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The pocket watch swung back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. William’s eyes followed its repeated motions, concentrating intently on the watch. The watch swung in a perfect pattern, never straying from the left or right. The streetlights from Cherry Tree Lane shone through the window, and the illumination allowed William to see the faintest outline of his head in the thin sheet of glass his pocket watch held. In the otherwise dark room, he stood swinging the watch; a nervous tick, one he was none too proud of. William resorted to staring at the rhythmic movements, entranced, whenever he felt stressed.
One could describe his current predicament as….stressful..to put it lightly. ‘Stressful’ failed to capture just how William truly felt about his circumstances. A mere two days ago, he had been living comfortably in the world in the ceramic bowl located above the fireplace in the Banks’ household. Sure, life had not been perfect, especially after his failed attempt to kidnap the Banks children, but he would have much preferred the disapproving glares from his fellow bowl residents to his new dilemma. The mild discomfort that came from hearing the groans of the bowl’s inhabitats when they came across the lanky wolf would have been preferable to this new fish-out-of-water situation.
Of course, with most of the Royal Doulton Bowl hating him, William had come up with a plan to win back their affection. By exiting the bowl that confined them, in the same fashion that the Banks children had left the bowl themselves, he and his two closest employees, Hamilton Gooding and Templeton Frye, stepped foot into this familiar yet distant human world. There they would be able to convince their human counterparts to combine their money and influence to allow the rest of the bowl residents to join the humans in their world. It was a flawless plan, since William and his human counterpart both clearly would see the idea in the same light. After all, they were practically the same person. Great minds do think alike.
Naturally, flaws within the plan presented themselves all too quickly.
It seems that the Banks family was not too fond of the three of anthropomorphic animals appearing in their house without warning, especially if the mere sight of them causing screaming from the children, who quite clearly remembered their previous encounter with them. William had not reckoned with the fact that the Banks family obviously had nothing but hatred against him and his companions. Yet he decided the broom he got swatted in the head with was still a rather uncouth greeting for any house guest. After being chased out of the house, the three found it increasingly difficult to navigate the streets of London without invoking shrieks of terror from anyone nearby. William supposed that the only reason the trio made it to Fidelity Fiduciary bank was because the people who encountered the huge wolf, badger, and weasel were too shocked to call the police.
Once inside the bank, they made their way to the bank president’s office uninterrupted, though William began to grow a bit nervous when silence fell across the staff. Walking straight past the now slack jawed secretary, Frye pushed open the heavy, foreboding door to the office and the three entered. Sitting inside was a shocked human William, with the human counterparts of Frye and Gooding standing next to his desk, frozen at the sight of the once bowl-bound animals.
William delivered a speech that he thought was sure to rally the human William to his side, injecting emotion into certain sentences and pride into others. Although the human William had just stared at William’s hand when he extended it to him at the beginning of his address, William was positive that he had convinced him to help bring the bowl residents into the human world. Surely, this would be the start of a new era, where man and animal came together under one society for the profit of the wolf and his human counterpart. The residents of the bowl would surely hail him specifically as their fearless leader into this new era. The incident with the Banks children would be quietly swept under the rug.
But as he stretched out his grey, furry hand to his human counterpart, William was not given a firm shake back like he expected, or a round of applause, or even an approving nod. Instead, he was met with an excruciating silence. Sweat began to bead on William’s fur when the human William (or Mr.Wilkins as the golden plaque upon his desk read) slowly reached for a telephone on his desk. The stillness in the room was shattered by the shrill scream of “SECURITY” that Mr. Wilkins squawked out.
William did not remember the following few minutes very well, as he was too focused on escaping the now hostile bank environment he was trapped in, and could not focus on maintaining a picture perfect memory of the situation. He did remember the very real smack to the face that one of the security guards gave him as he bolted past, and he had the bruise to prove it. His two bowl-resident employees had managed to slip through the bank’s maze-like corridors and offices unscathed, leaving the wolf to take the brunt of the aggressive fear of the bank employees who were defending themselves from these unknown creatures in front of them.
To add insult to injury, the sky decided it was against William as well, and it was now pouring rain when he, Gooding, and Frye scrambled out of the unwelcoming bank. William had not planned far enough to account for what might of happened if the human William was struck by terror at the sight of him, so the next step in his theoretically flawless plan had to be come up with on the spot. Unfortunately, the blaring sound of police sirens behind him gave him no time to think.
