A Perfect Gentle Knight (14 page)

Roz, on the other hand, seemed at peace with herself. Corrie realized how torn she must have felt in the past months, how drawn to both the Round Table and her life at school. Now she could devote herself entirely to being a teenager.

She began to keep the radio continually tuned to a rock-and-roll station. Songs like “Jailhouse Rock” and “Wake Up Little Susie” boomed through the house. Roz raved about Elvis to Corrie.

“He's so dreamy!” she said.

“He's awful!” shuddered Corrie. The singer's slimy hair and the knowing grin on his face scared her.

“You're just like I was, Roz,” laughed Aunt Madge. “For me it was Frank Sinatra. How I worshipped him! I still do, I suppose.”

The night before she left, Aunt Madge took them all—except Sebastian, who refused to go—to
Around the World in Eighty Days
. Luckily the others chattered to her so much that Corrie didn't have to. She had avoided her aunt ever since their talk. She hated the hurt looks Aunt Madge gave her, but she just couldn't risk talking about Sebastian or the Round Table again.

Now she was in the hall, saying goodbye. This time Roz was the one going in the cab.

“Oh, my dears, how I will miss you all!” Aunt Madge's eyes glistened as she kissed each of them. Sebastian even smiled, he was so obviously delighted she was leaving.

Corrie's own eyes were moist as she felt the soft body embrace her. “Don't go!” she wanted to cry.

The house felt desolate when Fa and Roz got back. Tomorrow the Elephant would return and school would begin again. What had happened to the magic of Christmas?

10

The Kingdom of Cordith

F
a didn't notice, of course, that Sebastian and Roz were now like strangers. They talked only when they had to, in coldly polite words. Corrie found herself longing for their arguments. At least then they were themselves.

Corrie didn't realize how much she'd missed Meredith until their reunion. “Oh, Corrie, I got a
budgie
!” she cried when Corrie met her at the corner as usual. “His name's Paisley and he's
gorgeous
. Can you come to my house today and meet him?”

After school Corrie and the twins sat in the Coopers' kitchen and admired Paisley. He
was
gorgeous, with bright blue markings and speckled wings.

“He won't
talk
,” complained Meredith.

“You have to sit by his cage and repeat something over and over,” Corrie told her. “That's what Roz did.”

They left the twins chattering to Mrs. Cooper and went up to Meredith's room. After Meredith had finished telling her all about Calgary, Corrie related the story about Roz leaving the Round Table.

At once Meredith begged again to join. “
I
could be Sir Gawain! He's an important knight—you'll need him.”

“You know Sebastian won't let you.”

“Then I'll be Sir Gawain instead of Sir Perceval when we play knights here,” said Meredith.

“That's something I've been thinking about, Meredith,” said Corrie slowly. “I don't think you and I should be knights any more. Sebastian would be really mad if he knew.”

“But he
won't
know!”

“I still don't want to,” Corrie said stubbornly. “It doesn't seem right.”

“But
why
?”

“I can't explain. I just don't want to, okay?” Being knights outside the family now seemed as false and miscreant as Roz's disloyalty.

Meredith kept arguing, and both of their voices became angry. Corrie got so tired of repeating herself that she finally rushed out of the room, grabbed the surprised twins, and walked home. She stumbled through the rest of the day, trying not to think about Meredith until she was in bed.

She had lost her best friend!
A knight is loyal
. Ever since Roz had abandoned them, Corrie had realized how disloyal she had been, playing knights behind Sebastian's back. Sir Lancelot needed to count on Sir Gareth more than ever, now that he was the only other knight left.

Why couldn't Meredith understand that? The thought of never playing with her again, of never again going to that welcoming house, was unbearable.

A knight never cries.
Corrie swallowed her tears, pushing down another disloyal thought: If there wasn't a Round Table, she wouldn't have this conflict.

“I'
M SO
SORRY
, CORRIE
,” said Meredith immediately the next morning. “I don't understand why Sebastian has this power over you, but he's your
brother
. If
I
had a brother maybe I'd be the same. We don't have to play knights any more.”

