Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal (3 page)

Ignoring David, Rosie once again looked to
the book for answers. After reading over the pages she looked at
Jack, “it doesn’t say.”

Jack paced around the painting, peering
behind it and looking for clues for what triggered the secret
entrance. The painting wouldn’t budge when he pulled on it, and
there appeared to be no cracks or any indication that a passageway
lay behind it.

“There must be something here,” Jack said as
he continued to stare at the picture on the wall. The portrait of
Richard Gregson was of him standing in the library beside one of
the writing desks. A pile of books was stacked on the desk, along
with what looked like an iguana curled up beside them.

“That painting isn’t there anymore,” David
said as he walked up to stand beside Jack.

“Which painting? The one of the pond?”
replied Jack as he spied it hanging on the wall behind Richard in
the portrait.

“Pond?” Asked Rosie looking up from the
book.

“Yeah the pond with all the plants in it,”
replied David.

“Lilies,” said Jack.

“Yeah, lilies. Anyway that painting isn’t in
the library. It’s in the guest room Rosie and I are staying
in.”

“I don’t think it was ever in the library,”
Jack replied with a thoughtful expression on his face.

“It could have been moved to our room. It’s
a very old portrait,” David argued.

“It’s hanging on a white wall. What’s one
thing the library doesn’t have?” Jack asked.

“Walls!” Rosie said. “Then why is the
painting there?”

“There must be a reason,” David replied.

“The book does mention the Attic has a
fondness for ponds and lilies…” Rosie said, slightly embarrassed
for saying the ridiculous words out loud.

“Did you hear what you just said?” David
asked.

“Yes, yes. I know it sounds crazy.” Rosie
looked from the portrait and around the hallway. She noticed that
directly opposite the portrait was a white wall. A picture hook was
driven into it at head height and there was a faint outline showing
that a painting had once hung there.

“Jack, come help me,” Rosie called as she
ran down the hallway towards the guest bedrooms. Jack followed, not
sure what he was supposed to help her with. He turned into a
bedroom to find her wrestling a painting off the wall. “It’s
heavy,” she grunted as she tried to lift it. It was the painting of
the pond that was in the portrait.

Jack rushed over and helped her lift it up
and over the hook. “You really think this’ll work? It all sounds a
bit mad don’t you reckon?”

“The whole days been a bit mad,” Rosie
replied as she turned to Jack. “We both know the stories of this
place. But maybe there are some we don’t know. You heard Great
Uncle Peter this morning, talking about the house like it
was…alive.”

Rosie shrugged it off, “Now the painting, I
don’t know if it will work. The book says that the attic enjoys
looking at ponds, and if the portrait is the door to the attic, why
don’t we just hang this on the opposite wall and see what happens?
It can’t do any harm.”

Jack shrugged, lifted his end of the
painting and helped Rosie carry it back into the hallway. They
reached the wall, lined the painting up so the hook was centred and
lifted it. As soon as the painting was attached to the wall a
slight breeze touched their backs.

“What the,” David said as he spun around.
The portrait had disappeared, replaced by a flight of wooden stairs
leading upwards. At the top, light could be seen. “How’d that
happen?

“It must be magic,” Jack whispered as he
started towards the steps, staring at the doorway that had appeared
from nowhere.

“Stop!” Rosie said, grabbing his shoulder.
“What if the passageway closes and we’re trapped up there?”

Jack paused, but David rushed past him and
took the stairs two at a time. “Come on Rosie, it’ll be fine,” he
called back.

Jack smiled, looked at Rosie and shrugged
before running up the steps after his cousin. He reached the top
and ran into David who stood in stunned silence. “Move out of
the….” Jack said, his jaw dropping before he could finish his
sentence.

“What’s going on up there?” Rosie called
from the bottom of the stairs.

Neither boy replied as they stared in awe of
the attic. It was one massive room, bigger than all the rooms
combined on the third level of the house. Its walls and ceiling
were made of glass, meaning you could see out over every garden of
the manor. The ceiling was so high, Jack almost felt like he was
outdoors. But what made this room truly amazing to Jack wasn’t the
beautiful view of the manor grounds or the slow moving clouds
gliding through the blue sky above him. It was all the stuff in
it!

