Read Online The Boggart and the Monster by Susan Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

through him.
“
It’s very hard.
”
    *  *  *
    A FTER SUPPER THAT NIGHT , Mr. Maconochie and the children sat at the edge of the campground, overlooking the loch. The sky was clouded now, the air chill, and they were huddled into sweaters and parkas. The water lay lead-colored, still and sinister, rippled only by the wake of an occasional small boat.
    Emily said, bemused,
“We’ve seen the Loch Ness Monster.”
    Jessup was staring at the loch through binoculars.
“We sure have!”
he said happily.
    â€œMaybe it’ll be on TV tonight,”
Tommy said.
“We should have tried the car radio.”
    â€œThat depends how many other people saw it,”
Mr. Maconochie said. His voice was quiet and neutral, but something in it turned their heads to look at him.
    Jessup said,
“What d’you mean, Mr. Mac?”
    â€œWe saw an
image
of the Loch Ness Monster,”
Mr. Maconochie said.
“On a screen. We did not see the creature live, in the flesh.”
    â€œJenny did,”
Emily said.
“And smelled him too.”
    â€œAnd then it disappeared,”
Mr. Maconochie said.
    â€œWell, yes — but we
saw
him.”
    â€œYour friend Professor Pindle said it dived. Did you see it dive?”
    â€œNo,”
Tommy said thoughtfully.
“It just vanished off the screen.”
    Jessup put down his glasses and looked searchingly at Mr. Maconochie.
“What are you suggesting, Mr. Mac?”
    Mr. Maconochie rubbed his neck, looking perplexed.
“I don’t really know. It just seems to me that the only way a real solid creature disappears is by going somewhere else. But an image on a screen can disappear instantly by being switched off.”
    â€œHe
wasn’t
an image!”
Emily said plaintively.
“He wasn’t switched off!”
    â€œD’you think this has anything to do with the Boggart?”
Tommy said.
    â€œOf course not,”
Jessup said firmly.
“A plesiosaur may be amazing but it’s not magic.”
    Emily said, more loudly,
“You’re wrong, Mr. Mac! Jenny
saw
him!”
    Tommy patted her hand.
“Maybe we should talk to Jenny. What do you think, Jessup?”
    â€œI think we should go make some hot chocolate,”
Jessup said.
    *  *  *
    T HE BOGGART WAS not in good enough spirits to steal anyone’s hot chocolate beside the little campfire that night. He sat morosely on top of the Range Rover,brooding. He had already lost Nessie again, for the time being. For a while it had been wonderful; they had thought of nothing but the delight of finding each other again. They had flittered and laughed and talked and sung, and each of them had been happier than they ever remembered.
    Then they had dived down together into the cold deep water that had been Nessie’s home for so long, and in the flicker of an eye the Boggart had taken the shape of a seal, as he so often did when he found himself swimming. But Nessie remained his insubstantial boggart-self, with the weeds and water slipping through him.
    â€œ
Come on, Nessie — be a selkie, the way we always did!
”
The Boggart rolled and turned and somersaulted in the water, playful, beckoning. Nessie moaned softly, and hovered motionless, a faint flickering presence, iridescent, glowing. A passing salmon, sensing him, moved politely out of the way.
    â€œ
Nessie! Come on!
”
    â€œ
I told you, I cannae do the changing any more! I’m weary!
”
    And in an instant Nessie dropped into sudden sleep, as boggarts often will — and changed at once into his immense Monster-shape. The Boggart watched in despair as the huge body drifted down, down to the icy depths of the loch, there to lie sleeping deep and long on his mattress of mud.
    There Nessie still lay now, while the Boggart perched on the roof of the Range Rover, and the nightgrew black all around. Tommy and Jessup slept peacefully inside the car, and Emily and Mr.