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Percy Dale was six years old, the first time he dreamt about a giantess. Now the word giantess usually implies a woman of giant size in comparison to earthlings. In this case, what he dreamt of was being tiny sized, so small in fact that a woman would look like a giantess to him and have the proportionate strength advantage. He dreamt that his teacher Miss Newkin and he were alone at his school on a Saturday afternoon. She had somehow reduced him to tiny size. He didn’t remember how, and didn’t seem concerned. She was now chasing him around the school lawn, laughing mischievously… and Percy was enjoying the dream.

It had been pleasant getting to know her in real life. When he was six years old he had commenced second class with the new teacher Miss Newkin, who had moved into Sydney two years earlier. She had been born and educated in America. His previous two years of schooling at Killara had been less than exciting. The first class teacher Mrs Wheeton had been too strict and unpleasant in his opinion. On the last day of the year in first class, she had lined the class up at the end of the day and made all the children laugh, by giving each one a kiss. Percy had done his best to sneak to the end of the line and had finally refused to be kissed. However, she had jokingly made him comply, and the laughter from the others had reached its peak.

If only Miss Newkin would now find a reason to kiss him. In fact, if she wanted to chase him to kiss him, that would be nice, especially after he had been reduced. He imagined how close that would bring him to her sparkling red tongue. In April, he had to spend a week of school term in hospital to have a hernia operation. When the time came for the operation, a nurse had said, "Come up and have a cuddle", and lifted him in her arms. To his horror, the next thing he felt was a hypodermic needle being injected into the rear portion of his anatomy in order to send him off to sleep.

When he awoke later, he discovered that Miss Newkin had sent him a puzzle book to help pass the time. It was full of mathematics puzzles, some of which she had worked the class through on the blackboard. She had always applied her different American education to making school lessons so much more interesting and enjoyable. Each day she would read them a chapter of a children’s novel, which had started Percy on an addiction to the works of the English author who had written it. She later went on to read the class an American children's adventure novel in a similar series of daily instalments.

One day Miss Newkin had played the guitar and sang a song about the alphabet, using as many amusing words that commenced with the relevant letters of the alphabet in succession. Every ploy or gimick in her teaching approach made lessons entertaining and the work material easier to understand and remember. His work was the best that he had done in any year at school. Each day he looked forward to going to school, instead of dreading the boredom and confinement as he had often done in the previous two years.

On the last day of second term, by which time Percy was now seven years old, the entire school was given free time from the commencement of morning tea until the end of the day. Percy and his friends had taken to playing super heroes in the bush every lunchtime, imitating the heroes and villains on television cartoons, to chase and wrestle each other.

In anticipation of this last day, he actually brought a super hero costume to school and wore it down in the bush during free time.

By one o'clock the chasings had tired a lot of the children out. So they evolved the game into a hide and seek version of super heroes and villains. The heroes would have to find the villains. At one stage, Percy was still searching for villains, when he noticed that Miss Newkin was the teacher on duty deep down in the bush. She had gone to the furthest point where the school's territory ended and the general public's bushland began. There was no actual borderline or fence, but the school and any public bushwalkers never seemed to meet each other, because the public bush tracks were several metres further on from the border of the school's territory.

Percy saw Miss Newkin sit down and start eating her lunch. She had not seen him. He decided to see if he could sneak up and surprise her. He tucked his cape into the back of his trousers to prevent it from rustling or getting caught in the bushes, and began creeping through the bushland. When he was almost within four metres of her, he noticed that, as she finished the last bite of her sandwich and stood up, a man was walking towards her from behind, from the public bushland.

Percy watched in horror as he stole up behind her, put his hand over her mouth, stood to face her and then forced his lips over hers. She struggled to free herself, but could not resist his overpowering physique. He removed his lips and cupped her mouth with his hand again.

"Don't like that, eh darlin'? Well you've only seen the start of it. I've had my eye on you for a while now, and what I like, I take."

Percy wanted to help her, but what could he do? How could a small boy stand up to a muscular adult man?

He saw the man produce an unused handkerchief and gag her mouth tightly. Then he seized her wrist and forced her to walk through the bush with him, away from the school's land. Percy was very frightened of the man, and wanted to run back and tell the headmaster, but that would mean giving the man a chance to get away with Miss Newkin.

"I'll have to really be a super hero now," he thought, "This man is the villain, and I must rescue Miss Newkin."

He crept through the bush behind them for a long time. The man came to a path and followed it out of the bushland to the place where he had parked his car.

While still trailing the man from behind, Percy found a solid club of wood. He picked it up, feeling a brief surge of confidence in the weapon before his fear of the man returned. The car was parked with the left hand side facing the path. Percy remained in the bushes when he approached the end of the track, and saw the man open the passenger door and push Miss Newkin onto the passenger seat.

"Now stay put!" he said.

He closed the door and walked around to the driver's side.