Corrie was so relieved, all she could do was stand there and grin.

That day after school they started a new game—dressing up their small stuffed animals. Corrie only had Pookie, but Meredith lent her the squirrel and two of the teddy bears.

Meredith had already named the raccoons Raccy and Coony. They called the squirrel Perri, after the movie. The four bears were Edward, Oscar, Simon, and George.

Mrs. Cooper had a large basket full of sewing material. For hours Corrie and Meredith fashioned tiny capes trimmed with sequins, and hats that fastened with embroidery floss and had slits for the animals' ears. Pookie's hat had a tiny bell on top.

On the days when it was dry enough to play outside, they made twig houses and leaf beds for the animals in the Coopers' rock garden. They circled an area with stones and called it the Kingdom of Cordith, from their two names. The four bears were the kings, the raccoons were princes, and Pookie was a princess.

All of the animals could fly. Corrie and Meredith chose one each day to take to school. They soared them through the air on the way, but as soon as they came within sight of the building they hid the animals in their jacket pockets.

At first the animals stayed there during class. Then, because neither girl had pockets in her skirt, they sewed pouches and hung the animals around their necks.

This was Meredith's idea; Corrie was worried that someone would notice, but Meredith told her what to do. If someone asked, “What's that around your neck?” then Corrie was to shrug and say nonchalantly, “Oh, nothing.” She got used to it, and began to enjoy the power their mystery created.

One day at recess the Five circled them. Donna smiled. “We can't stand the suspense any longer! Could you
please
show us what you have around your necks?”

Meredith giggled. “What do you think, Corrie? Shall we
tell
?”

“I … guess so,” faltered Corrie. What if they thought they were impossibly childish for playing with stuffed animals?

But the five girls shrieked with delight when they saw Pookie and Raccy. They admired their capes and stroked their furry heads.

The next day Darlene brought a tiny mouse dressed in a red cape. Donna had a giraffe, and Gail a fox terrier. Because they displayed their animals proudly on their desks, Corrie and Meredith let theirs out of their pouches. It was much easier to endure arithmetic with Pookie perched on the inkwell.

Within two weeks every single girl in the class had brought a small stuffed animal in costume to school. Mr. Zelmach decreed that the animals were allowed to sit on the desks, but no one was permitted to pick them up or play with them during class.

Soon the other grade six class, and some of the grade fives, had animals as well. All of recess was taken up with introducing and comparing the animals. “We've started a
fad
!” gloated Meredith.

The best part was that Corrie and Meredith still had their secret game. All the girls delighted in naming and dressing their animals, but no one knew about the Kingdom of Cordith and the increasingly elaborate stories that Corrie and Meredith made up about it.

For Corrie, the new game became a welcome refuge. She paid Harry a month's allowance to take home the twins two more days a week. It was hard to give up her comic and candy money, but worth it. Now she played at Meredith's almost every afternoon. Even on Thursdays, when Meredith rode her bike to her piano lesson, Corrie stayed at her house, helping Mrs. Cooper get dinner ready.

Meredith's mother was so easy to be with. She talked to Corrie as if she were grown up, telling her how much she missed her parents in Calgary. “We're trying to persuade them to move here, but they won't budge!” she lamented.

Mrs. Cooper gave Corrie a whole bagful of shoeboxes to use for dioramas. “Is everything all right, Corrie?” she sometimes asked. Corrie assured her it was. She bent her head over the counter to hide her shame that, once again, she had to lie.

E
XCEPT FOR
the Round Table meetings, which still happened every Saturday, orderly life at home had fallen apart. This was because Sebastian had changed. One week in late January he suddenly seemed so much happier that at first Corrie thought he and Roz had made up. But the two of them still ignored each other.

Sebastian sat at the table with a faraway look in his eyes. He whistled constantly. And at every meeting of the Round Table he read them stories about Guinevere.

“‘He loved the queen again above all other ladies and damsels all the days of his life, and for her he did many great deeds of arms, and saved her from the fire through his noble chivalry,'” he quoted in a tender voice.

