The Star Agency (The Star Agency Chronicles) Read online

  ‘I do remember one story grandpa told me. Apparently after I’d finished making that model plane, I went to bed and had a nightmare. I was dreaming I was an RAF pilot, and the plane I was in was about to crash into a mountain straight ahead. Yet somehow, I could reach out and touch the mountain. And it was made of rubber.’

  ‘A rubber mountain?’ laughed Jules. ‘Not very dangerous then, was it? Not really worth having a nightmare over.’

  ‘Yeh, but you try telling a six year old kid that. I remember grandpa shaking me by the shoulders to wake me up, but it took me a minute or two to realise everything was OK and I was really back in my bed. Next morning, I found out that I’d come downstairs, in my sleep, to get that model plane. Grandpa had asked me if I’d wanted to go back to bed, but apparently I hadn’t. Instead, I’d just wandered around the dining room, playing with the plane. Eventually, I’d gone back up of my own accord. I don’t remember it of course.’

  ‘Did you sleepwalk often?’

  ‘No, not that I was told anyway. I think that was the only time.’

  ‘So anyway, what happened next then? Come on, I’m hooked now.’

  Theo looked back at the journal:

  A few minutes later, it was me leading Dad up the stairs and back out of the underground station. ‘Don’t fuss Girl’ he said as I held his arm. But I wouldn’t let him go. When we got up and out of the station entrance though, everything looked different. You could hear fire engine sirens all over, and there was a kind of weird orange light in the distance, everywhere you looked. Then there was that awful smell of burning. It seemed to get right inside your lungs and stay there. You couldn’t help but cough.

  There were a few people standing around looking stunned, like they didn’t know what to do next. Then I heard something else: a gushing noise coming from nearby. I looked towards the corner of George Street and saw a flickering light coming from round the corner, and I felt sick. Then I walked up to the street corner, held my breath and then looked around. Thick black smoke was billowing out of where our house had once stood. Dad limped up behind me, then stopped and looked. He didn’t say anything and just stood there with his mouth open.

  Of course, it wasn’t just our house that had been hit. There wasn’t much left of the two houses next to ours either. There were bricks lying everywhere and most of the windows down the street had been smashed, even those a few hundred yards away, leaving the blackout blinds flapping in the wind. We walked down the street as far as we were allowed, but we were stopped by another Policeman about a hundred yards from our house. ‘Sorry Miss, you can’t come any further, it’s dangerous,’ he said. So we both just stood and stared as the two fire engines pumped more water into the remains of the houses, making even more of the horrible black smoke. I just looked at where our lovely house had been and I wanted to cry. But for some reason, the tears wouldn’t come.

  Theo put the Journal down and then looked at Jules.

  ‘I never knew about any of this,’ he said. ‘I mean, I knew she’d lived in London during the war, but I didn’t know the house had been bombed.’

  ‘Imagine if you came home one day and your cottage was just a pile of bricks. How would you feel?’

  ‘Sick I suppose, like she did.’

  Jules stared at the journal, then back at Theo. ‘So why do you think your granddad wanted you to know about all this now?’

  ‘I don’t know. I suppose it’s like he said. It’s the last story he had for me.’

  ‘Is there any more?’ said Jules.

  Theo turned the page over:

  September 8th

  I didn’t get much sleep last night. A couple of hours after the first attack, we’d been sat in Mrs Northsworthy’s kitchen, drinking tea and trying to come to terms with what had happened, when we heard that awful siren again and realised that there was another wave of bombers. So of course we made our way back down to the underground station. It seemed to go on all night that distant thud thud thud. But I’m pleased to say that no more bombs landed as close to us as the one that hit our street. Of course, that’s not much comfort when you’ve already lost your house.

  We did eventually get the all clear in the early hours and we were all so relieved. Then the next thing I remember was waking up in bed, later that morning. But it wasn’t my own bed, and for a moment I couldn’t remember why. Then I heard some voices downstairs and I remembered. We were round at Uncle Howard’s place down in Bow. For a minute, I didn’t remember how we’d even got there. Then it started to come back to me and I felt sick, so I went back to bed. It must have been all that horrible smoke.

