Murphy thought initially he was in the exact same place he had been standing before he had blinked – everything seemed the same. The stone bridge, the specific stone with the copperplate T was still there and Jake and Jacobi were holding onto it as before. It was as he looked down at his feet that he noticed the first difference. Instead of the dirt road he had been on Murphy was most surprised to see concrete pavers underneath his feet. He realised also that he could hear the sounds of lots of people talking, walking and generally buzzing around coming from the edges of the supposedly new tunnel he found himself in.
He Jake and Jacobi headed left out of the tunnel towards the light and presumably the street outside. Murphy was bracing himself all of the time as he had no idea what to expect. One thought really excited him however: Jacobi had said “London” – maybe he would get to see his friends John and Sasha on this trip! He eagerly hurried towards the exit of the tunnel.
He found himself in a bustling and busy street with people hurrying past him in both directions. He could see people chattering away to themselves it seemed on all sides, much as he’d seen businessmen do into mobile phones before. They all seemed to be in such a hurry, the movement and noise of them made him feel a little dizzy at first. He looked around some more, trying to get his bearings. He was in a busy street in London suddenly, far away from the quiet village and country lanes he had almost gotten used to finding himself in before. He was still quietly baffled, but was just glad to be anywhere other than Whitleby to be totally honest.
He looked more closely at the people jostling by him as they made their way down the street: they were, as he had thought earlier, talking to themselves. He could see no other explanation for it. He tried hard not to stare and stare at the smartly dressed man in a pinstripe suit and bowler hat coming towards him having a very heated conversation with no one as he walked on by. Or the mum with her baby in a pushchair talking to herself also. Jake and Jacobi were paying no attention to anyone around them at all, so he assumed this must be considered totally normal behaviour with them. Especially as everyone almost as far as the eye could see was doing much the same thing. He filed this away in his brain as something he should ask about once he got the opportunity.
They were heading towards the business district Murphy assumed as the buildings on either side of him seemed to be getting taller and more imposing as they walked. It was at this point that Murphy really started to look up at the buildings around him. What he saw made him want to duck and run out of the way. Office after office was piled one on top of the other, all in different styles with some looking very precariously balanced on the property beneath them. They were all different sizes too you see – and they weren’t stacked according to that either. You had huge impressive looking steel framed offices with floor to ceiling windows sitting atop tiny little offices with more conventional bricks and mortar walls with average size windows. There were more flamboyant offices in all the colours of the rainbow it seemed – some in the Spanish style he had seen on holiday: the bumpy walls, oval windows and vivid colours of Gaudi. Others were in a more Moroccan style, with terracotta walls and large windows. The result of this was a series of buildings which tottered on their foundations and gently seemed to sway in the breeze. Which everyone else around him seemed to be totally OK with – in fact, they didn’t really give the buildings a second glance at all. Murphy wondered how exactly these Montalians could live in London and still not be known to any of the humans living here also. How was that possible? Surely someone would have noticed. They would certainly have noticed the buildings even if they didn’t notice the people.
Murphy was straining hard to stop himself from just gawking and staring at everything around him. It was truly breathtaking – he felt totally in awe of what he was seeing. Buildings that seemed about to fall down around him – indeed, buildings that by all logical argument should not have been able to be built – were all around him. As he wandered on further, only dimly aware of keeping Jake and Jacobi in his sights lest he get totally lost, he stared upwards in disbelief. He could see a miniature Taj Mahal up ahead, on top of which he saw what could only be described as a Circus tent of the red and white stripy variety. It's doorway flapped idly in the breeze as he wandered underneath it's swaying, tottering form. How in the world could that have gotten there? Was he quietly hallucinating? He wouldn't be at all surprised if he was hallucinating this entire experience. This entire day – or was it night time? It should be after all...... maybe he was dreaming. Maybe that was it. Maybe. He would wake up soon to no doubt the pouring rain lashing the windows of his house in Whitleby. Maybe he might even prefer the dream.......
*
They arrived at their destination as they rounded the next bend in the road. Around which corner another little surprise awaited him. If he had thought the people were a little strange, the traffic here was most certainly not what he had expected. Bicycles – every colour, shape and size imaginable. There were single bicycles powering down the road with suited and booted passengers along for the ride. There were whole families sharing bicycles and having obviously friendly conversations whilst they were at it. Which isn't all that strange really. But when he realised that no one seemed to be pedalling these bikes, then he really started to wonder. They all had pedals – where else would they rest their feet? But no one was using them. The bikes seemed to propel themselves along the street quite happily under their own steam entirely.
