The book opens with Rhory and his sister visiting Hammerford Park, near to where they live ...
Return to the Well
England – about now
Juliette stepped in front of me, her arms wide apart, blocking my
path.
“Rhory. No. You can’t expect me to believe that. It defies
science and it defies common sense. I don’t know why you’re
saying these things.”
Behind her the trees of Hammerford Park writhed and rustled
in the chill wind. We stood facing each other midway between
the bandstand and the old oak. Juliette is my favourite sister.
Correction. Juliette is my only sister. Seventeen, brighter than a
super-nova and prettier than your average celeb, she remained
my older sister and thus terminally irritating.
I tried to explain for the umpteenth time: “But it’s true. I can
only tell you what I experienced. I wasn’t going to share this with
you because I knew you wouldn’t get it. But you insisted. ‘Tell
me the truth,’ you said. ‘No, I’ll understand,’ you said. So I did.
And you don’t.”
“Would you honestly expect any sane person to believe that
under our stupid old bandstand there is an ancient temple?” She
pointed at the structure with the green finger of her rainbow coloured
gloves. “And if it is there, which it isn’t, but if it is there,
that you’re the only one who knows about it?”
Juliette turned to face the bandstand, as though expecting me
to produce an old temple like a rabbit out of a hat. Her dark hair
blew around her face and she pulled her multicoloured woolly
hat lower.
“I never said I was the only one who knows about it. It’s
marked on an old map that Natasha and I found at the Town
Hall, and I think that an ancient secret society—”
“You can stop right there.” Jules spun back and poked me in
the chest. “Save me the ridiculousness of ancient secret societies.
You’ve always had a vivid imagination. In many ways it’s quite
cute. But now you’re going too far.”
“Look, Jules, like it or not, there’s a tunnel running from the
old well in the Wild Wood.” I pointed in the general direction
beyond the swimming pool enclosure. “And it comes out into the
temple. The temple then opens into the storage area under the
bandstand. Jeez…” irritation buzzed through me, “…I walked it
only a few weeks ago.”
“Okay. The joke’s gone on long enough. I don’t even know
why I’ve come with you.” She thrust her hands into the pockets
of her coat. “Frankly, you’re making me complicit in your stupid
fantasies. You’ll be a laughing stock if you tell anyone else. Do
you want that?”
“Bleeding heck, just come and look. It’ll only take us a few
minutes to get to the well, then you can see.” I pulled on her arm.
“It’s quite possible to spot where the tunnel sets off near the metal
rungs that go down towards the water. You can even go down
and try it yourself.”
My sister snorted at that suggestion. We set off in silence
under a dark-grey and somewhat threatening sky.
Juliette looked up. “That’s all I need. To get soaked while on a
wild goose chase.”
I glanced over towards the old oak. Its shape had definitely
changed since the lightning struck, the night I found the temple.
I’d pretty much avoided the park since then and had pretty much
avoided thinking through all the implications. I hadn’t shared
that I’d travelled through time to a crucial moment in world
history and prevented a human sacrifice. I hadn’t even told
Juliette that bit. I’d mentioned that I’d found an old temple
beneath the bandstand and how this had helped me connect with
the young Egyptian priestess.
A few minutes later we were by the fence that separated the
path encircling Hammerford Park from the briars and brambles
beyond. Dad had named this bit, with its years of old leaves and
fallen branches, the Wild Wood. Last autumn, I’d climbed over
with a mate and we’d found an old well hidden amongst the
bushes.
The metal fence came up to my chin. I cupped my hands for
Juliette’s foot to help her climb over and then followed, landing
with a crash on leaf-mould and old twigs. Juliette slipped off her
small backpack. She extracted a powerful torch and one of Dad’s
paint-stained screwdrivers.
“So, where is it then?”
“Just over here.”
I led the way in, and pulled back some ferns and a spiky
branch from a hawthorn bush.
I looked in horror. The whole top of the well had changed.
The wooden lid had entirely gone.
“Ha!” said Juliette. “Ha bloody ha. Now you’re going to tell
me you slipped through six inches of concrete! Just like some
teenage priestess slipped through several thousand years of
time.”
“It wasn’t like this … I mean, just a few weeks ago. It had an
old wooden top, held with a few rusty screws. Nat and I
unscrewed it and—”
“Spare me, Rhory, spare me. Are you seriously going to tell
me that someone just happens to have come along and sealed the
top of the well since you went down it? I mean look around.” She
kicked at some leaves with her foot. “Can you see where a
cement mixer sat? Can you see footprints from workmen? Just
confess I’ve caught you in a lie and be man enough to admit it.”
I felt sick and a little dizzy. The top of the well was completely
sealed by concrete that looked like it had been there for months,
if not years. I knelt down and poked around the edge of the
brickwork. Something glinted. I eased it out from where it had
been half buried. A long rusty screw, with its head partially
sheared. The sheared part still sparkled with clean metal. This
had to be the screw I’d broken when my cousin Natasha and I
opened up the well-top some weeks earlier.
“Look, Jules…” I said. Then I stopped talking; I’d caught a
glimpse of a man’s face watching us through the fence, further
round the path. Because I was kneeling, he hadn’t seen that I
could spot him.
“Can we help you?” I shouted. The face vanished.
Juliette swung round to me, the screwdriver in her hand.
“Who are you talking to?”
“Some guy’s watching us.”
“Yeah, okay, pull the other one, Rhory. No one in their right
mind would be out in the park with a sky as dark as this.” Juliette
looked around, keeping tight hold of the screwdriver. “Come on,
let’s go. You’ve been caught out, my dear brother, admit it.”
“No, I won’t admit anything of the sort. You can ask Natasha.
She was here, remember?”
Juliette just shook her head, and put the screwdriver in the
backpack. I strode over and took it out again.
