The Race

by Ian Berry

  Rio’s pictures were in the paper that same day. Saskia wanted to know how they could leave it so late.

  “Dan just leaves a hole. Put a border and stuff around it, layout the rest of the page and then it just waits for the picture. Paste it in, resize it to fit and send it to the platemaker. Only takes a minute or so - if you trust your photographer.”

  “So Dan must trust Rio, that’s what you’re saying. Good basis for a relationship I’d say.”

  Friday. Our date with the TV studio. Saskia had one observation.

  “At least we don’t have to bother about what to wear.”

  “But it wouldn’t be - a bother. It never is. We always agree and it’s usually right.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Point taken. What time did they ask for us?”

  “Hm. An hour and a half before transmission they said. That’d make it about five o’clock. Get a day’s work done first.”

  There was a pause in the conversation, then, “Saskia? Do you get tummy butterflies?”

  I didn’t need to think. “No. At least not since ...”

  “Mm. Me neither. I more or less never feel nervous. Don’t miss it really I suppose.”

  “Good thing, I suppose. At least we won’t get wound up while we wait.”

  There wasn’t going to be time to get nervous, the phone rang - Saskia’s mobile. Harold at the nick.

  “Hello, Harold, nice to hear from you. Do you want me or do you want us to ...”

  Harold interrupted her. “Sorry, Saskia, Got a bit of a problem. You know the school on the north side of town? There’s been an explosion or the roofs collapsed or something. We need those friend of yours.”

  “We’re on it, Harold. If you don’t get a call, listen to your radio. Bye.”

  “I listened. Come on, round the back.”

  We left quietly. In the secluded spot at the rear of the building we changed to be Kyra and Katya, the SuperTwins. Within a second we were high in the air heading for the school.

  The scene was one of utter devastation. The whole building had collapsed. I collared a policeman. “Use your radio. Tell the nick we’re here, they’ll be expecting your call.”

  Together we surveyed the pile of rubble. “Katya, look there. That was the main hall. All the kids are there as far as I can see. Must have been afternoon registration or some such. Anyway, there’s a space. Going to be interesting getting them out.”

  “Can’t we just shift the rubble?”

  “Might collapse the whole thing.”

  “Mm. You’re right. What then?”

  “Need something to support the rubble while we dig.”

  “What about a big concrete pipe?”

  “Hey, spot on. Got any handy?”

  “As it happens, yes. We flew over some sewer work. Big concrete pipes. I’ll go and get some.”

  She took off back the way we’d come. I went to find the chap in charge of the firemen.

  “We’re going to push a pipe through the rubble. Only way we can see to do it. Anything else and the whole mess might collapse. All the kids seem to be in the hall. It’s a space at the moment but ...”

  “So you want us to stop moving about on it?”

  “Yes, please. We can see the kids. They’re ok at the moment. Just got to be careful getting them out.”

  Saskia returned at that moment carrying five or six massive concrete pipes.

  “I’ll dig, you push the pipes in. I should end up in the hall with a kid-size tunnel.”

  Slowly and carefully I made a hole for the first bit of pipe to slide into. I worked my way towards the kids making pit props and shoring up as I went. I could talk to Saskia down the open pipe. The concrete was easily strong enough to push its way in as I lifted stuff gently out of the way.

  “Second length going on,” shouted Saskia. “Reckon four lengths should do it.”

  “Ok. Moving forwards again.”

  Slowly and gently we pushed a tunnel into the rubble. “Third length going on.”

  What I was moving bore little relation to a school. The whole thing had come down like a pack of cards. We moved on. I came to a solid looking wall. The kids were behind it.

  “Last step,” I called down the pipe. “Got to break through a wall. Get ready to push. Might need the pipe to support the wall.”

  I estimated how big a hole I’d need. Using my fingers, I began to scoop out chunks of wall. I had to work gently, I didn’t want the wall to collapse. It was probably what was holding up the space beyond. Soon I had a half circle of clear space. I could see and hear the children although they couldn’t see me. I concentrated on calm and quiet. Seemed to work - the kids stayed where they were.

  “Last push, About six feet.”

  I moved forwards into the space as Saskia pushed the pipe. It fit neatly into the space I’d made in the wall.

  “Grab a lamp from a fireman, turn it on and slide it along the pipe.”

  I heard muttered words, then, “Incoming.”

  A huge torch came whizzing towards me along the bottom of the pipe. Now the kids could see.

  “Are you all ok?”

  One of the teachers answered me. “I think so. The whole school was in here when the building fell on us.”

  “All right. Sheppard the kids to the hole. It’s a big pipe. They can crawl along it. Make them go little one first then a big one to look after the little one.”

  One by one, the children crawled down the pipe while I watched out for further collapses. It took a while but eventually there was only me and seven teachers left. Now we had a further problem.

  “We can’t crawl down that. It’s not high enough for hands and knees.”

  Ok. Plan B. “Katya? A rope. Tie it to a stretcher from an ambulance. Hang onto your end and skim the stretcher down the pipe.”

