Entering the Weave

Josh opened his eyes to find a horse’s long face hovering inches above his own.

“I am Findhorn,” said the horse and stepped back.

Josh sat up. He was on a beach looking out over an endless archipelago. All the islands were wreathed in mist, but the sea and the sky were blissfully clear.

“We must hurry, Joshua. I do not know how much time you have here.” The horse’s voice was deep and melodic.

Josh twisted around to look at him. He was as massive as any draft horse, yet as sleek as a thoroughbred. Every strand of his gossamer silver mane hung immaculately against his powerful neck and his pearl-white coat shone so brightly that he seemed to glow from within, but Josh’s gaze was held by the tightly twisted golden horn that emerged from his forehead. He had never seen such a beautiful creature and yet, somehow, Findhorn was familiar.

“I’m Josh.” He said and stood up.

“I know. We’ve been expecting you.”

Josh looked around, hoping to see more fantastical creatures, but a wall of billowing mist rose abruptly perhaps ten yards inland and obscured everything beyond it. There was an eerie silence about this place that Josh hadn’t noticed when he had been looking out over the glistening sea.

“Where am I?”

“You are within yourself.” The unicorn started to walk towards the bank of mist and Josh, with a quick look back towards the sunny sea, trotted after him and into the mist.

It took a while for him to get accustomed to the dull grey light. He could see his feet and the ground they were walking on and he could make out the solid shape of Findhorn just in front of him, but the rest of the world was a grey mystery. Soon he started to see other shadows looming ahead. He pressed in closer to the unicorn’s flanks, as the dark figures began to surround them.

“Do not be afraid, Joshua. Nothing can harm you here.”

The ground had started to rise steeply and Josh found himself falling behind the unfaltering gait of Findhorn. He had to scramble forward using his hands to catch up and he began to feel his breath burning the back of his throat.

“Slow down!” He gasped.

“We can not. We must reach the top before you go.”

“Why?”

“To meet the Gellert.”

By now the grass under foot and hand had been replaced with rocks and sharp scree. Josh looked back and wondered how high they had climbed. His calves throbbed with effort, and still the unicorn plodded relentlessly onwards.

Then, just as Josh thought his he could take it no longer, they came to a clearing in the mist where the ground had levelled out. The unicorn stopped and Josh stumbled to the floor, heaving air into his raw lungs.

Two marble columns stood in the centre of the clearing, and atop one of them there squatted a tiny, grey skinned imp.

“So. You’ve decided to come at last. Good of you to finally join us. It’s not as if I had anything better to do. I’m just building an archway to the Vale for you. Why would you bother turning up? It’s not as if I’m real anyway.”

The goblin jumped down from his perch and stomped towards Josh with a grim look on his gnarly face. Josh backed away, alarmed.

“You’re very young for this. I hope he knows what he’s doing. I don’t like connecting up youngsters anymore. No respect. You don’t know who’s going to come in.”

“Who…? Who are you?”

The creature looked at him slyly. “Guess.”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, but you do. Think about it. Try to find the thought that doesn’t belong in there. That’s me!” A smile creased his face, which made him look more human.

A memory of a fairy tale popped unbidden into his mind. “Er… Rumplestiltskin?”

“Rumplestiltskin? Rumple-festering-stiltskin?” The goblin was livid, and any semblance of humanity drained out of him as he gnashed his pointed teeth and clenched his claws in front of his face. “He’s got a lot to answer for.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

“Then think boy. Think! Shut your eyes and look inside your mind.”

Josh closed his eyes rather reluctantly because he was unsure what the manic creature was going to do next. He found it very hard to concentrate with the goblin fidgeting and grinding his teeth in front of him and was about to open them again, when suddenly he saw a name glowing on the inside of his eyelids.

“Trunglepop?” He carefully read out loud.

“Well done, lad. Well done. Perhaps the old man does know what he’s doing after all. Pleased to meet you, Josh. You can call me Pops.”

Josh opened his eyes again to find the goblin looking more pleasant again.

“Now, lad. I need to make some adjustments to you so I can finish this archway. Bend over.”

He did as he was told and immediately felt the goblin’s claws tracing the outline of his head. Bizarrely he thought he could feel the bony tips beneath his scalp, piercing his skull and reaching into his mind. He shuddered and the feeling disappeared instantly.

