Uncover the Magic

Chapter One – Tin Soldiers

Messing with the Ouija board is one thing, having things appear is clearly another.  

Mary Frances was sure Annie had been behind it though she said not.  They had asked many questions and laughed and laughed at the answers, each taking turns moving the arrow under gentle pressure until the last question. “Is anybody here?”  “Yes” the board answered.  “Send proof” Mary Frances spelled out and they laughed and closed the board.  “Be careful” her mother had said. “This is an old house; you don’t know what you are letting in”.

That was July 25th, just days before her tenth birthday.  On July 27th, tucked behind the curtain in the right hand corner of her bedroom window sill was a small tin soldier.  Dressed in a dark blue tunic, he stood firing his rifle at the night sky.  Mary Frances examined the soldier closely.  He appeared to have an Enfield Two Band rifle grasped in his hands; an Enfield just like the one in the display cabinet.  The one they had bought at a local antique store last year.  It was delightfully detailed with tiny brass accents and a small rifle strap of soft canvas.  On August 27th, the second soldier appeared. Like the first, he stood in the window firing at the night sky. Fearing she had opened a door with the Ouija board and believing the two soldiers on her window sill came through that door; Mary Frances knew she must do something. She needed to find out where the soldiers were coming from.  “Hmmm” she mumbled to herself, “I think I need help.”

The sun went down and the sun came up three times to a day like any other except for the large orange cat seated in the sun beside the driveway.  Without thinking Mary Frances called him in to the house. “Have some breakfast” she invited as she sat down to work. 

Quickly sketching a rough map of the neighborhood and the river running through it, she made notes and added arrows showing directions and interesting landmarks.  Eyes so brown they were almost black focused intently on the work in front of her.  "I'm busy" she thought, "be quiet".  "No", replied the soft voice in her head, “I can help you.  I am a Thundercat, you called me and I am here. " 

"I've never heard of a Thundercat" she replied.  "Is that like a bobcat or a lynx?  Or maybe like a Maine Coon Cat, you're certainly big enough and you have tufty ears." A purring laugh sounded out in the room, it grew louder and louder until it took over the space. "No, nothing like that" cooed Orange Cat, "I travel through time."

Mary Frances looked down at the paper and scribbled, making circle after circle.  "Are there a lot of you" she asked.  "Some, there are some we can count on” he replied. “There's Eight up north and Clementine out west, they would be my first choice.”  "Funny names" she laughed.  "Well, Eight always chooses a house with number eight,’ he explained. “This year it is 872 Chestnut, last year was 83 Apple Tree Lane.  Clementine rhymes with porcupine and she hangs out with porcupines and hedgehogs.  A little prickly if you ask me." 

Giggling, Mary Frances went back to her notebooks.  The dictionary lay open on the kitchen table, "sleuth" highlighted in lime green.  Carefully copying this into the pocket sized notebook she added: “a detective, a bloodhound, to track or trail".  Synonyms - "flatfoot, gumshoe, PI, tracker".  After checking the small tidy print she put the pencil down, shook her hand a few times and got up from the table. 

Running her hands through her hair she leapt across the room, pulled a chair to the window and climbed up.  Spiky red hair glowed in the brightening sunlight as she stared out and quietly tried each of the words.  The large orange cat carpeting the window sill looked up and listened.  Quiet enveloped the room until the chirps of birds scattering seeds invaded the silence.   Chickadees, nuthatches and finches fought noisily for the feast of sunflower seeds which her mother had set out earlier.  Remembering the list of chores she jumped from the chair and hurriedly started deftly peeling carrots and potatoes and filling pots of vegetables for Sunday lunch. Snatching and closing the notebook, she stacked it on top of the others.  Clearly marked on the cover it said: FUTURE PLANS.  This was written in lime green and covered in paw prints! 