  I must have fallen asleep again straight away as the next thing I remember was later that afternoon when Dad walked in the room with a cup of tea. I remember he just put it down on the bedside table, sat himself on the edge of my bed and then put his arms around me. That was when the tears finally came. All I could think about was how to get a message to William that I was OK. What a baby I must have been. Dad didn’t say anything because he didn’t need to. Instead, he just smiled and told me to drink my tea so I’d feel better. He said he’d get a message to William somehow, which made me feel a bit happier. Then he left the room and I drank my tea. Never had a cuppa tasted so good.

  Nothing much else happened during the day. I just remember Dad telling me to let the hospital know that I was OK. I slept well again that night. In fact I never slept so well as in those few nights. Which is pretty strange considering I had just lost my home.

  Jules looked up from the journal. ‘I’ve just realised something. Your granddad was in his seventies, wasn’t he?’

  ‘Yeh, he was,’ said Theo.

  ‘And this journal is, what, seventy one years old, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yehhh,’ said Theo. ‘It said 1940, didn’t it?’

  ‘So don’t you think it’s funny that she never mentioned him in it? I mean if he was in his seventies when he died, then he must have been born before all this had happened. Yet she never mentioned where he was or that she was worried about him, did she?’

  ‘No,’ said Theo.

  ‘And she didn’t say anything about being pregnant either, did she?’

  Theo paused for a moment. ‘Suppose not.’

  ‘So when was his birthday exactly?’

  Theo thought for a moment. Like most boys, he wasn’t very good at remembering Birthdays, so he switched on his phone, opened up the electronic organiser function and checked his list of memorable dates. Then he saw it, marked with a letter G for Granddad, and his heart jumped.

  ‘September 9th,’ said Theo.

  ‘And he was how old when he died?’

  ‘Erm, I...I think he was…. erm seventy-one,’ said Theo, his voice trembling at the realisation that had just hit him.

  ‘And you’re sure about that, are you?’

  Theo thought for a moment. ‘Actually, yes I am. I remember now because I saw it on his death certificate.’

  ‘Theo,’ said Jules excitedly, ‘you know what that means, don’t you?’

  ‘Yeh, tomorrow in the Journal. That was the day he was born.’

  ‘So she was pregnant when she wrote this then?’ said Jules.

  ‘Heavily,’ said Theo.

  ‘Hang on, that doesn’t make sense. She was at work a few days before. Surely she wouldn’t have been working when she was nearly nine months gone, would she?’

  ‘I don’t know what things were like in those days, you know, whether they would let them work right up until the last minute like they do now.’

  ‘No, I don’t either. Let’s see if there’s anything else,’ said Jules picking up the Journal. But when she flicked to the next page, the date had skipped to September the 11th. She looked at the spine of the book to see if it looked like any pages had fallen out or been torn out. But there didn’t seem to be any missing, so she carried on reading:

  September 11th

  I’m so tired that I can’t believe I’m taking the time to write this now. After a
ll, it’s not every day you become a mother. But I always enjoyed writing my Journal. Who knows, one day it might be Theo reading it out to his kids.

  ‘So it’s true then, she was pregnant,’ said Jules. ‘Down in that tube station, with those bombers overhead. All that time, she was heavily pregnant. But she was still helping others. Patching up those wounded people.’

  ‘Yeh, looks like it,’ said Theo. ‘Perhaps she gave birth early – you know, prematurely or something.’

  ‘Maybe the shock of what happened brought it all on,’ said Jules.

  ‘I suppose so,’ said Theo.

  ‘Either way though, she must have been some woman.’

  ‘That much I do know. Grandpa was always telling me.’

  ‘Do you remember her at all?’

  ‘No, I think she died just after I was born.’

  ‘Shame.’

  ‘Yeh,’ said Theo turning back to the Journal to read on:

  But he’s just so wonderful. I can’t believe what’s happened to me in these last few days. It’s been the worst and best days of my life.

