Pog, page 4
Penny looked at her surroundings. The interior of the shed was the brownest thing she’d ever seen. It was filled with bits of old wood, rusted pots and pans, and decaying cardboard boxes. She turned to David.
‘You brought me out to the shed to tell me that?’ she said.
David just looked at her. His brow knotted as he fixed her with a look of belligerent determination. It was a look that never seemed to waver. His eyes were dark and tinged with fury.
Penny gestured at the interior of the shed. ‘It’s just that if there’s a rat, this is a pretty good place for it to hide in.’
David shook his head vigorously. He looked so terribly earnest, like a child half his age fixated on a new toy. Penny found it almost comical, but also, if she was being honest with herself, just a little sad.
‘There was something outside my room the other night.’ David started to dig through some of the rubbish on the shelf behind him.
Penny shook her head. ‘I didn’t hear anything,’ she said.
David just grunted as he threw bits and pieces aside to get to what he needed. Eventually he turned around to display a large rat trap between his thumb and forefinger while gesturing at the pile of them which he’d uncovered.
‘We’re going to catch it with these,’ he said.
‘We?’
David nodded. Penny noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and she felt a sudden ache of pity. David started to warm to his topic.
‘It was dark, but I definitely saw something. I think it might be hiding in the attic, or in the walls. You must have heard it?’
Penny shook her head.
David scowled and looked at the floor as if he was now only talking to himself. ‘Doesn’t matter, I’ve heard it a few times. I have good hearing. Just like—’
Just like Mum, thought Penny.
David’s eyes flitted to her for a moment, and then away back to the floor. He started biting his upper lip.
‘We should tell Dad,’ she said.
‘No!’ said David. The vehemence of his response surprised her.
‘Why not?’
David sneered. ‘Because he’ll start taking the rat’s side and he’ll be talking about’ – David made air quotes – ‘preserving the environment and respecting the ecosystem.’
‘He’ll be useless in other words,’ Penny sighed.
‘Well, yeah.’
Penny mulled it over. She wasn’t particularly happy with the idea that a large rodent might be roaming the house. That said, she wasn’t entirely sure that David was right. He could well be imagining things. It was a new house after all, and getting used to strange new noises was part of moving in. She looked at her brother again and saw how pale and drawn his face looked. He’d been acting strange lately. Sometimes he was withdrawn, and his eyes had a guarded look about them. At other times he seemed incredibly agitated, and he would scratch the palm of his hand, his eyes darting every which way, as if he was expecting something to leap out at him at any moment.
Penny supposed it was partly to do with losing Mum. The move couldn’t have helped him either.
‘All right then,’ she said.
Immediately David’s eyes lit up, and the colour seemed to flow back into his cheeks. Penny felt relieved at his reaction.
‘So what do we do?’ she asked.
‘We lay traps, but in places and at times where and when we know Dad won’t see them.’
Penny nodded, to show how reasonable she thought the idea was. ‘And where do we start?’
David gave a sly grin. ‘We start with the attic.’
David had planned everything down to a T. Dad had gone to the shops. The house was eight miles from the village, and David knew he would be at least half an hour. He and Penny dragged an old dirty ladder from the shed and hauled it up the stairs. It was just as well their dad was out. The kathump-kathump of the ladder on each step echoed through the house. David blamed Penny for the sound. Penny blamed David. But all recriminations were forgotten when they raised the ladder and pushed it against the attic door.
Penny felt a strange tickling excitement as she looked up at the narrow triangle of shadow that now opened up between the lip of the door and the darkness beyond. It was silly, she thought. They were only going looking for a rat, and while the thought of it made her feel slightly queasy, she was strangely thrilled to be engaged in this task.
They shoved the ladder this way and that, both swaying like sailors on a wind-whipped deck, until finally the ladder hooks found purchase against the lip of the attic opening.
David was first up, a rat trap in each hand banging against the sides of the ladder. When he got to the top he shoved the door aside. There was a groaning scrape as it rubbed against the edge, and Penny saw him wipe a hand on the side of his jeans. He looked down at her and curled his lip. ‘Careful, it’s filthy.’
She watched him disappear into the attic, and then she started her own ascent. She could smell the air in the attic just before she poked her head in. There was a hot tang to it that travelled to the back of her throat.
David was standing a few metres in front of her, shining a torch at the roof. He was holding his beloved rat traps in his left hand as he cocked his head at an angle. Penny gave him a moment before she spoke:
‘Do you think—’
‘Shhh!’
Penny listened to the silence.
‘I thought I heard something,’ David hissed.
‘I don’t hear anything,’ said Penny.
David turned to look at her, his brow furrowed, a look of fierce concentration on his face. ‘We have to look for poo,’ he said.
Penny slapped a hand to her mouth, and she almost choked with laughter. She had no idea what was so funny. Maybe it was the look on David’s face – so serious, as if he was on the most secret, most dangerous mission ever.
David was not impressed with her reaction: ‘It’s what you have to do. You look for rat droppings.’
Penny kept her hand clamped to her mouth and bent over with her other hand raised. ‘Give me a minute,’ she said in a strangled voice.
