by Adam Frost
As he sat at the top of the tree eating his dinner, Danny realised that the light would not last much longer. If he didn’t think of a plan of action soon, he’d be spending the whole night outside, trying to stay warm and stay awake.
The sun went behind a cloud and Danny shivered. At that moment, his remote began to ring like a phone. Danny balanced his empty plate on a branch and pulled it out of his pocket.
The ringing tone seemed to be coming from the crystal on the back of the remote. He wasn’t sure what it meant or how to stop it.
He tried pressing Play and the time display began to expand, getting deeper and wider until it was the size of a small screen.
Then Uncle Charlie’s face appeared on it.
“Hello Danny,” he said. “Long time no see. How you been?”
“Uncle Charlie!” exclaimed Danny. “What … how… I mean, how are you talking through the remote…?”
“The remote’s got a special code number. As long as you know it, you can make a video call. Anyway, listen, I only have about 30p of credit left, so I have to be quick. Something’s happened, Danny. There’s this person that wants the remote and I think they’ve found out where it is. I’m not sure how.”
“I – I – think it was me. I used it at night,” said Danny.
“Oh, right.You didn’t get my letter, eh?”
“Yeah, but Mum threw it away.”
“My sister! I should have known! Well, it’s my fault too. I should have told you right at the start. I should have told you everything.”
“Tell me now,” said Danny.
“I’m down to 18p, but I’ll do my best. I work for an organisation called EUREKA! We look after people’s gadgets. You see, there are some pretty incredible gadgets out there – they can control people’s thoughts, beam people on to the surface of the moon. One of the gadgets we look after is the cosmic remote.”
“So – OK – so – how come you’re allowed to give it to me?”
“We’re allowed to lend the gadgets to people who really need them. People in trouble. People who will look after them and use them only for good.That means you. But I’ve put you in grave danger. I thought the Night Scientist—”
“The Night what?”
“The Night Scientist. He’s a criminal genius, and he’s tried to steal our gadgets in the past. He’s tall with a white coat. He has a bald head and these piercing yellow eyes.”
“Yellow eyes? Uncle Charlie, I think I’ve seen him!”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I saw something with yellow eyes—”
“Listen Danny, I’m coming now. Hide till I get there. Be everywhere and nowhere. You understand? Use the remote.”
Then his uncle’s face disappeared from the screen. He had dropped his phone, and Danny could only see feet and table legs.
“Charles Baker, we meet at last,” came a thin, cackling voice.
“How did you find me?” said Uncle Charlie’s voice.
“I’ve known your hiding place for days,” said the cackling voice, “and now I know where the remote is too. For heaven’s sake, Charles, you should have warned them not to use it at night. You know that’s when I ‘take the air’. Now, before I go and claim my prize, I wish to dispose of you.”
“Interesting idea. Let me know how it pans out,” said Uncle Charlie.
“Uncle Charlie!” called out Danny. “Uncle Charlie!”
Then there was a crackling noise and the screen went black. It gradually whirred and shrank until it just displayed the time again.
Danny jabbed at the Play button, trying to get Uncle Charlie’s voice back, but nothing happened.
Something bad was happening to Uncle Charlie, and there was nothing he could do.
Danny tried not to cry, but it was difficult.
They would catch Danny too, and Uncle Charlie would not be able to rescue him.
Danny looked at the remote and felt like breaking it into pieces. If he’d never seen it, he’d still have Uncle Charlie. He wondered if breaking it would stop the evil man and save his uncle.
He was about to hurl it out of the tree when he saw his sister standing on the grass in the middle of the back garden.
“I’ve decided I’ll help you,” she called out. “What do you need me to do?”
This brought Danny back from the edge. Uncle Charlie would be OK – he had to believe that. Uncle Charlie would come and find him – he had to believe that, too.
Uncle Charlie’s advice, “Be everywhere and nowhere” rushed into his head and suddenly Danny knew what he had to do.
He climbed down the tree and walked towards Mia.
“Before we get started,” said Mia, “I thought we should agree a few basic rules. First, I’d rather you didn’t make two of me again. Second, I’m allowed to borrow the remote once a week – maybe Sunday afternoons? – and—”
“Mia, we haven’t got time for this,” interrupted Danny. “Uncle Charlie’s in trouble and something called a Night Scientist is after me.”
“A what is after you?” said Mia. “It was a giant fish a few hours ago.”
“Well, both of them must be after me,” said Danny. “Now, Uncle Charlie gave me a message and I think I know what he meant. I’ve got to look like I’m everywhere. I’ll have to record myself – like I did earlier today.”
“Hang on,” said Mia. “How did Uncle Charlie give you a message? You’ve been up that tree all afternoon.”
Danny ignored Mia’s question. “So I need you to distract Mum while I set up some decoys.”
“Distract Mum?” replied Mia, pulling a face. “I don’t know if I’d be very good at that.”
“Oh go on, Mia,” Danny pleaded. “You said you’d help.”
Mia sighed. “Yes. I suppose I did.”
Danny smiled at Mia and she gave a halfsmile back. A thought seemed to strike her and she turned on her heel and strode back into the house.
