What others are saying about the story
The story was amazing! Can't wait to read the sequel!
- Julia A reader’s view from : The Ponds of Wonder
I've never read a book as exciting as this! At first, I thought I wouldn't manage read the entire book but when I finished it I wished it had been longer! Your book inspired me to write a book myself!
- Luigi Mugliett A reader’s view from : The Ponds of Wonder
I started reading the first few pages just out of curiosity but then got hooked until I finished it in no time. A great book full of original ideas! My son actually made bets with me as to what would happen next. Great job!
- Romina A reader’s view from : The Ponds of Wonder
The Ponds of Wonder
Published by Brian J. Abela at Smashwords
Illustrations by
Danny Coleiro
Copyright © Brian J. Abela 2011
All rights are reserved.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Visit the website.
ISBN 978-99957-0-084-3
Acknowledgements
To my wife Claudine who gave me a number of ideas to keep the story flowing and the support and encouragement to make this story the best it could be.
Special thanks are also extended to the following people whose feedback came when it mattered most:
Rebecca Debattista, Pauline Fenech, Margaret and Roman Azzopardi and my parents, Joe and Caroline Abela.
Finally to Danny Coleiro for the wonderful artwork provided throughout the book.
For my son Eric
May his imagination soar as strongly as the Ponds glow!
Chapter 1 - An Unusual Surprise
Chapter 4 - What Had Really Happened?
Chapter 5 - A Mystery to Solve
Chapter 6 - A Strange New World
Chapter 7 - Great Uncle John’s Journal
Chapter 8 - Lyfirend the Bilybon
Chapter 9 - Would Anyone Believe Me?
Chapter 10 - Questions to be Answered
Chapter 12 - The Ponds of Wonder
Chapter 13 - Great Uncle John’s Mission
Chapter 15 - An Interesting Meal
Chapter 18 - Heading Back with a Plan
Chapter 19 - Supplies for the Mission
Chapter 22 - A Cause for Celebration
Epilogue - Gingerbread Cookies
Chapter 1 – An Unusual Surprise
I looked up at the clock on the classroom wall.
‘9:55,’ I said to myself. ‘Only five more minutes until the morning break.’ The morning dragged on and on and I couldn’t wait to get out onto the playground. My teacher was mumbling something about long multiplication but I couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying. I looked out the classroom window and stared at the white clouds that dotted the deep blue sky. Some of them looked like dinosaurs and I could almost make out one that looked like a huge ice-cream cone. From my desk I had a great view of the playground and the more I stared at it the more I wished that time would pass more quickly so that we could get out there! The weather had been really bad lately and this was the first break from the stormy weather that we had in a while and I really wanted to be out on that playground! Suddenly the whole classroom went quiet.
‘Tom. Tom Hanson. Can you tell me the answer to the question?’ I looked around and saw everyone staring at me. I could even hear a few giggles coming from behind.
‘Great,’ I thought to myself looking at everyone staring at me, ‘here we go again.’ I took a quick look at what was written on the board and saw the long multiplication question that Ms. Torres had been explaining.
‘Thirty-two,’ I answered, but from the way the other children started giggling I knew straight away that thirty-two was not the correct answer.
‘Tom,’ Ms. Torres closed her eyes for a moment, opened them and began, ‘how do you expect to understand your multiplication tables if you keep letting your mind wander? You must concentrate. The rest of the topic depends on you learning your tables.’
There was no other way around it. The other children were still staring at me, waiting for my response. As I opened my mouth to explain myself, the school bell rang for the morning break.
‘All right everybody,’ the teacher called out as she placed the white board marker on the ledge, ‘we will continue with this lesson later. Please organize your tabletop before going out for break. Remember an organized desk is a sign of an organized mind.’