David shook his head and sighed. ‘Rat droppings are evidence that a rat is about. And puddles of wee.’
‘Wee?’
‘Yes, wee,’ said an exasperated David.
‘Are we looking for wee too?’ Penny snorted.
‘Yes. Shut up.’
David glared at her. Penny composed herself. She breathed out, then breathed the air back in again and was immediately sorry.
She flapped a hand in front of her mouth and made a little ‘gah’ sound. ‘Actually, can we stop talking about wee and poo?’
‘Just look, would you?’ David sighed again.
Penny turned to look behind her. The attic stretched the length of the house. It was a huge dark space, buttressed with old, crumbly-looking rafters. It went so far back that the wall furthest away from them disappeared into the gloom. There were patches in the arched ceiling where light seeped through some gauzy material. There were some small puddles of water on the floor, but they were positioned right under the patches.
‘Just rainwater,’ said David, looking at one of the puddles.
‘Do you want to taste it, to be sure?’ asked Penny.
David looked horrified.
Penny giggled. ‘Lighten up.’
She took another look around her. The overall sensation she felt was of an overbearing darkness. She couldn’t help but think of the attic in their old house which had doubled as a study. It was where her mother drew her sketches. The walls had been made from painted wood that was creamy and bright. The whole room was a womb of light, and Penny remembered her mother lifting her up and letting her look through the attic window as the sun set over the city. She remembered her mother’s arms around her, and the way the sun spilt golden across the rooftops, bathing everything in honeyed warmth. On bright days the window was a fierce rectangle of blue, and she felt she could breathe that blue right into her. It made her feel strong. It seemed to her the colour and light of that room promised hope and happiness.
David turned and swept the torchlight in a full circle. For a moment a grey shape was illuminated in the dark.
‘Look,’ said Penny. She walked towards the shape, and David turned his light back on it.
It was an old rocking horse. One of its hind legs was missing, and one of the eye sockets was empty, web-like fractures radiating from its circumference.
Penny touched the horse’s neck as if shushing an actual live animal.
‘Over here!’ said David.
He had illuminated a pile of old rags and wood in a corner. There was what looked like a ragged blanket and a makeshift pillow in the centre of the mess, almost as if someone had arranged it to sleep in.
‘It’s like someone’s den,’ said David.
Penny looked back at the rocking horse. ‘A family must have lived here a long time ago.’
‘You reckon some Victorian kids did that?’ David waved his torch at the pile, and wrinkled his nose in disgust. ‘What’s that?’ he added, almost nudging Penny aside to bend down so he could have a closer look at something on the floor. He picked something up. It was a short black wooden stick with designs carved into it. ‘Some kind of stick,’ he said.
‘Let me see,’ said Penny.
He handed it to her. It was surprisingly warm.
David put his hand out and smiled. ‘Keepsies. I found it.’
Penny handed it back to him and they went back to shining their torches around the floor.
‘Any poo?’ asked Penny.
‘No poo,’ said David.
‘Don’t sound so disappointed.’
They continued to scan the floor. Penny did her own tour, finding clumps of old newspapers which were covered in dirt and had mouldered together to make great big fungal lumps. She found a porcelain doll’s head, a yellowed doily, some stained brass candlesticks. Everything was covered in dust and mould.
She leant against a wall without thinking. Immediately she felt something filthy against the palm of her hand and recoiled. ‘Euugh!’ she said.
‘What is it?’ said David, spinning round with the torch.
Penny held up the palm of her hand for him to see, and wiped away the remains of the old decayed cobweb, trying to ignore the tiny, many-legged, desiccated spider corpses it contained.
She and David exchanged a look of understanding, and without a second’s thought both spoke the exact same word at the exact same time:
‘Greebeldies!’
A ‘greebeldy’ was their mum’s word for anything with six legs or more that was considered vile and disgusting. It was a word for something that came out of the dark with terrible intent. Their mum used to make up bedtime stories about greebeldies, and David and Penny would shriek with delight and terror at her tales, and their mum would smile. As they grew older, ‘greebeldy’ became a general family word for all the bad things in life.
David sniggered first, and Penny started sniggering along with him. Before they knew it they were both laughing with tears streaming out of their eyes.
‘Greebeldies,’ Penny squealed, and this just seemed to make them both laugh even harder. Penny had no idea why they were laughing, and she had a sudden vision of her mother shrieking in the bathroom one day as she did a little dance over a spider which she’d spotted in the bath.
David was bent double now, and the torchlight was wobbling. He wiped his nose and snorted. Penny felt light-headed, and she could feel the laughter subsiding. She wiped the corner of her eyes, and she said ‘greebeldies’ once more, and this just set them both off all over again.
After a couple more minutes of sobbing laughter, Penny could feel herself return to normal. The lightness started to fade, and the heaviness returned. It was the first time she’d felt that way since their mum had died, and that realization made the sensation of great weight she now felt even more constricting. She could feel it settle over her chest and press down on her shoulders, and now more than anything she just wanted that sensation of happiness and lightness to return.
