Chapter 1
Dry Water
'Lily!'
Silence.
'Lily! Come on Lily!'
Nothing.
'Everyone else has been found! You've won! You can come out now!'
'Lily! Lily!' a girls voice joined the boy's, 'Really, no tricks!'
No reply.
'I give up; if she really is out here then she knows that she's won. I'm going in.' Lucy said. She was short for her eight years. Her dark blond hair cut into a bob around her grubby face. She had on her red school jumper, streaked with mud; the black skirt wasn't much cleaner. Her knees and elbows were, as all children's should be, covered in mud and bruises. She traipsed back inside the suburban four bedroomed house, sliding her black school shoes of and leaving them on the doorstep, continuing on inside in her knee length once white socks that were rumpled around her ankles.
'Lily's Mum! We still can't find her!'
'Don't worry Lucy, she has to be somewhere, you'll just have to keep on looking.' The answer came from the kitchen, where Mrs Evans had just started to make tea for them. It smelt like baked beans and toast, Mrs Evans appeared to be scrambling some eggs as well.
'She's defiantly not upstairs.' Matthew said as he raced down the stairs to meet Lucy. 'Is Alex still in the garden?'
'Yes, he said he thought he heard her, but she's not behind the shed or anywhere.'
Matthew was also still dressed in his school uniform; however his was slightly cleaner than Lucy's due to him choosing a hiding place behind the sofa in the sitting room, rather than outside. At nine, he had a mop of brown hair and a square jaw giving his whole head a square like shape. He wasn't completely clean however; the whole of his right trouser leg was covered in mud obtained from the school field during a football tackle at lunch time.
Lucy and Matt together started to scour the ground floor of the house. Starting with the kitchen they peered into all the cupboards and into all the gaps that they thought their friend might have slithered into.
Lily was in fact outside; lying face down on the roof of her fathers shed. The back wall of the shed was right up against the wall of the house so she had no fear that she would be seen from the windows. To be able to see her you would have to stand at the bottom of the garden looking back at the house. From Lily's experience, it was not often that the person at the foot of the garden would scrutinise the roof of the shed. So all she had to do was lie still and wait.
She watched as Lucy went back inside, and then decided to change the game.
'Alex,' she whispered 'Alex'
'Lily!' he cried whipping around to see where the sound had come from. Alex was the eldest of the four, having had his ninth birthday six months ago in October. His blond hair was cut around a pudding bowl, leaving the hairs on the top of his head to grow much longer than those that grew underneath them.
'Shh,' Lily warned him, 'do you want to play sardines instead?'
'Where are you?' Alex asked
'Alex, are you going to hide with me?' Lily asked as her friend started to walk slowly back towards the house. She watched him go out of sight, wanting to speak but knowing that he was only using her voice to try and find her hiding place. This, however, was one of Lily's favourite hiding place and she wasn't going to give up the knowledge of it lightly.
Convinced that he was getting close, Alex opened up the shed doors and started hunting through the tools and toys that were kept in there.
Eventually, he came back out, certain that Lily wasn't hiding in there. He called out,
'Fine Lily where are you?'
'Not over there. I won't tell you where I am unless you'll promise to hide with me.' She replied, facing the wall so that it would be harder to tell where the sound was coming from.
'What, and not tell the others?'
'Yeah, see how long it takes for them to realise.' She replied grinning at the idea.
'Fine, you win. Where are you?'
'You have to promise you won't call the others.' She warned
'Lily,'
'Promise.'
'Fine, cross my heart hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.' He called back.
'That you won't call the others when I tell you where I am.'
'Lily…
'Lily, come on, I promised,
'I promised that …'
'I promise that I won't call the others or tell them where your hiding place is.'
'I'm up here, on the shed.' Lily finally replied lifting her head up so he could see her.
'Lily! How did you get up there?' Alex called out in shock.
'Shh! The others will hear you!' Lily told him eyes wide checking for movement from the house. 'You climb up at the side round between the wall and the side of the fence.'
Alex walked around,
'Climb up the wall then you can just step onto the shed roof.' She instructed. There was a stone wall, almost as high as the shed, separating Lily's house from her next door neighbours. It was made of sand stone and the rough surface meant that it was reasonably easy for a nine year old boy to scramble up. Then from standing on the top of the wall Alex was able to step from the wall onto the garden shed roof.
