Ellen Blake Destined To Return

41 - Ice cream

'Sorry?'

'What?'

'I thought you said something,' said Ellen.

'No I think it was coming from next door. Maybe the boys are talking,' replied Marianne. 'Have you been awake long?'

'I can't sleep. I keep thinking about what your Uncle said and mulling over what it means. What about you? Have you managed to sleep? You sounded like you were asleep.'

'No. Well maybe a little,' admitted Marianne. 'I hate to say it but I've been lying here worrying as well.'

'About what?'

'I feel awkward saying. But it's about the prospect of what we've got to do next.'

Marianne lay silent for a few seconds before continuing.

'When I suggested to Mum that I travelled with you, as a chaperone, it was partly because it all seemed exciting at the time. I wasn't daunted by the idea of a trip to Nottingham and visiting Uncle Earnest because I knew my way around.'

'And now you're concerned because it is a bit of an unknown. What we have to do next. Is that right?' said Ellen.

'Does that make me sound cowardly?'

Ellen did not reply. Nor did she have time to as Marianne carried on.

'I've never been to London and it seems a bit, well, scary going there. It's also just as scary thinking of dragging Billy along too and being responsible for him. I had been wondering about leaving him here whilst we all go. But I know he won't accept that and it's asking a lot of Uncle Earnest. The other thing I'm unsure about, and sorry to say this, is that it has not been so easy or obvious finding a way home for you. What if this Major's pipe isn't the answer and we have to move on to the next thing and the next ... and the next? How long could that take?'

Marianne was rambling and demonstrating what had clearly been keeping her from sleeping.

'That's what's been troubling me as well,' said Ellen. 'All right I've been to London a couple of times before, but they were with Mum and Dad and they took care of everything. I haven't the foggiest where anything is in relation to anything else. I just know the landmarks when I see them. So doing this without parents and in 1941 will be a bit daunting. But that's not bugging me as much as what we've got to do.'

'What do you mean?'

'Don't take this the wrong way. Your Uncle is a really sweet old guy and has all in all been very kind and helpful to us by giving up his bed and everything. But -'

'But ... what?'

'Well, from the time we got here to the time we all turned in for the night he's jumped erratically from one thing to the next. One story to another. Mixing sport, work, the war, toilets and God knows what else together. In amongst all of that he pulls out some garbled message that he luckily overheard over 60 years ago. A message that was supposedly intended to be passed on to me and Aaron, not by him, but someone else who failed to do it. And to top it all the message is to go and do something with a pipe belonging to some army Major. I mean it's quite specific yet not specific enough for us to know exactly what to do. How do we find this bloke? How do we convince him to lend us his pipe? How do we use his pipe once we get our hand on it? Will it actually work?'

'Do you think he's been making it up?'

'No. Yes. I don't know,' Ellen said, with a sigh. 'That's what's been playing on my mind. On the one hand I wonder why he would want to make up something if it wasn't true. Why would he come up with such a bizarre thing for us to do? If all he wanted was for us to get out of his house then he could have sent us on an easy mission. He could have told us to return to York, stand beneath the big clock in the train station and say "the time of now is yet to come ... send me far from here". I just made that up by the way.