Lizard's Leap: Chapter Ten: Implications

‘Vicki, you get out of that bed right this minute. I’ve called you three times and your breakfast is going cold,’ Nana shouted.

Emma had nearly finished her breakfast when Vicki shuffled into the dining room still in her pyjamas. She looked very sorry for herself. Her hair was sweaty and tangled and she didn’t even have the energy to hold her head up properly.

‘Nana, I don’t feel well,’ she whined.

‘Good Lord, you’re covered in spots,’ Nana shrieked, rushing over to guide Vicki into a chair so that she could look at her properly.

Nana and Granddad were so busy fussing round Vicki that they didn’t notice that Emma had gone as white as parchment, too. Granddad went into the lounge to call the doctor out while Nana took Vicki back to bed. It looked as though she’d caught chickenpox.

Emma was virtually forgotten in all the fuss of the doctor’s visit and ran to the bathroom. Nana did call up to her to ask if she had any spots and if she felt all right. She told her that she hadn’t and that she did, which was the biggest lie she’d ever told in her life. She wasn’t all right at all. She wanted to die.

Doctor Watkins stood over Vicki, and, after he’d taken her temperature and blood pressure, checked her tonsils and listened to her chest, he decided that it probably wasn’t chickenpox. He thought it was more likely to be an allergic reaction to something she’d eaten. After much discussion by the adults—while Vicki lay very still on the bed feeling poorly, but nevertheless enjoying this level of attention—they decided the culprit was probably the strawberries they’d had for dessert the night before. Doctor Watkins said that she would probably feel awful for the next day or so, but after that she would be fine. Vicki lay in bed with her nose streaming, looking like a dot-to-dot picture in a child’s activity book.

After the doctor left, Vicki needed to use the bathroom. She trundled across the hall with her dressing gown belt trailing behind her. As she closed the bathroom door, she didn’t immediately see Emma sitting on the floor in the corner. When she did see her, she jumped high enough to nearly hit the ceiling.

Emma had her back pressed up against the wall, her arms wrapped around her legs, with tear-wet knees hugged tightly to her chest. She rocked slowly backwards and forwards—just as Kerry did when she was upset—and she was making funny little moaning noises in the back of her throat. She lifted her face and tears streamed down both cheeks. When she saw Vicki, her shoulders shook and she sobbed even harder.

Vicki knelt beside her, putting an arm around the sad little girl’s shoulders and pulling her close. Emma was freezing cold and shaking. She cried into Vicki’s shoulder.

‘Emma? What’s the matter? Are you sick, too? You’re scaring me. Shall I get Nana? Talk to me.’

Emma couldn’t talk. She was sobbing too hard and it took her a long time before she managed to stammer, ‘You could have been killed by a bus. You could have been killed by a bus and it’s all my fault.’

‘Emma? What are you talking about? Are you ill? You aren’t making any sense. I’m going to get Nana.’

‘No, don’t do that.’ Emma was terrified. She showed Vicki the letter and told her what she’d done. She watched as Vicki read it through and the implications gradually sunk in. Vicki had felt sick before, now she felt even worse. Neither of them spoke for some time.

‘I’m sorry,’ Emma sobbed, ‘I didn’t mean it.’

Vicki sniffed and blew her nose on some toilet paper. ‘It’s a coincidence, innit? It’s nothing to do with the frame, right? I’m just allergic to strawberries, that’s all.’

‘We’ve got to get rid of the frame, Vic, Emma said. ‘The others will be here after lunch. We’ll talk about it then.’

*

They looked at the frame in a completely new light. Emma, who was still very shaky, was the first to speak.

‘We’ve got to burn the frame. It’s evil. Vicki could have been killed. Just think what would have happened if I hadn’t changed the letter.’

‘You don’t know that.’ Kerry said.

‘It’s evil. It’s got to be destroyed before it really does kill somebody.’

‘No, Emma,’ Kerry said. ‘The frame isn’t evil; it was your thoughts towards Vicki that were evil.’

Emma hung her head and started to cry again.

‘Now, look what you’ve done, Kerry,’ Vicki said. ‘But I do agree with you, though. If it is true and it does do bad things to people, it only did what you told it too. We just need to be very careful in future. I have to tell you, the thought of what might have happened gives me a cold feeling where my stomach wouldn’t have been if that bus had got me.’

‘It’s too dangerous. I still say we burn it and then it can never hurt anybody ever again,’ Emma said.

‘But what if it can’t be destroyed? What if we try to kill it and it does something to protect itself? It might be too dangerous to get rid of it; we don’t understand what it can do.’ Vicki sniffed.

‘We’re not getting rid of it, and that’s final,’ Kerry said. ‘What do you say, Vicki? Mark?’

‘I agree with Kerry,’ Vicki said. ‘We’ve just got to be more careful, that’s all.’

Mark wasn’t sure what he thought but he nodded his head anyway.

They were quiet, each of them mulling things over. After a long time Emma spoke again with an air of authority. She had her face set in her stubborn expression, there was no way she was going to back down, and there was no point in any of them trying to make her.

‘Okay then, but if you won’t burn it, we have no choice. We have to do something to protect ourselves. I didn’t really want to hurt Vicki. I was just angry. Maybe next time we’ll do something without even meaning to, and without thinking it through properly, and that might set off other bad things. What if we leap into a picture and it turns out to be a country in the middle of a war? We might get shot. Or we could leap into a picture of a nice house and there might be somebody with an axe waiting to chop us up.’

‘Cool,’ Mark said and the girl’s glared at him.
‘I’ve made my mind up. We either burn it, or I think we should go and see the crazy woman.’

‘What?’ Kerry spluttered, ‘Emma, are you nuts? She’s more dangerous than the frame.’

Emma was stubborn and wouldn’t budge an inch. She was the one most likely to jump to the defence of the others in times of trouble. Her shyness would go when she stood up for what she knew to be—or believed to be—right. She couldn’t ignore what had happened and just pretend it wasn’t a problem like the others. She had to do something about the frame.

‘No way,’ Mark said, shaking his head.

‘You’re crazy. The woman’s a loony and might hurt us and what if she takes the frame away? That’s what she wants.’ Vicki instinctively rubbed her arm where the woman had grabbed her.

‘Good, I hope she does take it. If you won’t come with me, I’ll go by myself.’ Emma was scared but determined. She was terrified of Sylvia but the thought of what she had nearly done to Vicki scared her a whole lot more.

‘I agree,’ Kerry said in a small, scared voice. ‘We need to know more. I think we should go. She might be able to tell us about the frame and how to keep ourselves safe. I’m not going to take it with us, though. It’s ours now. She’s not going to take it off us.’ Kerry stuck out her chin with a look of stubborn determination that easily equalled Emma’s.

‘That’s settled then. As soon as Vicki’s better, we go and see the mad woman.’