Mystery Jelly Beans
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I have been trying to write a short story, but I can’t think of any good ideas. There’s nothing on television or in the newspapers, and my friends say I’m not allowed to read scary books. They’re right! My sister says they will give me nightmares for months. So far, she hasn’t been disappointed.
She keeps asking me how things are getting worse and worse. I try to tell her about how terrible it is living with my grandparents, but she doesn’t believe me. The only thing that would make them change their minds is if we could go home again. I miss our house. And Mum and Dad! But I don’t know where we are now.
Is anyone looking for us? We should be able to find Mum and Dad easily in a city this big—but all I see everywhere are people who look exactly like everyone else! Even when there is an accident, no one calls out their names or looks around to help them. It is as though I am in another world—the land of the lost children…
The train rattled along through the forest and the sky was grey and cloudy.
I tried to get some sleep. The journey had been very tiring and noisy and it didn’t seem likely to ease up until we arrived at our destination.
It was raining hard and everything outside was wet and dark. I kept hearing a noise behind us; then I thought I heard Mum’s voice calling, “Jellybean! Come here!”
But there was no one there.
Suddenly the train stopped. There were lots of noise: shouting and screaming.
“Is that you?” called Mum from somewhere inside the carriage. “We’ll come back for you soon.”
I looked around for my sister. She wasn’t anywhere near; she must be asleep.
Then I realized that the voices weren’t coming from outside anymore, but from deep inside the train.
“Jellybean, where are you?” shouted Mum again. “Mum and Dad are looking for you.”
That’s funny—I never knew that Mum and Dad had different voices, so I just said “No, Mum,” without even thinking about it.
She sounded so upset that I couldn’t ignore her any longer. I went back through the door into the carriage and found my parents. They seemed worried about something, so I asked what was wrong.
“Where are we? Why did we stop?” asked Dad. He pointed at the window. Outside, I saw lots of trees and bushes—a forest. I’d never seen anything like it before.
There were strange sounds in the distance too: a lot of animals moving quietly among the trees. A few times I caught a glimpse of a fox or a badger or an owl—but always quickly hidden away from view.
“You must be quiet,” whispered my sister. She sounded frightened. “Don’t call out and don’t let anyone know we’re here. If they hear you, we may all be eaten by bears!”
Bears? What kind of monsters are these?
“They look like giant black dogs,” added Mum. “And they have red eyes that shine bright and gleam—”
“Oh dear, oh dear…” began Dad.
He sounded scared and I felt a bit sick myself. Then he told me to sit down beside him. “What do you think we should do?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Do you want me to ring for an ambulance? Tell someone we’ve got injured passengers?”
I don’t understand how anyone could fall off a train and hurt themselves! Especially not a bear! Surely there are more important things to worry about right now.
“I think we’re going to have to get out here, Jellybean,” said Dad.
So I took out my mobile phone and dialed 999. It rang once and went straight to voicemail. I left a message saying that there was an emergency at platform two and to send the police or ambulance or fire brigade right away.
As the train pulled on slowly, the rain stopped completely and the day grew brighter. The trees thinned out and the ground became flat and smooth. Soon, we came into a small village with a large church, and then there was another station.
We all got out of the train together and waited while Dad found us a taxi. We were still wearing our coats and hats and scarves, but it was very warm outside.
When we finally reached the house and I saw it, my stomach felt as though it would drop onto the floor. I had never seen anything like it in my life! It was the most awful-looking place; dark and gloomy and filled with junk.
It was as though my grandfather had decided to live inside his own rubbish heap! I mean, he had thrown out all the windows and walls, leaving nothing but a bare stone foundation to support the heavy roof above us.
And all of his furniture—beds and chairs and cupboards—had fallen apart or been broken beyond repair long ago, and was piled up outside in huge piles of rusting metal and old wood.
The first thing we did when we got home was making sure Mum and Dad were all right. They were both a bit shaken, but otherwise fine. My grandma was still unconscious. When she woke up, she had a terrible headache and was complaining a lot about being hungry.
I gave her a glass of water and helped my mum take care of her. Then I made some toast and cheese sandwiches for everyone and sat with them while they ate.
It was strange, sitting there at the kitchen table with three people who weren’t quite real. Grandma was definitely in pain, Mum was trying to pretend she was fine, and I didn’t know what to say to Dad. So I just talked about normal things. Like how the garden needed to be weeded and the fence fixed before the winter. “If we get snowed in,” he’d joked.
“You can’t really get snowed in England, can you?” I’d laughed.
Dad shook his head sadly, “Not these days. Not since we’ve got the internet!”
Everyone smiled at that. But I knew he was serious.
While Mum cleaned up after dinner, I went upstairs to find my sister. I had a feeling that she might have been listening to me in the car and she hadn’t rung Mum yet, so I wanted to be ready with an explanation if she came looking for me. I found her lying in bed and sat down next to her on the floor. “Are you okay?”
She looked worried. “Can you explain something to me?” she asked.
I sighed. “Yes.” I sat back against the wall and tried to think of what to tell her. How to explain it all without making her think any more than she already did.
“Grandpa’s dead,” I blurted out.
That wasn’t quite right… Was it? I thought about it for a moment. “Mum says that we’re having a funeral, but we don’t know if he’s really dead,” I explained. “Because he fell from a train, remember?”
“A train!” exclaimed my sister. “How do you fall off a train?”
I didn’t know what to say to her. There are no trains in our house, of course!
“Did anyone see him fall?” she asked. “Was it an accident?”
“No one knows exactly what happened,” I answered honestly. “But Grandpa is definitely in heaven now. I mean, he’ll always be alive in my heart and in Mum’s heart because we can visit him whenever we want…”
I trailed off, not knowing how to end that sentence. I suddenly realized that Jellybean didn’t believe me! She had never even heard of Heaven! So why would I lie?
“Jellybean, where does your grandfather go when he dies?” she asked. “Is it just into the sky? Can we see him there?”
Oh dear, I didn’t know what to answer! If I told her the truth, she would probably start crying. I couldn’t bear that. No, I thought, I’ll try to explain. But maybe it would be best if I showed her instead of telling her…
I stood up and picked up my teddy bear. His name is Teddy Bear and he looks just like me—brown hair and brown eyes and all! (I call him Teddy so that Mum can’t catch me playing with dolls!) I lifted him up and showed him to Jellybean. “Here you are, Jellybean!” I said. “I’m going to show you where Teddy goes when he dies.”
Then I took Teddy Bear by the paw and placed him on top of the open wardrobe, where the light was good. “Look, Teddy!” I whispered. “See this hole in the middle?”
Teddy Bear’s eye moved slowly from left to right across the gap between two wooden panels of the wardrobe door. It felt as though he was looking through a peephole at a place only I could see. And he saw a glimpse of a bright light, and then… nothing. Just a long stretch of empty air, ending in… well, nothing at all. A big black hole.
“And he fell right into that hole,” I explained.
My little sister sat perfectly still for a few moments, staring into the dark space. Then she looked at me, her face pale with shock. “How far does the tunnel go?” she gasped.
“I’m not sure,” I said truthfully. “Maybe way over there somewhere?”
My sister nodded, as though thinking hard about something. After a moment, she asked: “Where’s the sun when he falls into the earth?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I bet it’s very hot in the middle, though.”
Then she started giggling and her laughter echoed through the room until Mum finally yelled at us to stop messing around and come downstairs for our bath and story time.
The End