The Keeper. Part 1. An Invitation

The expression on the general’s face, which had up until that point been calm, suddenly became deadly serious. ‘Then the sooner you return the object to me and give me your assurance never to mention a word about <<it >>or what you have seen to anyone, the safer it is going to be for you and your family… Do you understand what I am telling you, Arthur?’

‘Yes,’ replied Arthur, feeling a shiver run down his spine. ‘I understand.’

‘Fine. And do you have the artefact in your possession?’

‘Please give the officer what he came here for!’ cried his mother before he’d even had a chance to say anything. ‘It clearly doesn’t belong to you! We’re so sorry, General, he’s always been a bit of a handful, ever since he was just a toddler. I think he gets it from his father, you know.’

‘Yes, it’s here,’ frowned Arthur, removing the box from his pocket and placing it on the kitchen table.

Picking it up, the general gave each side a cursory glance before tucking it into his shoulder bag. ‘Thank you. Now, I realise that you doubtless have a lot of questions, especially about what it was that you saw. But I mean it very sincerely when I say that the less you know, the better.’

The general turned to his mother and Aunty M, hovering by the door.

‘And the same, I’m afraid, also applies to the both of you ladies. The fewer people who know about this, the better. I trust I also have your assurances on this matter?’

‘Fine then,’ he said, as they both nodded vigorously. ‘Now, if you will please forgive the manner of this intrusion, I really must get going.’

Rising, the general shook Arthur’s hand, put on his cap and left, leaving the three of them watching through the kitchen window as he and the soldiers headed back up the garden path.

No sooner had the garden gate clattered shut behind them than Arthur suddenly found himself in the world of trouble which he knew was coming.

‘When are you ever going to learn not to go poking your nose into things that don’t concern you!? And look what’s happened this time—even the army had to get involved! I just don’t know what we’re going to do with you, I really don’t. Why can’t you be normal like your friends?’

And no amount of trying to explain that all he’d done was find it was going to get her to change her mind on the matter. The worst part about all of it, though, was that very shortly after the general had taken the box, Arthur discovered that he was no longer able to understand the cat. At first he’d thought that Cat was playing a joke on him, but after dousing him with water, and not hearing anything except hisses and unhappy meows, he understood for sure. In many ways it felt like losing a best friend, whilst not <<actually >>losing him.

Gradually, after unsuccessfully trying different ways to communicate, they fell back into doing what they’d always done. The cat continued to follow him around, and Arthur still talked to him as though he understood. But it wasn’t the same. And as for the box, well, the general’s insistence that he promise to not discuss it with anyone had only made him even more curious about what it really was.

4

Something Unexpected

Summer passed into autumn, and soon school was back in full swing. Days were becoming shorter and darker, and before long the ground lay covered in leaves. With the events of the holidays seemingly forgotten about by both his mother and stepfather, everything had returned to normal. Everything, that was, except for the fact that Arthur himself had been unable to forget. And no sooner had they arrived back in the city again than he’d spent most of his free time browsing the internet, studying star maps and hoping against hope that he might discover something more about the box and about what he’d seen. But it was a slow and laborious task and in the end, after becoming swamped with schoolwork, he was finally forced to push it all to the back of his mind.

That was until early one Sunday morning in the middle of October when the doorbell rang unexpectedly. His stepfather had gotten up to answer it and hushed, serious-sounding voices had followed.

‘Come on, wake up,’ said Sasha, entering Arthur’s room without knocking. ‘The general’s here to see you.’

‘The general?’ he yawned.

‘General Hammond, from the cottage. Remember him?’

‘Of course I remember him, but what’s he doing here!?’

‘Go and ask him yourself. They’re waiting for you in the kitchen.’

‘They?’

Dressing quickly, Arthur hurried into the kitchen to find several people sitting at the table. His mother, still in her dressing gown, was busy preparing tea and coffee. Seeing him coming in, the general got up.

‘Ah, my young friend,’ he said, shaking his hand and patting him warmly on the shoulder. ‘Nice to see you again. How are you doing after all those summer adventures of yours?’

‘Okay, thank you,’ Arthur replied nervously.

‘Good, good. Right, well, Arthur, as you can see, I’m not alone this time. So, before we get started, let me quickly introduce you to the two colleagues who have travelled with me here today. On my right is Peter, head of our Artefacts Research Team at the facility. As you can no doubt imagine, he has dedicated a great deal of time and effort into studying the box you found.’

‘A pleasure to meet you,’ replied the slightly plump man with a silver goatee. ‘You certainly did us all a big favour by finding it.’

‘Indeed, you did,’ nodded the general. ‘And, on my left, Doctor Semenova who heads up our Psychological Evaluation Committee at the facility.’

Arthur nodded shyly

‘So, let’s get down to it then, shall we? The reason why we’ve come here today is because we urgently need your help. More specifically, we need you to try to remember back to this summer, to your opening of the box. Do you think you can do that for us?’

‘Yes,’ Arthur said.

‘Excellent.’

Peter took out his mobile phone and pointed it at him. ‘It’s so we can recall exactly what you said,’ he explained.

‘Please go ahead and describe for us how you opened it and what happened next?’ prompted the general.

Trying not to look at it, Arthur cleared his throat and for a moment wondered where he should start. It all sounded so strange in his head that he was sure if he mentioned the cat and, even worse, the fish, that they’d all think he’d cracked.

‘Well, um, at first we tried to open it using some of the tools from my grandfather’s tool shed, but it was impossible,’ he began.

‘Just a moment, please. You said we,’ interrupted the general, looking surprised.

‘What?’

‘Yes, you said that <<we>> tried to open the box. Who was the other person with you?’

Shooting a look at the cat, who’d just jumped up onto the windowsill, he blushed.

‘No one. Sorry, there was no one else there. So, anyway, when I couldn’t open it with tools I… I began to think about the words written on it, you know, about wanting to know things and having to say “open” three times.’

‘And you worked that out by yourself, did you?’ asked Peter, rubbing his chin.

‘Well, yeah… I guess.’

‘Good. And that’s what you did?’

‘Yes, I said “open” three times.’

‘And then what happened?’

‘Well, everything went really bright and then really dark and the room I was in turned into, like, a floating map.’

‘A floating map?’