The Unlikely Time Traveller (6 page)

Robbie was flying like a rag doll up in the air. Up… down, up… down, yelling “
WHEEEEEEEEE!
” all the time. He had his back to me. I stood on the edge of the board grasping the rail. Then I let it go and stepped forward. It’s called “stepping into the other person’s bounce” and that’s what I did. Just like on the trampoline when we were eight. Only now there was no net and we were waaaayyyy up in the air above an Aqua Park in the twenty-second century. Robbie landed, whooping wildly like he didn’t have a care in the world. As soon as he took off again I sprung, pushed up by the force of his jump. So far he wasn’t aware someone was behind him. He landed again, took off and immediately after, I was hurled up. If this wasn’t terrifying it would have been brilliant fun. I spotted the steeple of the church. That hadn’t changed in a hundred years. I saw the hills of Glentress. They hadn’t changed either. I didn’t jump as high as he did. We were going to land together. “Isn’t this great, Robbie,” I said, breathless, not too loud and as calmly as I could.

But he heard me. We landed together and took off together. “Legend,” I heard him say. We were soaring in the air, then we were plummeting downwards. We landed and took off again. “Mythic!” he yelled.

With each jump I slowed down. I affected his bounce.
And I spoke to him, gasping and panting like mad but trying hard to sound really relaxed. “Good to find you, Robbie, pal. You’re ok. Let’s take a rest, eh?”

And whether he noticed or not we gradually came to jump lower and lower, then we stopped, and he turned round. His face was beetroot. His eyes were gleaming. Sweat was running down his face.

“Just like that party,” I said, trying to forget we were practically in the clouds. “That was great, Robbie.”

He stared at me, like he didn’t believe his eyes. “Yeah,” he gasped.

I took half a step back towards the ladder. “Probably need a swim after that, eh?” I took another half-step. He stepped towards me. “They’ve got these cool shower-spray things, and bubble pools. That would be good, eh?”

“Yeah,” he said again.

“And a cold drink.” I took another step back. “Do you think they’ll have Irn-Bru?”

But Robbie just stared, flushed, half-mad looking.

I was almost at the rail, feeling for it with my arms out behind me, gingerly reaching back with my toes.

But just then Robbie looked over the edge, gasped, wobbled, yelled out, sunk to his knees and grabbed the edges of the diving board. A cry rose from below.

“You’re fine, Robbie,” I said. I reached one hand behind me, grasped the rail and with my other hand stretched forward. “Robbie, give me your hand. Don’t look down, ok? Whatever you do, don’t look down.” I tried to put on a firm commanding voice, the way I imagined a pilot would speak to his passengers before a crash landing. It worked. Whimpering, Robbie stretched his hand towards me, but I couldn’t reach it. “Just move bit by bit,” I said. “You can do it.”

Then he peered up at me, like he suddenly realised who it was. He didn’t look so wild-eyed any more. “I did it, Saul,” he said.

“Yeah, Robbie, you did it.” I didn’t know if he meant the time travel or the diving board, but now wasn’t the time to find out. “You did it,” I said again, encouraging him.

He dragged himself across the board towards me. I grabbed his hand and pulled him the rest of the way. We reached the ladder. “I’ll go down first,” I said, “and you come right after me. And don’t look down, ok, Robbie?”

“Ok, Saul.”

At first Robbie didn’t say a word climbing down, but about halfway he started coming out with random stuff, like, “Have you done your maths homework?” and “What do you like best, wrestling or boxing?” Maybe he was trying hard to keep his mind off the great distance and what would happen to us if we fell. “You get this mega-sized pizza in this place in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh, right, and it’s got, like, seventeen different kinds of cheese on it. I thought four was a lot, but like, seventeen! Wow!”

We were only a few rungs from the bottom when he stopped and said sheepishly, “Hey, Saul, I don’t think I need a swim.” People were surrounding the ladder. I didn’t feel like hanging about either. “And at the den, right,” he suddenly said, “I got attacked by these massive ugly horses, but I scared them off. I don’t want to go back there, no way.”

