The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble

by L. M. Moriarty

  Everyone waited to see if it would work.

  Silent Fred opened his mouth. No sound came out.

  He tried again.

  ‘Thank you,’ he whispered.

  He cleared his throat.

  ‘Thank you!’ he squeaked.

  He coughed.

  ‘THANK YOU!’ It was a lovely, rich, deep voice. Everyone applauded.

  Silent Fred threw his top hat in the air and shouted, ‘I LOVE my wife! I’ve been wanting to say that out loud for so long!’

  Joy joyfully wiped away tears.

  ‘Now where are the fellas?’ said Silent Fred. ‘It’s time we got the band back together!’

  Next thing he had disappeared with a group of grey-haired men and soon they were belting out the words to their old hit, ‘Rock Around the Choc’, while Joy was left with instructions to bring them plenty of hot chocolate in between songs. ‘Mmmm,’ said Joy thoughtfully. Then she caught sight of Tyler and said, ‘Oh! When I was cleaning Enrico’s room, I found this under his bed.’

  ‘YES!’ said Tyler excitedly, as Joy handed over a silver briefcase. ‘I thought I might never see it again.’

  There was some sort of a commotion behind them and they all turned around to see Enrico ducking behind his ShobGobble while his wife, Carmelita, threw badly formed snowballs at him, yelling, ‘HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN? NOW YOU’RE A NOBODY! I’M FAR TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BE MARRIED TO A NOBODY!’

  The twins were still in the sleigh, looking longingly at the party and wailing, ‘Why is everybody talking to those stupid Earthlings? Why aren’t we the guests of honour at that lovely party?’

  ‘What a charming family,’ said Shimlara.

  ‘Poor old Enrico,’ said Katie.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Serena. ‘I’m going to send him a very polite thank-you card, just like the Constitution says. It will be my pleasure.’

  ‘Who is going to run the planet now?’ asked Sean.

  ‘There will have to be an election,’ said Topaz. ‘I’ll be running for president. Joshua and Serena will be my campaign managers.’

  ‘I wish we could stay to help with the campaign,’ said Nicola sadly.

  ‘Why can’t you all move to Shobble?’ said Joshua. He gave Sean a friendly punch. ‘You’ve got pretty good at Head Crunch, mate.’

  Sean punched him back. ‘And you’ve got pretty good at karate.’

  ‘Can’t you guys hang around for just a few more days?’ pleaded Serena.

  ‘We don’t know how much time has passed on Earth,’ said Nicola. ‘Our families might be worried. We should leave now.’

  Greta said, ‘Yes, and I’ve got homework to do.’

  They all stared at her.

  ‘What?’ said Greta defensively. ‘I do! You probably do too!’

  ‘I wish we could take our ShobGobbles back to Earth with us,’ said Katie.

  That gave Nicola a start. She realised she’d been vaguely imagining that Quicksilver would always be with her. How wonderful to ride him to school each day! But of course, there was no room for ShobGobbles in their spaceship and there was no such thing as indigo berries on Earth.

  ‘We’d better go say goodbye to them,’ said Nicola bravely.

  She found Quicksilver taking a well-deserved snooze under the shelter of a tree.

  ‘I have to go now,’ she whispered. Quicksilver sleepily opened his eyes and gently nuzzled her neck.

  ‘Thank you for saving me from the river,’ said Nicola. Quicksilver chirped softly, his liquid brown eyes filled with sadness.

  Nicola brushed away tears. ‘I’ll never forget you! I’ll come back and visit one day, I promise!’ Then she turned and ran, without looking back. Even Sean had suspiciously red eyes when they all returned from saying goodbye to their ShobGobbles.

  A crowd of well-wishers gathered around as Tyler set up the spaceship.

  ‘We’ve got something for you,’ announced Topaz. (She was already wearing a badge that said VOTE 1 TOPAZ!) ‘It’s a gift from the people of Shobble.’

  Four Security Thugs lugged over a gigantic jewel-encrusted treasure chest and placed it in the spaceship’s storage compartment.

  Topaz lifted the treasure chest’s lid so they could see its contents. ‘It’s not the one Enrico offered you, but it’s pretty good.’

  ‘There’s a lifetime supply of ShobbleChoc,’ said Serena.

  ‘And some leftover cold hizza from last night,’ said Joshua. ‘Tastes even better the next day.’

  ‘And just a few spare weapons we thought might come in handy for the Space Brigade’s next mission,’ said the Thug leader. ‘Like Micro Mirth Missiles – they make your enemies double up laughing. Surprisingly effective. Oh dear, I’m getting all emotional.’ The Thug flapped his hands around in front of his eyes and sniffed noisily.

  Horatio Banks shuffled over, together with his wife Bertha, and pointed at a small jar tucked away in the corner of the chest. ‘I’ve given each of you a Limited Edition Gold Button. They have some unusual functions you might appreciate one day.’

