A dull thud sounded from outside her door. Max switched off the lamp and crept out of bed. She grabbed her room key and a small pot plant from the dresser and inched towards the strip of light seeping in beneath her door. She looked through the peephole but saw no one. Clutching the handle, she swung the door open and leapt into the corridor, brandishing the pot plant above her head.
‘Don’t hit me,’ Linden crouched with his hands shielding his head, his backpack sprawled beside him.
‘Linden? What are you doing?’
He straightened up and pulled his bag onto his shoulders. He was dressed in a floppy jumper and jeans. ‘I dropped my pack. Sorry.’
‘I thought someone was breaking into my room.’ Max lowered the pot plant. ‘What are you doing up so late?’
‘I couldn’t sleep and I didn’t want to wake up Toby, so I thought I’d go for a walk.’ Linden smiled. ‘Only it was close to being the last thing I ever did.’
‘It’s a little late for a walk. Are you okay?’
‘Yeah, I think I need to work off all that food I ate at the party.’
‘It’s unlike you to eat too much.’ Max lifted an eyebrow.
‘Yeah, I thought so too.’ Linden nodded. ‘We missed you after you left.’
‘I figured it was safer for everyone if I asked the driver to bring me back here.’
‘Max, you were doing what you thought was right. It’s not your fault you didn’t recognise the paintball guns.’
‘But I ended up ruining everything.’
‘Not everything. Frond and her team managed to clean up most of the outfits, and the party got back into swing pretty fast.’
‘What about Quimby? Is she mad at me?’
‘When I left she was dancing on the tables, so I think she’s fine. She tried to find you to make sure you were okay, but you had gone.’
‘Actually, I could use a walk too. I’ll get changed and come with you.’
‘No, that’s okay.’ Linden yawned. ‘I’m feeling tired now. Thanks. The chat helped.’
‘Oh, okay. Goodnight then.’ Max opened her door.
‘Goodnight.’ Linden waved.
Max placed the pot plant on the dresser and slumped back into bed. She pulled the blankets up and waited for the click of Linden’s door. Except, it never came.
She tiptoed out of bed and peeked outside just in time to see Linden slip down the stairs at the end of the corridor. Sneaking down the hall after him, she reached the top of the stairway and looked down into its labyrinthine twists and turns to the foyer far below. Linden quietly made his way down. Max kept close to the wall and circled after him.
In the foyer, Linden stole furtive glances and snuck towards the dining area. He pushed open a large swing door and disappeared inside. Max quickly followed and burst in after him.
‘What are you doing?’
Linden spun round and threw his hands behind his back.
‘Nothing.’
Max frowned. ‘You’re a lousy liar.’
‘I’m not lying, I just …’
‘You told me you were going to bed.’
‘I know.’
‘What’s behind your back?’
‘It’s private, okay?’ Linden said angrily.
Max recoiled.
Linden sank onto a deep leather lounge beside him. ‘Sorry, Max.’ His whole body slumped. ‘I didn’t want you to be here.’
Max’s chest caved inwards as if she’d been struck.
‘I don’t mean that.’ Linden shook his head. ‘I mean, there’s something I need to do, and I have to do it on my own.’
Max bit down on her lip. ‘Is it because of what happened at the party?’
‘No,’ Linden said. ‘Definitely not.’
‘Then why don’t you want me here?’ Max’s voice quivered.
Linden gathered a deep breath and took the Time and Space Machine from behind his back. ‘I’m going to see Mum.’
‘You’re going back in time?’
Linden nodded.
‘But Ben said the machine’s time function isn’t working properly.’
‘I know,’ Linden said. ‘I was there when it happened, but it all worked out okay.’
‘Eventually, but they had trouble bringing Francis back.’
Linden looked at the machine in his hands. ‘I need to see her again, Max. Just one more time,’ he said quietly.
Max saw one small tear fall onto the leg of Linden’s jeans.
‘Then I’m coming with you,’ she said.