“That’s strange…” Trunglepop muttered to himself.

“What?” Josh wanted to raise his head a little, but he didn’t want to annoy the goblin.

“Nothing. Nothing. Don’t worry. It seems that you’ve made a connection to Trinity Vale before.”

“What?” Josh did raise his head now and shook it, hoping the movement would make sense of what was being said.

“Look, this archway that I’m building for you will connect this island to the Vale. You understand that, yes? You’re not totally stupid?”

In his heart Josh knew that he should just be honest and admit his ignorance, but a misguided pride made him nod his head.

“Well, what I’m saying is that something similar has already been built here before. And you must have built it yourself, because I’m definitely the first Gellert to visit your island.” Trunglepop opened his arms wide as if that made everything perfectly clear. “Do you see?”

Josh smiled weakly. “This is a dream isn’t it?”

As if he had conjured it with those words a darkness fell, and he lost himself in the comfortable void of a dreamless sleep.

Josh woke up the next day to the sound of his alarm clock. He peeped out warily from beneath the covers at it wondering whether it would tell the time or try and communicate with him.

“7:30”

He stayed snuggled under his duvet until the time changed. Then heartened by the apparent return of normality sat up and surveyed his room for any new strangeness. The dim light of another drizzly morning was creeping through the crack in his curtains and this gave the room a rather gloomy aspect, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“Josh! Time to get up!” His dad called from downstairs.

“Yeah. I’m up.”

He swung himself out of bed, quickly wrapped himself in his dressing gown and pushed his feet into his slippers. The worst thing, he thought, about living in this old house, was that it was so cold. He shivered out of his bedroom with his arms folded tightly in front of him.

His dad was eating some toast and watching the news as Josh entered the kitchen.

“My goodness!” He exclaimed. “What’s this? I’ve only called you once. Are you well, son?”

“Ha ha.”

“Do you need a doctor? Or has your room exploded?”

“Yes. That’s exactly what happened.”

Just then Jackie came into the kitchen. She was ready for school, dressed as usual in an outfit which stretched the definition of school uniform to its very limits.

“Blimey, Josh what are you doing up? Not feeling well?”

“Not now I’ve seen you two comedians.”

“Ooh, bit touchy aren’t we?”

His dad chuckled and started watching the telly again.

Josh put some bread in the toaster and sat down at the table. On the TV Estella White was standing in front of a mob of protesters.

“…and the experts claim that this new reactor will provide more power than ten conventional power stations. But I think all responsible people have to ask themselves, ‘Is it worth it?’

“These people behind me believe that it certainly is not.” She pulled a remarkable looking person in front of the camera. He wore a black robe with a cowl, but the most striking features of the man were his ivory skin and blank white eyes. “This is Coel Amberglass. And he believes that the Earth has had enough. He says it will not stand for any more pollution of its air, any more desecration of its land or any more fouling of its oceans. The Earth, he believes is about to fight back. Isn’t that right Coel?”

“Well not exac…”

“So what signs have you seen that make you think all these things?”

“It’s very complicated really.”

“Well in layman’s terms then…” Estella rolled her eyes at the camera, making it quite clear that she thought Coel Amberglass was a fruitcake with far more than his fair share of nuts and raisins.

“Well, firstly it’s important to realise that it is not the physical entity of the Earth that we are talking about, but the spiritual essence of everything that is on and indeed in the Earth. This essence we call Gaia.” Coel seemed to grow on the screen as he warmed to his subject. Estella on the other hand had started to look a little perturbed.

“Everything is connected”, Coel continued, “from the smallest microbe to the mightiest tree, and it’s not just what you consider to be living organisms that are involved in this beautiful union of the planet. No, it is also the seas and the mountains and the clouds. Look around you, people of Earth, and see what wonder you live amongst.”

There was a hearty cheer from the crowd behind him and they began to chant his name. As he finished his speech Estella put her hand to her ear and listened intently. Obviously her producer was getting a little panicky about this new age nonsense being broadcast to millions of breakfast viewers.

“Well thank you very much Mr Amberglass, that’s very interesting. This is Estella White for the BBC news at Sellafield.”