Ness was standing at the bottom of the ladder with my hoodie in her hands. She was running the zip up and down and letting other people have a go. Also I saw a chunk of toffee had fallen out and people were pointing at it. Amazingly the adult in the red wetsuit, who I thought was going to give us a right earful, reached up to help me and Robbie down.

“Fresh apple juice?” asked Ness, smiling widely. “Come, we can visit the Wish Quench.” She gave me my hoodie, bowed at Robbie then walked off, Scosha next to her.

I bent down and snatched up the toffee. “Hungry?” I said to Robbie, shoving it into his hands. “Cause I brought this for you.”

“Thanks,” he said, popping it into his mouth. The gaping crowd parted to let Ness and Scosha through.

Feeling pretty humiliated, I hurried after them, grabbing Robbie under the elbow. “That’s Ness by the way,” I hissed as we hurried after her, “and the other one is Scosha.” Robbie was chewing and looking about in a daze. I just stared straight ahead.

Robbie pulled at my T-shirt, licked his lips and said, “Hey, Saul, this is cool, eh? Can you believe it? Peebles having a place like this? It’s like Florida! They’re never going to believe us, eh?”

He was probably right about that.

“Wow,” he went on, sounding all breathless, “I so loved that diving board. I wasn’t going to dive though. Na, no way. You didn’t think I was actually going to dive, did you Saul?”

I shrugged. What did I know? I hadn’t expected Robbie to time travel a hundred years into the future.

“Na, Saul, not after the last time. You wouldn’t get me diving. Wow, but what a thrill! I’m like, more a jumper than a diver.”

I kept walking fast, steering him through the Aqua Park with all the people staring at us.

“Slow down, Saul,” Robbie panted.

After what seemed an age we reached the archway leading out of the Aqua Park. “Think they’ll have Coke, Saul?”

“No,” I snapped, relieved to be out on the riverbank with all the drama behind us.

“I’m not mad-keen on apple juice,” he went on.

I tried to remember all the names I was going to call him, but he was looking so red-faced and excited and happy to see me I couldn’t come up with any. “I think the future is a fizzy-drink-free zone,” was all I said, and I steered him out onto the grass by the river where Ness was waiting for us. I guessed Scosha had gone to get changed. I leant over and hissed into his ear, “Homemade apple juice is going to taste just fine.”

“Ok,” he whined. “Chill, I was only asking!”

Now that I realised Ness was a girl she looked so obviously like one I didn’t know why I hadn’t seen it before. She was bowing to Robbie, who didn’t cotton on that this is how they say hello in the future, so he did a bit of a Kung Fu move – for a laugh, he said. Ness was taken aback, but next thing she bent her elbows, lowered her body weight, did a swift half-turn and, quick as lightning, kicked her leg way up in the air, landing her foot a peanut’s distance from Robbie’s nose. It was back on the ground before you could snap your fingers.

“Ha-ha, wow, impressive!” Robbie gasped and stepped back super-fast. Then it was Ness’s turn to laugh.

“Scosha is the true Eastern Moves wonder,” she said. “She represented Scotland in the junior Olympics. She’s telling.” On cue, Scosha turned up, shaking out her long damp hair and grinning. She now had on the same onesie suit with the hipster belt. As she approached us she ran her finger over parts of her sleeves and immediately the material opened up, making little air vents.

“That’s impressive too,” I muttered, nudging Robbie. Or telling. That’s what Ness would say. No one needed zips, that was for sure.

“One of those is gonna look great on me.” Robbie
grinned.

“Dream on, pal,” I said.

Me and Robbie were like two-year-olds, gazing round at the new world in wonder. The outdoor juice bar – Wish Quench – was cool. It was near the old wishing well, which was still there. I guessed that was how it got its name. People were sitting on long circular benches that went around the café bit in the middle. Outside the tables ran a circle of palm trees. I kept thinking I was in some exotic place – not Peebles!

I saw how people gazed at Robbie. Me too, but not so much. At least I had an I-band. I yanked at my T-shirt. I heard a ripping sound as a bit came away in my hand, long enough to fit round Robbie’s head. I tied a knot in it then nudged him. “Psst! You need to put this on. And stop gaping around, ok?”

