Deep Fat’s funeral cortege came to a halt near the Enchanted Lake while Blade looked around for a safe resting place. ‘I think inside this broken fencing and near the water’s edge would be the best place,’ he said to Jane. ‘What do you think?’
‘You are right Blade, it is peaceful here,’ she replied, tears welling up in her eyes again.
Quietly Blade passed on the message to the others that Deep Fat was to be buried near the waterside of the large garden pond, and with his tungsten carbide serrated edges he cut through the broken fencing to allow the other gadgets easy access to the site.
Marvin and Harry gently laid down the warming tray and Benzo and Crock Pot lifted Deep Fat off it. Ricky and Neville, who had been with Deep Fat on the left flank at the beginning of the battle immediately offered to dig the grave. But The General interrupted them. ‘Not you Ricky,’ he said to the rice cooker, ‘although it was good of you to volunteer. Bit I think I will assist Neville with this. He was one of my men and I feel a leader’s obligation to honour him in death. And so the sandwich maker and the grilling machine started using their flat plates to dig into the earth and create a suitable hole in which the old fryer could be buried. The rest of the gadgets stood around in silence many of them with tears in their eyes,
When the grave had been dug it was beholden to Blade to say a few words about his pal.
‘Friends,’ he began. ‘This is without a doubt the saddest day of our lives. Deep Fat was not only one of the finest gadgets I have ever had the honour to meet he was also one of the most caring.’ At this Jane started to sob openly through her Nut Raisin Dispenser and Fiona the fondue fountain reached out to steady her.
‘I know he didn’t see eye-to-eye with everyone,’ continued Blade, glancing at Lee Mailer. ‘But behind that bumbling exterior there really did beat a heating unit of gold. He was banished to the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard for months and although he was lonely and didn’t know day from night his sense of self-worth pulled him through and if it hadn’t been for his weight then neither of us would have managed to escape from there because I couldn’t. have broken out of the cupboard on my own. And none of us would be on this adventure now. Instead we would have been auctioned off on some Internet site, languishing as second-class gadgets on someone else’s worktop. So we all owe a great deal to Deep Fat.
‘He was a thoughtful and a loving fryer and he idolised Jane,’ added Blade, glancing towards the bread maker. ‘In the end he even laid down his life for her.’ Jane burst into huge wailing sobs on hearing this and Jenny the juice extractor and Simon the sealer went to hold her, fearful that in her distraught state she might try to hurl herself into the recently dug grave.
‘You all knew Deep Fat and you all have personal memories of him. I’d like us all now to just take a minute of silence to reflect on our lost friend and how much he meant to us all.’ The gadgets that had lids took them off in respect and everyone turned their eyes downcast to the ground.
But after only about 20 seconds the silence was shattered. ‘Over here, over here, the foxes den has got to be over here,’ came the recognisable shouting. The gadgets looked at each other in horror. It was Zack, and he wasn’t far away.
‘Don’t panic,’ said Blade, even though he was trembling inside himself. ‘This is a sad but solemn occasion and we must respect Deep Fat. Zack knows that this part of the garden is out of bounds to him and while he might have violated one rule we are still inside the fencing round the pond and that might give us some sort of protection and cover.’
‘Don’t count on it,’ said Lee Mailer. ‘That little horror respects nothing. We must hurry.’
With that the gadgets, using Simon’s sealer bags and Blade’s power cord slowly lowered Deep Fat into the grave. As they all stood round Blade said: ‘May you sleep in peace and may you never rust.’ The other gadgets all murmured, ‘aye’ and then as quickly as possible filled in Deep Fat’s grave and covered it with twigs and pieces of bush.
‘What about some sort of headstone?’ Jane said to Blade. ‘We must mark the spot somehow.’
