The Blue Journal (Fantasmagoria Book 1) Read online

  Once in his bedroom, he put the case on the bed and looked at it more closely. It looked like an old jewellery box, carefully crafted, with complicated engravings. He tried to force the lid open with the help of a piece of metal, but failed. The lid was so tightly shut over the box that Robert couldn’t even find a slit to put the piece of metal through in order to force it open. He tried to unfasten it with a piece of wire, but the lock was stubbornly unyielding.

  He heard some noises coming from his Grandma’s room. Instinctively, Robert grabbed the case and hid it under the bed. He then jumped back under his duvet, just as his Grandma entered the room.

  He pretended he had been woken up by the creaking hinges of the door and stretched his arms, yawning.

  “Are you up yet?” asked Grandma softly.

  Robert nodded.

  “Yes, Grandma… And starving.” he said.

  Grandma laughed and ran her fingers through his blond hair, ruffling it up. Then she kissed his forehead and caressed his cheek.

  Bit later, Robert climbed down the stairs and went into the kitchen. Grandma was already setting the table and, sure enough, she hadn’t forgotten about the blueberry pie.

  Robert thought about the case under his bed. He couldn’t think of any means to open it without spoiling some of the things that might have been inside.

  Grandma turned and faced him, lifting the pie dough in her hands and placing it on the table. She started rolling it with long movements, shaping it with great care.

  Robert always loved to watch his Grandma’s magic, the way she was turning that dough into pie. He looked at her tired eyes and noticed the strands of hair resting randomly on her temples. He watched the little drops of sweat gathering on her forehead and the small chain dangling around her neck, moving the same way as the arms rolling the dough. That hypnotic movement, like a pendulum, soothed him.

  All of a sudden he felt shivers going down his spine.

  Gosh, he thought, how could I have missed it? The key, the key on Grandma’s chain. Could that possibly belong to the case?

  Evidently that key kept some important things under lock, since Grandma never took it off.

  Anyway, there was another problem arising in this whole scenario which could hardly be ignored: even if it was the right key, it was very likely that there wasn’t anything in that box that he might have hoped to find.

  For Robert however, getting his hands on that key became the most important thing ever since it could help him shed some light on the mystery surrounding his father.

  ***

  Almost two weeks had gone by since Robert discovered the box in the attic and during all that time he couldn’t get anywhere near getting his hands on the key on Grandma’s chain.

  He had, on a few occasions, rummaged through the other boxes and trunks that he hadn’t been able to go through the first time, but he had found absolutely nothing.

  His only hope lay with the little case under his bed, which he had tried to open countless times to no avail.

  In some way, Robert was glad of this postponing of fate. He kept thinking lately about the disappointment he might have to face when he did open the case and found nothing inside other than Grandma’s old souvenirs.

  It was on a Tuesday morning when Robert woke up with the sun in his eyes. He felt rested and full of life even though, judging by the mellow light outside, it was still early dawn.

  He heard some noises outside and realised that Grandma was making herself busy in the vegetable garden. Robert smelled a familiar aroma coming from the kitchen downstairs.

  Hmmm, blueberry pie, he thought, getting up from his bed.

  He went downstairs still in his pyjamas and slippers. Once in the kitchen, he stood and gazed longingly at the steaming blueberry pie in the centre of the table. Greedily, he started towards it, determined to gobble up at least one slice, but froze to the spot after two steps.

  On the corner of the table stood Grandma’s little chain. Robert couldn’t believe his eyes: the key he had been dreaming of for the past two weeks was right there in front of him.

  Eyes fixed on the chain, Robert seemed incapable of speaking or making any gesture at all. He realised that this was probably his only chance to unlock the case.

  He grabbed the chain and ran upstairs. He opened the door to his room and nearly hurled himself under the bed in order to get to the case.

  He looked at the key. It had ridges on both sides. He tried to push it into the lock, but failed as his shaking hands refused to obey him. He succeeded in the end, but the key wouldn’t go all the way in.

  He took the key out and turned it the other way around, trying once more to stick it into the little notch that triggered the opening mechanism.

  Damn key! he said to himself crossly, realising at the same time that his failure couldn’t be blamed on the key but on his nerves which stopped him from coordinating his movements.

  He managed in the end to insert the key into the lock of the lid and at the same time he heard a metallic noise which cheered him up immensely.

  There wasn’t any time left to waste though. He had to put the little chain back onto the table before Grandma could notice it had gone missing.

  He took the key out with a jerk and tucked the case back under his bed. He came out of his room and slid down the banister all the way downstairs. He ran into the kitchen and placed the little chain back on the table just as his Grandma entered the room.

  “Good morning, Robert! Did you sleep well?”

  “Yes, Grandma.” he answered happily, his heart racing nervously from all that rushing around. “I smelled the pie and couldn’t wait to come downstairs.”

  Grandma chuckled.

  “Run to the bathroom then! Have a wash and change your clothes. Breakfast will be ready by the time you’re back.”