Everyone organized their tabletop but I could hear a few children mimicking Ms. Torres as they cleared their tabletop and then left as quickly as they could. Ms. Torres had a habit of asking children who took too long to stay in and help her with something around the class. This wasn’t a bad thing but there was no way we were going to miss the chance of playing in the playground after so many rainy days!
I quickly arranged my tabletop and started to make my way towards the door. All of a sudden I heard Ms. Torres call my name.
‘Tom, could I see you for a moment please?’
I closed my eyes for a second then turned around and made my way towards Ms. Torres’ desk. A few of my friends jabbed me in the ribs as they made their way out the door. I could hear one of them tell the other that I was really in for it.
‘Yes, Ms. Torres.’
‘Tom. I am worried with your lack of attention lately during lessons. Is there something bothering you?’
“No, Ms. Torres’, I shrugged, ‘I’m ok.’
‘Well then are you getting enough sleep at night? Do you know that a growing boy like yourself should get at least 8 hours of sleep each night?’
‘I’m sleeping pretty well,’ I replied.
‘I see. Then could you please explain to me why I have to keep reminding you to pay attention in class? Tom you are a very clever boy and if you just applied yourself more often I’m sure you could be at the top of the class.’
‘Yes, Ms. Torres. I’ll try harder. I’m just bored of all this rain we’ve been having. It makes my mind wander and now that the weather is nice I really want to enjoy it before it starts raining again.’
‘I see,’ replied Ms. Torres, ‘well then I suggest you go out and clear your head, perhaps you’ll be able to concentrate more after the break.’
‘Yes Ms. Torres.’ It was all I could say. Ms. Torres had a look in her eye that said she wasn’t in the mood for silly answers. I guess the bad weather was getting to her as well.
‘Very well then, out you go before the bell rings again.’
‘Thanks miss,’ I replied and made my way out the door very quickly.
The fresh cool air felt great. I made my way to where my friends were hanging out on the playground. We played catch and all had rosy cheeks by the time the bell rang for us to line up. My friend Ben walked up limping behind me.
‘What happened to you?’ I asked.
‘Ah it’s nothing really. I tripped by the swings while I was chasing Jack and scraped my knee. Look at how it’s oozing, isn’t it cool?’
I looked at his oozing knee. It was covered with yellow puss with a little blood trickling down his leg.
‘Wow, cool Ben!’ then an idea came to mind, ‘but you’d better get it checked by the nurse. The last thing you need is for it to get infected. Your mum would have to take you to the doctor and he might
decide that you’d need some kind of injection.’ I chided. I knew that he was scared stiff of injections.
The smile on Ben’s face quickly disappeared at the thought of needing an injection. His face started to get pale and then seeing the smirk on my face, stood up and gave me a good punch on my shoulder.
‘Ouch!’ I said. ‘What’d you do that for?’
‘You know exactly why. Don’t kid with me about injections, you know I’m afraid of them.’
I gave him a big grin as I followed the other students into the school all the while rubbing my shoulder. He didn’t have to hit me that hard, still, I thought, seeing the look on his face when I mentioned the word injection made it all worth it.
The rest of the morning moved along and at least I was able to focus my attention better in class which was a good thing as I didn’t want Ms. Torres to think that I wasn’t paying attention to her lessons.
When the lunch bell rang I made my way quickly to the door and began walking home. As many of us lived close by to the school we were allowed to go home during lunchtime and eat at home, which was a good thing as it gave me a chance to be outdoors and not cooped up inside.
I followed the usual route to get home that took me by a small park filled with trees. Autumn was one of my favourite seasons. The leaves on each tree had already begun to change colour. There were shades of red, orange and yellow everywhere, making the appearance of the park very colourful.
I decided to take a small stroll around the park before continuing home. I stopped by a small fountain in the man-made pond just off to the left of the trees and stared at the huge goldfish swimming around. They were really cool. I walked around the fountain trying to avoid tiny toddlers who chased pigeons that were scavenging for bits of bread that a small group of elderly men were tossing them. The toddlers’ mothers watched with delight as their tiny children squealed and laughed at almost catching the pigeons, their tiny hands always a short distance from the pigeons who knew better than to be caught.