  Of course, Dad’s been fantastic as always and so has Uncle Howard. I mean, it’s really cramped here. Uncle Howard is sleeping on the sofa, Dad has the other bedroom and we have a room to ourselves. Luxury some would say, but I don’t care. It’s just Theo and me. I’m sure everybody will call him Theo, because Theopolis is just such a mouthful. Trust Dad to come up with a fancy name like that.

  I just hope this blessed war finishes soon. I mean, what kind of life will Theo have if it doesn’t? I can’t wait for William to meet him; after all, he always wanted a son to take fishing or play with down the park. I would love him to come home, to see and hold his son, but right now he’s out there sorting out Hitler. And if that means Theo, his children and his grandchildren, can live their lives free from the shadow of war, then I’m willing to make the sacrifice of not having him here. Of course, I miss him like crazy and I want him home. But I mustn’t be selfish when the future of our country is at stake.

  I don’t know how much longer I’ll be writing these Journals for because I’m just so tired now. But I wanted him to know, when he grows up, what it was like and how he came into the world in those wonderful and terrible days in September 1940.

  Theo turned over the page to read on, but the next page was blank and so was the next and the next. Theo turned over all the pages carefully but, save for the last page, there was nothing else to see. And the last page didn’t really seem to be part of the journal. Instead, it was just a few doodles and scribbles, like the sort of thing a bored child might have drawn in the back of their schoolbook when they weren’t paying attention to classes.

  ‘That’s a shame,’ said Jules. ‘I was just getting into that.’

  ‘Do you think those pages are missing, you know, the 9th and the 10th?’

  ‘Well I can’t imagine her writing that Journal just after she’d given birth, can you?’

  ‘No, I suppose not,’ said Theo as he closed the Journal and put it back into the box.

  ‘Wonder if there were any other journals?’ said Jules.

  ‘Well if there had been, they’d probably have been destroyed when the house was hit.’

  ‘But this one survived, didn’t it?’

  ‘Yeh it did. I suppose she must have had it with her at the time.’

  ‘Suppose so,’ said Jules.

  ‘I can’t believe that I never heard about any of this though. I mean, it makes you think, doesn’t it?’

  ‘Yeh, it does. Your great grandmother and grandfather were there, fighting for us. Fighting for their freedom. For our freedom.’

  ‘Oh we are being profound today, aren’t we?’ said Theo, grinning.

  ‘Yeh, I know it sounds corny. But I’m right though, aren’t I?’

  ‘Yeh you are. Who knows what would have happened if we’d lost.’

  ‘I know,’ said Jules.

  For a moment, they sat in silence as their minds wandered back to a time that neither of them had known. A time of pain and suffering, but also hope.

  Then Jules stood up and picked up her jacket.

  ‘You off now?’ said Theo.

  ‘Better had. You don’t want your auntie on your case, do you?’

  ‘OK, fair enough.’

  ‘Will I see you tomorrow?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ replied Theo.

  Just as Jules headed out of the bedroom, Theo looked up.

  ‘Jules, before you go.’

  ‘Yeh?’ she said, turning in the doorway.

  ‘It’s been a really nice day today, hasn’t it?’

  ‘The best,’ said Jules.

  *

  Suddenly, it was New Year’s Eve, and all the time that Theo had thought that he’d had to decide had evaporated. Now he knew he couldn’t delay it any longer because the twenty days were nearly up. It was going to be hard, that was for sure. How could he tell his best friend that he was leaving, knowing that he would probably never see her again? He felt sick with nerves, but his mind was made up. He was leaving because his dream life was waiting for him on another world. And it was the Journal and the letter that had helped him make up his mind.

  His great grandmother had battled through the worst possible time imaginable: London in the blitz. And she’d come out of it safe and well and gone on to live a long and happy life. And even though he’d poked fun at Jules’s corny speech, he knew that she’d been right. If it hadn’t been for the sacrifices that his great grandmother’s generation had made, then he wouldn’t be free now – free to make his own mind up. Suddenly, the thought of huge alien spiders, which he knew didn’t exist anyway, and possible risks mentioned by First Mentor – seemingly as an afterthought – seemed like very trivial reasons indeed for his indecision. And now, he couldn’t wait to leave.

