Petronella and the Janjilons Read online

  Jack ran panting to Sandra’s house, then Veronica’s and even Barbara’s. But each time he got a ‘no’ for an answer. Betty wasn’t in any of these places. In fact, all Jack had done was to get every one of Betty’s friends worried as well. They too were asking themselves what had happened to her and said they would join in the search. Jack went back home to tell his mother the worrying news.

  Betty was nowhere to be seen.

  “We’ll have to call the police in. I can’t think where else she could be. Wait a moment. Let’s go back to Adrian’s house and search properly. She might still be there. Come on, get your coat on,” his mother said.

  They headed for Adrian’s house only to find there was nobody in when they arrived.

  “Well, I’m going to the back garden to look around,” said Mrs Tirel. Too tired to argue, Jack followed her.

  Both Jack and his mother stood amongst the undergrowth. “Betty! Betty!” they called out. They went to the bottom of the garden looked in the corners, behind the rubbish tip and under the giant mushroom. Betty was not there. No, she definitely wasn’t.

  They didn’t see the entrance to the tunnel behind the giant mushroom.

  CHAPTER 11

  When Jack and his mother arrived at the Police Station, they found Judge Ormerod sitting in the waiting room. They didn’t know him but instantly had an awkward feeling about him. What was such a well-dressed man doing at a police station? Who would have dared cross a scary-looking man like him?

  “Good day to you, madam,” Judge Ormerod said to Jack’s mother. He ignored Jack completely, like some grown-ups often do.

  “Good day,” Jack’s mother answered.

  “It’s a beautiful day today, isn’t it? And it would be a beautiful world were it not for all the wrong-doers we have to live amongst,” Judge Ormerod said. “forcing us to come to places like this. I’m here to report a robbery,” he lied. “And you?”

  Jack’s mother was crying by this time. She’d held all the worry and anxiety inside her for long enough. But now she knew deep down inside her that Betty had been kidnapped, perhaps even murdered and her body was out there somewhere in the cold. Jack’s mother had read about lots of cases of missing children never to be found.

  Sobbing all the time, she told Judge Ormerod why they were there and how worried she was about her daughter.

  “Don’t worry, Mrs Tirel. Oh, I’m sure you’ll soon find her. She’ll be alright,” he tried comforting her. “Come, I’ll help you report the loss. Let’s go together.”

  In her sorrow, she didn’t notice that this man already knew her family name.

  Mary Tirel was so grateful to have found such a nice and well-to-do person help her out in a moment of need. It was so comforting. She let him accompany her when they were called and helped her report her missing daughter.

  So now he knew everything about the case. Where Betty had gone missing. Who had seen her last... and about Jack’s role in all this.

  The policewoman filling out the report also comforted Mary Tirel. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. Probably at home when you get back. Anyway, we will investigate this and let you know if there is any news.”

  Jack’s mother thanked the lady very much. She was sure that the police would start searching for her little Betty. They both went back home.

  “I’ll take that,” Judge Ormerod said to the policewoman, snatching the form from her. She didn’t argue. He was, after all, a Councillor, an important person, and a scary one. He was much more important than her.

  He folded the form up, put it in his pocket. As he rushed out of the office, he turned round and said to the policewoman in the coldest voice: “I’ll deal with this myself. I’ll go to the head of police right now. You are not to get involved, do you hear?”

  With that, he slammed the door, threw the form away in the next rubbish bin and went straight back home.

  CHAPTER 12

  Janjilon Soloman was running around and screeching in the garden of The Janjilon Education Centre along with the other Janjilons. They pulled some bananas off a tree, then screeched some more as they ran around in circles while eating them. They threw the banana skins high up into the air, then turned a few somersaults while screeching.

  Adrian was happy to be with his best friend again. After all that excitement, Adrian and Soloman tip-toed over to a giant mushroom and sat under it to protect themselves from the rain which began falling hard and fast.

