Chapter 2. Short Circuit
Both Ryan and Tracey slept well that night, and no Andy appeared to disturb their rest. They had a quick discussion before breakfast but even Tracey had run out of ideas.
‘We’ll just have to wait and see what happens,’ she repeated firmly.
Ryan went back to his bedroom after breakfast and pulled out his electronics set. It was a wonderful set that his parents had given him for his birthday. Rows of interesting plugs and switches lay invitingly in front of him. Ryan flipped through the booklet of projects and tried to get interested in constructing a laser gun, but after a few half-hearted attempts he gave up.
‘It’s no fun on my own. Andy had heaps of ideas,’ he muttered. ‘I wonder what will happen if he never turns up again? Everyone will think that he’s been murdered. They'll probably make me suspect number one because I’m the last one who saw him. They’d never believe what really happened. I wonder what it’s like being in jail? I’ll bet the food is really horrible. They’ll probably make me eat beans and cabbage and stuff like that.’
His mother interrupted these gloomy thoughts.
‘Ryan, don’t you ever listen? I’ve called you at least three times. Andy’s here to play with you.’
‘What?’
‘I said Andy’s here…Ryan you’re not even properly dressed yet. Ryan!’
Ryan raced out the front door, hastily pulling on a T-shirt, to find Andy in the front hall talking to Tracey’s reflection in the mirror.
‘Oh, good. You’re here,’ he said thankfully. ‘I don’t know what to say to her. I know she gets bored staying in the mirror all the time but she’s so nosy, she wants to know everything.’
‘Where have you been?’ cried Ryan. ‘Are you okay? We’ve been so worried about you.’
‘Yeah, whatever,’ said Andy. ‘You know it must be really hard for her in the mirror...’
‘Did it wear off at midnight?’
‘Did what wear off?’
‘The magic. Did it wear off at midnight?’
‘What magic? Oh, you mean the spoon thing. Nah.’
‘What happened,’ exploded Ryan. ‘Did you go in a real rocket ship? What was it like? What did you see?’
Andy rolled his eyes. ‘You’re worse than that girl in the mirror,’ he said. ‘All these questions.’ Tracey’s reflection was leaning towards him, beaming excitedly.
‘Let’s go up to the tree hut,’ he suggested, ‘and I’ll tell you what happened.’
They climbed the rather crooked wooden rungs nailed to the jacaranda tree and sat on the wooden platform, dangling their legs down among the green leafy branches below.
‘I am going to go insane if you don’t tell me what happened soon,’ said Ryan. ‘So give.’
‘Okay,’ sighed Andy. ‘It wasn’t any big deal, though. It wasn’t exciting at all.’
‘Didn’t you end up in a rocket after all? You really freaked me and Tracey out when you vanished like that.’
‘Did I vanish?’ Andy looked pleased. ‘Well, yes, I suppose you could call it a rocket. Of a sort.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It was that rocket slide in the park on the other side of town. Suddenly there I was, sitting at the top. There were heaps of little kids there and I felt really stupid sliding down there. One of the girls was Stephanie who lives next door to us. She’s friends with my sister, Joanne, and I’m sure she’s going to tell her. I’ll never be able to live it down,’ concluded Andy.
Ryan’s face fell. ‘I thought you would have had a neat time.’
‘Well I didn’t. One of the mothers told me off for pushing in with the little kids. She said I was far too big to be up there and it was disgraceful. It was really embarrassing. I tried to use the spoon to wish me home again and I’m sure Stephanie saw that. I had to tell her I was pretending and it was a game. I’m going to be the laughing stock of the school if it ever gets out. But the spoon didn’t work, so then I had to walk home after all and it took ages and I was late for tea.’
‘Why didn’t you ring us up and tell us you were safe?’
‘For goodness sake! You sound like my mother! She was all over me because you’d said I was staying at your place so she thought we must have had a fight when I turned up home again. And I even got up early and came round here first thing this morning.’
‘You still could have rung,’ muttered Ryan. ‘Tracey and I were really worried. I’d better let her know you’re okay.’
‘Her reflection will have told her. She sees everything that goes on, hanging by the front door like that. It’s a bit freaky.’
‘Oh, she hides if it’s Mum or Dad or someone she doesn’t know,’ said Ryan. ‘But what about the spoon? Have you still got it?’
‘Yeah, it’s in my jeans.’ Andy reached into his back pocket as he spoke. ‘I reckon it’s like that pen you had and it only works once for each person,’ he said. ‘I’ve tried wishing again but nothing happened. He tried his side pocket. ‘I can’t find it. I was sure I put it in my pocket,’ he muttered.
Ryan looked down in annoyance as Tracey started climbing up the tree.
‘Don’t give the spoon to her,’ he hissed. ‘I want the next wish.’
‘Yeah,’ said Andy, looking worried. He started patting his shirt pockets and looking around the tree house platform.
‘I’ve been talking to Yecart and she told me Andy was here,’ she said breathlessly.
Andy and Ryan looked at her blankly. ‘Who is Yecart?’ they asked together.
‘My reflection, of course, said Tracey. ‘She does have a name, you know. Or at least you would if you actually bothered talking to her.’
‘I talk to her,’ said Ryan defensively.