Robbie threw me a pout, like what was I getting all het up about. “Chill, Saul.” Then he looked down at the homemade I-band I was shoving towards him and scowled. “I want a proper one.”

Too many people were looking at us.

“Robbie,” I hissed under my breath, “just put this on now and maybe we’ll find a proper one later, ok?”

“Whatever,” he said, reluctantly tying the T-shirt headband around his head. Then he sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, “Do they know?”

I shook my head. “They think we’re travellers,” I hissed back. “Try and fit in, and quit doing totally nutcase stuff.”

Ness was waving us over, patting a bench next to her. Scosha was up at the serving bar collecting four glasses of apple juice.

Robbie and I slid in next to Ness. “We must not take the cherry juice. It is saved for the great celebration,” she
told us, looking half-excited and half-worried.

Scosha returned and handed round the drinks. “Why not come to the celebration?” she asked, smiling. “Two more suns only. Can you travellers bide till then?” She bowed at us. “It would be a muckle honour.”

“Sure,” Robbie piped up.

I glared at him. I needed to get Robbie back to our time as soon as possible. He was getting everything too wrong too often. If it was just me, I might stay for a bit. I’d have a look at the future, and I’d search for our time-capsule tin, see whether it was still there in the ground. But having Robbie messing everything up was too much to deal with. He was, as my mum would say, a liability. I had done what I needed to do and found him. In my pocket, next to his litter, I had his mum’s gold bracelet. Soon as I had drunk this juice I wanted to find our way back to the yew tree, and go. My mind raced. Maybe we could light a small fire there, if the horses were up the other end of the garden. We’d have to find some glass to make the rainbows.

“We’d love to stay,” Robbie said to Ness and Scosha, with this big grin on his face. “Wouldn’t we, Saul?”

I didn’t say anything, just picked up the glass of cloudy apple juice and sipped it. It was tasty, but sour.

“To the life-saving act of friendship,” said Scosha, lifting her glass in the air and winking at us. Then she shook back her long hair and laughed. “Welcome back to solid ground,” she said to Robbie, and drank her juice. Her accent, like Ness’s, was a bit rolling and strange.

I glanced over at Robbie who shrugged, like he hadn’t understood a word. “She means,” I hissed, “that jumping about like a lunatic on the super-high diving board was a totally dumb idiotic stupid thing to do, and be glad you’re alive. And,” I went on, whispering into his ear so the girls wouldn’t hear, “time travelling into the future, when you know nothing about time travel, and when you actually went and lost your mum’s gold bracelet, is rash, mad, insane, and you could have got us killed.” I gulped down more sour juice. “And if you don’t wise up you still might.”

Robbie turned pale. He started madly patting his pockets. Then turned them inside out. “Where’s it gone?” He repeated the whole pocket patting ritual. “She’ll kill me. If I’ve lost her bracelet, she’ll go ape.”

I let him suffer. “Drink your juice, then I’ll tell you where it is.” So far he had taken one sip. He screwed up his face like a prune and was ready to tip the rest on the
ground when I stopped him.

“But it needs sugar,” he whined. I glanced round at Scosha and Ness. They were busy chatting away and thankfully didn’t seem too aware of me and Robbie’s weird conversation.

“I can’t
see
any sugar,” I hissed. “Just drink it. This is the future you dragged me into and hey, maybe in the future they don’t
have
sugar!” I elbowed him. He scowled, put the glass to his lips, and with his finger and thumb clamped over his nose, downed the lot.

“Right,” he wiped the back of his hand over his mouth and gasped, “where is it?”

I drew the gold bracelet from my pocket. I also pulled out a tiny bit of the plastic bag, a corner of chocolate wrapper and a crushed Irn-Bru can. “It’s here, along with the litter you tossed about all over the future.”

The colour came back into his face. “Phew-ee,” he said. “She would have grounded me for a week if I lost that.”

I groaned. Robbie just didn’t get it. Without the gold he’d be grounded in the future for the rest of his life.