Miss Newkin opened the door and tried to run, but he caught her and slapped her face.

"It's now or never," thought Percy as he saw them approach the car after her attempted escape.

"Try that again, and I'll do it a lot harder. Understand?" he said.

She nodded and soon got back into the car.

Percy quietly tiptoed out of the bushes and snuck up behind the man, as the man leaned down to push the passenger door shut. Percy swung the club at the back of the man's head as hard as he could, and saw the man stagger and fall across the bonnet of the car after taking no more than two steps. He opened the car door.

"Come on, Miss Newkin. You've got to escape."

"Oh Percy, I can hardly believe it!" she said.

She stepped out of the car, took Percy's hand and ran with him, back through the bush as soon as Percy had dropped the club.

By two o'clock they reached the school's bushland. Miss Newkin cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone and called out:

"All children go up to the playground! The bush will be out of bounds for the rest of the day! There is a dangerous man in the bush somewhere!"

It might well have frightened them, she thought, but this was better than having them remain in the bushes, if any of them chose disobedience for the sake of mischief. She could not have risked the man kidnapping any of them.
While other children set about starting games of handball and soccer in the playground, Miss Newkin and Percy went into their usual classroom and closed the door.

"Do you think that we should call the police about that wicked man?" he asked.

"Yes I will later," she said, and burst into tears, "Oh Percy, I was so frightened. How did you find me?"

Miss Newkin sat down on the carpeted floor beside him.

"I was playing super heroes, when I saw you sit down for lunch. I was going to sneak up on you and yell out 'surprise,' but when I got close, I saw that man get you."

"Why didn't you go back to the school to get help?" she asked, "That man might have caught you too and hurt you badly."
"He was scary, but school couldn't help you if he took you away and we didn't know where. I still had my costume on. So I thought I should really be a super hero and stop the man. So I followed you in the bushes. Then I found a club and saved it up and hit him."

"Percy, you really are a super hero and a very brave one. Still I hope you never take a risk like that again," she said. Then she actually took him in her arms and hugged him tightly, saying, "You saved me!"

Percy stretched a young hand up to wipe a tear from her cheek and spoke.

"You are safe now. That man is probably still fainted."

He knew that he liked Miss Newkin, but his young mind did not actually think of the words 'I love you, Miss Newkin.' Nor did he know how to bring up the subject of his impossible shrinking and chasing fantasy. So he said nothing and continued to enjoy the hug. In a few minutes she used the telephone at her desk to call the police, who soon rang back to say that they had caught the man.

"He was lying on the bonnet of the car you described, Miss," said the constable, "right out of it, with a nasty lump on the back of his head where your young student hit him. We told him you would testify, but he wanted to make a full confession as an attempt at contrition. I don't think it will keep him out of jail though. I will be needing you later for a full statement, but  I shan't need to trouble the boy."

"Yes. I'll be down early this evening then," said Miss Newkin, and soon hung up.

"Is he caught?" asked Percy.

"Yes. He was still unconscious. You really clubbed him hard. Wait until everyone else finds out what a hero you have been!"
"No!"

"What's the matter."

"Please don't tell anyone. I'm just glad that you're safe."

"But why?"
"My mother would never let me play in the bush again, if she found out. I don't want to tell anyone."

"Alright, I won't even tell the other teachers, or the headmaster, or anyone except the police. Still ,you will always be a hero to me for coming to rescue me today."

She knelt down and kissed his cheek.

For the rest of the year he enjoyed secret subtle hints of gratitude from her. At the end of the year she gave everyone in the class a small gift wrapped storybook. Inside the cover of his he also found a fifty dollar note and a message:

 

                        To Percy,

                                    a Super Hero's reward.

 

 

She had not written it in modified cursive writing, as it would be illegible to a second class child.

The following year he had a different teacher in third class, but he still tried to see Miss Newkin occasionally when she was on lunchtime playground duty.  Now he could never tell her about his shrinking fantasy.

2 years later

Percy had enjoyed the first ten days of the May school holidays, but the best was indeed yet to come. He was now eight years old and in no hurry to become a nine year old. However, he was keen to enjoy the final event of his holidays: a two night visit to his grandmother's house at 66 Burnseid Street Wahroonga. This meant that he would be in the care of his grandparents for a few days.

He said goodbye to his mother at four o'clock on the Wednesday afternoon, and unpacked his bag in the bedroom just near the top of the eastern staircase. Opposite this small room was the spare bedroom which his grandmother used on the occasions that Percy would be staying the night, in order that the young boy would be only a room away from assistance in the event of his becoming ill, or developing any other need for help. From his suitcase he took clothing, comic books, a torch and a packet of playing cards.

Eventually it was time for bed, and the exhausted young boy planned to exhaust himself still further before morning. He went to one of the three upstairs bathrooms to have a quick bath before bed, and enjoyed watching the warm water flow out of the red fish's mouth which was in fact the tap built into the bath itself. Percy enjoyed the atmosphere of his grandparents' bathrooms, because they all had colourful bathtubs and small red and yellow and green square floor tiles each about two inches wide.

