by Nikki Young
Nadia and her friends never usually managed to sit for the journey to school, let alone have an entire carriage to themselves. The silence was eerie, but as the whistle blew and the train moved slowly away from the platform, the jolt shook the children out of their initial shock, forcing them to move into the carriage to sit down.
Nadia looked out of the window.
“Has the fog cleared?” Tomma asked, sitting opposite her.
“Yes, looks as though it has,” Nadia said, before stepping out of the carriage back into the corridor.
“Nadia, don’t,” Jess said, although Nadia took no notice. Ash followed her and she pulled down on the window to open it.
“Just as I thought,” Nadia said, as she looked out.
As far as Nadia could see ahead of them, every carriage was the same. It was an old-fashioned steam train, the likes of which you’d only see in a museum, or on a film set around the time of the Second World War, carrying evacuees off to the country to escape the cities. This one was painted a deep burgundy red, the thick, black smoke from the coal engine already beginning to move its way along the top towards them. She wrinkled her nose at the cloying smell as she pulled back in.
“It’s happening again, isn’t it?” Ash said.
Nadia nodded, unsure how to feel about it. This wasn’t the first time they’d been on a train like this and when they had, the four of them had ended up on an adventure no one had expected. They were taken back in time to 1918 and the end of the First World War.
“Guys, you won’t believe it. This is the train again,” Ash said, as he moved back into the carriage to join Jess and Tomma, with Nadia behind.
“I can do this, I can. . . I can,” Jess said to herself. She began to bite on her bottom lip, which was trembling ever so slightly. She moved closer to Tomma and he put his arm around her.
Jess wasn’t the bravest of people, she was a natural worrier, but their previous time-travel experience had taught her an awful lot about herself, to the point where she was much stronger than she had once been.
Nadia sat next to Ash and looked away. At one point, it would have been her who Jess turned to when she felt worried or scared. She didn’t need Nadia now, she had Tomma to look after her.
“Listen, it’ll be fine. We got back last time—twice!” Tomma said. “We know how the train works for us and if it doesn’t want us to go anywhere, it won’t appear. There’s a reason we’re on here again and we just have to find it, sort it out and then we’re done.”
Ash laughed. “You make it sound so easy.”
Tomma shrugged. “Well, it’s just the way I look at things.” To Tomma the world was black and white. If there was a problem, you solved it. That was that.
“I could really do without this,” Nadia said, running her hands through her hair. “I’ve got enough going on. You won’t believe it.” The others looked at her, waiting for her to explain.
“Will we not?” Tomma said, with an over-exaggerated shake of the head. He was a no-nonsense, straight-down-the-line kind of kid, the exact of opposite of Nadia. “You’d better spill.”
“My grandad died and I have to do a eulogy at his funeral,” she blurted out, before staring down at her hands, which were clamped firmly between her knees. She looked up again, at the shocked expressions on her friend’s faces. “I know, right?”
“Wait a minute, did you just say your grandad died?” Ash asked. “Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear that Nad.”
Unlike Nadia, who was an only child, Ash was one of three, with a huge extended family from Uganda, who were all very close.
“So sorry Nad,” Jess said.
“Yeah, me too,” Tomma added.
“I know, I know, thanks, but did you not just hear what I said?” Nadia stared at them, wondering how they could have missed it.
They looked at each other with blank expressions. She groaned and shook her head.
“The eulogy, me, standing up in church, talking, everybody quiet, staring at me, waiting for me to trip over my words and say something stupid and embarrass myself.”
“You’re not still bothered about that are you? It was ages ago. No one will remember. You don’t need to still be thinking about that,” Tomma said, putting a hand on Nadia’s shoulder and nodding at her reassuringly. He shrugged his rucksack onto his back. “It was a minor incident, tiny, that happened at a junior school you don’t even go to anymore. It’s long gone so don’t stress about it.”
“Yeah, Bum Tin,” Ash said, bursting out laughing. Nadia shoved him so hard he almost fell over.
“Stop it,” she said, aware she sounded like a much younger version of herself, the one who’d had the awful experience whilst doing a Year 4 presentation. “See?” she said, looking at Tomma.
The corners of Tomma’s mouth were beginning to twitch, but at least he had the good grace to swallow it down and look serious. His head tilted to one side as he looked back at her.
“Okay, so you had the misfortune of finding a new way of saying ‘bunting.’ It livened up your Jubilee presentation though, didn’t it? You were the only one who didn’t think it was funny,” Tomma said.
“That’s because everyone called me Bum Tin for ages after that. I couldn’t live it down even if I tried,” she said.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Tomma said, shrugging. “But hey, we’ve moved on now and nobody knows about it at school except us.”
“He’s right,” Ash said. “I’d just forgotten how funny it was. Come on, Nad, you’ve got to laugh about it someday.”
“Perhaps. In about a million years,” she said.
“Anyway, your grandad died, aren’t you more bothered about that?” Ash asked.
“Well, yeah, of course I’m bothered!” Nadia said, her voice hitching up a notch. “You two just don’t get it. Jess gets it, don’t you Jess?”