I left the park and continued making my way home. The town really did look different during the autumn season. I walked past old Ms. Slater’s home, a tiny little house with a white picket fence that had seen better days. Ms. Slater was a widow; her husband had passed away some years ago and although she tried to keep the appearance of her home looking fine she herself was getting on in years and felt it would be better to spend her time cooking wonderful delights in her kitchen then trying to keep up the appearance of her house. She had even let me taste some of the things she baked which were truly delicious. Small plumes of smoke escaped from her chimney carrying the scent of fresh baked gingerbread cookies, my favourite.
Taking a deep smell of the wonderful gingerbread scent, I continued along the street and turned left at the next corner and made my way up the drive to the front porch of my house. When I arrived I opened the front door and made my way inside.
“Mum, I’m hoooome,” I yelled out.
“Yes. I could hear you coming in Tom. Did you really have to yell out like that? You know that it isn’t nice to yell”
“Sorry mum I didn’t know where you were.”
Wow was everyone going to have something to say about what I did today!
‘Do you know I walked past Ms. Slater’s home and could smell that she was baking gingerbread cookies? It was a wonderful smell!’ I said hoping that we had some gingerbread cookies of our own.
‘Well perhaps you should head over to Ms. Slater’s after you finish from school today,’ she replied with a tone in her voice that said she knew exactly what I was getting at, ‘and see if she needs any chores done, perhaps she will reward you with some of them.”
I grimaced at the idea of doing chores. They were definitely NOT my favourite things to do!
“Come sit down and eat your lunch I have some important news to tell you.”
I quickly stopped in the bathroom to wash up. “What happened mum?’ I called out as I washed my hands, ‘did we win the lottery? Or did uncle Mel’s dog bury his false teeth in the garden again?”
“Neither Tom and I wish you’d stop bringing up that story about uncle Mel’s teeth. You know how he feels about people speaking about that incident.’
I towelled my hands and walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. A large plate of hot, steaming Spaghetti Bolognese was waiting for me and I quickly tucked in.
My mother carried a cup of tea to the table, pulled out a chair and sat down. Gathering her thoughts she continued.
‘Do you ever remember me speaking to you about your great uncle John who moved to Lockeport, Nova Scotia?”
‘Once,’ I replied. ‘Isn’t he grandma’s brother?’
‘That’s right. Well Tom, he was quite old when he left. My mother told him that it was crazy for him to move all the way to another country but he was stubborn and wanted to leave. I remember him telling her that he wanted to move away from all of the hustle and bustle of his life and find someplace quieter where he could live out his remaining years.’
‘I think I do remember you telling me about this,’ I replied putting a forkful of spaghetti into my mouth, ‘but why are you telling me this again?’ I said trying not to let bits of spaghetti fly out of my mouth as I spoke to her.
‘Well Tom, your grandmother phoned me earlier this morning to let us know that great uncle John has gone missing. He didn’t go to a meeting he had arranged with his lawyer and when the lawyer went to his home the place looked abandoned. The police have been searching for him but no one has heard anything from or about him and now they fear the worst. Your grandmother only just learned about it as uncle John’s lawyer finally found her telephone number. It seems uncle John didn’t keep very good records.’ Feeling sad that my mother’s uncle had disappeared I stopped eating away at the mound of delicious spaghetti on my plate and continued to listen. ‘There was also something else Tom.’
‘What was that mum?’ I replied.
‘Well, the lawyer asked your grandmother where he could contact you.’
‘Me!’ I said in a surprised tone of voice. ‘Why would he ask for me? I was so young when I last met him; I hardly knew him!’
‘Well the lawyer told your grandmother that a large package was left in uncle John’s bedroom with your name written on it.’
