The Secret of London Tower

Chapter Three: What was in the Woods

Chapter Three: What was in the Woods

I couldn’t help it, really. Sometimes you have to be kind and help people, and though it was foggy and I had no clear idea of what he needed to get done, I met Siegfried outside the Café of the Flying Turtles and bought him food. It wasn’t much: maybe two sandwiches and a drink, but I wasn’t planning to spend all my pennies taking care of someone I hardly knew.

When you talked to him, and got over the dirt and smell, he wasn’t too bad. Besides the fact of being on the arrogant side, Siegfried Aldwinkle was better than any boy I’d ever heard, seen, or read about. But I was in no way trusting him. He was still unfathomable to me.

After I’d fed him for two weeks, I was sitting on a frigid bench in a park while he was trying to slowly nibble on a cookie.

“You need to bathe,” I told him. “I can’t stand to be on the same bench as you… Let alone in a meter.”

He smirked. “Haven’t washed myself in a month.”

I knew this, or guessed something roughly like this, but biting back a remark about his cleanliness, I said, “Well, you have to do something about it.”

“What?” he asked, exasperated. “I have nowhere to go!”

I furrowed my eyebrows. How did he come here in the first place? Why was he here? Once, when I’d asked him, he had said to find me, but I dismissed this as ridiculous. Of course he was trying to hide something, but was it dangerous or criminal or stupid?

“Fine. Come to my house.” My parents were out. Besides, they knew I wasn’t the type to bring a boy home, unless he was my friend. It was baffling to think that I had a friend. That’s what Siegfried was, really, but I had always thought of him as the social, homeless, questionable boy.

When we got there, he took a shower (he’d said, “Wow, it’s like standing in the rain!” like he’d never showered before) and used a lot of shampoo and soap. When he came out from the bathroom wearing my father’s t-shirt and a pair of old jeans that I had dug up from somewhere, I was able to realise how skinny he was. Not lanky, but skinny.

I supposed three weeks of not eating probably created that, but with the old, baggy clothes he seemed like a skeleton compared to the handsome, well-groomed boy I’d met on the other end of town.

He grinned when he saw me looking. He stuck out a hip and said, “No flesh to be seen. You look as plump as chicken breast to me.”

I chose to ignore this and made a big lunch for both of us. He ate it ravenously. I then realised another thing. He probably had only been warm when going into the Flying Turtle, no other time. It’s when you see people going through certain situations that you appreciate some things. How my house is warm when other people live in the cold. How I have food at my disposal.

A couple of days later, Siegfried said to me,

“Would you come with me if I wanted to show you something? Of your own free will? Out in the woods?”

I’d have to admit, this question was quite normal until he said the ‘out in the woods’ bit. You see, a very, very large forest surrounded our city. The only way in and out was through the thinnest part. The thickest part, well, nobody really knew what lay past that. I suppose some people did, because there are always the reckless ones who go off and see for themselves, but I hadn’t heard anything much. It was just the Forest, where animals live, and if you weren’t careful, your children disappeared. Yes, children have disappeared in the Forest.

“Why?” I asked. “Isn’t it…? I don’t know…? Forbidden?”

“Are you kidding? No, of course not! Why would it be?” he asked me.