Step Back in Time (14 page)

When we get back to the house it’s quiet. The children would have gone to bed ages ago, and Penny, exhausted as always, wouldn’t have been much after.

While Ellie, Harry and Stu make themselves at home in the kitchen, I dash upstairs to find some sort of first aid kit. But all I can find in the bathroom cabinet are some plasters, cotton wool and a bottle of Dettol. That will have to do, I think, shoving the plasters in my pocket and hurrying back downstairs in case Harry and Stu are trying to kill each other again.

But as I arrive back in the kitchen I find all is well, and they’re sitting with Ellie, calmly drinking cans of Pepsi together.

‘Everything OK?’ I ask, looking between the two of them.

‘Good as gold,’ Ellie says, winking at me.

‘Yeah, we’re OK,’ Harry says. ‘Me and Stu never stay angry at each other for long. Do we, Stu?’

Stu, still looking a little pale, nods. ‘Nah, life’s too short for holding grudges.’

‘The boys have just been talking about starting up their band again,’ Ellie says. ‘I think it’s a great idea.’

‘That’s good,’ I say, looking at the pair of them while I dilute some Dettol in a bowl. ‘I didn’t know the two of you had a band.’ Now this was more like the behaviour of teens; one minute they hate each other with a passion, and the next they’re best buddies again.

‘Yes, you did,’ Harry says. ‘You and Ellie used to moan about the noise we were making when we were practising in my mum’s front room last summer with the windows open.’

‘Oh,
that
band. Yes of course, how could I forget?’ I exchange a look with Stu. ‘Ellie, do you think your mum will have any plasters?’ I ask. ‘We seem to be out of them.’

‘Yeah, probably. Do you want me to go get some?’

‘If you could. Harry, would you go with Ellie, please, while I clean Stu up?’ I sit down in front of Stu with the cotton wool and the bowl of Dettol.

‘But it’s just over the road,’ Harry moans. ‘And she’s hardly going to get attacked wearing that, is she,’ he gestures at Ellie’s scarlet tartan dungarees. ‘One look and it would scare them away.’

‘As would your hair,’ I say. ‘So please, go with her, just to keep me happy?’ I smile imploringly at him.

‘Oh, all right,’ Harry says with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘Me nose has stopped bleeding now, and I guess Stu’s in a worse state than me.’

‘Oi!’ Stu protests.

‘Come on you,’ Harry says to Ellie, ‘let’s go.’

So Ellie and Harry leave us alone in the kitchen.

‘Right, what do you know?’ Stu demands as soon as they go.

‘Hardly anything,’ I reply. ‘I just knew, as soon as you mentioned Jean-Claude Van Damme, that you couldn’t be from this era. No one knows about him yet, and they’re certainly not trying to emulate his kick-boxing moves.’

‘But who
are
you?’ Stu asks.

‘I’m Jo-Jo from 2013. I got hit by a car on a zebra crossing and found myself in 1963, then it happened again on the same zebra crossing and I found myself here in 1977.’

‘Whoah!’ Stu exclaims, looking impressed. ‘I’ve only ever been here in this decade, nowhere else. I’m really Stuart from 1985 and I used to be roadie for a band. I was backstage, helping out at this huge outdoor gig at Wembley, massive it was at the time, and someone asked me to plug this cable into an amp. Usually I’d always check everything myself, but I didn’t on this occasion because it wasn’t us setting up the equipment. There was a fault – and boom! Next thing I know I find myself here, acting out life as this damn boy who thinks he’s cool and hard cos he’s got a daft haircut.’

‘God, how awful! How long ago was that?’

Stu thinks. ‘About six months ago, I guess. Do you think that’s what I need to do, Jo-Jo, get electrified again, then I’ll go back? You used the same method to time travel twice, so maybe I need to.’

‘I don’t know about that.’ I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t advise someone to try electrocuting themselves. ‘I think mine was just a coincidence. Besides, you might just move on to another time zone, like me.’

