The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls
Page 13
Kipp smiled. He couldn’t see his parents, which was perfect because the Kindle family was invisible. They were the only invisible family in the entire world. Kipp could see his sister, because the Kindle family’s inherited invisibility didn’t usually kick in until the mid-teens, so neither Kipp nor Kaedy had turned invisible yet.
Kipp was so relieved to see his parents back to normal, or to be more accurate to not see them back to normal. ‘Mum, Dad, you’re invisible again,’ he said.
‘Again?’ His mother’s voice sounded confused. Kipp could tell she was standing next to his father because the mug hovered next to his father’s chair. Then the mug lifted a bit, tilted, and there was a slurping sound.
‘Don’t try to change the subject, Kipp Kasper Kindle,’ Kipp’s dad said. Kipp always knew he was in big trouble when his father used his full name. ‘You disappeared in the middle of the night and you didn’t tell your mother and me where you were going. Explain yourself, and tell the truth.’
‘Okay,’ Kipp said, and then he told his parents the whole story. He told them about Felonious Dark, about Cymphany getting turned into a baby hippopotamus, the piranhas in Misty Lake, the Huggabie Falls water plant, the creepy scientist, the henchmen, the weirdness cure, the weirdness-cure antidote—all of it. Kaedy even stopped watching her cartoon for a while to listen.
‘So, in conclusion,’ Kipp said, feeling like he had just told his parents a story that could easily fill a book, which of course it could—and has. ‘I wasn’t able to call you and tell you where I was because there were no phones at the Huggabie Falls water plant, and I know I broke a lot of rules and did a lot of wrong things, but I was only doing it to save Huggabie Falls.’
Kipp waited for a response, but no one spoke. One of the disadvantages of having invisible parents is you can’t see the expressions on their faces, so you’re never able to tell if they believe you or not.
But if it is possible to hear the tiny, faint skin-creasing noise of two parents raising their eyebrows at each other, Kipp could have sworn he heard it then.
He shrugged and went on. ‘I always wished I wasn’t from an invisible family, but after I saw you guys the other day, and I mean literally saw you, I realised I just wanted our family back to the way it was.’
Kipp’s sister had that smile on her face, the smile that says, you’re in big trouble, Kipp, and I’m loving it.
Finally, Kipp’s father burst out laughing.
‘One thing is for sure, son, you have a very active imagination. Your mother and I have been invisible since we met, as you yourself will be one day, and I don’t believe many other parts of your story either. So you are grounded for two weeks for lying, another two weeks for making us all worry about where you went last night, and, finally, because it took your mother two hours of scrubbing to get the stench of marinated bats’ tongues out of your school uniform, I’m adding a further week of grounding so you’ll learn to take better care of your school clothes. So that is five weeks in total.’
‘Five weeks!’ Kaedy squealed with glee. ‘That is a long time.’
‘Hush, Kaedy,’ cautioned Kipp’s mother. ‘Or you’ll be grounded for gloating.’
But Kipp didn’t mind being grounded for five weeks. Right then nothing could upset him. He was just so relieved that his family was invisible again.
‘That’s a fair punishment,’ said Kipp, smiling broadly. ‘I’m really sorry I made you worry, and that I made up that big story. I really just went over to Tobias’s house and forgot to ask, or leave a note. I’ll go upstairs to my room now, if that’s okay.’
Even though Kipp couldn’t see his parents’ faces, he could hear their stunned silence.
His sister looked shocked. She was obviously hoping for her brother to put up much more of a fight than this, which potentially could’ve extended his grounding.
‘Ummm…’ Kipp’s father hesitated. ‘Very well then, it’s…good to hear you’re sorry. Ahhh…go to your room and we’ll see you for breakfast soon.’
Kipp was so happy, he almost skipped out of the room. As he went down the hall he saw the Kindle family portrait hanging on the wall. It showed him and Kaedy sitting on a bench in the middle of a park with a hat and a scarf floating beside them. Kipp lifted the portrait off the wall, held it in his hands and smiled. He knew that when the picture was taken his father was sitting to the left of him, and his mother to the right. And even though Kipp couldn’t see his parents in the picture he knew they were there, and they would always be there. That was all that really mattered.
‘Oh, and by the way,’ Kipp’s father called out. ‘Your teacher, Tertunia Turgan, rang.’
‘Oh, yes,’ Kipp said. If there was one person the weirdness-cure antidote didn’t work on, Kipp hoped it was Mrs Turgan. ‘What did she want?’
‘She said she was looking forward to seeing you, Cymphany and Tobias at school today. She said things were back to normal, so you’d better all bring your best running shoes to school, and stock up on bat repellent. Which is weird. I didn’t think you had physical education today.’
Kipp shook his head, but he was still smiling, even though he knew he was going to spend the whole day running from Mrs Turgan, and probably trying to stop himself getting turned into a baby hippopotamus, or a pumpkin, or a toilet seat.
He hung the Kindle family portrait back on the wall, went to his room, closed the door and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Things were finally back to normal, or, to be more accurate, things were finally back to weird.
The end.
(for real this time!)
Ralph the Rat’s Portuguese to English Translations
Bem, bem, bem, duas crianças e um hipopótamo, isso é muito estranho—
Well, well, well, two children and one hippopotamus, this is very strange.
Senhora Turgan—
Mrs Turgan.
Eu tenho medo dela, eu ficarei quieto—
I’m scared of her, I’ll be quiet.
Morcegos, morcegos, morcegos, morcegos horríveis!—
Bats, bats, bats, horrible bats!
Eu concordo, que tiro preciso—
I agree, what a precise shot.
Oh, não—
Oh, no.
Adam Cece lives in Adelaide with his family. He has always liked wondering about weird things, so he decided to write a book about a place where the very weirdest things happen.
adamcece.com
Andrew Weldon is a cartoonist based in Melbourne. He has written and illustrated several books for children.
andrewweldon.com
textpublishing.com.au
The Text Publishing Company
Swann House
22 William Street
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Australia
Copyright © Adam Cece 2018.
The moral right of Adam Cece to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright above, no part of this publication shall be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
First published by The Text Publishing Company, 2018.
Book design by Imogen Stubbs.
Illustrations © Andrew Weldon.
Typeset by J&M Typesetters.
ISBN: 9781925603484 (paperback)
ISBN: 9781925626520 (ebook)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
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