Ogg Read online

  Chapter 17

  “I don’t think we should have left her on her own, Ogg” Perg was saying. Not for the first time. Ogg was a bit fed up of hearing it. He had his reasons, why was he always expected to explain them? He moved in mysterious ways, wasn’t it enough to know that? But Perg was being insistent, and even Great Beings are susceptible to bit of short temper now and then. Nobody is perfect.

  “We shouldn’t have left her to cope by herself. She’s just a girl. And she’s so young.” Perg was in a nagging mood.

  Ogg wondered why was he being so chauvinist and ageist at the same time? It wasn’t a question of mindless political correctness. It was just plain messy thinking on Perg’s part. There was absolutely no logical reason why being a girl or being young should have any impact on Ant’s ability to handle whatever situation Perg’s imaginary world threw up. It was another clear case of emotionalism triumphing over the power of reason, and Ogg was a bit pissed off that it was manifesting itself in one of his disciples.

  “Why couldn’t we have kept her with us?” Perg bleated on.

  “Stop worrying, I’m keeping an eye on her. She’s all right.”

  “Yes, well where is she?”

  “Oh, for goodness sake! Take a look!”

  Antonia appeared upside down on the edge of her roof, her legs dangling up into the sky.

  “Oh my god! Get her down from there, Ogg!”

  “Don’t panic. She’s safe enough.”

  “Until gravity changes direction again. Then she’ll tumble headfirst off that ceiling. Right onto her head.”

  “Be patient, she’ll work that out for herself in a minute.”

  Perg could see from the furrowed brows and darting eyes that Antonia was indeed deep in thought. But, unlike Ogg, he had no way of knowing whether she was deep in the right thoughts. What she should do, of course, was go back into the building, find the fire escape and walk up it to the ground level. Then she would have no distance to fall. When she got up, walked back into the building, found the fire escape and climbed up to the top, which used to be the bottom, Perg breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Thanks Ogg!”

  “Don’t thank me. I didn’t do anything. Like I said, she worked it all out for herself. You shouldn’t have been so impatient.”