Lizard's Leap: Chapter Four: Lost

The bedroom had vanished. Across the water were a million twinkling lights attached to huge buildings. It was either very early in the morning or something like ten o’clock at night because it wasn’t very light. Vicki looked at her watch. It should have said about quarter to twelve but the hands read twenty to seven. She tapped the dial with her finger and then put her wrist up to her ear. ‘It’s ticking,’ she said, but nobody was listening.

In front of them was a walkway leading to a circular paved area surrounded by railings. Beyond it, the sea hit the lookout wall spraying water up in sloshing waves. It was a real sea, with real water and they had no idea how a spinning storm had come into their bedroom and spun them here.

They were in shock and looked at each other. Now they had the time to be scared and were taking full advantage of it. Vicki was the first to speak. She didn’t cope well with silence.

‘What happened? Where are we?’ Her voice rose on the second question until it was a wail.

‘I don’t know, Vic,’ Kerry said, ‘but at least you’ve got your clothes on.’

Kerry looked down. All the others had washed and dressed before breakfast but Kerry, anxious to get breakfast over with quickly so that she could get back to the frame, hadn’t bothered. Then she’d been side-tracked with watching the video and had just never got around to getting washed and dressed. She was still in her thin blue striped nightie. She pulled it down over her knees and shivered. She had no socks or shoes on and the grass under her bare feet was cold and wet. She started to cry. ‘I’m scared,’ she sobbed. ‘Where are we? I want to go home.’

Mark was the first to recover some composure. As the girls huddled together he stood up and turned in a slow circle. His eyes shimmered with unshed tears, he was just as scared as the girls.

‘This is an amazing dream. Wow,’ he breathed. ‘Don’t look behind you but we’ve got company.’

The girls snapped their heads round to look.

Standing behind them and gazing patriotically out to sea, the Statue of Liberty stood resplendent in her long copper dress. They had to tilt their heads back to be able to see the entire statue because she was so tall. Over the years the metal had mottled and gone green giving her the appearance of being an old lady though her face was smooth and finely sculptured. She had her right arm up in the air and the torch that she held threw a beacon of light over the harbour. In her other hand she clutched a thick book. The statue was scary and as real as the sea-mist spraying them. They were stunned, even Vicki had opened her mouth but, for once, nothing was coming out of it. They were sitting beneath one of the most famous statues in the world

Vicki wiped her eyes, some of the fear leaving her as the wonder of the situation sank in. ‘It’s the Statue of Liberty. I think, somehow, we’ve fallen into the picture. Mark’s right, it must be a dream. I just wish that it was his dream and not mine.’ Her voice wavered again and Kerry put her arm around her shoulders.

‘I’m dreaming it, too, Vic.’

‘No, you’re not. It’s my dream. You’re just saying that in it to be the important one.’

‘It’s my picture,’ whined Kerry, ’so why should you get to dream about it? This is my dream, not yours.’

Vicki waved her away with an impatient hand gesture and they all tried to make sense of what was happening to them.

‘This is an uninhabited island,’ said Emma. ‘The only way to get to the mainland is by boat. I remember reading about it once.’

Kerry sniffled and then brightened as one of her interesting facts came to her. ‘Do you realise that if we were basilisk lizards we could just rise up onto our back legs and walk over the sea. Basilisks are so light and so fast that they can skim over water without sinking.’

‘And do you realise, that if I was Jesus, I could walk over the water, too, but I’m not so that isn’t much help, is it, Kerry?’ Emma snapped.

‘Aw, Emma,’ said Mark, impressed. ‘You said a swear word.’

‘No I didn’t. I meant Jesus the saviour, not Jesus the swear word. He’s someone completely different.’

‘I’ve gone stark raving mad,’ Emma said, turning to the others. ‘Am I dribbling? Mad people always dribble.’

‘No more than usual,’ Mark said. ‘You’ve been mad for years.’

‘Pack it in, you two,’ Vicki said. ‘We’ve got to work out how to get home from here. Do you think we really are in America? That’s a long way from England.’ The enormity of that statement hit each one of them in turn.

Kerry, who had almost stopped crying, began to wail. ‘I want my mum,’ she sobbed, rocking furiously backwards and forwards. Vicki started to hum as she thought through their predicament.

‘Maybe we’ll be stuck here forever,’ said Mark.

‘Don’t be stupid,’ Emma replied. ‘This is the Statue of Liberty, dumbo. Lots of people come to see it. I think they might just notice us sitting here eventually, don’t you?’

‘Do you think they’ll send us home, Em, or will they put us in prison for coming into America without our passports?’

‘I dunno, Vicki. What are you asking me for? Do you think I read a book on falling into pictures before we came? Let’s have a look round and see if we can find someone to help us.’

‘Mark, take your fleece off and give it to Kerry,’ Vicki said.

‘Huh, why me? You take your jumper off and give it to her.’

‘Mark, my dear brother, I haven’t got anything on under my jumper and I have nearly got bosoms. You’ve got a T-shirt on and will never have boobs. So take your fleece off and give it to Kerry.’

Mark gave up his warm fleece to Kerry and shivered as the cold bite of the morning got to him.

They looked across at what they guessed was the part of New York called Manhattan. It was amazing in the partial darkness.

Discussing their predicament as they went they walked along the sweeping walkway towards a group of buildings up ahead. The statue in front of them was magnificent. Her torch, so far above, burned brightly and seven rays of light shone over the water from the windows in her crown. The beams fell in strips across the dark water in the harbour and as the waves crashed against Liberty Island reflections of light danced on the sea’s surface.