Nowhere Boys (26 page)
‘Mine collapsed and had that same weird rash when I was at the house,’ said Sam.
Jake nodded. Since they’d been here, every time he’d talked to his mum, she’d complained of a headache.
‘It’s like our mothers are allergic to us,’ said Andy miserably.
Phoebe nodded thoughtfully. ‘That could be right.’
Jake felt the air rush out of him. It was
him
making his mum sick. He was the problem.
‘So, if we stay away from them, they’ll be all right?’ said Felix hopefully.
‘Might be the safest option,’ said Phoebe.
Andy suddenly looked up. ‘Wait a minute. If our mothers are allergic to us, it’s because we shouldn’t be here. We’re like foreign bodies to them.’
‘Yes,’ said Phoebe carefully.
‘So, to cure them, they need to be inoculated against the virus. Which is … us. And then they’ll be okay.’
Phoebe looked at him through narrowed eyes. ‘You’re actually smarter than you look.’ She turned to the others. ‘Andy’s right. An inoculation could be the answer.’
‘And how are we supposed to do that?’ asked Jake impatiently. ‘We’re not doctors.’
‘A magic inoculation, of course.’ Phoebe’s eyes lit up. ‘We need something – an object – that each of your mothers would have had in both worlds. If you can find that, I’ll look for a spell for Felix to cast.’
‘But the talisman doesn’t –’ began Felix.
‘Don’t need it,’ said Phoebe. ‘This is not about the demon. Go on. I’ll meet you at the hospital.’
Jake hesitated. ‘But my mum’s life is completely different here. She doesn’t live in the same house or have any of the same stuff.’
‘There must be something. You just have to find it. Go on. Go,’ ordered Phoebe.
Jake jogged back to his mum’s house. All that talk about inoculation had his head spinning. He wasn’t convinced that Andy or Phoebe knew what they were talking about, but if there was a chance it would make his mum better, he had to give it a go.
Jake reached the house. Phew! Looked like no-one was there. He sneaked around the back looking for an open window. Bates was probably the sort of guy who had alarms everywhere. To Jake’s relief, the kitchen window had been left open wide enough for him to slide through.
He landed on the floor and looked around. The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was in perfect order. There was nothing here that his Mum would have had in their world. Maybe he should try the bedroom. He made his way up the carpeted stairs. This house was way too big for just two people.
At the top of the stairs was a double bedroom. Jake tried to avoid looking at the king-sized bed. He couldn’t bear the thought of his mum and Bates sleeping together. He looked at the bedside table. Here there was nothing except an alarm clock and a light. He touched the dolphin in his pocket. Should he leave it here? But what if Bates found it first?
He looked around. How was he supposed to find something that his mum had in both worlds? This world was completely different. He opened the wardrobe and looked through her clothes. They were all fancy and designer made. No T-shirts and trackpants anywhere. He sighed and was about to close the door when he saw a small red box tucked away in the back of the wardrobe, behind the shoes. He knelt down and pulled it out. Very carefully he lifted the lid. Inside was a collection of his mum’s most personal things. Jake pulled out a photo of his mum and dad as teenagers, their arms around each other. He looked at the other items in the box. A pressed corsage. Some letters and more photos, and then, right at the bottom, he found a Bremin Bandicoots pin. So, his parents
had
been together in this world!
Jake picked up the pin. This was it. In his old world, his mum wore this pin to every game. He quickly pocketed it and was about to put the box back when he heard a footfall on the stairs.
Someone was coming.
Andy stood outside Lily Lau’s Chinese Restaurant. He hadn’t dared go back since the meat-cleaver incident, but now his mum was in danger he had no choice. How, though, he wondered, was he going to get past Nai Nai? She guarded the place like a pit bull.
Andy considered his options carefully. Should he go in the front door of the restaurant and sneak around to the back stairs? Or should he go through the kitchen at the back, and get to the stairs that way? Either way was risky. But he knew if he was going to find anything personal of his mum’s he had to get upstairs to the living area. He saw a figure moving around in the restaurant. It was Nai Nai, setting the tables for the lunch crowd. Okay, decision made. He was going in through the kitchen.
Andy sneaked around the side of the building and into the alleyway. The back door to the kitchen was open. The large plastic fly strips moved gently in the breeze. Staying down low, he crept towards the door, parted the strips quietly and slipped inside.
Inside the kitchen, Andy was hit hard by an intense rush of homesickness. It was the smell. Why was that? Why was the olfactory memory so potent? Another question for his dad, if he ever saw him again. If he ever did get home, would he miss Ellen’s smell? She had a fresh, sweet smell that was so alien, and yet so appealing.
He shook the thought away. Focus, Andy. Your mum needs you.
He crept silently past the piles of bamboo steamers, the oiled woks, the boxes of freshly delivered herbs and vegetables. He could see the stairs. He was almost there.
So long as Viv wasn’t upstairs, he was home free.
‘Aiiiieeeeee!’
Something whizzed past his head and lodged itself in the wall. Not a meat cleaver this time, but a fairly vicious-looking pair of kitchen scissors.
Andy turned and smiled weakly. ‘Hi, Nai Nai.’
‘You again. What you doing here? Viv not interested in crazy stalker boys.’
Andy sighed. ‘I’m not interested in Viv, okay?’
He looked at Nai Nai for a beat, and something occurred to him: maybe, just maybe, Nai Nai might actually believe the truth.
He hesitated. Nai Nai picked up a skewer for roasting duck. Okay, well, it was either the truth or face death by kitchen implement. He took a deep breath.
‘Nai Nai. My name is Andrew Qiao Li Lau. I’m your grandson.’
Nai Nai advanced on him. ‘What you talking about, you crazy boy?’
‘I’m not crazy. Viv is my sister and Michael and Nicole are my mum and dad.’
