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‘Really strange!’ agreed the cat. ‘And it says it just needs a moment to get its breath back.’
Before long, the fish wiggled its fins and began to swim in little circles. Finally turning in their direction, it poked its head out of the water.
‘He says he’s ready. And that the box isn’t far. Apparently, we’ll find it under an uneven stone in the middle of some long water grass, which isn’t very deep.’
‘What do you reckon? Do you think it’s really telling the truth?’
‘No idea, but good luck finding it because I’m not going down after it.’
Arthur grinned. The cat absolutely hated getting his fur wet, and he remembered how he’d showered him several times with the garden hose when he was younger.
‘OK, but you know you’re going to have to come with us all the same.’
‘Me? But I just told you: I don’t do swimming!’
‘Who said anything about you having to swim? Wait here, I’ve got an idea… And tell the fish to wait, too!’
Leaping down from the jetty, he ran back along the path to where he recalled having recently seen a large piece of discarded Styrofoam. It was still there, and apart from a few chips in it, it looked ideal for the job. Returning with it, the cat stared at him in horror.
‘No, no, that’s no good at all. I’ll get seasick for sure.’
‘It’s a lake, Cat, not the sea.’
‘Then I’ll get lake-sick. Either way, listen to what I’m trying to tell you.’
‘Sure… Now don’t worry, you’ll be just fine.’
‘I’m serious!’
Arthur placed the Styrofoam into the water and got in. Pushing down on it to make sure that it would float OK, he distracted the cat, grabbed him, and placed him on top.
‘Argh! Now look what you’ve done—all my paws are wet!’
‘Yeh, well, don’t worry about that. Just think what a hero you’re being. Anyway, I’m the one who’s going to be doing all the work. All you have to do is sit there.’
‘Said the captain to the rest of the Titanic!’
With a fin visible above the surface and keeping to the edge of the reed beds, the fish led them out deeper than Arthur had ever been before. The water, which had been warm near the shore, soon began to feel cold, and discovering that the jetty had disappeared from view, he began to panic.
‘Cat, how much further?’ he asked nervously.
‘Actually, we’re here already.’
‘Really?’
‘Apparently. And all you need to do is dive down and look under a stone inside the reeds below us.’
‘OK, but that sounds a bit vague. It’s going to show me exactly where, right?’
‘I’m thinking not.’
‘What! Why?’
‘He said that it wasn’t part of the deal.’
‘Of course it was part of the deal! Tell him!’
‘I would but it’s too late. He’s already gone.’
‘Blast!’
Tempted for a moment to just forget it and swim back to the shore as fast as he could, Arthur gazed across the lake at the people swimming.
‘Come on, you can do this,’ he mumbled to himself. ‘It’s not that deep.’
‘That’s right, champ—you’ve got this,’ purred the cat. ‘Now, please hurry up before any of those pickle fish decide that I look like a tasty snack.’
‘Pickle fish? I think you mean pike, and I doubt they’d be interested in you.’
‘Maybe, maybe not, but I bet there are plenty of other monsters lurking in here.’
‘Cat, relax, will you?’
Glancing into the murky water, and unable to see any further than his waist, Arthur took a deep breath and dove down. Although it was only a few metres, the water pressure made it hard for him to reach the bottom, always pushing him back towards the surface. In the end, he had to make half a dozen attempts before he finally found it.
‘Ouch!’ meowed the cat, as Arthur burst out of the water, gasping and tossing something on to the Styrofoam platform.
‘I found it.’
‘Yeah, you don’t say. I swear you just aimed it right at my nose!’
‘No I didn’t. C’mon, what do you reckon, then?’
‘I reckon it looks like a piece of junk.’
‘Noooo, Cat, don’t say that. The fish seemed to think it was important though, didn’t it?’
‘Or did he? Maybe he just said the first thing that came into his little fishy head, to escape a good frying.’
‘OK, but you know he could’ve just lied and swam off.’
‘Doesn’t mean anything. I have a funny feeling that fish might be tricky, like birds.’
Back at the jetty, Arthur hauled himself up and set about examining what he’d found. Jet black and about the size of his fist, at first glance, the box had seemed to be exactly that—just a box. It even occurred to him that perhaps the cat might have been right, after all. But, as he rubbed it clean with the bottom of his T-shirt, a faint edge appeared around the sides of it. Giving the impression of being a lid, there were words written above it.
‘Hey, this is weird,’ he said, showing them to the cat. ‘It says, “To open what is both known yet unknown, speak this word times three.” What do you think that means?’
‘Not a clue, just open it already.’
‘I’ve tried, but it won’t budge. Look.’ And holding it so the cat could see, Arthur tried to pull the top off.
