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.
His grandmother had already made his bed, and he could enjoy the holiday without any worries or concerns. Percy had always considered that two nights were necessary for him to really feel that he had stayed for a proper visit at the house. It did not matter, to the young Percy Dale, whether or not he arrived in the early stages of the first day. Neither was his departure time on the third day ever considered to be of paramount importance. However, Percy enjoyed the chance to awaken after having slept for a whole night at the house, spend a whole day with his grandparents and then go to sleep in the same place as that in which he had awoken. For this reason, Percy always enjoyed the second day the most.
Having unpacked his belongings, Percy decided to see what would happen next on this the first day. He ambled down to the kitchen to see that his grandmother had employed the technique which instantly gained favour with the young boy. She had prepared a selection of chocolate biscuits and a large cupful of orange juice.
"Percy, you can eat up your biscuits and then have a look at your comic books while I get your dinner on."
"Where's Grandpa?" asked Percy, as he proceeded to deal with the chocolate biscuits.
"Down in the billiard room. He's looking at some of his travel films."
Percy decided that sitting in on a travel film would be of greater interest than remaining with his grandmother and making a nuisance of himself, when she was busy and preferred to be given the chance to prepare the dinner in peace and quiet. To the boy, it meant only that she obviously did not have the time to entertain him, which was perfectly understandable. The young Percy Dale soon found himself treated to a series of short home movies filmed in France (Paris, to be precise), London and New York. Some of them had been filmed while his grandfather had been on holidays.
Others were taken as part of a business trip which would allow for personal sightseeing. The Parisian scenes concentrated on the streets, cafes and the sides and rooves of the buildings, which differed vastly from those which Percy was used to seeing in Australia. In London, which was Percy's favourite of the three locations (according to what had been revealed to him on the screen in the billiard room), Percy's grandfather had concentrated on such landmarks as Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, the Thames River, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, Ten Downing Street and the Tower of London. The New York footage was composed mainly of examples of office buildings and nightclubs.
When the films had finished, Percy's grandfather went out into the dining room and sat on an armchair in the corner of the room reading a magazine. Percy decided to play one of his favourite tricks on his grandmother. He hid under the enormous dining room table and waited for his grandmother to call him for dinner.
* * * *
"Percy! Come down for your dinner!"
Percy decided to remain hidden.
"Percy, where are you?"
"Close enough," he thought to himself, enjoying his minor act of mischief.
"Where do you think he is? I'd better see if he's gotten lost in the garden," she said to his grandfather.
"No, he's alright, dear. Just bring out the dinner."
She brought the chicken into the dining room and began to serve it onto three plates, asking herself, "Now where could that boy be?"
Percy had never been sure exactly what it was that had prompted him to reveal himself. Perhaps it had been the thought of his grandmother searching the house in vain for him. Perhaps it had been the fact that the prank was beginning to lose its value. Perhaps it had been the smell of the chicken. Whatever it was, Percy crawled out and said, "Here I am."
"You sneaky boy," said his grandmother in jest, "Have you been playing Professor Sneaky Spies again?"
* * * *
Dinner had commenced at six o'clock, and the sun had descended during Percy's viewing of the travel films. (On another occasion, Percy had seen a travel film of a place called Smiling Island, which would be of considerable value to his adult self in later years). Percy enjoyed the chicken and its companion dish: a dessert which included tinned peaches and white frothy gelato.
After they had enjoyed their dinner, Percy's grandmother put on an extra jumper and ensured that Percy wore an additional overcoat, as well as a soft warm beany, and the two of them partook of one of their favourite nocturnal rituals. They went across the two upstairs hallways and down the western staircase, turning right into the western downstairs hallway and making their way out to the door which led to the porch.
The porch ran around two sides of the western block of the house, and had a garden which followed it around. In the daytime, the garden itself could be explored as a whole miniature world of jungle adventure for a young boy. The porch had huge white pillars of stone rising around it to meet a wooden framework which ran above the porch. From the garden, several vines grew upwards, scaling the pillars to then continue growing across the framework so that the tunnel around the porch was in fact a combination of stone, wood and vine. The architect had added a fourth element to the structure: electricity. A series of electric lights were attached to the undersides of the wooden framework overhead. Each light had a pink cover around the globe, so that the light - when viewed by people on the porch - was in fact pink.
