Chapter 14

Won had considered picking the lock a second time, but not even he was willing to do something that risky again. He wondered if he’d be able to hear his brother through the door if he didn’t answer, but he didn’t really think so. Won looked through the keyhole, and to his relief, there wasn’t a key in it to block his view. He couldn’t see much of the room, but he had a full view of the empty unmade bed. The room didn’t look very different from how he left it, and he was quite sure that Wim was too tall to fully fit in the spots that he couldn’t see without doing so intentionally. The only way of finding out where Wim was, as far as he knew, was finding out where his uncle had gone. And he couldn’t follow his uncle like other people, because uncle Will never had to walk anywhere thanks to his teleportation. Won quickly ran to the door and put on his shoes. The only solution he could think of was asking the people in the town if they’d seen his uncle or Wim anywhere. He ran down the hill to the town quickly this time, tripping on a few tree roots as he stumbled his way into the town. He looked around, wondering where he should start and praying that there would be someone around so early, and Won realised he didn’t actually know what his uncle did every day when left the house. Feeling clueless as to where he should start, he decided to check the place he’d bought his groceries from the day before. There were only two people standing in the otherwise empty square: A small old man who was smoking a large pipe, and to Won’s surprise, Jina. He ran up to her. “Jina! Hello!” She turned around, looking a bit surprised and holding an empty shopping bag. “Won! Hello! What are you doing here this early?” “Jinnie, Have you seen Wim or Uncle Will anywhere?” Jina looked a little puzzled. “I don’t think so… no, I haven’t. I think Mr. Wonder usually goes to the river? Maybe they’re there?” The old man with the pipe seemed to nod, although he might have just died. Won didn’t have time to check on him however, so he said goodbye to Jina and started jogging to the river. Won reached the river just as the sun was starting to rise. He hadn’t been here in many years despite living close, because uncle Will had always been very serious about how dangerous it would be as Won had never learnt to swim properly. He had always thought it had to do with his mother drowning, and it was one rule he hadn’t ever considered breaking. He swallowed as he got closer to the water. It was flowing a lot less fast than Won had been expecting and was a clear green, but it was still terrifying. He could see the stones on the floor in the shallower bit close to the shore, but only about a metre in there was a sudden dip where the water flowed faster and was darker than anywhere else. He looked to the side instead, trying to avoid thinking about and doubting that his uncle would be anywhere in the water. Won spotted something wooden poking out of a bush from the riverbank, tripping over a root and panicking when he almost fell in the river, Won rushed over to what he now recognised as a small boat. He pulled it out of the bush a little. It was a strange place for a boat seeing as it didn’t look badly kept, more like it was badly hidden and forgotten. Close to the rim of the boat. There was a small carving that looked like someone had etched it into the wood with a knife: Property of R. Richards.