“I asked Mom that and she said she’d be surprised if he remembered where ‘home’ is.” Annie sounded very flat.
“Ouch!” exclaimed George.
“She said”—Annie looked uncomfortable—“that she used to feel like she had married Cosmos by mistake. And now she feels like she’s married to Ebot.”
Ebot was Eric’s personalized android and had been customized to resemble Eric so exactly that in a dim light it was hard to tell the two apart.
“That’s so weird,” said George. “You can’t marry a computer! What’s your mom talking about?”
“Try living in my house for a while,” sighed Annie, twiddling with the end of her ponytail in a dispirited manner. “The grown-ups make literally no sense most of the time.”
“And where is Ebot?” said George, realizing he hadn’t seen Eric’s double either.
“Umm, I don’t know,” hummed Annie casually.
George wasn’t fooled. “You do know!” he said. “Where is he?”
“Um.” Annie looked embarrassed. “I sent him out to buy some gummy bears two days ago and he hasn’t come back yet.”
“How can Ebot buy stuff?” asked George.
“Microchip,” said Annie, who was now picking up the crumbs of George’s muffin off the tree house floor with a damp finger, then eating them. “He’s got one installed. It’s like a ‘contactless’ payment thingy.”
“And he hasn’t been in touch?” asked George, even though he wasn’t quite sure how Ebot could make contact with them from wherever he was stocking up on supplies of candy.
“Radio silence!” said Annie.
George racked his brain for yet another topic that might spark his friend back to life. “Oh!” he said, remembering. “Astronauts Wanted! Did you get a reply?”
“I didn’t check my messages!” exclaimed Annie, as though waking up from a dream. “That’s so weird. I’ve literally never not checked my messages.”
George passed over her tablet, which was on the tree house floor. She scrolled through and found the reply.
“OMG!” She read it, perking up immediately. “We might do it, George! We’re through the first checks! On the shortlist! They’ve just got to make the final decisions in the next few days, but I bet that really means we are in!”
“Awesome!” yelled George. “So when does it all start?”
“Next week,” said Annie. “They’ve only got two places left but I just know it’s going to be us! Oh wow, oh wow! We’re going to be astronauts! We’re going to Mars! Yay!” She bounced off the bean bag and jumped around the tree house.
At that moment they heard a tremendous squeal of brakes coming from the street outside Annie’s house, followed by the slamming of a car door and hasty footsteps.
“Hey!” said Annie happily. “Dad’s home in his driverless car! Let’s go tell him!” They clambered down the ladder, jumping off before the last few rungs, and ran over to Annie’s house, arriving at the back door just as Eric stomped into the kitchen.
Faced with Eric in the kitchen, Annie and George both ground to a very sudden halt. He was holding a cardboard box containing a moldy assortment of possessions, including a droopy potted plant and a few framed photos. He slammed the box down on the kitchen table, causing the poor plant to shed its last few remaining leaves. Eric’s mouth was twisted into an angry shape that the two friends didn’t know a mouth could make. He had high spots of color on his usually pale cheeks and his eyes were glittering behind his thick glasses. He snatched a mug out of his box and handed it to Annie. “A gift,” he announced bitterly.
Emblazoned on the mug were the words WORLD’S GREATEST SCIENTISTS! Annie turned it around and around, reading the names. “Bohr, Darwin, Einstein, Dirac,” she said out loud before stopping. “Your name’s not on it!” she exclaimed.
“No,” said Eric. “It’s the perfect final touch, really.”
Annie put the mug quietly down on the kitchen table.
“Shall I make you a cup of tea?” asked George.
“Why not?” said Eric rather wildly. “After all, I have nothing else to do now but drink tea. So yes, George, make me some tea, thank you.”
Annie’s mom appeared in the doorway behind Eric. “What’s this?” she said suspiciously. “Why are you home?”
“Because I live here?” said Eric in a wobbly voice, wheeling round to face her.