Danny turned the remote round and began to record himself. He captured a version of himself standing by the shed and another version sitting on the back door step. He recorded himself hiding in the bushes, leaning on the back gate and perching on the patio wall.
Every now and again he would look around to see if there were any suspicious animals or objects in sight. He could have pressed Pause before he made his recordings. But he wanted the decoy Dannys to look as real as possible, with movement around them, not everything frozen in mid-air.
He opened the back door and stepped warily inside the kitchen. There was no sign of his mother.
Then he heard voices in the bathroom above him.
“No, Mum, you missed a bit. There’s still a really faint ring around the bath,” he heard his sister say.
“You’re right, Mia,” said his mother. “Well spotted. I’d better clean the whole bathroom again. Just to be on the safe side.”
Danny smiled. “Good thinking, Mia,” he said to himself.
Danny recorded himself standing in the kitchen and in the hall. He recorded three versions of himself in the lounge and four in the dining room. He recorded himself standing on every step of the staircase, including three versions of himself on the top stair. He recorded himself in his sister’s room, his parents’ room and in the spare room. He walked into his bedroom and, for the first time, was glad that it was completely empty. It gave him more space to record himself by the window, by the wardrobe, in the wardrobe, on the bed, under the bed, behind the door, leaning on the window ledge and standing squarely in the middle of the room.
When he’d finished, he noticed that it was dark outside. He slipped out of his room and on to the landing. At the same time, his sister slipped out of the bathroom, closing the door gently behind her.
“I told Mum there was mould on the shower curtain,” whispered Mia. “She’ll be in there for another hour.”
“Great!” replied Danny.
“What now?” Mia asked.
Danny looked down at the time on his cosmic rem
ote:
“Dad will be home in ten minutes,” said Danny. “I’d better stay in my room for the rest of the evening. After everyone’s gone to bed, I’ll move downstairs. I need to keep watch on the front door – and the back door – and anywhere else where someone might try to get in.”
“So what are you going to do?” Mia asked. “Stand in the middle of the kitchen all night? That’s not exactly blending into the background, is it?”
“I’m going to crawl inside the washing machine,” said Danny.
“You’re going to what?” spluttered Mia.
“It’s the best place! It’s right in the middle of the kitchen and I can see everything through the glass,” said Danny.
“But Mum has the washing machine going all night. It never stops,” protested Mia.
“That’s why I’d like you to pour soup into the dispenser,” said Danny. “That should put it out of action for a while.”
“You’re not serious?” said Mia. “You want me to break the washing machine. Mum’s washing machine. The only thing in the world she truly loves.”
Danny nodded.
“Unless you want me to do it,” he said.
A smile spread slowly across Mia’s face. “No. I think I can take care of it.”
She smiled again and walked towards the stairs. On the top stair she turned round.
“Any particular kind of soup?” she asked.
Danny rubbed his chin. “I think I saw a tin of fish stew in the cupboard.”
Mia nodded. “I’ll find it,” she said, and went downstairs.
Danny went back inside his room and sat on the bed. Every now and again he heard his mother growling and squeaking as she scrubbed away in the bathroom. Five minutes later, his sister opened his bedroom door.
“All done,” she said.
“Thanks, Mia,” said Danny. “That’s great.”
“Is there anything else?” she asked.
“No, no,” said Danny. “I just have to wait now.Watch and wait.”
“Well, I suppose if there’s anything else,” said Mia, “you know where I am.”
Danny nodded.
“You owe me one, right?” she said.
Danny nodded again.
“See you around,” she said, and closed the door.
5
STANDBY
At about eight in the evening, Danny heard raised voices downstairs. He guessed that his mother had discovered her washing machine wasn’t working. Sure enough, he heard his father protesting: “I didn’t touch it, I didn’t go near it, I don’t even know how it works.”
An hour after that, he heard his parents traipsing upstairs. He turned his bedroom light off so they wouldn’t guess he was inside. He heard Mia trudging upstairs too and then people taking turns in the bathroom. Half an hour after that, everything was silent.
Danny swung his legs off the bed and felt his way across the room in the darkness. He found the handle of his bedroom door and turned it. By the time he stepped on to the landing his eyes were more accustomed to the darkness and he could make out doors and windows and the edges of furniture.
He slid into the bathroom, picked up two towels from the radiator and padded downstairs. He crept into the kitchen and knelt down in front of the washing machine. His mother had bought one of the biggest models on the market so there was enough space in the drum for two Dannys and possibly Mia too. Danny climbed inside and wrapped his face and body in the towels from the bathroom so that it looked as if the washing machine was full of regular laundry. Everything was in place for the night ahead.
Danny peered through the glass of the washing-machine door. By staring straight ahead, he could see everything in the kitchen and half of the dining room. By looking to the left, he could see the back door and the patio windows. By looking to the right, he could see the hallway, the front door and part of the living room.
He spent twenty minutes scanning the door knobs and window handles for movement. Everything was silent and still. He felt his eyelids drooping. The remote slipped out of his hand and hit the washing-machine drum with a thunk, and he sprang awake.