When he got to his bed, Percy pretended to fall asleep, and then stole downstairs fully dressed, with a torch in his hand, and crept out into the garden and made his way to the streets. He walked to Wahroonga Station in search of an adventure which would surpass any of the holiday's activities so far experienced.

As he was reaching the far end of the footpath which ran alongside Wahroonga Park, he heard a series of voices coming from within the park. He slipped his torch into his pocket and crept into the bushes, getting down on all fours, thinking "Down, down, down, into a bush."

When he reached the other side of the bush, he looked into the park to see about thirty people, mostly adults sitting, talking, some of them humming pleasant tunes on the grass and on the park seats and tables. The girls and ladies wore light pink and white coloured dresses, and some of them had red and pink coloured stones in their hair. The boys and men wore either dinner suits or top hats and tails.

"Hey! A spy!" called one of the men, who had seen Percy.

A lady accompanied the man who had noticed him.

"Down, down, down, into a bush!" thought Percy, again diving into the thick bush at the edge of the park, surrounding himself with leaves and flowers. Had it been spring instead of the beginning of winter, he could have surrounded himself with many more flowers. He saw the lady and the man approaching his bush. The lady looked friendly, and Percy decided that, although he was a little frightened of the bellowing man, he was intrigued, and wanted to meet these unusual people who sat in a park with food and lanterns and drinks in the early hours of the morning. Percy crawled out and revealed himself.

"He spies on us!" bellowed the man.

"Oh Aygin, be civil. He's only a harmless boy," said the lady.

The man eventually took off his top hat, bowed and shook Percy's hand. The girls and boys showed Percy a book explaining some of their customs and habits. After a couple of hours of eating, drinking, singing and talking with these people, Percy was confronted with a farewell speech from the lady who had located his bush:
"We come from far far away, and your people would find us unusual, but thank you for being our friend, young boy. Now you must go home to bed before your grandparents awaken and become concerned about your disappearance."

Percy somehow knew that he had to obey them.

 

*          *          *          *

 

He went to sleep, and dreamt of the beautiful lady who had come to his rescue. In the dream, she lived alone in a house a few blocks from his Grandmother’s place, and was having an evening party out in her back garden for her female friends. He had somehow snuck into her garden at night at tiny size and discovered the party from the edge of the garden. She had seen him, and come striding towards him, laughing, and reached for him. It had been even more enjoyable than his memories of the actual encounter, if it had been an encounter.

The next morning, Friday he woke up, having had only two hours of sleep from four until six. He wondered whether or not it had been a dream.

No.

It had all happened.

It was true.

He knew it.

His grandmother agreed to an unexplained request to walk to Wahroonga Park; and did not notice the way he stared around the park, even into garbage bins, to find no evidence of their having been there, but they had.

They had all been there. He has not seen them again, to this day, but he always remembered the night when he had set out on an adventure and uttered his safety phrase, "Down, down, down, into a bush," and enjoyed an unusual but brief friendship with the Wanderers of Wahroonga. He remembered the beautiful lady and wished he could have been shrunken for her.

After some more time had passed, Percy finished fifth class and came to his Percy's eleventh December. He was 10 ½ years old.

 

Percy had broken up from school, and his parents were on holiday overseas, which was to last the entire duration of the Christmas holidays, which came to two months. Percy felt like a man who had found a ten million dollar lottery ticket in the street. He was going to spend the entire two months staying at his grandparents' house in 66 Burnseid Street Wahroonga.

On the Monday morning of his first week at Burnseid Street, Percy opted to go shopping with his grandmother. As usual, they went down into the cellar and collected the old soft drink bottles, to take to the Turramurra milk bar for a deposit. They found six bottles, which would provide enough money for Percy to buy a comic book. 

Percy read the comic, and then wandered out into the garden to amuse himself.

At the northern end of the old property there was a large lawn, with a small reserve of trees and bushes at the end of it, bordering with the side fence of the next door neighbours' tennis court. The bushy area was large enough to hide in and small enough not to get lost in. Percy found a small tree in the bush, and began to climb to the top.

The author of this piece has read, heard and seen various stories, wherein a character climbs to the top of something, and finds a fantastic scene at the top. It could be a giant, a secret hideout, a castle, or various other interesting items to catch the attention of the keen climber. However, with no intent to disappoint his readers, the author wishes to assert that Percy had climbed a tall tree only to see a certain scene which would require any fascinated climber to climb back down to the bottom of the tree.

