Part 11 - The Tree

 For the first obstacle course we came to, which is built for people half our height, we split into teams to reach the finish first. It was a maze, which, given that the last time I'd been here was only a couple of years ago, I remembered the route through. It's boundaries were constructed of thin blue rope which scratched you if your skin slid along it at all. James and I were disqualified, since we both remembered how to get through. We took opposite edges of the maze and scuttled back and forth, yelling help to the people within.

"Eliphia!" James called, "Left! Go left!"

"Dead end, Hanien," I warned.

 Annisa and Tom were the first to reach the end, quickly followed by Eliphia and Isaac. James gave Annisa a high-five and I saw her legs almost turn to jelly. I noticed abruptly that John Green was standing beside me.

"James told me about Paul," John mumbled.

"Oh," I whispered.

"I know you're all having fun and I think that's great but I do not think James should have brought you all. I can understand him bringing Michael and Benedict and, to an extent, myself. But you're all just kids. You shouldn't have to be part of this," John shook his head.

"He asked us if we wanted to come!" I countered.

"Oh, yeah, like anyone's going to say no to spending the day with their idol," John rolled his eyes.

"He doesn't see that. He doesn't understand how we feel about him. It's part of what makes him so great," I explained.

"Look, I get that. I have idols too. I have crushes. I don't, however, follow them into the traps of people who have kidnapped two innocent women!" John exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah, that's another thing. Me, Eliphia, Pearl and Lucía were all friends with the two women, Jan and Tara," I added.

"Oh, what site?" John asked.

"Facebook."

"Oh."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What?!"

"Nothing. I have nothing against Facebook. I just think that Tumblr is way, way better," John giggled.

 I spotted James calling us back over and signalled to John that we should rejoin the group.

As we walked, I turned back to John. "Did James tell you about ... Paul's views?"

"Yes. He is clearly insane," John decided, "I mean, I can understand why he might be averse to certain ship fanfiction but ... to abhor the genre altogether? For some people it's the only way they like to write. You can't just stop whole fandoms from writing. And the idea that books are the property of their writers? Pah!"

"Books belong to their readers," I stated.

"Did you just quote me?" John grinned.

"You're an excellent person to quote!" I retorted. We rejoined the group and I could have sworn that John whispered 'DFTBA', the nerdfighter catchphrase, as he left.

 "Alright, then." James rubbed his hands together. He was standing at the far edge of the circle to John and I. "And the winners are ... Annisa and Tom! Well done, guys. Right, before we move on to the next play-park, Michael was suggesting we have some lunch."

 There came a chorus of 'yes' and 'definitely' and 'I'm starving!'. Michael pointed to a spot beside a tree a few metres away. We flocked towards it and formed a semi-circle around the stout trunk. Michael, Tom and Isaac were immediately locked into a 'Noughts and Crosses' battle. James leant right up against the tree and the rest of us sat facing him.

"Okay," James began, "One time only, ask me whatever you want and I will answer. Oh, except nothing about my wife or my son."

"What's your favourite song?"

"'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen."

"Who's the most annoying character you've ever played?"

"Tom LeFroy's a bit of an arse at times."

"Can you do any impressions?"

James smirked and then slipped into Patrick Stewart mode, "Engage."

"What are you going to do when you see Paul?"

 I'm still not sure who asked that question. Even later, nobody owned up to it.

James inhaled deeply, "I'm going to try to persuade him to stop this. I'm going to ask him to give back Jan and Tara. Actually, speaking of which, could everyone who has them as Facebook friends give them a message. If they get loads, maybe Paul will let them reply to one."

 Eliphia, Pearl, Lucía and I whipped out our phones and strolled around the bottom of the tree, trying to find some signal. Below us, Michael, Tom and Isaac looked up from their tournament and suggested we climb the tree. James and Michael stood at the foot of the tree and hoisted us one after the other onto the bottom two branches. We slithered around the branches and eventually we were all high up enough to gain two bars of signal each.

"What are we saying?" Eliphia called down to James.

"Just say something hopeful about maybe getting to meet them today," James replied with a shrug.

 I opened the JMFC and typed in a message: Hey there Jan, Tara! We're all really excited that we might finally meet you in the flesh today!

