Charlie and the Rocket Boy and Charlie and the Great Escape

by Hilary McKay

  Charlie and Henry had been too busy huffing and kicking and wrestling to sing. Therefore, when Mrs Holiday stormed outside to her class they escaped the worst of her anger. They were told to stop being silly and put their shoes on properly, and show Zachary around the playground a little and make him feel at home.

  Charlie and Henry showed Zachary the football field, the Friendship Bench (‘You’re supposed to sit on it if you haven’t any friends,’ explained Henry, and Zachary obligingly sat down), the old nest that the swallows had built, the outside tap by the caretaker’s room, and the teachers’ car park.

  ‘Once when it was winter like this, the outside tap dripped,’ said Charlie, ‘and the water made a great puddle in that dip in the middle of the teachers’ car park and it all froze solid and we made slides. But they put salt on the slides and fixed the tap.’

  Zachary said, ‘At home there is a whole lake that freezes solid and we go skating and sliding in the moonlight and wolves come out of the trees and sit round the edge watching, but it’s perfectly safe because they can’t run on ice. Having four legs means they slide four ways at once and get nowhere. Of course, they won’t come near the bonfires.’

  Neither Charlie nor Henry had ever been to America, but suddenly they saw in their minds a picture of a frozen lake and moonlight and firelight and shadowy trees and wolves. They saw it so clearly they were stunned, and for ever afterwards, when Charlie and Henry heard the word ‘America’, that was the thing they thought of first. Now they stared at Zachary and their mouths fell open and stayed that way. That was why they did not say, ‘Liar, liar! Pants on fire!’

  ‘It is a pity they fixed that dripping tap,’ continued Zachary, seeming to be talking as much to himself as Charlie and Henry. ‘I really like skating. Especially at night. On clear frosty nights you can see my father’s rocket heading towards his star. I miss my dad. And my mom. She’s down in Florida right now. Disneyland.’

  Just then the bell went and they had to hurry back inside where Mrs Holiday was being so frighteningly polite nobody dared hardly speak for the whole of the rest of the day.

  This meant that Henry had no chance of informing Zachary of something he knew for absolutely certain until the end of school.

  ‘Disneyland,’ said Henry, ‘is in France! Paris! I’ve been there! You ask anyone in this class if you don’t believe me!’

  But Zachary did not ask anyone. He just gazed solemnly at Henry with his round blue eyes, shook his head and said, ‘I think you are a little mixed up, Charlie.’

  And then he walked away, leaving Henry to walk home with Charlie chattering with indignation.

  ‘He called me Charlie!’ said Henry. ‘Do I look like you?’

  ‘NO!’ said Charlie. ‘DEFINITELY NOT! You’re titchy! You’ve got weird hair! You’ve got yoghurt down your front! You wear girls’ white socks …’

  ‘You wear a vest,’ said Henry, which silenced Charlie. ‘Anyway we’re talking about Zachary. Do you know what he said when I told him where Disneyland was? He said I was mixed up! I’ve been there, Charlie!’

  ‘Yes you have,’ agreed Charlie, adding very quietly to himself, ‘You showed off about it for weeks.’

  ‘I brought you back that giant lolly that pulled your tooth out.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘I don’t suppose you’ve got it any more? Not even the wrapper?’

  ‘Why would I have kept the wrapper?’

  ‘As a souvenir of me going to Disneyland. Disneyland, Paris! We could have shown it to Zachary for proof.’

  ‘He wouldn’t have taken any notice,’ said Charlie. ‘He doesn’t take any notice of anything, hardly.’

  Henry admitted that this was true.

  ‘What I think about Zachary,’ said Henry, ‘is that saying, “Liar, liar! Pants on fire!” to him is a complete waste of time.’

  ‘What I think about Zachary,’ said Charlie, ‘is that listening to him is making my brain feel weird. Like it’s spinning round and round inside my head.’

  Henry agreed with that.

  ‘Wolves!’ said Charlie.

  ‘I know,’ said Henry. ‘Four horses!’

