“That little red stone comes from my father, God rest his soul,” said Uncle Pogo. “He was a botanist—you know, studying plants, trees … nature stuff. Anyway, when I was a kid, before the girls were born, he used to tell me stories about all the things he saw on his travels—plants that glow in the dark or can eat a monkey whole—that kind of thing. I loved hearing about it—like fairy stories. Then one day he came back from a trip to Brazil and told me how he had found a secret jungle. He said it was like the real Garden of Eden, and everywhere you looked were all these incredible flowers and trees that you couldn’t find anywhere else in the world. Even the rocks and stones were like nothing else on earth—all brightly colored like gemstones. It was all because of a magic river that came up from deep under the ground. The River of Life, he called it. But here’s the thing: not only did that water give all the plants and stones strange powers, but any little fishy creature that crawled out of it would just start evolving straightaway, you know, adapting to being on land. Same goes for any critter that crawled in—it’d start adapting to life underwater.”
River of Life? Garden of Eden? This was already the biggest load of nonsense Nelson had ever heard and he now wished he hadn’t asked.
“So then, when I was five, Carla and Isabelle came along. You never met twins less alike.
“Carla came out first. Big strong baby she was. Had a scream on her like a banshee. Then Isabelle arrived, and she was just tiny and weak. Didn’t make a sound. Poor thing couldn’t even breathe properly. Had a whole bundle of problems, so they rushed her into intensive care and put her on all these machines. I remember being allowed to visit her. I couldn’t believe how small she was.
“The doctors told my parents that Isabelle wouldn’t make it past the weekend. There was nothing they could do. But my father, he wasn’t having that. He went back to the jungle to find something to save her.”
Uncle Pogo paused for a moment. They were waiting at a red light somewhere in Shepherd’s Bush, and Pogo glanced across at the pendant in Nelson’s hand.
“A few hours later Dad came home with that little stone and he laid it beside Isabelle in her hospital crib. They were supposed to be her last days alive. But then … Well, the doctors said they’d never seen anything like it. Couldn’t explain how Isabelle could suddenly breathe all by herself, her heart beating like a little drum. The weekend she was supposed to have died, Isabelle was back at home with all of us, gurgling and snorting away like a cheeky little piglet in my mother’s arms. Dad had the stone made into a pendant so that she could wear it all the time.”
Uncle Pogo’s voice trailed off as if he was lost in the happy memory, and it was only the honk of a car horn that alerted him to the traffic light’s now being green.
“Wait a minute. You just said he went to Brazil and back in a few hours,” said Nelson, now convinced his uncle was making this up.
“Ah, that was thanks to the Bang Stone. He found it in the jungle. Dad said if you swallowed that stone and thought of where you wanted to be—bang—you were there. That’s how he got there and back so fast.”
“You saw him do that? Disappear, I mean,” Nelson asked.
“Er … Well, not exactly.”
Nelson stayed silent. This was exactly the kind of mumbo jumbo parents tell children to cheer them up, and Nelson couldn’t understand why even a loony like his uncle hadn’t worked this out yet.
“But he really did go to Brazil. I heard a big bang outside the hospital and I looked out of the window. There he was—out of nowhere. Then he took something from his pocket and held whatever it was so tight and he was crying his eyes out. And when he had no more tears left, he opened his hands, and there was the stone.”
Not one bit of this was making any sense to Nelson, but the most confusing part of it all was that Pogo really believed this crazy stuff was true.
“I don’t expect you to believe me,” said Uncle Pogo. “I know your father never did.”
“I do. I do. It’s just … Well, you have to admit it is pretty amazing.”
“Yep. It was amazing. It was a miracle. Except it turns out you have to pay for miracles,” said Uncle Pogo in a dark tone. “Dad said that the way the stone worked was that you poured all your love and hope into it and it could save someone’s life. His love was strong enough to save Isabelle but he was never the same again. He was like an empty version of himself. All hollow and distant, as if someone had scooped him out and left just the shell of him. It was as if he’d given all his love and happiness to Isabelle, see, and had none left for himself. I think that’s why he died soon after.”
“But that’s terrible,” said Nelson.
“Well, that was nothing compared to what happened to Carla. I mean, even though she was the prettiest and the smartest of the twins by a mile, Carla was always jealous of her sister. As they grew up Isabelle always loved to hear me tell the story of the River of Life and the pendant, but it just made Carla jealous. Jealous of how happy Isabelle was all the time. Jealous of the pendant and the love it contained. In the end it drove her mad.”
There was a sudden screech as Uncle Pogo slammed his foot on the brake to avoid a truck that had slowed down in front.
“Sorry about that. Maybe I should save this story for later. I’m not really concentrating on the road,” he said in a shaky voice.
“No. Please. What happened?” said Nelson, who was now hooked into the story.
“When they were twenty years old they had a terrible argument and didn’t speak to each other for years. Isabelle got married to your dad and had Celeste, and Carla got married to some guy called Brian. Then one day Isabelle got a call out of the blue. It was Carla. She said she wanted to meet Isabelle and make amends. So of course Isabelle went. She left little Celeste with your dad and went to see Carla. It was the last time I saw either of them.”
“Were you there too?” said Nelson.
“I was outside. Isabelle told me she was going to meet Carla, so of course I wanted to be there. But I was too late. When I got there the house was on fire, and when I tried to get in a wall collapsed and fell on my leg,” said Uncle Pogo at exactly the same time as his plastic leg said, “Take the next right and your destination is on the left.”
Uncle Pogo pulled over, gave a big sniff, wiped his nose on the back of his hand, and turned to face Nelson, who continued to stare at him with wide eyes and open mouth.
“Sorry. That was all a bit heavy, wasn’t it?” said Uncle Pogo, but Nelson shook his head.
“No, it wasn’t. It was … Yeah, it was a bit.”
“Well, that’s all ancient history. Talking of which, I say we celebrate being the discoverers of the lost chamber of St. Paul’s!” said Uncle Pogo with his usual cheer. “I have got a ton of food in the freezer. I shall prepare you a feast fit for a king!” He heaved his great body out of the van while Nelson unbuckled his seat belt and tried not to imagine what frostbitten horrors lay in his uncle’s freezer.