For the Prologue, Chapter One and Chapter Two, please follow the links at the bottom or click on Will Blyton and The Maggoty Motleys  category in the side menu.

You will need more than a magnifying glass when you meet The Maggoty Motleys, Will Blyton.

Groaningsea 2006.

When Will looks at Hamnet and finds that he seems to be asleep; he lets out a sigh of relief.  It would have been terrible if Athena’s mother, Rita Vamp, had been kidnapped and stuck in a swizzle chair with heavy bound Sellotape.  At least, now he can get back to talking to Bongo about what has happened.  Bongo is lying on the bed and staring up at the ceiling so Will gives him a nudge and tells him that he thinks that Hamnet has sent the whole town of Groaningsea forward to 2006.  Bongo sits up quickly.

“You can’t send a whole town forward in time, can you?”  He gets off the bed and rushes over to the small window.  As he peers through it, he beckons Will over and they both stare down at the car park.  It is full of types of cars they have never seen before and Bongo seems to be mesmerized as he flattens his nose against the window and simply stares.

Will puts his deerstalker back on and paces the room.  If they are right that means that he has time travelled.  A tingle of pleasure shoots right through his body and he decides that they have to go and explore 2006 quickly in case they are thrown back to 1974 before they have an adventure.  He needs to decide what to do next; Hamnet has cast a spell and caused the strange thing to happen so they will get Rita’s bag as they are supposed to do and then…  Rita’s bag?   Will looks at Rita’s bag sitting on the dressing table and falls down onto the bed with his head in his hands.  If Hamnet has caused them to travel forward in time, does this mean that Hamnet has conjured up a spell to get Rita Vamp kidnapped?  Will looks around wildly and wonders how he will explain to Athena that Bongo and himself were calling her mother names and wanted her to be kidnapped.  He glances towards the door and for a brief moment wonders if he could run away.  He looks at the bag again and gives a shiver as it seems to be some sort of animal skin.  He slaps his hand against his forehead as he tells himself that there is no way that Hamnet could do two spells so closely together.  They have to be seen taking Rita’s bag to her but  he is not carrying it.

“Bongo, get the bag and let’s go.”  He puts Hamnet in his pocket but Bongo is still staring out of the window.

“Rita Vamp will go bald if we don’t take her bag to her.”  Will taps Bongo on the shoulder and as he turns around he holds the bag out for to him to carry.  Bongo seems to be in a trance as he takes the bag and heads for the door so Will picks up the key to the room and they quickly leave.

Downstairs in reception, it is heaving with kids; all clutching Rita’s latest hit ‘Vampires on a Desert Island.’  Athena is there looking around with a look of disgust on her face.  When she notices Will and Bongo she waves and rushes over to them.  Will grabs her arm and pulls her behind a post which is meant to look Roman.  He is about to ask her if she knows what year it is when he sees a poster on a billboard.  He gulps loudly as he reads that all fans are invited to write a piece of fan fiction for their favourite book or television series and the winner will receive a fan fiction gold cup which is to be presented by Jonathan Oikle from the Doctor Who show.  Will feels his knees tremble as he puts his hands in his pocket and squeezes Hamnet tightly, at last Hamnet is making his dreams come true. 

“C’mon, we’d better go through.”  Athena pulls on Will’s arm and jerks him out of his rose coloured daydream.  “I can’t believe all these kids have come to see my mother.”  As she pulls Will by the arm along the hordes of Rita look-a-likes, Will turns around to make sure that Bongo is following.  He is, in a dazed glaze as he stares at all the kids with dyed black hair, red lips and a full wardrobe of black clothes.  Athena takes them through a side door and they find themselves in a huge room which turns out to be a theatre with a stage and hundreds of chairs at tiered levels.  Athena chooses the front row with some seats in the middle.  As they sit down, the back doors open and kids start to flood in all trying to get on the front row to be as near to Rita as possible.  A girl leans across Will and chews gum in his face.  She pulls on Athena’s arm.

“Hey, you’re Athena, Rita’s daughter.  What’s it like living with the queen of vamp?” She chews with zest as she waits for a reply. 

“She goes to bed in hair curlers carrying a teddy bear.” Athena checks her fingernails and Will notices a look of bewilderment from the girl, for a second she does not seem to know which expression to put on her face.  In the end she chooses a half hearted grin and says

“You’re kidding – right?”  Athena just shrugs so the girl looks at Will.

“What are you looking at?”  

Will tries to give a friendly grin but breathes a sigh of relief when a thin woman dressed all in black steps on the stage.  There is a sudden silence as the woman stands and stares at them as if she has forgotten what to say.

“I em have to apologise, I am afraid.  We do not seem to be able to get hold of Rita Vamp.”  She clears her throat gently.  “However, if you will bear with us we are sure she will pop up somewhere shortly.  Thank you.”

Athena tuts loudly.  When Will asks her why she is tutting, she looks around to make sure that no-one is listening and leans towards his ear.

“She’s doing it for publicity.  She’ll probably turn up on the back of a giant bat or something just as tacky in a minute.”  Will gulps and glances at Bongo clutching onto Rita’s bag.  He remembers his wish and hopes that Athena is right.

Related articles

• Will Blyton and The Maggoty Motleys – Chapter One. (willblyton.com)
• Prologue – Will Blyton and The Maggoty Motleys (willblyton.com)
• Things To Do – Hamnet’s Secret Code Quiz. (willblyton.com)
• Things To Do – Writing by pretending to be a 14th century monk. (willblyton.com)
• Will Blyton and The Stinking Shadow. (Chapter one.) (loonyliterature.com)