Then he grinned. He had spied my phone sticking out my pocket. “I did try and text you, Saul,” he said, “but my battery suddenly went flat.” He pulled his phone from his back pocket and shook it. “I don’t know what’s up with it.”

“The future,” I hissed, “that’s what’s up with it.” I was still displaying his litter, still glaring at him and rustling his rubbish.

“Yeah,” he said, not so cocky any more. “I left stuff about so you would find me. Plus I couldn’t find any rubbish bins. Did you find the crisp packets, and the can of Coke as well?”

I shook my head, picturing more historic rubbish floating about in the future. “But I found you,” I said,
shoving the trash back into my pocket. I drank the rest of my juice. “Let’s go home, Robbie.”

“But I can’t,” he whispered.

All the names I’d been going to rant at him were back on the tip of my tongue. “Why not?” I hissed.

He leaned towards me, spy-style. “Cause I ordered one of these amazing suit things, with all the magic pockets and belts and stuff.”

“You what?”

“It was easy. You should do it too.” He lowered his voice even more. “You know what these onesie things are, don’t you Saul?” He paused for effect. “Intelligent clothing. They’ve managed to invent it!” When I didn’t congratulate him he threw me his let’s-feel-sorry-for-Saul face. “Clothes that do what you need,” he explained, still whispering. “Like temperature adjustment and loads of stuff. They were trying to invent it back in our olden times.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah, anyway, this guy took my measurements. And I had to give my fingerprint into this glass machine thing. He called it my bond. He says the suit will be ready in two days.” Robbie picked up his empty glass and looked at me through the end of it, like it was a telescope. “I’m not going back with my fingerprint left here, Saul, no way. The man said when I pick up the suit he wipes my print.” He put the glass down and smiled at me, dimpled and kind of apologetic. “I can’t leave part of myself in the future. That would seriously screw things up. So you see, we can’t go. Not yet.”

“Go?” That was Scosha. “You must bide and enjoy the celebration.” She beamed round at us. “Peebles is famous for its harvest festival.” Then she nudged Ness
who looked, I thought, a bit embarrassed. “And this year’s festival will be extra telling. Ness receives the high honours.” Ness flushed again. “And will be garlanded.”

“But I must make a speech in praise of the harvest,” Ness said, twisting her hands together. “And I know not what to speak of. Ideas escape my mind.”

“The right words will come. Tell Ness,” Scosha said to us, “to fret not; it will be grand.”

“Yeah,” Robbie said, breezily, like he had a clue what they were going on about, “you’ll be totally brilliant, Ness!” I was still gaping at him. Still trying to take in all this fingerprint bond stuff.

“Thank you, dear Robbie,” Ness said, “though the truth be I have no clue what to say. I will be so tongue-tied, Mother will faint. But I thank you for encouragement.”

Robbie beamed round at me, the way he did in class whenever he managed to come up with a right answer. I wanted to drag him back to the yew tree right that minute, minus his fingerprint. It would serve him right. “Tell Ness it’ll be brilliant, Saul,” he said, “go on.”

So I did, feeling like Robbie’s parrot.

“Thank you likewise, Saul,” Ness said, then bowed to us both. “Travellers, you would do me friendship to attend the festival celebration as my honoured guests.”

This was going to be my moment to tell her how, now that I had found my lost friend, us travellers really needed to get going. “Sure, it sounds great!” Robbie said, “Doesn’t it, Saul?”

I glared at him.

“Do say likewise.” Ness smiled eagerly at me.

Saying no to Ness didn’t feel right. I knew how stressed she was about this speech thing she had to give at the celebration. Plus now Robbie had an appointment!
Something told me he might be right about the fingerprint thing. We shouldn’t just break an agreement with these future people, who might be working hard to make Robbie’s onesie. Plus, strictly speaking, this being 2115, Robbie and I were dead. It felt too weird having his fingerprint documented on some machine. What if Robbie never came to get the suit and the people with the fingerprint looked him up and discovered he should never have been in this time – could Ness get in trouble for helping us?

“Um… Let’s see,” I said, my mind racing.

If we did stay, I’d definitely look for the time-capsule tin. I’d get Robbie to help.