CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The Reunion

I’m the first to emerge from the woods. Mum and Nan are outside the house. Mum has the phone in her hand, pacing up and down the porch, sobbing.

“Banaz!” Nan shouts when she spots me. She picks up her walking stick and hobbles to her feet.

“Oh, Rawand, Ari is here!” Mum drops the phone and calls Dad, who rushes out of the house. When he seems me, he nearly drops to his knees. Nan raises her hands to the sky and mutters under her breath.

“Thank God, thank God,” Dad repeats, tears streaming down his face in relief.

“Where have you been? We—” He is interrupted by Mum’s hysterical cry. Next to me, Mum has crumpled to the floor. Dad lets out a gasp, and Nan puts a hand to her mouth, as the colour drains from everyone’s face.

I turn around. Lana and Penny are walking toward the house. Lana’s eyes fill with tears, and when she spots Mum on the floor, she runs forward shouting, “Daya!” and bends down next to her, burying her head in Mum’s arms.

“Lana? Is that you? Kichim, Kichim,” Dad mutters in shock.

He rushes to join Lana and Mum; they suffocate each other with hugs and kisses. I reach for Penny’s hand, and she squeezes my fingers tightly, a smile on her face. Everyone is crying, including me. Nan says a prayer out loud as tears stream down her face.

“Where have you been? How? When?” Mum says between loud, happy sobs.

Lana looks at me and I walk toward them slowly, still in shock at the sight of all of us together again. Lana drags me down, and Mum and Dad plant me with slobbery kisses.

Lana beckons Penny towards us, and we all stand.

“This is Penny, she was taken like me,” Lana explains.

“Taken by whom?” The shock oozes from Mum’s face. She looks like she’s been in the Twig Man’s lair herself. All aged and shrivelled up.

“I told you she never ran away,” I manage to say, looking back at the woods. I turn to them again, and Mum and Dad exchange a wide-eyed look. They both stare at the woods at the same time, and back at me in disbelief.

“The Twig Man,” Nan’s voice breaks the silence.

Mum looks at me. “It’s true, isn’t it? Is that who took you, Lana? And Penny?” Mum reaches for both of them and puts one arm around Lana and one around Penny in comfort.

“It’s true,” Lana and Penny say at the same time.

“I’m so sorry we didn’t believe you, Ari.” Mum cries as Dad wraps his arms around me.

“Ari . . . our brave boy!” Dad says.

Nan catches my eye, an all-knowing look spreading across her still plump face.

“Thank you,” I mouth back because Nan helped more than she could possibly know.

Nan turns to Mum and says, “Banaz, make us a hot pot of chai. Ari here is going to tell us everything that happened. Aren’t you?”

I gulp. The thought of retelling everything that’s happened is making me dizzy with excitement. There’s so much to say, where do I even begin? I’ll get to tell them all about how brave Timmy was, and how together, we got rid of Hanging Hill’s notorious monster. All without a selfie.

Lana takes Penny’s hand, and they go inside the house with Mum and Dad glued to their side. I go to join them, but Nan pulls me back.

“Who is that, love?” Nan says, pointing at Penny’s retreating back.

“Penny Downer.”

Nan’s eyes light up. “I thought the name Penny sounded familiar.”

“Did you hear about her going missing?”

Nan nods. “Yes, amongst others.”

“They’re all out of the lair now. They’ve gone to the police station so they can contact their parents. Timmy helped me, he’s Penny’s sister.” I beam.

“Where is Timmy?” She looks over my shoulders.

I stare at Nan and my eyes suddenly feel hot and heavy. “He’s not here . . . he never really was. Timmy is a ghost.”

Nan is silent for a minute but then she nods and holds me close.

“You’ve seen it all now, haven’t you?”

“You believe in ghosts, don’t you, Nan?”

“Oh yes.” She smiles without hesitation. “One day I’ll tell you all about the three brothers I befriended in Hewlar.”

“Were they like Timmy?”

Nan doesn’t say anything. She holds my hand and together we talk into the house. Laughter erupts from the kitchen as the smell of cardamom fills the house. Lana looks at me and winks.

Everything is as it should be.