 Once I'd finished, I closed the window on my phone and glanced around below me. I think Tom was winning because he kept doing little 'happy dances' every few minutes, with John Green teaching him new techniques for this. Michael, John and James kept smiling at each other and then at all of us, as if they were proud of us. James had slipped his heavy jacket back on, thrust his hands in his pockets and was now jogging around the tree to keep warm.

 Shattering the feeling of calm that had been cultivated, their came a shriek from the branch below me. It seemed that Lucìa had been trying to reach forward for better signal but had leant to far. Whatever had happened, she was now hanging by one hand from my own branch. I scuttled forward and grabbed her hand, pressing it into the branch.

"Give me the other one!" I yelled.

 Lucía wiggled her left arm through the air, urging it toward the branch. I reached over the edge of the branch, with one leg on either side of it for stability. I snatched at her hand and helped her reach the branch.

"James, can you help us please?" I shouted.

 He was already on his way. He had whipped off the jacket and the fleece - giving way to a gold 'Lord of the Rings' t-shirt below - and was holding them in his arms like a basket. His eyes were focussed with a steely gaze on Lucìa's struggling figure.

"Lucía, it's a very small drop to me, about the length of your shin. What I need you to do is keep your legs forward, so that you land in my arms in a sitting position. Michael, could you give me a little support?" James's voice was calm and level, as if he'd trained for this.

 Michael zipped over to James and, with feet planted in a tennis 'ready' position, he pressed his hands into James's back and let James lean back into him. Lucía wiggled her hands into a firmer position, then dropped gratefully into James's arms. James stumbled backwards into Michael who, with the help of Tom and Isaac, kept James on his feet. James lowered Lucía into a standing position.

"M'lady," he grinned.

"Thank you, kind sir," Lucía returned.

 I smiled at them from my branch, with my feet locked in a ring around the branch so I could avoid a similar problem. Despite this precaution, I nearly fell from my branch when Benedict Cumberbatch's voice emanated from my phone. I'd forgotten that my text alert was a line from 'A Scandal in Belgravia', the first episode of Series Two of BBC Sherlock: Sherlock saying "It's a text alert. It means I've got a text."

"What was that?!" James exclaimed.

"What did it sound like?" I retorted. I gripped the edge of the branch and swung my head round the side to meet James's eyes. "I have a reply."

 I clambered around the branches to the other side of the trunk, where the ground was soft. The area that Lucía had almost fallen onto was webbed with the roots of the tree. On this side, the hill extended upwards so the roots were buried under the surface. As I dropped to the ground, the soft floor of pine needless compressed with me and bounced me into a sitting position. I shook my head to clear it and zipped in a circle around the tree.

"Who was it?" James asked once I reached him. His eyes had widened and his voice was urgent.

"I haven't actually checked yet," I admitted. I swiped my lock screen to the side and opened Facebook.

"So it could be anyone? Like, your network provider?" James chucked.

"Yes, I guess. Oh, maybe TalkTalk got kidnapped," I muttered, "A-hah! Here it is. It's from Jan!"

 Hi, Joanne, so glad to hear from you. We're not quite there yet but somebody keeps saying to tell all of you to meet at the top of the 3-D maze. See you soon :)

"So I take it 'somebody' means Paul?" James ventured.

"Yeah, probably," I mumbled, "I put it in the JMFC so he probably didn't want to let them tell everyone what was going on."

"So what should we do until it's time to go meet them?" Michael asked.

"I have an idea," came a deep, rumbling voice from the tunnel that led to the next section of the park. We craned our necks to peer into the murky depths of the tunnel and spotted a lone figure strolling towards us.

"Who's that?" Lucía asked, bewildered.

"It sounded like Smaug to me... " James mumbled, "Oh! Hi, Ben!"

 Benedict emerged lazily from the gloom with his hands in his pockets and a bemused grin on his face. His auburn hair curled in a smooth flick away from his forehead and his slightly gangly limbs moved with grace. He wore a thin grey hoodie and a blue body-warmer, with black walking trousers. As he neared us, he picked up his speed and jogged toward us.

"So what's your idea?" James asked when he reached us.

"Come on." Benedict gestured towards the tunnel. "I'll show you."