  Ten minutes later Robert was sitting down to a steaming omelette, thinking incessantly about the case he’d managed to open at last. Earlier on when he was getting changed, he had to stop himself from lifting its lid and peeping inside. Grandma used to remind him frequently that patience is a virtue and Robert decided that he could manage to wait for another few hours before finding out what its contents were.

  And what’s more, he needed plenty of time to investigate carefully all the items inside, especially if they turned out to be what he’d been searching for so frantically.

  ***

  He spent the rest of his time playing with his friends, thinking about the case in his bedroom, waiting impatiently for lunchtime when he could go back home.

  Tom and Erin noticed that Robert was immersed in his thoughts, as well as being distracted and absent minded during their games and unresponsive to their jokes.

  Towards midday they all headed back to their homes and Robert too ran towards his Grandma’s house. His heart was pounding with effort by the time he got to the door so he stopped to catch his breath. The imminent uncovering of the contents in the case was drawing him towards his room with a sense of incredible urgency.

  He tried to settle his nerves and to get used to the idea that he might end up being disappointed with the objects inside. If he wasn’t going to find out anything about his father, Robert would have been faced with a dilemma, not knowing where to look for other clues from then on.

  Once inside, he washed his hands and sat at the table. Grandma watched him with a smile on her lips and placed a plate of food in front of him.

  “You seem preoccupied, Robert. Is something the matter?” she questioned him.

  “No… It’s nothing… I’m just a bit tired. Lots of running around today!”

  They carried on talking, sharing their impressions of that day’s events as usual. They shared a joke about some funny story or at the expense of some of the folk in the village.

  After lunch Robert helped his Grandma clear up and wash the dishes.

  “Have a good rest, Grandma!” said Robert, heading towards his room.

  “You too, Robert!” she answ
ered him. “I’ll go up too as soon as I’ve finished tidying up the kitchen.”

  Robert climbed the stairs and went to his bedroom, wondering in his mind about what he was going to find in the case under the bed. He tried his hardest to overcome his nerves.

  There it was at last, the moment he was going to find out the truth behind his father’s journeys! He felt confident that he was going to uncover some wondrous things.

  There must be something in there, he thought to himself. Something that will lead me onto my father’s footsteps…

  Robert realised that until now he had never considered the possibility of finding some clue about his mother’s identity, of which he knew nothing. This thought send shivers through him, making him even more nervous than before.

  He entered the room, locked the door behind him and went over to the bed, kneeling down in order to get to the case. He placed it on the bed sheet and gazed at it, running his trembling fingers across the lid. He opened it and gaped at the objects inside.

  From the very beginning, Robert noticed the leather-bound notebook. He took it out and looked at it inquisitively. The front cover displayed a finely crafted adornment and some symbols written in a curious dialect which Robert hadn’t come across before.

  He then inspected the cover more closely: catching the lock which sealed the contents of the notebook was a metallic circle displaying several sharp metal spikes peeping from underneath like arrow tips. Seen from above, the whole set-up of the lock looked like an abstract image of a sun. He couldn’t see any mechanism which might have allowed him to lift the covers of the notebook so he could have a look at the pages inside.

  He touched the lock, wanting to feel whether there was some hidden button somewhere and at the same time he heard a buzzing noise coming from within which sounded like the movement of serrated wheels inside some kind of mechanism. Frightened, he hurled the notebook out of his hands but what he saw next astonished him.

  The lock started whirling rapidly round clockwise then suddenly, came to a halt. There followed a rotation from the second dial, this time anti-clockwise. With a metallic click this also stopped.

  Nearly holding his breath, Robert looked on excitedly as the mechanism went through two more cycles, without being able to figure out how he had managed to set it off. His only hope was that all these crazy movements will make the notebook open.

  All of a sudden everything went quiet. The dance between the two dials had ended and four noises rang out, sounding as though some bolts were being unfastened. Finally, the clasp that held the two covers together snapped to one side.

  Still startled, Robert waited for a new reaction from the metal lock but nothing happened. He grabbed the notebook feverishly and opened it.

  On the pages of a light blue colour Robert discovered more notes, written in the same characters as the ones on the cover. He couldn’t figure out what language it was and felt unable to find any resemblance to anything he’d seen before. A year before he visited the ruins of some cities built by the ancestors of the people in the village but this type of symbols was not like anything he’d seen then. Was it possible that this was older than his forefathers’ writings or was it truly from an enchanted realm? One thing was certain: his father did discover something and Robert was convinced that these objects had belonged to him.

  He leafed through the notebook’s azure pages and noticed some sketches on several of the pages, depicting probably the places he’d been to.

  On the second page there was a drawing of a coppice in the middle of which stood a huge tree. Robert had a shock as he recognised that old tree. Few months ago he accompanied Mr. O’Rilley on a hunting trip and on their way there he had been shown that same tree, known as the ‘Wise Tree’ because of its old age.

