The Remarkables (The Remarkable Owen Johnson, part 1) (9 page)

“Actuall
y, one hundred and thirty one, I think,” Ken corrected him. “Is that right?” he asked his sister.

“Yes it is
,” Mrs Argyle agreed. “And before you ask, he’s five years older than me so you can work my age out in your head, thank you very much,” she added curtly.

Owen looked at Mrs Argyle and Ken in turn, trying
not to appear too incredulous. He would have put at least a twenty year gap between his elderly neighbour and her younger looking brother.

Evidently his acting skills were not up to much as Mrs Argyle
scowled at him and Ken’s face broke into a grin. “She doesn’t look that old!” he laughed, revelling in Owen and Mrs Argyle’s discomfort.

“I never
said she did!” Owen exclaimed. “It’s just that….”

“…I look older.”
Mrs Argyle completed his sentence for him. “Thank you, Owen Johnston. Silver tongued as ever.”

“Cut th
e boy some slack, Sis. He’s merely stating facts.” Against all odds Mrs Argyle’s scowl became more menacing, but Ken continued unperturbed as he swept his hands down the length of his body from head to toe. “These are the positive side effects, although some would argue otherwise.

“The ability to slip into other worlds is
akin to dipping one’s toe into the fountain of youth. Alas the effects are not equal from one person to another.” Ken tipped his head towards his sister, whose stern look had softened slightly.

Owen slumped back in h
is seat and looked at his hands. So were they suggesting that he can actually reach into other worlds? But only since this morning? “How come it started today?” Owen asked. “I mean, I’ve never been able to do this before. Why this morning?”

“More good questions!
You’re on a roll!”  Ken smiled. “As to why these abilities don’t manifest themselves until a certain age, we’re unsure. For us there was an obvious trigger and cause, and no delay. For yourself, that’s something that you’ll figure out in time.”

Owen thought abo
ut what may have triggered it. “I was being chased by a gang of kids from school. I needed to escape and the only way was up, so I climbed. And not long ago I got chased by a dog and climbed up a tree I shouldn’t have been able to.” In the back of Owen’s mind there were other instances of him climbing, but they were hidden behind a clouded veil that he couldn’t penetrate.

“Your need was great so that may have been why y
ou realised what you could do. For us it was less subtle.”

“What caused you to realise
that you can do what you do?”

Mrs Argyle turned to face Owen.
“We were hit by a comet.”

Owen once again struggled for a constructive question to counter yet another bizarre statement, and once again he floundered. “
What?
”

“We were hit by a comet,” Ken repeated
his sister’s explanation, but still it made little sense.

“As in a comet fro
m space?”

“The very same.”

“But that would kill you!” Owen’s knowledge of celestial bodies was limited at best, but he had seen enough Hollywood disaster films to understand that they packed a somewhat significant punch.

Ken stretched in his seat,
resting his arms behind his head. “Oh it wasn’t a dinosaur-killing type of meteorite, I assure you. This one was much gentler.  It lit up the sky, illuminated our little island, and then disappeared into the earth below, leaving no trace save for a sorry collection of farmers’ children on a hilltop to question what had happened.” Ken gestured towards the rear of the Land Rover. “And the odd cow that happened to be lowing nearby, of course.”

“So it’s not just people that have these abilities?” Owen commented, recalling how Myrtle had tried to knock him over.

“It seems to be limited to species with at least a modicum of intelligence,” Ken explained. “Put it this way: I’m yet to see a shrubbery with destructive powers.”

“Okay,” Owen lied, in reality thinking that this explanation was far from being okay. “So it’s not just you
three? Well, five, including me and Trilby.”

This time it was Mrs Argyle’s turn to laugh, but there was sadness about her features. “If only it was.”

Mrs Argyle took off her seatbelt and made herself comfortable as well. Owen tried to do the same, anticipating that the explanation would be detailed, but was still unable to undo the rope.

“We lived on
a small island in the Orkneys. Back then we were isolated from the rest of the islands and indeed the Scottish mainland itself, as none of the causeways had been built by this point. There was a handful of farming families on the island, keeping mostly sheep.  Except our father of course, who had also managed to acquire a single cow thanks to a lucky shake of the dice.” Mrs Argyle paused to point at the cow hidden in the box behind the car.

“One particularly cold
- as I recall it - January night we were at a neighbouring farmer’s house to welcome a new addition to their household. Even though it was in the throes of winter, it was such a light evening.” Mrs Argyle looked at her brother who nodded in agreement.