“That's too mushy,” complained Orly.

“No it's not!” said Juliet. “Guinevere's brave, isn't she?”

Sir Lancelot smiled at her. “She is the bravest and most beautiful woman in the world, Master Jules.”

Sebastian became more and more absent-minded. He didn't react when Harry missed his turn drying dishes or when Juliet turned her porridge bowl upside down on the table. He forgot to give them their allowances. He even forgot his own birthday. When they gave him their presents at the breakfast table he smiled with surprise.

Roz was out almost every evening now, doing her homework with Joyce. Sebastian went straight to his room after dinner and neglected to enforce bedtimes. The others stayed up later and later, watching TV shows Sebastian had never let them watch. Roz got home about nine and crossly ordered them all to bed. In the mornings they yawned heavily and protested about having to get up.

Corrie turned out her light later and later. She found it hard to concentrate in school, and occasionally she fell asleep on Meredith's bed. Orly had blue circles under his eyes and he burst into tears about the tiniest things. Juliet started a fist fight with another girl and had to go to the principal's office.

After Harry told her that he had got into trouble for falling asleep on his desk, Corrie decided she would have to be the one to set bedtimes. That night she insisted that the twins go to bed at eight as usual, and Harry at eight-thirty. Despite regretting the missed reading time, she made herself turn her own light out at nine.

“
I
'M
ITCHY,
”
complained Juliet one morning, scratching some red spots on her face.

“Oh, no!” said Roz. “Chicken pox!”

“How do you know?” Corrie asked her.

“Because Harry had it two years ago—don't you remember?”

Corrie nodded. “What should we do?” Usually Sebastian would have a suggestion, but he had left for school early.

“Put her to bed and call the doctor, I guess.”

“But who will take care of me?” demanded Juliet, proud to be so important. The others pondered this. Before the twins went to school, the housekeeper—or, before that, Aunt Madge—took care of anyone who was sick.

“The Elephant will be here,” said Harry.

“You know she won't take care of Juliet.” Roz looked defeated. “I'll have to stay home from school. And I have a math test today! And I'll miss baton practice!”

“
I'll
stay home,” said Corrie.

“Me too!” offered Harry.

“Don't be ridiculous. You're far too young!” Roz snapped. Then her eyes filled with tears. “I'm sorry, you guys, I didn't mean to yell at you. But it's so hard! What if Juliet is sick for a week? What if Orly gets it? He probably will; he's the only one of us who hasn't had it. What are we going to do?” Then she cried in earnest, putting her head on the table. “It's not fair! I'm so tired of trying to look after everyone, especially since Seb is doing
nothing
these days.”

Harry patted Roz's back awkwardly while the twins watched with frightened eyes.

“
Fa
should look after her,” said Corrie. “I'm going to wake him up and tell him.”

Roz raised her wet face. “Don't, Corrie! He has to go to work!”

“He's our
father
,” said Corrie, in a firm voice that seemed to belong to a stranger. “He's
supposed
to look after us.”

She ran to Fa's study and knocked on the door. After a minute he opened it, yawning and engulfed in his dressing gown. “I'm sorry to bother you, Fa, but we think Juliet has the chicken pox and we have to go to school.”

Fa shook his head awake. “Chicken pox!” In a minute he was in the kitchen, examining Juliet. “Now don't you worry about a thing,” he told them, as focused as he was on Sundays. “I'll phone the doctor and put her to bed. You'd better stay home as well, young Orlando, since you're bound to get it. Hop into your beds, you two. I'll come up in a moment and read you a story until the doctor comes.”

“But, Fa,” said Roz, “what about your classes?”

“I'll phone and cancel them. Off to school with all of you, now, before you're late.” He shooed them out the door.

When Corrie got home, Orly had broken out into spots as well. Both twins were feverish and whiney, their room a mess of drinks, toys, and rumpled sheets. Fa looked rumpled and exhausted himself, but he refused to let any of them help. “Doctor Blair said it was normal childhood chicken pox. They'll be fine in about a week.”