Day followed day and Mary Frances filled her notebook with maps of the river, the woods, the fields and even maps of the house. “We will need these” she said to the orange cat that followed her about. “If we are to find where the soldiers come from then we will need maps of where to look.” She and her sister Annie planned long trips into the woods going as far up river as she dared and Mary Frances came home and drew maps of where they had been. Orange Cat followed and in this way learned the river and the streams and the way the woods changed.

On this evening Annie sat beside her sister watching her draw. “Mom said things are going missing and she wondered if we had taken them.” “What things?” replied Mary Frances. “I have taken the colored pencils and the crayons but nothing else. What things have gone missing?” “Grandma’s silver serving spoons and dad’s old pocket watch” Annie mumbled. “I was playing in the jewelry box the other day” Annie admitted “but I didn’t take anything and I am always careful. I know we’re not supposed to but I love looking at all the things in there. I like the silver belt buckles from dad’s rodeo belts and I love the golden necklace with blue stones. I did take it out but I put it back.” “Don’t be silly” Mary Frances scoffed. “Mom knows we play in the jewelry box. She doesn’t really mind. Did you take the pocket watch?” “No,” Annie answered. “It hasn’t been there for a long time. The last time I saw it was when dad had polished it and left it drying out in the sun.” 

There was no answer to the question of who took these things and Mary Frances sat in silence wondering if this had anything to do with the soldiers. Early this morning and for the third time in as many months she had found a small tin soldier on the corner of her bedroom windowsill.  Orange Cat spied him as well and it was now a bit worse for wear.  The remaining two were gleaming in their blue tunics and black boots and stood before her on the small table. 

“What are you on about Orange Cat” she muttered, glancing over at the window.  “I am not Orange Cat” he thought, “my mother named me Charles Andrew Thunderpaws, Thunderpaws to you, thank you very much.” 

Walking slowly over to the window, she gently stroked the cat.  Yes, she thought, we’ve talked about this. “All right ‘Thunderpaws” she said softly “but you will always be Orange Cat to me.  Now, the fact is, some things have gone missing and another soldier has appeared out of nowhere. You know what we have to do, are you in or out?”

Chapter Two – And Then … There Were Two

The house was old.  The family moved here in 1954 and was told it was well over a hundred years old at the time.  It was fondly known as the Johnsons' house.  Across the street was the old hotel, just down from the general store and the old railway depot.  All of these were now regular homes, passed down through family titles. 

Mary Frances and her sister Annie spent hours playing in the old hotel.  It seemed it had never changed.  The rooms were filled with antique dressers, old iron bedsteads and overstuffed sofas.  There was even a foot pedal organ.  The sinks had hand pumps and there was an old well house with a bucket.  Annie didn't like the outhouse but Mary Frances said it was cool because it was original and laughed because "hundreds of butts have sat here."  

The railway depot sat beside an unused track.  The overgrown track led deep into the woods, passing by streams and small vacation cabins on its way to the riverside.  The small settlement nestled the Merrimack River just above the dam.  It was an old settlement; even the dam had been there for over three hundred years. 

The Johnson house was built on a three acre property.  It was a two story saltbox with white clapboard siding and black window shutters.  The front door was solid oak painted black.  It sat above two granite slabs each over five feet long.  There was a large red barn, a chicken shed, a small horse pen and a very large vegetable garden which was shaded by an enormous oak tree. 

Mary Frances loved the house, the wide rough-hewn oak floorboards, the fireplace in almost every room, the huge country kitchen and the large windows overlooking the front and side yards.  Most of all she loved the room she shared with her sister Annie.  Two beds and a tiny dresser filled the room but the tall window faced west and offered a view of the river and the fields beyond.  Even Orange Cat loved this window where he spent his afternoons purring and soaking up the sun. 