‘No, you’re not. I don’t want you to get hurt.’
‘But it’s okay if you get hurt?’ Max’s hands flew to her hips.
‘It’s my plan and my problem if anything goes wrong.’
‘Since when? We’re a team, which means we do everything together. It was you who started the pact, remember? To always look out for each other no matter what. At first I thought it was corny and went along with it so we could get started on our missions, but after saying it a few times I got used to it.’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘I think I might even like it. Besides, I’ve decided to come with you, and there’s pretty much nothing you can do to change that.’
A soft smile lifted Linden’s lips then fell away. ‘But I don’t know how I’ll be. When I see her, I mean. It’s been nearly three years since she died.’
Max sat beside him on the lounge. ‘You don’t have to be anything,’ she said. ‘Just be Linden. You’re good at that.’
‘Okay.’
Max took the machine from Linden’s hands. ‘Where and what time do you want to travel back to?’
‘I want to go to our farm in Mindawarra when I was five.’
‘Five it is,’ Max said. ‘But remember what Ben said when we first travelled. We can’t stay longer than five minutes.’
Max entered the details of the destination. ‘Are you sure about this?’
‘I’ve been sure ever since Ben first told me about the machine. It’s just taken me a long time to get brave enough to do it.’
‘Have you brought the belt too?’
Linden pulled the specially made titanium-lined belt from his backpack. Max put it on and nestled the Machine snugly inside. She held out her hand and Linden took it.
‘Thanks, Max,’ he whispered.
‘Let’s go and visit your mum.’
Max gave Linden’s hand a gentle squeeze and said, ‘Transport.’
Max and Linden disappeared from the comfort of the hotel lounge area in present-day London to a small farm in Mindawarra, Australia, seven years earlier. They reappeared in a flash of bright light with tiny sparks flickering around them. They hung suspended in the air for a few seconds before floating to the ground. When the sparks cleared it was as if they were caught in a dense fog.
Linden’s normally unruly hair was plastered upwards, and his shirt and pants were twisted round his body. ‘That’s pretty much how I remember travelling back in time.’
‘I don’t remember the part about being used as a spinning top.’ Max’s dazed face sat beneath her hair, which was standing on its ends and swaying from side to side in the breeze.
Transporting from one place to another in the present felt like taking a short afternoon walk compared to the G-force-loaded, twisting tunnel ride that was travelling through time.
Until the sudden stop.
Small bubbles of disconnected images began floating in the fog in front of them, reforming bit by bit, until a picture of where they were started to form around them. The ground appeared first. A dry and dusty patch of earth followed by the green sprawl of a paddock beneath a blue sky brushed with clouds.
Linden was trying to focus on the object forming in the distance beyond the paddock fence.
‘There it is,’ he said.
A small wooden farmhouse materialised, along with a scramble of bright red, yellow and white roses bustling in front of a set of steps leading to a screen door. ‘I’d forgotten about the garden. Everything just seemed to die a
fter –’
Linden stopped.
A hose was running into a small blow-up pool in the yard, not far from a swinging garden seat and a clothesline.
‘I loved that pool.’ He smiled.
From out of the screen door ran a young boy. He flew down the stairs two at a time holding a plastic sword, in a pair of bright green shorts and a cape made out of an old red dressing gown.
‘That’s me.’
‘I guessed. Same hair.’ Max smiled. ‘And fashion sense. Remember, we can see them but they can’t see us …’
The screen door opened. A rounded woman in a flowing, summer-coloured dress stepped into the sunlight. Her hair fell around her face in bouncing waves, and she held a bright yellow sunhat.
‘Mum,’ Linden said quietly.
‘She’s beautiful,’ Max said.
‘What did I tell you about running down those stairs?’ Linden’s mum asked the boy.
‘You’ll end up on your head one day if you’re not careful,’ Linden answered with a cheeky grin.
‘I’ll end up on my head one day if I’m not careful,’ the young boy sang from the pool.