  Adrian had been taken to the woods by the weird sisters and then on to the Janjilon Education Centre. It was the day Adrian was supposed to go off to boarding school. Adrian was taken to the coach stop by his parents. They waved goodbye to him, his mother with a handkerchief pressed against her eyes to absorb the tears. His father smothered his feelings and put on a brave face. “I’m proud of you, my lad. You’re the first boy in our family to go to private school. Be worthy of the opportunity given to you. Work hard and listen to your teacher. When you grow up you will know much more than I do.”

  How wrong his family were.

  Little did they know that Judge Ormerod was in cahoots with the weird sisters and their aim was to rid the land of bright young boys. They were an obstacle to Judge Ormerod’s designs to get his hands on the Golden Shield. Not only that. He would put these boys to good use and make them work for him.

  Janjilon Soloman and Janjilon Adrian wanted to talk about how they could escape. But at that moment they were joined by a female Janjilon. She ran on the tips of her toes towards them to shelter from the rain. She greeted them and sat with them.

  The Janjilons’ screeches made sense amongst themselves – it was their language: Janjilonese. Soloman asked her what her name was.

  “Betty,” she said, and spelled it out in the mud: B-e-t-t-y.

  “Yes, she’s a friend of mine,” Adrian said. “I brought her here.”

  “You brought her here!?” Soloman asked. “That’s unbelievable. Why would you bring anyone here? It’s enough that we were forced to come here, wasn’t it?”

  “You don’t understand,” Adrian said. “I had to bring her here. She insisted.”

  Betty nodded. “That’s right,” she said. “I met Adrian in the garden of his house behind the giant mushroom at the bottom of his garden. I went there with my brother, Jack. We were looking for Adrian to find out what had happened to him. You see, I found that out, but Jack didn’t.”

  Janjilon Adrian threw his head back and let out the most piercing screeching laugh.

  “Yes, you certainly found out where I was. You won’t forget that,” Adrian said, thinking himself funny and scratching his tummy in glee.

  “No, I won’t forget. And I don’t want to forget. I’m here because I want to be. Though I didn’t think I would be turned into an ugly, smelly creature and imprisoned here with other ugly smelly creatures.”

  “You begged me to take you to The Janjilon Education Centre. I warned you. I did everything I could to put you off, but you just wouldn’t listen,” Janjilon Adrian scratched his left ear this time. Then he turned to Janjilon Soloman:

  “You know, when Betty saw me in my garden she wasn’t even frightened of me. You’d think she would be. No, she started talking to me. She asked me what I was and what I was doing in Adrian’s garden. I thumped my chest to tell her that I WAS Adrian. I tried to warn her about this Education Centre and how young boys from Westshire were being turned into Janjilons. I tried to shoo her back home. But she followed me and then pleaded with Gesuelda to give her some potion,” Adrian said.

  Janjilon Soloman scratched his feet and let a screech out from the bottom of his throat.

  “Stop that,” Janjilon Betty said. “I don’t know why you boys have to screech so loudly. Why don’t you just screech quietly? Adrian’s right,” she said turning to Soloman. “I wanted to come here and live out this adventure. I have read many fairy tales and fantasy novels. Who wouldn’t want to be in one?”

  “We don’t,” at once, the two boy Janjilons shook their
heads together.

  “You will change your mind,” Adrian said to Betty. “We had no choice and we have no idea how we can get out of here. Judge Ormerod is a cruel and dangerous man. You can’t mess about with someone like him. He will have the Dukedom at whatever cost. He will probably leave us here to rot with only leaves and bananas to eat and puddle water to drink.”

  “Don’t worry,” Betty said. “Good people always triumph over bad people in fairy tales.”

  “But this isn’t a fairy tale, Betty,” Soloman said. “This is real life. And in real life bad people can win just as well as good people. There is no way of knowing which way it will go. Real life is full of unhappy endings, where people live unhappily ever after.”

  Betty would not listen to this. “We are living in a fairy tale. That’s what life is,” she said. “Life is a fairy tale. That’s what you don’t understand. You are too close to real life. That’s why you don’t enjoy all the adventures that come your way. You are both like my brother, Jack. You don’t read enough books. That’s your problem.”

  Soloman couldn’t believe he’d heard this. What did she mean?

