by Ben Miller
He glanced back down the hall and saw, to his horror, that Eduardo was at the reception desk! The receptionist pointed, and Eduardo began to walk towards them . . .
‘Tell me where Shelley is!’ shouted Harrison, panicking now. ‘Or I’ll send every single one of you to the deepest depths of the universe!’
‘We don’t know!’ said a long-haired man. ‘We’ve never even heard of a Shelley working here.’
Eduardo was checking the toilets. Harrison only had seconds left.
‘Not good enough!’ he shouted, tossing a carton of fruit juice into the black hole.
‘You could check the board!’ called out a tall blonde lady. ‘In the main lab, across the street. There’s a big wall with everyone’s photo on it!’
‘Finally! Thank you!’ said Harrison. At that very moment Eduardo emerged from the lavatories, caught sight of him and started towards him.
Harrison scanned the room. There was no way out except the corridor, which was now blocked by Eduardo. Then he spotted a kitchen porter pushing a trolley stacked with dirty trays towards a pair of swing doors. Harrison took off like a coursing hare, weaving his way between the tables, and bolted through the doors, only to be half-blinded by a billow of steam.
When it cleared, he found himself face to face with a rather angry-looking chef holding a huge spoonful of spaghetti. But there was no time to apologise; Eduardo was hot on his heels. A second set of swing doors beckoned at the opposite end of the kitchen and Harrison began to zigzag towards them, his black hole swishing behind him, swallowing pots and pans and chefs’ hats and trays of lasagne, while the staff in the kitchen cried out and threw their arms up in confusion!
He flung himself through the doors and found himself at the bottom of a long, sloping walkway filled with bins, which led up to a third pair of swing doors with – joy of joys! – a sliver of daylight behind them. Harrison sprinted up the slope towards them. He heard a crash behind him and looked round to see an up-turned bin, with Eduardo next to it, clawing spaghetti out of his eyes.
That gave Harrison an idea. Using all his strength, he capsized the nearest bin, so that it tumbled over onto the walkway, blocking Eduardo’s path. Then he barged through the last set of swing doors and found himself outside again, looking out across red cliffs towards a dark blue ocean. Spinning on his heels, he saw a road and beyond that a large white building that he very much hoped was the main lab the blonde lady had told him about.
With his goal in sight and Eduardo in hot pursuit, Harrison tried to pick up the pace. That was when he started to feel a bit strange. With every stride, his legs got heavier. By the time he reached the road, he had slowed to a jog, and when he reached the pathway to the laboratory, he was waddling as if his ankles were chained together. Struggling for breath, Harrison mustered every last ounce of energy and pushed through a large glass revolving door.
To his relief, the interior was cool and airy. Harrison put his hands on his knees, panting. What was happening to him? Was he ill?
‘Hello again, young man.’
Harrison looked up and saw the bearded man smiling back at him. He was surrounded by other scientists, including the long-haired man, looking serious, and the tall blonde lady, raising one eyebrow.
Behind the scientists, Harrison took in a wall covered in photographs of what were obviously scientists from across the globe doing their best to look as intelligent as possible. But as he scanned the pictures, there was something wrong. Not one of them had pink hair or a scowl. In other words, not one of them was Shelley.
To make matters worse, the entire wall suddenly began to ripple, as if every face was a reflection. Then everything else started to ripple too: the pot plants either side of the doorway, Harrison’s own hands as he held them in front of his face, and Eduardo as he pushed his way through the revolving door.
And that was when Harrison fainted.
Harrison opened his eyes. A spaceship had landed on the underside of a creamy-coloured planet and its green communication light was flashing.
Or at least, that’s what he thought to begin with. Until he realised he was lying on his back in bed, staring at a smoke detector on the ceiling.
‘Ah, you’re awake,’ said a voice. Harrison turned to find a doctor sitting beside him. She was making notes on a clipboard. ‘How do you feel?’
‘Good,’ said Harrison, except that there appeared to be a mask covering his nose and mouth, so it came out funny.