Hundreds of artefacts were laid out before
him. Most were things Jack recognised like bikes, swords and garden
pots. Other items were completely foreign to him, and then some
things were normal yet amazing just for the fact they were in an
attic on the forth floor of a house! Jack shook his head in wonder
as he spotted at a full-sized horse carriage made of gold, which
was sitting next to an underground swimming pool complete with a
large slide. To the right of him a large globe of the Earth sat on
a pedestal, and beyond that was an even larger globe of a planet
Jack had never seen before. Everywhere he looked, another fantastic
item caught his eye.

“Holy Crap!” Rosie swore from the top of the
stairs. “It’s huge!”

“I know, it’s amazing,” replied Jack as he
walked over to the globe of the foreign planet. It was nearly twice
as large as Earth with a lot more water, he thought as he made it
slowly rotate.

There were four main landmasses. The biggest
one was oval in shape, completely separated from the others by a
wide expanse of ocean, while a thin strip of land linked the other
three as they sprawled across the planet like a rope with large
roundish knots. ‘Bowlandose’ was written across the globe in large
black lettering, which Jack assumed was the name of the planet.

The other major differences between
Bowlandose and Earth were the colours. Where our waters were a
beautiful blue, these ones were darker, colder. Also where our
forests and jungles were green, these ones looked a dark shade of
red. Jack wondered if people lived there and what they were
like.

“That planet isn’t from the our solar
system, is it?” David said excitedly from behind Jack.

“Nope, definitely not,” replied Jack.

“Awesome. Do you think it’s a real
place?”

“Not sure.” Jack said as he left the globe
to explore one of the many tables of artefacts. “Looking at all
this other stuff, it wouldn’t surprise me,”

“Is that a swimming pool?” Rosie asked as
she started walking to the other side of the room.

David laughed, “Yep! We should go get our
swimmers later.”

The three of them walked in separate
directions around the Attic, each exploring different areas that
caught their eye. Rosie had found rows and rows of clothing, each
from different periods of time. Skirts and dresses from the 1920’s
were hanging next to styles she had only seen in movies set
hundreds of years in the past.

Beside these racks were tables of jewellery
to accompany the different eras of clothing as well as even more
tables of shoes, belts and ties. Massive full-length mirrors stood
at the end of each rack for anyone to view how they looked once
dressed.

Meanwhile David strolled around until coming
across an assortment of weapons and armour. Items were laid out on
felted tables, all polished and looking like new. Great battle-axes
he could barely lift sat next to small daggers in sheaths. Some
were plain and silver, while others were gold with handles covered
in precious green, red and blue stones.

Jack walked along the Western side of the
room. He glanced out at the garden and could indeed see the rest of
the family seated at the table, enjoying a massive feast of roast
meat and vegetables.

He watched as they filled their plates with
chicken, beef, potatoes and gravy. His tummy rumbled as he realised
he hadn’t eaten all day and he found himself caught between
exploring the Attic more and his need to eat.

He turned around and was about to suggest
they do a run to the kitchen when a table caught his eye. Unlike
the others, this one was smaller and set apart from the long rows
of artefacts in the room.

As he approached, he could see that unlike
the others it only had one item on it, a brown leather glove.
Amazing, he thought as he picked it up. In a room filled with
treasures beyond his wildest dreams, a glove was definitely one of
the more boring items, however he seemed drawn to it, as if it were
inviting him over.

A sudden thought came to him, I should put
it on. It seemed like the right thing to do, yet Jack still felt
strange, like the thoughts he was having weren’t his own. Get a
grip - it’s just a glove. Looks like my size too.

He shrugged and said allowed, “Just a glove”
and slipped it on to his right hand.

Nothing happened. Jack smiled as he flexed
his fingers in the glove. It was his size and fit well. He thought
it was shame there wasn’t a second one, as he needed a new pair now
that winter was on its way.