“Awks,” muttered Annie to George. “You’d better scram!”
George started to tiptoe toward the back door, hoping he could just sidle out and run home. But it wasn’t to be.
“George!” exclaimed Eric with forced and slightly mad jollity. “Don’t leave on my account!”
“I, er, really need to get home!” squeaked George, and continued edging toward the door. “Thanks anyway, Eric.”
“Don’t go,” pleaded Eric. “If you do, then my wife and daughter will claim I’ve scared you away!” His eyes looked very large and bright behind his thick glasses.
George felt terrible. He was desperate to go, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to upset Eric and cause a problem for Annie and Susan. He stood on one foot and then the other, trying to decide which of the two options was the least bad.
“Eric,” sighed Susan, intervening. “Why are you here now when I thought you were at work?”
“Because … I don’t … ,” he said.
“You don’t what?” asked Annie in the long pause.
“Work!” burst out Eric. “I don’t work! I don’t have a job! Anymore.”
“You’ve been sacked?” said Susan in horror.
“Worse than that,” said Eric grimly. “I’ve been … retired.”
“Retired?” said Annie. “I know you’re old, but you’re not that ancient!”
“That mug,” said Eric, pointing with a trembling finger at the offending item, which no one would ever dare touch again, “is my retirement present. From Kosmodrome 2. The most expensive space facility in the world. And they gave me a mug. Which doesn’t even have my name on it.”
“GO!” Annie mouthed to George.
George started shuffling toward the back door again.
“You’re retired?” said Susan in astonishment, seeming to catch on at last. “You mean, you’re going to be at home?”
“I suppose so,” said Eric, who didn’t seem like he had thought about it at all. “Why are you asking?”
“It’s … ,” Susan hesitated. Then she blurted out, “Well, I got a call just now.” She seemed too shocked by Eric’s news to know what she was saying. “There’s an orchestra tour.” She twirled a finger in her hair in exactly the same way Annie did when she had to admit something. “Worldwide. And they need another player. A soloist too! They offered it to me. Well, I said, of course I can’t do it! There would be no one to look after Annie during the holidays.”
“I don’t need looking after,” said Annie. “I’m not a child!”
“Yes you are!” said her mom. “I can’t leave you here with no adult in charge. I would ask Daisy and Terence but they are so busy with the little ones. It doesn’t seem fair.”
“Excuse me,” said Eric. “Do I not count as an adult now?”
“I just meant you are always at work,” said Susan quietly.
“I can certainly look after my own daughter while you are away,” said Eric haughtily. “I’m amazed you even need to ask.”
“But I don’t understand!” George, who had been quiet up to now, burst out from near the back door. “Why have you been made to retire?”
“Why?” asked Eric wonderingly. “I have spent my whole life asking, ‘Why?’ And suddenly I find I am no longer interested in ‘why.’ If you will excuse me, I am going outside to do some gardening …” He stalked out into the back garden—a patch of land more like a jungle than a garden—head held high, not meeting anyone’s eye.
“Wow!” said Annie after he had left. “Mega wow! That’s terrible.”
“It is, it is,” sympathized Susan
. “It really is.” She seemed stunned. She sat down on a kitchen chair. “I don’t know what we do now.”
“I do,” said Annie decisively. “You should go on your world tour, Mom. You’ve always wanted to tour with your orchestra. You told me it was your greatest ambition!”
“Don’t be silly, Annie,” said her mom. “I can’t really go. It’s just a dream.”
“No, it’s not,” said Annie. “Dad just told you to say yes. Anyway, I’ll look after Dad while you’re away.”
“I think it’s meant to be the other way around,” said Susan with a tiny smile.
“You should phone them back and say you’re coming,” said Annie.
“But it starts tomorrow!” said Susan.
“So?” said Annie. “Go get packing, Mom!” Annie being bossy, thought George, was a good sign. It meant she was just a little bit more like the Annie he knew.