From the branches of the tree, Percy saw a girl walking onto a tennis court with a large dolls house in her hand, held by a handle which protruded from its roof. Percy had not been to Burnseid Street since the August school holidays, and there had been no children living next door then. The girl put the dolls house down on the surface of the hard court, and stared into the bushes of 66 Burnseid Street, but not in the direction of Percy Dale. Her house was addressed in Burns Road, parallel to Burnseid Street. Burnseid Street was between Burns Road and Braeside Street, and had been given a composite name of the two in the 1890s, when the large acreages had been divided, in order to make an extra road through Wahroonga and build more houses on the land.

The girl was definitely a lot taller than Percy, although she did not look more than a few years older. She stared into the bushes, probably trying to see the old house, and then sat down, removed a latch; and then the dolls house opened out for the girl to use as a toy for the morning.

Percy climbed silently down from the tree, and walked through the bush to the fence. The girl was too absorbed in her dolls house to notice him. Percy looked at her blond hair and a pair of green eyes that had so far failed to detect the presence of the boy.

"Hello. I'm Percy."

With a four inch brunette in her hand, the girl looked up at Percy, and smiled.

"My name is Jenny. Do you want to come over here, Percy?"

"Yes please. The quickest way is to climb over the tennis court fence. Will your mother mind?"

"She won't see you. The house is too far back and around the garden from the tennis court."

She was not a boy, but Percy was soon to learn that this would not be a problem. In an all-boys school, Percy had grown up to believe that girls were a species remotely akin to boys, except for the fact that they were given to sitting together at the back of school buses and giggling for no apparent reason.

Percy loved to giggle, but he enjoyed being let in on the reason for doing so. Percy saw ladies as "big, old girls, grown up, the ones that look pretty on television," and he could not begin to comprehend, or even be aware of the transition process that altered giggly girls into "pretty ladies on television screens."

"It would be nice to sit and giggle with Jenny occasionally," thought Percy, as he reached the top of the fence.

"You're good at climbing," said Jenny, "So am I, but my mother doesn't think I should go climbing. She says it is dangerous."

Percy jumped the remaining two metres to the tennis court, and waited for the effect of doing so to leave his feet.

"My grandmother's house has got lots of trees. If you can sneak out at night, we can do all the climbing you like."

"Easy. I'm the only one with a room downstairs, and I always leave a window open in summer, because it's so hot. But how will we get to your grandmother's house?"

"By climbing over the tennis court fence. That is my grandmother's house," said Percy pointing, "I'm living here for the holidays. Do you want to sneak out tonight?"

"I cannot tonight. I'll be staying tonight and tomorrow night at my cousin's house, but we can do it on Wednesday night. My cousin's coming to stay with us for two nights then. Can she sneak out with us too?"

"She sure can. When are you leaving?"

"After lunch, which isn't for a while. Would you like to play with my dolls?"

Percy had never played with dolls before. He had once had some teddy bears, and enjoyed playing with figurines of television cartoon characters. However, he saw no reason why he should not start playing with dolls now.

"Alright."

Percy wanted to secure the arrangements for wednesday night first, and then enjoy the fun.

"How about if I meet you and your cousin at this fence at one o'clock on Wednesday night, which is really Thursday morning?"

"We'll come then. Her name is Laura, and these are my friends Sally, Mary and Anna."

Jenny pointed to her dolls.

It was more than a change from his miserable life at school.

It was real fun.

Jenny wasn't like the boys, and Percy did not think that she was like the other girls either. During the next two hours, Sally's hair was combed, Anna went to sleep in the middle of the day, Mary tried on five new dresses, and then they all got together to have lunch, after

which - with a little less than an hour remaining, before Jenny had to go inside for lunch - Percy thought of an idea.

"Do you think that they would like to climb up that giant tree in my place just there?" he asked.

"Anna and Mary would, but Sally says she wants to stay here and keep me company. You go back over, and they can climb through the fence."

Percy was soon waiting to receive Anna and Mary, after which Jenny watched in admiration, as Percy helped the tiny pair to a branch where they could sit without falling off.

"They're having fun, Jenny."

"No they're not. Mary says you were too rough when she was climbing up."

"Well I tried to be ."
"You didn't try hard enough. They want to come back. Hurry up and help them back through the fence."

Percy did so.

He wondered whether he had upset Jenny, and whether it would cause her to change her mind about their midnight rendezvous.

For some reason this seemed to matter in a way that it had never mattered before.

"Sorry about that," he said, as Jenny reclaimed her dolls. She saw him try not to blink his eyes, and smiled.

"I was only teasing you. I still like you, and so do the friends."

"Oh...I just don't like teasing...unless I know it's only teasing. I thought you really didn't like me anymore."

"Then I shall never tease you again...Are you going to come back over now?"

"There's not much time left. I might as well see what Nan wants to have for lunch."

"But I want to make up for teasing you."

"Oh."
He climbed the tennis court fence again, and came down beside her. His head only reached her neck. He had no idea what she was going to do, because he did not know how girls made up for teasing people.

Percy was a boy who did not tease people, but the ones who did had never made up for it, and Percy was looking forward to whatever she was going to do.