‘What kind of package?’ I asked while I wound some spaghetti around my fork. My mind began to race. I really loved presents even more than being outside. I guess it is why Christmas is my super favourite time of the year. The idea of tearing away the wrapping paper from a gift someone gives you and finding out what is hidden beneath is really fun. I put the fork in my mouth and began to chew on the spaghetti, all the while keeping my eyes on my mother as she told her story.
‘I don’t know,’ my mother replied, ‘but the lawyer asked for your mailing address so that he could send it to you by express post. It should be here by the time you get back home from school.’
‘This afternoon!’ I exclaimed almost choking on the last mouthful of spaghetti that was trying to work its way down my throat. As soon as I got control of my coughing I looked at my mother, ‘Mum, there’s no way I’m going to be able to concentrate at school knowing that a strange package is being delivered to me. Couldn’t I just skip school this afternoon, just this once? Pleeeease?’
No, Tom. I know that you are very curious about that package, and to be honest so am I. I can’t possibly think of anything that great uncle John would have arranged to send to you, but skipping school won’t make the package arrive any sooner. Besides, concentrating on your lessons will help distract you and make the afternoon go by faster. Finish up your dessert, wash up and then head back to school.’
I did as I was told but wasn’t at all very happy about it. I grumbled about having to go back to school while a mysterious package was being delivered to me but my mother started reading one of her favourite magazines and didn’t give me much notice.
I may have to go back to school, I thought, but there was no way that I was going to be able to concentrate! What could possibly be in that package? It was all I could think about for the remainder of the afternoon. A fact that my best friend Ben could see and made a point to ask about as we walked home from school.
‘Hey Tom!’ I stopped to let Ben catch up to me.
‘Hi Ben.’ I replied. ‘How’s your knee? It looked pretty gross with all that ooze coming out of it.
‘Ah, it’s ok now. I went to the nurse and she cleaned it right up. She even put a bandage on it so I’m almost good as new.
I looked at Ben as he lifted and bent his leg to give me a better look at his bandaged knee. It was true, his knee looked a lot better.
I started walking home again and Ben followed. ‘Hey, what’s the rush?’
‘‘Something weird has happened.’ I replied.
‘Oh yeah, like what?’
Ben was always interested in weird things.
‘Ok, here goes. You see I had this great uncle who has gone missing. It seems that he had made arrangements for his lawyer to find me and send me a large package. The thing is no one knows what’s in it, not even the lawyer! I’m supposed to be getting the package today. In fact it’s probably waiting for me at home right now!’
‘Wow, that is weird,’ answered Ben.
‘Yeah,’ I replied, ‘I can’t stop thinking what may be inside it.’
‘Well you’re not going to find out talking to me! Start running home. Just make sure you call me when you find out.’
‘Why don’t you come with me and we’ll both find out together?’ I answered.
‘I can’t, my mum’s sending me to piano lessons and she’d go crazy if I was late. Go on, hurry up!’ Then he lowered the tone of his voice, ‘the myss-terr-ioussss package is waiting for you! If it were me I’d be running home.’
‘You’re right! Thanks Ben. I’ll talk to you later!’ I shouted as I ran home.
I ran as fast as I could and made it home in record time; not even the delicious smells coming out of Ms. Slater’s home made me slow down. I just felt bad for the cat I nearly stumbled over and scared up a tree as I ran by.
I opened the door and made my way to the living room. ‘Hey mum, is it here, is it here?’ I called out excitedly.
‘Yes Tom, the package is here. I brought it into the kitchen. It arrived about 20 minutes ago. It’s quite large and rather flat.’
‘Large and flat,’ I thought. ‘I wonder what it could be.’ I made my way to the kitchen and there lying against the island counter in the middle of the room was the mysterious package I had been waiting for all afternoon. It was wrapped in brown coloured cardboard and wrapped with string which made it look sort of like a Christmas present. I crouched down in front of the package and saw that my name and address had been written on it in scribbled handwriting.