“Well that was different.” Joshua’s dad said. “You don’t often see old Estella upstaged in an interview.”

“He was crazy.” Jackie giggled, dropping her breakfast dishes into the sink.

“I thought it was nice idea.” Josh said wonderingly. “Us all being connected.”

“You would, but I’m not connected to you.” Then she added with mock seriousness. “Am I really related to him, Dad? You’re sure you didn’t find him abandoned in the zoo?”

Josh ignored her. “Dad, have you heard of Gaia before?”

“Hmmm? Yes I think so. The Greek goddess of the Earth or something. I’m sure she was quite big in the sixties. Why?”

“Nothing really. That’s the second time I’ve heard someone mention it, that’s all. Although thinking about it, it does seem to be a favoured topic amongst the loony brigade.”

“Where’s my umbrella?” Jackie’s was standing by the back door. Her good humour had vanished and she stared accusingly at Josh.

“Don’t look at me!” He protested sharply and felt his cheeks redden.

“I left it here yesterday.” She pointed behind the door. “I’m sure I did.”

“What would I want with a pink umbrella?”

“I don’t know. You’re the freak. You tell me.”

“Calm down, Jackie, it’s only an umbrella. Just take one of mine.

Jackie turned her venom on her father. “Yeah, right. Like that’ll work. I’ll just do without.”

She left.

It is normally very difficult to remain inconspicuous on an early morning commuter train when you are wearing black druid’s robes and carrying a six foot staff, but Coel did not want to be bothered. So he used a tiny fraction of his eldritch power to divert the other passengers’ questioning stares and to rebuff any outright belligerence.

It is quite another matter however, even for a magician as powerful as Coel, to conjure up somewhere to sit. Eventually, however, he allowed a young student to notice him and he nudged the golden strands of her mind. She stared at him for a second and then without knowing why stood up and asked him if he wanted to take the weight off his feet. Coel faked a feeble nod and squeezed into the relative comfort of the seat. The student wandered away feeling confused.

After setting some simple distraction Wards around him, Coel settled down to meditate.

Being blind had never been a hindrance to Coel, as his other senses allowed him to see much more than mere colour and shadow. He could see thought and feelings, anger and tenderness and they in turn glimmered and reflected off the physical world which enabled him to see the finest details. To him the carriage was a burning nebula of thought. The passengers shone out like broiling new stars, illuminating everything as clearly as the sunshine lights a summer’s day.

For a moment, he allowed his own consciousness to mingle with the weave of thought, wallowing in the swirling chaos, but before he got too deep, he extricated himself and shot free of the carriage into the mind of a passing crow. Riding the hot currents of air generated by the train’s engine, he soared high above the countryside, and soared southwards to West Hackett.

Joshua met his best friend at the bus stop outside the school. Toby’s black plastic glasses and wildly unruly hair gave him the mad scientist look, which he cultivated with relish. Instead of a sports bag or a rucksack he used a brown leather briefcase for his schoolbooks. Josh and Toby had been best friends for as long as they had been Christopher Crumb’s favourite victims.

“Joshuar-ar-ar! How does the day treat you?” Joshua grimaced at the greeting, knowing how utterly ridiculous it sounded. Any bully within a hundred yards would automatically zero in on his friend.

“Hi Tobes. Fine. You?”

“Most excellent. Did you happen to see that Coel Amberglass this morning railing against the modern world? What a magnificent madman. Gives us all hope, eh?”

“Yeah. I did. Have you heard about Gaia before?”

“Nope, load of old twaddle if you ask me.”

They set off for registration and Josh told him about his meeting with the tramp.

“Wow. Cool as cucumbers. Where do they find these people. ” He paused for a second, suddenly looking intense. “What did you say his name was?”

“Erm... I can’t remember. Trevor something. Oakenshield? Maybe.”

“Trevor Oakhampton?”

“Yes. That’s it. How did you know that?”

“I know everything.” He boomed, startling some first years.

Josh waited patiently for Toby to elaborate.

“He’s Sir Trevor Oakhampton. The Chairman of Tech-Tonic. The guy your dad thinks is ruining the computer software business!”

Josh shook his head, bewildered. “Is he?”