Until she kissed his cheek.

For a split second it felt wonderful, and then he looked around, to see if there was anybody in sight.

"Don't you like that?"

"Yes I like it. It's just ... embarrassing, but you can do it again at night, if you would like to, not Wednesday night, but some night when it's just you and me."

"Alright, well I won't be embarrassing anymore. How old are you?"

"I'm ten."
"I'm twelve, and I like you," said Jenny.

This was why it had mattered so much not to have upset her when they had been playing with the dolls.

"I'm ten, and I like you too."

"Jenneeeey! Lunchtime!"
"Oh, that was Mother. I have to go. I'll see you here at one o'clock on Thursday morning. Here, take Sally to keep you company. Bye, Percy."

"Bye, Jenny."

He watched her close the dolls house, and carry it out of sight.

He'd never had a kiss from a nice young girl before. Percy merely thought of kissing as an embarrassing, nauseating procedure, which was always to be performed at the commencement and conclusion of visits to ageing relatives. This time it had been "to make up for teasing," and it was special, and pleasant, and fun.

As Percy found ways of amusing himself, in order to fill in the next two days, he found himself with new priorities on his mind.

On Wednesday night, Percy said goodnight to his grandparents and went up to his bedroom. Percy's bedroom was at the end of the eastern upstairs hallway.

He set his alarm clock for a quarter to one, and put it on the end of the bed beside his pillow. That way he could stop its ringing before it woke up his grandparents. He climbed into bed, still wearing his clothes, and slept ... for a few hours. He dreamt that Jenny had reduced his size and was putting him gently into her dolls house. He enjoyed this too, which made his real life feelings for Jenny even more significant. 

He crept out of bed, and stole out into the hall, listened for a moment to see if he'd awoken his grandparents, and then took his torch out from under the bed. He did not want to carry it around while they chased each other - and besides it would not be fair - but he did want to find his way silently down the stairs, out of the house, and into the bushes without disturbing anyone.

Then he was faced with a dilemma. The eastern staircase was wooden, with no carpeting, and would certainly creak, but the western one was at the end of the western hallway. There was little doubt about it. He would have to walk silently down both hallways, and go down the carpeted stairs of the western staircase.

He would then be able to choose from a number of doorways, and open any one door silently. The only one that made a significant noise was the front door. However, that would not be his choice. He went out the door to the porch. As usual, his grandmother had left the red lights on, but this did not matter. If anything, it would provide them with enough light with which to chase each other.

When he arrived at the tennis court fence, he could not see anybody on the tennis court.

Had Jenny forgotten him?

Had she been caught and sent back to bed?

Had Laura persuaded her not to do it after all?

Then Percy heard a soft giggle from high up in the tree behind him.

He looked up into the moonlit tree. They were both there. They had already climbed over the fence to Percy's side.

"We're not teasing you. Laura just thought that it would be nice to surprise you from up here."

"Yes, it was clever. You had better come down quietly now. Don't snap any branches."

Laura's brown hair was a suitable complement to her brown eyes.  

He led them out to the lawn, and explained that it would be best to restrict the game of chasings to the lawn, which followed the house around half of its perimeter.

Climbing trees and using paths while under the pressure of being chased would certainly initiate a whole series of unwarranted noises. So they played chasings for the best part of an hour and then decided to slow it down to hide and seek.

"Alright then," said Percy, "The rules can be simple. One person hides. The other two go to look for them, and the first person to find the hidden person can be the next one to have a turn at hiding."

"No," said Laura, "Why can't the person who finds them last be the one who has to hide?"
"Because hiding's the best bit, and I'll try harder to find somebody, if it means I can hide next."

"Okay," said Laura, "You can hide first."

"I will, and we'll change the boundaries. You can go anywhere outside the house - if you're quiet - but not in it. You can climb trees, but don't climb up the house, and you can also go as many as five houses down the road to the North, and as far as Eastern Road in the other direction. Close your eyes and count to sixty. Then start looking. If I'm not hiding, then it will be a longer counting time for me, because I know the place better than you two. Okay, start."

 

Percy ran across the lawn and played his usual gambit for the game of hide and seek. Percy loved to double back in time to position himself where he could see the seekers open their eyes and start to look. Then he would move around and follow their attempts to find him, until he made a fatal slip at the crucial moment and gave himself away, or they happened to turn around and look in the place where he was, so that he could not remain behind them.

This was why he never preferred to play a method of hide and seek wherein the hidden person must simply find a place and stay there.

Percy ran right around the house, and then crept along the narrow strip of grass on the driveway side of the hedge, and peered around the corner at the end. The girls were still out on the large lawn with their eyes closed. Then they started walking. So their eyes were open.

However, they did not both go in the direction in which Percy had run.

Laura did, but Jenny walked towards the hedge. Percy ran along the strip of grass, around the corner, and stood up straight against the third hedge, and hoped that Jenny would pass by him without noticing.