  The stretcher with the end of the rope attached appeared at our end. I made one of the teachers lie down on the stretcher and Saskia slowly pulled her out. As she moved down the pipe, I asked the others, “As soon as you get out, take a register, I’m sure you can remember who’s here - or rather not here. I’ll stay here until you’re happy everybody’s out”

  Six more teachers were pulled out by Saskia. I waited until the headcount was confirmed. I must have waited too long. There was a single ominous loud creak - and the whole school fell on top of me, burying me completely.

  “Kyra? Are you ok in there?”

  Silly Saskia. ‘Course I was ok. I’m a super girl. Since I was hearing her in my mind, not my ears, our telepathic abilities had kicked in. I spoke normally.

  “Yeah. I’m fine. Just covered in school. Is everybody accounted for?”

  “Any second now. Yep, everybody’s here. Hang on there while I move everybody back a bit. You’ll make a mess when you come out.”

  There was a pause, then. “Ok. You can come out now.”

  I sat up. Bits of school resisted for a while but I insisted. Once I’d stood up, I just lifted into the air. In a fountain of rubble, I emerged from the top of the pile. Saskia had done well to move people back, bits of rubbish went everywhere.

  I flew over and landed next to Saskia who was surrounded by firemen and policemen. The teachers were sitting on the ground wrapped in shiny thermal blankets. The children were being loaded into a fleet of ambulances and were being shipped off to somewhere a bit more substantial than their school. What I also couldn’t help noticing was a local news satellite truck, complete with cameraman and reporter. Ray and Frank.

  Oh my. What time was it? We should have been at the studio. I used super vision on a clock I could see through the trees in the distance. Six thirty five. The program was about to go on the air. There was nothing we could do.

  “Saskia, we’ve missed our broadcast,” I whispered.


  “This was much more important.”

  “I agree. We’ll sort it out later.”

  “Look out, here’s Frank.”

  “Kyra, Katya. I’m Frank Fletcher from the local BBC news. Our program is on the air at the moment. We’ll be going live from here in a few minutes, will you join us? Your friends the Saskias are in the studio and have asked if they can join in.”

  “Looped. Must be,” whispered Saskia. “We must fix it when we leave here.”

  “Ok. Come on. Let’s see what we have to say for ourselves.”

  “One second to get clean, Frank and we’ll be right with you. Don’t jump.”

  Of course he did. We changed to be clean with brushed hair, rather different to my decidedly ratty appearance of a moment ago.

  “Super costumes or black?” whispered Saskia.

  “Super costumes. Make sure Joe Public knows who we are.”

  “Good call. As we are then.”

  Ray at the truck had a picture on a TV, ‘off air’ he called it, he also had a problem.

  “I haven’t enough IEMs, I’ll try to rig a speaker.”

  I put a hand on his arm. “Don’t worry we’ll hear fine. Don’t fuss Ray, you can do this.”

  “Ok. If you say so.” He went off to fix something else. Saskia had the inevitable question.

  “IEMs, Twin?

  “Stands for In Ear Monitor. Earpiece to you and me. Just rev up the super hearing and listen to Frank’s.”

  Ray rigged the TV just under the camera lens. I listened to Frank’s earpiece with my own super hearing. I could hear what was being said in the studio as well as the occasional extra voice. Probably the PA counting down to our bit. The Saskias were already on the couch. I heard Saskia.

  “Harold, the Desk Sergeant at the police station, called us just after lunch. We have our own methods of contacting Kyra and Katya. Harold knows this so he asked us to speak to them. I spoke to Katya and she said they’d go straight over. As far as I know they did.”

  Rhiannon Williams was on the other couch tonight. She spoke to Saskia.

  “We know they got there and we know the rescue was successful. In fact our reporter, Frank Fletcher, is there now and he has the SuperTwins with him. Good evening, Frank.

  Frank began to speak. Our TV changed to a picture of him which widened out to include us as Ray fiddled with the camera.

  “Yes, good evening, Rhiannon. Despite the mess you can see behind me, all the children were rescued unhurt, all completely due to these two remarkable girls.”

  He turned to us, “Saskia Hunt has just told us how you were alerted. Apparently you were here within minutes.”

  “Well, we can move quite quickly when we want to,” I said with a smile. “And when we need to of course,” Then I added, “I’m Kyra, by the way.”

  “Thanks for that,” laughed Frank. “Now just don’t change places or that’s me done for the night.”

  I could hear the people in the studio laughing. Frank continued.

  “Do you know what caused the building to collapse?”

  “We can’t speculate, You’d have to ask the nice men from the police and fire service. What I will say, since I’ve been inside and they haven’t, is that the building was totally destroyed. There was only one wall left standing and that was supporting the rubble above the children. I had to make a hole in it to get to them. After that they only just managed to get clear before the building collapsed completely.”

  “On top of you as I understand it,” said Frank.

  “Yes, that’s true. But I’m made of sterner stuff than any old school building.”

  I could hear the Saskias laughing in the studio, so was Rhiannon.

  Rhiannon had a question, “Katya, what were you doing while Kyra was digging away inside the building.”

  “Several things. One thing was organising the emergency boys and girls. They had to muster enough vehicles to cope with a lot of children. Most important was inching the tunnel forwards as Kyra directed. Another thing was watching your TV truck appear and worrying about doing exactly what I’m doing now.”

