Kit's Wilderness by David Almond

Author:David Almond
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780385729895
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2001-11-12T16:00:00+00:00

Allie picked up a pebble, brushed the snow off it, put her evil face on and did her trick. She laughed.

“Just as well you’re not playing my brother, Mr. Watson, or I’d have to practice getting rid of you.”

We walked on, as far as the river; then we turned right and headed in the direction of Bill Quay.

“Burning Bush says it was the start of magic,” she said. “A simple trick: you make something disappear, then you make it appear again. Even the cavemen did it. The first magicians. They used pebbles and stones like this. They made the people sitting round the fire think that they could send things out of the world and bring them back again.”

I nodded. She put up with my silence. She knew I was preoccupied by Grandpa, but my head was also filled now with storytellers and magicians in dark caves.

“People were scared stiff of them,” said Allie. “But they honored them as well. They believed that their magic was a way to conquer death. ‘Bring the spirit of my mother back,’ they’d say. ‘Bring my husband back. Bring my child back.’ They gave gifts to the magicians. They even gave them special caves. And the magicians developed bigger tricks, better tricks, and they made the people believe in them and fear them even more.”

The water slopped below us. The ice had reached further from the fringes. Back in Stoneygate, the lights of Christmas trees burned in the windows. A haze hung over the wilderness, icy and sparkling, with children rushing through it. I squinted and saw just ordinary children, children from now.

We passed the place where Askew’s den had been. There was just a heap of icy earth that the bulldozer had shoved across it.

“Someday in the far future they’ll open up the den,” I said. “They’ll make up stories about what happened in there, just like we make up stories about what happened in the past.”

We walked on.

“Any news?” said Allie.

“Nothing. A couple of days back they said he’d be home for Christmas. Then another day they said he’ll never get home again. Who knows?”

She squeezed my arm. “Jeez,” she whispered. “All that life in him. All that brilliance, Kit.”

“It’s like the world in winter,” I said. “Like somebody’s made everything disappear, and it’ll never come back. Like there’ll never be enough heat or light again, like nothing’ll ever grow again. But it does, like magic.”

She shuddered.

“Brr. Hope it does, Kit. This icy winter’s fun, but won’t be long till I’ve had enough of it.”

She put up her hands like claws. She hissed and put her evil face and her evil voice on.

“This is the season of the ice girl. This is the season of evil. This is the season when ice is in the eye and snow is in the heart and frost is in the soul. Protect your soul, for here comes the ice girl.”

“The season of evil,” I echoed. “Protect your soul.”

“You believe in it?” she asked. “That there’s

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