As kindly as possible Blade replied: ‘We can’t afford to do that, not right now. We can’t draw attention to Deep Fat or ourselves in any way at all.’ But then seeing how dejected Jane looked he took two tiny pieces of broken fence post and placed them on the ground as if they had just fallen there. But if one knew the secret, they were in the shape of a cross.
Then they heard the shouting again. ‘Look, The Enchanted Lake, let’s go there,’ screamed Zack.
‘I don’t think we should,’ said his brother. ‘We’re not supposed to be here at all, and we are expressly forbidden to go near the pond. Dad said that’s why he put that fencing up and…
‘Dad said, dad said,’ mimicked Zack. ‘Dad’s not here, now come on.’
‘No,’ replied Jake stubbornly.
‘OK then scaredy pants, in that case I’m going on my own.’
The gadgets froze in horror. Zack was only a few of metres away from them and there was nowhere to hide. They simply stared at one another as Zack smashed down a bit of fencing and approached the Enchanted Lake.
Blade whispered something to his girlfriend Forque, to Benzo the big Russian 12-speed glass blender and to Crock Pot, the slow cooker. Oh how he wished Deep Fat had been with them now, but Benzo and Crock Pot would have to do instead. It would take all their strength. Blade quickly lassoed his power cord round an old broken piece of fencing, and brave Forque went and lay down on the ground where she could obviously be seen. ‘It worked before,’ Blade thought to himself. ‘And it might work again.’
Zack stared in disbelief. Shine, he thought bending down slightly. That’s my old catapult, what on earth is it doing down here? As he bent down lower to pick it up, Blade raised his power cord and Benzo and Crock Pot, who had sneaked behind Zack, pushed the child as hard as they could. He lost his balance, tripped over Blade’s power cord and his last word was, ‘Whooa,’ as he tumbled into the Enchanted Lake.
Jenny and Fiona looked at the scene with incredulity. ‘He’ll drown’, said the juice extractor to the fondue fountain. ‘We have to do something. He’s a horrible little brat but we can’t let that happen. What was Blade thinking of?’
As if in anticipation of their worries Blade said to them: ‘It’s not that deep and Zack is a big lad. He is going be absolutely covered in mud but I reckon he will be able to struggle out. Now come on, we must get away from here as quickly as possible.’
Jake heard his brother’s shouts of help, looked through the fencing surrounding the pond, closed his eyes and whispered, ‘Oh no’ to himself, then turned on his heel and started running back up the garden as fast as he could shouting: ‘Dad, dad, come quickly. Zack has fallen into the Enchanted Lake. Dad, dad….’ By the time Jake had scrambled up on to the top patio and ran through into the kitchen he was so out of breath he could barely speak.
‘What is all this commotion,’ asked Sebastian. ‘Are you all right Jake? Where’s Zack?’
‘He’s …he’s…he’s…’,.said Jake taking big gulps of air, and playing for time so his words would have more impact.
‘Yes, yes, what is it Jake?’
‘He’s…he’s….’, then a long pause and a big gulp of air. ‘He’s fallen in the Enchanted Lake,’ Jake said with a big shout as a wicked grin crossed his face.
There was pandemonium in the Abercrombie household. ‘Oh my God,’ screamed Rebecca automatically clutching little Lucy to her side. Sebastian was out of the kitchen door like a shot and heading for the garage to get some rope. ‘I’m coming with you,’ Rebecca shouted after him.
‘No, you stay here with Lucy and Jake.’
‘But I’m coming with you dad,’ said Jake, now fully recovered and smiling at the thought of the trouble his brother would be in. I know where Zack is.’
‘OK,’ replied his father, as he grabbed the rope. ‘Let’s go. Hurry.’
Sebastian raced down the garden, kicking anything out of the way, jum
ping from the second patio to the lawn and on past the ornamental fountain. Jake was desperately trying to keep up but found his little legs just weren’t strong enough.