  That caused great laughter from everybody.

  “Katya and Kyra, it’s Saskia Chandler. Out of all the people you’ve spoken to, nobody has said ‘thank you’. I’d like to repair that omission on their behalf. Thank you from everybody, us here, the people there, but most of all from the children you rescued.”

  “And I’d like to add my thanks as well,” said Saskia, back in the studio.

  The news people were stunned into silence, I broke that silence, “I don’t blame them. What’s more important at this very moment, being with your safe, rescued child or being off somewhere thanking her rescuer. I know which I’d choose. Nevertheless, thank you for your kind words.”

  Rhiannon recovered first. “Thank you Frank Fletcher and the SuperTwins at the site of the collapsed school. We’ll bring you more on that story as we get it. Later, we’ll be talking to the Saskias about their ...” The sound cut off as the circuit was broken.

  “That was nice of Saskia,” said Katya to Frank. “She was right too. But never mind. That we got the children out unharmed is thanks enough.”

  “Sorry to leave you Frank,” I said. “But we have something we must do. Confidentially, if we don’t do it the whole world might come to an end.”

  He grinned nervously as we waved and took off into the evening sky. Didn’t stop him looking up at us as we rose vertically above him. Men! Then I laughed at myself.

  As soon as we were far enough away for anything odd to be noticed, Saskia said, “Voice? You there?”

  “I am here. You will have realised by now that you will need to be translated back in time. This will not occur until you have had a chance to speak to your later versions. You could simply go back from here and follow the timeline blindly but it is helpful if you have at least an idea of what to do next. When you next call, translation will be instantaneous. You may resume when you are ready.”

  “Let’s see,” I said. “The news has at least fifteen minutes to run, then we have to escape. I think we have getting on for an hour to kill. And we have to stay as Kyra and Katya.”

  “Let’s visit James and Lydia. We owe James a kiss anyway.”

  “True. Hey, we can land on the doorstep.”

  “But not like this. Jeeves would have a fit.”

  Laughing together, we set of for the Robinson house, just a minute or two’s flying time away.

  We were still chuckling when we landed outside James’ front door, now suitably changed to our black outfits. As we’d done before, I arranged my shirt to have white pockets so they stood half a chance of telling us apart. Jeeves opened the door.

  “Miss Kyra and Miss Katya. Please come in. Sir James and his wife have just been watching you on their television. I believe Miss Saskia and Miss Saskia are on it at the moment. They are in the lounge, will you go through?”

  We hurried to the lounge where James and Lydia were watching the news on the TV. James did a slight double take then decided to accept what he saw at face value.

  “Come and watch yourselves being interviewed. Are you ahead or behind?”

  “James,” said Saskia. “You’re getting used to this. We’re behind. We’ve not done that bit yet.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “We did the important bit first.” I curled up on a sofa next to Saskia and we watched what remained of our interview on TV.

  “... not real rivalry of course. Couldn’t do that, she’s my friend. However, that won’t stop us trying as hard as we can,” said Saskia Chandler.

  “We think some of the betting shops are running a book on us - taking bets,” said Saskia Hunt. “We need to try to be fair for them if nothing else.”

  “What do you think about that
? Having people make bets about what you might do?” asked Rhiannon, the interviewer on the other couch.

  “I have to say that it’s not something I’d want to do myself, but if that’s what other people want to do ...” Saskia Chandler did a little shrug.

  “How about you Saskia?

  “I’m not sure about stuff like that. It’s like anything else I suppose - it’s ok until it takes over your life, then you have a problem.”

  Obviously they ran out of time about then. Rhiannon said, “So there you have it. The Saskias are going to race each other. Who’ll win? We don’t know. What we do know is that we’ll be there to find out and we’ll tell you on Monday. Now, Maria has the weather - Maria?”

  James used the remote to turn the sound lower on the TV.

  “Seeing you sat together dressed identically like that makes it damn difficult to tell you apart. Even I have difficulty seeing you on TV like that and I see you every day. People who don’t know you must stand no chance.”

  “I think that’s why they put their names on their overalls, James. Right girls?” said Lydia.

  “More or less,” said Saskia. “Although it does make us look more like proper racing drivers.” She grinned.

  “How long have you got, girls?” asked Lydia. “I suppose you have to go back and appear in the studio at some point?”

  “We don’t know,” said Saskia. “The arrangements will be made at sometime ahead of now.”

  “Hm.” I said. “I know how to take all the uncertainty out of it. Let’s decide now that we’ll drive here in the mini as soon as we get out of the studio.”

  “Good idea,” said Saskia. “And as there was no crash of thunder and the world hasn’t ended, then that’s what should have happened anyway.”

  “So we just stay curled up here and wait for us to turn up,” I said. “There’s no rush, we can stay here all evening if we like.”

  “Your lives are so complicated,” said Lydia.

  “Not really,” said Saskia. “We still live them one event after another like you, it’s just that sometimes the events themselves aren’t arranged in a straight line, they can dodge about a bit. We’re used to it.”