Doctor Who_ Wonderland - Mark Chadbourn [12]
'Chicklet! I have news!'
I'd been sitting on the steps at the front of the house, desperately trying to think of a new approach. I always thought that if you wish hard enough, things happen. The vibes go out and the universe answers; you just had to be open to the endless possibilities of this place that nurtures us. And on that day it seemed I was right.
'About Denny?'
'The man himself. Last night I asked around a few contacts, put a few whispers out on the street, and this morning listened for them coming back. And someone indeed saw your beau. Well, the actual description was some clyde with a jock haircut.' He smiled sympathetically. 'But, you know... if it's him...'
My stomach did a little flip. It wasn't until my first thought was He's
alive! that I realised how much I'd secretly thought Denny was dead. 'Where, Jack?' I wanted to snatch that piece of paper from his hand and race off there and then, ignoring the little voice that still wanted to know why Denny hadn't called me. I'd left notes on all the message boards around the Haight. Everybody checked them. He could have found me. If he was able.
'Hey, steady, chicklet. This was some days ago. Don't want to get your hopes up too high.'
'It's the first I've heard of him in the Haight at all since he got here.'
'Okay, but just stay cool.' His face darkened.
'What is it?'
He handed me the paper with its one line address. 'He was going to see the Goblin.'
I'd heard the name, but couldn't say where. Stimson read my blank expression.
'The Goblin, baby!' he stressed, before adding, 'He's a heavy, heavy cat. Grooves on some very strange shit.' He twirled his finger at the side of his head. 'If I was going to give you any advice, I'd say keep the heck away from him. He'll suck the life right out of you. There are people who go into his place who – they say – never come out again.'
Those words coming from a seasoned professional like Stimson made me even more scared, for Denny. 'I have to go,' I said bluntly.
'Yeah, I thought you'd say that. Your beau is one lucky cat.' He rested one hand on my shoulder supportively. 'Look, I'd offer to come with you, but, like, I value my skin.'
'Don't worry, I wouldn't ask you to,' I said truthfully.
'But I gotta say, don't go alone. Get some support. Ten guys, maybe twenty ... big ones.' He mimed an ogre. 'With, like, burning torches.' We laughed, for a while.
Hal, Mickey and Joe were all sympathetic, but everyone knew the Goblin's reputation. They spent half an hour trying to talk me out of going, but when they realised I wouldn't back down, none of them would accompany me. They eventually drifted off with that lazy distraction that always hides guilt.
I was naive and optimistic and usually filled with the gung-ho attitude that was getting us in such a mess in the Far East, but all the talk about the Goblin was starting to get to me. I wasn't stupid; never had been.
Naturally I headed for that far-out police box. Something told me that the Doctor, Ben and Polly had adventurous spirits. I could imagine them forging through the deepest Amazonian jungles or climbing some misty mountain in Tibet. For all their English stiffness, they were as nonconformist and daring as anyone in the Haight, and I could only admire that. They were one of us, not one of them.
When I arrived, they were standing in the shade of the trees, deep in conversation. Something in their body language and the heaviness of their whispers made me cautious. I paused just out of sight, waiting for the right time to break into their circle.
'I don't bloody well understand,' Ben was saying. 'We've got Cybermen, and then we've got those butterfly things –'
'Menoptra,' the Doctor said. He was distractedly fiddling with some small mechanical object in the palm of his right hand.
'Whatever ... it doesn't matter. Is this the start of some sort of alien invasion, or what?' Ben waved his hand towards the sky with irritation. 'And which lot do we have to be more worried about: the Cybermen or the Menoptra?'