THE

PUSHION

PEOPLE

A Novel for Humans aged 6 to 96

By John James Carty

Snow sculpture, Sapporo Snow Fair

CHAPTER SEVEN

BILLY PUSHION

Level: intermediate – advanced/ more advanced

It was cold and and dark in the hills above Lake Shikotsu. Billy was returning from the famous Snow Fair in Sapporo, Japan, where he had helped to build a great statue. But he had stayed too long during the day, looking at the scenery, and he lost contact with his group.

The Pushions are always careful to travel in groups when they are out in the world; they are only really safe when they are at home in the Grand Canyon. Over the years Anikk had never given up on trying to capture Pushions, even one Pushion, and they were in danger any time they were alone in the world. Billy knew this very well.

Suddenly, the night became much colder and there was a high wind whistling over the lake. The wind swept Billy up in the air and carried him like a leaf, high in the sky. A horrible smell surrounded Billy although he was flying at speed through clean fresh air. He knew the smell – it was the smell of Anikk!

He tried to remain calm, but he was frightened. He could see nothing below him or in the dark sky. But he knew he had been captured by an evil wind controlled by Anikk.

He guessed the wind would take him to Dalriada. He concentrated on mental exercises so that he would not panic and closed his eyes tightly. Eventually the wind died down and he landed. It was dawn and he could see that he had landed in the courtyard of Anikk’s castle, which he knew so well from Pushion stories and songs.

Two slaves appeared and without saying a word or even looking at him directly, carried him off to the dungeons deep below the castle. Billy expected to be brought to Anikk himself, but the days passed and he was never called. The guards put heavy chains around his ankles and gave him a sweeping brush, a bucket of water and some soap things. They told him it was his job to clean the inside of the castle.

The work was very hard and he was very tired at the end of each day. The food was horrible: a kind of soup with little dead animals in it. He couldn’t eat it. He couldn’t even look at his plate most of the time because it was so disgusting. But he had to look because sometimes they gave him bits of fresh fruit and he could eat these.

He was watched carefully by the guards when they took him to and from his work but once he was back in his dungeon cell they ignored him. After a few days he realized that the Anikks must have forgotten that the Pushions are story-tellers because they never called for him. He was glad about that. But his life was miserable and he was very lonely.

One day Billy finished his work early, and the guards took him through the main castle passage, as that was the quickest way back to his cell. As they turned a corner he could see a crowd of Anikks gathered in a circle, looking at something on the ground. The enormous bodies of the Anikks blocked out the light, and Billy could not see what was on the floor.

‘Let’s have a look,’ he whispered to the guard,

‘OK, but we’d better be quiet,’ the guard whispered, as if he was Billy’s friend. As they moved forward they could hear that the Anikks were very excited. One or two of the Anikks were kicking something on the ground.

‘Let’s torture it!’ yelled one.

‘Can I kick it again?’ asked another.

‘We could cook it,’ said another, ‘and have it in a sandwich.’

‘Idiot! Would you eat that in a sandwich? It’s all green and floppy – looking, it looks as if it came off your bed!’

‘Or down his nose!’ yelled a smaller Anikk, quickly ducking away from a big fist.

Billy had crept forward far enough. The light of a lantern fought through the shadows cast by the giants all around him. He could see some sort of dirty, wet creature lying on the floor. It was green and floppy and its body looked as if it used to belong to a lot of other people.

Billy knew what this creature was: it was a Gotorp. But he didn’t know what to do to help the Gotorp. He realised that this Gotorp peisoner would soon be forced to do the cleaning and get rid of the garbage, because the Gotorp had a lot more cleaning skills than he had.

This would probably mean that he’d have to do another job, but he couldn’t figure out what difference this would make to him, or the Gotorp. It was likely that the Anikks would keep the Gotorp alive because it was so good at cleaning. But Billy couldn’t think of a plan; he had not used any of his own powers to escape because he had a feeling that he had been waiting for something – orders from Tasker, perhaps. Or maybe the arrival of this Gotorp…

He suddenly realised that the only way to help the Gotorp was to stay close to it all the time; plans could come later. He lifted his bucket as high as he could and threw it to the floor noisily. Then he shouted angrily,

‘That’s right! Bring in another prisoner! It doesn’t matter that the dungeon is crowded and my cell is the worst! Why not bring in another twenty prisoners!’ The Anikks stared at Billy in shocked disbelief and with one voice roared,

‘GUARD!’

The guard sprang to life, pushed the bucket at Billy, and hustled him off to the cells. The Anikks stood around looking at the green and floppy thing:

‘I know,’ said one, ‘why don’t we lock it up in the dungeon?’

‘Good idea,’ said another.

‘Thought of that myself,’ said a third in a British accent, ‘just didn’t like to mention it, showing off and all that, don’t you know.’

