by Adam Frost
He seemed to wake up, jerking his head back and gasping loudly for air.
He looked at the fish and the pond and the remote in his hand and pressed Pause.
He seemed only half aware of what had just happened. He quickly pressed Rewind, which closed the fish’s mouth, sent it back into the water and returned the ducks to the middle of the pond. Then he pressed Pause again.
He sat down on the grass and took four or five deep breaths. He still felt afraid. He took another five deep breaths.
He couldn’t believe he had nearly thrown his cosmic remote away. He looked down at the remote and felt like apologising to it.
He also couldn’t believe a gigantic metal fish had just appeared in his local park. This meant that someone had built it and someone had put it in the pond. But who?
Danny slowly retraced his steps through the park. He didn’t know which way to go. Part of him wanted to run straight home and sit in his empty room with the door shut tight. Another part of him wanted to go back to the pond and take on the fish, throwing rocks at its head till it sank.
But mostly he needed time and space to gather his thoughts. He cast his mind back to where he had been standing five minutes previously. He positioned himself in roughly the right place – just in front of the park entrance – and pressed Play. Birds started to sing again; trees swayed in the breeze. He saw an empty bench a few metres away. He sat down and looked down at his shoes, holding the remote to his chest.
Danny whispered to himself: “You’re OK. You’re OK.” He began to feel his confidence returning.
He watched a jogger pass in front of him. A minute later, a young woman strolled past with a baby strapped to her front. Danny glimpsed the duck pond in the distance and shuddered. An awful thought occurred to him. Maybe the fish could crawl out of the pond and across the grass. Maybe he’d lose his remote this time.
But another glance at the duck pond was enough to calm his nerves. He was safe where he was. Besides, there were more people in this part of the park; they’d notice if he was attacked again, especially by a giant robot fish.
Danny let another couple of minutes pass by. He wondered whether life would ever get back to normal or whether he’d always feel like something strange was about to happen.
He looked up and saw, about twenty metres in front of him, a small dog with its nose to the ground, sniffing frantically, following a scent. It headed in Danny’s direction, snuffling more loudly, gathering speed as the scent it had picked up grew stronger. The dog was coming straight at Danny now, its nose glued even more tightly to the ground, its jowls trembling as its snorts grew more frantic.
It reached Danny’s bench and started to sniff behind it and beside it and underneath it, wedging its nose in between the wooden slats, coating the paintwork with drool. Then it stopped in front of the bench and stared at the remote in Danny’s hand. It barked once and waited. When Danny didn’t react, it barked again.
Now that dog had stopped moving, Danny was able to look at it more closely. Its fur was thick and wiry; its legs were short and sturdy; its eyes were big and friendly. It was like a cross between a spaniel and a terrier. Just as Danny was about to stroke it and pat its head, he noticed a tangle of wires hanging out of one of its ears. He looked at its face and saw that its tongue was a strip of red rubber, its nose was a golf ball and its whiskers were pipe cleaners.
Danny leapt up as if the bench was on fire. He looked down at the dog and looked around to see who was controlling it. Just as he was about to run away, the dog’s tail began to wag. It moved back and forth, back and forth, as if it were beating out the rhythm of a song. Danny tried to pull his eyes away, but found himself captivated by the movement of the dog’s tail. The tail continued to wag, and Danny kept staring at it, until he felt all his muscles relaxing and all the tension leaving his body. The tail carried on swinging from side to side, as Danny smiled at the dog, and smiled at the park, and smiled up at the sky.
The dog barked, Danny looked down at his cosmic remote and decided to throw it through the air like a stick. The dog would fetch it and bring it back to him. He pulled his arm back, determined to throw the remote as hard and as far as he could.
“You ready, boy?” he said in a dreamy voice.
The dog yapped cheerfully.
“You going to fetch it?” murmured Danny.
The dog woofed again.
Danny looked into the distance and wondered what to aim for: the flowerbed by the bandstand or the bushes next to the swings? He thought the dog would have more fun if it had to hunt for the remote.
He prepared for his throw, arching his back and straining the muscles in his arm.
“Fetch!” he shouted, just as he was about to relax his grip.
But Danny couldn’t let go of the remote. He just couldn’t let go.
Instead, a snatch of time flashed inside his head, as if he had pressed Fast Forward. He saw the dog bounding across the park, he saw it grab the remote, he saw the dog run out of the park, he saw it tearing through fields and forests and he saw it burying the remote on a gloomy, windswept heath, where nobody had ventured for years.
A split second later, the dog’s tail fell off with a clunk.
Danny came to his senses. The dog seemed to half realise what had happened. It flung itself through the air and snatched the remote out of Danny’s hand. Danny lurched forwards and caught hold of one of the dog’s back legs. The leg came off in Danny’s hand and the dog froze in mid-leap and dropped with a thump to the ground. Smoke poured slowly out of its ears and mouth. Danny looked down and saw a dozen batteries packed into the dog’s hollow leg. He pulled the remote out of the dog’s rigid jaws and pressed Pause.
