Before Kevin could sound off again Debbie said that they would consider what to do after they had spoken to Jamie. The headmaster gave a heavy sigh and said, ‘Thank you, Mrs Tranter for your sensible suggestion.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Kevin challenged.
Debbie s stood up and tugged at her husband’s arm, signalling that they should leave before saying, ‘Let’s go, Kevin and wait until we have spoken to Jamie when we get home. Our Jamie must be wondering what’s happening.’
Jamie was looking subdued when they joined him in Mrs Farr’s office, but he started laughing, causing Kevin and Debbie to be puzzled and worried. The reason for Jamie’s continued laughter was that Mr Cookson had followed Kevin and Debbie out of his office and there was an ant eater’s head where Mr Cookson’s should have been and it had an extra long snout. Jamie’s laughter stopped for a moment until the ‘ant eater’ spoke in Mr Cookson’s voice and ordered Kevin to take his unruly son home. Jamie was still laughing as the family left the building and when Kevin asked him to pull himself together he gave his dad a puzzled look and replied, ‘What have I done wrong now?’
The Tranters made their journey home in silence and when Debbie emerged from the kitchen with three cups of tea it was a much calmer Kevin who asked Jamie to give his version of events.
‘I’ve told you and I’ve told Mr Cookson and the others that I don’t remember anything except hearing the headmaster tell us how well the school had done in the mock exams.’
Kevin had been studying his son’s face and he was satisfied that Jamie was telling the truth.
‘Son, all the teachers and your mates must have heard you having a go at the headmaster and we saw you laughing at Mr Cookson as we were leaving and we couldn’t see anything that would have made you laugh. You were almost in hysterics. There must be some explanation and perhaps the headmaster is right in suggesting that the medical folks check you over. It’s probably just some stress thing. Maybe you’ve been studying too hard or it might be something to do with hormones.’
‘Hormones!’ Jamie shouted out. ‘Boys don’t have hormones. Do they, Mum?’
‘I think your dad means that teenagers sometimes go through an odd experience when their bodies are developing.’
Jamie looked very anxious when he asked if they thought he might be changing into a girl.
‘Don’t be daft,’ laughed Kevin and decided against joking with his son and suggesting that he could still play football, but it would be for the girl’s team.
Kevin could see that Jamie was upset and tried to reassure him further. ‘Of course you won’t change into a girl. Your mum will make an appointment with the doctor and you’ll soon be sorted out. He’ll probably just prescribe some form of tonic, tell you to rest for a week and you’ll soon be back at school.’
Kevin and Debbie waited until Jamie was in bed and out of earshot before they discussed Jamie’s behaviour during the incident at school and wondered if it was connected with the accident he had when he was a small boy. He had fallen from a swing in the park and had needed an operation to remove swelling around his brain, but they had been assured that there would be no after affects. However, recent events had made them anxious that it might be connected with the accident because Jamie had no recollection of his odd behaviour. They would always be grateful to the surgeon who had saved Jamie’s life and wanted to thank him at the time, but he had mysteriously disappeared soon after performing the operation.
There had been more bad news for Jamie before he headed for bed when his dad insisted that he hand over the computer room key until everything was sorted out. Being sorted out, would start with an appointment with the family’s GP who was to decide that there was nothing physically wrong with Jamie and referred him to a child psychiatrist.
CHAPTER TWENTY–THREE
Professor Geraint Morris was the oddest looking man that Jamie had ever seen. The shoulder length hair was speckled with grey, as was the excuse for a beard and the thin face was full of what his mum called, ‘worry lines.’ The nose was normal size, but was an odd shade of red and those front teeth would not have looked out of place on Jamie’s favourite race horse, Red Rum. Jamie had never seen the famous three times winner of the Grand National race, except on video, but the horse had been truly awesome. Jamie guessed that Professor Morris must be Welsh, but he sounded more like a foreigner, perhaps German.
