Outside, Linden called Ralph who ran quickly towards him.
‘Oh, so the horse is yours?’ asked Max.
‘No, he belongs to Eleanor and Ben,’ Linden explained. ‘But he stays at my place two nights a week. He won’t be any problem. You won’t even know he’s around.’
‘You bet I won’t because I’m going my own way,’ said Max, turning on her heels.
‘But Ben asked me to show you around,’ said Linden.
‘I think I can show myself around.’ And with that Max was off. She wasn’t going to spend any more time than she had to with Farmer Brown Jnr. She’d make her own fun.
But it was later, while Max was in the back paddock, that she found herself in trouble.
She’d been walking through the tall grass cursing the day she was driven to this wasteland. Flies buzzed around her face and up her nose no matter how many times she swished them away, her favourite T-shirt was being snagged by scrubby bush and burrs stuck their gnarly prickles into her new baggy pants. When she stopped to try and get them out, she found herself ankle-deep in mud.
‘Yuck! Swampland. Just what I should have expected,’ she said out loud.
When she tried to lift one foot, she sank a little deeper. And when she tried lifting the other, that got her even further into trouble.
Now Max really started to worry. Every time she moved she sank deeper into the brown smelly slime. She tried again to lift one foot out, but this time she became unbalanced and fell forward into the mud. She put out her hands to break her fall, but all she felt were a few sticks and rocks floating in the stinky mess and no solid ground. She was really done for now. What would Alex Crane do in this situation?
‘You need a hand?’ said a voice behind her.
Max twisted around. Great! Just my luck. I get stuck in some mud and Country Boy and his hound turn up out of nowhere. She could hear him now, laughing at her and calling her the mud queen, just like all the kids at school would have done, making sure everyone within a two hundred kilometre radius knew about it. And making jokes like, ‘How does someone get a pat on the head? Sit under a cow’. All the corny ones Toby Jennings would have let fly by now.
‘No. I’m fine thanks,’ she said stubbornly.
Linden offered his hand.
‘Come on. You’ll never get out of there without help.’
‘I can do it by myself,’ Max insisted.
‘Okay. Whatever you say. I’ll be here if you need me,’ said Linden.
He pushed his hair out of his eyes and watched as Max struggled with the mud and cow pats and bits of tree and other things that squelched around her. She tried to find solid ground, but only managed to sink deeper into the filth.
The stuff was up to her waist and ponging like mad when she really started to panic.
‘Well don’t just stand there,’ she yelled. ‘Help me!’
Linden picked up a long, sturdy stick and held it out to her over the oozing mess. Ralph stood on the edge of the mud and supervised the whole operation.
‘Wow! You’re heavier than I thought,’ gasped Linden.
‘Just get me out of here,’ said Max, losing her temper.
When she was freed from the mud pool she looked like a giant chocolate stick.
Linden couldn’t help but smile. Max did look pretty funny.
‘I’ll walk you back to the farm,’ he said, trying to keep himself from laughing.
‘I can go by myself,’ said Max, scraping great clumps of mud from her clothes.
‘I was going there anyway. It’s almost lunchtime,’ offered Linden.
Great! Now she had to walk with him all the way to the farm where he’d laugh as he told her uncle and aunt how stupid she was, getting caught in the mud. Max folded her muddied arms across her even muddier chest and walked a few paces ahead of him.
Some holiday this is going to be, she thought.
‘So where are you from?’ asked Linden.
What was it going to take for Country Bumpkin to realise Max wasn’t interested in any of his chat? She walked on in silence, hoping he’d get the point.
He tried again. ‘How come you’re spending your holidays here?’
This kid just wasn’t getting it.
‘Let’s just get to the house,’ said Max dismissively.
‘I was just asking …’
Max swung around, put her muddy hands on her muddy hips and really gave it to him.
‘Listen Farmboy, I’m here because I have to be, not because I want to be and just because you got me out of that mud hole doesn’t mean I have to talk to you or anyone else if I don’t want to. And guess what? I don’t want to! In fact, the only thing I really want is the quickest way off this farm. So let’s just get back to the house as soon as we can so I can wash this mud from my skin before it soaks into my head and starts eating my brain.’
Linden sighed as he watched Max walk away.
Sometimes girls were hard to understand.
Ralph barked like he was thinking the same thing.
As Max squelched through the grass she thought about today’s spy embarking on a new adventure. And here she was covered in mud in some place that probably wasn’t even on the map.
Suddenly Linden and Max heard an enormous explosion. Max flung herself on the ground and covered her head.
‘What was that?’ she mumbled into the dirt.
Linden stared down at Max as she lay at his feet.
‘That’s Ben. Working,’ he explained.
‘Working? What’s he doing, blowing up cows?’ Max asked.
‘Cows?’ Linden looked confused.
‘Yeah. That’s what farmers do, don’t they? Work with cows?’ Max asked.
This time Linden couldn’t hold back and let out a really good laugh.
‘A farmer? Ben? He wouldn’t know the front of a cow from the back unless I pointed it out to him.’