"Oh they split up!" he thought to himself.

Jenny walked into view, turned her head and spotted him.

They played another round, during which Jenny hid in the oak tree, and it was Laura who found her. She knew her cousin well, and had guessed that Jenny would make use of her height to climb a tree. So Jenny and Percy waited at the bottom of the oak tree, counted their time and stared out at the large lawn.

"Percy, can I kiss you again now?"

"What about Laura?"

"She's off hiding."

"But we're the ones who cannot see where she is. What if she's hiding somewhere close watching us?"

"Alright. Let's go and find her. I'll kiss you another night."

"How old is Laura anyway?"

"Eleven. Let's split up. We'll find her faster that way, like we found you before."

Jenny went the same way as she had gone earlier, and Percy followed the lawn around the house again.

"Nobody's hidden out in the street yet," thought Jenny, and wandered quietly down the drive. 

She stepped out into Burnseid Street, and decided to wander up past the five houses allowed, looking in bushes and up into trees. But she heard Laura's voice.

"Jenny, down here where the drain runs under the driveway. It's quite dry. You won't get dirty, and you can squeeze in too. It will be funny with Percy looking for both of us. You'll have the chance to play one round of the game the way you first suggested after all. Percy won't mind. He's a nice boy."

Percy searched in most of the obvious hiding places. He did not bother looking into places that a stranger would not consider using in the dark; and he came to the conclusion that Laura must have hidden out in the street. So he wandered out into the street himself, searched in every possible place within the boundaries, and then sat down on the front wall of 66 Burnseid Street, to think.

Then he saw Jenny's head peeking out of the drain, and he suddenly felt a special sensation in his mind. He had never seen such a sweet face before, and he guessed what had happened, and out they came.

"Oh Jenny, that looks so ... sweet. You can kiss me now if you want to. Make it the other cheek this time."

"But aren't you embarrassed? We decided to give ourselves up. It got uncomfortable in there."

"Yes of course I'm still embarrassed, but I cannot wait any longer."

So she kissed Percy for the second time.

"Can we do lots of climbing tomorrow morning at one o'clock?"

"I think so Jenny. We shall climb as many trees as we can, and probably do nothing else."

"We'll have to sleep in this morning," said Laura looking at her watch, "It's after three o'clock now."

When the specified Monday came along, Percy met Jenny at the tennis court as usual, and informed her of a small unplanned delay in the proceedings.

"Nan and Grandpa are running a little bit late. So we will have to wait for a while."

"Mother does not mind me coming around, but I have to go over the low fence just past the tennis court."

"Well I'll have to go through the bamboo on our side, so that I can show you how to get out into our garden."

Soon they were both walking towards the house, and Percy's grandparents were gone. He led Jenny across the courtyard and into the house, and they walked up the large western staircase. Jenny expressed her surprise upon finding another staircase at the eastern end of the house.

"I love it up here. Nan usually asks me up once or twice in the holidays, and it is great to have a happy couple of days here before I go back to school again - which I hate - but this time I can stay for two months. I don't know how  I shall cope afterwards, but let's not worry about that now."

He led her into his bedroom, and showed her some of the things that he had brought from home with which to amuse himself. There were his comic books, his models, and his box of disguises and costumes. This collection of clothing had accumulated from various family Christmas and birthday presents in the last year or so.

"Shall we put on some costumes and dress up?" was Jenny's request upon sighting Percy's second wardrobe.

"Why not? You be a princess. I think that you would look very beautiful as a princess, Jenny."

"I think," replied Jenny, "that I look very beautiful already."

"Well I actually meant that as well."

"But you've only got boys' clothes in this box."

"You can still wear what you have on now, and add one of the crowns, and some other things. If you're going to be a princess, then I shall be a knight."

In order to be a knight, Percy took out a shirt with a shield painted onto it and some plastic armaments, and the sort of boots that he thought should be worn by a young boy pretending to be a knight.

"And what should a knight and a princess do now?" queried Jenny.

"How do you fit all of those costumes in that box, Percy?"

"With the greatest of squeeze, Jenny."

The young pair chose to occupy the television room, still clad as a knight and a princess, in order to watch a romantic movie. Most romantic movies feature at least one scene, wherein the lovers collide their lips together - at varying speeds, depending on the movie - with a view to expressing amorous feelings towards each other; and the movie chosen by Sir Percival Knight and Young Princess Jentil was no different with regards to its uncompromising readiness to provide such arousing scenes of many splendored things.

And Percival and Jentil were aroused.

"Why don't you kiss me like that?"
"Because I've got a plastic ... err iron mask on my face."

"Then you will just have to take it off, for I wish to be given a chance to try out this new kind of kissing."

"I will not take it off. I am a knight."

"Then I shall chase you until you do."

