Back at the house, Alfie made the two of them a cup of tea and a peanut butter sandwich, and he was just about to go upstairs to do a bit of homework before tea. Melanie had already gone up to his room and he was following, when he saw a long, white envelope on the hall table. His dad popped his head around the study door.
“Ah, Alfie, you’re home. Good day? Yes, that arrived for you in the morning post. The postman said that they loved a challenge. Not that this was so difficult as you’re the only boy who lives on the Worme. Anyway, it’s a bit mysterious, isn’t it, who’s it from?”
The address was written in a beautiful slanting copperplate hand, like you’d see in old diaries and ledgers from Victorian times. The ink was shiny and black and was raised slightly above the paper so that you could feel the words under your fingertips if you ran them across the page. It was addressed to, The Boy on the Cliff, The Worme, Tudllan. A small chill ran up Alfie’s spine.
“I don’t know, Dad, I’ll open it,” he managed to say, as his mind had a sudden flashback to the face of Dr Finch looking down at him as the storm raged around them. He’d not mentioned any of that evening to his mum, dad, Melanie or Mr Turner as the events in the hospital had been so totally overwhelming and unbelievable that his mind had pushed it all into a little box in his head, out of the way. He put the mug of tea and sandwich down on the hall table and hastily opened the envelope using his finger to tear along its top edge. There was a single sheet of folded, cream paper inside, covered in the same neat writing. He opened it up and read.
My dear boy,
I am so very sorry that I had to leave you hanging there at the cliff’s edge. It was a most terrible misunderstanding that meant I had to leave you in such a precarious position.
Sadly, one of my men needed medical attention that night and while he was in the hospital, he tells me he heard a most amazing story circulating the wards. A female patient brought back from death, no less! Not just death, but suddenly with totally renewed health. Doctors and medical experts were confounded. Could you believe it? I rather think you could.
The rumour was that the family lived on the Worme, so it didn’t take long for me to track you down.
So here we are, you and I, boy, both up to our necks in this little quest. Something tells me that you haven’t mentioned your discovery to anyone else yet. That was a wise move.
There are many of us hunting for what you have found…
Alfie started to feel very uncomfortable and looked back nervously at the hall door, half expecting to hear a sudden knock and Dr Finch’s voice.
“Who’s it from, Alfie?” his dad repeated.
“Er… I’m not… it’s… er… just a letter from one of my old school friends.”
“Ah, that explains it all…” and his dad’s head disappeared back into the study, adding with heavy irony, “but just a little curious… whoever it is has got very neat handwriting for a teenager… and seems to have forgotten your name.”
Alfie ignored his dad’s comment and continued to read.
…and there are some who are much less amenable than me. Some not even human.
On a lighter note, I’ll be heading back from Jerusalem very soon and plan to visit the Worme for a walking holiday.
I am almost certain that we’ll bump into each other again!
Do remember to take very great care of it for me. Keep it safe.
Be very careful.
With very fond regards,
Dr Minerva Finch
That’s creepy, he thought, and suddenly felt a bit sick. Folding the letter up quickly, he put it back into the envelope. He also realised that he’d left Melanie up in his room for quite a while. Panicking, he ran up the stairs and along the corridor to his room, opening the door just as Melanie, who was rummaging nosily around his bedroom, approached the chest of drawers.
“What do you keep in these?” she said, looking wide-eyed at him, as she began to open one of the drawers.
“Er… nothing…” Alfie said, as he threw himself towards the open drawer; but it was too late. From under a pair of spotty socks she lifted out a muddy, wooden cup and held it up.
“So, I wasn’t dreaming!” she whispered under her breath. Then more loudly, “When were you going to tell me?” Her eyes were still fixed on the cup.
“It’s nothing, just a… what did you say?” blurted Alfie.
She looked directly at him now and her head tilted to one side. Alfie knew what that meant. She continued, “That night in hospital, I arrived too late, you’d just gone in to see your mum for the last time. I sat down next to your dad. But I could also see into your mum’s room. I saw everything that happened, Alfie. You, the cup, the golden light, then your mum waking up. It all went a bit mad after that, so I thought I’d better just go and not get in the way.”
Alfie was stunned.
“As I walked home, I wondered whether I had imagined it all…” she walked over and sat on the bed, the cup still in her hands, and continued, “you didn’t say anything, not a word, nothing, so the longer it went on, the more I thought it had all been in my head, some sort of a dream. Until now…”
Alfie stood open-mouthed, then said, “I’m sorry, Melanie, I thought everyone would think I was totally mad, or knowing about it might put them in danger somehow.” Then he went on to tell her every detail of his encounter with the gang at the Abbey, his fall down the cliff and what he had experienced in the hospital. He had expected her to be angry with him, but she looked up at him with sparkling eyes.
“But you found the Grail, Alfie, you found the Grail! The actual Grail!!”
“Well, to be honest, it really sort of found me…” countered Alfie, hesitantly.
“…And it really does have miraculous powers!” she continued. “What are you going to do? You need to keep it secret, or all sorts of people will be after it and you. That gang that’s been on the loose, and there will be more. You might all be in danger. Have you told anyone else?” She looked concerned.
“No, no… no-one… I think I’d sort of tried to forget about it in a way. I just wanted to enjoy being a family again,” Alfie explained, “I wanted it all to stay as it is now… but…”
“But what?” said Melanie.
Alfie continued, “I just got a letter from Dr Finch. She knows where I live, knows what happened in the hospital and has put two and two together. She’s visiting the Worme soon and warned me to keep it safe.”
Melanie’s eyes narrowed as she thought hard. Then she said, “Why would she warn you? Why doesn’t she just raid the house now? Something’s not quite right about all this. Didn’t you say she could have finished you on the cliff face, but she dropped the rock and actually said sorry?! Why would she do that?”
Alfie’s face went blank, so she pressed, “You’ll have to think back to that night, what exactly did you see?”
He thought hard. “When she looked down the cliff and could see my face in the torchlight, her expression changed from cold to almost one of concern. I can’t be certain, but it was almost as if I wasn’t who she expected me to be. Weird.” said Alfie.
“This isn’t over by a long way, Alfie,” said Melanie, “we’ll need a plan.”
The growing dread that Alfie had felt when reading Dr Finch’s letter was now subsiding. Melanie was like having Superwoman on your side, and they were going to make a plan.
That night, after he had returned from walking Melanie home, he started to worry again about what they should do with the cup. Falling into a deep sleep he began to dream.
He was outside, but it was so bright, a blazing, white light everywhere, so bright that he couldn’t even open his eyes. He could sense that there was someone or something in front of him, but every time he tried to see what or who it was, the brightness forced him to shut his eyes. He was stumbling around, hands out, squinting, blinded. Suddenly a deep voice boomed out, “Remember whose power works through the cup,” and thunder rumbled overhead. “Remember whose power…”
Alfie woke up with a start, sweating. There was a loud knock at the door.