And so it was that the Gotorp was thrown into Billy’s cell just in time for dinner. On this night the dinner was something dark and brown with lumps in it. One of the lumps might have been a mouse, they weren’t sure. It was very difficult to know whether the little bodies in their soup were meant to be there or whether they were things that had fallen in by accident and were now swimming to get out.

They ignored the food and shook hands.

‘What kind of creature are you?’ the Gotorp asked.

‘I’m a Pushion,’ said Billy, ‘They caught me far, far way.’

‘I thought you might be a Pushion when I saw you upstairs, but I’ve never seen one before so I didn’t know what a Pushion looked like.’

‘Well, I knew what you were because the Gotorps are famous friends of the Pushion People – you’re in a lot of our songs and stories.’

The Gotorp sighed,

‘We will never forget the Pushion People because they rescued us from Dalriada in the olden days. We will always be grateful for that.’

‘How did they capture you?’ Billy asked.

‘I was out gathering shoots and I wandered away from the northern swamps, where we live. I was alone and they ambushed me.’ Billy explained about his capture and he told the Gotorp that he didn’t know if he was meant to escape yet.

‘Don’t know? Do you mean you could escape if you wanted to? You could escape at any time?’

‘Well, yes, more or less. I can change myself into nearly anything and that should get us out.’

‘Can you change into a hammer?’ the Gotorp asked, ‘because I could use you as a hammer to knock the bolt off of this door!’

‘No, you can’t do that,’ said Billy, ‘you’d knock my brains out. We’ll have to think.’ Night fell and it became very dark in the cell.

‘Where’s the dump?’ asked the Gotorp in the darkness.

‘Why, what do you have in mind?’ asked Billy, although he knew perfectly well how Gotorps and garbage went together.

‘You point me in the direction of the dump and I’ll put on such a show of garbage disposal solutions with minimum bottom line repercussions that they will be forced to give me your job.’

‘Do you mean you’ll chuck out the garbage?’ Billy asked.

‘Couldn’t have said it better myself!’ declared the Gotorp.

‘And didn’t,’ muttered Billy, a bit annoyed.

‘Tell me the direction of the dump and I shall enchant them with my skills for three days. On the fourth day we’ll leave – vooom, that’s it.’

Billy had to stop and think carefully. But he had to have faith in what he knew about the Gotorps from all the Pushion stories too. He thought for a few minutes in the darkness,

‘Yes, I think it will work,’ he said, ‘but what is your plan? A light snoring sound told him that the Gotorp was sleeping peacefully.

Next morning the guard opened the cell with a bang. He looked at the two creatures blankly. It was obvious that no one had told him that there were two prisoners, or what he should do with them.

Billy nodded at the Gotorp and turned to the prison guard,

‘Watch this!’ He said, pointing to his friend. The guard watched as the Gotorp went around all the cells picking up years of trash and stuffing it into the pouches all around him. When he was full he looked like a giant green apple.

The guard scratched his head. He looked at Billy. He didn’t know what to think. Billy said to the Gotorp,

‘The dump is behind the farthest tree, at the end of the castle gardens.’

‘Ah, good,’ said the Gotorp, ‘to the north.’

‘I don’t know if it’s north or south,’ said Billy, ‘but that’s where it is.’

‘Well, it’s important,’ said the Gotorp, ‘that’s where the northern swamps are.’

‘Come on you two,’ the guard grumbled, ‘I'll take both of you with me.'

So the Gotorp, full of garbage, went to the dump with Billy,

When he reached the dump everyone in the castle watched as the enormously fat Gotorp grabbed a high branch, swung around and emptied all his pouches.

They soon set up a routine and after the first day everyone in Dalriada was used to the Gotorp and his journeys. That night they sat in the cell, having a little party, because the Gotorp had picked up a lot of good things to eat in the gardens. He kept this food in a separate personal pocket so that it could stay fresh and good to eat.

‘What’s the plan?’ the Gotorp asked Billy.

‘Well,’ said Billy, ‘all we need to do is get past that guard in the morning.…’

‘So you can become a big stick and I’ll hit him over the head!’

‘No, no. Pushions aren’t allowed to hurt people or anything else.’

The Gotorp looked very serious and stared into Billy’s eyes,

‘Can you be a dragon? Dragons always get people’s attention. And what about flames? Will you need matches?’

‘Yes, I can be a dragon and I can do flames, but they hurt my nose,’ Billy answered.

When the guard arrived next morning he opened the cell door sleepily, rubbing his eyes.. He saw a dragon coming towards him, breathing fire. He was frightened stiff and couldn’t move. Before the guard could recover and run away the Gotorp took his keys and he and Billy got out of the cell.

They locked the guard in the cell behind them and walked slowly through the hallways of the castle, picking up a little garbage along the way.

Before they reached the final sentry gate the Gotorp opened his front pouch; Billy climbed into the pouch without a word.

The Gotorp, now fat and round as usual, did his funny walk to the dump. But this time he did not stop at the dump. This time he walked on – and on, to his friends and his home in the North.

The Pushion People Chapter 1

The Pushion People Chapter 2