"Fare ye well," said the witty young Sir Percival Knight, as he jumped up and ran out the door. He found his way to the western staircase so fast that he wondered whether princess Jentil would look for him in the house or the garden.

The chronicler wishes to assert that Princess Jentil was not always light on her feet, and something happened when she began to ascend the eastern staircase, which was not carpeted.

The thing that happened was this: Sir Percival heard Princess Jentil climbing the eastern staircase.

Quietly he ran back down the western staircase and made his way back to the television room and sat down to stare at the screen.

It took her ten minutes.

"Sir Percival, I've-"

"-been looking everywhere for me. Come and see the rest of the movie. Then we can have lunch."

Which they did.

After lunch they went for a walk to the station, and then walked up to Wahroonga Park, where they spent a solid three quarters of an hour on the swings, until the novelty began to wear off.

Then the two extremely young lovers kissed 'the way they did it in the movie', as they sat on the wall of the Wahroonga Park fountain.

"Start young, don't they?" said a man to his friend, as the two of them got to work on the gardens of the park in order to go about their jobs.

They walked home, and the day soon came to an end.

"Pity we can't have the house to ourselves all the time," said Percy, as they returned to the tennis court fence.

"Why don't we build our own little cubby house in the bushes just here? I've got a lot of father's unused wood at home."

The next few days were busy ones.

Piles of wooden boards were carried to a fence and passed over it. The same piles of wood were carried to a location in the bushes, where they were joined together in various ways, by means of a hammer and nails from Percy's grandfather's toolbox; and a rectangular prism supported by four wooden blocks had been constructed by the twentieth of December.

Percy took the eiderdown from his bedroom cupboard - which he would not need for the bed during the summer months - and used it to soften the floor of the cubby house.

"We'll have to use the fluorescent tube alternative of my torch as a lamp if we ever use this place at night. Now I can bring out what we need each day, so we can play chess or checkers, or dress up or whatever in here, without cluttering up the tiny house with heaps of stuff. It will be alright if I take it back at the end of the day."

The young pair failed to ever become bored with each other's company. Percy's grandmother never wondered what he had been doing. She was simply relieved that he did not seem to be bored. Jenny's mother was both educated and happy about the situation. On the twenty-third of December, Percy asked Jenny to come to the cubbyhouse - which they had ceremoniously christened Jentil Manor (after the play on Jenny's princess identity) - the following morning at ten o'clock.

Percy had saved his money and bought a Christmas card and a box of chocolates for his grandparents,  a box of large coloured hair ribbons for Jenny - who sometimes wore her hair tied at the back by beautiful ribbons, creating the prettiest of ponytails - along with a Christmas card, and some party food which he brought down to Jentil Manor at half past nine on Christmas Eve.
Both Percy and Jenny would want to be with their families for the preparation of Christmas decorations and other procedures in the afternoon. So Percy had planned a surprise Christmas party for Jenny in the morning.

"Percy this is wonderful!" exclaimed the part-time princess, as she entered the manor of her namesake.

They enjoyed their party, and Percy enjoyed his first Christmas at 66 Burnseid Street. The only new event to Percy was being there on Christmas Eve, because Percy's grandparents usually held large Christmas Day parties every year, and invited all of the family and relatives. The only people missing were Percy's parents. His cousins, aunts, uncles and various others were all there as usual.

His only concern was that some of them may venture far enough into the bushes to discover the location of Jentil Manor. However, he was able to keep the activity away from that area, although plenty of games were played on the large lawn nearby. If a ball ever strayed into the bushes, Percy would opt to fetch it out again, which made him very popular with the adults, because he was seen to be a good host keeping the games going, while doing the dirty jobs. His ulterior motives were justified. Jentil Manor was a private world for two, and he didn't want to explain its existence to anyone.

He did not need to.

Nobody found it.

He was fortunate.

Christmas passed them by, and there were new things to do, and new days in which to do them. Kissing was done in both of the methods previously attempted by Percy and Jenny. Sometimes they felt in the mood for collisions of the lips, and on other days, kissing of the cheeks seemed more appropriate.

It was always fun.

It was never violent.

It never needed to be.

Whatever they did, they were content. If there was potential for disagreement, one of them would think out a suitable compromise. The author almost considers it a regrettable shame that they chose to preserve the secrecy of their relationship, because the successful ongoing pattern of rendezvous made by those two youths would put a lot of unfriendly adults to shame.

However, there was something in Percy's mind which warned him, that if they told of their relationship to anyone, there would eventually be some unwarranted efforts to undermine it, which might possibly arise from the activities of adults.

When he had been seven years of age, Percy had once dreamt that he had saved an extremely beautiful princess from a threatening fate in the bushes behind his first preparatory school in Killara. Now he had his chance. The princess in his dream had also worn a blond ponytail.

Jenny really was his beautiful princess, and they had so far saved each other from boredom and loneliness.

So far.