‘True, but it’d be worth a shot – I bloody hate this life I’m in now.’

‘Then change it. Who says you have to continue being the anarchic punk, Stu? Be whatever it makes you happy to be.’

‘Ya think?’

‘Yes. You only get one life. Although in our case that’s not strictly true…’

Stu grins. ‘You know what, I might just do that. You’ve given me some hope, Jo-Jo. If I do change, maybe I’ll get to go back one day.’

‘Perhaps…’

‘You know that dude Harry works for in the record shop? He told me something similar once – about being who I needed to be. I remember thinking at the time he was babbling about nothing. But it’s got to be worth a shot.’ His grin fades now. ‘I’m so lonely living here, Jo-Jo. I miss my friends and family back in 1985 so much.’

I think of Walter Maxwell back at EMI House; that’s just what he said to me. All these lonely people living like this in the wrong time zone – it’s very sad. But as much as I want to return to 2013, to continue living my life and not someone else’s, it isn’t because I’m lonely here in 1977, or even that I was lonely in 1963. Quite the opposite, in fact. I’ve probably been more ‘social’ during the time I’ve been travelling than when I was at home. Back there I was always working and, even though I was in a busy office, I spent much of that time alone. But I miss the familiarity of my life; my family, and the few friends I have – however much I might have neglected them.

‘Well, it might help,’ I tell Stu, trying to sound positive. ‘Changing your ways for the better never does any harm.’ I hear my mother in my voice as I say this. My
real
mother, that is. Perhaps she did talk some sense on occasion.

‘Plasters,’ Harry says, throwing a box on the table as he and Ellie appear in the kitchen again. I was so deep in conversation with Stu I didn’t even hear the front door. Harry looks at Stu and I sitting close together at the table, Dettol and cotton wool untouched. ‘Everything OK?’ he asks steadily.

‘Yes,’ I nod. ‘Yes, everything is just fine. I think Stu and I are going to be good friends from now on. He’ll be a changed man, after this evening.’

‘Really?’ Harry says sceptically.

‘What ya do to him, Jo-Jo? Hypnotise him?’ Ellie asks with a wink. ‘Has that Rita been teaching you some of her weirdo ways?’

‘Something like that. I’ve just been passing on some of my knowledge, haven’t I, Stu?’

Stu nods.

‘They say miracles can happen,’ Harry announces. ‘Maybe we’re seeing one right here in front of us. Perhaps we just have to trust Jo-Jo.’ He puts his hand on my shoulder; it feels strong, and oddly comforting.

‘Anything is possible, Harry,’ I reply, looking up at him. ‘Sometimes you just have to believe in the unbelievable.’

‘I wish I’d never agreed to organise this street party,’ Penny moans as she stands over a long row of trestle tables, trying to sort out what’s going where and who’s going to be sitting next to who. Every now and then one of the team of neighbours who are helping out with the setting up comes over for further instruction from Penny, or to ask for her approval on whatever task they’ve just undertaken.

‘You’re doing a great job,’ I reassure her. ‘It takes a lot to be able to organise an event like this and motivate all these people successfully. The sort of skills you would need to run a successful business, in fact.’

Penny laughs as she rolls out a long paper tablecloth. ‘I hardly think organising a little street party for a few folk is the same as running a big business, now is it, Jo-Jo?’

‘You’d be surprised at what skills are required. There are organisational skills, and people skills, and this isn’t just a
little
street party. It’s a party for nearly a hundred people, with food and drink and entertainment.’

‘I only agreed to do it because that Maggie dropped out. What sort of an excuse is her dad passing on up in Manchester, and her havin’ to go to the funeral?’ Penny looks at me out of the corner of her eye. ‘All right, a pretty good one, I guess.’

‘It makes no difference how you came to be doing it. The fact is you
are
. And you’re doing it very well.’

