Edsel Grizzler (6 page)

A
s he rode around the corner near the front of the school the following morning, Edsel almost crashed into Kenny Sampson. He groaned. It was all about to kick off.

But instead of crowing about the events of the previous evening, or even snarling something menacing like he would normally have done, Kenny surprised Edsel by backing away in panic, tripping over his own feet, and falling into the hedge.

‘Stay away from me, you freak!' he shouted, holding his arms across his face.

‘What's your problem, Sampson?' Edsel got off his bike and took a step towards Kenny, who cowered further away, his shoes scrabbling in the dirt.

‘I said get away! I'll call the police! I will!'

‘Call the police? What for?'

Kenny struggled to his feet, tripped once more, got back up, and scuttled away. ‘I'm warning you, Grizzler! You stay away from me!' he shouted, disappearing around the end of the bike shed.

A couple of the other kids had something smart to say about the night before as he crossed the quad, but Edsel barely noticed. What he'd seen in his front garden, combined with Kenny's rather odd behaviour, meant that he had a lot on his mind, and he ended up with his name on the board three times for not answering Ms Finn when she addressed him directly, and on lunchtime detention for being late in from recess. He didn't actually mind the detention since it gave him a chance to think, even with some Year Three kid sniffing noisily into a damp tissue behind him. It also meant he didn't have to hear the shouts and cat-calls from the other kids.

The blue flash; the apparent slight movement of the Egg; the strange white plug, which he still carried in his pocket; Kenny's terrified weirdness: it all told him that something peculiar had happened the previous night. But what
was
that peculiar something? He did know one thing for certain – he wasn't going to be getting under that dome himself. By the end of detention he'd decided that what he really needed was a test subject.

That test subject presented itself shortly after Edsel got home from school, in the form of Hoagy Wendl. Edsel was in the kitchen drinking a glass of Mars cordial and wondering whether or not he should open the egg-shaped spaceship for business as usual – and wondering if it was even safe to do so – when he heard a knock at the front door.

‘I'll get it,' he said to his mum, who was up to her elbows in a bowl of pistachio and pearl barley stuffing.

‘Make sure the security door is locked,' she said.

‘Yes, Mum. Hoagy! What can I do for you?' he said as he reached the door.

Hoagy was glancing over his shoulder at the Egg in the front yard. ‘The spaceship's got a glass bit on top now,' he said breathlessly.

‘Yes it does, that's true.'

‘It looks awesome!'

‘It does, doesn't it?'

Hoagy stepped from one foot to the other. ‘I know it's a bit early and everything, but can I have a go before everyone else gets here?'

Edsel swallowed. This was proving to be too easy. ‘Yeah, all right. You can have a quick go.'

‘I've got some money,' said Hoagy, digging about in his pocket.

‘You know what? I reckon you might be able to have a go for free,' Edsel said with the most sincere smile he could muster.

‘Really?'

‘Yeah, why not? After all, you're my best customer.'

‘I am, aren't I?'

‘You sure are. Come on.'

So Hoagy and Edsel went down to the front lawn, Edsel lifted the dome – again he noticed a very faint tingling in the tips of his fingers – slid the milk crate into place, and helped Hoagy climb in. With the dome still in the upright position, Hoagy looked around sheepishly.

‘Can you put the glass bit down now?' he asked. ‘I'm ready.'

‘Sure,' Edsel replied, and he lowered the dome.

He watched Hoagy playing in the Egg, shooting some kind of alien, no doubt, or checking out the rings of Saturn as he slipped silently by. As he watched, Edsel slid his hand into his pocket and felt the plug. Even now, he wasn't entirely sure whether this was the right thing to do.

Bending down, he made sure that the feet of the Egg were exactly lined up on the little pressed-down patches of grass. Then he straightened up. ‘Hoagy,' he said, tapping on the plexiglass. ‘Hoagy, I've got something here that you might like to look at.'