She turned to her best friend, who was sat opposite, but was staring out of the window in a world of her own. One of Nadia’s best friends for as long as she could remember, Jess was sensible, calm and the opposite of Nadia, but something about that made them work well together. Jess completed the group.
The four of them had been firm friends since junior school and continued their friendship as they’d moved up to Year Seven at Hickley Secondary School. Every day they did a twenty-minute train ride from their village to their school.
Nadia waved her hand in front of Jess, causing her to jump out of her reverie. She cocked her head to the side, her hair swishing as she did so.
“Sorry! I was listening. Just you know—thinking,” she said, gesturing to the carriage. She turned her attention to Nadia, mouth turned down in sympathy. “Oh, Nad, that’s awful, how are you going to get through it?”
“You mean the funeral and the grief she’s feeling at the loss of her grandfather, right?” Tomma asked.
Both girls looked at him and then at each other.
“Yes, of course,” Jess said, flushing and looking down at the floor.
“Look, you’re making me out to be cold and uncaring and that’s not cool,” Nadia said. “And don’t you say another word, Ash Mundair.”
Ash clamped his mouth shut and Jess stifled a giggle. Ash was the joker among them. The one who would take any opportunity to see the lighter side of a situation. Despite his father being so strict and having so much expectation on him to do well at school, Ash never showed any sign of that pressure when he was with his friends. In fact, it was quite the opposite. One look from Nadia was all it took though.
“I didn’t know my grandad very well, not really and I am sad, of course I am, especially for my nana, who’s now on her own. But that’s what makes this especially hard. Doing a eulogy about someone I don’t know, that’s terrifying. Some of my dad’s family are really Polish. They’ll expect me to know all about that side of Grandad’s life, but I don’t know anything about it because Grandad never mentioned it. He didn’t really talk much at all to be honest and Dad’s not very Polish—if you know what I mean.
He doesn’t even speak the language and neither do I. I’ll just look stupid.”
She felt herself coming close to tears, which wasn’t like her, so she turned away, and took a deep breath to try and shake it off.
“Don’t worry Nad, we can all help you. Can’t we?” Jess said, as she put a hand on her friend’s knee and gave it a squeeze.
“Can we?” Ash asked and Jess kicked him in the shins. “Ouch!”
“You’ll be fine Nad,” Tomma said, as he grabbed Jess’s hand.
Nadia watched as Jess held his hand tight. She looked at her best friend, who looked embarrassed, slightly awkward but happy. Nadia sighed, feeling her heart lurch with a little stab of jealousy, which she quickly swallowed, forcing a smile.
Her two friends, whom she loved so much, had become closer in the last few months. Nadia thought they were perfect together, but it just made her wish for something similar for herself.
She quickly squashed down the image of Oliver Ward that popped into her head. He was only the coolest boy in school who everyone liked and he didn’t even notice her. What was the point in even bothering to think about someone like him?
“Oh gosh! Remember all that hassle with the stupid uniform?” Jess said, her mouth turning up at the corners.
When they’d previously found themselves on this train and had been transported back in time, Nadia and Jess had been pulled up for not being dressed the same as the other girls at their school, as well as for wearing ties, which girls hadn’t worn back then.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. You two looked so funny last time when you had to get changed into long skirts and frilly blouse things,” Ash said.
At least they knew a little of what to expect this time. They knew that as long as they were registered at their school, it didn’t seem to matter what time zone they were in, as though the walls of Hickley School represented a parallel universe.
No one would know if they were in the present day, or in another time zone.
As the train chugged along at a steady pace, rocking them from side to side in a hypnotic fashion, Nadia felt a beat sounding in her head, echoing that of her heart, as she wondered what to expect. She stared out of the window, watching as the train passed field after field, separated by dry stone walls and dotted with sheep, looking like balls of cotton wool. The landscape soon turned to towns and factories, their tall chimneys releasing the excesses of their industry out into the already grey sky.
They were approaching Hickley town, where they went to school. What they didn’t know was in what year they were due to arrive.
Chapter 4
Freakishly Cold
As the train pulled into the station it came to a halt with a screech of the brakes that seemed to go on forever. Nadia was the first to get up. She pulled her bag on to her shoulder and peered out of the window, wondering what they were going to find. Although it was no longer foggy, the sky was so full of dark clouds. There was barely any daylight, which made the station seem dark, gloomy and mysterious.
She shuddered. This was hardly the day she was expecting after the news she’d received the night before. The last thing Nadia needed was the complication of spending the day at a yet-to-be-confirmed point in the past.
“What if we just stayed on the train?” Jess suggested, jumping up and clutching Nadia’s arm. “We could go straight back home to Kirkshaw and just pretend this never happened.” Jess’s face was almost pleading.
“Where’s the fun in that?” Ash asked.
“You think this is fun?” Jess exclaimed. “You know what happens, Ash. We’ve been here before and we almost didn’t make it back alive. Why put ourselves through all that again?”
Ash shrugged. “Because we want to live a little.”
