Realand (book one of the Portal Series)

Shalalazoo (chapter four)

‘I don’t believe it!’ Max muttered. He looked at Laura, who was standing beside him with her hands over her mouth, eyes wide with shock. ‘What have you done with Oscar?’ Max hissed.

         ‘I don’t know.’ Laura’s voice sounded muffled by her hands. ‘I don’t know, Max, I don’t know, Idon’tknowIdon’tknow!’

Max could see Laura’s eyes getting wet with tears and he felt his own well up and the top of his nose start to tickle, like they did when he was going to cry. He swallowed loudly and said, ‘What are we going to do?’

Laura just looked at him and shook her head, a single tear rolling down her face.

‘Max, Laura? Where are you?’ Their mother’s voice sounded half cross and half frightened. They hadn’t heard her alarm go off or her get up.

‘Up here, Mum,’ Max answered and rubbed his eyes hard.

‘In the loft!’ Laura shouted loudly, as if she was trying to hide the tears in her voice.

‘Shhhhhh!’ Max said.

‘What on earth are you doing up there at this time of morning? Come on now! It’s a school day and you should be getting ready for it, not messing about up there!’

 ~

Glad that morning is over with, Max thought with relief as he wandered out to the playground after lunch.

‘Wanna kick about?’

Max shook his head at Luke and leaned against an empty patch of wall in the playground.  He stayed there, arms crossed and lost in thought until the end of lunch break bell went.

Numeracy seemed to last forever that afternoon and Max sighed loudly, licked his thumb and rubbed it on a pencil mark that trailed along the flat grey surface of his school desk.        

‘Max!’ Mr Hummer’s voice broke through Max’s fog of worry.

         ‘Sorry, sir,’ Max mumbled, embarrassed at having been caught not paying attention, again. Third time today, Max thought, I’m in for it now.

         ‘That’s another 5 minutes of hobby time that you’ve lost. Third time today, not like you at all. See me after class!’

         Max managed a nod that must have looked as miserable as he felt. He tried his hardest to pay attention for the rest of the afternoon.

 ~

 ‘What did Humdrum want?’ Laura asked, once Max had come out of the class.

         ‘Shhh, Laura, don’t call him that!’

         ‘Oh, he can’t hear, don’t be such a baby!’

         Max refused to say anything until they were outside the school gates. By unspoken agreement they headed straight towards home instead of going via the park as they normally did. ‘Mr Hummer wanted to know if everything was ok because he had to keep telling me off for not paying attention in class. Said it’s not like me.’

         ‘Yeah ’cos you’re usually a swot. So what did you say?’

         ‘Just told him I was worried because I’d lost something. He said he thinks he loses things all the time and then they show up when he least expects them to and...’

         ‘Maybe that’ll happen with Oscar.’

         ‘Sure hope so or else I’m telling Mum and Dad.’

‘I’m sorry Max, I wish…well…I hope…erm I know it was a bad thing to do but I didn’t mean it like that. Really! I didn’t even think it would work!’ Laura’s voice wobbled as she said the last word.

They crossed the road when Miss Betsy the lollipop lady said they could. Max picked up a stick and ran the rest of the way home, dragging it along the ground beside him so he didn’t have to talk to Laura anymore.

Max kicked his shoes off and put his school bag away on the shelf in the utility room after he had taken his homework out.  He placed his homework on the breakfast bar, thought about stopping long enough to eat a banana but decided against it in favour of heading straight up to the loft. He ran up the stairs two at a time and felt quite puffed out by the time he got there. While he was bent over trying to catch his breath he could see that Oscar wasn’t on the box or on the floor in front.

‘Look behind it, Max, maybe Oscar is there?’ Laura said, hopefully.

Max had to stop himself from jumping with fright when Laura spoke. He hadn’t heard her coming up the stairs. ‘Stop being so sneaky!’ he grouched at her.

Max took a deep breath to try and calm down and held it as he walked around the side of the box. Max let the breath out in a big whoosh of relief as he first saw Oscar’s red claw sticking out, and then all of Oscar on the floor tucked up against the box. Max picked Oscar up and gave him a happy hug.