Hoagy blinked a couple of times at the plug in Edsel's hand. ‘What is it?' he asked, his voice muffled by the dome.

‘I'm not sure. I think it's some kind of module.'

‘Cool! A module! I know that spaceships have modules – I saw that in a book.' Hoagy pushed at the dome, and it rose smoothly. ‘Where does it go?'

‘I think it goes in that slot down there,' Edsel said, pointing.

‘What's it do?'

Edsel shrugged, trying to appear casual, and mostly succeeding. ‘I don't really know, Hoagy. Here, try it.'

Hoagy took the plug, and as he moved it towards the socket, Edsel had to resist the urge to dive onto the ground and cover his head with his arms.

The plug was a perfect fit.

‘It didn't do anything,' Hoagy said, looking a little disappointed. He pressed the button and wiggled the stick. ‘See? Nothing!'

‘Oh well, I thought it was worth a go.' Edsel felt a little disappointed himself. Not that he'd wanted anything bad to happen to the little guy. He was just expecting … well, something. Anything.

‘Can you put the glass bit back down, Edsel?' Hoagy asked.

‘Sure. Now?'

Hoagy gave him the thumbs up. ‘Ready.'

‘All right, ready to go.' And reaching up, Edsel took hold of the dome and gently lowered it into place. If anything, the tingling in his fingers felt a little stronger now, and as the edge of the plexiglass reached the rim of the cockpit, he felt the dome lock itself down, as if there was some kind of suction within the cockpit.

Grinning widely, Hoagy gave Edsel another thumbs up. He was a spaceship pilot, no mistake, and not wishing to cramp the little guy's style, Edsel stepped back a short distance. He watched as Hoagy took hold of the joystick, waggling it about a bit. Then, as if in slow motion, Hoagy extended his index finger towards the green button.

And he pressed it.

From within the canopy came a bright blue flash, not bright enough to blind anyone, not even as bright as headlights. But Edsel knew immediately that it was the same flash he'd seen through his eyelids the night before. Yes, at night it would have been a whole lot brighter, and probably a whole heap bluer. But there was something new, or at least something he hadn't noticed the previous night. It was a sound, a kind of high-pitched, wailing sound. For a moment Edsel wondered if Hoagy was okay, until he realised that the high-pitched wailing sound
was
Hoagy, screaming as if his leg was being gnawed off by a crocodile. He thrashed around inside the dome, bashing at the plexiglass and screaming something a little like ‘Aaaaargh!' and something like ‘Get me out! Get me out! Edsel, please! Get me out!'

Confused, Edsel pulled at the silver handle at the side of the Egg, and with that same faint
psst
he'd heard the night before, the lid lifted off the cockpit. Hoagy's screaming was even louder now, and he almost knocked Edsel over in his rush to get down. He didn't even stop to pick up his bike. He just ran, as hard and as fast as he could, and didn't stop until he'd crossed the street without looking, reached his house, dashed up the driveway, through the front doorway, and slammed the door behind him.

Edsel scratched his head and blinked. Then, once he'd recovered from the shock of what he'd seen, he hurried over to Hoagy's house and rang the doorbell.

Hoagy's mum opened the door. She seemed a bit distracted. ‘Edsel, what happened?' she asked, glancing over her shoulder towards the wailing sound coming from within the house.

‘I … I don't really know,' Edsel said, and in a way this was true. He certainly hadn't expected anything like this. ‘Hoagy was playing in the spaceship thing in my yard, and the next thing there was a … a blue flash, and—'

‘You didn't electrocute him, did you?' Mrs Wendl asked sternly. ‘Did you plug something in that you shouldn't have?'

‘What? No! No, I promise it was nothing like that.'

Hoagy's voice had lifted a couple of octaves. ‘There was a man!' he screamed from the next room. ‘A silver man!'

‘A what?' exclaimed his mother, spinning around.

‘A what?' said Edsel. He shook his head at Mrs Wendl. ‘There was no silver man, I promise. There was no man at all. Really, it was just a flash of light, and that's all!'

