Welcome back to Tabitha’s Magical Voice!
In Part 3 – Tabitha discovered that her voice can stop the dreaded nados from distroying the tiny village of Grenotia. Now, to keep themselves protected, the Grenigots want to hold her captive forever! How is Tabitha going to get home?
Marticus gave Tabitha a little smile. “We cannot let you go. Our people have been dying for as long as we can remember and, if you can stop it, we will do whatever it takes to keep you here. You’ll have to keep singing so the nados don’t come back.”
The villagers were gathering around. “Alright people,” Marticus ordered, “Tie her up.”
The villagers hooted and hollered and started throwing ropes around Tabitha’s ankles, using the sticks to anchor them. Others started crawling up her legs and tried to tie up her arms. Even Kishinae pitched in. Tabitha could hear some of them apologizing as they threw ropes around her wrist, explaining that they didn’t want to hurt her but they had no other choice. Tabitha tried to pick them off and place them on the ground again but there were too many.
Tabitha started crying uncontrollably. Marticus looked at her with disgust.
“Oh, stop that business right now.” he demanded. “It is such an awful sound, worse than the meowing squibbers, and you’re going to get us soaking wet.”
But the tears were pouring down her face like it was raining.
“I’m sorry. I just can’t seem to stop it.”
Tabitha felt for the Grenigots and didn’t want any harm to come to them but she certainly didn’t want to be tied up and forced to stay in the woods forever. She thought of her family and how much she would miss them even if she was angry with them right now. She pictured her home, the swing set in the yard she used to play on, the big oak tree she loved to climb. She pictured the comfy chair she loved to read in that sat by the window in the living room. She pictured her treasured doll collection on top of her dresser in her bedroom. Hmmm… her bedroom.
Suddenly, in a flash of inspiration, Tabitha came up with an idea. She suddenly stopped crying. As her tears started to dry, her eyes became bright and big again. She was sure her plan would work.
“Wait! You don’t have to keep me here. I know what we can do!”
“What?” asked Marticus suspiciously.
“Yes, what?” echoed the villagers.
“Well,” Tabitha began, clearing her throat. “I think you are a fine people, even if you are trying to kidnap me, and I don’t want the nados to come back any more than you do. If it really is my voice that’s keeping them away, I have a voice recorder in my bedroom. I can record my voice and then bring the recorder here so you can play it over and over again whenever the nados come and I can go back home. My parents can always buy me another one.”
Bornoden looked shocked. “So, we can hear your voice even when you are nowhere in sight?
“Of course!” Tabitha replied, still surprised at some of the things the Grenigots didn’t know about.
“Gosh and golly, that’s amazing!” Kishnae thought it was like magic.
One of the other villagers didn’t think it was such a good plan. “But what if we let you go and you don’t come back?”
“He’s right.” Tabitha thought to herself. She knew she would return but how could she prove it to the Grenigots?
While Tabitha scratched her head with her one free arm, trying to think of a way to show she would be true to her word, her fingers touched the perfect solution. She was wearing a lovely hair clip, a butterfly with stones that looked like emeralds and diamonds on it. It was her absolute favourite. So, she took the out the clip, with strands of hair falling to the sides of her face, and held it up for all to see.
“This is my absolute favourite hair clip.” she announced. She handed the clip to Marticus, who had to hold it with both hands it was so big. “If you promise not to let anything happen to it, I will leave it with you until I return with the voice recorder. That way you’ll know I’m sure to come back.”
The villagers were awed by the hair clip and could only assume that it was incredibly valuable because of all the sparkle. Kishinae couldn’t stop staring at it and wished she were big enough to wear it in her own hair. They all nodded to each other that this was an acceptable agreement.
“Alright. We’ll let you go.” said Marticus. Then, his eyes got squinty and he pursed his lips. He shook his finger at Tabitha. “But if you don’t come back with this recorder thing by the time the sun goes down we will come and find you and we won’t let you go.”
Tabitha knew her footsteps would look big enough to the Grenigots that they would easily be able to follow her.
“Don’t worry. I will come back.” she promised.
Marticus called out to the villagers. “Okay. Untie her!”
Tabitha breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!” With her arm and legs freed, she turned around and started running in the direction she thought was home. “I’ll be back as soon as I can!”
“Before the sun goes down.” Marticus warned. “Or we’ll find you.”
Tabitha made her way through the woods, seeing the world around her in a new light. She thought, if there were all those Grenigots in one clearing, how many other people, perhaps even smaller that the Grenigots, might there be lurking around in the woods that she couldn’t see? She had never considered it before but she was beginning to realize there was so much she wasn’t aware of. Could there be entire families of Winigoes or Hibogineets, whatever they were, right underneath her feet at that very moment? But Tabitha couldn’t think about that. She couldn’t slow down to check under her feet at every step or she would never make it back to Grenotia in time.
Tabitha could see the light at the edge of the wood and ran faster than she had ever run before. But when she reached the end of the trees, she was greeted by nothing she recognized. None of the houses were her house. None of the swing sets were her swing set. None of the trees in the yards were the big oak tree that she loved to climb.
What was she going to do? How was she going to get to her house? Should she make her way back to the clearing and try again? Perhaps if she went up to the front of the houses, where the street was, she might recognize another house or building and find home that way. That seemed like the best idea.
Through the windows of the houses, Tabitha could see families around the dinner table or watching TV. She hoped nobody would mind her walking through their yard or there were no vicious dogs to attack her. She had had enough adventure for one day. Thankfully, the only animal she saw
was a white cat that was actually quite cute and fluffy. It started rubbing up against her leg, wanting to be friends with her, but she had no time for such things. Besides, she remembered Bornoden’s story about what cats would do to the Grenigots and it didn’t seem so friendly.
“Go away, you mean old thing!” she hissed at the cat. And it took off.
When she got to the road, Tabitha found that none of the houses were familiar and there were no other landmarks. It was just one big line of garages and driveways. She was completely lost.
“Where am I?” she wondered out loud.
No one was outside to ask. The sign at the end of the street indicated she was on Billings Street but she had never heard of it before so that wasn’t much help.
Tabitha was trying to muster up the courage to go knock on someone’s door and ask for assistance. Knocking on doors made her nervous because she couldn’t tell if the people would be nice or not from just looking at their house.
She also didn’t know exactly what she would ask for. Tabitha wasn’t supposed to accept rides from strangers so asking someone to drive her home wasn’t smart. If she asked to use the phone to call her parents to come and pick her up they might not let her leave the house again. Then the Grenigots would come in the middle of the night and carry her away and lock her up on the outskirts of the clearing to do nothing but sing for the rest of her life. But she had to do something. She needed help.