Penny looks pleased at my praise. ‘I just hope Maggie doesn’t stay on up there once the funeral’s done with, and the will has been read. Otherwise we’ll lose another one.’

‘Another one?’

‘What do you want me to do with these things, Mrs Lane?’ Ellie asks, tottering towards us on massive knee-length red platform boots that match her red tartan waistcoat and skirt combination.

‘Ah, Ellie, I was wondering where the ribbon was,’ Penny says, taking three rolls of red, white and blue ribbon from her and rolling it out along the white cloth. ‘Now, if you and Jo-Jo can decorate the tables with it, that would be lovely. I want it to go in bands all along the tables like this.’ And she begins to demonstrate.

‘Mum, what did you mean, another one?’ I remind her.

‘Jo-Jo, do we have to discuss this now?’ she asks. ‘I’ve so much to do.’

‘Yes, Mum – Ellie and I have got this ribbon thing sewn up. Haven’t we, Ellie?’

Ellie ceases tying strips of the ribbon in her hair. ‘What? Yeah, we’ll do it, Mrs L, no worries.’

Penny looks doubtful. ‘Yes, Maggie is another one,’ she continues, as I catch hold of some of the red ribbon and begin cutting it with Ellie. ‘She’s another one like me who is desperately trying to hold on to their house against those sharks at the council who want to take everything from under our feet.’

‘So how many of you are there?’ I ask. ‘Like you and Maggie and Harry’s mum?’

‘Carol?’ Penny looks away from Ellie. ‘Does she want to stay as well?’

‘Apparently, according to Harry, but she’s on the verge of signing her house away too.’

‘My mam doesn’t want to go either, really,’ Ellie pipes up. ‘She said she’d much rather stay here where she knows everyone, than go somewhere with a load of strangers.’

‘Then we must stop them both from signing anything,’ Penny says urgently. ‘If there are more of us standing firm against this, the greater the power we have to stand up to the authorities.’

I’m impressed. ‘Where did you get that from?’ I ask. ‘Wait, let me guess: a magazine at the hairdresser’s?’

Penny smiles. ‘Probably, I don’t remember.’

‘Why don’t you form a syndicate, all of you in the street that don’t want to move on to these new flats. Like you said, there’s always strength in numbers.’

Penny thinks about this. ‘That’s not a bad idea. But how will it help? The council will just get their own way, they always do. Money always wins out in the end.’

‘Not always, you just need to show them it would be better for them if you all stayed on. At least think about it, Mum, please. I know you’re made for more than just the factory. This could lead to something.’

‘Yes, lead me into not having this lot ready for this afternoon if I allow you to keep distracting me and I don’t get a shift on! Now, all this fancy talk from you is good and fine, but what time is that band of yours getting here? And they better be good.’

Harry and Stu, in their new spirit of friendship, have started up their band again as they said they would, and I persuaded Penny to let them play this afternoon – her only stipulation being that they didn’t play any of their hard-core punk songs. This won’t be too difficult, because since the night of the cinema fight Stu really has changed. ‘Gone soft’ is what the other gang members are calling it. Stu is just calling it a ‘change of direction’ for himself and his music.

‘They are good, Mrs Lane,’ Ellie calls from down the table. ‘I’ve heard them. They’re no Bay City Rollers, mind, but they’ll do.’

‘Hi!’ I call happily, as Stu, Harry and the rest come trooping down the bunting-clad street carrying an assortment of guitars, amps and a drum kit.

‘Ya made it then?’ I ask as I lead them to the ‘stage’, an area of the street that’s been marked off with blackboard chalk, and they begin setting up their equipment.

‘Last-minute dress rehearsal,’ Stu says. ‘We want everything to go just right.’ He winks at me, and I wonder why.

‘Jo-Jo, can I have a quick word,’ Harry asks, taking my arm and leading me out of earshot of the others.

‘Sure, what’s up?’

