The Thing From Space

  For my Mum and Dad who are amazing,

  ~with love.

  The tall thin figure stood pressed against the window and strained to see clearly through the dark wintry night.

  There it was again! High up in the sky! A green light, glowing brightly and then dropping slowly, straight down, getting lower and lower until it vanished from sight.

  The figure dashed to a desk, snatched up the telephone and dialled quickly.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Acknowledgements

  About Adam Stower

  Also by Adam Stower

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Ben pressed the button.

  With a soft FWUMP, a flare shot up high over their heads, burning bright pink against the winter sky.

  ‘Not bad, eh?’ said Coo. ‘Now try that lever.’

  Ben grabbed it and pulled. He felt the deck shudder as beneath him pulleys whirred and switches clicked.

  ‘BOMBS AWAY!’ yelled Coo over the roar of the wind. She and Ben leaned over the side to watch several bundles drop through the swirling snow and burst apart, showering the ground far below with hundreds of acorns, seeds and conkers.

  ‘Ha! Brilliant!’ said Ben. ‘What else can it do?’

  ‘Oh, loads.’ Coo grinned, her long beard whip-cracking in the breeze.

  Ben took the wheel and steered the Gasbag Glider into the wind. As he cast an eye over the many knobs and levers that cluttered the control panel he let out a squeak of excitement. It was just SO brilliant! This was without doubt Coo’s best Coo-traption ever!

  Ben looked at her and smiled. Not everyone had a best friend like Coo. True, she might stand out in a crowd, what with her crown, spear, pet wombat and her long flowing beard. And yes, she had a nasty habit of testing out her genius inventions on him when he least expected it, but Ben wouldn’t have it any other way. He grinned. Who else got to fly to school in a home-made Zeppelin?

  Ben tipped the wheel forward and whooped as the glider dipped and swooped between the clouds.

  He had just skimmed a particularly huge fluffy grey one when a foul pong suddenly filled his nostrils.

  Ben winced. It smelled horrible and it was so strong it made his eyes water.

  He turned to Coo and caught her wrinkling her nose and casting a sidelong glance in his direction.

  ‘It’s not ME!’ protested Ben, pinching his nostrils shut. The smell thickened.

  They both turned to look at Herbert.

  ‘No, hang on!’ Coo frowned, tapping a dial with her knuckle. ‘It’s not Herb. We’re losing altitude.’ She peered over the side and squinted at the gasbag. ‘I thought so. We’ve sprung a leak.’

  ‘Wait! What?’

  ‘That’s what that whiff is. It’s the Hot Pong Bubble gas. It’s a tad explosive.’

  ‘Don’t PANIC? This is the perfect time to panic!’ Ben gripped the side and peered at the ground. It was definitely getting closer. ‘Either we’re going to crash and then explode, or explode and THEN crash!’

  ‘You don’t half fuss, Ben,’ said Coo as she slipped some straps around him. ‘We’ll probably be fine.’

  ‘Probably? PROBABLY? That’s really not helping, Coo, if I’m honest.’ Coo handed Ben his school bag. ‘Wait, w-what are you doing?’ he asked, tugging at the harness Coo had strapped to him. ‘What’s this?’

  ‘We need to lose some weight to gain height,’ said Coo, who was infuriatingly calm, ‘and there’s no time like the present.’

  ‘For what?’ said Ben, backing away.

  ‘For testing the emergency escape system.’ Coo winked, and then she shoved him overboard.

  ‘HIT THE RED BUTTON AS YOU GET TO THE GROUND,’ she shouted after Ben as he tumbled through the freezing air.

  He had just enough time to scream and madly flap his arms about before the ground rushed up to meet him. He fumbled for the button but missed it altogether and shut his eyes tight, expecting to end his short life as a jammy splotch.

  Then, just centimetres from the ground, he slowed to a stop before being yanked back up into the sky.

  It appeared that the harness Coo had strapped him into was attached to the end of a long rubber rope. Before Ben knew what was happening he burst through some thick cloud and there was Coo, at the wheel of the Gasbag Glider with Herb beside her, his tongue flapping in the breeze.