Nai Nai threw down the skewer, picked up a wooden spoon and started to beat him with it. ‘Stop it. You talk rubbish.’
Andy put up both hands to protect himself. He had to convince her or he’d never come out alive, and nothing would help his mum. ‘I know Dad likes to sit in the shed and do experiments with mass and time. I know Mum’s favourite food is spaghetti bolognaise but she’s too frightened to tell you. And Nai Nai, I know you need glasses but you don’t want anyone to know, so you hide them in the third drawer of your dressing table. And there’s lots more that I know. Because this is my family … and I’m your grandson.’
Nai Nai gasped and dropped the spoon she was holding. ‘Ai-yaieee,’ she said under her breath. ‘A ghost!’ She reached for Andy’s arm and pinched it hard, making him yelp.
‘
Gu Hun Ye Gui!
The ghost of the son they never had. The grandson she never gave me.’
‘That doesn’t even make sense.’ Andy rubbed his arm. ‘Listen, Nai Nai. Mum is very sick and I need your help to make her better.’
‘Aiya, that girl. Always something wrong with her.’
Andy knew there wasn’t a lot of love lost between Nai Nai and his mum but now wasn’t the time. ‘Nai Nai. Please.’
Nai Nai sighed. ‘Okay. What she need? Chinese herbs?’
Andy hesitated. How was he going to explain the whole idea of a magic inoculation spell to someone who thought he was a ghost? He shook his head. Too hard.
‘Mum’s in hospital and she needs me to bring her something that’ll make her happy. Something she loves.’
‘Why she send you, ghost boy?’
Andy didn’t know how to answer that. Maybe the truth would work? ‘She didn’t. She doesn’t know me. But I’m her son and I want her to get better. Please, Nai Nai.’
She frowned. ‘Okay. Wait here.’ She disappeared up the stairs and came back down a few minutes later, carrying a photo frame.
Andy looked at it, delighted. Perfect! He remembered this photo. It always took pride of place by his mum’s bed. It was of old Foo Ling, his mum’s dad, standing somewhere in the wilds of Russia, holding up a pair of antlers.
Nai Nai thrust the photo at Andy. ‘Stupid man. Killed by bear in Siberia. Should have been an accountant.’
Andy took the photo. He’d always loved his mum’s stories about Foo Ling. He’d been an adventurer in the sixties – footloose and fearless. A Chinese Bear Grylls.
‘Thanks, Nai Nai.’
She leant forward and gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘No problem, ghost boy. I always wanted grandson. Come visit me again.’
Andy raced out of the restaurant and made his way as fast as he could towards the hospital.
Andy saw Phoebe, Sam and Felix through the front doors of the hospital, waiting in the foyer. The doors slid open and he rushed in.
‘They’ve taken your mothers up to the first floor,’ Phoebe explained. ‘For the spell to work, we have to be as close as possible to them.’
Felix was pacing. ‘Where’s Jake? We can’t do anything without him.’
‘We can’t just walk into the ward and start chanting,’ said Sam. ‘The hospital will call the police.’
‘I know that, doofus,’ snarled Phoebe. ‘I’m working on a plan.’
The doors slid open and Jake appeared. He was so puffed he could barely breathe. He bent over double.
‘What happened to you?’ asked Phoebe.
‘A neighbour called the police.’ He looked up, trying to catch his breath. ‘And my dad caught me in the house and chased me.’
Phoebe rolled her eyes. ‘Well, that’s just great. Now he’ll have you on burglary charges. Like we haven’t got enough problems.’
‘Where’s my mum?’ asked Jake.
‘They’re all upstairs,’ said Phoebe. ‘Come on. We’ve got to move fast.’
The boys followed Phoebe as she strode towards the lifts.
Andy looked down at the photo of Foo Ling. ‘Come on, Foo,’ he whispered. ‘You can save the day.’
The lift pinged open at the first floor and they got out.
A doctor with a clipboard was standing outside the ward talking earnestly to a nurse. ‘I don’t understand it,’ Andy overheard him say. ‘It’s like their immune systems have gone completely berserk.’
The boys looked at each other. Seemed like they were right.
‘Stay here,’ Phoebe hissed, then followed a hospital orderly down the corridor.
Andy looked through the glass door into the ward. He could see his mum lying in bed. She was hooked up to a drip and her face was as white as a sheet. His dad sat next to her, holding her hand. He looked sick with worry.
Phoebe came back with the orderly, smiling triumphantly. ‘This is Dave. He’s going to let us into the broom cupboard.’
Dave slipped his key into the lock and the broom cupboard door creaked open.
‘Inside. Quick,’ ordered Phoebe. She tossed her hair and smiled flirtatiously at the orderly. ‘Thanks, Dave.’
Phoebe slammed the door shut, but there was still enough light that Andy could see her glowering at them. ‘Yes, yes. I know what you’re thinking. But surprise, surprise, Phoebe did once go to high school and have dates, and Dave just happened to be one of them. Now shut your mouths and let’s get on with business.’
Phoebe pushed aside a mop bucket so there was clear space on the floor. ‘Now, one by one, place your item on the floor and explain why it connects you and your mum. Think of each item as a bridge connecting the two worlds together. You first, Andy.’
Andy carefully laid the photo of Foo Ling on the ground. ‘This is my grandfather, my mum’s dad. He was an adventurer in the sixties and travelled the world. My mum used to tell me stories about how he strangled boa constrictors and ate barbecued moths. But then later she’d cry, because he was killed by a bear when she was a child and she never really got to know him.’
Phoebe nodded. ‘Sam?’
Sam laid down a paintbrush. ‘This is my mum’s favourite paintbrush. She taught me to paint with it and she told me that whenever I’m feeling sad, I can paint my feelings into something else.’