Part Two: Pockets

So, in The Amulet, Beth and Peter and small Daisy found the queer little creature that called itself the Dhandilyn. It wears an amulet on a silver chain, always. It looks like a shrew, with a lion cub tail, bat-like ears and large owl eyes. That is exactly what I said in The Amulet. In this part, however, you shall find the upmost importance of keeping useful things in your pockets, handy for a quick escape, such flour pouches, matches, bits of string, a blunt pencil, a rubber and a paper clip! Let's begin, shall we?

Last word:

"It is my Amulet," the Dhandilyn said, his bat-like ears twitching proudly. "My Amulet."

Continued in...

"Your Amulet," echoed Beth, fingering the chain and tugging the Dhandilyn away from Peter, glancing sideways at the sleeping Daisy. "Oh, but does it have a real name? A name like-the Invisibility Cloak or...the Evil Eye, like in the Lord of the Rings...or the Magic Mirror...I bet Mother has a fine old many cloaks, and her plain old wedding ring, or a simple mirror-but she doesn't have a cloak of invisibility, or a ring of power, or a mirror of magic...but she does have a number of amulet charms!"

"It is my Amulet," repeated the Dhandilyn, apparently confused at Beth's words. 

"I mean-" began Beth, but Peter cut her off.

"Shush," he advised, looking around them carefully, and twice at Daisy. "Keep your voice down, Mrs Wallabanger might be leaning out the window...she'll find us in her hedge maze in a blink!"

"Mrs Wallabanger? The old bat that lives here?" cried the Dhandilyn, indignantly. "She's a rascal! A nuisance! A dingy old...bird! An absolute...cow! A fat pig! An absolute fraud!"

The children were glad and very satisfied when they heard the Dhandilyn call Mrs Wallabanger those names. She had been very nasty to them earlier on (see The Amulet) and they disliked her. Peter would've said "loathed" and Beth would've said "hated" but their mother had taught them to have manners, and not use strong words like"hate", "loath", "evil" and a whole other lot of words. Instead, they'd been taught to use lighter words like "dislike", "detest", "wicked" and "mean". For instance, if Peter said, "Mrs Wallabanger is evil! She's a foul cow!" Beth would automatically correct it. "Mrs Wallabanger is cruel! She's such a meanie!"

"I'm glad you dislike her," expressed Beth, in her anxious Londoner accent. "I, personally, really dislike her. She's cruel to us if we dare put a toe in her precious garden, and is mean when we drop a ball, or a book, or a toy, or even a cherry seed into her garden, and she hates everyone who hides in her garden for a game of Hide 'n' Squeak-no, sorry, Hide and Seek...she's bad, bad, bad!"

"I hate her!" Peter announced, in his countryside Irish accent, trying his best to make it sound Scottish. He liked the way Scots talked, and he liked his friend Sam at school, who was from Edinburgh. "I really do, she's so cruel and...nasty...she's so snappish, too, shouts at anything..."

"She is a vulgar insult to me," the Dhandilyn, sniffily, staring at Daisy. "She dared once to call me a rodent! Me! A rodent! Oh-ho, I would be jolly glad if you wished something to happen to her precious garden!"

"I wish all her hedge mazes would vanish!" Beth said, immediately. The Dhandilyn held its breath and closed its big eyes. Its golden tail turned white, and its bat ears pricked up. Then it opened his eyes feebly, opened his mouth, and blew out white sparkles. Then its tail turned back to a fiery bronze, its ears flopped down, exhausted, and it nodded at the children.

"Done," he told them, sounding very much tired. "Run away home, and the next morning you'll hear the dingy bird's scream of anguish. But bring some string and a few bits of cardboard for me tomorrow!" he added, seeing the children's excited faces.

So Peter and Beth grabbed Daisy, and ran this way and that, surprised that the hedges were melting out of sight. Peter grinned, and his eyes gleamed. Adventures for him and Beth were waiting just round the corner! How boring life had seemed before the Dhandilyn had shown up!