“He disappeared three weeks ago. Everyone thinks he’s been kidnapped. It’s quite a mystery. Surely your dad mentioned it.”

“Well, no. You know how busy he is. He forgets things like that…” Josh mumbled.

“You know you should tell someone.”

“And what should I tell them Toby? That a tramp came to see me, spouting nonsense and looking as though he’s been sleeping in a dustbin for the past several years and because of this I actually think he’s the missing chairman of a multinational company, eh? Do you know the phone number of the F.B.I.? I need to make a call.”

“Come with me, Mr Sarcastic.” Toby said narrowing his eyes. “I want to show you something.”

Coel’s crow was preening itself on the top of a lamppost. The bird’s panoramic vision and sharp, restless twitching had been disorientating at first, but during the swift flight south from the train he had got used to his new host, and was now peering out from behind the crow’s dark eyes over the busy high street that bustled by below.

A heavy, surly-looking boy emerged from the doorway of a newsagent’s, looked up and down the street and fumbled a cigarette into his mouth. He lit it quickly and then, as if the burning cigarette gave him confidence, he swaggered off, puffing away like a train. Coel nudged the crow from its perch and followed, swooping from lamppost to lamppost.

The boy pushed deliberately through a group of younger children, who were laughing about something Coel could not see. A small girl fell back and scraped her knee. A cry and inevitable tears followed. One of the other girls span around angrily.

“What did you do that for?” But she quailed when she saw who it was.

“She was in my way. Have you got a problem with that?” Coel saw the girl’s reckless courage crumble beneath the leering stare of the bully. “Do you want me to do it to you?”

“No.” She said so quietly that the crow barely heard the word, but the fear in the tiny syllable was too much for Coel to bear. He surged out of the crow’s simple mind and delved deep into the tight frustration of the bully’s more complex thoughts.

The boy froze, his body suddenly held in a rigid spasm, as Coel subdued his will. Then, a smile lurched uncomfortably across his face.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

The ring of children backed away, suspicious of a trick. Coel pulled some more ethereal strings and the bully spoke again. “Don’t be afraid of me. I’m just a big, fat idiot. Please feel free to punch me in the face. I deserve it.”

“No, it’s all right. We don’t want to.” The girl who had faced him before could not keep a sneer off her lips. “You’re just not worth it.”

Then, they turned and left Coel alone with Christopher Crumb.

“Well, well, well.” He directed his voice inwards, at the cowering consciousness that normally controlled this body.

“Who are you? What’s going on?”

“I have been watching you Christopher.” Coel intoned. “And this is the first and final warning that I shall give you.”

“I haven’t done nothing.”

“Silence! You know what you have done. Hurting and frightening those weaker than yourself. This is not the way to behave. You should use your strength to help these people. Not harm them.” Coel allowed his voice to ring dramatically around the hollow confines of the boy’s mind.

“I…I will.”

“This is not a promise to be taken lightly, Christopher. Not something that you can forget about. I will be watching you for the rest of your life. And if you do not do the right things, I will punish you.”

“I’ll do things right. I’ll…I’ll be good.”

“You will start by giving Joshua Bennett his phone back, and you will apologise.”

“Yes. Anything. Please. Let me go.”

Coel knew that this fright would not stay with the boy for very long, but it would serve its purpose. Josh would get his phone back, and a few other kids would be safe for a while. He seeped away allowing Crumb the use of his body again.

A curious crowd had formed around him and he sagged, as if invisible puppet strings had been suspending his body and limbs.

“We’ve called an ambulance. It should be here any minute.” A little old lady patted him on the arm. “You seem to have taken quite a turn.”

“I need to go to school.”

“Ah. Isn’t he keen?” The old lady smiled. “I’m sure your teachers will understand, dear.”

“I’m not bothered about the teachers.” He said gruffly and then looked frightened. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled and lumbered off.

Josh and Toby crept into the deserted IT room. Josh felt the familiar fear and excitement of disobedience rising as they sat down at one of the computers.

Toby switched it on and his hands, sure as ever, entered the relevant passwords until he had full access to all the school services and the Internet. After a few more seconds a newspaper’s web page appeared with a headline reading, “Mystery Disappearance of Tech-Tonic Boss.” Below the text a black and white picture of a well dressed man stared arrogantly out from the screen. Josh’s eyes widened.