  ‘Stop mucking about, Pole!’ she yelled. ‘Hit the RED BUTTON!’

  ‘Wha—?’ was all Ben could manage before he dropped back down through the cloud.

  He plummeted towards a line of orange lights that twinkled below him. He was all set to hit the release button as the rope reached its full stretch when—

  Ben touched down in the middle of the street. Lights flashed, engines roared and brakes squealed as cars swerved, missing him by a whisker before he shot back up into the clouds, his heart thumping against his ribs.

  ‘It’s the round RED thing!’ shouted Coo as Ben rose momentarily into view from the thick clouds. ‘On your harness! Just bash it!’

  Ben managed to give Coo a wobbly thumbs up as he reached his peak, rather elegantly turned a full slow somersault, and dropped away again.

  Every time he touched the ground he hammered at the red button, only nothing happened – it was frozen solid!

  And each bounce dragged the Gasbag Glider lower and lower until soon it was skimming the chimney pots. Coo gripped the wheel and expertly steered the glider as it dipped and swooped between the rooftops with Ben dangling all the while on the end of the rubber rope.

  With giant leaps he hopped and skipped through back yards and over buildings until all of a sudden he saw his school ahead.

  ‘We’re coming in fast, Ben! You’ve only got one shot at this now!’ shouted Coo from above.

  Coo lined up the glider perfectly, and with one last bounce Ben leaped over the school railings, only narrowly missing the iron spikes. He rubbed the button furiously to try to warm it up, and the instant his feet touched the ground, whacked it as hard as he could.

  With a loud ping the harness sprung open and whizzed back up to the glider, leaving Ben safely in the middle of the snowy playground.

  He watched as the Gasbag Glider rose gracefully into the sky.

  ‘It works, then!’ shouted Coo, grinning. ‘The ELASTIC BOUNCE-TASTIC! Worked like a dream!’

  ‘Like a nightmare more like.’ Ben chuckled weakly, panting to catch his breath. ‘See you later then, at mine?’

  ‘We’ll be there.’ Coo waved, and as the airship vanished from sight in the white clouds, Ben turned and trotted through the snow to assembly.

  He was late.

  Chapter Two

  Ben managed to slip in at the back of assembly unnoticed.

  He sat quietly while the headmaster, Mr Gigglethwick, was making his daily announcements, and enjoyed a moment catching his breath after his rather eventful journey to school.

  He was just thinking that if he was going to survive whatever Coo had in store for him next, it might be worth spending some of his pocket money on a good sturdy helmet, and perhaps even some body armour, when—

  Dotty Wiggins, sitting three rows in front of Ben, shrieked and turned round in her seat.

  She glared through her enormous glasses, and wiped at her head with
her sleeve. ‘It’s NOT funny!’ she growled, staring at the children behind her, who all sat shrugging in their seats.

  The headmaster paused for a moment, looking up over the top of his glasses, and then continued …

  ‘EEK!’ This time it was Jamal Haddad, a tall boy three seats along from Ben who groaned as he wiped his head and flicked wet gunk from the tips of his fingers. Children were starting to fidget now, nervously looking this way and that.

  ‘What’s going on back there?’ Mr Gigglethwick had stopped what he was saying and stood on tiptoe, craning his neck to see what the disturbance was.

  Ben scanned the crowd but saw nothing. That means it must be coming from … He tilted his head up at the ceiling and …

  He was hit smack in the face by a big glob of slime!

  ‘BLARGH!’ Ben gurgled, as the goo slid down his face and dribbled from the tip of his nose.

  He wiped his eyes and looked up. The ceiling was dotted with dangling blobs of quivering slime! Ben frowned and held up his sticky fingers but just as he was about to take a closer look …

  ‘But—’

  ‘No “buts”, Pole, I’ve got my eye on you!’ said the headmaster, frowning at Ben across the hall. ‘You children really must take things more seriously!’

