Chapter 5
Will's Story
Fixing the knife would not be as hard as Will had expected.
After Will returned to his own world for what he had thought the final time those years ago, he had taken care of his mother, who, shortly after, had died. For a period of a month, Will stayed in their house alone, dejected. He blamed Lyra. If he had never met her, he reasoned to himself, his mother would still be alive. He should have taken care of her! For a week and a half, he wouldn't even talk to Kirjava.
Soon, however, he had to return to school, or people would come to his house and find out that he was alone. Acting through the kind neighbor who had watched his mother, Will went through his mother's accounts. Among them was a large sum left to them by his father, which she had apparently forgotten. With the woman's help and Mary Malone's, he had himself legally declared an emancipated minor and sold his house. Selling the place of his childhood was the hardest thing he'd ever done, short of leaving Lyra. With the fortune he had acquired, he was able to rent a small, unfurnished flat near the University, within walking distance of the American-style high school he would attend.
If Will had thought himself a quiet, reserved boy before, one who blended with the crowd and was never seen, he was more so now. He was never once called by name for his entire first year. Using his cleverness, Will managed to take all his college credits in his first two years of school. Now, in his last year, he was taking only Metal Shop and a subject titled Contemporary Thought which he never attended.
He went to the school's metal-shop room on a bleak, gray Sunday afternoon with a heavy bundle wrapped in flannel in his rucksack. He stepped in quietly and closed the door behind him.
I sort of wrote this chappie to explain what Will was doing for the last five years and how it was that he thought he would be able to fix the knife without the bears' help. I know it's a bit boring. More interesting chappies soon, I promise!
The next chapters will be: Lyra and Iorek, then Mary Malone explains to Will (she's already spoken to Kirjava, obviously) about Salinell. :)