The Cook Who Was Quetzalcoatl

Part One. Talking to a Puddle

The first time we saw Mister Ketz was on a Monday, and he was talking to a puddle.

You might remember that on Saturday a tiny green snake with feathers instead of scales had looked up at us from the puddle by the school gate and asked, "Is this the school with the corn?" Then Missus Tibbs had called "Home time!" and the snake had wriggled off down the drain, and nobody had seen where.

On Monday morning, a man was crouching over that very puddle with his hands behind his back, nodding politely at it.

"Yes," he was saying. "Yes, I quite understand. No, I don't think it will be a problem."

He was tall and slim, with a long green scarf that shimmered in the sun, and his hair was a mass of bright, feathery curls. His badge said Mister Ketz, Kitchen Garden and Wind. When he stood up, a small warm breeze rolled across the playground, even though the flags weren't moving.

"Good morning, class," he said, with a little hissy s. "I'm told you have a Harvest Festival on Friday."

"We do," said Mister Harris, hurrying up behind him. "But we have a small problem."

"How small?" said Mister Ketz.

"Everything," said Mister Harris. "The flood got into the food cupboard. All the flour, all the rice, all the sweetcorn for the Festival soup. Ruined. We have nothing to eat."

Mister Ketz looked at the sky. He looked at the field, where the long silvery channel from Mister Yu was still gurgling away. Then he looked at the little grassy hill at the bottom of the field, the one we call the Bump, and he smiled a slow smile.

"Oh," he said. "I don't think that's quite true."

Alex and Felix Bailey are twins, so they have a system. Alex notices things, and Felix asks about them. Then they swap, and it works every time.

Alex noticed that whenever Mister Ketz talked, little leaves swirled round his ankles. Felix asked, "Mister Ketz, are you doing that on purpose?"

"Doing what?" said Mister Ketz, as another leaf spun round his ear.

The twins looked at each other and said, "We need Maya."

Part Two. The Feathered Snake

Maya Singh was behind the compost bin, which was no longer an island. She had her clipboard. Kenji Mori and Ollie Grant were sitting on their upside-down buckets, and Dot from Reception sat on the lid, holding a toy spade she hadn't put down since the flood.

Maya had a green feather in her hand.

"I found this at the gate," she said. "Mister Ketz is Quetzalcoatl. You don't have to say it perfectly. Nobody's ever quite sure."

Kenji said, "Is that a sneeze?"

"No, Kenji."

She told us that a very long time ago, in the place we now call Mexico, there were people called the Aztecs who told stories about their gods. One of the most loved was Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent.

"His name means precious feathered snake," said Maya. "A ketsal is a beautiful bird with long green tail feathers, and a koatl is a snake. So he's part bird and part snake, and he's the god of wind, and learning, and the morning star."

Dot said, "A snake with feathers?"

"A snake with feathers. And he's very kind. In the stories, he helped make people, and he looks after them. He taught them how to read the stars, and make books, and grow crops."

Ollie said, "Crops like corn?"

Maya gave a very small smile. "I was just getting to that."

Part Three. The Story of the Corn

"A long time ago," said Maya, "people were hungry. They ate wild roots and berries, and there was never enough. Quetzalcoatl knew that somewhere in the world there was a better food, called corn, but nobody knew where it was.

"One day, he saw a tiny red ant walking across the ground, carrying a single yellow kernel on its back. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"He said, 'Little ant, where did you find that?'

"The ant said, 'I'm not allowed to say.'

"He said, 'Please. People are hungry.'

"The ant thought about it. Then it said, 'Follow me.'

"The ant led him to a huge mountain, called Sustenance Mountain. Inside it was a secret store of corn, enough to feed the whole world. But the way in was a tiny crack, much too small for a god."

Dot gasped. "What did he do?"

"He turned himself into a black ant, and crept in after the red one. He was very small, and the tunnels were dark and twisty, but he found the corn. He took a single kernel and carried it all the way back out, one tiny step at a time."

Felix said, "He had to make himself small."

"Yes," said Maya. "And do you know what? That's why corn is part of who the Aztecs are. They say Quetzalcoatl gave it to them. He chewed it up, and put it into the mouths of the very first babies, and they grew strong."

