Song Said to Have Been Sung by Sam page 10.
Will, for his part, felt that this day had to be the longest day anyone anywhere had spent in eons. It was probably the longest day that anyone had endured since schools and books and teachers' dirty looks had come into existence. As Darling Darlene and Will the Wee Wizard scooted through the schoolyard gate, backpacks laden with books both knew they would never crack, they began to pick up the pace.
They didn't slow down until they reached the Rise. The Rise takes the mickey out of one. It spirals up if such a thing is possible in anything but staircases and corkscrews. Of course it didn't for if it had it would have come back on itself like a stairway to the stars. As usual the climb to their cottage, crammed with much music, was sheer drudgery, lightened on this day by a new melody that came from somewhere above their heads. The sibling rivals got out their binoculars and scanned the tree tops for bringers of new harmony. One moment, the melody came from the left and the next from the right. It wasn't until Darlene perceived a sound that could only be described as a mixture of a dog's bark and a cat's meow that she knew the cause. She was irate but decided to keep her peevish attitude under wraps.
By the time, they came within sight of home, crammed to the rafters with much music, more song from more ages than Sam could ever have sung, it's a wonder they hadn't begun to steam. Actually Darlene was so glad to have home within sight that she forgot all about her miserable attitude, which had succeeded in making her unhappy and no one else by the look of it, which is of course what usuall happens with misery. When she took off her hat, her head was steaming but only because she and Will and just completed a thousand-foot vertical climb and not because she was still fuming mad. There would time for that later. Darlene was a patient person, a sister who could wait years to take revenge or to right a wrong. In this case, she wasn't sure, which it would prove to be. She did know that when the time came, she would be ready.
Will made no comment about the new harmony and neither did she. Neither of them spoke until they reached their front door only slightly out of breath.
"Did you have a good day at school?"
"Virtually awesome, Mom," Darlene answered.
"It seemed longer than usual," Will commented.
"Hungry?"
"Only a little," said Will.
"Ditto for me," said Darlene.
"That's out of character. You two are usually ravenous, famished, have a hollow leg and can eat a horse on the hoof. Are you sure you're feeling okay?"
"We're fine, just fine, Mom," Darlene said rather quickly, her voice trailing off so that Mom came out almost as a whisper.
"It's just that we have a lot of homework," said Will edging away from the kitchen table but not before grabbing the last chocolate chip cookie on the plate. "For some reason, we're not particularly hungry."
Their mother smiled and fished a second cookie out of the jar. She was just about to hand it to Darlene when she couldn't but notice Will breaking his cookie in two and handing the larger piece to his sister.
"Are you sure, you're okay?" their mother asked with deep concern while absent-mindedly nibbling. It was something that she rarely did for she had to watch her figure. "These aren't bad, if I do say so myself."
"Did you come across any new species today?" their mother asked stalling, anything to keep in the kitchen, at least until she could get an idea as to the cause of their strange behaviour. Imagine rushing off to do their homework without waiting to be nagged into it! Their mother helped herself to another cookie and had munched half of it before regret set in.