‘We should put these traps down anyway,’ said David, all business again.
‘OK,’ Penny agreed, wiping a hand across her nose.
She watched him place both traps at separate walls. He took a hunk of cheese from his pocket and dug into it with his fingers, taking chunks out of it and placing them on each trap. He set the traps. Penny could feel herself tensing as he pulled the mechanisms back. They were large traps and she was scared they’d take off the top of a finger if not handled properly. She let out a great sigh of relief when the last one was set.
David dusted the palms of his hands on his thighs and looked at his handiwork. ‘Let’s see it escape those,’ he said.
He and Penny started towards the ladder. Penny went first, looking above her at the stick poking out of David’s back pocket. He put the attic door back in place, and they both took hold of the ladder and headed down the stairs and back out towards the shed. David took the front of the ladder and Penny took the rear. As they walked, Penny found she couldn’t take her eyes off the stick.
They deposited the ladder back in the shed, and David came out and stood with his hands on his hips, looking very pleased with himself: ‘We’ll set the rest of them when Dad’s asleep.’
Penny wasn’t really listening to him. She was still pondering something. ‘Let me see that again,’ she said, pointing at the stick.
David handed it to her.
Penny turned the stick over in her hands, her brow furrowing in concentration. ‘That’s odd,’ she said.
‘What’s odd?’ said David.
‘It’s old,’ said Penny.
‘So?’ said David. ‘We know it’s old.’
She held it up for him to see. ‘Yes, but everything up there was filthy. If this is so old, then why is it so clean?’
9
Pog slid himself from the rafter where he’d been hiding and swung down on his rope.
His heart was hammering as he scampered across the floor.
Gone. They’d taken it. Grandfa’s staff was gone.
Pog rubbed his face in agitation and cursed himself. He hadn’t been paying attention and the two small tall ones had been up and into the attic before he’d known it. He’d been dozing and savouring a dream that was green and blue and soft. It was a lovely dream, a reminder of home, and it had distracted him. He’d smelt the two children before he’d heard them, and by then it was almost too late.
Stupid Pog. Silly Pog.
He stamped his two feet in anger. Pog was cross, cross with the two small ones, but most of all he was cross with himself.
What’s to do now, Pog?
Pog stood up and raised his chin and whispered into the dark.
‘Pog gets it back. That’s what’s to do now.’
10
It was around three in the morning when Penny felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to see David looking down at her.
‘Come quick,’ he said.
Penny stumbled out to the landing to find him pointing at something.
‘Two of them went off,’ he hissed. ‘Two of them.’
Penny looked at the two traps and rubbed her eyes. Both had been set off. Both lay at awkward angles.
And both of them were empty.
David stood there pointing at them, his teeth bared. He looked like he was about to burst into tears.
‘And it took the cheese!’
‘Shhh,’ Penny said. ‘You’ll wake Dad.’ Although she didn’t really think that their dad would wake (he was a heavy sleeper), she just wanted to calm David down. He’d grabbed fistfuls of his own hair and was staring in disbelief, his elbows sticking out and away from his head.
His eyes suddenly flashed to the left and he lowered his arms as if he’d just realized something.
‘They say they’re intelligent,’ he said, more to himself than Penny.
‘Who says?’ asked Penny.
‘Scientists. They say rats are intelligent. I saw it on the telly. They can get out of mazes and things, and they can do simple puzzles.’ He narrowed his eyes and gave one of those dark malicious grins of his. ‘This one’s just really intelligent.’ David tapped the side of this head. ‘Which means we have to be smarter.’
‘Right,’ said Penny, with as much interest as she could muster, considering the late hour.
David frowned. ‘Or was that parrots or chimpanzees that could do puzzles?’
‘David.’
‘What?’
‘Go to bed.’When he didn’t move she said, ‘We’ll try the traps again tomorrow night, I promise.’
David blinked, finally seeming a little less crazed and a little more tired and rational-looking. He relented and headed into his bedroom. Watching him close his bedroom door made Penny feel hugely relieved for some reason she couldn’t place. She turned away and was walking across the landing when she felt something lumpy beneath her slipper. She moved her foot and bent down to pick up a small piece of cheese. She rolled it between thumb and forefinger as she looked at it, then she looked left and right, and for some reason something made her look up.
The attic door was directly above her. In the gloom there was a gap where one edge of it looked slightly gnawed. She wasn’t sure, but something about that small sliver of darkness made her wary. She looked around. It felt like she was being watched, and she could feel a shiver worm its way up the centre of her back and across her shoulders. Stubbornly she shook it off.
‘Stupid,’ she said to herself. ‘Stupid.’
Still admonishing herself she went back into her bedroom.
11
Penny’s eyes were sticky from not having had enough sleep the previous night. She rubbed them, but she found she was looking through a grey fog as David sat across the kitchen table from her, so she didn’t entirely trust what she was seeing. What he seemed to be doing was glaring at her as he spooned his porridge into his mouth.
‘Where is it?’ David said.
Penny rubbed her eyes again and blinked a few times in an attempt to focus on him. ‘Where’s what?’