Gazing at the river and fingering the three soldiers she wondered where they had come from, what did it mean?  Lost in thought she ignored the sounds around her until Orange Cat interrupted her. "It's no use” he said. You know I have to start tracking, it is almost the 27th of the month and we have to be ready".  For three nights running Orange Cat (aka Charles Andrew Thunderpaws) lay awake in the bedroom window.  There was no sight or sound of entry. "This will make tracking extremely difficult" he reported.  Mary Frances was worried.  Since the last soldier appeared, several more items had gone missing from other rooms in the house.  There was the old serving spoon from the kitchen, a small carving knife from the shed and several old fishing weights from her tackle box.  

She had discovered this only yesterday when she was down at the river fishing for perch. Orange Cat had invited his friend Clementine who unexpectedly turned up.  "Now that cat can fish," he boasted.  Watching Mary Frances aimlessly casting into the centre of the river Clementine chuckled: "How can you expect to feed a family fishing like that?”  Nudging her down the bank until she reached an overhanging branch, Clementine settled Mary Frances into the shade and began a slow scan of the water below her.  "First," she whispered "relax and find the slow moving points in the water.  Next, settle down and become the tree, melt into the shade. Wait and wait and wait and wait some more.  Watch the insects and as soon as one lands, cast your fly there, let it drift into the sun and in moments you'll have a sun perch.”  The afternoon went by with the three of them relaxing in the sun, Mary Frances eating peanut butter sandwiches and the thunder cats eating tuna treats which Mary Frances had snuck out of the house.

"You'll have to practice more" Orange Cat thought "I've been speaking to you for several minutes and you haven't heard a thing".  "Well you have to say something I can hear first" Mary Frances pleaded. “This is a bit new to me; I've never met a thunder cat before never mind had lunch with two of them. They spread out and began telling stories for practice. We have been around for a very long time Orange Cat began; thunder cats have always been orange, could be short hair like me or long hair like Clementine but always orange. My first assignment as a tracker was to find…” and before he could go on Mary Frances was sound asleep, lulled by his soft voice and the sounds of the rushing river. 

It seemed only moments before Annie came running, her long dark curls flying in the breeze. Her face was flushed from the run to the river making her pale freckles darken and her blue eyes shine. “Mom says to come in” she announced, “a storm is brewing and she said it’s going to be a big one”. Both cats jumped up and running at full speed barrelled into Annie, knocking her unceremoniously onto the ground.  Only then did she notice there were now two orange cats and both were intently staring into the darkening sky.  In moments the pale blue sky turned deep blue with bright purple on the edges. The clouds ran across the sky, lightning flashes covered the horizon and the musty smell of rain filled the air. Cats and girls went running for shelter reaching the barn moments before the rains began. Two cats and two girls sat in the entrance of the barn watching the rain fall. The lightning ended and the rain softened to a light shower within minutes. “It will be tonight” Clementine said, “I had best be going for now”.  “Yes” agreed Orange Cat, “it will be tonight. I’m thinking a week will do it. What’s your guess?” “Yes, a week seems right”, Clementine replied “wait for the call”. With that, she toed lightly out of the barn and disappeared. 

The three figures now silhouetted in the fading light quickly fell into quiet conversation. “Annie” Mary Frances began, “you know about the tin soldiers on the window sill right?” Looking down at the ground and scuffling her feet she mumbled, “yes, yes I know. I thought you had found them in the old hotel and stolen them. I wasn’t going to say anything to mom about it yet. I was waiting for you to tell me about them and why you have them.” “Holy cow” Mary Frances shouted, her voice echoing through the barn. “I didn’t steal them, I have never stolen anything! Why on earth do you think I would steal something? For goodness sake what do you take me for? I think they are a sign. Remember the Ouija board a couple of months ago? I think the tin soldiers were left as proof and that is what Orange Cat thinks as well. He is planning to track them and we are going to help him.  So far there are three soldiers, we expect another one soon.” 

It didn’t happen that night, or the next or the next. On the fourth night Mary Francis left a note. "Sleuth" it said. "We track anything. Call Orange C.A.T." 

A storm arose in the night and the next morning there was no sign of the note and Orange Cat was gone.