Kenji said, "That's a bit gross."

"It's a very old story, Kenji."

Alex said, "So he's come to find the corn."

Maya nodded. "I think he's found the Bump."

Part Four. The List

Alex held the pencil. Felix held the notebook, because they always share.

Number one. The scarf. It's made of feathers, not wool, and when Ollie touched it, it hissed.

Number two. The wind. Leaves follow him round.

Number three. The ants. There are a lot of red ants on the path where Mister Ketz walks. They line up on either side, like they're saying hello.

Number four. The morning star. Every morning, before school, he stands on the roof and waves at a very bright star that is still out.

Number five. The puddle. He talks to it.

Number six. The dog. We hadn't noticed this one until Dot did. A big scruffy brown dog with floppy ears had been following Mister Ketz round the school since Monday. It never barked. It just watched.

Dot said, "Is that part of the list?"

Maya looked at the dog. The dog looked at Maya. It had one blue eye and one brown eye, and it gave a very small sneeze.

Maya said, "I think that might be his twin."

Part Five. Sholotl

"Quetzalcoatl had a twin brother," said Maya. "His name was Sholotl. He had the head of a dog, and he was the god of lightning, and the evening star, and guiding people through dark places."

Alex looked at Felix. Felix looked at Alex. They said nothing, but both of them were smiling.

"They were opposites," said Maya. "Quetzalcoatl was bright and graceful, like the morning. Sholotl was scruffy and shadowy, like the evening. But they always did things together. When the sun goes down, Sholotl guides it through the underworld so it can rise again."

Dot said, "He's like Anubis."

Maya said, "A bit. They're both dog-headed guides. But Sholotl is Aztec, and he's much more of a goofball."

The dog, hearing his name, wagged his tail and knocked over a bucket.

Part Six. The Bump

On Tuesday, Mister Ketz took the whole class to the bottom of the field. The ground was soggy, but the Bump was still there, a round, grassy mound as tall as a bus, with a small crack in the side, no wider than a pencil.

He crouched down and whispered, "I think the corn is in there."

Mister Harris said, "Corn? In the Bump? We've had that mound for thirty years."

Mister Ketz said, "And it's had a very long summer."

He put his ear against the grass. A faint, busy rustling came from inside, like the sound of a thousand tiny feet.

He said, "Ants. Millions of them. They've been storing corn for years, from the school lunches and the dinner hall bins and the Harvest Festivals before. It's all in there. Everything the school ever dropped."

Ollie said, "That's the best thing I've ever heard."

Mister Ketz said, "But they won't let us have any."

Felix asked, "Why not?"

Mister Ketz said, "I tried asking this morning. A very small guard told me, and I quote, 'No. Go away. It's ours.'"

Part Seven. How Not to Get the Corn

Our teachers tried first.

Mister Hanu bounded down the field and tried to lift the whole Bump with his hands. It was heavy. He puffed, and strained, and his orange tracksuit went dark with sweat, but it didn't budge. He got a little bit bigger, and a little bit bigger, and then he said, "It's a lot of corn," and sat down.

Mister Heston tried to hammer a hole in the side. The ants poured out in a red stream, biting his ankles, and he hopped about shouting, "Ow! Ow!"

Mister Thorley said, "I'll crack it open with a bolt of lightning!" and raised his hammer.

"No!" shouted everyone.

"Right," said Mister Thorley. "Yes. Corn in a lightning strike. Popcorn."

He lowered the hammer, looking embarrassed.

Mister Ketz even tried turning himself back into a serpent, long and green and feathered, coiling round the Bump to squeeze it open. The grass didn't give. The ants poured out again.

He sat at the bottom, looking tired, with feathers all over his scarf. He said, "I can't do it. I have never been able to lift this mountain. Not even once."

Ollie said, "Never?"

Mister Ketz said, "Not in thousands of years."

Part Eight. The Boys Notice

On Wednesday, we were all sitting on the wet field in a gloomy heap. Dot was poking at a worm with her spade.

Alex said quietly, "Look at the ants."

Felix said, "What about them?"