  The kids settled into a hush, broken only by Dotty Wiggins who said in a loud whisper, ‘Well, he’s got a nerve, telling US to be more serious! I mean, just LOOK at those SOCKS!’

  Ben leaned to one side to see what Dotty was talking about. She wasn’t joking. The headmaster’s socks were lime green and dotted all over with bright pink love hearts.

  They were certainly zany, and not the kind of socks you’d expect Mr Gigglethwick to choose, but that wasn’t what caught Ben’s attention. It was something else. Something weird.

  And assembly was just the beginning.

  Ben’s day got weirder and weirder.

  Of the many strange things that had happened that day, Ben decided that the Mystery of the Vanishing Shoes was the weirdest. It had got worse too. All day long Ben had noticed more and more boys, girls and teachers sliding around the school in their socks.

  It did explain the CURIOUS CASE of the INVISIBLE CHEESE, though. It wasn’t cheese at all. It was Tabitha Fudge. Her shoes had vanished too, and she had the kind of socks that ponged of mouldy old Cheddar so badly that they ought to have been removed to a safe distance and destroyed in a controlled explosion!

  The last lesson of the day was soon over, and Ben was on his way to fetch his coat for the chilly walk home. He was deep in thought. If only he could solve The Mystery of the Vanishing Shoes, then …

  A small boy with a snotty nose came skidding round the corner in his socks and almost knocked Ben clean off his feet.

  ‘It’s STENCH!’ he shouted, as he ran past and sped off down the corridor. ‘Run for it!’

  Before Ben had a chance to change course he bumped straight into six feet of starched white nylon.

  ‘NURSE STENCH!’ he blurted. ‘Er, I mean Tench. Nurse Tench …’ His voice faltered as he looked up into the cold eyes of the school nurse. ‘Um, hello?’

  There was never a good time to bump into Nurse Tench. She was old, mad as a haddock, and the only thing she liked less than children was germs. She was crazy about them! She had a nasty habit of patrolling the hallways on the lookout for signs of contamination. Any hapless kid found with a runny nose or a sniffle would either be spritzed full in the face with her anti-bacterial spray, or dusted willy-nilly with noxious powders. Children and teachers ran and hid whenever they heard her battle cry echoing along the corridors.

  ‘PUT a STOP to SNOTS and GROTS!’

  So, bumping into Tench in the summer was bad enough, but now it was WINTER! And FLU SEASON! Disaster!

  Tench glowered at Ben. She had a particularly wild look about her, so Ben shut his eyes and braced himself for the inevitable spritzing.

  But nothing happened. He opened his eyes cautiously.

  ‘Shoes!’ barked Tench, holding out her gloved hand expectantly.

  ‘Huh?’ said Ben, thoroughly bamboozled. ‘Um, what?’

  ‘Your shoes, Pole,’ said Tench, leaning close enough for Ben to get a whiff of the disinfectant Tench dabbed behind her ears instead of perfume. Pine-scented.

  ‘For decontamination,’ she said, snapping her fingers impatiently. ‘Snots and grots, Pole, snots and grots!’

  Ben slipped off his shoes and handed them over.

  Tench snatched them up, spun on her heel and strode off down the corridor in pursuit of her next victim, the creak of her knees echoing along the hallway.

  Ben let out a long breath and slumped against the wall. Well, he thought, at least I know where all the shoes are going.

  But there were more questions to be answered. Like, what was Tench up to?

  ‘And more importantly’ – he looked at his feet and wiggled his toes –

  Chapter Three

  The Poles’ kitchen was warm and cosy, and something delicious bubbled in a pan on the stove.

  The back door banged open and Ben clumped in through a flurry of snowflakes.

  ‘Hello, love,’ said Mrs Pole, helping Ben off with his coat. ‘What on earth are you wearing?’

  Ben huffed on his chilly fingers and sat down at the table. ‘Well, that is an old cornflakes box,’ he said, pointing at one foot, ‘and that’s half a coconut shell,’ he added, waggling the other.