The doctor plumped up the pillows and helped him to sit. Now he was more awake, Harrison took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a very small room with just a bed and a few other pieces of basic furniture. He must have been asleep for a while because there was a tiny window looking onto the cliffs, and he could see that it was now dark outside.
The doctor put a stethoscope in her ears and put the metal bit on his chest.
‘Take a deep breath,’ she instructed. Harrison did as he was told and the doctor wrote something on her clipboard, then slid a rubber armband up past his elbow, pumped it up and let it slowly deflate. Then she wrote on her clipboard again. ‘I think we can take that off now,’ she said, lowering the mask so it was round Harrison’s neck.
‘Am I dying?’ asked Harrison.
‘No,’ said the doctor, with a smile. ‘You’re going to be fine.’
Harrison didn’t look convinced.
‘The higher up you go – and this observatory is pretty high – the less oxygen there is, which means the harder it becomes to breathe. And if you go running around, like you did –’ she gave Harrison a stern look – ‘then you can get something called altitude sickness. Basically, you felt sick and then fainted because you’re so high up. So, it’s very important that we get you back down the mountain as soon as possible. I’m assuming you’re here with your parents?’
‘Yes,’ said Harrison, looking around for his black hole. It was tied to the bed frame. ‘They’re in there,’ he told the doctor, pointing at the hole. It had been so long since he put anything inside it that it had now shrunk to the size of a satsuma.
‘I’m sorry?’
‘They’re in that black hole,’ said Harrison. ‘What’s left of it, anyway. I’m trying to get them out. But the only person who can help me is Shelley, and I can’t find her.’
‘Hmmm. I think you’re still a little bit confused,’ the doctor said, packing away her stethoscope. ‘Let’s pop you back on the oxygen.’
She slipped the mask over Harrison’s nose and mouth and twisted the top of a small silver bottle about the size of a can of drink. Harrison could taste the oxygen now: a kind of mixture of sweet and sour that reminded him of the fizzy snake sweets he liked so much.
‘I’m going to get you some more oxygen,’ the doctor said. ‘Then we’ll get you down the mountain and find your parents.’
‘But—’ Harrison started.
‘No buts. You must stay here and rest,’ said the doctor firmly. ‘And on no account are you allowed to go any higher. That could be really bad for you.’
With that, she left the room, pulling the door shut behind her. Harrison sighed and looked at the black hole. The canteen food and pots and pans had helped, but if he didn’t feed it something more soon, it would keep shrinking, until it was the size of a conker, then a marble, then a pea . . . What if it disappeared altogether? He would never be able to get his parents back.
He had come all this way, but he’d failed. What was he going to do?
He let out another sigh, lay back and closed his eyes. He missed his parents so much. Getting rid of everything he didn’t like had been so much fun at first, but what was the point of being able to do exactly what you wanted if it meant you didn’t have anyone to love you?
He could feel tears coming, when there was a knock at the door.
‘Housekeeping,’ said a voice.
The door opened and a cleaning cart came into view. It was being pushed by a familiar-looking young woman with pink hair. She smiled at Harrison, took a toilet roll of
f the cart and went into the bathroom. Then she backed out of the bathroom slowly, still holding the toilet roll.
‘Harrison?’ she asked in disbelief.
‘Shelley?’ asked Harrison, but with his oxygen mask on it sounded more like, Shahwah?
‘How did you find me?’ she said.
Harrison held up the postcard.
‘You came all this way?’ asked Shelley, picking up a mop from the cleaning cart. ‘Why?’
Harrison pulled down the mask so that it was dangling round his neck.
‘My parents,’ he replied. ‘I put them in the black hole. And now I want them back.’
Shelley nodded, as if she understood. Then the strangest thing happened. She sprang forward and jabbed Harrison in the chest with the mop.
‘Leave me alone!’ she yelled.
‘Eurgghh!’ shouted Harrison. Once again, he found himself flat on the bed, staring at the smoke detector. By the time he managed to sit up again, the door was banging shut and Shelley had gone.