  “I’ve read more books than you’ve had hot dinners,” Soloman said. “I love adventure stories...”

  “Then why aren’t you happy to live out adventures like I do?” Betty asked.

  Soloman had never thought of that. But he said: “Because I don’t let all those stories go to my head. You can’t believe all those far-fetched events in books. You’ll be telling me that I’m one of Snow White’s dwarfs soon.”

  “No, you’re not one of Snow White’s dwarfs. Though you are about the same height, you are too hairy for that and you let out the most awful screeches. How real are Janjilons, I ask you?”

  Soloman and Adrian looked down at themselves. They had to admit she was right. They were real and they were Janjilons.

  “I need to tell you something else you both don’t know yet,” Adrian said. “We’re here for two reasons. One is that Judge Ormerod wants to get all young boys from Fort Willow out of the way. He thinks that one of us will be the new Duke of Westshire. The other is that he wants us to look for the Golden Shield and give it to him.”

  “But Duke Merrick’s wishes were that whoever found the Golden Shield would be Duke,” Betty said.

  “Get back to real life, Betty!” Adrian said. “How do you think a creature like us can ever be Duke? We’re animals now.”

  “We can talk,” said Janjilon Betty.

  “Yes, we can talk, but only amongst ourselves, to the weird sisters and to Judge Ormerod. Other people don’t understand us. It all comes out as simple screeches. Anyway, can you see a creature like a Janjilon as Duke of Westshire?”

  Betty didn’t answer. Of course, she could imagine a Janjilon as a Duke. Arise Duke Janjilon. She thought it was a super fun idea.

  “There’s a meeting here in the gardens tomorrow. On the edge of the artificial lake down by the great rocks. Duke Ormerod... no, sorry, I mean Judge Ormerod wants to talk to us all. I think it’s about finding the Golden Shield.”

  “What fun!” said Betty. “I wonder who’ll find it.”

  CHAPTER 13

  Petronella and Edmundus were having lunch in their Manor House. Today was lentil day. Thick lentil and potato soup. As usual, it was the time when the couple talked about what was happening in Fort Willow. Edmundus, of course, had a great part in running the village. In the afternoons, he liked to get on his horse and visit people to ask how he could help them. Edmundus wasn’t sure what Petronella got up to in the afternoons. He didn’t ask. She would tell him if she wanted to. She usually didn’t.

  Nor did Petronella want to speak about Soloman’s visit. That would open up all the talk about believing or not believing Soloman. It was clear to Petronella that Edmundus thought Soloman was imagining things. But Petronella had already decided she would find out what was happening.

  “So Judge Ormerod has designs on being our next Duke,” Edmundus said.

  “Yes, well, everyone knows that. I just hope he doesn’t find the Golden Shield,” she said.

  “I overheard Judge Ormerod speaking to someone in the Town Hall yesterday. From what he was saying, you can tell that he thinks he will find the Golden Shield. He said something about minions working for him. That he has planned an organised search party,” Edmundus said.

  “What’s that all about? Who would want to help him find the Golden Shield? Not many people like him,” Petronella said.

  “I have no idea,” said Edmundus.

  ‘I’m going to find out,’ thought Petronella.

  They cleared away pots and pans, plates, cutlery and glasses. And each set off in a different direction. Edmundus on his horse and Petronella in her everyday army camouflage boots with steel safety toes.

  Petronella hadn’t changed much. She still wore her silver glittery shawl over her shoulders, and her pointed black hat when she went out. And, of course, she still wore green lipstick to go with her slightly pale-green skin colour. Edmundus loved her as she was. And she loved him dearly, too. So much so that she still turned cartwheels in the woods. The woods behind her old dwelling place: Charis Cottage. She sometimes went there to see how Percy was. The boy she had brought up for some time before he found his own family after Petronella and Percy’s hair-raising adventures in the Trogot Caves. (To read about the Trogot adventures, please see the first novel in the PETRONELLA series: PETRONELLA AND THE TROGOT)

  She took the short cut over Farmer Giles’s fields. The Farmer had left Fort Willow after the discovery of all the skeletons of the old civilisation of the Strincas there. A fright that had made him flee out of Westshire altogether.