“That’s him. That’s the tramp.”

Toby sat back. “Are you going to call the police now?”

“Hardly.” Josh snorted. “It must be some sort…”

An electrical buzz startled them. Turning round they saw all the other screens in the room coming to life, but instead of the normal log on screens, static fizzed and Josh saw his familiar symbols swirling within the dancing chaos.

“That’s strange. Monitors shouldn’t display static.”

“It’s not just static.” Josh said, but his voice faltered as a face began to form on all the screens.

It appeared to be deep within the screens, like someone looking up under water, and its mouth was open impossibly wide in the rictus of a scream. Almost beyond the range of hearing a high shrieking noise began, becoming lower and louder all the time. The shriek became a wail and within seconds the room was ringing with the sound.

“What’s going on?” Toby yelled.

“I don’t know.” Josh hadn’t yet told Toby about the strange face he had seen in his dad’s study, but he knew that this eerie scream was Geigerzalion’s. Knowing who made the scream gave the noise anguish and Josh wanted to run away from it. His hands rose to cover his ears.

“What on Earth is going on in here?” Mr Haslem burst through the door and in that instant, all the screens flicked off and silence fell like a hammer in the room.

Toby had often voiced the opinion that Mr Haslem was far too old to teach computer science. His antiquated security systems were enough to keep most students from accessing protected content, but Toby was not an average student, especially where computers were concerned. He said that he knew more modern hacking techniques than Mr Haslem had used hair replacement treatments.

“Should I rephrase that? What was going on here? One of your clever experiments, Hawkins?”

Toby’s mouth was open, and Josh realised with vague surprise that he was speechless.

“We didn’t do anything.” Josh said. He noticed that Toby still had the peace of mind to close the browser. He wouldn’t have left any sign that he had been online.

“Really. I find Hawkins sitting in front of one of my computers, which at this time of the morning is off limits, and a noise enough to wake the dead coming from this room. And you expect me to believe that you haven’t done anything.”

“We really didn’t Mr Haslem. We haven’t been on the Internet or anything. I just wanted to show Josh a new z-buffer algorithm I’ve written for my graphics engine.” Toby had regained his composure, but Mr Haslem smiled smoothly.

“So Mr Bennett, what did you think of it?”

“What?” Josh said, with rather less assurance than Toby had shown.

“What did you think of Mr Hawkins’ algorithm.”

“Er… well I didn’t really understand it…”

“I’m sure you didn’t. Could I have a look?”

Josh’s heart sank, but Toby had surreptitiously been pressing keys and an elegant teapot span slowly on the screen. Josh assumed that it had something to do with this z-buffy algorithm.

Toby replaced the spinning teapot with lines and lines of scrolling code. He stopped it somewhere and started to explain his program, but Mr Haslem had lost interest.

“Get to registration, now.” He growled and escorted the boys out of the room.

“What was all that about? Did you see that face on those screens? And those symbols? They were like the one’s in your secret language, weren’t they?” Toby started talking six to the dozen as soon as they were out of earshot of Mr Haslem. “I don’t understand how those screens switched themselves on. I mean monitors don’t display random static like televisions; they work on a digital signal, not analogue. And that face…”

“Something else weird happened last night, Tobe.”

“…was it really screaming? Was it a real…what did you say?”

“Something else strange happened last night.”

“Something stranger than the tramp who is really a top business man telling you that the Earth is trying to talk to you?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Well after the tramp had gone I was going to feed the cat, but I couldn’t find him and the door to my dad’s study was open.”

“Your dad’s study was open? You’re joking. Why didn’t you ring me?” If anyone else had said this Joshua would have known they were trying to be funny, but Toby had wanted to see inside the room ever since he had first set eyes on the keypad next to the door. He had even admitted to Josh that he had once tried to hack into his dad’s computers, although he remained silent about whether he had succeeded or not. Josh thought that this silence meant that Toby had failed; as his friend was not usually shy when it came to showing off.

“Yes, it was open, but let’s concentrate on the real issue here.” Josh said in a phoney American accent. “So I went in. And there are loads of computers in there. Rows and rows of them, but there was one on its own like the screens in the IT room, only clearer. And it didn’t make any noise. But the symbols were there.”