As Jamie waited to be called in for his second appointment he sensed that his mum was beginning to feel the strain of his unexplained behaviour. He’d remembered an odd comment that Daniel had made about some interference in space being a possible cause of his problems, but perhaps he shouldn’t have told his parents he might have been affected by some odd events happening in outer space. During Jamie’s first visit to Professor Morris he had diagnosed Jamie as having classical symptoms of a split personality and had left Jamie wondering what the heck that meant.
Jamie gave his mum a smile and told her not to worry as he placed the magazine he had been reading on the table and followed Professor Morris’s receptionist into his office.
‘Thank you, Gertrude,’ said the Professor, ‘Perhaps you could bring us a cup of tea later, that’s if Jamie would like one.’
Jamie declined the offer and Gertrude left. She must be a relative thought Jamie, perhaps the professor’s Grandma.
The Professor gave Jamie a friendly welcome and invited him to sit opposite him.
‘Now, Jamie, have you had any more incidents since your last appointment?’
Jamie was mesmerised by the small pieces of cornflake in the Professor’s beard and there was a delay before he replied, ‘No, I keep telling you that I’ve never had an ‘incident’.
‘Have you ever heard of Naughtyis?’
Jamie was surprised by the question and replied, ‘It sounds like the name of planet, but I am interested in astronomy and I don’t believe there is such a planet.’
Professor Morris smiled,’ Yes, I know it’s not a planet, but it would be familiar to you if you have studied Greek mythology.’
‘I know the names of a few Greek football teams who have played in the European cup, but I’ve never heard of Naughtyis. Mr Franks, my teacher, sometimes mentions mythology to us, but it all sounds farfetched, or as my dad would say, a load of cobblers.’
It wasn’t the first time that Jamie had quoted his dad and Professor Morris remarked that his dad sounded as though he might be a student of philosophy.
‘He’s that all right,’ Jamie said with a grin.
‘It’s a pity we haven’t met. I’m sure that he would be very interesting to talk to, although I feel that I know him already.’
Jamie could just imagine what his dad would have said if he had met the mad professor with cornflakes in his beard.
Jamie felt uncomfortable and fidgeted in his chair as the Professor studied him in between glancing at the framed picture on his desk.
The Professor passed the picture to Jamie and asked him to study it for a moment and then reveal what he thought of it.
‘It’s a bit weird. I suppose my mum would say that it was Billy Wind blowing down on the children below him.’
‘The figure you call Billy Wind is actually Naughtyis the God of Mischief. Well, that’s what the Greek translates to. Does he look familiar to you?’
‘He does look slightly familiar, but I don’t know who it is he reminds me of,’ Jamie replied
‘Isn’t there a resemblance to your own father?’
‘No way, although I sometimes think that my dad would suit horns,’ Jamie joked.
Professor Morris looked disappointed and asked Jamie if he recognised any of the children, especially the one who wasn’t frightened and was smiling up at Naughtysis. Jamie had to answer with a, no and then another, no when the Professor asked him if he thought that the boy looked like Jamie; although after he had taken a closer look he admitted to himself that there was a faint resemblance. The Professor explained that had Jami
e been familiar with Naughtyis he might have subconsciously come under the god’s influence and that would have explained his behaviour. Jamie could think of quite a few boys back home in Liverpool who had definitely come under the influence of old Naughtyis. He must remember that the next time he got told off for teasing his sister to tell his mum it was Naughtyis’s fault.
The Professor brought the session to an abrupt close by telling Jamie to wait outside and ask his mum to come in.
Jamie was glad that it was only a few minutes before his mum came out of the office because the woman he had christened Frau Gertrude had been staring at him since the moment he’d sat down. At least his mum looked pleased and that was because Professor Morris had decided that Jamie was fit to return to school. He would recommend that Jamie should be allowed back in the same school and his report would say that Jamie had suffered from some unexplained behavioural change and that would also account for his temporary loss of memory. Such cases were rare and there were many theories as to their cause, however, he was confident that Jamie was not play acting or seeking attention. Professor Morris would ask the school to report any changes in Jamie’s future behaviour and he asked that Debbie and Kevin did likewise.