'Lie down,' Lily instructed, 'I don't know if it can hold that much weight.'
Alex lay down his hair flopping into his face.
The two of them remained there, waiting for their friends to find them, giggling every now and then wondering what the other two were thinking.
By this time Lucy and Matt had finished searching through the ground floor of Mr and Mrs Evans's house.
'You're sure that she couldn't be up stairs?' Lucy asked for the millionth time.
'I'm sure.' Matt answered, 'I checked everywhere.'
'She's too good at this game; it's as if she can turn invisible!' Lucy cried exasperated, 'we've been searching for hours!'
'Hours and hours.' Matt agreed.
Suddenly Lucy spun around.
'What?' Matt asked
'Where's Alex?' she asked worried.
'You said he was in the garden …' Matt started,
'But that was ages ago. He should have come in by now.'
'Well it a big space,'
'Yes, but there can't be that many hiding places, it's mainly just grass.'
'Maybe we should check he's ok.' Matt said running to grab his shoes from the front door. Lucy headed into the kitchen and asked Mrs Evans if Alex had come back inside.
'No not yet,' was the reply. Lucy's eyes when wide, she could see most of the garden through the kitchen window. He wasn't there.
Shoving her shoes back on she flew out into the garden quickly followed by Matt.
'Alex! Alex! Where are you?'
'Alex?' Matt's voice joined hers.
Lucy ran the length of the garden checking behind the shrubs that Alex wasn't hiding behind them ready to jump out and scare her.
'Alex!' Matt called sounding worried for his friend. Above him on the shed roof Lily covered her mouth to stop herself from making any noise, her body shaking with laughter, Alex grinned and started to lift his head up from the roof felting so as to see his friends face. Realising what he was doing Lily shoved his head back down again, looking at Lucy, making sure they hadn't been discovered. Alex looked at her apologetically his head pressed firmly against the roof.
However, their game was cut short due to Lily's mother stepping out into the garden and calling
'Come inside now kids, Petunia's back, and it's tea time.'
'Alex, Lily! It's -' Matt began to shout but Mrs Evans soon cut him off
'I'm sure they heard. Don't worry, you two come in and wash your hands.'
Matt waited for Lucy to join him before turning to follow Mrs Evans inside. As soon as they had disappeared Lily and Alex sat up, howling with laughter.
'This is the best hiding place ever!' Alex eventually exclaimed when they had gained enough breath to be able to talk again.
'I know right,' Lily said grinning up at him as she climbed down the wall 'you won't tell the others will you?'
'Of cause not,' he answered making Lily look relived 'it wouldn't be such a good hiding place if everyone knew about it.' He said as he climbed down after her.
They kicked of their shoes at the door, and Lily attempted to brush herself down. She was doomed never to look tidy with her wavy red hair escaping from the plate that her mother had attempted to contain it with that morning, it clashed with the red of her school jumper which was creased all over due to the length of time she had spent lying on the shed roof. Her round face was smudged with dirt and freckles from the day's vigorous play, her knee high socks wrinkled around her ankles.
The pair of mischief makers quickly ran their hands under the tap and soon joined the others in the dining room where Petunia was setting the table.
'Where were you two!' came the cries of indignation as the pair entered the room. Lily grinned at her friends.
'If I told you that then it wouldn't be hide and seek.' Lily replied. Lucy stuck out her tongue at this response.
'You told him where you were.' She complained.
'Who said we were hiding in the same place?' Alex put in sharing a look with Lily. Matt rolled his eyes in response, but as neither two could come up with a good retort the conversation fizzled out.
Petunia passed Lily a handful of cutlery to spread out around the table. She looked nothing like her younger sister. Petunia had neat, dark, strait hair that was cut short around her skinny face. The two girls shared the same almond shaped eyes though Petunia's were pale blue compared to Lily's deep green. Petunia was tall for her ten years, with thin limbs, giving her the look of being stretched. Both girls were regarded as bright at the school they both attended, though Petunia preferred to meekly accept the information she was given by her teachers with a passion for English and other language based subjects. Lily, however, would be forever begging her teachers for the answered to her endless questions, her flare for science and the arts was well known by many of the teachers and she was well immersed in several lunch time activities including a drama club and singing lessons.
'Hi Tuney,' Lily greeted her sister on entering the room, 'How was your French lesson?'
