The Children of Hare Hill (8 page)

Part Three

The Thirteenth Hare

Chapter 20

Charlotte and Ben had never seen anything like this and they wondered whether they would ever see anything like it again. The park was the perfect scene of an unspoiled summer night: the moon cast its glow across the trees, bushes and flowers, which were in full bloom; the earth beneath them was firm and dry; and, all night, the air had been fresh, but not bitingly cold. What they could see falling from the cloudless sky above them defied all logic.

A blanket of snowflakes descended from the heavens. Millions and millions of tiny frozen particles fell in the still air, settling on the canopy of leaves at the tree-line or falling to the ground through the gaps in the trees. Then, with a huge gust of wind, snowflakes were blown in all directions. The gusts continued, coming in waves, blowing the falling snowflakes all over the park until their whole world was covered in two inches of thick white snow, which seemed to magnify the moonlight, illuminating the entire park in a cool blue-white glow. Then, as suddenly as the snowstorm had blown in, it stopped. A final snowflake glided down, spiralling through the air, and settled at Charlotte's feet.

Charlotte and Ben surveyed the transformation of their surroundings with their mouths open in disbelief. The temperature hadn't changed. They should have been shivering in the cold, but they felt no different. As far as their bodies were concerned, this was still a summer's night. Ben looked down and saw that his feet were buried in snow. He shook the snow away and took his first step in the freshly-laid powder, hearing the satisfying crunch as his foot dug into the snow.

"I don't believe it," Charlotte said. "This is amazing. How could this happen? There are no clouds in the sky."

She received no answer; Ben was jumping around in the snow. Without warning, the hares all turned and hopped away, leaving tracks in the snow. They were all heading in the same direction—towards the hill that led up to Pistol Pond and the thirteenth hare. Charlotte and Ben followed the hares along their path, past where the eleventh hare had stood, evidence of the number puzzle they had solved now buried under the blanket of fresh snow.

Charlotte looked at her brother; he was smiling as he followed the hares, but his eyes were vacant, like he was in a trance.

"Wait," she said, and stopped, but Ben kept walking.

"Ben!" she shouted, but he didn't stop. She ran over to him, grabbed him by the arm, and only then did he turn round to look at her. He blinked, as if he was snapping himself out of a daydream.

"What?" he said.

"Aren't you scared?" she said.

"Scared?" he said, "Scared of what?"

"Scared of what?" she said. "Scared of the ghost who is waiting for us at the top of the hill. Remember the Guardian's riddle?"

Ben shook his head. "No, I'm not scared. I don't know why, I just feel..." He thought for a moment, then said, "...safe. You said yourself–maybe it's a good ghost that's waiting for us.”

Charlotte wanted to protest, but she thought about what had happened to them, what they had actually seen. They had learned so much, as if someone was trying to help them—

Her thoughts were cut off as something in the snow caught her eye.

"Ben, look at that," she said.

"What?" Ben said, then saw what his sister was pointing at. It was a pair of footprints, freshly printed in the snow on the path just ahead of them. They were the prints of a left foot and a right foot, as if an invisible man was standing within arm's reach of them.

"Who made those footprints?" Ben asked.

"It must be the ghost," Charlotte said.

She gasped at the sound of crunching snow as another pair of footprints appeared. There was an invisible man and he was just ahead of them, walking up the hill.

"What do we do?" Ben whispered.

"I don't know," Charlotte whispered back.

There was more movement in the snow. But this time it wasn't footprints. A line drew itself into the snow, then they both realised their invisible companion was writing them a message.

Follow me. I'll look after you.

With that, footprint after footprint appeared, invisible feet crunching in the snow as they quickly stretched off into the distance.

"Hey!" Ben exclaimed. "He's running away!"

Without thinking, Charlotte and Ben ran through the snow, chasing after the footprints. The hares joined them in their chase, forming a squad in pursuit of their invisible target. The hill became steeper and the ground beneath the snow became more uneven, and they lost ground in their chase. But they followed the footprints as they went over the crest of the hill, leading them to Pistol Pond, where the view stopped them in their tracks.

The area was surrounded by a low fence but, for the first time that night, they had a view of the land outside the grounds of Hare Hill garden. The snowstorm hadn't descended on just the park; as far as they could see, the whole world was covered in a blanket of snow. Farmland stretching towards the horizon glowed white in the moonlight. Charlotte and Ben felt like they were looking out across an Arctic plain, not the Cheshire countryside. On their side of the fence, Pistol Pond was frozen over, reflecting the full moon in its glassy surface.

The trail of footsteps continued down the hill, but stopped at the snow-covered statue of the thirteenth hare. The ring of their father’s ashes was hidden beneath the snow. Charlotte and Ben held hands to steady themselves on the short walk down to the statue.