“But I thought you’d made them up.”

“I did! I’m sure I did.”

Toby pursed his lips for a second, and scratched his ear. “Perhaps your dad has been brainwashing you. Maybe he’s been playing some sort of subliminal messages to you when you’re sleeping. This is the first step of his plan for world domination.”

Josh choked back a laugh. “World domination? My dad? Do you really think so?”

“Could be.” Toby said with a straight face.

“I don’t think so. He can barely control Jackie. And anyway, whatever it is has been trying to communicate with my dad for ages, but they don’t understand the symbols. He’s called Geigerzalion and he’s a prisoner. He asked me to tell my dad that I had spoken to him.”

“And…?”

“Well, I can’t tell my dad. He’d kill me if he knew I’d been in his study. You know what he’s like about that.”

“That’s exactly the way an evil megalomaniac would behave if you’d found his secret lair.”

“What? Yeah, but…”

“Come on, Josh. Seriously, if you were locked up somewhere, and you managed to get a message to someone, wouldn’t you want them to help you?”

“Of course.” He thought about it for a moment. “Yeah. You’re right.”

After they had been to registration, they were walking through the science block to their first lesson when they were brought to a stop by a heavy hand on their shoulders.

“Hello Bennett.” Crumb’s voice laced through them like ice. Josh stood stock still waiting for something awful to happen.

“Do you want your phone back?”

Josh stiffened and felt yesterday’s anger rising once more. He had forgotten about his phone with all the other things that had happened. “Yeah, but you’re not going to give it back are you?” Josh’s voice carried a note of involuntary insolence that would normally be followed by swift violence and he winced in anticipation. But nothing like that happened. Instead Crumb just pushed his phone back into Josh’s hand, mumbled, “I’m sorry”, and hurried away.

“Well I never did in my life.” Toby said. “Forget everything else that’s happened to you, that is just beyond amazing. Has he broken it?”

Josh stared at his phone in disbelief. He had never known Crumb to do anything like this and so he was wondering what nasty surprise was in store for him when he put the phone to his ear. He clicked through his address book and nothing seemed to have been ‘hilariously’ changed.

“It’s fine, I think.”

“I thought you were going to get a right pasting when you told him he wasn’t going to give it back to you.”

“I know. It just came out, but if I didn’t know better I’d say he was scared. Do you think someone’s said something to him?”

“Possibly.” Toby looked doubtful. “But who would he take any notice of? I mean I didn’t get the impression at parents’ evening that his mum and dad are bothered that he’s the school bully. They’re probably proud of him. Well done son. Top of the class in bashing and stealing pocket money. Here, have another beer.”

Josh laughed ruefully. “Yeah, you’re right. Who could tell him to be nice?”

“Maybe he’s just realised that he should be scared of me!” Toby flexed his nonexistent muscles.

“Hmmm.”

The morning passed as most mornings had before. To Josh one teacher spoke at them regarding Boyle’s law of something or other and another one gave a fascinating account of the life of Ernest Hemingway, while to Toby one teacher trivialised the work of one of Ireland’s greatest scientists down to a single formula and another droned on and on about an American who wrote a book.

No matter how interested or bored each one was with a lesson they took every opportunity to chatter about the strange things that had happened to Josh the previous day. It seemed incredible that so many odd things had happened when normally the most exciting thing that happened to either of them was getting a peculiarly large chip from the school canteen.

At lunchtime they had secreted themselves behind one of the cricket screens. This wasn’t technically out of bounds, and it was far enough away from the thriving social machine that was the school dinner hour to give them the privacy they required.

They leaned against the screen idly flicking stones at each other. “Why do you think Crumb gave you your phone back?” Toby asked for the hundredth time. “I mean he hasn’t done anything to it, it doesn’t seem to be a trick, he didn’t even try to sell it back to you. If I didn’t know better and he hadn’t stolen it in the first place, I’d have to say that Mr Crumb fancies you Josh.”

“Shut up, you morphodite.” Josh paused. “It is weird, though and I still think he was scared. There was something in the way he asked me if I wanted the phone back, he just wasn’t himself.”