  ‘I know,’ said Charlie.

  ‘And that rocket! Did you understand any of that?’

  ‘I understood the maths, Henry,’ said Charlie smugly. ‘Do you want me to explain?’

  ‘Not right now,’ said Henry.

  Then they plodded on in silence for a while, until Charlie said suddenly, ‘We didn’t say, “Liar, liar! Pants on fire! ”’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But it can’t be true, all that stuff he told us?’

  ‘No,’ said Henry. ‘Of course it can’t.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Charlie,’ said Henry impatiently, ‘Did it sound true?’

  ‘No,’ admitted Charlie. ‘But …’

  ‘But what?’

  ‘Wouldn’t it be good if it was?’

  5

  Frost and Ice

  Charlie and Henry told their mothers about Zachary.

  ‘Poor little boy!’ said Henry’s mother.

  ‘Poor!’ repeated Henry to Charlie afterwards. ‘My mum’s bonkers! He’s got four horses! He’s not poor!’

  ‘I should think only millionaires have four horses,’ agreed Charlie.

  ‘Billionaires!’

  ‘Trillionaires!’

  ‘I’ve never heard of one of those,’ said Henry, and Charlie, who was not really sure that he had either, changed the subject by saying, ‘My mum said to ask him to tea.’

  ‘Ask Zachary to tea,’ said Charlie’s mother. ‘I should like to meet him.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘To be friendly, of course!’

  ‘If I ask him to tea to be friendly, then he will think he is my friend.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘I could ask Henry to tea, if you want to have somebody round,’ suggested Charlie.

  ‘No thank you, Charlie! That is not what I meant.’

  ‘I don’t see why you wouldn’t like to meet Henry just as much as Zachary.’

  ‘I have met Henry,’ said Charlie’s mother, not very patiently, ‘I have met him at least once nearly every day for the last four and a half years. I have patched up his knees and got mud out of his hair. I forgave him for trying to drown you that time in the paddling pool. I carted him off to hospital the day he told me he couldn’t move his legs for a practice April Fools’. I have cooked him a mountain of dinners and teas and lunches and suppers. I know him very well indeed and I WOULD LIKE A CHANGE!’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘So ask Zachary to tea AND THAT’S AN ORDER!’

  ‘My mum said I’ve got to ask you to tea,’ said Charlie to Zachary.

  ‘Why?’ asked Zachary.

  ‘Because she’s bored with Henry.’

  ‘Bored with ME?’ repeated Henry, amazed and disbelieving. ‘Was she joking?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I bet she was,’ said Henry. ‘Bored with me! Ha!’

  ‘She wasn’t joking at all,’ said Charlie. ‘She was in a very bad mood. She said she wanted a change from you and when I argued she said “Ask Zachary to tea AND THAT’S AN ORDER!”’

  Zachary looked all round the room, at the windows and the doors and the guinea pig cage and under the table. Under the table he seemed to find an answer.

  ‘Anyhow,’ he said. ‘I don’t like tea.’

  So that was the end of that.

  Over the next few days the frost and ice grew worse. Mrs Holiday began wearing new fur boots for playground duty. ‘They make her legs look like lovely sheeps’ bottoms,’ remarked one of the girls. Zachary learnt to tell the difference between Henry and Charlie. Nothing else changed.

  Zachary’s tales grew more and more unbelievable. He told anyone who would listen about the boiling geysers he had seen (‘like mini volcanoes of hot mud,’ said Zachary), the quad bike he owned back home in America, the tooth he had swallowed during silent reading, and his grandmot
her in England, who he said was a witch.

  Charlie’s brain spun round and round inside his head and he did not know what to think.

  Henry did. Henry had started saying, ‘Liar, liar! Pants on fire!’ to each new story, even though he said before that it was a complete waste of time.

  ‘Somebody has to tell him what we think,’ said Henry primly. Charlie said it as well sometimes, but he did not say it comfortably because he had actually seen Zachary swallow the tooth.