Linden’s mum put on the sunhat and walked down the stairs. She sat beside the pool and dipped her feet in the water.
‘But I’m the Caped Captain.’ The young boy held his sword up high. ‘I’m invincible.’
‘Caped Captain?’ Max asked.
Linden shrugged. ‘I made him up. He flew through the skies with his red cape, saving the world from bad guys.’
‘So you were fighting crime when you were five.’
‘I was an early starter.’ Linden smiled. ‘I want to go a bit closer.’
Linden approached his mum and sat on the grass beside her.
‘Is that what you’d like to be when you’re older?’ his mum asked.
‘Yep, I think I’d be good at being a hero,’ the young Linden answered.
‘I think so too. You’ve got the brains, the cape and the essential quality of a crime fighter.’
‘What’s that?’
‘Good looks.’ She tapped his nose. ‘And if you had to fight crime when the weather got cold, you’d look irresistible in tights.’
Linden moved closer to his mother, who laughed at his younger self’s swordplay. He reached out.
His fingers partially sunk into his mother’s dark hair. It was like touching someone in a dream. And when he closed his eyes, he could smell the shampoo she used when he was young.
Linden’s mum closed her eyes and leant her head back. ‘That’s a nice breeze.’
‘Mum! Watch this.’ The boy swung his sword.
‘You’re my little hero, you know that? And you always will be.’
The younger and older Linden nodded. ‘I know,’ they both said.
‘Now, even superheroes need lunch.’ She stood up and softly pinched his cheek. ‘And I think I know just where to find a giant ham and salad sandwich.’
The young Linden thought about it. ‘Could you find two?’
His mother laughed and kissed him on top of his wild hair. ‘Maybe. If you can beat me to the kitchen.’
‘Excellent!’ The young boy jumped out of the pool and raced her inside.
Linden was about to follow when Max grabbed his arm from behind. ‘It’s time to go.’
Linden stared at the back door of the farmhouse that slammed closed. ‘She’s nice, isn’t she?’ he said.
‘Yes, she is.’
He sniffed. ‘She was always calm. I don’t remember her ever losing her temper or being angry with me. She made everything feel safe when she was around.’
Linden looked into the house through the kitchen window and saw the two of them singing as they buttered bread and sliced ham.
He wiped his sleeve across his face. ‘Okay.’ He nodded. ‘I’m ready to go now.’
Max lifted the Time and Space Machine from the belt. She set the coordinates to return them to her hotel room in London. She tucked the machine back in the belt, took Linden’s hand and said ‘Return.’ Max’s voice activated the machine, transporting them away from Mindawarra and leaving behind nothing more than a small plume of dust.
Once their feet had settled onto the floor of the hotel room, Linden sat on the edge of Max’s bed in the glow of the bedside lamp, his hands clenched between his knees, his body hunched forward.
‘Can I get you anything?’ Max asked.
Linden shook his head.
‘Would you like me to sit with you for a bit?’
He nodded. Max sat beside him.
After a long silence, Linden said, ‘That’s it, isn’t it.’
‘What is?’
‘She’s not coming back.’ Linden sniffed. ‘I mean, I know she isn’t, but I guess now I know it’s true.’ He laughed a shaky, fragile laugh. ‘I guess I didn’t think it’d take me this long to understand that.’
Linden began to cry.
Max moved closer and curled her arm around him. He collapsed into her hug and cried harder. ‘I miss her.’
‘I know.’ Max’s eyes filled with tears.
She held him even tighter as the room echoed with Linden’s sobs. Max watched her tears drip onto his jumper until he laid back exhausted and fell into an immediate sleep. She took a blanket from the end of the bed and spread it over him. He looked so small underneath it. Curled up into a ball.
She took another blanket from the cupboard and draped it over her shoulders. She removed an envelope from her bag and nestled onto a lounge chair. She looked through a series of photos, slowly studying each one to the last.
She slipped them back into the envelope and into her pack. She wiped her eyes against her pyjamas and glanced one last time at Linden before switching off the lamp and burying herself in the warmth of the blanket.