A noise behind the screen made them jump and Josh’s heart leapt into his mouth. If Crumb had heard them talking about him like this, they were as good as dead. He breathed a sigh of relief as he realised it was Kat clambering around the screen.

“Hello nerds. How’s it hanging?”

“Hi Kat. What’re you up to?” Josh asked.

“Hello Katrina. How does the day treat you?”

“Fine.” Kat flashed a smile at Toby from behind her makeup. “What have you done to upset Crumb?”

“Us? Nothing, although he did give me my phone back this morning. Why?”

“He’s in such a bad mood. His head looks as though it’s about to explode, but he seems to be trying to be nice to everyone. It’s scary.” She laughed. “Even Lee and Carl are flinching every time he looks at them. Are you sure you haven’t upset him?”

“Are you mad? We wouldn’t deliberately annoy him. Oh, I hope we don’t see him this afternoon. If he’s in such a bad mood with everyone else, he’ll be saving the worst for us.” Toby grimaced.

“I think he’s scared.” Josh said.

“Scared?” Kat snorted. “What’s he scared of? Most of the teachers don’t want to cross him, and you know what he did to Malcolm last week.”

“Oh yeah, that was awful.” Josh agreed.

“I can’t bare to even look at the poor chap any more. It makes my eyes water.” Toby gulped comically and the other two laughed, but he hadn’t been making a joke.

Josh and Toby did manage to avoid Crumb for the rest of the afternoon, but Josh knew that there was still a chance that he would be ambushed on the way home. He was thinking about this while he queued for the bus.

“Where are you going, son?”

“Oh sorry. Erm…West Hackett please.” Josh eyed the lower deck of the bus for Crumb. He wasn’t there.

The driver keyed a few buttons on his ticket machine and it chattered out his ticket. Josh took it and started to walk along the aisle.

The ticket machine whirred again and another ticket emerged. Then it happened again. The driver bashed the top of the machine with the impressive understanding that most adults show for electronic equipment. Another ticket came out.

Josh turned over the ticket in his hand and saw that instead of the normal blurred writing showing the fare price and what stop he was getting off at, there was just one large word printed there: “HELP”.

The ticket machine was now spitting out more tickets and some had fluttered to the floor. With an embarrassed panic he saw one with his name on. He darted forward to pick them up, but he wasn’t quick enough.

“Look one of them says Josh!” Fiona Broomhead squealed.

Josh was trying to pick them up, but more were shooting out of the ticket machine all the time. Soon the floor was completely covered with the orange and yellow rectangles. Other students had managed to pick up some of the tickets and they were balling them up and hurling them at each other. In moments the bus had descended into complete chaos.

“What on Earth is going on here!” Mr Haslem roared as he stamped onto the bus. “You will all remember that while you wear your uniform you are still representing your school.” The bus quietened and people shuffled back to their seats. Mr Haslem’s eye came to rest on Joshua. “Ah. Mr Bennett. Causing more trouble are we? Where is your partner in crime?”

“Sorry?”

“Mr Hawkins. I assume he is behind this.”

“His mum picked him up. He’s gone to the dentist’s.”

“Right. Come with me then.”

“But…”

“No buts, Mr Bennett. This is the second time today that I’ve caught you up to no good. You’re going to see the headmaster.”

Josh stuffed the tickets he had collected into his pockets and picked up his school bag. Fiona giggled at him as he trudged off the bus.

He couldn’t believe how unfair everything was. How could he be blamed for the ticket machine going mad? Mr Haslem was droning on about how Josh had been given a brain and it was about time he started using it and how he didn’t realise how lucky he was. Josh barely heard him. He was trying to work out what the tickets had been spelling out.

There were three seats positioned in a line outside the headmaster’s office and Josh was horrified to see one of them was already occupied by the huge bulk of Christopher Crumb.

“Wait there.” Mr Haslem indicated the seat next to Crumb and entered the office, leaving Josh alone with his worst enemy. He sat as far away from the bully as he could without disobeying Mr Haslem. Every time Crumb moved or breathed heavily Josh flinched, half expecting a football-sized fist to crunch into him.

It was only a few minutes before Mr Haslem returned, but Josh did not think he could have waited any longer.