‘Look mum this must be uncle John’s handwriting.’
My hands began to tremble and I couldn’t wait anymore! I tried tugging on the string to see if I could pull it off but didn’t have much luck. My mother stared at the package too and seeing that I was having some trouble reached into a drawer took out a small pair of scissors and gave it to me.
‘Here Tom,’ she said, ‘cut the string with this.’
I took the scissors and carefully cut the string and unravelled it from the package. It looked as if the package had to be opened from the top so I began to peel back the cardboard. As I opened the package a strange smell made its way out.
‘Yuck, what a bad smell!’
‘Well remember that the package had been sealed for quite some time. It was bound to have a bad smell inside. Well, what are you waiting for? Finish opening it.’
I finished opening the flap from the top and then as I ripped back a large part of the cardboard I saw a strange looking picture in an even stranger looking frame. The frame was made of wood and had weird looking creatures carved into it. The picture was quite strange too! The first thing I noticed was a wooden signpost with two arrows almost at the top, one pointed towards a path that led to a small log cabin by a hill in the distance. The second pointed in the opposite direction as if it were pointing to someplace outside of the picture. The ground on either side of the pathway looked dry and the grass was painted a dull brownish colour. In the background the sky was grey and cloudy. It was a very sad painting.
All of a sudden the feelings of excitement that had been building up inside of me since lunchtime simply fizzled away. I looked up at my mother and could see that she found the painting strange as well.
‘I wonder who painted it.’ I asked.
‘Well,’ mother replied, ‘normally an artist will paint his or her name somewhere at the bottom of the painting. Have a look and see if you can see anything at the bottom.’
I bent down to get a better look and there on the right hand side was a very faint name. It looked like four letters and after spending a few moments studying the shapes it looked as if the word John had been spelt.
‘I guess great uncle John had painted this.’
‘I suppose he did, although why he would want to paint such a sad scene is strange indeed.’
‘Well what do you think I should do with it?’
‘Why not hang it in your room?’
‘You must be joking mum!’ I exclaimed surprised that she would even suggest that idea. ‘It isn’t very nice and it isn’t even of anything that I like.’
‘Now Tom, great uncle John must have had his reasons for sending you this painting and if he did paint it, we should at least honour his wishes for you to have it. Besides,’ as she moved her hand around the frame, ‘these carvings on the frame look quite interesting. It couldn’t hurt to hang it up for a little while in your room, especially since your grandmother is coming over.’
‘Ah gee mum, do I have to?’
The look she gave me told me that she was going to win this discussion.
‘Well I suppose I wouldn’t want to hurt grandma’s feelings but I’m not going to bring any friends over until we take it down.’
‘That is your choice Tom. Now, why not go out to the garage and bring in a hammer and some nails so that we can hang this painting up when your father gets home. He should be here any minute.’
I made my way out to the garage with the scene of that painting clearly in my mind. ‘Why would great uncle John paint such a weird painting?’ I grumbled. It was so dull and grey, and why would he think that I would be interested in having it! I was hoping for a cool telescope or a remote controlled car. I was thinking so hard about it that I didn’t even hear my father call out to me as he drove his car up the drive.
I stood on the porch as my father drove up the driveway. He liked to bring the car up in reverse so that he could drive it straight onto the road when leaving for work in the morning. As I watched him I also noticed the cat I had startled earlier suddenly try to cross the drive as well.
‘Hey dad,’ I yelled, ‘watch out for that cat!’
‘What?’ my father yelled back.
His hand must have slipped off the steering wheel as he slammed on the brakes and started pressing on the horn. Hearing the loud horn, the cat gave out a loud screech and bolted up the nearest tree it could find. This day was not ending well for that poor cat.
My father parked the car and got out all ruffled and angry with almost running over the cat.
‘Crazy, rotten cat,’ my father called out holding his fist in the air in the direction the cat had bolted, ‘serves you right!’