‘We haven’t spoken that much since the night of the cinema and I just wanted to know if you’re angry with me because of what happened with Stu? I know, with your hippy peace stuff, you don’t like fighting.’

‘No, I don’t like physical violence in any form, but I’m not angry with you, Harry. Actually, I thought you might be a bit cross with me.’

‘Why?’

‘You seemed a bit… jealous, of me helping Stu out that night.’

‘I was a bit,’ Harry says, and his pale cheeks flush a little. He looks down at his boots, then he looks back up at me. ‘I was trying to tell you the other night: I really like you, Jo-Jo, you must know that by now?’

‘I kinda got that feeling.’

‘But every time I try and tell you, it just comes out wrong or we get interrupted or —’

‘Or what?’

It’s very odd, but as I have this very teenage conversation with Harry, I don’t see the sixteen-year-old punk with strange blue hair standing in front of me, but the man I’m sure he will become in the future. And I like that vision. I like it a lot.

Harry shakes his head. ‘Nothing. It can wait. But I’m not sure this can.’ His face leans in towards mine.

Boom!
 

‘What the hell was that?’ Harry asks, his face turning away just before our lips meet.

We both look in the direction the noise burst from.

‘Sounds like it came from where the band are setting up!’

Harry grabs my hand and we hurry back over to the stage area to find Stu trying to sit up from where he’s lying on the ground. He looks shocked and stunned.

‘What the hell happened?’ Harry asks, looking wildly at the others gawping at Stu on the ground.

‘Stu was just plugging his guitar into the amp and it exploded,’ one of the other boys replies. ‘It shot him right through the air! Bloody hell, Harry, he’s lucky he’s still alive!’

We all look down at Stu. His face is grey and he looks very pale.

‘But I checked all the equipment this morning,’ Harry says, shaking his head. He looks around him, baffled. ‘It was all fine then. How can this have happened?’ He looks down at Stu now. ‘I’m really sorry, mate.’

Stu pushes himself up on to his elbows. He looks up at Harry, then across at me. He looks like he’s about to cry.

God, he didn’t, did he? He didn’t try to electrocute himself in the hope he’d go back home?

But the look of desperation on Stu’s face tells me that’s exactly what he did.

‘You’re lucky to be alive, Stu,’ I say, crouching down next to him, ‘let alone still conscious. Have you unplugged the power supply?’ I ask the others, my first-aid training kicking into action. The last thing we want is for the current to still be running through Stu, and one of us to touch him.

‘The plug was yanked right out of the wall, the force was so great,’ one of the other boys says, his eyes wide with shock. ‘No chance of any power still coming through there, Jo-Jo.’

‘Good.’ I look at Stu more closely. ‘Are you OK?’ I ask him gently.

He nods resignedly.

‘Then I suggest you rest here for now. Perhaps we can get one of the neighbours to make you a cup of tea and get you a blanket. And I think we should probably call an ambulance too, just to be on the safe side.’

‘No, no ambulance,’ Stu says, speaking for the first time. ‘Sadly, I’ll be just fine.’

‘Jo-Jo, none of the equipment is working,’ Harry says, examining it. ‘The explosion must have blown more than just the fuses in the main amp. We can’t play like this, we’ll have to call it off.’

‘But you can’t!’

Penny has put so much into this event. I just can’t allow things to go wrong now as it might affect her future, and if good things don’t happen for Penny, I might not move on again – hopefully to my own time.

‘Hello, boys,’ Penny says, walking towards us carrying Bonnie. ‘How’s it all going? I just popped back to the house to get a few things and we heard this bloody loud bang. I hope everything’s OK?’

I look at the boys who have moved in front of Stu on the ground, and then back at Penny.

‘Yes, Mum,’ I reassure her, leading her and Bonnie away. ‘Everything is going to be just fine. Don’t you worry; I’ll make sure this event runs smoothly. Just as if my life depends on it.’