They also seemed to leave behind them a kind of vapour trail almost. A little like the white smoke the Red Arrows use in their displays. Murphy got the impression of the bikes acting almost as rubbers as they pootled along, erasing any dirt or pollution in their wake. The air and the sky certainly seemed to be clearer and brighter as they passed through it. Which is in fact exactly what the bikes do, as Jake explained when he asked him. “Pretty cool huh?” Jake asked with a grin. Pretty cool indeed thought Murphy, but satisfied himself with a nod in Jake's direction. They had most definitely arrived as Jacobi was disappearing through a glass door of a very tall building indeed. They were being ushered inside of it somewhat impatiently, Jacobi no doubt wondering what the big hold up was. It's not as though anything was a little strange here right? Yeah, right thought Murphy. Nothing to see here at all. Sheesh.
So, he did what any boy of his age in a foreign country – maybe even on an alien planet – would do: he followed them inside. And once more silenced the little voice in his head that was growing bigger and bigger by the minute. What harm could it do? How bad could it really be? He felt relatively safe here with Jake. Jacobi he wasn't so sure of though – he smiled as he walked past him through the door he was holding open for him. Jacobi was an entirely unknown entity to him at this point, and an impatient one at that.
Jacobi shut the door smartly behind them and took off into the main lobby of the building they were in towards the lift. He was all business like and efficient it seemed, and there wasn't a moment to waste at all. Wherever it was they were headed to it seemed Jacobi was eager to get himself and them there.
We scurried along behind him, Jake and me, as fast as my curiosity would allow. All over the lobby were so many interesting people. I wanted to stop and take it all in. I also wanted to try and check out the signs to see if I could figure out where exactly we were heading for. No such luck. It seems when you travel with a Montalian you have to travel fast. And Murphy was already falling way behind.
He reached the lift just in time, as the doors closed right behind him. Jacobi tutted with impatience and Jake grinned. He really was holding Jacobi up today it seemed. As they headed up through the different floors Murphy got a chance to catch a glimpse of what was actually going on in the building. They stopped with the usual ping on floor four where two of the tallest men he had ever seen got into the lift with them and continued the journey upwards. They wore cream and brown robes and little round flat caps, patterned and embroidered all around the edges in a style Murphy had never seen before.
They talked between themselves, barely even noticing that there was anyone else there. There was no way the other passengers in the lift could eavesdrop their conversation however: they were talking so quickly and in the kind of native tongue that only a native could follow. Lots of “kuh” and “chuh” sounds and almost constant gesturing with their long and descriptive hands. They were it seemed having a very heated debate about something. What they were debating Murphy couldn't even begin to guess.
They got out of the lift only two floors later, and left the other occupants with a slight ringing in their ears. It was tough work being in a small, echoey metal box with those guys – thank goodness they hadn't been going all the way to the top along with them. Which Murphy now realised they were: going al the way to the top. The lift stopped on a few more floors and other characters made their way into and out of their personal space with varying degrees of intrusion. A lady got into the lift wearing a hugely flowing gown and the tallest hat Murphy had ever seen. EVERY time she moved she was seriously in danger of hitting one of them with the pointy end of it. Another was followed in and immediately surrounded by the thickest fog of the most sickly perfume he had ever smelled. In such a small space it very quickly became very hard to breathe. They covered their mouths as discreetly as possible and tried not to cough – or even worse to gag. How could the woman herself be so utterly unaffected by this? After all, she was at the very epicentre of the perfume cloud. Surely she should be feeling it the most.
As she exited the lift they breathed an audible sigh of relief, greedily sucking in the fresher air outside of the lift before the doors could close on them. They felt they had had a very close call there with suffocation. They were so happy to be given back their ability to breath. Thankfully they didn’t have much longer to wait in that lift anyway. Two more floors and they had arrived. Jacobi strode purposefully out onto the landing leaving the others with little choice but to follow him out there. Murphy took his one hundred and fifty six thousandth calming breath as he followed Jacobi down an unknown corridor to goodness knows where. How bad could it possibly be after all? It can’t seriously be any weirder than it already has been for him. Or so he hoped.
They came to an abrupt halt outside of an office door. Brown wood, looked perfectly normal. Nothing to fear here. The name on the door was a little unusual however: His Excellency the Royal Misoman Emperor of State (and all things human related). Interesting – very interesting. That was one heck of a title for any man. One heck of a title. All things human related. All things? How was that possible? For one man? Very strange. Very strange indeed. Or in fact very ordinary. After all, everything here was ultimately strange.