  Robert was pretty certain that this was a depiction of the same ageless tree. The old people from around there used to say that it had been standing there since the beginning of time, and Robert had burst out laughing when he’d heard such a thing. No tree could ever be that old, enchanted or not!

  However, there it was: the starting point to his trip! He had a look at another sketch in the notebook, this time of a castle which Robert hadn’t seen before. It was very likely that it was located somewhere beyond the ‘Wise Tree’ but Robert had never went anywhere beyond the nearest town – which happened to be three days away from the village – so it was just an assumption.

  Still, he was going to elucidate all these mysteries one by one, now that the idea of a journey started to take shape in his head. If his father had sketched these places and had written about them, then they really must exist somewhere in this world.

  Robert dropped the notebook on the bed and started investigating the other objects in the case. Next thing he found was a piece of stone, black in colour and with a glossy shine to it. Robert guessed it was some geological sample from somewhere around those lands, which his father had kept so as to remember the places he’d passed through.

  Robert put the stone back in the case and started examining the lizard-shaped locket. It was relatively small in size, but Robert admired the almost perfect craftsmanship that captured the lizard in an S-shaped movement of its body. He couldn’t place the material it was made of but he liked its green colour, same as grass and the sparkle which made its eyes look alive. Robert suspected that his father had bought this pendant during his voyage, failing to see any other use for this kind of object.

  However, it was the fourth item in the case that really sparked his curiosity and imagination. It looked like a compass, but not quite like a real one because it lacked any cardinal markings. Instead, there were four symbols visible on its dial: a flame, a drop of water, a cloud and a crescent moon.

  The compass needle was spinning continuously at a dizzying speed, as though it was searching for something. This object was either not a genuine compass as it was unable to point towards North, or it was simply malfunctioning.

  Robert was ecstatic to have found at last what he had been looking for. He had no doubt in his mind that these objects had belonged to his father. He became determined to start his journey using the notebook as a guide, even though he couldn’t make heads or tails of its strange writings. He was hoping to be able to uncover the route bit by bit, following the drawings made by his father. He was convinced that the notes in the book were some kind of journal, kept by his father throughout his travels.

  He had to make some sort of arrangements for his trip, although he wasn’t exactly sure how these preparations were going to be done.

  The few savings he had been putting aside in a jar by his bedside weren’t mounting too much, but he was certain it was going to last for a while at least and then he would have to manage some way or other. They weren’t at all well off and he reckoned that his father didn’t have access to that much money either when he went off into the world and still managed to get by for two years.

  It was inconceivable that Grandma should ever find out about his intentions and all the preparations had to be made in secret, so that she wouldn’t suspect a thing. He knew for a fact that Grandma was going to be devastated when he would fail to return home on the day he’ll decide to depart.

  He didn’t have a clue about where to start. Surely the most important things he would have to pack in his bag were the objects in the case, since they seemed significant as they have been kept by his father, although he couldn’t really see the use of anything in there apart from the blue notebook.

  All that was left to do now was to sort out the last details and find the courage to set off. He knew he was facing a difficult journey, but nothing could have warned him about what was to come next.

  ***

  A week went by since Robert found the objects in the case and during all this time he had been trying to come up with a plan for the journey he was to embark on.

  He asked the people in the village – indirectly, of course – about the ‘Wise Tree’ and about some of the other things he’d picke
d up from the sketches in the diary: a ship, the castle, a structure resembling a temple and many other such things.

  He imagined his father reaching some harbour where he had boarded the ship in the picture in order to reach the places he had been looking for. Robert had never seen a ship in real life, but he did find out in the meantime that the nearest harbour was almost two weeks away from his homeland.

  He had a chat to Mr. O’Shaughnessy, the only person in the village who had been roaming the seas and oceans as a seaman. From him Robert learned a great deal about the rudder[1], prow, stem[2], bowsprit[3], square sails, fore-and-aft rigs[4] or lateens, foresail, rigger[5] and many other such terms associated with travelling by water.

  Mr. O’Shaughnessy had a peculiar way about him when talking about these things, which never failed to make your jaw drop if you were listening.

  Robert had also learned about being ‘seasick’, which many were when they went on a ship for the first time and experienced the surging and swaying motions of a vessel.

  He couldn’t tell whether he would feel seasick but he was probably going to find out if he really had to voyage on sea at some point. He was aware that he could join as a cabin boy, which meant doing all the unwanted jobs on a ship, such as washing the deck, loading merchandise, helping in the kitchen, but at the same time he could learn all about the usual activities taking part on a vessel.

  He was determined to overcome any obstacles and to endure any hardship in order to achieve his goal. If that meant working himself to exhaustion for a tyrannical captain on some ship, and according to Mr. O’Shaughnessy, that’s how they tended to be, then it was as clear as daylight that that was what he had to do.

  He had been unable though to find out anything about the castle in the journal. Some said that it might be found somewhere yonder, beyond the sea since they had no knowledge of any construction anywhere nearby similar to the one Robert described.