The park was calm and still again.
Danny now knew that everything had changed.The fish could have been a freak event but the fish and the dog together left Danny in no doubt; somebody knew about his cosmic remote and somebody was determined to get it.
He suddenly remembered how he used the remote in the middle of the night. He wondered if that had triggered something. Or had his sister guessed what his secret was? Had she told someone else? In a way, it didn’t matter; all that mattered was that everything was different now.
There would probably be more robot creatures sent to attack him. They would probably get fiercer and more frightening as time went on.
Unless, of course, Danny handed over the remote.
Danny looked down at the remains of the remote-controlled dog. He might have to fight something like that every day for the rest of his life.
Then he looked at his cosmic remote. He knew he’d never give it to anyone else. Never.
Danny walked through the town slowly.The world was still paused: cars were motionless in the middle of roads; people stood like statues on pavements and driveways.
He wouldn’t know where to go until he had worked out what to do next.
He was in no hurry to press Play. He wondered when he would feel ready to press Play.
As he turned into a side street, he thought he saw a pair of bright yellow eyes, staring at him from deep inside a hedgerow. They were the same yellow eyes that had appeared in his bedroom window a few weeks before. But when he looked at the hedge again, they were gone.
For the first time ever, he didn’t feel safe, even when he had pressed Pause. Even when he had stopped the world, and he was the only person moving, he felt as if there were another pair of footsteps echoing behind his.
4
RECORD
There was a footpath that ran behind Danny’s house, lined with tall trees. Danny chose the tallest tree and climbed it as quickly as he could, scrambling from branch to branch until he had reached the very top. In front of him he could see his house, his street, the park and the town beyond. Behind him, he saw rows of gardens and the back of his school. If anyone started looking for him, he would see them coming from miles away. He was ready to press Play.
When everything sprang back to life, Danny ten
sed up, glancing around frantically for anything that could be a threat.
He scanned every bird in the sky, every car on the street and every face in every window. The tree gave an ominous creak and for a split second Danny wondered if it too was a robot: it would lift up its roots and stamp off down the street, carrying Danny away to its master.
A few minutes passed. A car drove by in the next street. The lady next door appeared in her garden with a basket full of washing for the line. Nothing seemed unusual or out of place.
Another minute passed. Danny felt calmer. He could stay in the tree until he had found somewhere safer to hide out.
His heart jumped when he saw a shape appear at the end of the footpath. He relaxed when he realised it was his sister. He’d forgotten that she came this way home after her Saturday morning diving lesson: right off the high street, left down the footpath, through the back garden to open the kitchen door.
He closed his eyes, hoping that his sister wouldn’t spot him.
When he opened them again, his sister was standing at the bottom of the tree, looking straight up at him.
“You’re not allowed to climb trees,” said Mia. “I’m telling Mum.” She turned to walk away.
“N-no, wait, Mia,” called out Danny, and whipped his remote out of his pocket, then pressed Pause.
This wasn’t good. He had to stop Mia from reaching the house, but how could he stop her without leaving the safety of the tree? He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop her even if he could leave the tree. Short of telling her about the remote, he couldn’t think of anything else that would make her listen to him.
At that moment, something Uncle Charlie had said popped into Danny’s head: “She’s nice underneath it all. She’s just scared of showing it.” He also remembered the way she had fished Uncle Charlie’s letter out of the bin. Danny realised that it was time to tell his sister about the remote.
Two seconds later, an idea dropped into his head, fully formed.
He pressed Rewind until Mia was a few minutes away from the end of the footpath. Then he pressed Pause again.
He was going to use the remote’s multiple recording capability, something he had only tried once or twice before. This was when you recorded several stretches of time one after the other, then released them all at the same time by pressing Play. Not just one, but three or four or five images would shoot out of the end of the remote.
He started to climb down the tree. Even though he had paused everything, he still looked round every few seconds for anything that might pounce or swoop.
When he reached the ground, he walked across to the gate that joined the footpath to his back garden, and slipped inside.
He walked up the garden path towards the house and stopped in front of the back door. Then he turned his remote round, pointed it at himself, and pressed Record. He made sure he was standing inside the beam of yellow light.
He stood still for a few seconds and then shook his head and said, “I wouldn’t go this way if I were you, Mia.”
He stood still for another ten seconds and then pressed Stop.
He slipped out of the gate and on to the footpath. He climbed back up the tree with the remote between his teeth. When he reached the top, he breathed a sigh of relief, feeling considerably safer now he could see everything again.
He pressed Play on his remote. A few minutes passed, and his sister appeared at the end of the footpath. He pointed the remote straight at her and pressed Record. He kept the beam of light trained on her as she walked towards the tree. When she spotted him, he pressed Stop.
“You’re not allowed to climb trees,” said Mia.
Danny pushed the crystal in his remote till he heard it click.
“I’m telling Mum,” said Mia.
Danny pressed Play. This released the two stretches of time: Mia walking down the path and Danny standing by the back door.
“Mia, look!” shouted Danny. “Behind you!”