‘Me too,’ agreed Andy. ‘I can’t not talk to her. She keeps asking me stuff. And what sort of a name is Yecart. ’
‘It’s ‘Tracey’ backwards. That’s how she writes it in the mirror. She is my reflection, you know. Oh, there’s the spoon. I’ll take that.’ Tracey leaned across and picked up the spoon, which was wedged against a branch in a corner of the platform.
‘It must have fallen out of my pocket,’ Andy exclaimed. ‘I was going to give it to Ryan.’
‘Without asking me first? It’s my spoon after all. I think I should be the one who makes wishes with my own spoon. It was my birthday present after all.’
‘It doesn’t seem to make very good wishes and it probably won’t work for you again anyway,’ said Ryan sulkily.
‘How do you mean?’
Andy explained about the rocket slide, and that he was only able to use the spoon to make a wish once, as Tracey scowled in annoyance. At that moment Mrs Hughes called from the doorway.
‘Phone for you, Tracey. It’s Amber.’ She frowned as Tracey walked into the house holding the spoon. ‘I’ve told you not to take cutlery outside. Your father mowed up a fork last week and ruined it. It nearly broke the mower blade as well.’ She plucked the spoon from Tracey’s hand and turned towards the kitchen.
‘I need that, Mum,’ said Tracey indignantly, but her mother took no notice and tossed the spoon into the dishwasher. Tracey gave her an indignant look but grabbed the telephone and started chatting to Amber.
‘Is there any cake, Mum?’ Ryan asked hopefully, as he and Andy came into the kitchen.
‘Get that spoon back for me,’ hissed Tracey, covering the receiver with her hand and nodding towards the dishwasher. ‘Sorry, Amber. I was just telling my brother something.’
Ryan sighed. ‘Why do I have to do everything?’ he grumbled. ‘Just because I’m younger than she is, she thinks she can boss me around whenever she wants to. Are all sisters like that?’
‘Mine’s worse,’ said Andy gloomily. ‘She’s always telling Mum it’s my fault whenever anything happens. And if I try and tell her off or hit her or anything she screams the place down. I’m the one who gets into trouble then.’
‘We’d better make sure the spoon is safe. Hey, Mum, what did yo
u do with the spoon you took off Tracey?’
‘It’s in the dishwasher,’ replied his mother absently. ‘No, don’t touch it. I’ve just this minute put it onto wash and the cycle takes forty-five minutes. Why do you want that spoon anyway? There are plenty more in the drawer. And leave that cake alone. You can’t possibly be hungry. You had breakfast less than an hour ago.’
‘The spoon’s for a game,’ mumbled Ryan. ‘And I am hungry. I’m starving. We both are.’
‘Have a banana or an apple then. That should keep you going for half an hour. And I don’t want you taking things from my kitchen outside,’ added Mrs Hughes indignantly. ‘Why can’t you pretend, instead?’
‘Pretend? Honestly!’ Ryan exploded, as he and Andy took two bananas and three apples each down to his bedroom. Ryan pulled out the electronics set. ‘She thinks we’re playing tea parties. You’d think I was four years old, not eleven!’
Andy made sympathetic noises though a banana as he rummaged through the box, making a heap of switches and coils of wire.
‘Why don’t we make a Geiger counter?’ he suggested.
‘What are Geigers and what do we want to count them for?’ asked Ryan absently as he ruffled through the project manual.
‘A Geiger counter finds metal stuff in the grass and under the ground,’ explained Andy. ‘It beeps when it finds things like metal bars.’
‘You mean we could look for buried treasure?’ Ryan asked joyfully, paying attention at last.
‘Yeah. My cousin had a friend who had one and they found all sorts of stuff.’
‘Cool. Let’s do it,’ agreed Ryan happily and the two boys worked contentedly together snipping wires and connecting them to make circuits. They were interrupted briefly by Tracey demanding her spoon.
‘It’s in the dishwasher,’ Ryan informed her. ‘Chuck us that transformer, Andy. Thanks. Mum put it there before I could get it,’ he pointed out when Tracey’s face grew grim.
‘I’ll get it out again, then,’ she muttered and soon reappeared with a handful of teaspoons. ‘They were all in there,’ she said in disgust.
‘How do we know which one is magic?’
‘Make a wish,’ said Andy helpfully as he wired a light to a loop of cable. Tracey scowled at him and stamped back to her bedroom.
‘Lunchtime,’ called Mrs Hughes some time later. ‘Are you staying to lunch, Andy?’
‘Yes please.’
Andy and Ryan carefully placed the completed Geiger counter on Ryan’s bed. An impressive assortment of switches and circuitry was wired to the bottom of Tracey’s old hockey stick that Ryan had quietly borrowed. A flashing red light sat rather shakily on top and the whole apparatus emitted a shrill beeping sound when turned on. Ryan and Andy tested it and found that the beeping turned into an ear splitting screech whenever the Geiger counter was held close to any type of metal.
‘Looks a bit peculiar,’ Ryan commented, eyeing it critically.
‘Doesn’t matter if it works, though,’ replied Andy. ‘Let’s go out to the park after lunch and see what we can find.’
‘That’s an awesome idea.’