[Sarah Jane Adventures 05] - Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane

by RUPERT LAIGHT

  ‘No…’ she murmured. ‘Not you…’

  It was Sarah Jane Smith.

  ‘Andrea Yates,’ she called, her voice sad, distant and echoing. ‘It’s you. All grown up.’

  Andrea turned pale. She realised who it was. Her old school friend. The one she hadn’t seen in more than forty years. But she wasn’t a child any more — she was an adult, as old as she was. ‘Well, look at you,’ she said, with a sneer. ‘Scrubbed up well. But then you always did look younger than you were.’ Andrea paused to think. Her face darkened. ‘But you can’t be here!’ she cried, realising it wasn’t possible for them both to exist. ‘Not while I’m here! You can’t come back!’

  Just then the attic door flew open and Maria and Alan burst in.

  ‘Sarah Jane!’ called Maria, as she caught sight of her friend trapped inside the mirror.

  ‘That’s her?’ asked Alan, still carrying the Graske’s device. ‘But she’s only in the mirror. This thing didn’t work.’

  ‘I can’t get back while Andrea’s here,’ called Sarah Jane. And I must get back — to save Luke. To save the world!’

  ‘So what do we do?’ asked Maria, desperately.

  ‘There is a way,’ said Sarah Jane, solemnly, looking Andrea in the eye. ‘It’s why the Trickster got rid of Maria. Because she was the one who confronted you — and she might have persuaded you to go back on your deal. This whole thing depends on your agreement to my death, all those years ago.’

  ‘If you break off the deal,’ shouted Maria, ‘Sarah Jane will come back. All you have to do is pull out of it, say no.’

  ‘I can’t!’ spat Andrea.

  ‘If you don’t, that meteor’s going to hit!’ joined in Alan. ‘Is that what you want?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Andrea, but you were meant to die!’ cried Maria, angrily.

  ‘Meant? Who says I’m meant to die?’ Andrea was shaking with rage now. ‘I was so young. I had so much to do. And I did it. Look at me. I lived — every single moment. Because I knew what it was worth.’

  ‘So did I!’ yelled Sarah Jane.

  Andrea turned around and faced the mirror. ‘And you’re the chosen one? The golden girl?’ she asked, sarcastically.

  ‘Nobody was chosen. It was stupid and pointless, what happened that day. But this is worse. The Trickster twisted it — he used you.’

  ‘So I die… at thirteen?’

  ‘And my son gets a chance to live. He’s lost out there, Andrea, somewhere terrible. And I’m begging you — please save him.’

  ‘If I do, what happens to my life?’ asked Andrea, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. ‘All the things I did as I grew up — they get scrubbed out? I get forgotten?’

  Andrea thought back across her fifty-six years. She remembered all the amazing things she’d done. With incredible clarity she saw herself passing her driving test, getting into art college, the first painting she ever sold, her holiday to Kenya, the night her mother died… it was all as vivid as if it had happened only yesterday.

  ‘You were never forgotten. Never.’ Sarah Jane’s voice brought her back to the present. ‘What I saw that day, it changed me forever. I saw how precious life is. And it made me fight to defend it — across all these years. Because of you, Andrea.’ Her voice quivered, almost breaking up. ‘It was all because of you. My best friend.’

  Suddenly Andrea shuddered and turned around. There was the Trickster, shrouded in his long, black cloak, standing at the back of the attic.

  ‘Is that him?’ asked Alan. ‘Is that the Trickster?’ He headed angrily for the creature, as if he was going to lash out at him.

  ‘Dad, no! Don’t go near him!’ Maria shrieked, and she grabbed hold of her dad’s T-shirt and held him back.

  ‘Andrea Yates!’ called the Trickster, in an echoing voice. ‘They want to kill you all over again. Remember your bargain with me.’

  Andrea slowly walked over to the shadowy form and looked him directly in the face — or, at least, where his face should have been. She shook her head sadly, her voice choked with tears. ‘You tricked me! You used a child! And now you’re destroying Earth!’

  ‘Chaos is good,’ he said.