Mia gave Danny a bored look and turned round slowly. She froze with fear when she saw another Mia walking calmly down the footpath.
“What the—? That’s not possible…”
She ran towards the gate that led into the back garden. The second Mia was still heading straight for her.
She opened the gate, dived into the back garden and slammed the gate shut. The recording of Danny standing by the back door was still playing.
Mia looked up in disbelief. Danny was blocking her path, shaking his head. “I wouldn’t go this way if I were you, Mia.”
“How – how did you get down here so fast?” stammered Mia.
Then she turned round and saw Danny, still sitting in the tree.
“Two – two places at once…” she whispered.
She looked at Danny in the garden and Danny in the tree and seemed to make a sudden decision. She ran back towards the gate and flung it open. She looked round for the other Mia, but there was no sign of her. So she sprinted towards the tree next to Danny’s and climbed it as quickly as she could.
This was exactly what Danny had hoped she would do.
When Mia reached the top of the tree, she spent a few seconds staring at nothing, getting her breath back.
“Mia,” said Danny.
“Mia,” he said, more loudly.
Mia looked across at Danny.Their trees were about four metres apart.
“Mia,” said Danny. “I know I’ve freaked you out, but listen to me.”
“Uh-huh,” said Mia, blankly.
“What just happened was because of this gadget I’ve got,” said Danny. “It’s called a cosmic remote.”
“Uh-huh,” said Mia again.
Danny began to wonder if his plan had been a mistake. His sister seemed to be in deep shock and incapable of understanding anything. Perhaps she was the wrong person to tell; perhaps he should rewind the last ten minutes. But he kept on.
“Mia, listen, this remote – it’s like a TV or DVD remote, but I can actually use it to move time around. That’s how I could appear in two places at once. And make you appear in two places at once,” said Danny.
“Two places at once, yeah,” murmured Mia.
“I know it seems hard to believe, but honestly, it really can do anything. Move time forwards and backwards. Stop time too. It still blows my mind – and I’ve had it for two months now,” Danny went on.
“Two months now,” said Mia wonderingly.
“But listen, Mia. Someone’s found out about it. And they’re sending robot animals after me. And I don’t know how long I can keep fighting them off.That’s why I’m up this tree.”
The word “tree” seemed to snap Mia out of her trance.
“What am I doing in a tree?” she said, looking at Danny and then down at the branch she was sitting on.
“It’s OK, Mia,” said Danny. “You climbed up the tree about two minutes ago. Because I used my cosmic remote.”
“You did what?” said Mia, smiling vaguely. “I must say, that sounds highly unlikely.”
“Now, Mia, I want you to stay calm. But I’m going to use the Pause button on my remote to disappear from this branch and reappear on that branch over there.”
He pointed at a thick leafy bough on the tree that Mia was in.
“Do what you like,” sniffed Mia. “I’m getting down from this tree before Mum sees me.”
Danny pressed Pause, crawled across the tree, settled himself on the bough next to Mia’s and pressed Play.
“Wha–what?” Mia stammered, her eyes wide and her mouth open. She seemed to remember what had just happened on the ground with two Dannys and two Mias and nothing making sense.
“Tell me the bit about the remote again,” she said, with a frown.
So Danny told her again about the remote and what it could do.
“So that’s how you managed to empty your room so quickly yesterday,” said Mia.
Danny nodded. “With the Pause button.”
“And that’s why there’s been so many accidents at
home: Mum falling over, Dad dropping things…” said Mia.
Danny nodded. “That would mostly have been me.”
“Hmmph,” said Mia, and seemed to be thinking to herself.
“And you just have one of those remote things?” she said.
Danny nodded.
“Not two?” she said.
Danny shook his head. “I think this is the only one in existence,” he added.
The wind blew gently through the trees and Danny and Mia were rocked back and forth.
Danny began to tell Mia about what had happened in the park, describing the fish and the dog in vivid detail.
When he had finished, Mia took a deep breath and said, “So now you need my help.”
Danny shrugged and said, “Mmm.”
“To watch your back.To look out for you,” said Mia.
“Mmm,” said Danny again.
“So what if I don’t help? You’ll zap me with your remote?” said Mia.
“No, no,” protested Danny. “I mean, not unless you tell Mum about it or something.”
Mia nodded slowly. “I’ll think about it,” she said and started to climb down the tree.
Halfway down she flinched and said, “Did you just do something?”
“No, no, I swear,” said Danny, holding the remote up.
Mia kept climbing down, fixing Danny with a stern glare.
Danny watched his sister walk across the garden and go into the house. A few seconds later she appeared in her bedroom window, still looking at Danny suspiciously.
He wondered if telling his sister had made him feel better or worse. He certainly didn’t feel any safer.
He sat in the tree for ages, watching the sun move across the sky.
At about six o’clock, he picked up a strong smell of food. He looked down and spotted a plate of sausage and mash sitting at the bottom of the tree.
Glancing up, he saw his sister walking back towards the house. He held up his hand to say thanks but Mia had already shut the kitchen door.