Free The Elderbrook Brothers by Gerald Bullet

things he did in his crazy, cruel moods. Felix could never decide whether there was something left out of Jerry’s make-up or something devilish put into it. Birds, rabbits, squirrels, field-mice, he was insatiably curious about them, irresistibly attracted, but as a cat is curious, as a cat is attracted. And now, at a second glance, Felix saw him in his true shape: sleek, sinuous, furry, crouching to spring. To frighten the birds into safety, to warn the fishes, to put all the world of creatures on their guard, Felix flung up his arms and shouted ‘Shoo!’ But his voice cracked, he was left impotently gasping and wheezing, and the cat, looming larger across the stream, seemed unperturbed. How he wished that the heavens would open and rain fire on this enemy! But the first drop, suddenly splashing on his open hand, proved to be not fire but blood; and now the sky was red with vengeance, and thunder came drumming from the ends of the earth and rose to a crackling climax. It sounded like the whistling of a train emerging from a tunnel, and when the train came into the station Felix knew that his mother was somewhere hidden in it, and he ran up the platform looking into every carriage, but he couldn’t find her and the train began moving away faster and faster and he couldn’t find her and he called out and the train wouldn’t stop and he ran after the train into a wood full of shadows andmoonlight and the sparkle of the snow. All night he ran and all next day, no longer knowing what he was looking for. All day and all night till after many days he reached the very edge of the world. There he stopped dead, on the brink of infinite emptiness, but the edge of the world came to meet him, the ground under his feet was a moving disk that grew smaller and smaller till at last it was as small and smooth as a sixpenny piece, a spinning coin upon which, with a vast grey nothing around and above and below him, he struggled to keep his balance. A long agonized moment … and he pitched forward into the void.
    But someone was holding him. ‘Had a nice sleep, darling?’ His mother was with him. He was propped up in bed. It hurt: not the same, but badly.
    â€˜No, don’t try to move,’ she said.
    â€˜I want to lie down, Mummy. I’m so sleepy.’
    â€˜Try to sleep like that, darling. We’ll take care of you.’
    â€˜I can’t,’ he murmured fretfully. And was asleep again.
    The next time he woke they had a little conversation, with Sister in watchful benevolent attendance. He found, to his great surprise and satisfaction, that he had had an operation and was now a hero. He felt proud and important, as well as horribly sick. Being sick so often was itself a matter for some pride. He never cried, or hardly ever. He always tried not to let them see him crying, and with such success that he was voted the very best patient they had ever had. He was brave and docile and they treated him like a king.
    He had Mummy for three days. Then she went back to look after poor Father, and Faith took her place at his bedside.
    â€˜Where do you sleep, Faith?’ he asked her. ‘Can’t you sleep here, with me?’
    â€˜What, in your bed?’ she said, smiling.
    â€˜I’d make room for you,’ said Felix. ‘Do you live with Mr Williams?’
    â€˜Mr and Mrs Williams, yes,’ said Faith. ‘Isn’t it kind of them?’
    â€˜Bend down. I want to whisper…. Are they
really
nice?’
    Faith assured him that they were really nice. ‘They couldn’t be nicer if I belonged to them,’ she said.
    â€˜I’ve often wondered,’ said Felix. ‘He’s awfully
old
, but still …’
    She laughed. ‘What nonsense!’
    â€˜Dan, Dan, he’s a funny old man.’
    â€˜What
do
you mean, Felix?’
    â€˜The Head of course. That’s our song about him,’ he said airily, with a shy grin.
    She made a