  ‘Well, I say no,’ hissed Andrea, defiantly. ‘If there’s one thing I can do with my life, it’s put a stop to you — for good!’ Andrea took a deep breath. ‘I’ve changed my mind,’ she said. ‘I’m taking the deal back!’

  ‘Then you die!’ bellowed the Trickster, cruelly.

  ‘I’ve been dead for over forty years.’

  Andrea turned her back on him and headed for the mirror. She stared sadly at her old friend. ‘It’s been a good life… it’s my birthday today…’ She paused for a moment, then smiled. ‘Goodbye, Sarah Jane. I’m going now. And you’re free!’

  And with tears falling down her face, Andrea threw the silver box at the mirror and the glass shattered into hundreds of pieces.

  The Trickster let out a terrible scream and vanished from the room.

  And so did Andrea Yates.

  Back in 1964, it was no longer Sarah Jane gripping onto the pier for dear life, but Andrea once again. History had been returned to its original course.

  The young Sarah Jane leaned over the edge, trying frantically to grasp her friend’s hand. ‘Andrea!’ she yelled. ‘Grab my hand! Grab my hand! Andrea!’

  Andrea looked up at her friend. ‘Remember me,’ she whispered, then her grip loosened and she fell down, down, down into the murky sea.

  ‘No-ooooooo!’ cried Sarah Jane.

  But it was too late.

  In the attic, in the present day, Sarah Jane, Maria, Alan and Luke all fell to the floor.

  ‘I’m back!’ laughed Sarah Jane.

  ‘We’re all back!’ Maria looked around her. The attic had returned to how it used to be — cluttered with strange alien technology, books, memorabilia, and all the things that only Sarah Jane could have. She let out a long sigh of relief.

  ‘Back where we belong!’ Sarah Jane grinned at her friends — and they grinned back.

  ‘That felt like a spatio-temporal shift caused by extra-quantum forces,’ said Luke, proudly.

  ‘In English?’ asked Alan.

  ‘Oh, it’s all back to normal!’ laughed Maria. Then she remembered something that made her stomach leap up into her mouth. The meteor!’

  ‘It’s still coming!’ cried Sarah Jane.

  ‘Thirty seconds till impact!’ added Luke.

  ‘Mr Smith, I need you!’

  Sarah Jane, Luke and Maria raced over to the brick chimney breast that concealed the computer. With big puffs of steam and the noise of a jet engine firing up, Mr Smith emerged, his lights flashing frantically. ‘Emergency measures required,’ he said.

  ‘Luke — steady the magnetic buffer!’ ordered Sarah Jane.

  Luke threw a large lever forward. ‘Done!’

  ‘Come on!’ called Maria, knowing there was next to no time before the meteor crashed into them, obliterating the planet totally.

  ‘Right, Mr Smith,’ said Sarah Jane. ‘Activate!’

  The computer’s screen filled with statistics and calculations as he strained to deflect the meteor.

  Maria closed her eyes and hoped that if she used all her willpower too, they could stop the rock from hitting Earth. But she also knew it would take more than just willpower…

  Out on Bannerman Road, Chrissie, Clyde and their neighbours cowered in the shadow of the burning ball of rock as it roared towards them.

  It was so close now that they could feel its heat. Everything was getting darker and darker as it blocked out the light from the sun, and tiny pieces of ash and fragments of rock were raining down on them. The air stank and if you inhaled too deeply your lungs were filled with fumes.

  Clyde crouched down, his arms wrapped around him and his face covered.

  Chrissie simply closed her eyes, clasped her hands together and let out a long breath.

  But then a miracle happened. Just as the massive meteor was about to crash in
to the ground, it suddenly turned, passed over their heads and blazed back out into space.

  The crowd on the street stared up at the flaming ball as it dwindled back into the late afternoon sky.

  The air was now filled with the sound of cheering, and people were running about, embracing one another.

  The cheering made Clyde look up, and what he saw changed his expression from fear to relief and then delight. ‘She did it!’ he yelled, at the top of his voice. ‘She did it!’ And he jumped up and down on the spot in triumph.

