He was out of breath by the time he reached the fountain. It was in the form of a big fish squirting lots of water straight up into the air.
As he had some paper notes as well as coins, Lukas had taken his secret piggy bank with him. So that the notes wouldn’t blow away, or just float on the surface of the water, he’d decided to throw in the whole lot: then he could be sure it would sink to the bottom.
He was the only one by the fountain. He knew that when you threw in your money, all you should be thinking about was the wish you wanted to come true. Otherwise nothing would happen.
But as he was thinking so hard that he closed his eyes, he couldn’t keep his balance when he threw the piggy bank into the well. He fell into the water and got soaking wet through.
It wasn’t very deep, but the water was freezing cold and he started shivering. He couldn’t see any sign of the piggy bank, no matter how hard he looked into the bubbling water.
Then his teeth began chattering, and he ran through the park in his dripping wet clothes. He didn’t wait by the car, but ran straight into the supermarket, and eventually found his mum in among the shelves. She stared at him in horror.
‘You’re wet through!’ she said. ‘What have you been doing?’
‘It’s a secret,’ Lukas told her. ‘Some secrets can make you wet.’
Lukas couldn’t understand why, but Beatrice didn’t ask him any more questions. Perhaps she suspected it had something to do with Night.
She left the trolley and its contents where it was, and drove him home so that he could put some dry clothes on.
‘I expect it’s true that some secrets can make you wet,’ she said. ‘But no more wet secrets today, all right?’
‘I promise,’ said Lukas.
Then Beatrice drove back to the mall to finish her shopping.
Lukas sat by the window, looking for Night.
But he didn’t come back that day either, even though Lukas had almost sacrificed himself in the wishing well.
Now there was only one thing he could do.
Wait. And wait. And wait.
Twelve
The night before Lukas started school, he had a remarkable dream. At first he’d found it difficult to get to sleep. His mum had sat on the edge of his bed and read aloud several stories that Lukas liked to hear. But she’d also told him he needn’t feel nervous about his first day at school. He’d been to meet the teacher some time ago, and he knew several of the children who would be starting at the same time and in the same class.
‘I’m not frightened,’ said Lukas.
‘Good!’ said Beatrice. ‘Sleep well!’
She left a lamp on and closed the door quietly. Lukas could hear the sound of the television in the background, and that was when the remarkable dream started, even before he fell asleep.
He was lying and looking at the lampshade, the faint light behind the thick red shade. Suddenly, he had the impression that everything was becoming lighter. Stars seemed to be glittering from the ceiling. Just next to the old cupboard with his old teddy bear on top, a pale half-moon was shining, exactly as if the moon had sunk down from the sky and somehow smuggled its way in through the closed window. A campfire was burning in the middle of the floor. Shadows danced along the walls, and Lukas thought it was an interesting dream — but he wasn’t asleep.
Just for a moment he felt afraid, and pulled the sheet over his head. But when he smelled the smoke from the campfire in his nostrils, he pulled it down again and decided that it wasn’t a dangerous dream, just something unusual and remarkable.
He sat up in bed.
Yes, the whole room had changed. He noticed that the curtains now looked like a door. He got out of bed, was careful not to go too near the fire, and made his way to the window.
When he carefully opened the curtains, he saw that the window behind them really had changed into a door.
He tried the handle and opened the door. There was no longer a garden outside. There were no other houses, and no Rowan Tree Road. There was something else. Something remarkable...
He went back to his bed and sat down on the edge of it. Then he noticed something yellow lying next to the campfire. He couldn’t see what it was at first, but when he leaned forward he saw it was Night’s collar. The one he’d been wearing the day he wandered off to Rainy-Weather Land.
He noticed that his heart was pounding. Night was somewhere close by. He went back to the window.
It was totally dark outside, because the moon and the stars were inside his room. But then he realised that he could see even so. Just like Night, he thought. In this strange dream I can see in the dark just as well as Night.
Then he heard a sound coming from the darkness. He knew immediately what it was. His ears had become just as good as Night’s as well.
But was it really Night miaowing in the darkness?
He thought he could glimpse something black, but he wasn’t sure. He held his breath and waited. Then he heard the sound again.
Night, Lukas thought. You’ve come back after all. You’re coming to greet me, even though it is only in a strange dream.
There was a ladder leaning against the window that had changed into a door. Lukas clambered out onto the ladder.
Although it was cold outside, he didn’t feel cold. I’ve probably got thick fur now as well, even if it is invisible, he thought. Every time he put his foot on a new rung, he could hear various tunes playing for him.
When he stepped onto the last rung of all, he could hear the tune he liked best of all, Silent Night. And he remembered singing it to Night, one of the last days just before he vanished.
When he reached the ground, he noticed that it was drizzling slightly. But he didn’t get wet at all, and the rain was warm — it was like standing under a warm shower.
I’m in Rainy-Weather Land, he thought. When Night realised that I wouldn’t be able to find my way there, he came to me and brought the land with him in a dream instead.
He could hear some more miaowing, further away this time. Lukas followed, trying to be as quiet as possible and not to walk on dry, rustling leaves. He listened to the warm rain, and it sounded to him like various tunes. The drops were playing melodies for him, and it was nearly as beautiful as when his mum used to sing to herself.
He suddenly stopped dead. What if he liked Rainy-Weather Land so much that he didn’t want to go back home? What if he would never go to school, neither tomorrow nor any other day?
He turned round, frightened of losing his way. He could see the open door of his room, shining brightly through the darkness, high above the ladder. The moonlight shone down in a beam that ended at his feet. If he followed that moonbeam, he’d never find his way back home, he thought.
He heard more miaowing, and followed it. There were no houses at all, only bare ground and some small, odd-looking bushes that all looked the same. Then he realised what they were. Umbrellas. Planted umbrellas. Obviously, nobody needed umbrellas in Rainy-Weather Land. They were allowed to grow wherever they liked, and nobody paid any attention to them.
He suddenly stood still. He didn’t know why, only that he had to stand absolutely still. There was something close by. He pricked up his ears and listened, looking round in the blackness all the while.
That was when he caught sight of Night. He was sitting on top of a massive rock washing his fur with slow movements of his tongue. When Lukas saw him, he turned his head and looked Lukas straight in the eye. It was as if lights had been switched on, connecting their eyes — two beams of light linking their faces like telephone wires.