Jacobi knocked on the door and an extremely deep voice answered that he should enter. Murphy would know soon enough about the man who owned this impressive top floor office.
*
When he sat down in a vacant chair in front of a very big and important looking desk he found himself face to face with the biggest smile he had ever seen. This most excellent Misoman was clearly an exceptionally friendly person (or indeed a very good liar). He felt at ease though – he didn’t sense anything scary or dishonest about this man. He seemed honest and very much glad to see them.
“How are you my friends?” Misoman beamed at the assembled group in his office as though they were all old acquaintances. Never mind the fact that he had literally just that second met Murphy. He smiled to himself at this did Murphy – he liked Misoman already.
“I hope you had a pleasant trip here,” Misoman continued with a twinkle in his eye. “I have been looking forward to meeting with you – it promises to be a very interesting conversation and an interesting time in our history. This new agreement I have very high hopes for personally. I think you will be a valuable asset to us here Murphy. No doubt about that.” Misoman smiled around the group and seemed really happy with the current situation. Murphy just felt even more baffled than before. What exactly was going on here? What were they trying to sign him up to?
“Ah my friend. You are wondering however about what exactly you will be doing as an asset to our little community, no? A very good question indeed, and it is indeed my honour and my pleasure to explain it to you.” Misoman had a very roundabout way of talking- each of his sentences seemed to go on a huge journey before they reached their conclusion but he did seem genuine in his intentions for Murphy and in his affection for his role. Murphy decided right then and there he would trust him.
“Now Murphy. Let me explain to you all that is expected of you when you move between our two worlds. We are in need of a liaison – a go between for our two peoples. We have had many of these wonderful people over the years, and indeed our own people also travel between the two worlds when necessary. It is important in order to keep our two worlds working in harmony together (and yet still separately) that we do keep up this spirit of co-operation among those in the know.” Misoman smiled warmly – he was really all smile to be honest. That was the biggest, most important part of him. It was his most impressive and overwhelming feature really. He was pretty much all smile. His deep, warm voice only served to emphasise that to anyone who cared to look and listen.
“Now, your roles will be very important. You will be key to our efforts to stay a secret from most of the human race, and you will also act as our eyes and ears - alerting us to any potential dangers or issues we need to take care of. You will be our key witness and our confidante at the same time. You will be steadfast and trustworthy but also sneaky and evasive when we need you to be. You will be a walking talking contradiction, no?” Misoman laughed loudly at this, throwing his head back and really letting loose with a big laugh all the way down to his belly. “It sounds difficult I am sure. What we are asking of you can be difficult at times. But we have faith in you – we believe you will be able to succeed at this. If not we would never have chosen you.”
Murphy found himself smiling confidently. He was sure he could do it too. Wait a minute: did that thought really just fleet across his mind? Where on earth did it come from if so? He thought he could do what exactly? His “job description” was exceptionally vague – possibly the vaguest job description he had every heard. What exactly in real terms did they expect him to do? What exactly was this role he was expected to fulfil? How on earth could he be honest and sneaky at the same time? The mind boggled – it really did. He decided it was time for him to speak – he had done too much listening already.
“Are you asking me to be some kind of spy?” Murphy though he had it here. All that sneaking around between different peoples and different worlds. He would be a spy. That would be his new role.
Misoman frowned. He was clearly a little uncomfortable with that word in particular. Although he did kind of shrug whilst answering, so Murphy figured he couldn’t be too far wrong. A spy – now that sounded kind of exciting. The kind of thing he would really want to take part in.
“Not so much a spy Murphy – we wouldn’t want to be thought of as spying on the human race – that would be very bad. Very, very bad.” Misoman shook his head and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful way. He was clearly looking for a way to phrase this just right so that he wouldn’t come across as some kind of bad guy. “ We need someone to be our eyes and ears. Someone who can easily go to places and observe things that we can’t always see. It is very difficult for us to move around in the human world during the day time – in fact we can’t really do that at all without drawing a huge amount of attention to ourselves. Therefore, during the daylight hours we need someone who can keep an eye on things for us. Someone who can make sure our operations are running smoothly. Someone who can vouch for us. At night time we need the opposite really. We need someone who will keep us from being detected. Night time is when we are most active, when we do most of our work. We need to be able to do that work undected. You will help us with that Murphy. This is probably the most tricky aspect of our work here. We have to keep ourselves a secret both for our own safety and well being and for the safety and well being of the human race.”
Murphy needed to take all of this in really. He needed time which he realised he didn’t really have. The sun was setting outside of the window, and he knew this meant he had to return to the real world. To return home.
*