What was wrong with her? Why didn’t she want to help? Harrison couldn’t make any sense of it.
He had to catch her. He swung his legs onto the floor and tried to stand. It wasn’t easy. Using the bed frame for support, he untied his black hole, then hobbled as quickly as he could after her.
His room was in the middle of a long green corridor, which had a door at either end. The door to his left was swinging, as if Shelley had just barged through it. So, with the oxygen bottle in one hand and his black hole in the other, he shuffled as fast as he could towards it. On the other side was a concrete staircase. He hauled himself up it, then staggered out into the open air.
He looked up. His family had once gone on holiday to the Lake District, where the stars were very bright, but this was on a whole other level. There was no moon and no clouds, and the Milky Way seemed to take up the whole sky, as if a giant had dipped a paintbrush in a bucket of stars and swept it right across the sky. For a moment, Harrison struggled to remember what it reminded him of, and then it came to him: the ceiling Shelley had created at Hector Broom’s birthday party!
Shelley! There was no time to waste. Which way had she gone?
He hobbled up a path to the corner of the building, but Shelley had vanished. Could she have tricked him in the green corridor by pushing the door and running the other way? Then his eye was drawn by two tiny red lights, halfway up the mountain.
Two tiny red lights that were moving!
He squinted to try and see better. The lights belonged to a buggy that Shelley was driving at full speed up towards the telescope. Where had she got that from? Wait! Outside the main laboratory was another empty buggy!
The ground beneath him began to wobble as if it was made of jelly, and for a horrible moment, he thought he was going to be sick. The altitude sickness was striking again! Quickly, he fumbled for the oxygen mask and twisted the top of the bottle, breathing in deeply. Sweet and sour. Sweet and sour.
That did the trick. He twisted the bottle shut and pulled down the mask. Then he took a firm hold of the black hole (which was now barely the size of a plum and seemed to be getting smaller by the minute) and strode towards the buggy. This was his only chance to catch Shelley and get everything out of the black hole. No matter how heavy his legs felt, he had to keep moving.
Luckily, Harrison was no stranger to powered vehicles. His father’s friend Chris the farmer had let him loose in his fields in:
1. A quad bike (which is like a motorbike with four wheels)
2. A Polaris (which is like a quad bike except it has a roof)
3. An old Land Rover
4. A tractor when it was ploughing time
So, he was sure that driving a buggy would be a piece of cake. But once he had anchored his black hole to the rear bumper and settled himself behind the wheel, he realised that every single time before, Chris the farmer had been sitting next to him, starting the engine, working the pedals and generally egging him on. He had never, ever driven a vehicle on his own, let alone on a road, and definitely not up the side of a very steep mountain while he chased a pink-haired astronomer . . .
But now wasn’t the time to panic. First, he had to figure out how to start the engine. Chris always turned some sort of key, just beside the steering wheel. All there seemed to be here was a red button. Could that be it?
Harrison pressed it and the cart made a tiny lurch forward, like a racehorse champing at the bit. He slid forward on his seat and put his foot on the smaller of the two pedals. For a split-second, nothing happened, then the cart took off!
Harrison felt a wave of dizziness and clung tightly to the steering wheel as he lumped and bumped across rough terrain onto the tarmac. The road beneath him became steeper and steeper, and soon Harrison was climbing high above the desert, the wind in his hair and a giant sky full of dazzling stars.
As the buggy reached the summit, the four giant telescopes sprang into view, towering way above everything else.
The brake! He needed to find the brake! Taking a chance, he slammed his foot on the big pedal. The cart screeched to a halt, just centimetres from a concrete wall, throwing him chest-first onto the steering wheel. Phew!
There was nowhere else to hide, so Shelley must be in one of the telescopes. But which one?
He unhitched his black hole, ran to the nearest door and opened it. About half a dozen scientists turned round to look at him in surprise.
‘Sorry! Wrong telescope!’ said Harrison, and shut the door.