There was another day, when his grandparents went out and left him by himself at the house.

It was an extremely cloudy day with rain pouring down every now and then. Percy invited Jenny around, and took out the water pistols which he had been given as  Christmas presents. The two of them enjoyed a riotous water pistol fight. They chased each other all around the garden, and up into trees, onto rooves, and anywhere else that they could reach, filling up their water pistols at separate taps whenever they had both the chance and the need.

At one stage, Jenny pursued Percy up into the oak tree, with a fully loaded water pistol, immediately after Percy's pistol had run out of water. He was too high up to jump and run for it, so he simply climbed higher, and Jenny climbed after him.

"You'll never get away Percy. I'll catch you."

Percy adored her.

Even in the middle of a wild chase, with a pistol in her hand,  Jenny was  able to produce a sweet smile on her lips, as she announced Percy's fate. He was realising that he had had a romantic capacity ever since he had been six years old. It had taken a girl like Jenny to help this tendency towards romance to hatch itself, so that Percy gradually became more and more aware of it. So there had been pretty ladies on the television. Why had he not developed this capacity for romance then? Subconsciously, Percy had acknowledged that he would never see those ladies anywhere, except on the television screen. So he had dismissed them from his mind as soon as they had left the screen, and gone back to reading comic books or finding other things with which to amuse himself.

There had also been times when he had met young girls. However, Percy was unlikely to be moved towards any act of romance with a collection of young girls who sat in a bus or a train and giggled together, probably for no logical reason. Here was a twelve year old girl who Had Fun and Made Sense.

But their time was rapidly moving towards expiry date.

This did not occur to young Percy Dale, as he made up his mind to climb further and further, higher and higher, out along the branches of the oak tree, heading for the end of a special branch, his safety branch. Percy had prepared for the event of his running out of water at the most crucial moment, by opening the upstairs doorway, which opened out from the western upstairs hallway to the upstairs courtyard. This special branch brought Percy to within jumping distance down to the courtyard.

It never occurred to him that Jenny's mother would be extremely displeased with a boy who had led her daughter to a tree branch six metres above the ground, with nothing but hard concrete to land on in the lower courtyard if she fell; but children are children, and children have underhanded fun sometimes, and they are ignorant, and the moral issues behind such facts are not necessary to the thrust of this story, so we shall omit them here.

Percy made his jump, ran into the house, waited for Jenny to land safely in the upstairs courtyard, and then closed the door, locking it tight.

He ran down the stairs and out into the lower courtyard.

"Percy, let me in!"

"Toss your pistol down to me first, and I'll go up and let you in."

"That's not fair."

"That's the fortunes of war."

She tried to squirt him from above a few times, but he was free to run to wherever he chose, and she eventually tossed the pistol down to him, and admitted defeat.

Percy climbed the staircase, walked down the hall, opened the door, and then ran to his own bedroom and prepared to defend himself with his pillow.

"Alright then," said Jenny, and went into one of the spare bedrooms.

"Alright then, what?" said Percy, relaxing on his bed with pillow in hand.

"Alright then this!"

Jenny ran into the room and initiated the first pillow fight that those two had ever shared in their brief acquaintance. The both fought furiously, swinging the pillows with the speed of squash racquets; but Jenny was overmatched, and she eventually called upon a previously unknown reserve of aggression, and swung the pillow wildly towards Percy, knocking his own weapon out of his hand, and brought her own down hard on Percy's chest.

"You're the cheekiest cheat of a boy I've ever met! You're .... hurt."

"Oh ....., " groaned Percy, caressing his stomach with his hands.

"I'm sorry. I'll rub it better. Oh my poor Percy!"

Percy giggled hysterically.

"You're not hurting at all!"

"No, but I'll bet that's cured your attacking me for a while."

"Yes I think it has," giggled Jenny, and Percy sat up and hugged her.

It was all part of the fun.

The weeks went on, until there was only one week of Percy's stay at 66 Burnseid Street left.

They had a long and special cuddle in Jentil Manor on the last full day - the day before Percy's parents came to collect him - at Burnseid Street.

Then Percy and Jenny said their secret goodbyes.

Percy's parents had brought him some souvenirs, and he still had a week of holidays remaining in his own home, but nothing seemed to be fun anymore. Jenny was to move house again that year, but Percy was not to know.

At that stage in his young life, he would eventually be sufficiently distracted by hanging out with male friends, television shows, comic books, and all of the things that had occupied his mind in the years before he had met her, so that he was not continually depressed. However his heart would always hold a special place for his tenth summer, spent at his grandmother's house, and the days and nights of that period in which he had been privileged to enjoy the company of Jennifer Winters. Somehow the thought of Jenny chasing him was not as prevalent as the chasing and mischief scenes had been in the dreams of Miss Newkin and the Wanderer of Wahroonga. Yet the sweetness of Jenny as a giantess seemed to compensate.

 

 

 

 

 

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