'It was fun.' Petunia replied 'We were learning about les épicerie today.'
'What's that?' Matt asked looking up from the other side of the tale where he was setting out the glasses.
'It means groceries, as in fruit and vegetables.' Petunia informed him.
The table set, Mrs Evans entered with the food and the children helped to spread it around the table and the seven of them stat down to ear together. The four hungry children were silent as they ate, intent on filling their stomachs, so the conversation as left to Petunia and her parents.
'What did you learn about today in your French class?' Mr Evans asked his daughter. Petunia explained about things she could now order from a French shop from strawberries to ice cream. Eventually this became too much for Lucy.
'Lily's Mum do you -' she began but she was interrupted
'Lucy, my name is Calla,' she kindly reminded her.
'What does that mean?' Alex asked through a mouthful of baked beans.
'It's a type of flower,' Lily told him, 'like mine and Tuney's.'
'Well it's more a family of flowers.' Mr Evans corrected his daughter, 'With lots of different types of flowers within the family.'
'Isn't Lily a family of flowers though to?' Lily inquired, her forehead wrinkling in thought and confusion, 'because you can get different types of lilies can't you?'
'Yes,' her father replied warmly, 'but that's a smaller, more closely related group. Like you can get lots of different types of dogs but they're in one family called canids and they include wolves and foxes as well.'
'I always liked cats better, anyway.' Lily replied, causing a round of laughter.
By the time five o'clock came they had all finished their tea and were busy stacking all the crockery in the kitchen and it was time for Lily and Petunia to walk Lily's friends to their homes. With a chorus of 'Thank you Mrs Evans!' they trudged of down the road. Lily lived on the edge of Cokeworth and the countryside was obviously close. As the children walked along the pavement they could see the trees in a nearby copes rising above the new, regimented, semidetached housing. The Evans's road was a cul-de-sac, wide with a large turning circle for cars at the end. The children on the street often played together, kicking balls across the road or riding bicycles up and down the street.
Lily and Lucy led the way skipping along together though at the end of the road they stopped waiting for the others to catch up.
'Come on slow coaches!' Lucy called back. Petunia rolled her eyes; Lily saw and shared a grin with her older sister.
'Well maybe you two shouldn't be so keen to go home.' Alex joked when he caught up with the girls. Lucy stuck out her tongue in way of response.
Matt lived closest to Lily so he was dropped of first. And Lucy quickly followed him into her own home that was on the next street. Alex however lived on the other side of the park, and it was mainly the length of Alex's walk home that Mrs Evans didn't want the children to walk on their own. On the way back from Alex's house Lily and Petunia took a short cut through the park. It was a large grassy field marked out for football games with nets at either end that were removed when the football season was over. Down one side the field was split in two with a tennis and basketball court painted out on the tarmacked surface, next to this was a fenced off play area. This was where the roundabout, seesaw, swings and slide were located with soft grassy footing for the children to land on. Lily ran through the gate jumping onto the nearest swing, Petunia joined her on the swings and the girls laughing together as they talked.
Eventually, the nearby church clock chimed six o'clock and Petunia slid neatly of her swing.
'Come on Lily,' she coaxed the younger girl, 'Mum will get worried if we get back late.'
Rolling her eyes, Lily jumped of her swing meekly following her older sister home.
'You know Mum doesn't like it that much when you jump off the swings.' Petunia started. She said it kindly, not wanting to be a bore.
'I know,' Lily sighed, 'But I don't jump when the swing is that high. Alex and Matt jump when the swing is nearly higher than I do!' she explained her eyes growing wide.
'Don't let Mum catch them doing that!' Petunia warned 'she'll be certain that you do it too then.'
Lily laughed, 'She always worries too much. It's perfectly safe…'
Petunia laughed, 'You always take too many risks.'
'I haven't broken a bone in my body.' Lily reminded her sister triumphantly.
'Yet,' Petunia mumbled.
The next day was a Friday, the week before the last week in term. Only seven more sleeps until it was the summer holidays. Six days and thirteen hours. Six days twelve hours and fifty two minutes. Fifty one minutes.
