Time and Again

by Rob Childs

  Rob Childs

  Time AND AGAIN

  Illustrated by Nicola Slater

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter One Time to go

  Chapter Two Time Slip

  Chapter three Time is Money

  Chapter Four Extra Time

  Chapter Five Time for Action

  Chapter Six A Matter of Time

  Chapter Seven Time Travel?

  Chapter Eight Out of Time

  Chapter Nine Time Loop

  About the Author

  Imprint

  CHAPTER ONE

  Time to Go

  ‘Fetch, Tan!’

  Becky threw the stick across the field and the collie dog raced after it, barking in excitement. This was Tan’s favourite game. She swooped onto the stick, picking it cleanly out of a clump of grass, and ran back with her prize.

  ‘That didn’t go very far,’ laughed Chris. ‘Girls can’t throw!’

  ‘OK, so you can throw better than me, little brother,’ Becky said, teasing her twin with a gentle reminder, as she often did, that she was ten minutes older. ‘But I can run faster.’

  Chris didn’t argue with that. His sister could outsprint everybody in their class.

  ‘Let me have a go,’ he said, taking the stick from Tan’s mouth. ‘Bet I can reach the river from here.’

  The stick whirled through the air with the dog yelping after it and both ended up in the water. Tan soon scrambled out onto the bank with her prize clamped between her teeth and shook herself, spraying thousands of droplets into the air.

  ‘We’d better make our way back home,’ said Becky, hearing the church clock strike four times. ‘Come, Tan!’

  The dog bounded towards them, ears pinned back, bright eyes shining beneath the tan patches of fur that inspired her name.

  Keeping well away from the railway line that snaked around the village of Barnwell, the twins continued to play stick until they went past a farmyard and Chris slipped Tan onto the lead.

  ‘Finish, Tan,’ he told her. ‘Walk heel.’

  Tan reluctantly obeyed, but tried to tug Chris along a little quicker than he wanted to go. There was some schoolwork waiting for him at home and he was in no hurry to get back.

  ‘Let’s just have a look round the market,’ he suggested.

  Becky turned to stare at him. ‘Since when have you been interested in traipsing round the Sunday market?’

  Chris ran a hand through his tousled fair hair, a sure sign that he was a little uncomfortable. ‘Well, you never know what you might find.’

  ‘No, but I know you all right,’ said Becky with a grin. ‘You haven’t done that homework yet, have you?’

  Chris shrugged. That was the trouble with having a twin sister. She always seemed to know what he was thinking. ‘No sweat,’ he grunted in response. ‘Got plenty of time after tea.’

  ‘No, you haven’t. You promised Dad you’d help him restock the shelves, ready for tomorrow.’

  Chris groaned. He’d forgotten about that. The Jackson family ran the village store and their parents were keen that the twins should ‘do their bit’, as Mum put it.

  ‘Can’t you do it tonight, sis?’ he whined.

  ‘No, it’s your turn. I did my bit earlier, cleaning the counters.’

  He let out a heavy sigh. ‘Oh, well – all the more reason for not rushing back, then. C’mon, let’s check out that market.’

  They made their way to the village square, where most of the traders were already beginning to pack their unsold wares into boxes, bags and crates. As Becky paused at a clothes stall, Chris spotted a familiar, dark-haired figure slouching towards them and cursed under his breath.

  He saw enough of Luke at school. They sat at the same table in class, though not by choice. Mum had caught Luke trying to pinch sweets from the store more than once and called him a born troublemaker. She was probably right too.

  ‘Fancy meeting you here!’ Chris greeted him, pulling a face. ‘Come to see what you can nick, have you?’

  ‘I don’t nick stuff,’ Luke protested.

  ‘Oh yeah? Since when?’

  ‘Shove off, Jacko – and take that ugly mutt with you.’

  ‘Tan’s beautiful,’ said Becky, giving her a little pat.

  ‘I wasn’t talking about the dog,’ cackled Luke, delighted his joke had worked so well.

  Chris’s reaction caught Luke off guard. He pushed him in the chest so hard that Luke stumbled back against one of the stalls, making it wobble. Luke had no chance to fight back, even if he had dared, as a snarling Tan was now standing in front of Chris.