  The weather continued to be icy cold with bright starry nights. Zachary spent a lot of his break times gazing at the dip in the middle of the teachers’ car park, and at the outside tap that did not leak any more. Charlie and Henry used to watch him. They knew he was thinking of his frozen lake where the wolves came out of the trees, and the bonfires burned, and the nights were so clear that you could see a rocket heading for a star two and a half years away.

  Then one night Charlie went with his parents to meet his big brother Max from a friend’s house. They walked, because Charlie’s parents said that would be quicker than defrosting the car. Max’s friend lived on the road that went past the school, and on the way home Max and Charlie lagged behind their parents and Charlie told him for the first time the story about Zachary’s father and the rocket.

  Max looked up at the sky and said, ‘I wonder which star.’

  This gave Charlie a creepy feeling down his back, which became ten times more creepy when they passed the school. Because in the shadowy playground he was sure he saw a little figure slip silently round a corner.

  There was a sort of glow around the little figure’s head, which Charlie guessed was how yellow curls looked by starlight.

  ‘Did you see anyone?’ he asked Max.

  ‘Where?’

  ‘In the playground, sort of hiding.’

  ‘Mrs Holiday, waiting to pounce?’ asked Max grinning, and did a very good impression of Mrs Holiday pouncing on Charlie.

  ‘Much smaller than Mrs Holiday,’ said Charlie, pushing him away.

  ‘Didn’t see anyone,’ said Max, ‘but 59 we can go back and look if you like.’

  ‘No!’ exclaimed Charlie in sudden alarm, and to prevent Max doing such a thing added, ‘Race you to Mum and Dad!’ and skidded away up the road before Max could disagree.

  Max tore after him, and between them they nearly swept their mother off her feet, and then they ran on down the road together, dodging the shadows under the darkest hedges, leaping the blackness of silent open gates, collapsing with thumping hearts at each friendly lamp post.

  The more they ran, the better Charlie felt. It was delicious to be frightened and running in the night if you had your big brother beside you, your mum and dad not far behind, and home just round the corner with the lights on and Suzy the cat watching out from the windowsill. He forgot the little figure that he had half seen in the playground.

  But when the house was quiet and he was safe in bed for the night he remembered and, despite his quilt, and his extra fleecy blanket, and his dinosaur hot water bottle and his winter pyjamas, the memory made him shiver.

  Had that been Zachary in the playground? He wished now that he and Max had gone back to see.

  But we didn’t, thought Charlie. We ran home.

  Then he remembered Zachary saying, that first unfriendly day, ‘I have come a long way.’

  You cannot run home to America, thought Charlie. You cannot run home to a star.

  Poor Zachary, thought Charlie.

  It was the first time ever he had thought that thought.

  6

  Terrible Trouble

  The next day there was terrible trouble at school. Overnight, the car park had become a black sheet of ice. The Head Teacher’s car skidded and smashed into the caretaker’s room with a horrible scrunching sound. The caretaker had rushed outside to see what was happening and had fallen and broken his leg. Then an ambulance arrived and drove the caretaker to hospital, and after that a breakdown truck came to school and took the Head Teacher’s car away.

  Mrs Holiday also had trouble on the car park ice. She slipped down so hard in her sheeps’ bottom boots that she had a great black bruise all up one arm, and another on the side of her head that made one eye swell up. But she would not allow herself to be taken away like the caretaker and the Head Teacher’s car. She came into class and she said, ‘The school car park is totally out of bounds. That outside tap leaked so much that the whole area is one huge patch of ice. Poor Mrs Smith’s car is wrecked and later on we will all make Get Well Cards for the caretaker, who has broken his leg.’

  Then she shot icy cold glares all around the room from her one good eye.

  Charlie felt sick. He thought he was going to have to tell on Zachary, and he did not want to. He thought of himself and Max racing past to their parents and their warm safe home, and he remembered the loneliness he had glimpsed in the playground the night before. He did not understand Zachary any more than he had the first day they met, but suddenly he was on his side, and he did not know what to do.

  Zachary knew what to do.