“Look. I’m going to prove it.”
England – about now
Juliette stepped in front of me, her arms wide apart, blocking my
path.
“Rhory. No. You can’t expect me to believe that. It defies
science and it defies common sense. I don’t know why you’re
saying these things.”
Behind her the trees of Hammerford Park writhed and rustled
in the chill wind. We stood facing each other midway between
the bandstand and the old oak. Juliette is my favourite sister.
Correction. Juliette is my only sister. Seventeen, brighter than a
super-nova and prettier than your average celeb, she remained
my older sister and thus terminally irritating.
I tried to explain for the umpteenth time: “But it’s true. I can
only tell you what I experienced. I wasn’t going to share this with
you because I knew you wouldn’t get it. But you insisted. ‘Tell
me the truth,’ you said. ‘No, I’ll understand,’ you said. So I did.
And you don’t.”
“Would you honestly expect any sane person to believe that
under our stupid old bandstand there is an ancient temple?” She
pointed at the structure with the green finger of her rainbow coloured
gloves. “And if it is there, which it isn’t, but if it is there,
that you’re the only one who knows about it?”
Juliette turned to face the bandstand, as though expecting me
to produce an old temple like a rabbit out of a hat. Her dark hair
blew around her face and she pulled her multicoloured woolly
hat lower.
“I never said I was the only one who knows about it. It’s
marked on an old map that Natasha and I found at the Town
Hall, and I think that an ancient secret society—”
“You can stop right there.” Jules spun back and poked me in
the chest. “Save me the ridiculousness of ancient secret societies.
You’ve always had a vivid imagination. In many ways it’s quite
cute. But now you’re going too far.”
“Look, Jules, like it or not, there’s a tunnel running from the
old well in the Wild Wood.” I pointed in the general direction
beyond the swimming pool enclosure. “And it comes out into the
temple. The temple then opens into the storage area under the
bandstand. Jeez…” irritation buzzed through me, “…I walked it
only a few weeks ago.”
“Okay. The joke’s gone on long enough. I don’t even know
why I’ve come with you.” She thrust her hands into the pockets
of her coat. “Frankly, you’re making me complicit in your stupid
fantasies. You’ll be a laughing stock if you tell anyone else. Do
you want that?”
“Bleeding heck, just come and look. It’ll only take us a few
minutes to get to the well, then you can see.” I pulled on her arm.
“It’s quite possible to spot where the tunnel sets off near the metal
rungs that go down towards the water. You can even go down
and try it yourself.”
My sister snorted at that suggestion. We set off in silence
under a dark-grey and somewhat threatening sky.
Juliette looked up. “That’s all I need. To get soaked while on a
wild goose chase.”
I glanced over towards the old oak. Its shape had definitely
changed since the lightning struck, the night I found the temple.
I’d pretty much avoided the park since then and had pretty much
avoided thinking through all the implications. I hadn’t shared
that I’d travelled through time to a crucial moment in world
history and prevented a human sacrifice. I hadn’t even told
Juliette that bit. I’d mentioned that I’d found an old temple
beneath the bandstand and how this had helped me connect with
the young Egyptian priestess.
A few minutes later we were by the fence that separated the
path encircling Hammerford Park from the briars and brambles
beyond. Dad had named this bit, with its years of old leaves and
fallen branches, the Wild Wood. Last autumn, I’d climbed over
with a mate and we’d found an old well hidden amongst the
bushes.
The metal fence came up to my chin. I cupped my hands for
Juliette’s foot to help her climb over and then followed, landing
with a crash on leaf-mould and old twigs. Juliette slipped off her
small backpack. She extracted a powerful torch and one of Dad’s
paint-stained screwdrivers.
“So, where is it then?”
“Just over here.”
I led the way in, and pulled back some ferns and a spiky
branch from a hawthorn bush.
I looked in horror. The whole top of the well had changed.
The wooden lid had entirely gone.
“Ha!” said Juliette. “Ha bloody ha. Now you’re going to tell
me you slipped through six inches of concrete! Just like some
teenage priestess slipped through several thousand years of
time.”
“It wasn’t like this … I mean, just a few weeks ago. It had an
old wooden top, held with a few rusty screws. Nat and I
unscrewed it and—”
“Spare me, Rhory, spare me. Are you seriously going to tell
me that someone just happens to have come along and sealed the
top of the well since you went down it? I mean look around.” She
kicked at some leaves with her foot. “Can you see where a
cement mixer sat? Can you see footprints from workmen? Just
confess I’ve caught you in a lie and be man enough to admit it.”
I felt sick and a little dizzy. The top of the well was completely
sealed by concrete that looked like it had been there for months,
if not years. I knelt down and poked around the edge of the
brickwork. Something glinted. I eased it out from where it had
been half buried. A long rusty screw, with its head partially
sheared. The sheared part still sparkled with clean metal. This
had to be the screw I’d broken when my cousin Natasha and I
opened up the well-top some weeks earlier.
“Look, Jules…” I said. Then I stopped talking; I’d caught a
glimpse of a man’s face watching us through the fence, further
round the path. Because I was kneeling, he hadn’t seen that I
could spot him.
“Can we help you?” I shouted. The face vanished.
Juliette swung round to me, the screwdriver in her hand.
“Who are you talking to?”
“Some guy’s watching us.”
“Yeah, okay, pull the other one, Rhory. No one in their right
mind would be out in the park with a sky as dark as this.” Juliette
looked around, keeping tight hold of the screwdriver. “Come on,
let’s go. You’ve been caught out, my dear brother, admit it.”
“No, I won’t admit anything of the sort. You can ask Natasha.
She was here, remember?”
Juliette just shook her head, and put the screwdriver in the
backpack. I strode over and took it out again.
“Look. I’m going to prove it.”