  ‘Oi! Clear off!’ shouted the stallholder. ‘Don’t want you lot muckin’ about round ’ere, disturbin’ my customers.’

  ‘What customers?’ snorted Luke, casting an eye over the clutter of items on the bric-abrac stall. ‘Who’d want to buy any of this rubbish?’

  ‘Cheeky brat!’ the man stormed, getting off his chair. He was much bigger than Luke had realised. ‘I’ll have you.’

  Luke shot a threat at Chris too. ‘And I’ll have you at school tomorrow, Jacko – when your dog’s not around to protect you.’ He turned and snatched the nearest thing that came to hand off the stall and then ran out of the market.

  ‘Oi! Come back ’ere with that watch!’ the man cried, but Luke was already lost to sight.

  So was Becky. Still annoyed by Luke’s insult, she had hared off in pursuit, closely followed by Tan, who had yanked the lead out of Chris’s grasp.

  It was a little while before Chris caught up with them all. Guided by the noise of Tan’s barking, he found them in an alleyway, where Luke had tried to hide behind a large rubbish bin. Becky was too quick to be fooled, however, and she had also managed to seize the end of the lead to keep Tan in check.

  When Chris arrived on the scene, Luke dropped the watch into the bin. ‘You want it, you get it,’ he told the twins. ‘I’m off.’

  Luke gave Tan a wide berth, but brushed past Chris, deliberately making physical contact, shoulder-to-shoulder, as he lurched along the alley.

  Chris looked at his sister. ‘You or me?’ he said, knowing the answer.

  ‘You,’ Becky grinned. ‘I’ve got Tan.’

  Chris opened the lid of the bin. ‘Phhwwaahh! It stinks in there!’

  It was just as well, perhaps, that the bin was fairly full as it would have been difficult – and very unpleasant – to reach right down to the bottom.

  ‘Wish I was wearing gloves,’ he muttered, then held his breath while he rummaged carefully among the bin’s rotting contents.

  ‘Any luck?’ asked Becky.

  Chris grunted a response, just as his hand closed upon what felt like a chain. He pulled it out to discover that it was attached to a silver watch.

  ‘Result!’ he cried in triumph, dangling the watch above Tan’s quivering nose.

  Becky took it from him, using her sleeve to wipe some mess off the glass. ‘Looks a bit like a stopwatch with these buttons around the dial,’ she said. ‘Must be quite old, though. It’s even got Roman numerals.’

  ‘Didn’t think the Romans had watches,’ Chris grinned. ‘Probably had to lug sundials round with them if they wanted to know the time!’

  Becky turned the watch over in the palm of her hand and saw there was some writing on the back. It was in the form of a short rhyme, although the small squiggly script made it quite awkward to read.

  ‘Strange,’ she murmured. ‘Wonder what that means?’

  ‘Search me,’ said Chris, leaning on her shoulder to peer at the verse himself. ‘I’m no good at poetry.’

  ‘By a click of the clock,’ she repeated. ‘Hmm, well let’s try this button at the top first and see what happens.’

&
nbsp; Becky pressed down the red button above the XII…

  Click!

  …and was struck dumb.

  They were both standing in the field by the river again, with Tan demanding the stick to be thrown for her to fetch.

  The twins stared at each other in disbelief. The only thing that was different from before was that Becky now had a watch in her hand.

  ‘What the hell are we doing back here?’ Chris muttered. ‘This is crazy!’

  CHAPTER TWO

  Time Slip

  ‘I don’t … understand,’ Becky said shakily. ‘What’s happened, Chris?’

  ‘Dunno,’ he said. ‘Makes no sense.’

  Only Tan appeared unaffected, and just wanted to play.

  ‘Finish, Tan,’ Chris ordered, to stop her barking. ‘Quiet!’

  Tan whimpered a protest or two and then lay in the long grass, tongue lolling out of the side of her mouth. Becky sat down next to her, feeling a little dizzy. She stroked Tan’s smooth black coat and white neck frill, as much to seek some reassurance for herself as to comfort the dog. She needed to know that this was for real and not a dream – or a nightmare.

  ‘Good girl,’ she said. ‘It’s OK.’