Meanwhile the gadgets were also running as fast as gadgets can to get away from the scene, while Zack, who had ended up face down in the pond, had struggled to get back on his feet and found the water had only come up to his knees. But he was covered from head to foot in dirty filthy mud, weeds and algae. As he struggled to get to the bank he slipped on the thick muddy bottom of the pond and fell down again. ‘Urrgh.’ he shouted as he crawled his way towards the bank again, all his clothes ruined and himself stinking of stagnant filthy pond water. ‘Some kind of an enchanted lake this turned out to be,’ he mumbled under his breath.
Then he heard the shouts. ‘Zack, Zack, where are you?’ It was his father. ‘Oh no,’ thought Zack. ‘It’s dad. Now I’m for it. That stupid brother of mine must have gone and alerted him. Wait till I get my hands on him,’ he grumbled ungratefully.
‘I’m over here dad,’ he replied emerging from the pond just as his father was smashing through the old fencing surrounding it.
‘My God look at you, are you all right son? What happened to you?’ And then Sebastian realised it wasn’t concern he should be showing, although he felt both that and relief seeing his son was safe, but outrage that Zack had disobeyed one of the cardinal rules of the household and not only gone into the Magic Forest but right up to – and obviously into – the Enchanted Lake. Sebastian’s tone turned from concern to authoritarian: ‘How many times have I got to tell you not to go to the bottom of the garden?’ he said, the tone of his voice rising with anger. ‘Only today I strictly forbade you to go down here. And what have you done? Blatantly disregarded my orders. And what has been the result? Just look you Zack, just look at you. You are filthy from head to toe, you stink and…and…’ Sebastian was shouting now. ‘You could have drowned.
‘Right come with me, and you just wait until your mother hears about all this.’ With that he dragged Zack by his filthy shirt sleeve and pulled him back through the broken fencing and through the undergrowth to the bottom of the garden lawn where Jake was standing, with a wide grin on this face.
‘But dad, dad, you don’t understand,’ protested Zack. ‘Let me explain.’
‘It’s too late for explanations Zack. And anyway, all your explanations turn out to be lies. But this is the end; this really is the end for you Zack. Now let me get you back in the house and cleaned up,’ he added dragging his son along behind him.
Jake just stood there smiling.
When they got to the house Rebecca was quick to hide the relief on her face. Instead a furious rage at her eldest child was building up inside her.
But before she could say anything little Lucy piped up: ‘Zack why are you all pongy? You look like a dirty scarecrow.’
‘Lucy darling,’ said her mother with as much control as possible. ‘Go and play in the conservatory for a while. Daddy and I want to talk to Zack.’
‘OK mummy… Urrgh, Zack’s a stinky boy.’
Jake also knew it was best to stay out of the kitchen, he didn’t want to get dragged into this one and decided to kick his heels on the top patio, listening at the door.
But what he heard made him mad with anger.
‘Everyone should have a chance to explain,’ said Sebastian as calmly as possible. ‘ But that doesn’t mean I have to believe you Zack. After all you don’t have much of a track record when it comes to telling the truth. But go on, what happened?’
‘Well we were trying to track down the foxes. So they wouldn’t do any more harm to the garden and I suppose we got carried away and went in the Magic Forest by mistake, because we seemed so near to them. I’m sorry dad, we didn’t mean to go there honest.’
‘Carry on.’
‘Well then, just inside the fencing round the Enchanted Lake I saw something that looked like my catapult, the gat that I lost. So I went to retrieve it, but as I bent down to pick it up Jake came up behind me and pushed me into the Lake. It was all Jake’s fault dad, not me.’
At that point Jake burst in through the kitchen door. ‘You liar,’ he shouted as he lunged at his eldest brother. ‘You liar, liar, liar,’ he screamed, tears of rage running down his face as he tried to hit Zack.
Fortunately their father was much stronger than his sons and managed to hold them apart, shouting at the top of his voice. ‘Stop this, stop this at once both of you.