  Of course, he still couldn’t believe how ridiculous it all seemed when he thought back to his amazing journey. Yet he’d seen it with his own eyes: amazing – almost magical – technology, gangly insect-like aliens, tall, proud, birdlike Polisians strutting around their enormous crystalline city in space, and an amazing creature made entirely of energy. It was incredible and unbelievable. And soon he would activate the ring that would tell the Affinity to send for him.

  At that moment, Theo heard the doorbell ring. Remembering that his auntie was round at the Kingsley’s enjoying a New Year’s Eve drink, he rose nervously from his bed and wandered downstairs. He stood in front of the door and took a deep breath. Then, forcing himself to smile, he opened it, welcomed Jules and invited her up to his room.

  ‘What’s cooking, T?’ said a happy smiling Jules as she sat down on his bed.

  ‘Oh you know, the usual,’ replied Theo sheepishly.

  The smile dropped a little from Jules’s face as she looked into his sad eyes. He’d never been able to fool her for very long.

  ‘Let me guess,’ said Jules ‘You’ve made your decision.’

  ‘Erm… yeh I suppose, I mean, yes I have.’

  ‘You’re going, aren’t you? To this place, wherever it is?’

  ‘No kidding you, is there?’

  ‘I know you mate. I always have. I always knew you were going. I could see it in your eyes as soon as you got back. Like you were already somewhere else. Deep down, I think you’ve always known too.’

  ‘I suppose so. But I mean, I almost changed my mind you know. Then I read that letter from grandpa and the journal.’

  ‘Yeh I remember,’ said Jules. ‘Your granddad said Never forget to live your life.’

  ‘And then there was my great grandmother and everything that happened there. But like you said, I think I always knew.’

  ‘So are you coming back or is this it?’ said Jules.

  ‘I…I don’t know,’ replied Theo, his voice shaking.

  ‘You remember what we agreed, don’t you, about telling me the truth?’

  ‘Yeh I do. But the truth is I don’t know.’

  ‘But what do you thin
k?’

  ‘I think, possibly not.’

  ‘Possibly not? You mean definitely not, don’t you?’

  ‘No really, I mean I don’t know for certain.’ Despite his best intentions and his promise, Theo realised that he still couldn’t tell her the whole truth. Not quite.

  ‘And you’re being straight with me, aren’t you, T?’

  ‘Always,’ said Theo, feeling sick.

  ‘So what is this place then? Some sort of science academy for boy geniuses?’ said Jules, trying to sound as casual as possible.

  Theo half smiled. ‘I suppose you could say that,’ he said, knowing that it wasn’t actually too far from the truth. ‘That’s the first time you’ve asked me about where I’m going.’

  ‘I know. Well I’m not going to get many more chances, am I? I mean, I guess you’ll be off soon.’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure what happens next. When I’ll be leaving and all that.’

  ‘I bet it’ll be quite soon.’

  Theo didn’t answer because he just didn’t know what to say. He tried to dismiss the question with a joke about getting away from her nagging, but it wasn’t very convincing. He knew he was going to miss her like crazy.

  ‘So, have you got time for one last thrashing at bowling tomorrow?’ said Theo, trying to change the subject.

  ‘No time at all, because this time you’re going to lose, Kingpin,’ said Jules, grinning and prodding him in the chest with her finger.

  ‘Never in a billion years,’ said Theo.

  *

  Later that night, after Jules had left, a nervous Theo sat at his computer desk and stared at the ring on his finger. It was hard to believe that the small object in front of him held the key to his future. After all the amazing things he had seen, it was the one physical object that he still had that proved to him that he hadn’t been dreaming. And yet it could have been any old ring. He might try to activate it and nothing might happen. And his future would be gone in the blink of an eye.