with a soft sighing sound like “Phusssit.” they gently fell back down to the wooden floor again and the carpet stayed flat and unmoving. The silence that followed was deafening. Jane watched open mouthed as Wurgurrawoh slowly stepped forward to the edge of the carpet in front of him and very slowly and gently tapped the carpet with the tip on his left foot.
Suddenly, nothing happened!
Wurgurrawoh and Gertrude sighed with relief. “That was close.” said Gertrude looking up at Jane “Please don’t say that ‘A’ word again.”
Jane, foolishly, was about to say ‘What, Aladdin?’ when all the lights dimmed very low, so she didn’t. A very bright white round spot light hit the massive and orate wardrobe that Jane had spotted easier and one of the huge doors slowly opened.
“Oh yes!” squealed Gertrude in delight “You’re going to love this Jane!”
Chapter Nineteen
They Want to Break Free