Shrugging, he began to pull it off when a
voice behind him said, “You don’t suppose you could leave that on
for a time?”

Jack spun around at the unfamiliar voice to
see a young woman, around twenty years of age sitting in a seat
before him. His jaw dropped in shock by the sudden appearance of
someone he’d never seen before.

“There you go, that’s better. It’s actually
more effort to take it off that it would be to leave it on don’t
you think?” the woman continued as she stood and stretched.

Jack didn’t answer as he continued to stare.
She was possibly the shortest woman he’d ever met, a full head
shorter than him, and that included the red high heels she wore as
well as her fire red hair, which was bunched up into a tower on top
of her head. Her face was round with huge green eyes like pools of
water. She was dressed in a very smart suit, made strange for the
fact that it too was bright red.

“This one doesn’t appear to speak,” she
began while walking towards Jack. “Oh dear, I must have picked the
wrong one. Perhaps the fat one over there.” She leaned in close to
Jack and said in a slow loud voice, “Can you please take the glove
off and give it to the fat one?”

“The fat one?” Jack asked slowly.

“Oh, you do speak! Well then please leave
the glove on.”

“Sure, ok. But how did you get in here?”
Jack asked.

“A silly question, if ever there was one,”
she said. Turning around and looking over the attic, “Perhaps your
ability to speak isn’t the only factor I should have considered.
Perhaps the fat one or the scrawny girl would be the better ones to
talk to…”

“Hey!” Jack said loudly. “I can hear you,
and I’m not stupid. Now tell me how you got into my house.”

“Your house?” the red woman turned back to
face him. “Jack Gregson, you assume too much. Are you saying you’re
the current owner of the house?”

“My grandmother owns it,” Jack admitted.
“How do you know my name? Who are you?”

The red woman smiled, obviously pleased she
was correct and then turned away from Jack and started walking
towards the centre of the Attic. “Now come along, and as I said
keep the glove on.”

Jack was torn between being annoyed at her
rudeness and wanting to know more about who this bizarre woman was
and why she knew so much about him and his family. Reluctantly he
walked after her.

“Come, come.” She continued as she
approached the centre of the room and what appeared to be an exact
replica of the entire Gregson Manor.

Jack walked around the large table amazed at
the level of detail. Every tree, statue and piece of furniture was
placed in the miniature gardens just as they were in real life.
Even the roses he and his grandma had planted last spring sat in
tiny pots along the driveway in the Front Garden. He looked towards
the house and realised that if he squinted he could see through the
small windows to the rooms inside. He walked to where his bedroom
was and saw that the light was on, his tiny bed sat unmade just as
he had left it. “It’s all exactly the same,” he whispered to
himself.

“You left your bedroom light on,” the woman
responded disapprovingly as she followed his gaze. “You do know
that is a great waste of power.”

“Yes I know,” Jack said absently as he
spotted the model attic. He hadn’t noticed it at first, as it
wasn’t actually part of the house. Instead it sat over it, hovering
metres above the roof and chimneys. “It’s floating in mid-air!” he
blurted, shocked.

“What’s floating?” Rosie asked, as she
approached from the other side of the room. “And who are you
talking to?”

“The Attic, we’re floating!” Jack replied as
he pointed up in its direction.

“Jack, there’s nothing there,” Rosie said
confused.

“What do you mean? It’s right there.” Jack
replied, also confused.

“What is?” David asked as he joined the
conversation. Jack turned to see him walking towards them, the
strange red headed woman standing in his path. As he continued to
walk, it seemed clear to Jack that he didn’t see her and was on a
collision course.

“Watch out!” he called out to the woman who
was still facing in his direction. All of a sudden David appeared
before him, having walked straight through her. “What the…you just
walked through her!”

“Walked through who?” Rosie asked.

“I’m nowhere near her,” David responded,
thinking Jack had meant Rosie.

“What is going on?” Jack cried, getting
frustrated.

The short red woman rolled her eyes and
walked out from behind David. “This just won’t do, we don’t have
time.”