“He’s kind of right,” Tomma said. “I want to find out why we’re here. Sorry, but I’m with Ash on this one. We should go and see what it’s all about seeing as we’ve come this far.”
Jess let go of Nadia’s arm and her whole body slumped. “You know I hate you lot sometimes! Fine. We’ll go. But we need to get back down here in plenty of time so we don’t miss the train home.”
Tomma smiled and put his arm around her. Ash chuckled excitedly and picked up his bag.
“Right, let’s go and see what we’re in for,” Nadia said as she stepped around Tomma and Jess, out of the compartment, back into the corridor.
To open the door you had to pull the window down before reaching the handle outside. Nadia gasped as the cold air hit her square in the face and her fingers touched the freezing metal of the door handle.
“Where are we? Siberia or something?”
As they stepped off the train, they each pulled their coats up tighter around their necks. The wind was biting, whipping through the station and wrapping its icy fingers around them. For March, the weather had been unseasonably mild, so to be suddenly plunged into freezing cold temperatures was a shock to the system.
“You know we’re going to be late for school, don’t you?” Ash said, pointing up towards the large station clock that hung suspended from the wrought iron framework of the Victorian station. It let out a low gong signalling it was 8:45am.
Nadia looked around, assessing the situation. Everyone seemed to be walking with their heads down, collars turned up. Most of the women were dressed in long coats, fitted at the waist before flaring out. They wore fur hats and leather gloves. The men had on long overcoats with big scarves wrapped around their necks.
Although it was almost mid-March, and judging by everyone’s worn-down faces, it had been a long and harsh winter.
As the children made their way through the throng, another blast of cold air hit them. Nadia pulled her hood up tight and put her head down to avoid the wind stinging her face. Ash set off as if to run but his feet went from under him and he crashed to the floor.
“Ash, are you okay?” Nadia moved over to him as quickly as she dared. She hated black ice as you never knew it was there until it was too late and you’d fallen flat on your back, like Ash had just done.
“Yep, saved by the padded puffa jacket,” Ash said, as he rubbed at his bottom and turned over onto his knees so he could stand up. “Don’t think we’ll be running up to school though, do you?”
“Oh, I hate ice,” Jess said. “And why is it so cold here? I thought winter was over and it was time for spring.”
“Not here in whatever year this is,” Nadia said. “Come on, let’s go.”
Following the crowds of commuters heading out of the station, the children took their lead, stepping into the road, where it wasn’t so slippery.
Nadia coughed as the fumes from the cars crawling by hit the back of her throat. She looked up and noticed how old-fashioned the cars were; it crossed her mind how dangerous it was for them to be walking in the road. It was either slip over on the ice or get run over by a car—a dilemma you couldn’t really resolve!
She followed the others, taking careful shuffling steps up the hill towards their school, while keeping everything crossed they would make it to school safely.
Hickley School, with its mixture of old and new buildings, dated back to the early 1900s. Back then, it had been nothing more than a main school hall with classrooms off to each side with two playgrounds to separate the boys from the girls.
The dining hall, with some classrooms above it, had been added in the 1930s and the sports hall in the 1960s. A further sports hall and science block had been built in the late 1990s and by then the school had used up every bit of available space.
Still not an enormous school (there were four forms per year), it always felt busy because there were so many students in such a small area, but as they were already halfway through their first year at Hickley School, the children had become used to the busy environment that had been such a shock to the system when they’d first joined the previous September.
What Nadia couldn’t help but notice, whilst on their walk up to school that morning, was how quiet it was. She tho
ught most of the pupils must have been thawing in the warmth of their form rooms already. A small part of her was still clinging on to the hope it was just a normal day that just happened to have a freakish change of weather to it and that there would be other kids, like them, turning up late. She knew deep down that it was unlikely, and hopes of a normal day were fading fast.
Just to confirm things further, when they got to school and looked at the collection of buildings, Nadia saw straight away there was no sports centre or science block. She groaned. Jess gasped and Tomma shook his head as he observed the scene before them.
“Woah,” Ash said. “Would you look at that! Anyone like to hazard a guess as to what year this is then?”
Chapter 5
What? No Ties?
“No clue,” Tomma said. “But judging by the missing buildings, we’ve gone back quite a few years—again!”
“But the dining room is here,” Ash said, pointing to the building on their right. “It was built in the 1930s, wasn’t it?”
Tomma nodded. “That means people will be staying at school for lunch instead of disappearing off home like they used to when the school first opened.”
In its early days, the school had shut for a couple of hours during the day so the pupils and teachers would have time to go home to get a hot meal.
“Quick, hide behind here,” Nadia said, pulling Tomma down behind the wall that skirted the perimeter of the school grounds. The others crouched down beside them.
“Why are we hiding?” Ash whispered.
“So we can see what everyone looks like, duh,” Nadia said.
“I am not going in there like last time and getting shamed in front of everyone for being in the boys-only playground and then having the wrong uniform on.” She shuddered at the thought.
They watched as other pupils began to make their way into the school grounds, but it was impossible to tell what they were wearing because everyone had on thick coats and hats. Nadia was the first to notice that they were all boys.