‘So, does that mean that I’m not going nutty?’ Jamie asked as they made their way out of the building.
‘Well no more nutty than Professor Morris or your dad,’ replied his mum and they both laughed with relief that the nightmare was over and hopefully things would soon be back to normal.
Jamie had no way of knowing that his troubles were far from over and he would soon face great danger.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Jamie was greeted by his classmates like a returning hero and discovered that his street cred had rocketed. There was the odd remark about him being loopy, but most boys believed that he knew exactly what he’d said to the headmaster and had conned everyone by pretending not to remember.
Mr Cookson didn’t get his award and had decided to take early retirement and so the new headmaster was in place. Mr Tatum was entirely different to his predecessor and he had given Jamie a friendly welcome and said that he expected great things from him. Some of the teachers seemed rather wary of him and one or two were a bit frosty, but the sports teacher, Mr Mortimer had whispered to him, ‘Welcome back, Jamie, we’ve missed you on the football field.’
* * *
Jamie was subjected to a folly of questions when he returned home after his first day back at school because his mum and dad were anxious to know how it had been.
Jamie knew that his mum was still very upset about what had happened, so he tried to be patient when he answered the barrage of questions with a bit more than his usual, ‘It was all right.’
‘So, you didn’t get too much aggro?’ Kevin asked
‘Not really. It was easier than I thought, with Mr Cookson having left. I feel a bit guilty about him going because old Cookie wasn’t a bad headmaster really, especially compared to Mr Tinley back at the old school.’
Kevin smiled, ‘I suppose anyone would be better than old Psycho Tinley. I remember him giving me the cane once when he was a young teacher. You could tell that he liked it using it, but he was fair. I’ll give him that.’
‘I remember you at school,’ Debbie said. ‘You were a wind up merchant even then and always taking the mickey out of the teachers. So, why did you get the cane?’
‘Well, it was nothing really. I just climbed onto the roof above the school canteen to get the tennis ball back that we were using to play footy in the playground. I’d done it lots of times before, but Miss Snooty Baxendale started screaming that I was going to fall. She also reckoned that bits of plaster dropped off the ceiling into the food. I wouldn’t have minded, but from what I remember ceiling plaster probably tasted better than some of the school dinners.’
Debbie shook her head as though she was disapproving of Kevin’s exploits at school and reminded him that they had some good news for Jamie.
‘Your Mum’s right, Jamie because we have decided you are no longer grounded.’
Jamie’s face brightened up when his dad handed him the key to the computer room.
‘Thanks, Dad.’
Jamie snatched the key from his dad and hurried from the living room ready to scale the stairs at record speed. He fumbled with the key, anxious to find out if he was still able to communicate with Daniel.
Within seconds of hitting the power button the familiar message on the screen indicated that he was connected.
‘Welcome back, Jamie! Have you had a malfunction?’
Jamie smiled and replied. ‘I suppose you could call it that. It’s a long story. Let’s just say that I was grounded.’
‘I am familiar with your odd expression ‘grounded. It sounds as though you have been up to some mischief.’
‘So they tell me,’ replied Jamie, remembering his last visit to Professor Morris which prompted him to ask Daniel a question about Naughtyis.
‘I thought you knew about the Greek God of Mischief,’ Daniel replied and then asked for details of Jamie’s recent acts of mischief. He seemed to want to know every detail and Jamie concluded that perhaps life in Scarborough was dull.
Jamie decided to keep the session short, not wishing to get in his dad’s bad books after recent events, but before he signed off he mentioned the latest computer specification that he’d read about in a magazine.
‘Wow that’s tremendous,’ Daniel said in a sarcastic tone and then started laughing. Daniel had the most infectious laugh and Jamie was still smiling when he returned downstairs.
‘What’s so funny,’ asked Kevin, pleased that his son appeared to be back to his normal happy go lucky self.