So soon enough, he found himself back in Cherry Tree Lane, rapping at the Bank’s family’s door. Exhausted, drenched with rain water, William nervously forced a smile at Michael Banks when the door finally creaked open. The two exchanged no words, other than a few Michael muttered at the wolf that he would rather not repeat and the door quickly closed again. The wolf and his companions continued to stand in the cold downpour as the muffled voices of Michael and Jane Banks could be heard arguing inside from the warm, dry house. The sirens that had previously tailed the bowl residents before disappearing had returned, but before William could dwell on them the door opened again, and Jane ushered the sopping wet trio in. William knew full well that Michael would rather let the police poach the wolf’s sorry hide than let him back into his home, as Michael angrily eyed him, broom once again in hand.
Jane disappeared up the stairs, beckoning the children with her, who were all peeping at the new house guests through the stair banisters. Frye and Gooding ogled at the house’s interior before hastily leaving down a corridor to find a washroom with towels. William began to follow suit, but Michael came between him and the corridor.
“Let’s be clear here, wolf,” Michael grabbed William’s arm as he tried to pass into the dining room, voice barely above a harsh whisper. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing this for Jane’s sake. She sees the good in every person, or..animal.., and she didn’t want you and the other two to have who knows what done to you by the coppers. If it were up to me, you’d still be out there. Don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten about what you and your human counterpart did to my family,” his eyes darted out an ornate window, glancing at the ceaseless rain, before settling back on the wolf.
William said nothing.
“Oh Michael, leave him alone,” Jane reappeared next to her brother, startling both of them. “Listen, Mr. Wilkins, there’s no doubt that we have some … hard feelings against your human counterpart. A-and from what the children said about you specifically, we’re not sure we can trust you,” She attempted to be as polite as possible but William could feel the nervous energy mixed with a hint of anger radiating off of her.
“We don’t want to see you getting caught by the police - we have no idea what they’d do to you and your accomplices. But you must understand that appearing in the middle of the children’s room with no warning was not a great first impression for us. You can stay here until we figure out how to get you back to the bowl, but that’s it,” Jane said firmly, injecting a gentle touch. Michael nodded, his grip on the broom loosening as Jane placed a hand on his shoulder.
William gulped. “Understood,” he stated, hoping neither of them caught his voice cracking. Who were they to talk to him? He was not a disobedient school child, but the most powerful and respected banker in both worlds. The wolf was far too civilized to attack either, of course, and he was practically powerless in this realm…but…they should still have respect for him, right?
Then again, he did attempt to kidnap the Banks children with their guardians completely clueless as to where they even were…he could understand why they wouldn’t trust him. It was extremely generous of them to allow him and his employees to -
Interrupting his train of thought, loud shuffling and thudding noises suddenly echoed from upstairs.
“Kids? What’s going on up there?” Michael peered up the stairs before starting to climb them, a bit of fear imminent in his voice. William guessed they had gotten all riled up from the evening’s events and were now fighting, or something; he didn’t know how kids worked. The children’s heads poked out from their room.
“Um.. There’s someone here for you, dad, and for the wolf, too,” The eldest cautiously said, before opening the door completely. Behind the door stood an orange dog, Shamus, dressed head to toe in a coachman’s garb. William immediately recognized the dog as the very person who hauled him back to the Royal Dalton Music Hall after he failed in kidnapping the Banks children. The dog recognized him, too, eyelids falling into a slight glare upon seeing the wolf, and mouth turning into a frown.
“Oh for the love of –“ William had begun, before storming down the corridor where Frye and Gooding had gone, wanting to do anything but face this other unwanted bowl resident.
Great, just great! Now not only was he stuck in this similar yet not quite familiar world where he was nothing more than an animal freak, but he also had to deal with yet another, all-too familiar person who hated him.
So William stood. Watching his pocket watch swing back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. He’d been doing nothing but watching for a good bit of time, yet it felt like eons. He could hear the faint voices of the children speaking with Shamus and the even fainter voices of the adult Banks siblings speaking to each other, likely bemoaning and worrying over the newest addition in their refuge. Frye and Gooding’s voices were absent from the noise, but William assumed that they were feeling the same way he was.
Alone. Angry. And he hated to admit it, but,
Afraid.
He knew that somehow he’d get back into the bowl, and repair his reputation in one way or another that didn’t involve interacting with the human world around the bowl. Somehow it would work.
He hoped.