Mrs Wendl frowned at Edsel and began to close the door. ‘You'd better go now,' she said. ‘I don't know what's been going on up at your house, but I'll be having a word with your mother.'

‘Mrs Wendl, do you like roses … oh,' Edsel groaned as the door latched shut in front of his face. He could still hear Hoagy bellowing on about a silver man, and his mum begging him to calm down. This was all getting to be rather more confusing and complicated than it was ever meant to be.

When he got back to his front yard, Edsel saw a bunch of little kids starting to gather around the Egg, waiting for a turn. Luckily no one had climbed in without asking.

‘Sorry, kids, the spaceship is closed today. You should go home,' he announced, and the little kids all groaned and murmured as he turned the sign around. ‘Routine maintenance. Very important for safety.'

If only they knew the truth, he thought.

As soon as he'd seen off the last of the disappointed kids, Edsel crouched down to take a closer look at the grass around the feet of the Egg. Just like before, it seemed that the entire machine had moved sideways, but only by a centimetre or two.

It was just then that Edsel got that very strange and hard-to-describe feeling, the one where you sense that you're being watched. He glanced across the street, and saw the blinds in one of the upstairs windows of Kenny's house move, just the tiniest bit, as if someone had been holding them apart, and had then suddenly let them go.

A car was driving slowly past, but as soon as it had gone, Edsel strode across the street and up to the front door of the Sampsons' house. He knocked, and waited. Then, after a while, he knocked again.

‘What do you want?' Kenny's voice asked from inside.

‘I want to ask you something.'

‘You're crazy, if you think I'm coming out there,' said Kenny. ‘You're out of control! You're a maniac!'

‘I'm not a maniac, Kenny.'

‘You are! You're lucky one of us isn't dead. I don't know what that thing is your front yard, but it'll kill someone.'

‘Kenny, can you open the door?'

‘No! Get lost!'

‘All right, I'll go, but first let me ask you a question. Did you get into the spaceship last night?'

There was a brief pause, before Kenny said, ‘I don't know what you're talking about.'

‘You did, didn't you?'

‘Well, I kind of … Look, I didn't mean to break anything, awright? I was just having a go. But I didn't realise that you were trying to
kill
me. And then Hoagy.'

‘I wasn't trying to kill anyone.'

‘No? Then
you
get in and have a go. Let's see how
you
feel when
you
go there.'

‘Go where? Seriously, I don't think
I'm
the crazy one here, Kenny.'

‘Oh yeah? If I'm the crazy one, why did Hoagy run off screaming like that? Tell me, did he say anything about a man in a silver suit?'

Edsel frowned at the door. ‘Um …'

‘I thought so. Go on, Edsel. If you're so sure it's harmless, why don't
you
get in and have a turn? Go on. Just get in and press the button.'

‘Okay, fine, whatever,' Edsel said, turning away. ‘Thanks anyway. You
are
crazy,' he muttered under his breath.

He crossed the road and stood in front of the Egg. Maybe Kenny had a point. If he was so sure that it was perfectly safe, why shouldn't he climb in and have a go as well?

And that was when Edsel decided. It
was
his turn. He was going to take his place behind the controls of his machine. It wasn't Kenny's machine, and it wasn't Hoagy's machine. It was his – Edsel Grizzler's – and whatever terrors or adventures lurked within were his and his alone to face.

It made him feel rather brave to think that way, and he felt even braver as he climbed up into the cockpit, sat down, and pulled the canopy into place. But quite suddenly he didn't feel at all brave any more, as everything went quiet.

Had he been honest with himself, Edsel might have owned up to feeling guilty. Not so much about Kenny; more about Hoagy. He'd used the little guy like a guinea pig in a lab, like a chimpanzee blasted into space, and he felt pretty awful about that. He couldn't take that back, but he could put himself in the same position. Which was why he took a deep breath and looked over the simple controls on the dash.