Susan hurried out of the room and they heard her running up the stairs to her room, followed by the sound of cupboards being flung open.
“C’mon,” said George. They both headed back toward the tree house and climbed the ladder in silence.
They got to the top, where Annie flopped into the beanbag.
“What now?” said George. “What’s your dad going to do now that he isn’t a scientist anymore?”
As if in answer to the question, a terrible noise started up from Annie’s back garden. They both peered over from the vantage point of the tree house. Down in the overgrown garden, they could see Eric, now clad in his laboratory safety goggles and the heavy insulated gloves that he used for handling dry ice and other very cold or hot substances, wielding a chainsaw. He had started attacking the jungle-like garden and fronds of greenery; sticks and even small branches were flying about as he delved into the thick undergrowth.
“I think he’s doing some gardening,” Annie tried to say over the noise, but George motioned to her that he couldn’t hear a word.
LET’S GO IN! he typed out on Annie’s smartphone. BEFORE WE GO DEAF!
They shinned down and ran into George’s house, trying to escape the horrible noise and find somewhere they could talk in peace.
They picked the wrong house. As they burst in through the back door, they found Terence and Daisy in the kitchen.
“George!” they cried excitedly. “You’ll never guess what!”
Chapter Five
Terence and Daisy were beaming from ear to ear. George didn’t know what to say but Annie wasn’t so shy.
“What is it?” she said excitedly. “Is Daisy’s cookbook number one on iTunes?”
“Better than that,” said Terence.
Annie looked baffled. Not much, in her view, could happen to Daisy and Terence that could be more exciting than that.
“Er, you’ve got the electricity generator working?” asked George hopefully. A regular supply of electricity in the house would be unlikely but amazing. Terence had been trying to supply the house with power himself, using old socks and cooking oil as fuel, but so far he hadn’t been reliably successful.
“No, not quite as good as that,” admitted Terence.
Annie looked even more confused. She loved George’s parents, but sometimes they were even stranger than her own.
“We’ve been given places as WOOFers!” burst out Daisy. “Isn’t that great?”
Annie stole a look at her friend. George looked horrified. “What’s a WOOFer?” she whispered.
“Willing Worker on an Organic Farm,” he hissed back. “This is really bad news.” He looked suspiciously at his parents. “Where?” he asked them.
“On an island just north of the Faroes!” his mom said.
“There isn’t an island north of the Faroes,” said George. “Unless you mean the North Pole.” His face had fallen so far, it was now somewhere around his shoes.
“George!” scolded his father. “We’d like you to show some enthusiasm! We can spend all summer there, taking part in a wonderful organic farming experiment. There are no cell phone or Internet communications allowed, so we will be able to get back to nature and experience Mother Earth as she intended us to! Wonderful!”
George felt furious. Just when he thought he could trust his parents, they were letting him down completely. But he wasn’t going to stand for it. And he certainly wasn’t going to miss space camp for this.
“I’m not coming,” he said defiantly.
“Yes, you are!” said his father. “We are all going. It will be a wonderful family bonding experience. Some time for you to spend with your little sisters out in the wonders of nature, with no technology! Just fresh air and farming—what more could you ask for a whole summer long? It will be incredible.”
“No, it won’t,” said George. “Not for me.” Usually so polite and helpful, this time he had had enough. He was going to space camp and that was that.
“George!” said his mother in concern. “I don’t understand! I thought you’d be thrilled.”
“Well, I’m not,” he said. “I don’t want to come, and what’s more, I’m not going to.” Memories of the Iron Age encampment flashed before his eyes. Never ever again would he let his parents do that to him.
Annie decided to dive in. “The thing is,” she said, “George and I have applied to go to space camp this summer!”
“You have?” asked his mother. “You didn’t say!”
“It just happened,” said Annie. “It’s a bit my fault really. But we’re through the first round and we might actually get picked.”