Alex said, "They're not just guarding. They're carrying."

We looked. A long, thin line of red ants was coming out of the crack, each carrying a tiny bit of corn. They marched across the grass towards the hedge at the edge of the field, and went into a small, dark hole.

Felix said, "They're taking it out. To somewhere else."

Alex said, "Why would they do that, if they're protecting it?"

Felix said, "Let's ask."

Everyone stared at the twins.

Felix said, "We've been shouting at them, and hitting them, and trying to lift their house. Nobody's asked what they need."

Mister Ketz sat up very straight.

He said, softly, "That is the first sensible thing anyone has said all week."

Part Nine. An Idea

He looked at the twins for a long time.

He said, "Do you remember how I got the corn, in the story?"

Alex said, "You turned into an ant."

Mister Ketz said, "I made myself small. Sometimes, the only way to find out what someone needs is to see the world from where they are standing."

He looked at the Bump.

He said, "I have an idea. But it needs two small helpers, who can make themselves even smaller, and who work well together."

Alex and Felix nodded.

Mister Ketz said, "It will be dark, and it will be scary. But my brother will be with you."

The scruffy dog gave a bark. His tail wagged.

Alex took a deep breath. "Okay."

Felix said, "Okay."

They said it together, very quietly: "I can be scared and brave at the same time."

Part Ten. Getting Small

Mister Ketz waved his hand, and a warm wind rolled across the field, tickling their noses. It smelled of rain and flowers and the first day of spring.

The twins felt a strange fizzing in their toes. The grass began to grow taller. The hedge shot up into the sky. Mister Harris grew into a giant, then a mountain, then a faraway cloud.

When the fizzing stopped, they were tiny. They were about as big as a button, standing in a forest of green grass blades, with a dewdrop beside them the size of a bath.

Alex looked down. He had six legs.

Felix looked down. He had six legs too.

They had little black bodies, and long feelers, and shiny round heads. They were black ants.

"This is weird," whispered Alex.

"This is brilliant," whispered Felix.

A great shadow loomed over them, and a very large, very hairy, very friendly nose came down and sniffed. It was Sholotl, still a dog, but now as tall as a house. He had put on a tiny collar with a little lantern on it, and it glowed gold.

Mister Ketz's voice boomed from somewhere very high above. "Follow Sholotl. He knows the dark. And listen to the ants. They have something to tell you."

Part Eleven. Into the Mound

The twins walked up to the crack in the Bump, which was now as big as a doorway. Two red ants stood guard, as tall as Alex and Felix, with sharp jaws and fierce little eyes.

"Halt," said one. "Who goes there?"

Alex said, "We're Alex and Felix. We're from the school."

The ant said, "This is our house."

Felix said, "We know. We'd like to come in and ask a question."

The ants looked at each other. One whispered to the other.

"Black ants," said the first. "We haven't had black ants in a very long time."

The second said, "They look polite."

The first said, "Let them through. But Sholotl waits outside."

Sholotl whined, but sat down, with his lantern glowing. Then he winked at the twins and nudged the lantern forward with his nose. It was too big to carry, so it shrank to the size of a firefly and floated into Alex's hand.

"Thank you," whispered Alex.

They stepped into the dark.

Part Twelve. The Tunnels

It was a maze. The tunnels twisted and turned, up and down, left and right. The walls were smooth and warm, and smelled of earth and sweetcorn. In the glow of the little lantern, they could see thousands of ants hurrying past in long lines, carrying kernels, seeds and crumbs.

Alex said, "It's like a city."

Felix said, "It's like our school at lunchtime."

They passed little rooms full of golden corn, piled up like mountains. They passed nurseries where baby ants slept. They passed a kitchen where a very fat ant was chewing something. Nobody stopped them. Everyone looked tired, and a bit sad.

Deeper and deeper they went. The tunnel got narrower. The light grew dimmer. The ceiling dripped.

Alex said, in a small voice, "It's very dark."

Felix said, "I know."

Alex said, "I don't like it."

Felix said, "Me neither."

Then they both remembered, and said it together, very softly: "I am a seed. The dark is where I grow."