Well, he didn't exactly "show up"...thought Peter. We found him. Beth, Daisy and I. He considered this, glowing with pleasure. Wait, no. Beth found him. She fell in the hole and found the Amulet and the Dhandilyn. Peter suddenly found himself admiring and proud of Beth's misfortune, which turned out to be much more than that. But I pleased it when I complimented his Amulet and stroked it. I made it friendly towards us, and open up to us! And he was very pleased with himself, as well as he was with Beth. He'd tell Robert and Benjamin at once! How astonished and jealous they'd be!

I'll take them along next time. Peter decided. They'll love it. I'll make my mind up what wish we'll have tomorrow! I'll amaze them with my new pet! But, no! He disagreed with himself. The Dhandilyn would be very much offended if we called it "a pet". No, I'll call it "the Dhandilyn" and see what its reaction'll be. Perhaps I could open a circus with the Dhandilyn and its family, and mine, too, with Beth, Daisy, Benjy, Robert, Mother and Father! It could be the Wishing Shrew-Lion-Bats' Show! Wait, no-the Dhandilyns will be very much offended, and they shall run away. I'll call it Mousetacular! No-that's offensive, too. And they're not mice. But "The Dhandilyn Show" is boring. What about-

Peter's thoughts were disturbed as he and Beth arrived at the front door of their home. They knocked, and Peter's ridiculous, wild circus dreams were forgotten over a meal of toasted cheese, chocolate fondue, hot milk and spaghetti with meatballs and red sauce. It was getting dark, and Andrew had long since gone home and given up on the game of Hide 'n' Squeak. Benjy and Robert were eating in the dining room, surprised when Beth entered, as well as indignant.

"You are so bad at Hide 'n' Squeak!" exclaimed Robert for the umpteenth time, shaking his head and sighing dramatically. "I had such a good spot, and no one to show it off to."

"I told you, I followed Daisy into Mrs Wallabanger's garden, found Peter, ran into a hedge maze and lost Daisy, was discovered by Mrs Wallabanger, found Daisy, I fell in a Dhandilyn Pit-Hole, sorry, and found the Dhandilyn-come on, we'll show you tomorrow, it's got an Amulet and everything, and we made a wish, oh Bertie, Benjy, I wish you'd have been there!" cried Beth quickly, all in one breath, tugging at Robert's arm in excitement. "Oh, do believe us, do! It happened, all as I said, and Mrs Wallabanger's hedge mazes are gone for proof if you don't believe us!"

"Squeak! Squeak! SqueaksqueakSqueaksqueak!" Daisy squealed, her earnest, wide blue eyes growing large. She only knew one word, but she tried to express their adventure in her language all the same. "Squeak!" 

Robert was puzzled. He'd always laughed at Daisy and Beth's stories of so-called "magic" but never believed them. He dearly wanted to believe in his younger sisters, but it just seemed too made-up. He needed proof from Peter, the eldest, the earnest, truthful, honest next-man-of-the-family, and so he looked at Peter. On the other hand, quiet, dark-haired Benjamin (Benjy) believed his older sister, Beth, and younger sister, Daisy, at once. He knew Robert always scorned them, but he always believed, mainly because he wished that the stories were real, and had actually happened. And so he believed it on this occasion, without need of evidence from vanished hedge mazes or Peter.

"I believe you," he said, simply, and, brushing his shaggy black hair out of his eyes, he rose from the dining table and exited the room, with everyone staring at the place he'd been sitting at, a moment before.

"Well?" Bertie asked Peter. "Is it real?"

"If my senses are correct," Peter replied, rubbing his eyes warily. Now that his thoughts of the Dhandilyn and their adventure was blurry, he wondered if it really was real or not. "I suggest you look over the hedge fence at the mazes."

Bertie was whipped out of his senses. Fancy Peter believing the girls' every word! True, Beth had said Peter was involved, too, but surely not!