  ‘Katie! Oh, Katie! We’ll dedicate the rest of our lives to keeping your memory alive!’ The members of the Katie Hobbs Fan Club threw themselves face down in the snow at Katie’s feet.

  ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ sighed Katie.

  ‘I think it’s time we got out of here,’ said Nicola.

  There were handshakes and hugs, slaps on the back, tears and jokes as each member of the Space Brigade said their goodbyes and climbed into the spaceship.

  Finally it was just Nicola left standing on the snow.

  She gave Topaz a hug and said, ‘It’s been an honour to know you, Topaz Silverbell.’

  ‘Likewise, Nicola Berry.’ Topaz’s voice cracked and she said, ‘Oh, I hate goodbyes.’

  ‘We could never have done it without you!’ Serena threw her arms around Nicola.

  Joshua went to shake Nicola’s hand, changed his mind and hugged her instead. He said, ‘You’re the nicest evil Earthling I’ve ever met.’

  Nicola couldn’t speak. She smiled through her tears and before she could embarrass herself even more, she turned and climbed quickly into the spaceship.

  Quietly, the Space Brigade strapped themselves into their passenger-pods.

  Tyler said, ‘Prepare for take-off,’ punched the red button, and the spaceship shot up into Shobble’s atmosphere.

  Nicola looked down through the arches of the rainbows and saw that the people of Shobble had organised themselves into lines and formed the message THANK YOU! in huge letters across the snow.

  Nicola glanced at the rest of the Space Brigade. They all had their mouths full of chocolate and blissful expressions on their faces.

  ‘No trouble, Shobble,’ said Nicola softly, as she turned back for one last look at the tiny glittering planet. ‘No trouble at all.’

  PS A couple of last things that might interest you . . .

  Nicola stood under a gum tree in her great-grandmother’s backyard and looked up at the stars. The sounds of Grammy’s one hundredth birthday party drifted out from the house. Nicola and Sean had given her a giant gift box of ShobbleChoc and a CD of Silent Fred’s hit song, ‘Rock Around the Choc’. It had proved to be the most successful present of the evening. Grammy had the box of chocolates on her lap. She was refusing to share them with anyone and was nodding her head in time to the music.

  As Nicola looked up at the Milky Way, she wondered what her intergalactic friends were doing right now. Was Topaz busy handing out leaflets and giving speeches trying to convince the people of Shobble to vote for her? Was Shimlara sunbathing under Globagaskar’s two cherry suns and swimming in her fizzy pink pool with Georgio, Mully and Squid? Fortunately, when they’d got back to Earth they’d found that only three hours had passed thanks to Time-Squeeze speed. It felt like they’d been gone for months.

  She wondered also about the Space Brigade’s next mission. Would there be another mission? It might be nice to have a little rest for a while, witho
ut fighting off deadly Biters or flying hot-air balloons in hurricanes. Yes, it would be good not to deal with anything scarier than Mrs Zucchini’s maths tests for the time being.

  ‘Nic! They’re cutting the cake!’ It was Sean calling from the house.

  Nicola gave the stars a secret wave and went running back into the house.

  *

  ‘Mum? Dad? Squid?’

  Shimlara walked around her deserted house for the tenth time.

  The Space Brigade had dropped her off on Globagaskar ages ago and she was still waiting for her family to come home from wherever they were. She was starting to feel a bit flat. She didn’t really like being on her own and she was looking forward to telling her parents about everything that had happened and teasing her mum about dating somebody as awful as Enrico.

  It wasn’t like them to be gone for so long without calling.

  She remembered how her dad had taken that mysterious phone call before the Space Brigade had left for Shobble. He’d looked quite serious. Had something bad happened? Something really bad? Shimlara kneaded her stomach. The silence in the house seemed to roar in her ears. She was going to be very cranky with her family when they returned. She was too young to feel worried like this. Worry was something that old people did.

  She looked out the window at the swimming pool. Her dad had obviously arranged for it to be refilled with fizzy pink water since Tyler had landed the spaceship in the pool. The floating table was bobbing about, set with two mugs and a plate.

  That was strange. Her parents never left crockery floating about in the swimming pool. She walked out the back to take a closer look. The mugs on the tray were full of blueberry tea. The plate had two biscuits on it. One of them had a single bite taken out of it.

  Shimlara turned away from the pool and looked around the backyard. There was something lying in her little brother’s sandpit. Shimlara’s hand went to her mouth. It was Squid’s blue security blanket. He never went anywhere without his blanket. She ran over, grabbed it and hugged it tightly to her chest.

  Then something else caught her eye. There was a piece of torn notepaper lying on the ground next to the sandpit. She recognised her father’s big loopy handwriting. She picked it up.

  Help, Shiml

  The last letter was wobbly, as if he’d been interrupted.

  As Shimlara ran back inside the house, there was just one thought in her mind.

  I need the Space Brigade.