Beyond the Cherry Tree Read Online Free Page B

appear,
    But do not be blind,
    Listen and you will see,
    Believe and you will find.
    Before you awaits an adventure,
    But one more task you must achieve;
    Beyond the Cherry Tree you will travel.
    To reach your destiny that awaits you,
    Not only you, but others must believe.
    Josh’s stomach danced with all sorts of feelings: excitement , fear, happiness and confusion. They were all partying inside him, and this made him really feel sick. Over and over again, he read the enchanting words.
    What will I do? he thought.
    Up to now, Josh Bloom was neither adventurous nor brave, yet this page begged to differ. He paced up and down the room. This was indeed the strangest and biggest thing that had ever happened to him in his entire thirteen years of life. He thought about his life in Charlotty. It was sometimes a little boring and other times a lot interesting. But never adventurous!
    Finally, Josh stopped pacing.
    I’m going, he thought. I have to go! But what about Nell and Henry? What would they do if they found out?
    His thoughts rattled on in his mind.
    Why would they ever find out? he then thought. I could just go and see, and get back before they do.
    That was that!
    Josh put on his jacket, and grabbed the torch from his shoebox under his bed. He tucked the page back into hispocket and closed the hall door behind him. He ran around to the side yard and unlocked his bicycle, then cycled off into the darkness, heading for Gorse Hill.
    Gorse Hill was no easy cycle, but Josh had cycled its steep roads many times before and that had rewarded him with extra-strong legs and excellent fitness. Fitness, however, doesn’t help much on a dark journey and Josh was more than happy when the moon appeared from behind a cloud every now and then to highlight some of the many treacherous hollows in the road.
    Every bend that Josh cycled around was taken cautiously as he knew that Henry’s old Ford would surely struggle with the merciless hill and he didn’t want to bump into his aunt and uncle. It had let Henry down several times before, and Mr Farrow would have to come in his tow truck and haul the car back to Number 7, Fennel Row, where Henry would tinker under its bonnet way into the early hours of the next morning until, finally, its engine would splutter a breath or two.
    Josh sighed a breath of relief as the muscles in his legs once again began to relax and Gorse Hill levelled out just past the last bend. Straight ahead, he could see the old oil lamps on the two entrance pillars that had been lit to welcome the evening’s guests.
    As he approached the main gates, he jumped off his bikeand wheeled it around the back of a large cluster of neatly-clipped spotted laurels that gathered in groups on the top of a mulched slope, just inside the left gate.
    Josh rested his bike on its side. It was well out of sight.
    He kept his torch off as he walked along the near edge of the woods that wound around the left side of the manor. He could see shadows of people near the brightly-lit windows in rooms downstairs. As he trekked farther into the woods, he glanced back to make sure he was well out of sight. Then, with a sigh of relief, he switched his torch on. Josh looked back once more at the manor, then turned away and headed into the dark woods.
    Every few minutes, as he ventured deeper and deeper into the woods, Josh stopped and shone the torch down at the page that trembled in his hand. He had walked a long way through the woods, and still there was no sign of the lily pond mentioned in the riddle.
    He was quite familiar with most of the grounds of Cherry Tree Manor from helping Henry in the summer time, but he knew nothing of a lily pond beyond the woods. Henry had never spoken of such a place.
    Still, he kept walking. It was a cold night and the crunchy twiggy floor of the woods was beginning to hurt his feet. All of a sudden, Josh was walking on softer ground. There was no crunching noise anymore.
    He stopped and re-read the