“This dope here had taken to walking the cow
around like a dog, tying a rope to its neck and leading it about. The silly beast seemed quite content in its unusual role as house pet. She probably realised that this would keep her hide safe, always far too clever for her own good.

“Anyhow, we’d paid our respects and were stood outside with the neighbour’s boy, who was a couple of year’s older than me, and his older cousin who had lived there since her parents had succumbed to a nasty bout of consumption a few years prior.
”

“You didn’t mention how much of a thing that boy had for you
Cee,” Ken pointed out.

“That won’t be factoring in this story, thank you Bro
ther,” Mrs Argyle said sternly. “As I was about to say, we were just in the process of coming up with names for the wee bairn, when we saw that one of the stars was brighter than normal, and it didn’t take much longer to realise that it was moving. At first we were excited as we thought it was a shooting star. But instead of moving across the sky as you’d expect, this one was travelling toward us, growing from a small dot to the size that you’d expect the sun to appear, then bigger still.

“Within moment
s the night sky became so bright it was as if all the stars had come together as one. We ran to a nearby hill so that we could see the island lit up; two girls, two boys, and a cow.

“We stood on that hill and could see every inch of the island, from coas
t to coast. Not that far admittedly, but at that time of year you were lucky to see beyond the edge of the field that you were standing in. As we stood there we watched as the sky grew brighter still; brighter than noon on a summer’s day.

“I
admit that I was terrified by what was occurring, but it was at the same time quite beautiful. The brightness grew more intense until we couldn’t properly see each other’s faces; just eyes, nostrils and lips surrounded by hair. But however bright the light was, it didn’t make our eyes burn, like when you stare at the sun for too long.

“Finally we could see
nothing but white everywhere. I could feel every part of my body tingle, every cell vibrating as if they were doing a merry dance.  I couldn’t move, even though I tried. It was like I was tethered to the spot by a million invisible ropes.

“
Then just as the entire world became a white nothingness, the darkness of night returned and all was normal again.”

Mrs Argyle became quiet, and gazed out of the wi
ndow. Ken continued the tale.

“
The experience was the same for me and, as far as I know, the others also. After that we soon found that we had changed somewhat. My hands continued to pulse as if my blood was charged. I was stood with my hands clasped together, as if in prayer I suppose. After all, it was all rather celestial! Then Celia staggered and I went to steady her but as soon as my hands moved apart I released a torrent of water directly at her.

“She fell onto her back as I moved towards her, bemused how I was releasing su
ch a deluge. I’ve never forgotten the sight of her sliding about that hill in an increasingly large puddle of mud!” Ken chuckled at the memory.  Mrs Argyle glared at him but soon relented and joined in the laughter.

“Not for long though!” Mrs Argyle picke
d up the baton of their story. “I lunged forward and tried to push the water away and give my dear brother a wallop, but all I managed to do was fire him about ten feet into the air with a sudden gale of my creating.

“
Not to be outdone, our bovine friend back there gave out a defiant
moo
in response to my assault on her master, lowered her head and sent me blasting back with such a force I felt I would never breathe again. Fortunately there was a moderately soft thicket behind me and although it scratched me to billy-oh, no lasting damage was done.”

“What about the other two?”
Owen asked. “Could they do special stuff too?”

Ken and Mrs Argyle exchanged
brief glances before Mrs Argyle answered. “We never got chance to find out. They ran home and told their family what had happened and we were branded as witches and the like, so they soon left the island.” Ken gave an almost unperceivable nod as if in agreement.

“Our parents never knew
of what we were capable of. After the hoo-ha caused by our neighbours leaving so suddenly, and the rumours that we were the reason, Ken and I kept our powers secret from them. We managed to practice now and again when were on the quieter sides of the island, although folks did start to wonder why the wind and rain was so discerning over which bits of land they’d strike.

“
Our parents died when Ken was seventeen so he took over as head of the household.”

“How long were you
a little girl for?” Owen asked. “I mean, did you age slowly then?”

“I aged like you’d expect me to until I was about
eighteen, then it slowed down. Same with Ken here. That made folks even more wary of us. Perpetual youth definitely had a whiff of witchcraft about it as far as our fellow islanders were concerned.

“Spanish Flu
was the somewhat tragic saviour of our secret. It wiped out most of our island; the other survivors chose to leave for the mainland. That left the total population at two humans, thirty sheep and a cow.

“And so things endured
in a rather unremarkable manner. Unremarkable that is until that wretched U-boat turned up.”

“A U-boat?”
Owen asked.

“German submarine,” Ken explained.