‘I just had a joke email from a friend,’ Jamie lied.
‘Well let’s hear it then.’
‘You wouldn’t get it, Dad. It was a techie joke about modems and routers,’ Jamie lied.
Kevin shook his head and said, ‘Right,’ and carried on reading his newspaper.
Before Jamie went to bed he returned to the computer room and discovered that a message had arrived from Daniel with an attachment containing a photograph. Jamie studied the photograph of Uncle Stanley which looked as though it was a fairly recent one judging by his age and noted a slight resemblance to his late Granddad Tranter and there was a resemblance to someone else. Uncle Stanley reminded him of Naughtyis the God of Mischief, who Jamie had seen in Professor’s Morris’s picture, except he didn’t have any horns. Jamie would like to have printed a copy of Uncle Stanley’s photograph to show his dad, but wouldn’t have been able to explain where it had come from.
* * *
When Jamie logged on the following evening he sensed that Daniel was subdued and the reason was soon explained when Daniel said he had some important news for Jamie.
‘For me!’ asked a surprised Jamie, wondering what it could be.
‘I was telling my grandfather about the things that happened to you and he said that you might have been subjected to some sort of brain interception interference.’
‘Huh,’ was all that Jamie could muster at first and then asked Daniel to explain himself.
‘The performance of your brain can be affected by cosmic activity or intervention.’
‘You’ve lost me, Daniel. What are you talking about?’
‘My granddad has studied these things and reckons that there was some freak conditions in the upper atmosphere at the time.’
‘I still don’t follow you, mate. It sounds like your old granddad is a bit of a crankey.’
‘What’s a crankey?’ Daniel asked.
‘You know, a crank, someone who has strange ideas like believing in the influence of the stars and the position of the moon and all that sort of stuff.’
Daniel laughed and told Jamie that he would tell his granddad about his new nickname, but then he got serious and told Jamie that atmospheric interference wasn’t the only reason for his odd behaviour, but didn’t elaborate on what else might
be the cause.
Jamie didn’t tell Daniel that his dad had suggested that a likely cause was that Jamie was too fond of Crackypops his favourite breakfast cereal or his brain had suffered from ‘compufrazzle’ as a result of spending too much time in front of a computer.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Sligo settled himself in the seat in Rufus’s shed ready to start another evening of surveillance concentrating on the rear of the Tranter house. The room he was interested in was in darkness and so he might have to be very patient. According to Rufus the attic room was the only room that he hadn’t been in when he had gone into the house to feed the cat. Rufus was a real nosey guy and was able to sketch out the layout of the house which was different to his own and the room in the attic was the result of a loft conversion. He had also told Sligo that there was a computer in the house, but he hadn’t seen it, so it must be in the room up in the attic that had been locked. Why would anyone lock an upstairs room unless they had something to hide, like some communication equipment? Sligo had a strong feeling about this room.
The Tranter guy he’d seen at the pig farm and caught a glimpse of in his back garden and he didn’t exactly look like a master spy. If he was working for some foreign intelligence service like the Ruskies, then his job was one heck of a cover. The equipment had to be in the Tranter house and yet there was no sign of a sophisticated antennae system that Slater, the Brit communications expert, had told him would have to be in place. Not unless it was located in a remote position away from the house or perhaps camouflaged.
It was just after 9 o’clock when Sligo decided that nothing was going to happen on this watch and he headed back indoors. He’d logged once again that there had been some activity in the room, but only for about ten minutes.
* * *
Sligo was in his room filling out the Meltog chart, a sort of flowchart for intelligence surveillance, when he heard Rufus answer the knock on the front door. Sligo eased his giant frame out of the chair and tiptoed to the bedroom door, taking special care not to bang his head on the low ceiling. The caller was speaking very quickly, almost as fast as a New Yorker and in an accent that he hadn’t heard before and he was relieved that it wasn’t an American accent that might have meant that someone had come looking for him. Sligo had to rely upon what Rufus was saying in order to piece together the conversation.
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