"What do we do now?" Ben asked, but before Charlotte could say she didn't know, wind began to blow around the statue. A vortex of snowflakes swirled around the wooden hare, lifting their father's ashes, creating stripes of charcoal grey within the white cloud. Then, for the final time, the wooden statue emitted a golden glow, which got brighter and brighter as the whirlwind spun faster and faster. Charlotte and Ben shielded their eyes and the hare let out a brilliant, dazzling flash.

They looked up, expecting to see a hare twitching its nose as it was freed from its spell. But the wooden statue was still there. Charlotte and Ben shot each other confused glances. This hadn't happened before. Had they done something wrong?

Charlotte was about to ask that very question aloud when there was an explosion of snow on the wooden hare's nose. It took them a moment to register what had happened. They wiped the specks of snow from their faces and thought,
someone threw a snowball at us!

"Oh no, I missed!" came a voice from behind them. The voice was familiar to them. They looked at each other and registered the acknowledgement in each other's faces. Thoughts burst into their minds and they both felt like they could tell what the other was thinking.

It's him, isn't it?

How could this happen?

Is this real?

They were terrified to turn round, not because they were scared of who would be standing there, but what if
he
wasn't really standing there? The Guardian had told them a ghost would be waiting for them at the thirteenth hare, but they hadn't expected this. They never thought he could have turned into a ghost. Ben was first to look over his shoulder.

"Daddy!" he shouted at the top of his voice.

Chapter 21

Charlotte turned round to see her little brother running through the snow towards a man dressed in familiar clothes. His smile wasn't just warm; it was beaming. It was their father.

He knelt down in the snow with outstretched arms and scooped Ben up. He smiled at Charlotte and beckoned her over. Without thinking, she ran through the footprints Ben had made and threw her arms around her father and brother. The impact of her arrival threw them all backwards and they landed in a giggling heap in the snow.

Their father sat up. "I've missed you both so much," he said. "I can't believe we're here together again."

"But how could this happen?" Charlotte said. "You were dead. We scattered your ashes with Mummy. And Mummy, where is she?"

"Mummy is fine," Michael said. "She's asleep in the secret garden. Do you remember—you all fell asleep after you had your picnic?"

"But we woke up and everybody had gone."

"No. You’re still there, sleeping next to Mummy."

"Is this a dream?"

"I don't think so, not quite. Our souls have been brought together."

Ben stopped hugging his father for a moment to say something. "Why can't Mummy be here with us?"

Michael held his children close. "Mummy needs to say goodbye," he said. "Her life will go on without me. I will always love her and she will always love me, but I haven't been her husband for two years. Time is easing her pain and it will continue to do so. The difference with you two," he hugged them tighter than ever, "is that I will always be your Daddy. From the day you were born until the end of time."

Ben cuddled his father and Charlotte sniffed to stifle a cry.

"Hey," he said, getting to his feet. "Enough moping around. Do you want to build a snowman?"

The situation felt real and unreal at the same time. Real, because they were there with their father, Michael—they could feel his embrace and talk to him as if he were still alive—but also unreal because they knew deep down they had scattered the ashes of his body and they were about to build a snowman in summer clothes with snow that didn't feel cold to the touch. Without gloves on, their fingers should have felt like they were going to get frostbite and fall off, but they rolled the enormous snowball that would be the snowman's body without a shiver. Then they started on the head.

"It's too tall," Charlotte said as they rolled what was supposed to be the snowman's head up to its body, which they had made taller than Michael.

"We'll have to make the body smaller," Ben said.

"After everything you did to get to Pistol Pond, are you going to let this beat you?" Michael said.

"How do you know what we had to do?" Charlotte said.

"I know what you had to do, because I set it up."

"You set it up?" Charlotte was floored by his words. "How?"

"I'll tell you all about it. First things first—how are we going to get the snowman's head onto his body?"

"It's too high," Ben said. "We can't reach the top."

"Remember what happened at the bridge, Charlotte," Michael said. "You can do anything."

Charlotte thought back to the moment the woman was coming for her over the bridge. The hares had gathered round and somehow she had called on some kind of special magic powers to do what she knew in her heart she had to do.

"Okay," she said. "I know what we can do. Daddy, please can you lift me onto your shoulders?"

Michael bent down and picked up his daughter, lifting her high in the air and sitting her down on his shoulders. He grunted and said, "Hey, you're a bigger girl now than you were two years ago."

"What do I do now?" said Ben, standing next to the giant snowball.

"Throw it up to me," Charlotte said.

"I can't. It's too big."

"You can, Ben. Remember—we're not in the real world. We're in some kind of dream world where we're in charge. Just imagine yourself doing it."

Ben closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As soon as he breathed out, the hares hopped into view. From her vantage point, Charlotte saw them as they hopped over from all directions, forming a circle around the family and the giant snowman they were trying to build. They were all staring intently at the snowball.