It was for this reason, that Percy and his grandmother referred to their 'first night' ritual as 'the rosy lights walk.' After walking around the porch, the two of them descended the wide stone steps to the garden, wandered along the driveway and out into the street. After they had passed four houses in the southern direction, they came to the intersection of Burnseid Street and Eastern Road. On the corner was a red wooden seat upon which they sat. Percy's grandmother always expected him to partake of a healthy night's sleep, so she had invented a reasonable and enjoyable process by which to limit the duration of their time on the seat. It was about eight o'clock at night, and they had enjoyed a long dinner and a reasonably long walk.
Considerable time had been spent on such things as locating Percy's hiding spot, which was eventually made possible by Percy's own emergence from under the dining room table; ensuring that Percy was adequately dressed in warm clothes, locating the correct switch for the rosy lights and enjoying the stroll around the porch. As a result, the two hours between six and eight o'clock had passed a comfortable pace. Percy's grandmother would encourage Percy to count cars while they sat on the seat, partly because she knew that Percy liked to do so, and partly because she had made a rule that they could stay on the seat until he had counted one hundred passing cars.
After that, the two evening pedestrians returned to 66 Burnseid Street and settled down in their separate rooms for a pair of visits to dreamland.
* * * *
Percy had slept for several hours, but he was soon to awaken. It was around two o'clock on the Thursday morning. and Percy was having a nightmare:
The house at 66 Burnseid Street was being used for evil purposes and a man was
trying to save himself from the terrifying lady within. To the sleeping Percy, the
man was something akin to one of the detectives that Percy had seen on the
picture covers of the many books lying around his grandmother's house. The lady
was almost a witch in nature. The dream came to a climax when Young Percy
found himself involved in the dream. He had discovered the presence of the two
uninvited visitors to the house and had hidden himself at the end of
the eastern upstairs hallway.
His hiding spot was behind the door which separated the eastern and western
upstairs hallways. The door was ajar and concealed his position. He was able to
peek through the slit between the door's upper and lower hinges. He was
terrified at what he saw. The man was running towards the doorway as he fled
along the western upstairs hallway. In the distance, Percy could see the lady
running up the western staircase with a huge emerald encrusted ring on her finger
snarling, "I'm going to get him with this ring!"
"Oh no!" thought Percy, "If she finds me she'll get me too, and that poor man!"
Percy awoke and was too frightened to go back to sleep. He stepped out of bed, walked out of his own room, into his grandmother's temporary bedroom and woke her, telling her that the dream had frightened him. He asked if he could sleep in her room where he knew that he would be safe.
"No. I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll say some prayers to God and He'll look after you when you go back to your bed.... Lord please help Percy get back to sleep, and take away all the bad dreams...."
Percy listened to it all pessimistically and returned to his room still frightened thinking, "Why couldn't she do something helpful?"
He finally dropped off to sleep, and had a dream:
He and his grandmother went for a long walk on a sunny day and came across a previously unexplored small village. They entered it at one end, the way a pedestrian would enter a dead end street. The village was simply a short street with shops on each side by it and a round semicircle of shops at the end, exactly like the positions of the houses in a dead end street.
The most significant shop in the dream's village was a small cake shop, wherein
Percy and his grandmother - after befriending the small population of peaceful,
relaxed and friendly villagers - selected some small cakes with pink icing, and then
paid for them.
Percy awoke in the morning and still wondered about the prayers. In the end, he told his grandmother some pleasing news over breakfast:
"Nan those prayers really did work. God did take away the bad dreams. I dreamt that we went for a walk and came to a special village with a cake shop."
"Well there you are," she said, "That was nice, wasn't it?"
Percy was not sure about whether or not the pleasant dream had been a coincidence, but in later years, the adult Christian Percy Dale looked back on the event, convinced that it had been the earliest incident of God working in his life in response to a prayer.
Percy told his grandfather about the nightmare which had initiated the trouble, and his grandfather had reassured him, "Don't you worry. We'll take care of that witch lady if she
brings her ring back here."
The remainder of the holiday was without blemish. After breakfast, Percy amused himself until his grandmother was ready to go shopping.
"We won't walk down to the Turramurra shops in Eastern Road this time," she said, "Instead we'll go to the end of Burnseid Street and out to the East Wahroonga shops. They're closer and it'll be a different walk for a change."