  As Petronella approached Charis Cottage she saw Percy in the garden tidying up the snail bunker. The one Petronella had built. Percy carried on Petronella’s hobby with enthusiasm. He was now thirteen.

  “Hello, Petronella,” he ran up to her and gave her a big hug.

  “How are you, Percy?”

  “I’m fine, Petronella. It’s so nice to see you.”

  “Nice to see you, too, Percy. My, how you’ve grown,” the same remark all grown-ups make after not seeing a youngster for a while.

  “How’s school?” she asked. The second most asked grown-up question.

  “School’s going very well. Thank you,” Percy said. “We are learning a lot because classes are so much smaller than they were. Some boys have left because they are going to the Janjilon Education Centre.”

  “You see, that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about. Do you know anyone called Adrian Simnel from your school? And Soloman, oh, you know Soloman. Everyone does. Soloman Brix. The boy who plays the violin on street corners,” Petronella said.

  “Yes, of course, I know Soloman. He lives down Brook Street at number 57. He comes to my school and is a year younger than me.”

  “Brook Street...” Petronella repeated, not taking in anything else Percy had just said. “We had better go to Brook Street, then. I need to speak to Soloman about Adrian. We must to find out where this Janjilon Education Centre is, and see if Adrian is there. Did you say you know Adrian?”

  “I didn’t say anything about Adrian. You weren’t listening to me, were you, Petronella?”

  Grown-ups often don’t listen.

  “No, you’re right. I was thinking about something else. I have all sorts of thoughts spinning around in my head. So have you heard of Judge Ormerod?” she asked.

  “Petronella, I’ll answer your other question first. I think Adrian is the boy who’s friendly with Soloman. They were in the same class. I don’t know him that much. As for Judge Ormerod, the answer is ‘no’. I’ve never heard of him.”

  “He’s a Councillor. That’s Judge Ormerod, I mean, and not Adrian, of course,” Petronella said.

  “Of course,” Percy said.

  “You see Judge Ormerod is Education Councillor. He wants to become Duke of Westshire. I’ve no doubt he will be because he has people working for
him hunting for the Golden Shield. He will find it, I’m sure. He is so ambitious,” Petronella said.

  “Does anyone have any idea where it is?” Percy asked.

  “Edmundus told me that villagers have been hunting high-and-low for it – day and night – every day of the week. All we know is that it’s in the forest somewhere,” Petronella replied.

  “But that’s never-ending. It’s vast. Nobody will ever find it. I haven’t been looking,” Percy said.

  “Then maybe while we’re looking for Adrian and this Janjilon Education Centre, we might as well look for the Golden Shield, too. Don’t you think? We wouldn’t like it to get into the wrong hands, would we?” Petronella asked.

  “The answer to your first question is ‘yes’, and the answer to your second question is ‘no’, Percy said.

  “Have you got time now?” Petronella asked.

  “Yes, I have,” Percy said.

  “Let’s start by going to see Soloman first,” Petronella said.

  Off they went. Through the woods and up Fort Willow’s High Street and straight to Brook Street on the other side of the village. They saw Mrs Riches on the way. She was all smiles and greetings – asking how Petronella and her husband were. “We really have to rush, Mrs Riches, I’m sorry,” Petronella said. Strange how Mrs Riches wouldn’t even speak to Petronella when she’d just moved to Fort Willow. And since Petronella had been the mayor’s wife, Mrs Riches was as sweet as apple pie.

  Soloman’s house was quite a run-down place. It was only one floor and there was just one window to it which had a bright green shutter over it. They knocked on the door. No answer. Petronella gave Percy a leg up to see if he could open the shutter and look in through the window. But the shutter was locked tight and wouldn’t budge. Nothing doing.

  “Well, he can’t be at school today,” Petronella said. “It’s Saturday.”

  “Maybe he’s playing his violin somewhere or he’s gone for a walk in the forest,” Petronella said. “Shall we wait?”