Max clenched her teeth and felt like someone had poured hot lava onto her cheeks. She hated being laughed at and she thought she might look a little ridiculous lying in the dirt so she stood up.
‘If he’s not a farmer, what does he do?’ she demanded.
‘He’s a scientist, of course. So is Eleanor. They are your aunt and uncle, aren’t they?’ asked Linden, frowning.
Max was a bit embarrassed.
‘Our families aren’t real close,’ she explained. ‘And if they are scientists, why aren’t they working in some laboratory somewhere?’
‘They used to, in England. They were part of a team of top scientists working for the British Government, but they left it all behind and came to Australia. They owned expensive cars, were earning loads of money and winning awards with everything they did, but now Ben works in his shed all times of the day and night. I guess working for the Government wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.’
So that could explain the footsteps on the verandah last night, Max thought.
‘What are they working on now?’ she asked.
‘Eleanor sends articles to scientific journals and has written heaps of books, and Ben is working on a secret project that could change the face of the world as we know it,’ said Linden proudly.
Max had to get this straight. The same Ben who wiped toast through egg goo and the same Eleanor who thought you could tell the weather by the behaviour of a pig were brilliant scientists from England? Things were really turning out to be stranger than she thought they ever could be.
‘What’s the secret project?’ she asked.
‘He said he couldn’t tell us until he was finished, but he reckons that could be any day now.’
‘Can we have a look?’ asked Max, still sceptical about what Linden was saying.
‘He doesn’t like to be interrupted,’ explained Linden.
Max wanted to check out what this top secret project was, so she pushed a little further.
‘Shouldn’t we make sure he’s okay?’ she asked.
‘He’ll be fine. Happens all the time,’ said Linden.
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If Ben really was working on a project that would change the world, Max wasn’t going to waste her time falling into swamps. She was going to find out all about it. But first she needed a shower. The flies were beginning to buzz around her in swarms and the drying mud was really starting to pong.
When Max and Linden arrived at the farm there was no one in the kitchen making lunch.
‘Eleanor’s probably gone to get Ben,’ said Linden. ‘Once he starts working he can forget the world’s still turning.’
Linden paused, staring towards the shed like he was gazing at some ancient wonder. Max rolled her eyes. After a few seconds, Linden turned to her and realised he must have looked a little odd.
‘That’s what Eleanor says, anyway.’
‘Right,’ said Max and walked away. She wasn’t interested in anything Farmboy had to say. All she needed now was a hot shower. By now the mud had dried, making it hard for Max to move. She walked down the hall with her legs bowed, like she’d just got off a horse. She stopped in front of Ben and Eleanor’s prehistoric bathroom.
‘I bet cavemen had better bathrooms than this one,’ she sighed.
She imagined herself back in her own bathroom, turning on the shiny gold taps and running a deep, hot bath with a big squeeze of her mother’s smelly and specially imported bath stuff. Then she’d turn on the spa jets and lock the door so she could bubble there for hours without interruption.
‘Max?’ It was Linden again. What was it about him that just wasn’t understanding that Max wanted to be left alone?
‘Yeah?’
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ Linden asked.
That was another thing about this house. There always seemed to be a pot of tea happening somewhere, like they spent half their time drinking the stuff.
‘All I need right now is a shower, thank you,’ said Max, trying to make her voice sound cold so that Linden would go away.
‘Okey dokey,’ sang Linden, before he walked away whistling.
The image of the pristine bathroom in Max’s head was gone. There was no spa, no smelly bath stuff, just a slab of soap that didn’t smell of anything and two ancient taps that screeched like low flying crows as Max struggled to turn them on.
She sighed and would have given her whole CD collection to be instantly transported off this farm and back home.
When she turned off the taps, she could hear Eleanor, Ben and Linden down the corridor sharing a good belly laugh.
Great! Farmboy had told them about the mud. Now Ben and Eleanor were going to think she was some klutz from the city, who couldn’t even walk straight. Maybe she should just go to her room rather than face the humiliation.
But not before she knew what they were saying about her.
Max tiptoed down the hall to put her ear against the door but as she did, she tripped over a fold in the hall rug and fell forward, crashing through the door and landing face first on the kitchen floor.
‘Max, we were waiting for you,’ smiled Eleanor.
Eleanor, Linden, Ben and Ralph all beamed down at her.
‘Ben has something important he wants to tell us,’ Eleanor added.
Max got up off the floor and sat down at the table. Why did she always find herself on the ground when big things happened?
Ben stood up and made a show of straightening his shirt. Not that it made any difference, it looked old enough for Moses to have worn. He picked up a glass and clanged a teaspoon against it.
‘Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention please,’ he said in a very dramatic voice.
Everyone went quiet.
‘And may I have a drumroll too?’
Eleanor and Linden banged their hands on the table drumroll style. Ralph gave a loud howl and, from outside the wire door, Larry chimed in with a few loud snorts.
Max stared at them and wondered why Ben didn’t just get to the point.
‘This morning, Professor Benjamin J. Williams in his humble yet sturdy laboratory in Mindawarra, Australia, discovered the key to the secret of matter transportation.’