The little lantern glowed a bit brighter.

Part Thirteen. The Flooded Room

At the bottom of the tunnel, the floor became wet. The twins' feet squelched. The air smelled of mud, and something sour.

Then they stepped into a huge, round chamber, and stopped.

It was full of water.

It had flooded up to their knees. All around the walls, hundreds of little rooms had crumbled, and soggy bits of corn were floating in the dirty water. Thousands of red ants were scrambling about, trying to bail it out with tiny buckets made of leaves.

In the middle, on a throne made of acorn shells, sat a very large and very worried ant, with a crown of daisy petals. She had been crying.

She looked up and saw the twins.

She said, "Who are you?"

Alex said, "I'm Alex. This is Felix. We came to ask for some corn."

The ant queen's face crumpled. "Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear."

Felix said, "What's wrong?"

She said, "The flood. It came down the hill and into our nest. It washed away our nurseries and our storerooms. We're trying to move all the corn to a dry place, but there's too much, and not enough of us, and the water keeps coming."

Alex said, "That's why you wouldn't share."

She said, "We're afraid we'll have nothing left. We were so careful, for so many years. And now it's all going rotten. I don't know what to do."

She put her head in her tiny hands.

Part Fourteen. The Twins Think

Alex and Felix stood in the water, looking at the ant queen. Neither of them said anything at first.

Alex noticed that all the water was draining the wrong way. It ran into the lowest part of the chamber and sat there.

Felix asked the queen, "Where does it come from?"

She said, "From the roof. It trickles through the ground."

Alex whispered, "It's a leak."

Felix whispered, "Then don't stop it. Give it somewhere to go."

They both knew.

Alex said, "Your Majesty. We think we can help. Would you like to try something?"

She sniffed. "I'd try anything."

Felix said, "We need as many ants as possible. And we need to dig."

Part Fifteen. The Channel

It was the strangest job they had ever had. Alex and Felix, as tiny black ants, climbed onto a mound of damp earth and shouted instructions.

"Over here!" called Alex. "We need a long, thin trench, from the middle of the room to the corner!"

"And a hole at the end!" called Felix. "For the water to go through!"

A thousand red ants, who had been running about in a panic, stopped. They looked at the two black ants. They looked at the queen. She nodded.

They began to dig.

It went so fast. Thousands of tiny legs scrabbled in the mud. The trench grew longer, deeper, wider. Alex scampered up and down, showing which way the water ran. Felix stood at the end, tapping where the hole should go.

They took it in turns. Alex dug while Felix directed. Felix dug while Alex pointed. Then they swapped again.

At one point, a big drop of water fell from the roof and landed on Felix, and he nearly fell over. He gasped, "It's cold!"

Alex said, "Keep going! I can do hard things!"

Felix shook himself and said, "I can do hard things!"

Together, they dug the last foot.

The water paused. It sniffed the air. Then, slowly, it began to run along the trench, and out through the hole, and away through a tiny pipe in the wall.

Part Sixteen. The Glug

The whole chamber gurgled. Water swirled round the ants' ankles and down the channel. The level dropped. The wet floor began to appear.

The ants cheered. They threw their leaf buckets in the air. The queen stood on her acorn throne, with tears of happiness running down her face.

She said, "You've saved our home."

Alex said, "We just helped."

She said, "You listened. Nobody ever listens to us."

Felix said, "That's what Mister Ketz said. You have to make yourself small to see what's really going on."

She looked at them with great wet eyes, and a smile slowly spread over her face.

She said, "You are the first visitors we've had in a hundred years. And you saved us. I'd like to give you something."

She clapped her hands. Six strong ants staggered in, carrying a tiny golden kernel of corn, as big as a beach ball.

Part Seventeen. The Gift

She said, "This is the best corn in the nest. It was our grandmother's, and her grandmother's before that. It is yours, freely given."

Alex looked at it. It gleamed like a little sun.

He said, "We can't take your best."

She said, "You can, and you will. And there's more. We'll share all of it. Not because you asked, but because you helped. The corn is for everyone."

Felix said, "Thank you."

She said, "Thank you."