  ‘It’s not OK,’ Chris grunted. ‘It’s not even close to OK. We’re supposed to be in the village, not in the middle of a field!’

  Becky looked at the watch. ‘Last thing I remember doing was pressing this red button…’

  ‘Well don’t do it again,’ said Chris, fearing that she might. ‘Give it to me.’ He reached out for the watch, but Becky refused to hand it over.

  ‘By a click of the clock,’ she murmured, repeating the first part of the inscription, ‘you can go in reverse…’

  Chris shrugged. ‘So?’

  ‘So that’s what we seem to have done – gone backwards in time,’ said Becky, her eyes wide. ‘And here we are by the river again.’

  Chris stared into the distance towards the clock on the church tower.

  ‘It’s only half-past three,’ he pointed out. ‘And we heard it strike four earlier, remember?’

  ‘You mean later,’ Becky corrected him. ‘It hasn’t actually happened yet.’

  Chris slumped to the ground beside his twin. This was all too much to take in. Tan immediately came to try and lick his face, but he pushed her away. ‘Daft dog! Get down.’

  ‘Don’t take it out on Tan,’ said Becky. ‘She’s only wanting some fuss. She doesn’t know what’s going on.’

  ‘Well that makes three of us, then.’

  ‘We must have slipped back about an hour,’ said Becky, ‘but things are not exactly the same, are they? For a start, we weren’t having this conversation before.’

  ‘No, and I wasn’t getting a wet bum, sitting in this grass,’ Chris replied, standing up and wiping the seat of his jeans. ‘C’mon, let’s go.’

  Becky didn’t budge. She was examining the watch again and had noticed a separate dial in the lower left quarter of the face. Inside was a little gold arrow that was glowing – and slowly on the move. ‘Look at this,’ she said, holding out the watch for her brother to take. ‘There’s a tiny extra hand – and I bet it’s ticking off the past hour.’

  Chris held the watch to his ear. ‘Can’t hear any ticking.’

  ‘You know what I mean. That red button must have set it off.’

  ‘Guess you’re right,’ he conceded. ‘So what do we do now?’

  Becky considered the situation for a few moments. ‘Well, first thing we should do is go back to the market and return this watch. It’s not ours.’

  ‘No, not yet – but it will be.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘We’ll buy it.’

  ‘Oh no we won’t,’ Becky protested, jumping to her feet in alarm. ‘I think it’s too dangerous…’

  ‘Rubbish!’ he snorted, refusing to listen to her concerns.

  Chris strode away towards the village, keen to reach the market before Luke appeared. He had no idea how this whole time-slip business worked, but he did know one thing for sure. He wanted that watch.

  ‘Hold on! Hold on!’ Becky cried, jogging along with Tan to catch him up.

  ‘What’s the matter now?’ he said sharply.

  ‘Have you really thought this through?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘What I mean is, how can you buy something that isn’t there?’ she reasoned. ‘The chap probably doesn’t even know it’s missing yet.’

  That made Chris stop and think, ruffling his hair in agitation.

  ‘Well, guess we’ll just have to smuggle it back onto his stall first,’ he replied, ‘and then buy it.’

  Against her better judgement, Becky agreed to play her part in Chris’s ruse, distracting the stallholder with a question about one of the items for sale while Chris pretended to lift the watch from out of a box.

  ‘Er … how much is this?’ he asked.

  ‘’ow much you got, kid?’

  Chris fished into the pocket of his jeans to see what was left of his pocket money and produced a two-pound coin.

  ‘Is that enough?’ he asked hopefully.

  The man shook his head. ‘But make it three and it’s yours.’

  Chris looked pleadingly towards Becky, who sighed and gave him the extra pound.

  ‘That’s only a loan,’ she insisted. ‘I want it back next week.’

  ‘Thanks, sis,’ he grinned. ‘You won’t regret it.’

  ‘Huh!’ she grunted. ‘Famous last words.’

  Chris paid the money and dragged his twin and Tan away from the stall before the man could change his mind.

  ‘What a bargain!’ Chris giggled. ‘He obviously hasn’t got a clue what this watch can do!’

  ‘No, and nor have we,’ Becky argued. ‘We don’t know what we might be messing with.’

