Curse of the Werebottom

Chapter 10

At the very time the children departed company a deep and husky voice was occasionally breaking the silence in a very gloomy, dusty and larger than average garage outbuilding.

"Half past five and time for tea,

Cooking for one 'cause there's only me."

The hunched figure continued to cross the outbuilding, avoiding spills of oil and other lubricants and liquids on the floor whilst moving in and out of all types of mechanical and electrical parts and pieces.

Durgle, the groundskeeper of Meanwhistle Manor and the Sunnydays Camp Site arrived at his oversized workbench and set down the tray of a large mug of unsweetened tea, a cheese and pickle sandwich and a large solitary gherkin and repeated his chant to himself.

"Half past five and time for tea,

Cooking for one 'cause there's only me."

He reached up and switched on the solitary light bulb that hung from the ceiling above him. The bulb barely penetrated the gloom of the building as the doors remained shut and the windows remained blacked out with paint. There was just enough light for Durgle to briefly regard his reflection in the cracked mirror that hung on the wall in front of him, surrounded by every conceivable tool and device you could imagine hung on individually allocated pegs.

The years had not been generous to Durgle. He was deeply tanned and his face was lined and weathered due to a lifetime of working outdoors through glorious English Summers and bitter English Winters. Although he looked advanced in years, it was practically impossible to guess his actual age. Anywhere between fifty and seventy five could be accurate, such was his appearance. His long fingers poked through his fingerless woollen gloves as he grabbed his sandwich and took a great bite. He brushed his grey hair away from his eyes and stray breadcrumbs and cheese from his prickly chin onto his green threadbare jumper. More thick cut white bread and strong cheddar was pushed into his hungry mouth, whilst he began to chomp his gherkin and consider the following day's jobs to be completed.

Durgle was born and raised in Diddlesbury, an only child to the former groundskeeper of the Manor, a family occupation that could be traced back through the generations as far as the Lords of the Manor themselves. He wasn't what could be considered an educated man and the whole idea of mathematics and 'proper' English evaded him completely.

But Durgle had a skill that few men on the planet possess. He was a remarkable and brilliant inventor. He could take bits, pieces, sprockets and springs and he could join these objects together in such a way that they became something absolutely astonishing. But his skills did not stop there. He had one more valuable gift. He had vision. He was able to see not only how to solve a problem, he could also see where problems existed that no one else actually could.

Scraping a car windscreen on a winter's morning? Not Durgle, the pre-set weather responding automatic warm water sprinkler system took care of that little annoyance for him. Perhaps what made a good invention great, was the optional soap added feature that also ensured that your car was spic and span sparkling clean as well as frost free.

Another example of his brilliance was how he realised that not many people pay much attention to how annoying it is when the temperature of the water in a bath often drops quite rapidly when enjoying a long soak in the colder months. Durgle did, and to avoid the annoying top up of warm water and the letting out of cold water, Durgle adapted his tub into the heat conducting keep warm-o-matic thermo-driven everlast bath. The only bath in the world that is guaranteed to keep water warm for as long as you want and at the exact temperature that you want. Again, his genius really shone through when he eventually drained his bathwater and thanks to his excellent plumbing skills, it was automatically diverted to give his plants and flowers a sprinkle.

Durgle was broken from his thoughts by a bright red light bulb that began to flash. He slammed his half eaten sandwich down on the plate and banged his mug of tea on the work bench, causing a very slight tidal wave of hot tea to surge from the cup and wash over the many old tea stain rings scattered over the wooden bench.

"Summoned by a flashing light,

To cause misery, harm and spite."

He chanted to himself in his familiar rhyming pattern. Durgle rarely spoke to people, and took great comfort in his own company and his own communications with himself. It was this solitude that had re-enforced his rhyming speaking pattern over the years and he was now completely unaware that he did it.

He made towards the doors of the outbuilding, so he could trek up the long and winding path to the Manor House. As his hand rested on the door handle, he paused and lowered his head and sighed loudly. "I am trapped in all this madness, it fills my soul with so much sadness"

A resigned and defeated Durgle then started his journey to meet the person who was ultimately responsible for the attack on the poor Mr and Mrs Pringle.

ld bea likely candidate for whatever entity it was that they were facing.

They spent the entire afternoon reading up on ghosts, trolls, goblins, vampires, werewolves, giants, zombies and Egyptian mummies but to name a few, all three of the children fell back and rubbed their eyes in weariness and exhaustion.

"It's getting late," puffed Max as she stifled a yawn, "and we're getting nowhere. The best thing we can do is call it a day and attack this in the morning with fresh eyes and minds." Larry and Eddie agreed and all arranged to meet at Larry's house the following morning after breakfast. No-one actually said anything out loud about their complete lack of success but the mood amongst them all was pretty grim.

Although it was not discussed, it definitely appeared that the adventure was over before it had even begun.

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