  Chrissie opened her eyes, but remained rooted to the spot. Then after a long pause she spoke. ‘Oh, like Bobby Sue had anything to do with that!’ she scoffed. But she couldn’t help grinning, too, happy to be alive. ‘You’ll be telling me she invented the zip next!’

  But Clyde wasn’t listening. He was still leaping about, making whooping noises. ‘Come here!’ he called, and he grabbed Chrissie by the waist and they span around together in circles, laughing and cheering.

  In the attic, Sarah Jane and Maria were also dancing for joy. Luke looked on, smiling.

  ‘Meteor K67 has been deflected,’ said Mr Smith.

  ‘Yes! We did it!’ cried Sarah Jane, and she threw her arms around her son. ‘But never mind that — you’re back!’

  ‘Was I away?’ asked Luke, innocently.

  ‘Yes, but you’re never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever going away again!’

  ‘But what happened?’ Luke looked confused.

  ‘A friend of mine just saved the world,’ said Sarah Jane, a proud smile on her face. ‘Her name was Andrea Yates.’

  Just then the attic door burst open and Clyde raced in. ‘Oh, that was brilliant!’ he shouted. ‘We did it! You should have seen it out there…’ He trailed off as he caught sight of Alan. ‘What’s he doing here?’

  Everyone turned and stared at Maria’s dad.

  Alan was standing quietly in the corner, a baffled, frightened expression on his face.

  ‘Aliens? Monsters? Supercomputers?’ he said. ‘Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?’

  It hadn’t occurred to Maria for one second that her dad was now standing in Sarah Jane’s secret attic — a place he was never supposed to see. In all the confusion to stop Andrea, she hadn’t even thought about telling him not to follow her upstairs. He now knew things he wasn’t meant to know — that there was alien life all around them, and that she, Sarah Jane and their friends had been facing it every day.

  ‘Come on!’ he demanded. ‘I need some answers!’ He paused and stared from one to the other, his gaze finally resting on Maria. ‘Who’s going first?’

  Epilogue

  Maria and Alan left number thirteen and wandered down the driveway. It was still light, though the sun was making its way slowly down towards the horizon.

  Maria couldn’t believe that only hours before she hadn’t existed. Time had been changed and her entire life had vanished and been instantly forgotten — even by those she loved the most, and who loved her.

  And she wasn’t the only one. Sarah Jane, her dearest friend, had disappeared, too. All her life after the age of thirteen had evaporated. And what would Maria do without Sarah Jane? She would never have had all the adventures they’d had, would never have met creatures from another world, never felt like she mattered so much. And she did matter, she knew that.

  Still, Andrea had done the right thing in the end and sacrificed herself. After all, in a funny kind of way, she had had the best of both worlds. In Andrea’s mind she had lived all those years, she hadn’t died in 1964. Strangely, she’d cheated time. But it was all too complicated to think about. Maria decided if she kept going her head might explode.

  She sighed. Everything was back to normal now. Well, almost normal. There was, however, one tiny problem. Her dad.

  Sarah Jane had said that now he’d seen the attic and the aliens, it was best if Maria explained everything to him. And it was only right to come from her. After all, she knew him better than anyone.

  Sarah Jane had also said there was no point in simplifying the truth or skipping the tricky bits. Her friend had been clear about this. Alan had seen what he’d seen — in fact, without his help Earth would have been destroyed — and there was no point keeping all the facts from him.

  But where should she begin, pondered Maria? How to explain this amazing world she’d found herself at the very centre of, since they had moved to Bannerman Road? It wasn’t going to be easy.

  Still, there was a part of Maria that was relieved.

  At last she could be honest about her life. She could share those things that were most important to her with her dad. They’d be on the same footing, able to support one another, confide in one another. Just like a father and daughter ought to.

  Maria smiled up at her dad as they walked down the path to their own house and Alan opened the front door.

  Though it wouldn’t be easy, she just knew everything would be all right in the end. Tomorrow would be a whole new day and, no doubt, a whole new adventure.

  Only this time they’d face it together.