That was when he saw that the furthest telescope had a bright yellow plastic sign propped up outside it. He sprinted over to it. It read:
Harrison took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
It was so dark inside that it took his eyes a few seconds to adjust. In the middle of the room was a huge, curved mirror, the shape of a giant half-coconut shell, pointing towards a large circular hole in the roof. Beside it was a monstrous wooden contraption that reminded Harrison of the catapults they used in olden times to fire things over the walls of castles. Together, the two things made the strangest combination: the past and the future, side by side.
Suddenly, a bright blue laser beam sprang from the roof, into the mirror and out into the night sky.
‘Isn’t she beautiful?’ Harrison heard Shelley say from somewhere in the darkness. ‘She’s called Alekto and she’s a Megawatt Laser. I built her myself. Here’s her sister, Megaera!’
A second blue beam collided with the mirror and raced off into space.
‘And, finally, meet Tisiphone!’ A third blue bolt shot into the mirror, collided with her two sisters, then headed to the stars. In the place where all three beams met, sparks began to fly, and Harrison watched as a tiny black hole started to form.
‘I named them after the three Furies,’ announced Shelley, stepping into the light. ‘Have you heard of them?’
‘No,’ said Harrison.
‘They were from Ancient Greece,’ said Shelley. ‘They always got their revenge. This black hole will be mine!’
‘I don’t know what that means,’ said Harrison.
‘It means I’m leaving,’ said Shelley. ‘Before you or anyone else tries to stop me!’
‘But I don’t want to stop you!’ shouted Harrison, feeling frustrated. ‘I JUST WANT MY PARENTS BACK!’
‘SSSSHHHH!’ rasped Shelley. ‘Someone will hear you!’
‘BUT I’M ANGRY!!!’ shouted Harrison, his rage starting to take over.
‘HAVEN’T YOU LEARNT ANYTHING?’ shouted Shelley, even more loudly.
Harrison took a deep breath and then another. If he wanted Shelley to help him, then he knew he had to calm down.
‘Please, Shelley. I put my parents in the black hole, along with lots of other things I shouldn’t have,’ he said, keeping his voice as steady as he could. ‘But now I need to get them back. I can’t look after my little sister on my own and I really miss my parents. And the Hardwicks miss Blue – or at least they did until they got sucked into t
he black hole too. And even Hector Broom has someone who misses him! Please can you show me how to get out the things that I put in?’
Shelley’s expression changed from outrage to surprise.
‘Wow!’ she said. ‘That’s really impressive.’
‘What is?’ asked Harrison in between breaths.
‘It’s worked!’
Harrison still didn’t understand.
‘I gave you that black hole to help you control your temper, because you behaved so badly at the party,’ said Shelley.
‘Really?’ asked Harrison.
‘Yes. And look at you now. Using your words instead of Kicking Off!’ said Shelley. Then her voice softened. ‘Listen, Harrison, anger can be good. Important, even. I’m angry. But it’s about what you do with your anger. I don’t lose my temper, I use it.’
She placed a hand on Harrison’s shoulder and he looked up into her sharp green eyes.
‘When I was your age, I wanted to study science. And I wasn’t allowed to because I was a girl. That made me angry. But instead of kicking and screaming and shouting, I used my anger to build this . . . an Einstein-Rosen bridge, so I could travel to the future and become an astronomer!’
‘Like your grandmother,’ said Harrison helpfully.
‘Excuse me?’ asked Shelley, not quite understanding.
‘She built a . . . Steinway-Moses . . . One of these things too.’
‘You really don’t know who I am, do you?’ asked Shelley.
‘Of course I do,’ replied Harrison hesitantly. ‘You’re Shelley.’
‘I’ll give you a clue: Garibaldi.’
Shelley fished in her pocket and pulled out a half-eaten biscuit.
‘About thirty seconds after I arrived, this hit me right in the back of my neck,’ explained Shelley, handing it over. ‘I think it belongs to your sister.’
For a moment, Harrison couldn’t even begin to understand what Shelley meant. Then, suddenly, he realised what she was trying to tell him . . .
‘The postcard said: “To Shelley” and “From Shelley”,’ he said slowly.