Lily was bored. The rest of the class were doing maths problems, but she had finished hers. It was very nearly lunch time, so she had resigned herself to staring at the clock, watching the second hand tick around. Lily glanced across at her teacher, a woman in her forties with dark curling hair cut short. She was leaning over Lucy's shoulder checking her work. Lily glanced down at her work, and seeing for what felt like the billionth time that she had indeed completed all the questions. Then, to Lily's incredible enjoyment, the bell rang. There was silence for a moment, then the teacher let them go and the class started rushing out into the playground. They ran out filling into all the corners of the yard, the grass around it and, because it was summer and reasonably dry, across the bridge over the small stream into the playing field.
Lily and Lucy were among those who were in the field. They were sitting on the steep slope at the top of the field making daisy chains when the boys met them.
'You two are so girly when we're not here,' Alex started to complain.
'No, we're really not!' Lucy said standing up suddenly, 'We were just waiting for you, not doing handstands or the other stuff girls do.'
'You're making daisy chains!' Alex countered 'playing with flowers.' He continued in disgust,
'Wow,' Matt said 'we don't need to argue about it, come on what do you want to do now?' he asked changing the direction of the conversation.
'How about one, two, three done ya?' suggested Lily
'Yeah, I'll be on.' Matt said jumping at the opportunity
'The bridge is base!' Alex called as he ran off to find a hiding place. Matt ran to the bridge and started counting, his eyes tightly closed, Lucy glance at Lily,
'It wasn't that girly was it?' she asked sounding unsure,
'No, Lily agreed, 'He's just being an idiot.'
'Right,' said Lucy 'where are you going to hide?'
'I'm not telling! You might cheat!' Lily cried and ran off towards the trees that stood as a barrier along the length of the stream.
Her plan was to climb one and be able to spy on Matt, and then when he left the base she would be close enough to run up and get to the base before he saw her. However, the trees were quite close to the bridge and the ones that were better for climbing were on the other side of the water. She pressed herself close into the trunk of one of the larger trees, knowing she had no chance of climbing up it as its branches were much to high up to reach, but the girth of the trunk was wide enough to hide behind, though an obvious choice so she might have to move fast if Matt came towards her hiding place.
Lucy had disappeared somewhere else, Lily had not seen where as she had been forming her own plan, after glancing around the field once she chanced a glance to Matt. He was still counting, but she was sure that he wouldn't be for much longer.
About ten seconds later Matt turned around, standing still, looking for his friends amongst the jumble of students playing in the field.
The game was played by having one person on (Matt) and they had to find all the others, but different to hide and seek because those hiding could move around. If Matt were to find one of the others he would have to get back to the bridge and shout 'one, two, three done ya' to get them out. However, if one of the others managed to slip past him and reach the bridge before him and call out the same sentence then they would have beaten him.
Lily crouched right down to the ground so she could peer out at Matt from behind her tree and know that he wouldn't be able to spot her.
Matt wandered away from the bridge and out towards the centre of the field, Lily snuck forwards, her eyes attached to the retreating form of her friend. This, however, left the way in front of Lily unwatched. She started to creep around the back of the tree when her toe knocked against a protruding root catapulting her forwards. She splayed out her arms in front of her to brake her fall, but this was unnecessary. She had been creeping along the very top of the short bank and tumbled down into the mud and water that was the stream.
Lily stayed there, on her hands and knees in the muddy water, in shock and fear, eyes tightly shut. How was she going to get out of this? The mud, which she could feel between her fingers and down her legs, was sure to be covering her head to foot. The noise that she had made would bring a crowd of witnesses that would be able to stand before the headmaster; they weren't supposed to play near the stream. Lily knew that she already had a warning from behaving badly, not that she thought it was bad behaviour, but simply mistakes, like this one. What was she to do?
Lily took in a deep breath and pushed herself onto her feet and gingerly opened her eyes.
There was no crowd above her. And most amazingly no mud or water was apparent on her at all. She moved her feet in the defiantly muddy water, but when she lifted them above the surface they were perfectly dry and clean.
She couldn't believe it. It was if Lily was able to repel the water away from her. As if she was in some water resistant bubble.
Lily splashed her way across to the bank and scrambled up it. No one had noticed her disappearance, and her cloths were cleaner than they had been at the beginning of the day.
With the miracle that had occurred Lily had almost forgotten the game and was about to call out to Matt who she could see in the middle of the field, his back to her. When she realised that he was now far enough away that she could reach the bridge before he could, even if he saw her now.
