“Oh darn, the door is locked, now we would never be able to open the secret door and enter,” I groaned in disappointment as I walked down the wooden stairs. John and Mary were disappointed too, they had finally found the mythical “House of Secrets” and were so close to getting in the secret room.
“Wait just a minute! I suddenly remembered that Miss Pin, our babysitter used to dance for me when I am bored, she said that it could open a secret door to some secret house. I used to think she was just telling me a story although come to think of it, she does look quite bothered about the happenings in this House of Secret , “I exclaimed in excitement, suddenly remembering Ms Pin’s pained look.
Mary and John stared at me in disbelief, but as soon as I started doing the “weird dance”, the door creaked opened slowly. We entered the room and to our astonishment, we saw a bunch of what seemed to us scrawny and undernourished children, hunched and carrying bags and bags of cockles and seashells. Each one of them was standing in a queue which led to two burly men.
Mary squinted his eyes and gasped in horror, “Hey Ben and John, those are the men that sold cockles to the fish shop and sometimes handmade jewelry which earned them quite a lot of money , I heard that they were frequent customers who where tourists that were keen to purchase these handmade jewelry.”
“I think that those men must have forced these children to pick up bags and bags of cockles, slaves drive them to make these jewelry to sell. Its child labour and definitely illegal,” John whispered desperately.
As we tried to creep out of the secret room, one of the kidnappers caught us leaving. “Hey Nubs, intruders!!!! Don`t let them get away!” a kidnapper shouted in horror with his fingers pointing us.
We tried to run as fast as we could but to no avail, Nubs caught up and tied the three of us up together. Soon the other kidnapper, Nabu, stepped in front of us and commanded, “The three of you are trespassers and would have to die but I would spare you on one condition. You would work for me by collecting cockles.”
The two men then untied us and took us to a work table with other children to start making some necklaces out of seashells and cockles. Personally, I enjoyed collecting cockles and making them into stuff like jewelry, but doing this illegal trade for Nubs and Nabu were terrible for me. Mary and John did not enjoy it too as their scowl faces reflected that they were not happy.
As soon as we gather a bag each, we returned to the long queue in the secret room. I decided to communicate to the child in front of me in the queue. I found out that his name was Joseph and that he had been working for Nubs and Nabu for five years so far, he had tried to escape many times and Nuns and Nabu had no choice but to amputate his leg. He is now on wheelchair which makes it harder for Joseph to move and so his main job is just to string the cockles and seashells to the strings to make necklaces.
Joseph then explained that there was a secret door that had no handle on the inside but there was a handle on the outside. The only way that Nubs and Nabu could go through the door was through some series of mysterious and rhythmic knocks that Joseph could not figure out.
Out of a sudden, I recalled that Miss Pin used to do some knocks and in taps with her hands when she cajoled me to bed. She used to tell me that these are “freeing taps” on for a door with no locks and knobs. All this is making sense to me now. If the weird dance worked for us in the cellar, I might be able to open the secret door without any handle.
As we got nearer and nearer to the Nubs in the queue, we four thought of a way to escape. Being quick witted, Joseph told us that before the kids go to bed, Nubs and Nabu would take bottles wine and drugged the kidnapped children. Within seconds, they would fall fast asleep. The wine can be used to drug Nubs and Nabu. They discussed their plan.
Their plan was activated when, John was already at the front of the queue purposely dropped his bag of cockles, causing Nubs and Nabu to divert their attention to him. John and I sneaked to the wine cellar to grab a few bottles of the “drugging” wine as directed by Joseph who knew exactly where they were kept.
As soon as John retrieved all the cockles, Mary and I had returned. That night upon Joseph’s direction, we laced Nabu and Nubs favorite drink and within seconds they fell asleep. I hurried to the door without handles and tapped the familiar knocks and tappings I knew so well and within seconds, the door opened! There was time to lead the children out one by one instructing them firmly not to make any noise. John carried Joseph and we ran for freedom.
We went to the nearest police station after informing our Aunt Mabel. She was absolutely shocked that something so bizarre could happen in the house just next to hers. We led the policemen to the despicable place. Nubs and Nabu were arrested immediately..
That very night, I called Miss Pin to tell her about what happened to them that day. I was shocked to find out that Miss Pin was once a victim of Nubs any Nabu and she has much to tell as she would be travelling to see us as a key witness to assist the police. Needless to say, this holocaust of a discovery made headlines and we can never imagine that this stay at Aunt Mabel`s turned out to be one of those horror stories that we read from books.