“Yes, I know what a U-boat is,” Owen corrected him, “I just didn’t expect one to figure in your tale, that’s all.”

“My
apologies, my learned friend.” Ken made a gesture as if to doff his cap at Owen. “Well, at the start of the war the Navy moved more of its fleet to the northern waters, to protect shipping routes and such. We were lucky enough to have a battleship as a new resident off the shore of our island. She wasn’t much to look at, and had seen too much action in the Great War to be of much use in open waters, but I guess the Admiralty thought she’d be enough to keep the Germans away.

“Well, the tatty old girl was anchored i
n a large bay, which our island formed the border of. Over 1000 men and boys on board….” Ken went quiet for a moment and his features took on a haunted appearance before he continued.

“Just after midnight we heard two
explosions and saw the flames. Over eight hundred souls lost in one night, more died later from their injuries. Another boat managed to pull a fair few from the sea. It was October so the water was bitter and cruel, but a handful managed to make it to the shore. The others froze to death or were poisoned by the oil from the sinking ship.

“By the time we reached the island’s edge ourselves one young sailor was just dragging himself onto the shore, coughing
, spluttering, shivering, and with an ashen look about him as one does who has seen so much death, so sudden and cruel.” Again Ken went silent. Moments passed, after which his sister took up the sad tale.

“Pett
y Officer Jimmy Newman he was called. Nineteen years old, joined up just months before. Lived his entire life in Tooting, South London, hadn’t even seen the sea before he signed up. All of his friends had joined the army, but he chose the navy as the girl he was trying to court found the uniform more alluring.” Mrs Argyle rolled her eyes, clearly unimpressed by such trivial preferences.

“Ken took off his coat and wrapped it about his
shoulders, and I did the same. Myrtle had trotted down after us, as was her way. Ken hauled the young man over the cow and led them back to our cottage. We sat him down on a stool in front of the fire and made him drink hot tea. If in doubt, a cup of tea cures most ills.” Mrs Argyle nodded in agreement with her own advice.

“Ken went back to the shore to see if
there were any other survivors; taking a torch with him to try and signal the other boats. I stayed with the lad, plying him with tea and inane conversation. He stunk to high heaven of oil from the ship’s boilers and I was desperate for him to have a bath, but any suggestion of it was ignored. So I remained by his side and kept the kettle hot.

“By morning Ken returned with an office
r.  Commander Sutherland, Lord knows how he achieved that rank. He came in and tried to debrief the poor lad there and then, but he was in shock and could only mumble. Getting frustrated, Sutherland ordered him to leave with him, but Newman just stayed sitting there, affixed to the seat as if they had both been carved from the same block of wood.

“Eventually Sutherland lost
his patience and yanked him to his feet. The boy wasn’t ready to stand, so he flopped back down, slipping feet first towards our fire. I managed to grab his hand to stop him landing in the hearth, but all it took was the briefest contact between flame and oil soaked trouser leg and he went up in flames.”

“How awful,”
Owen said horrified, fire and flame having a terrifying hold upon him since he was a child, after their next door neighbour’s house (on the opposite side to Mrs Argyle) had burned to a hollow shell.

“Oh he was fine
,” Mrs Argyle assured him. “Thankfully he was in the company of a walking and talking fire extinguisher.” Mrs Argyle gestured towards her brother, who once again doffed his imaginary cap at Owen, though this time far more solemnly than before. “Ken had that fire out with the merest gesture of his hands, and the lad escaped with only slight burns that would heal quickly; although we did have a soggy living room for a few days. Unfortunately the effect it had on us both was far more lasting.

“Sutherland stared at Ken, and then thinking he was attacking the boy lunged at
him. I instinctively came to his rescue and blew the Commander across the room.  Sutherland scrambled to his feet and stumbled out of the cottage, forgetting entirely about the young lad whom he was supposed to have been collecting. Poor Newman just lay on the floor staring at Ken in bewilderment.  We managed to get him to take a warm bath after that and he became a bit chattier, for whatever reason choosing to ignore his hosing down from the hands of my quick witted brother.

“Anyway, we entertained our new houseguest well into the morning, letting him sleep in Ken’s bed for a few hours whilst I went to have a snoop around to see whether our little…incident
….had caused a hoo-hah or not. Well at first it seemed not, as the island was bereft of military personnel, save for young Newman of course, with all of the activity out in the bay.

“So I went back to the cottage to report the good news to
Ken. No sooner than I had walked into the kitchen where Ken was cooking up a rather hearty late breakfast, if I recall,” (an affirmatory nod from Ken), “then there was the sound of a motorbike outside.”