Alex and Felix took an end each, lifted the great golden kernel between them, and walked back up the tunnel, side by side, with a line of cheering ants behind them.

Part Eighteen. The Way Out

The way up was easier than the way down. The tunnels seemed shorter. The lantern glowed warm and gold. And ahead, at the very end, a patch of bright sky shone in the crack.

Sholotl was waiting at the entrance, with his tail wagging so hard that dust flew everywhere. He bent down and sniffed the golden kernel. Then he licked both twins on the face at once.

"Eugh," said Alex.

"Dog slobber," said Felix.

They were grinning.

A warm wind swirled around them, and the fizzing started again. The grass shrank, and the sky came back. In a flash, they were big again, standing in front of the Bump in the sunshine, with the whole school staring at them.

Between them, they were holding a single golden kernel of corn, the size of a normal kernel. It sparkled.

Mister Ketz knelt in front of them. His eyes were wet.

He said, "You did what I could not."

Alex said, "We had help."

Felix said, "Sholotl guided us."

The scruffy dog wagged his tail.

Mister Ketz said, "My brother always does."

Part Nineteen. The Corn Comes Out

Behind them, the crack in the Bump began to widen. It opened like a door. A line of red ants poured out, each carrying a kernel, in a long, glittering, golden stream. They marched across the field to the dinner hall, and into the kitchen, and began to stack the corn in neat piles.

Missus Ibbs, who was standing at the kitchen door with her clipboard, started counting. She gave up at nine thousand.

There was white corn, yellow corn, red corn and black corn, a whole rainbow of it. Mister Ketz walked along the line, nodding to every ant.

He said, "Long ago, they say there were four colours, and the rain gods scattered them over the world. Now they've found their way home."

Missus Felicity pulled a basket from nowhere and filled it. Mister Jackson counted the sacks. Mister Thorley, very carefully, sent a single, tiny, gentle spark of lightning at a pile of kernels, and they went pop. A big cloud of fluffy white popcorn drifted across the kitchen.

Everyone cheered.

Mister Harris, wiping his eyes, said, "I take back everything I said about the Bump."

Part Twenty. The Harvest Festival

On Friday, we had the best Harvest Festival in the history of the school.

There was cornbread, and corn soup, and corn fritters. There was popcorn in every colour. Mister Ebbie, who had turned up on the morning of the Festival with the boat-bus, made corn on the cob.

Every ant who had helped was invited. They sat in a long line on the windowsill, each with a tiny plate. Mister Ketz shrank, just a little, to sit with them. The ant queen sat next to him, in her daisy crown. They talked all night about gardens.

Mister Harris stood on a chair and read out a speech he had written. It said, thank you to all who helped, and then it went on for eleven pages, and Missus Tibbs had to gently take it away.

In the middle of the party, Mister Ketz stood up on the stage, and the hall went quiet. A little breeze rolled over us.

He looked at Alex and Felix.

He said, "To find something very big, sometimes you have to make yourself small enough to listen."

He lifted his hands.

He said, "Listen small, grow big."

We all said it back, every child, every god and every ant, in tiny squeaky voices from the windowsill: "Listen small, grow big."

Part Twenty-One. The Ending, with a Hook

At the end of the evening, Maya stayed behind in the playground, looking at the sky. It was dark, and clear, and full of stars. A very bright one hung low over the roof. It twinkled green.

She said, "That's the evening star."

Kenji said, "Whose star is that?"

Maya said, "Sholotl's. The scruffy one's. He guides the sun home."

The scruffy dog trotted past, and sat down beside her, and looked up too.

Then Ollie said, "What's that?"

He was pointing at the flagpole, at the very top. Something was caught on it, glinting in the moonlight. It was long and curved and smooth, and it looked like it was made of a single, enormous, shining bone.

It was a fish hook. It was as big as a bicycle.

Attached to it was a very long rope, made of plaited coconut, and it disappeared off into the dark sky, as though someone, very far away, was fishing for the school.

A distant voice, laughing, drifted down from somewhere over the rooftops.

It said, "Hold on, I think I've got a bite!"

The twins looked at each other. They said, at exactly the same time, "Monday."

The End.