‘But dad,’ pleaded Jake through his tears. ‘He’s always blaming me for everything and I didn’t do it.’ At which point Rebecca came to comfort her son.
‘And I believe you Jake,’ she said as calmly as she could.
‘So do I son,’ added Sebastian.
Zack was horrified. They had finally seen through his lies. Now no one would ever believe him in future. Sebastian spoke calmly: ‘Both of you disobeyed strict orders by going into that overgrown area at the bottom of the garden. But if I had to guess I would say it was you Zack, who influenced your brother into doing it. For what reason, I have no idea. And I don’t really care. But it seems to me Zack that you love going where you shouldn’t and so I’ve decided that if that’s what you want that’s what you can have. And so tonight Zack you can sleep in the old Wendy House on your own, and we’ll see how much you enjoy it. Now both of you go to your rooms.’
‘What kind of a punishment is that dad,’ began Jake, while Zack had a smirk all over his face.
‘I think it might just be punishment enough,’ replied his father. Now both of you, out of my sight.’
When the boys had left the kitchen and gone to their rooms Rebecca approached her husband and said: ‘Are you sure of this Seb? He’s only a 12 year-old boy. A night in the rundown Wendy House on his own could frighten the life out of him.’
‘That’s just what I’m relying on,’ replied her husband.
While Zack and Jake were grounded in their rooms the gadgets were making their way as quickly as they could through the Magic Forest. They had left the Enchanted Lake behind them and were heading east. All around there were brambles, undergrowth, moss, bushes and trees that kept out the sun. The ground was damp and dirty and the little band of gadgets were not happy as they tramped along. Their time walking over the Abercrombie’s manicured lawn seemed like a holiday compared with this. The scream was the first thing any of the gadgets heard and they looked around in surprise. They were just in time to see Fiona the chocolate fondue fountain tumble down a hole in the ground. It seemed she had found what Zack had been looking for – a den.
‘Oh my God,’ shouted Eddie the electric wok as he saw his girlfriend disappearing down the hole. ‘Help, somebody come and help.’
‘Mmm,’ said Doctor Sympatico, who was right behind Fiona when she fell. ‘Hardly Alice in Wonderland, but don’t worry Eddie, as long as she hasn’t broken anything we should be able to get her out of there. It looks like she has fallen into a foxes’ den and it usually has more than one opening.
‘Fiona.’ shouted Sympatico. ‘Fiona can you hear me?’ But there was no sound coming from the fondue fountain.
Eddie started to panic as the other gadgets gathered around the hole. ‘Somebody do something.’ he demanded.
‘Stay calm Eddie,’ replied Blade. ‘I’m sure she will be all right. I just can’t see in there.’
‘Fiona. Fiona,’ shouted Eddie.
Blade, The General, Sympatico and Lee-Mailer discussed the situation they were in and then Blade told the rest of the gadgets: ‘Spread out a little and look for any other openings there might be into the den. We might be able to get Fiona out another way. We don’t know that it is a foxes’ den. It could be a rabbit warren. And it could be abandoned.’
The gadgets started searching for any other openings and it was Ricky the rice maker who first spotted an indent that was partially covered with old twigs and leaves. ‘Look here,’ he said to Warren, ‘this could be something.’ They cleared the area and there was
indeed another hole, although smaller than the one that Fiona had fallen down. It was so small that even tiny Carl The Mighty would have a job squeezing down it.
‘Do something Blade,’ pleaded Eddie. ;’Lower your power cord down there.’
‘He can’t Eddie’, said The General. ‘The den twists and turns. It wouldn’t work.’
‘Then I can go down with it, or Carl can, he’s small enough.’
’No Eddie. We can’t risk anyone else being trapped down there.’
Just at that moment it started to slightly drizzle with rain.
‘I’ve got an idea. It’s a long shot but it’s the best we have,’ said Blade to Lee-Mailer. ‘First I want you to call up The Garden Gang and we’ll get them here as quickly as possible.’