  Zachary stood up and said, ‘It was me. I am very sorry. I turned on the tap last night. I wanted to make a frozen lake.’

  Mrs Holiday looked at Zachary as if she loved him and she said, ‘That was a very brave and honest thing to say, Zachary. Very brave and very honest. I am proud of you.’

  Then Henry was so ashamed that he had ever sung ‘Liar, liar! Pants on fire!’ to Zachary that he put his head down on the table and started to cry.

  Nobody else said a word, not even Mrs Holiday, until Charlie called out, in his squeakiest voice, ‘I am proud of him too!’ and he put one arm round Henry, and the other round Zachary.

  ‘I wish he was stopping for always, not just for a while,’ said Charlie.

  7

  The Rocket and the Star

  Charlie’s wish did not come true. Just when they got used to him, Zachary said, ‘I’ve got to go.’

  ‘WHAT?!’ shouted Charlie and Henry.

  If Charlie and Henry were shocked when Zachary came they were absolutely outraged when he said he had to go. 68

  ‘You can’t!’ they said. ‘You’ve only just got here! Who says you’ve got to? What do you mean, go?’

  ‘Back,’ explained Zachary.

  ‘Back where?’

  ‘Just back,’ said Zachary, who never seemed to know where he was, except that it was not home. ‘Soon.’

  ‘Soon?’ asked Charlie. ‘When is soon?’

  ‘Saturday.’

  ‘Saturday! It’s Tuesday now!’

  ‘We’ve hardly got to know him!’ complained Charlie to Max.

  ‘You didn’t want to know him.’

  ‘He never even came to tea.’

  ‘Whose fault was that?’

  ‘There’s loads he never told us!’

  ‘Would you have believed him if he had?’ Recently Max had somehow heard about the singing, ‘Liar, liar! Pants on Fire!’ He had told Charlie what he thought of that.

  ‘But there isn’t time for anything!’ Charlie complained.

  ‘There was time,’ said unsympathetic Max. ‘You were horrible, all of you! A gang of little rotters, thinking you knew everything! You don’t look further than the ends of your stuck up noses!’

  ‘Neither do you,’ growled Charlie, but really he knew that it was not true. Max had not said ‘Liar!’ Max had said, ‘I wonder which star.’

  ‘What can I do?’ wailed Charlie. ‘How can we make it up?’

  ‘Think,’ said Max.

  Charlie thought. He chewed his knuckles and thought. He pulled his hair and thought. He pounded his head into his pillow and thought and thought and at last he had an idea.

  ‘But it might not be a good one,’ he said to Henry. ‘How can I tell?’

  ‘Ask Mrs Holiday,’ said Henry.

  ‘It might be good,’ said Mrs Holiday, when she heard it. ‘Let me talk to Zachary.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘
And his grandmother.’

  ‘All right.’

  ‘And check the weather forecast.’

  ‘I forgot about that.’

  ‘And we’d have to send letters home.’

  ‘All those things,’ said Charlie, and sighed.

  ‘I will do them as fast as I can,’ said Mrs Holiday, but all the same it was Thursday before she could tell him, ‘It was a good idea!’

  On Friday afternoon Mrs Holiday’s class stayed on after school. They had biscuits and blackcurrant juice and a chocolate cake delivered by Zachary’s grandmother (who said very little and went away early and certainly looked like a witch). After that they played games until the windows grew black and outside it was proper dark night.

  Then at last Mrs Holiday said it was time to get ready and they all wrapped up warm and went out into the playground, and Zachary pointed to where they should look.

  Everyone saw quite plainly the rocket and the star.

  1

  Going

  Charlie had a very sad hard life. He had a terrible family who did not appreciate him.

  Charlie was seven years old and he lived with his brother Max, who was eleven years old, and his father and mother, who were ancient.

  ‘They like Max best,’ Charlie told his best friend Henry.

  It was a sunny afternoon in the summer holidays. Charlie was spending it in Henry’s garden, which was just down the road from his own. He was having a good grumble.

  ‘They like Max much better than me! They laugh at his jokes …’