‘My turn, then. Give it here, weedy.’
‘To you?’
‘Well, I don’t see anyone else asking.’
‘All right, keep your whiskers on.’
Placing the box down, Arthur watched as the cat dexterously held it down with one paw and attempted to cut around the faint line of the lid with the other.
‘Yow!’ he hissed, breaking a claw.
‘See! What did I tell you?’
‘But I was close, I reckon.’
‘Sure, you were, Cat. Come on, this is useless. We need some real tools.’
Stuffing the box into his pocket, and gathering his things together, they headed back to the cottage. The big cranes, which had been removing the twisted wreckage from the railway tracks, had gone. Now, with only a few men and machines left to finish up, it was clear it would soon look as though nothing had happened.
‘See that?’ he said, without really meaning for it to sound like a question.
Halting by the garden gate, Arthur peered through a crack. Spying that the coast was clear, he slipped through, darting between apple trees, until he reached the tool shed about halfway down the slope. The key, as always, was under the rusting watering can.
‘Come on, come on!’ he mumbled, trying to coax the old lock whilst at the same time keeping a wary look out. After a rather unfortunate incident a few years ago when he’d almost, accidentally, demolished it, he’d been banned from ever entering again. The door swung open with a click.
‘Cat—quickly!’ he whispered, closing and barring it behind them.
Built about the same time as the cottage, the shed had gradually become lopsided over the years and now resembled an old barn. Doubling as a storage area, there were pieces of furniture, planks of wood, tiles, and all manner of bits and bobs that someone had once thought might one day be useful, piled up against two of the walls. In the centre was a large, heavy, wooden work bench. Arthur placed the box on top of it.
‘Ready?’ he asked, rummaging about in a rusty toolbox and producing a hammer and chisel from it.
‘Only if you’re sure you know what you’re doing,’ said the cat, jumping up next to him.
‘What’s that supposed to mean? I thought you wanted to open it?’
‘I did! I do! I definitely did, for sure!’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I don’t know. What if it’s just not meant to be opened? Maybe there’s a reason that it fell into the lake and all those men came looking for it.’
Arthur frowned at him. Placing the sharp end of the chisel into the faint line, he picked up the hammer. ‘OK, here goes nothing,’ he said and struck it gently but firmly. When nothing happened, he struck it again a little bit harder.
‘I don’t get it. I’ve hit it twice and there’s not even a mark on it.’
‘See. That’s what I was saying. Maybe it’s not meant to be opened.’
‘No… not a chance! It just needs a bit more effort, that’s all.’
And raising the hammer high into the air, he brought it down with such an almighty whack that he lost his grip completely, allowing it to fly out of his hand, narrowly missing his head and ricocheting off the roof. The chisel, launching in an entirely different direction, embedded itself into the far wall with a loud cracking sound.
‘You okay?’ Arthur whispered, having thrown himself on to the floor.
‘I think my whiskers have gone grey,’ meowed the cat, poking his head around the corner of the wood pile in the corner.
‘Really?’
‘Could be. Shocks like that can definitely age a cat!’
Taking a deep breath, Arthur raised his head up to see what had happened to the box. But it was just sitting there in the middle of the work surface, exactly where he’d put it.
‘But how? That’s not possible. I hit it really hard—you saw me, right?!’
At that moment, the latch on the door rattled, followed by a loud banging.
‘Arthur! You open this door immediately, do you hear me?!’
‘O-o, Cat!’ he said. ‘Now we’re in for it.’
‘No, not me, my friend, I’m just an innocent cat. And don’t forget to hide the box!’
Quick as a flash, Arthur stuffed it into the little pack which he always took fishing with him and put the hammer back. Attempting to retrieve the chisel from the wall, he found that it was in too deep and was forced to leave it.
‘Arthur! Open this door right now!’
With a last look around, he straightened his T-shirt and unbarred the door.
His mother was even more cross with him than he’d expected. Not only because going into the tool shed was expressly forbidden; but also, because, as luck would have it, she also spotted the chisel. The fact that he couldn’t give her a reasonable explanation as to how it’d gotten there only made matters worse.
‘So, you’re telling me that you have no idea how that chisel came to be stuck so far into the side of the tool shed wall that it can’t even be pulled out?’
‘Yes, Mama… I must have fallen over, and it flew out of my hand, I guess.’
‘You <<guess>>?’
‘Yes, Mama.’
‘And what were you doing with it in the first place?’
‘Trying to fix my backpack.’
‘Your backpack? With a chisel?’
‘Yes, well, I thought…’
‘Just you wait until Sasha hears about this. And what do you think your grandfather is going to say when he learns what you’ve done to his chisel, not to mention his tool shed. Again!’