Darting forward, leaving her cover behind her, Lily ran out directly for the bridge. Ten steps into her sprint Matt turned spotting the sudden movement. He turned and sprinted after her.
They were pretty evenly matched runners, but Lily had had a head start and reached the bridge first. Firmly planting both feet on the concrete,
'One two three done ya!' she yelled, as Matt came colliding into her.
'Lily,' Matt complained, a grin on his face, 'where are the others?'
'No idea.' She answered 'but you'll never believe this!' she explained how she had fallen into the mud and Matt listened disbelieving.
'But Lily, you're not covered in mud?'
'I know!' she exclaimed, 'that's what's so amazing. It's like the mud couldn't stick to me!'
'ONE, TWO, THREE DONE YA!' Alex roared in their ears,
'Lily! That's not fair, you distracted me.' Matt complained
'Sorry' Lily mumbled, looking upset, 'come on, and let's find Lucy.'
'she's there!' cried Matt, he cupped his hands around his mouth, shouting with all his might 'ONE, TWO, THREE DONE YA, LUCY!'
She was on the other side of the field and had been sneaking her way around a group of girls with skipping ropes.
'You're not supposed to just stick at base.' Lucy grumbled when she had reached them, 'That's cheating.'
'I didn't!' Matt complained, 'I –'
'You were stood here for ages talking to Lily!' Lucy countered
'Sorry, that was my fault.' Lily interjected, 'I fell in the stream and didn't get wet or muddy, and I was telling Matt.'
'You what?' asked Alex incredulous
'I fell in the river just now.'
'But you're not all muddy and wet.' Lucy pointed out.
'I know! It's amazing, isn't it?'
'Lily, that's weird.' Alex said, looking at her concerned.
'You're no lying, are you Lily?' Matt asked.
'No!' Lily almost shouted, 'It really did happen, I really did fall in! I, I wouldn't lie about this!' she added to her friends disbelieving expressions.
'Ok Lily,' Alex said still looking worried, 'I suppose strange things do happen around you,'
'It really did happen.' Lily said, quietening down.
'I think I believe you.' Put in Lucy, 'You never do get in trouble as much as you should.'
The four of them laughed at that, they could all think of occasions when Lily had managed to wangle her way out of trouble.
After a moment of silence Matt pointed out that as Lucy was the only one to be caught then it was her turn to be on and the other three went off to find new hiding places. Lily stayed away from the river.
After three more games the end of lunch bell had been wrung and the dinner ladies had managed to shepherd all the children back inside the school building again and all outside was quiet once more.
Lily spent the rest of the day wondering about the dryness of her cloths. She resolved to ask her father about it when he got home from work. He was a physicist and a lecturer at the University. If anyone would be able to explain how the events had occurred then he would, he knew practically everything about science.
'It sounds like you've got yourself some dry water there.' Her father joked. It was after dinner. He was washing up the last of the dishes and Lily was drying them. Petunia should have been putting them away in the cupboards but she had complained of homework and got off. Lily decided that this would be the best time to ask her father's opinion of her lunchtime experience.
'No, dad I'm telling the truth!' Lily complained. She was really quite close to her father and could always tell when he was joking, even when Petunia thought he was telling the truth Lily would always know. He always smiled with his eyes, even when he kept his mouth strait, his eyes would always smile when he was joking around with them.
'Honest, dry water Little Lils, I'm serious.'
'No you're not!' and she leaned over and splashed the washing up water at him. 'See its wet!' she pointed out grinning up at him.
'That's because it's not the special dry water.' He explained.
'Oh, I see.' Said Lily, 'I suppose the factory developing it is just upstream from school, and it had a leak at lunch time today.'
'Well I haven't heard about the leak yet.' Her father explained but by now he was struggling not to laugh. Lily put the glass that she had finished drying in the cupboard in the dining room and then came back into the kitchen.
'But really Dad, what happened?' she asked solemnly.
'Truthfully, I have no idea.' He said, confusion crinkling his forehead. 'I've never heard of that ever happening before.'
'I … I … what does it mean?' Lily asked tentatively
'I don't know.' He answered, 'But I promise Little Lils, I'll find out for you.' He smiled and Lily returned it. She knew she could trust her father.
This chapter owes at least part of its existence to:
Harry Potter by J K Rowling
The Lion the witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis
The Life of Lilly by Ruth Notman (which inspired me to wright this whole story)