“Mr Ireland will see you in a few minutes, Mr Bennett. Until then wait here.” Mr Haslem turned on his heel and walked off, apparently oblivious of the mortal danger to which he was exposing Josh.

“What are you here for?” Crumb’s voice was surprisingly quiet, but it still made him jump.

He turned to look at Crumb directly for the first time and thought that Crumb looked as scared as he was. Sweat was beading on his forehead and he leant back from Josh as if he didn’t want to be too close to him.

“Haslem thinks I was messing about on the bus. You?” Josh said quickly. If he could keep him talking until Mr Ireland called him in perhaps he would survive.

“Nothing. People just snitch on me.”

“Yeah.” Josh nodded as if in agreement.

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Then the headmaster’s door opened and Mr Ireland ushered Crumb inside. Josh sat there relieved, but puzzled about Crumb’s almost friendly attitude towards him.

He pulled the tickets out of his pocket and stared at them like a pack of cards. He had managed to get a lot of them off the floor before Mr Haslem had dragged him off the bus. There was a single word printed on each ticket, and it wasn’t too hard to work out what order they were meant to be in. He placed them out on the chair next to him.

“HELP ME JOSH TELL YOUR FATHER” The words were all repeated three or four times, so it didn’t matter that he had not managed to pick up all of the tickets. Josh idly wondered what anyone on the bus would make of them.

He heard the door to the office opening and quickly gathered the tickets up before Crumb came out.

“What are they?”

“Nothing.” Josh said instinctively expecting Crumb to try to steal them.

“Oh. Ireland wants you to go in.”

“Right.” Josh stood up.

“Josh? Tell him I… I’ve been nice to you.” Josh looked up into Crumb’s face. It looked as though he was trying hard not to cry. “Please?”

“Who? Ireland?”

“No. You know who.” Crumb narrowed his eyes at Josh. “You know.”

Josh could do nothing but stare back blankly, hoping that Crumb wouldn’t think he was trying to wind him up.

“Bennett. Come in here. I want to go home at some point tonight.” Mr Ireland’s voice called out and Josh turned with a start and went into the headmaster’s office.

Mr Ireland was not really interested in telling Josh off or in Josh’s protestations of innocence. He was an experienced headmaster who had seen petty rivalries between his staff and particularly bright or obnoxious pupils many times before. This did not mean that Josh was not punished however and he left Mr Ireland’s office with the extra burden of having to write an essay on how the invention of the ticket machine had helped to shape the modern world.

Josh was now too late to catch a school bus and it took him nearly an hour to walk back to West Hackett. Nothing horrible happened and he found that the cold night air had made him feel a little better.

“Hello?” He called as he opened his front door.

“Hi Josh. You’re late. Everything all right.” His dad was cooking something smelly.

“Yeah. I walked home.”

“Why?” His dad stopped stirring. A worried look scurried over his brow. “I left you enough money this morning didn’t I?”

“Yeah. I just needed to think, that’s all.”

“Oh, sounds serious. What about? Anything you can tell your old dad? Or is it girl troubles?” His dad laughed.

“It’s not girls.”

“Thank goodness for that. You are alright, aren’t you Josh?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Dad…”

“Yes?”

He jumped right in. “Who’s Geigerzalion?”

“Have you been in my study?” His dad’s mood snapped from amiable concern to suspicion.

“No, no. Of course not. How could I?”

“Then how do you know about Geigerzalion?”

Josh thought quickly. He couldn’t tell his dad about the meeting in the study now that he had started lying, but he could tell him about the scream in the computer science room. So he did and his dad listened intently.

“So he screamed his name?”

“No. It was just a scream.”

“So how do you know he is called Geigerzalion? It’s taken us nearly a year to get even that information.”

“There were some symbols surrounding the face. I…”

“You understood them?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

His dad turned the cooker off and grabbed his coat, which was hanging by the back door. “I’ve got to go out for a while Josh. There’s a curry if you want one.”

Josh watched him leave and then scraped the green, smelly mush out of the wok straight into the bin.

He made himself a sandwich and went to read a book in his favourite room with the wardrobe. He wanted to be as far away from any technology that could inadvertently communicate with him.

He had gone to bed before his dad came home.