“But what would you do at space camp?” asked George’s mom, looking perplexed. “How can you camp in space? I don’t understand. Won’t your tent just float away?”
“No, Daisy,” said Annie nicely. “I don’t think we actually do camping or go to space just yet. I think we stay in dormitories. And every day we have special training sessions for different skills we need to learn in order to fly in space when we’re grown-ups.”
“Like what?” asked Daisy.
“Well,” said Annie. “From what I read, we would have to learn about robotics and how to work the Rovers; we would learn about flight systems for spacecraft, how to survive on another planet, lots of fitness stuff, lots of communications, loads of technology stuff too. It’s really cool and we would learn so much. It would be like being at school but with super-bright kids who love space too.”
“Huh, space again!” huffed Terence, who wasn’t a fan of exploring the cosmos. “I wish you would show the same interest in farming, George.”
“I’m interested in farming on Mars,” said George.
But this just seemed to make his father even more annoyed.
“And you see,” Annie carried on blithely, “Dad’s going to be at home all summer! He’s not working at the moment.”
“I don’t believe that,” said Daisy. “Your father’s always working.”
“He’s on gardening leave,” said Annie.
“Oh, is that what that terrible noise was?” asked Terence.
“So he’ll be here, and he can look after me and George and take us to space camp. If we get in,” carried on Annie, pleased that she had found a solution which suited everyone. “And my dad can look after your garden while you’re away!” Terence turned pale at the thought of Eric looking after his precious vegetable patch. “And George will help him,” said Annie hastily, realizing her mistake.
“I need to talk to your mom,” said Daisy, exchanging glances with Terence.
“You’d better hurry,” said Annie. “She’s off on a concert tour.”
“Are you sure this is what you want, George?” asked his mom, gently brushing his bangs back.
Usually he would push her away, but when he looked into her eyes, he knew she understood why he couldn’t come with her. Embarrassingly, he felt very close to tears, so he just nodded in reply.
“It wouldn’t be like before,” she said softly. “It would be different this time.”
“I can’t,” he whispered.
; “I understand,” she said, and he knew she hadn’t forgotten the Iron Age encampment either. Which made him feel so much better. She hugged him and he felt a tiny tear sneak out of the corner of his eye. She whispered into his ear, “We love you so much.”
“I’m calling Mom now!” said Annie. She got out her smartphone and dialed her mother.
Daisy let go of George and took the phone from Annie. “Susan?” she said. “It’s Daisy. Annie’s just given us an idea …” Daisy went off into a different room to continue the Mom-to-Mom talk about the new plan for the summer. Meanwhile Terence stomped out into the garden to see if he could do something about Eric’s near total destruction of the garden next door before it was too late and not a single leaf remained.
*
It was very quiet after Annie’s mom and George’s parents, separately, left to go their different ways.
Before they departed, George’s parents locked their house up and George moved his things next door, into Annie’s house, where he had the spare bedroom. Every morning George set off for his last few days at school, leaving the inhabitants of his new home to their own activities—and returned in the afternoon to while away time with Annie, waiting for the final verdict from Astronauts Wanted.
Annie, thought George, still wasn’t quite her usual self. She didn’t seem to want to do stuff in the way she had in the past. She didn’t pester Eric to take her to the science museum or to the skate park. She seemed happy just to spend time in the tree house, sitting and thinking while the summer days ambled along.
But the most challenging part of living next door—it had always been a dream of George’s to live in the same house as Eric, with all his scientific objects and knowledge—turned out, rather unexpectedly, to be Eric himself.
George never quite knew what he would find. On the last day of school he wandered into the house to find a stepladder, a paintbrush, and a paint can abandoned just inside the front door. Half of the hallway wall had been painted lime green, the other half raspberry pink, with an awkward bit in the middle where the paints seemed to have mixed and turned brown. George moved cautiously past and up the hall toward the kitchen, where a sickly, fruity smell greeted him.
George and the Blue Moon Page 5