The Wall of Goodness allowed entry to the high security areas of the Force. What seemed like an impenetrable wall of stone was, in fact, constructed out of a super malleable substance that wrapped itself around visitors in a gurgling, squelchy blob. It was programmed to read bodily reactions to establish a person’s current state of goodness, and only when it recognised a person as good would it gently suck those seeking entry through to the other side.
At least that’s what mostly happened.
‘Aaah!’ Max flew out of the other side of the Wall of Goodness, stumbled for a few arm-flailing steps before landing splat on her face. She looked up to see three perfectly placed and upright pairs of shoes on the polished lab floor in front of her.
‘Oh dear.’ Steinberger’s hand flew to his mouth. ‘You’ve been doing so well with the wall lately. I don’t know what went wrong.’
Max cradled her head in her hands. ‘What went wrong is that wall is a ridiculous, bullying, piece of …’ Max looked up to see Steinberger’s hurt expression. ‘Sorry, Steinberger. I didn’t get much sleep last night.’
‘Maybe the wall has a problem with you trying to single-handedly wipe out everyone at the party last night.’ Toby smiled.
‘And maybe I’ll …’ Max went to stand up but stopped.
‘Concentrate on trying to stand up first?’ Toby said with a lifted eyebrow.
Max got shakily to her feet. ‘I just wish I could walk through a simple door like other high-security places.’
‘We got through fine,’ Toby gloated. ‘And Ella told me it’s one of her favourite parts of the Force.’
‘She would,’ Max mumbled. ‘And where is the delightful Ella?’
‘Unfortunately, she isn’t able to join us today due to previous family commitments,’ Steinberger answered.
‘Now there’s a bit of bad news I may never recover from,’ Max said.
‘It is unfortunate,’ Steinberger said. ‘I know how much she enjoys working with you, Max. She told me so last night.’
‘Ella said that?’ Max asked.
‘And more.’
Linden yawned.
‘Are you okay, Linden?’ Steinberger moved closer to the young agent. ‘
Your eyes are very red.’
‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘I found it hard to sleep when I got back to my room last night. I think it was all the food and excitement of the party.’
Toby eyed Max then Linden.
‘Will you be okay for the exercise today?’ Steinberger asked.
‘Oh yeah,’ Linden straightened himself out. ‘A day of training is exactly what I need.’
‘Excellent.’ Steinberger looked at his watch. ‘For now we need to move if we’re going to get you to your training session on time. Follow me.’
Steinberger led the way to Quimby’s main workbench. Toby stepped up behind Linden and held him back. ‘What did you and Max do last night?’ He whispered.
‘Nothing.’ Linden shrugged and kept walking.
‘You’ve both got bags under your eyes, and you weren’t in our room all night.’
‘I told you, I couldn’t sleep so I went down to the foyer to read and fell asleep on a lounge. We better catch up.’
Linden hurried after Max and Steinberger, weaving his way through Quimby’s newly upgraded lab featuring gleaming chrome benches lined with microscopes, lasers and computers, neatly packed glass cabinets and tall, quietly whirring machines. They found Quimby with an eyepiece bending over her main workbench.
‘Professor Quimby, your special agents have arrived.’
Quimby spun round. Max shrank from what she thought was an eye patch covering her eye socket. ‘I’m sorry about your eye,’ she said. ‘I’ve been a bit jumpy because of these dreams about Blue, and when I saw the waiter with the gun I thought …’
Quimby took a cylindrical contraption from her eye. ‘This is a super magnifier so I can do final checks on your tracer bugs. My eye, and the rest of me, is fine.’
‘Luckily,’ Toby muttered.
‘But I ruined your –’
‘The demonstration didn’t go quite as I expected.’ Quimby smiled. ‘But not much does, working in this business.’
‘Especially with Max around.’
Max threw her hands on her hips. ‘Why don’t you –’
The Final Curtain Page 5