THE UNINVITED GUEST

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE UNINVITED GUEST

Uow, mind you, a Christmas party isn't a strict sort of jollification w here everyone has to have a written invitation. All the same, I do think that Judy accepted her uninvited guest too readily on equal terms with the Test of us. And that, mind you, when none of us had ever seen him before. Judv lives in an old house with darkly panelled,walls as glossy as • spaniel's coat. Against the creamy outside walls the pohutukawas are rusty-red, and in the _ shadowy cool garden there's an occasional gleam of a pool, or a bright splash of blue where the harbour comes peeping through the trees. W« were all admiring the Christmas tree, hung with silvery globes and gaudily-wrapped packages, and shouting and laughing as one usually does at Christmas parties, when suddenly I felt at the back of my mind that there was someone behind me. I turned round, and sure enough there waa—a tousle-headed boy with bare feet and a queer pointed brown face with light blue eyes. The first thing I thought was, "Now, how did you get here?" because you see I was stuffing almost in the corner and I , couldn't imagine how he had slipped pwt me. The second thing I * thought wtt, "That's a queer sort of outfit tofev to a party!" I saw that Judy Waa staring at ten, too, and then the room was .{Blip quiet, so much that you could hear the basso tick of the clock and » &int wish-wash from the beach bd£r. Ir—hello," said Judy hesitantly. TWboy grinned at all of us, and then tkr room filled with laughter again, tti we forgot that odd, silent BOnent. And it wasn't till day after the . puty that Judy told me that he hatint been invited to the party, that had never seen him before. But

she was enjoying her party so much' that she couldn't refuse him some of it, too. When you're excited and having lots of fun you don't take a great deal of notice of smaller happenings but, looking back, it certainly seemed a peculiar sort of party. For instance, sooner or later you get around to knowing the names of everyone present, but I never did find out the name of that boy. He knew mine, oh yes! He even persisted in calling me by my second name, Theophilus, which naturally I keep dead secret. Before five minutes were gone I was fast becoming irritated. Yet he was a likable sort of-person, full of fun and mischief. I've never seen anyone move as fast as he did, either. In the games there wasn't a hope of getting away from him when he was ' y 1 ac t> if it hadn't been for the fact of that dear old room being full of pools of shadow I would have suspected him of flying. There waa a high spirit of fun and happiness over that party; there wasn't any shyness at all. Everything went with a swing. The garden in the dying sunlight simply glowed, and the house was full of flickering lights and: glimmerings. I don't suppose any of us will ever forget it. Then the queer things started to happen. First of all Judy found a brooch that she had lost when she was tiny. And, of all places, it was on the Christmas tree. Then Tommy Millan, who is a needy sort of lad, discovered a pound note in his Christmas cracker. And I, who had yearned for a magnifying glass since I was twelve, found one in my package, though Judy vowed that she had put a silk tie there instead. We turned down the lights and danced around the tree, feeling light and gay and well, don't think me silly almost enchanted. The little candle flames bobbed and swayed, and the silver ornaments cast spangles of light on us as we danced past. There was that boy, hand in hand with Judy, his sunlight blue eyes simply glowing with mischief. The music swung up and down, and then, quite without warning, Joy Grey, who is

nervous, squeaked with terror. And, open-mouthed, we saw the heavy silvery globe on the very peak of the tree suddenly detach itself and float airily across the room, glimmering in the twilight like a will-o-the-wisp! , Well, I simply couldn't move. It hobbed gracefully out of the door as lightly as a balloon, and then we woke up and ran to the windows. It wafted down the garden, glimmered a moment among the trees, and disappeared. (Judy found it the next morning balanced on the very top of the gargoyle who decorates the top of the fountain.) Of course everyone said that Judy had worked it herself. That it really was a balloon. There were shrieks of laughter at the way she had fooled us. But I noticed that boy, half m and half out of the shadows, simply doubled up with laughter. After supper we sat on the moonlit balcony with dusky ~ petunias nodding up through the rails, and told ghost stories. Betty. Terry told a perfectly awful one, and Joy Grey had to be given a drink of lemonade to calm her down. Then that boy suddenly spoke up: "What a lot of nonsense," said he, "just as though ghosts would ever want to frighten anyone. Why, they love to be friendly with people. Of course they 10. You can't imagine how lonely they get, not having anyone to play with." Then as quick as light he leaped on the rail, nodded tauntingly at me, and said, "Can't catch me, Theophilus!" And With that he vaulted to the grass and raced away down the garden. Well, by that time I was so irritated, to say nothing of being furious at his calling me by that awful name, and to shouts of, "Go on, good old Jim!" and "Catch him, Jimmy!" I vaulted the rail and raced after him. He dodged in ahd out the shrubbery like a cat, and although I'm no sluggard at track work I didn't seem to have the turn of speed he did. Then with shrieks of delighted laughter the whole party came and jbined in the chase. Well, I think it was impossible to catch that iboy. We spread out fanwise, joined hands, divided into parties—but it wasn't a scrap of good. Those sunlit eyes of hi* seemed to shine even in the ghostly moon-

light, which wa« bright by now, and they laughed at me so much that I gritted my teeth and swore that I'd catch him if I had to break the mile record in the doing. At last I cornered him, but he bolted through ♦he door, raced through the house and up the stairs. I saw his bare feet fly round the top of the stairs, and then I was right on his heels, up and up and up. He seemed to be making for the attics. Behind me came the rest of the party, panting and giggling and breathless. I was nearly winded, but I almost had him-jn my grasp. Then he flew at a door which stood half-open. It led out on to the' roof. I had him now! The others were almost on my heels, and we streamed out on to the moonlit roof, its white expanse broken by black chimney angles. And there stood that boy, on the parapet, his pointed face half bidden in ' his down-falling black hair, through which those blue eyes glimmered and danced. His smile, angry and triumphant as I was, was something beautiful to see. The moonlight gilded him a moment, and then, blink! He just wasn't there. No, there wasn't any 'mistake. He just wasn't there. Well, I <lon't know. What do you think t