Feeling better at having told the cat off, he looked at me.
‘Hey Tom, how was school?’
‘Hi dad, school was fine; it’s the package I got that was strange. Umm, aren’t you going to lock the car?’
‘Package? What package?’ He searched his shirt and pant pockets for his keys. Upon finding them he locked the car and made his way up the porch steps.
‘The one I got from great uncle John.’ I replied grumpily. ‘Mum will explain everything to you. I’ve got to go to the garage and get a hammer and some nails.’
One of my father’s favourite hobbies was spending time in the garage on the weekends trying to build things so he had all kinds of tools. He had different saws and screw drivers hanging on a board that was attached to the wall. He also had a large work bench with three drawers on one side and a space where a stool was kept under it for the times when he wanted to sit on something while working on a small project. I found the hammer and nails in the second drawer and made my way back to the kitchen. Sure enough mum had explained everything to my father who was staring at the painting the way many people do when they are at an art museum.
‘Well it’s not that bad,’ I heard him telling my mother as I walked in.
‘Hey Tom your mother told me the story about this painting. It isn’t much but if you look at it in the right light the detail is quite good. It should make a nice addition to your room.’
‘Yippee,’ I said grumpily. ‘Let’s get this over with.’ I was beginning to wish I never had a great uncle John from Lockeport who liked to paint strange paintings.
We made our way up to my bedroom and hung the painting just above my desk. My father thought it would provide me with some inspiration as I did my homework.
‘Sure Tom,’ he said as he hung the painting on the wall, ‘whenever you look at the painting it will make you wonder what direction you want your life to take’ He gave my hair a quick shake. I shook my head in disbelief as he smiled at me. What could he possibly think I’d get from staring at that painting all the time? Sometimes my father said the strangest things.
‘I’m going to wash up for dinner.’ This was never going to work out.
Later that evening it was very difficult to get any work done. Each time I tried to concentrate on my homework I kept feeling an urge to look up at the painting. I spent nearly half an hour before I gave up.
‘This is no use,’ I sighed, ‘time for a break. I need a drink.’
As I got up to make my way to the kitchen the telephone rang and I heard my mother answer. After a few moments she called out to me, ‘Tom, Ben on the phone!’
‘Ok, mum I’ll take it up here’. I called back.
I picked up the phone on the night table next to my bed. ‘Hello.’
‘Hi Tom, You were supposed to phone me. How’s the gift. Was it everything you had imagined?’
‘Hardly,’ I replied. ‘It was a painting with a really weird scene on it. My parents made me hang it over my desk and now I can’t get any work done because I keep staring up at it. You should see it Ben. It’s all grey and cloudy with a signpost and a small log cabin at the end of a dusty road. I can’t imagine why my great uncle would paint such a scene.’
‘Hey, too bad Tom. I was hoping you’d tell me that it was a cool camping tent or a bicycle or something that would help us have a great adventure some time.’ Ben enjoyed being outside on an adventure just as much as I did; I guess that’s why we were such good friends.
‘Yeah, in a way I was hoping for something like that too.’ I replied disappointedly. ‘So how was your piano lesson?’
‘Boring. My teacher Ms. McBoring, I mean McBaristor, spent the whole hour teaching the letters of the keyboard. The same seven letters over and over. I mean, how many times can a person repeat A,B,C,D,E,F and G over and over again. I got so bored that at one point I continued saying the rest of the alphabet but she didn’t think it was very funny and now I have an extra worksheet of music to finish.’
I could hear his mum call out something that sounded for him to hang up and start his homework.
‘Alright, alright mum! I’m going, I’m going.’ He called back. ‘I’ve got to finish my homework maybe I’ll get the chance to watch some T.V. tonight. See you at school tomorrow. Ok?’
‘Sure thing Ben and Ben…’
‘Yes Tom.’
‘Let’s leave this painting story between the two of us, ok?’