  ‘Let me guess,’ said Mr Pole, who was at the sink filling the kettle. ‘Tench has gone off her rocker again?’

  ‘Who’s gone off her rocker?’ asked a familiar voice from above.

  Ben and his mum and dad looked up. The Gasbag Glider was moored to the chimney and Coo and Herbert were perched on the edge of the skylight in the kitchen ceiling.

  ‘Ah, Coo! You made it! Marvellous!’ Mr Pole beamed as Coo and Herbert hopped down through the window.

  ‘It’s Tench again!’ said Ben, nodding a hello at Coo and giving Herbert a welcoming scratch behind his ears. ‘Today she confiscated my shoes for decontamination! She’s gone crackers!’

  ‘Crazy in the coconut,’ agreed Coo, shaking snow from her crown and propping her spear against the wall. She turned and aimed a wide smile at Mr Pole. ‘So, Mr P. Ben said you wanted to see me?’

  ‘Ah, yes, Coo! I do! I have a surprise!’ said Mr Pole, rubbing his hands together. ‘Come with me. We’ll nip out while the tea’s brewing. It’s in my shed. This way.’

  Coo raised an eyebrow at Ben.

  ‘Don’t ask me.’ Ben shrugged as they followed Mr Pole out into the garden. ‘He’s been banging about in there for weeks.’

  ‘Did you know Tench was the school nurse when I was a boy?’ Mr Pole chuckled. ‘Tench the Terrible, we called her. My pal Sid went missing for three days one time. Turned out Tench had locked him up in an isolation pod in her office! Ha! Poor Sid only had the hiccups! Sounds like Tench is still as mad as a badger. A-ha! Here we are!’ he announced as they reached the shed. He grabbed the door handle. ‘Ready?’

  The shed was full to bursting with weird and wonderful machines that creaked, clanked, hissed and burbled all around them.

  ‘You HAVE been busy, Mr P.’

  ‘Ha! I KNEW you’d love ’em, Coo! It was you who gave me the idea, actually,’ said Mr Pole, clapping her on the back.

  ‘What … are they?’ wondered Ben.

  ‘My inventions!’ said Mr Pole. ‘My contraptions! Don’t be shy, have a look around!’

  Ben and Coo moved from one machine to the next, pulling levers, twisting knobs and pressing buttons.

  They flinched and ducked as the contraptions sparked, whirled about or spurted jets of hot oil in every direction. Mr Pole looked on eagerly with a big smile on his face and explained what each contraption was for.

  ‘Ha! Well, I think they’re brilliant, Mr P. They’re slightly deadly and enormously unpredictable, but I never let that stop me. Eh, Ben?’ said Coo, nudging Ben in the ribs.

&nb
sp; ‘Thanks, Coo!’ Mr Pole beamed with pride. ‘Help yourself anytime, y’know, if you fancy a spot of Mud ’n’ Acorn marmalade or have a chicken that needs a polish.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Ooh! I reckon the tea will be ready by now. Let’s go in, shall we? Oh, Coo?’ he added as they turned to leave. ‘There’s a fresh packet of Double Choc Crumblies in the garage, if you wouldn’t mind?’

  ‘Sure thing, Mr P. Leave it to me,’ said Coo. ‘Back in a tick.’

  As soon as she was gone, Mr Pole started giggling and jiggling from one foot to the other, like a man with his trousers full of grasshoppers.

  ‘What’s up with you?’ Ben frowned. ‘You haven’t been sampling your Gumboot Glory, have you?’

  ‘Oh, just a little surprise for Coo.’ said Mr Pole, winking at Ben and tapping the side of his nose. ‘The CUSTARD-IZER!’

  ‘The what?’

  ‘The CUSTARD-IZER!’ he whispered. ‘My burglar trap contraption! I set it up in the garage. Who better to test it on than Coo, the king of contraptions? She’ll love it!’ He stepped over to the door and opened it a crack to peek out. ‘Any moment now, there will be a PING, a POP, a SPLOOSH and a shriek! Just you wait!’