  ‘Messing with?’

  ‘Yes, messing with Time – with a capital T,’ she told him. ‘It’s asking for Trouble. And that’s got a capital T too!’

  CHAPTER THREE

  Time is Money

  ‘Look lively, lad. You’re half asleep.’

  ‘Sorry, Dad,’ Chris said automatically. He seemed to spend most of his time at home apologizing to his parents.

  ‘Got something on your mind, have you?’

  Chris smiled to himself. He could hardly try to explain about the Timewatch, as he had begun to call it. He was so keen to use it again, it was almost burning a hole in his pocket.

  ‘Er … just some work I’ve still got to do for school, Dad,’ he said as an excuse, glad that the watch could now give him any extra time he might need.

  ‘Aye, well, you should’ve done it earlier like your sister.’

  ‘Sorry, Dad.’

  ‘Now get those tins finished and then put the cereal boxes over there,’ Dad told him, pointing to an empty shelf on the other side of the store.

  Chris continued to stack the tins of soup, tomatoes and baked beans on the shelf behind the main counter, ensuring that all the labels were facing the front.

  ‘If folk can’t see it, they can’t buy it,’ Dad always said. ‘Second law of shopkeeping.’

  Dad had lots of these laws and was quick to remind Chris of them whenever the chance arose. Chris deliberately put a tin of chicken soup the wrong way round to see how long it would take his father to notice.

  ‘Come and give us a hand a minute, lad. Need you to hold these steps steady while I tidy that top shelf.’

  ‘I don’t know why we have stuff right up there. Nobody can reach it.’

  ‘No, but I can with the steps. All they need do is point. What’s the fifth law?’

  Chris did a quick check down his mental list of laws. ‘Er … if folk want it, we get it – right?’

  ‘Right, good lad,’ Dad beamed, putting his weight on the rickety wooden stepladder and climbing halfway up.

  ‘Isn’t it about time we got some new steps, Dad? These always wobble.’

  ‘If they were good enough for your
old grandad, they’re good enough for me,’ Dad told him, starting to take the cartons off the shelf one by one, give each a rub with a cloth and then put them back in exactly the same place.

  Chris wondered idly how many of the ever-growing list of laws had been passed on by Grandad. He gave a yawn and thought he might make his own list of things to do with the Timewatch. That would be a very long list as well…

  …he could use it in class to redo a test and put right any mistakes…

  …and double the time of his favourite PE sessions…

  …and even replay a football match if his school team were losing…

  …and then at home he could perhaps delay bedtime by an hour…

  ‘Aaargh!’

  Dad’s shout and the crash of the steps brought Becky, Mum and a barking Tan rushing into the store. Tan reached Dad even before Chris could scramble over the broken tangle of wood. She was yelping in alarm and trying to lick the man’s face as he lay on the floor behind the counter.

  ‘Are you all right, Dad?’ cried Chris, pushing Tan away.

  Dad groaned as his wife propped him up against a cabinet for support. ‘Think I’ve gone and bust a leg,’ he grunted, his face screwed up in pain.

  ‘Whatever happened?’ asked Mum, her own face white with shock.

  ‘It was my fault,’ Chris admitted. ‘I wasn’t holding the steps properly.’

  ‘Nonsense, lad,’ said Dad. ‘You were right. They’re too old. Should’ve got rid of ’em years ago.’

  Becky crouched beside her father, stroking his arm for comfort and gripping Tan by her collar to keep the dog at bay.

  ‘What were you doing, Dad?’ she asked.

  ‘Stretching too far, lass. Overreached myself and down I went.’

  ‘I’m really sorry, Dad,’ said Chris, as Mum went off to phone for an ambulance.

  ‘Nothing you could have done, lad. Even if you were half asleep!’

  ‘Maybe not,’ Chris murmured. ‘But there is something I can do now.’ He took out the Timewatch and glanced at his sister, who nodded her approval.

  Click!

  Chris suddenly found himself on his own in the stockroom an hour earlier. He gave a little shake of the head in wonder and put the watch back in his pocket. Then he picked up a box of soup tins to take into the store, knowing exactly what Dad was about to say.