"You can do it," Charlotte said as Ben opened his eyes. He bent down and gripped the underside of the snowball with his tiny hands. As he did so, the hares began to glow with the golden light that never ceased to dazzle and amaze them.

With all the strength in his small body and letting out an almighty roar, Ben stood up and threw the giant snowball into the air. It flew directly up towards Charlotte, who wobbled as she caught it, then in a single fluid move set it on top of the snowman's body. Michael lowered her to her feet and all three of them high-fived each other. They took a step back and admired the snow giant they had created.

"It's enormous!" Charlotte said.

"It needs a face," Ben said.

The hares had stopped glowing, but they remained standing in a circle around the snowman. Charlotte was starting to realise the power the hares gave her in this dreamland.

"What should we use for his eyes?" she said.

"You're supposed to use pieces of coal, aren't you?" Michael said.

"Coal?" Ben said. "Where can we get coal around here?"

"What's your favourite magic word?" Charlotte asked her brother.

"Alakazam," he said, seeming a little unsettled by the sudden change in the conversation.

"Okay," she said. "Get ready to say it on the count of three. Ready?"

Ben nodded and shrugged at the same time, thinking his sister was going crazy.

"Ready?" she said to her father, who nodded.

"One... Two..."

The hares began to glow.

"Three!" With that, they all shouted, "Alakazam!"

Charlotte pointed the palm of her hand at the snowman's face, and at the instant they said the magic word, two bolts of golden light shot from her hand. Two pieces of coal magically appeared, giving the snowman a pair of eyes.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Ben said. "How did you do that?"

Charlotte turned to her father. "Is this something you've done?"

Michael smiled. "You always wanted to be a witch when you were a little girl. You used to dress up in your witch's outfit, jump on your broomstick, and ask me to lift you up and fly you around the house. You would cast spells on all of us and we'd pretend to turn into a frog or be asleep. Then you'd wave your wand again and break the spell."

The memories came back to Charlotte. They were good memories, happy memories. That witch's outfit was still at home somewhere, buried in a toy box or at the back of her wardrobe.

"I wanted you to have a chance to be a witch and use your powers in a good way. Remember the woman at the bridge?"

Charlotte nodded.

"I did that because I knew you were old enough and clever enough to decide that you shouldn't trust her."

Charlotte thought for a moment. "But what if I had trusted her?" she said. "What if I had gone with her?"

"Then we would have seen each other a bit earlier."

"You mean it was you? You were the woman?"

"Yes," he said. "In disguise, of course. It was more fun than those Stranger Danger films they make you watch at school, wasn't it?"

Charlotte laughed. "We just watched that at school last week."

Michael smiled. "I know," he said.

"What about me?" Ben said. "Can I do magic too?"

"You were crazy about dinosaurs and monsters," Michael said. "Your favourite toys were dinosaurs and there were weeks when Mummy and I couldn't take your T-Rex t-shirt off you."

"Is that why I had to spot those monsters in the hut?"

"That's right. I wanted you to see that real animals are beautiful things, but dinosaurs aren't here any more and creatures like unicorns and werewolves aren't real."

Michael watched his son's face as he processed this information. "And yes," he said, "you can do magic, just you’re your sister."

"Really?" Ben held his hands in front of his face, imagining the power that was literally at his fingertips. The hares began to glow as he said, "Let's finish off the snowman, Charlotte, starting with a hat."

He shouted "Alakazam!" and the golden light burst from his hand, shooting through the air to the top of the snowman's head, where a huge tweed flat cap appeared.

They both smiled and Charlotte said, "Okay, it's my turn. Let's give him a nose. Alakazam!"

An orange appeared in the middle of the snowman's face.

"I'm going to make him smile," said Ben. "Alakazam!"

This time, Ben blasted a sustained burst of light from his hand and used it to carve a smile in the snowman's face. "There," he said as he finished, "now he looks happy."

"He does," said Charlotte, "but he needs a scarf. Alakazam!"

A long, green wool scarf appeared and tied itself around the snowman's neck, as if it was guided by invisible hands.

"Okay," Michael laughed, "I think that's enough. That's a good-looking snowman."

It was better than any snowman they had ever built before; maybe better than any snowman they would ever build again in their lifetime. A silence hung over the scene as they admired their work. The hares twitched their noses and hopped away into the trees.

"So you really did all of this?" Charlotte asked her father. "How did you do it?"

"This place is magical,” he said. “Children have been coming here with their parents for a very long time. It's almost impossible to imagine anything bad happening here, isn't it?"

Charlotte and Ben nodded.

"Well," Michael continued, "it's something to do with all the love and happiness that fills the park whenever people come here that makes it so magical. I've learned that I wasn't the only parent who made special maps for his children and I'm not the first to have my ashes scattered here, either."

"What do you mean?" said Charlotte.

"Come with me," said Michael. "It's easier if I show you."