Eleanor and Linden burst into cheers and applause.
‘It has a few hiccups,’ he went on. ‘But I believe with a few simple modifications it will be ready to present to the world.’
Eleanor jumped up and swung her arms around Ben’s neck.
Linden jumped up and swung his arms around Max’s neck.
‘What the …?’ Max pulled away.
‘Sorry, I got excited,’ Linden apologised and put his offending hands in his pockets.
Ben and Eleanor meanwhile were in the middle of another long and sloppy kiss. Couldn’t they wait until they were alone? It was like sitting through whole episodes of The Bold and The Beautiful. I hope they’re not going to be like this all holidays, thought Max. Puke city! She had to stop them and get them back to the important bit.
‘Can we see it?’ she interrupted.
Ben let Eleanor go.
‘Sure. Why don’t you and Linden make a few sandwiches to take down to the shed and I’ll show you how it works?’
Max had never made sandwiches quicker in her whole life. Within ten minutes they were all seated, ready for the demonstration.
The shed was like nothing Max had ever seen before. There were large benches packed so full with stuff that you couldn’t see the surfaces. There were wires and panels with dials and switches and lights and tubes and transistors and cords and rolls of wire and jars and boxes of all sorts of bits and pieces. There were tools and manuals and newspapers and torches and tea cups and soldering irons and protective goggles and a miniature replica of Big Ben. The walls were plastered with maps and diagrams and rough sketches of plans, machines and ideas and hats and a few crumpled lab coats and, of course, there were the millions of books that seemed to be in every room of Ben and Eleanor’s house. But tucked away in a corner, only just visible in all the clutter of the shed, Max saw a small shelf with a snow dome of London and a small photo frame with a young-looking Ben and another man he had his arm around, both smiling at the camera.
Max would never have guessed from the outside that this is what she would find in Ben’s shed.
Ben stood next to a workbench where a small object was hidden underneath a cloth.
‘And now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for,’ he announced.
Max sat on the edge of her seat, curious to see what was under the cloth.
‘But first,’ said Ben, ‘I want to say something.’
Max’s shoulders slumped. Why did he have to drag everything out?
‘I want to thank a few people who have been very important in making this happen. First, Linden, who has always been a good friend and whose help around the place has made everything for me and Eleanor so much easier.’
Ben and Eleanor clapped and Linden’s face went so red you could use it as a torch to see in the dark.
‘Next, I want to thank Eleanor, who has always believed in me and stood by me every step of the way.’ He gave a small, crooked smile. ‘Even when some of my ideas must have seemed a little kooky.’
Ben leant over and kissed her.
Max groaned. All this mushy emotional stuff was really getting embarrassing.
‘And finally, I would like to officially welcome Max. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a visitor and Eleanor and Linden and I want you to treat this as your home.’
All three of them turned towards Max and clapped. She shifted awkwardly in her chair and was probably redder than Linden was. She wanted someone to say something to take their attention off her.
‘And now for the moment we’ve been waiting for. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the key to the Matter Transporter.’
Ben flung off the cloth and on the bench was a small, purple, box-like device. At the top end was a small, round, glass knob that looked like a remote sensor and on the front was an LED screen with a grid drawn across it. Below that was a keypanel, like a computer keyboard, but with three extra keys labelled, sca
n, activate and transport. On the side, a long, thin, pencil-like stick nestled into a plastic groove and in the top right corner was a green bleeping light above the word power. Ben stood with his chest puffed up with pride and a smile that spread right across to his ears.
‘Introducing the Matter Transporter control panel,’ Ben cried. ‘Max, come over here and you can have the honour of trying it out.’
Max walked over and Ben handed her the peculiar device.
‘This light indicates your power supply,’ said Ben. ‘When it’s green, the control panel is in operation, but when it turns red, you know you are running low on power and need to recharge it. You can either leave it in the sun for a few minutes to fully recharge it, thanks to these ultra-powerful solar cells on the back, or simply plug it into the nearest socket using this fold-out, multi-adaptable plug with retractable cord.’
Ben turned the device over and showed Max the line of grey solar cells and small connector cord that he pulled out and which sprung back when he let it go.
‘This button at the top is for a micro camera that has two main functions. Firstly, it records images of any place you are in. The image appears on the LED screen. After you have captured the image, you use the plastic rod at the side to draw an outline on the screen around the items you wish to transport, thus defining the limits of the transporter capsule.’
Max was intrigued by the power of such a small machine and was doing her best to take in everything Ben was saying.
‘The second function of the micro camera is as a scanner. You simply point the camera at any map, atlas or street directory, and after pressing the scan key, the control panel will, in just a matter of seconds, record all the contents of the map and absorb it into its vast memory. All you need to do then is, using the rod, type the name of the place you would like to transport your goods to. The control panel will work out the coordinates and, just by pressing the transport key, do the transporting.’
‘What will we transport?’ asked Max, eager to see a demonstration.
Ben looked around him.
‘This sandwich,’ he said, picking up a ham and cheese sandwich. ‘Why don’t you create the transporter capsule for us?’
In Search of the Time and Space Mach Page 3