When he realised what had happened, he tucked the remote into his pocket, pressed his nose against the glass door and fell asleep again.
He dreamed he was a dog and that he was scratching a flea on his neck with his back leg. Slowly he realised he could actually hear scratching. His eyes flicked open.
The noise was coming from behind the kitchen skirting board. It got louder and more frantic. Finally a mouse appeared from a crack in the wall next to the back door. It scampered across the kitchen floor, right in front of the washing-machine door. That’s when Danny noticed that it was a mouse with blue crystal eyes, thin iron legs and a crooked metal aerial where its tail would normally be. Danny looked up and saw another mouse scuttling through the living-room door. A third then skittered down the dining-room wall like a lizard. All three mice lined up on the front door mat.
The letter box flipped open and Danny saw a pair of cruel yellow eyes staring into the house.The letter box flipped shut.
The mice scrambled up the front door, one dived inside the key hole, one scuttled towards the chain and one headed for the latch. Their tails twitched as they gnawed and burrowed. There was a click and the door swung open. There, standing on the doorstep, was a man in a long white coat.
His head was bald and his skin was so white that in places you could see networks of arteries and veins trembling below the surface. His yellow eyes scanned the hallway.Then he spoke.
“Well done, Hubert. Good work, Arthur. Many thanks, Montgomery.”
The three mice were standing in a line next to him.
Danny shuddered. Even through the glass of the washing-machine door, he recognised the voice. It was the same voice he had heard when Uncle Charlie phoned him on the remote. It was the same voice that had threatened to kill Uncle Charlie.
Did that mean Uncle Charlie was – definitely – not going to come – ever?
Danny felt suddenly terrified. He clung on to the remote, his thumb hovering over the Play button.
“I can’t believe the owner of the cosmic remote lives in such a poky little shack,” the bald man drawled. “I was expecting something on a grander scale.”
He clicked his fingers and the mice scrambled up his body and disappeared into three different pockets of his coat.
He stepped into the house.
“Now, let’s see if we’re getting warm,” he said. He had a small square box in his hand, which he flipped open. It beeped once, and then again, and then again. He flipped it closed.
“Now, the cosmic remote was used yesterday morning at 5:05. That gave me its unique code number,” he said with a smile. “My portable object locator tells me that a remote with that code number is a mere ten metres from where I’m standing. Now, where-oh-where could it be?”
He strode through all the downstairs rooms, flinging cushions off the sofa, up-ending chairs and yanking open cupboard doors. He walked straight past the washing machine.
Danny lost sight of him when he went upstairs.
Danny was tempted to climb out of the washing machine now and either hide somewhere else or run away. But he was too scared to make a decision.
Time seemed to slow down or even stop, as if he had pressed Pause on his remote.Was the bald man still in the house?
Danny flinched. The bald man was back in the kitchen, looking at the box in his hand.
“The signal’s strongest in here,” said the man.
OK, Danny thought, now is the moment. He pressed Play on his remote and watched a forest of Dannys springing up, scattered across the kitchen and dining room, sprinkled through the living room and hallway.
He could not see them but he knew that all the Dannys on the staircase and in the bedrooms upstairs would also have been released from the remote.
The bald man spun round and lunged at the nearest Danny.
“Gotcha,” he said, but his hand grabbed
nothing but air.
He lurched at the Danny by the back door. Once more, his hand passed clean through the recorded Danny and out the other side.
“Curses,” spat the bald man.
Danny could not help but smile as he watched the bald man fumbling around in the gloom.
“One of them must be real,” growled the man. “One of them must be holding the remote.”
The bald man ran at every Danny he could see, swiping and grasping and lashing out.
Then he seemed to see all the Dannys standing on the stairs.
“OK, enough of this,” he snarled. “I’m going to wait till they all vanish. The last one standing will be the boy I want.”
Danny hadn’t thought of this. He wondered if he should press Pause and then Rewind and start the whole evening again. But what if his uncle was on his way after all? And hadn’t his uncle wanted him to hide?
A few seconds passed. Danny watched the versions of himself in the kitchen vanish. The three Dannys in the living room burst like bubbles, then the Dannys in the hallway fizzled out.
The bald man smiled and put his foot on the bottom stair. He sang out:
The bald man trotted up the stairs, as the Dannys flickered and went out in front of him.
Danny couldn’t help himself. He climbed out of the washing machine and dashed into the hall.
Surely the bald man’s singing had woken his parents up? He couldn’t decide whether he wanted this to happen or not. But he couldn’t hear any noise coming from upstairs, except for the bald man humming and gently opening doors.
It was time to run. Every muscle and nerve in his body told him it was time to run. But his legs wouldn’t move.
The bald man was coming back downstairs and Danny was standing in the middle of the hall. He wanted to press something on his remote but he couldn’t decide which button or when or what he wanted to happen when he pressed it.
The bald man stepped off the bottom stair and swivelled on his heel.
“Now, let me guess,” he drawled. “Charles Baker’s son – or nephew – or younger brother?”