Justtin

Chapter three
The note

It was about this time that Penny started wearing hats. It had nothing to do with the fact she had no hair, but after shaving the remainder off, the burns had left two opposing scars. One looked like it said 999; the other was too demonic, even for here. In such a short time Penny’s head had gone from being covered in beautiful long blond hair, to having a direct line to Satan’s emergency services. But not wanting to give anybody the wrong idea, she wore hats. And she had lots. Lots and lots.
“ Nice hat,” said Zed, the day after THAT incident.
“ Get stuffed, you,” said Penny, still smarting from her wounds.
“ That’s not very nice,” said Barry. “Anybody would think it was our fault. You were the one who became all macho, and threw the switch.”
“ I spent two bloody hours sitting in the local Hospital because of you two. I just came to tell you both that I’m not very happy with either of you. I could be scarred for life, and it is all you’re fault. It’s your stupid robot.”
“ Now hang on,” said Barry,defensively “ I don’t think the robot is stupid. After all, he didn’t hurt you. You hurt you. If I remember rightly, you were the one who changed the cables round the wrong way.”
“ Yeah,” said Zed, backing Barry up, but from a safe distance.
“ I can’t believe you two,” said Penny. “ I might have to wear this hat for the rest of my life.”
“ Your hair will grow back,” offered Zed.
“ My hair was beautiful,” said Penny, “ and now it’s all gone.”
She started to cry, and neither of the boys knew what to do.
Barry sat there trying to pull faces, to try and cheer Penny up.
Zed, on the other hand, always fancied himself as a bit of a magician. So he performed the one and only trick he knew. The old coin appearing from behind the ear, trick.
Now, after fifteen attempts to get it right, most people would be bored, but the more Zed tried his trick, the more Penny cheered up. By the time Zed had finally got it right, Penny had stopped crying and was showing signs of laughter.
Five minutes later, she was sharing jokes with the boys, and laughing so much, she took her hat off, to show them what had happened to her head.
The boys both stared at her head, and realised then, just how lucky she had been.
Zed couldn’t look anymore, so he looked at the ground.
“ New shoes as well,” he noticed.
“ Yes,” said Penny, putting her hat back on. “ They match my hat, too.”
They all laughed and realised that they were still good friends.
Penny followed the boys to the house to get some food, but the sight that greeted them in the kitchen was not what they expected.
Aunt Betty was standing at the sink, as you do, with a plate in one hand, and a dishcloth in the other, finishing the washing up. But she was naked, except a small apron covering her lower half, and of course the wellies, which this time, had a large yellow daffodil, sticking out of the top of each one.
“ I’ve just come back from the village store, “ she said. “ There’s a fresh loaf on the table.”
“ Oh, she didn’t, ” groaned Barry.
“ No, don’t worry,” said Penny, “ She’s like it all the time. I’ve seen more of Aunt Betty’s naked body than I have of mine in a mirror.”
“ I wonder if my mum and dad know about this? They might stop me coming here,” worried Barry,
“ I shouldn’t worry about that if I were you,” said Zed, who always seemed to know more than he should.
“ Anyway, we’ve got fresh bread. I’ll go and get the pate` from the hamper. You start slicing.”
As Zed disappeared from the room, Barry took a sideways glance at Aunt Betty, and obviously wasn’t happy with what he saw.
“ It won’t make any difference,” said Penny, almost reading his mind.
“ What won’t?” said Barry, puzzled.
“Asking her to put some clothes on. In fact, it could make it worse.”
“How could it be any worse?”
Penny thought about this. Finally, she said, “Maybe you’re right.”
Zed returned with the pate`, and they ate their lunch in silence. Barry was thinking about what to do with Aunt Betty, and not getting very far. Penny was thinking about adding to her ever-growing hat collection. And Zed was thinking about the telephone. He needed an excuse to get the other two out of the house for a while.
“We’re getting low on fruit,” was the best he could come up with.
“ I know an orchard,” said Penny, helpfully.
“Excellent!” said Zed. “ You two go and get some apples. There’s something I need to do here.”
Barry eyed him suspiciously.
“ Like what?” he asked
“ Just a phone call, but I need some privacy.” Zed replied.
“ To the Ministry, I suppose,” said Barry.
“ Ministry of what?” asked Penny out of curiosity.
“ Can’t say just yet, but all will become clear, soon,” said Zed.
All this cloak and dagger stuff was getting on Barry’s nerves. If only Zed would be a bit more up front with him. They were best friends after all.
“ What’s up?” Said Penny on the way to the orchard.
“ I don’t know,” replied Barry, who was doing a bad job of hiding his frustration. It was like being in a long-term relationship, and not knowing what your other half is doing. He’d thought about spying on Zed, but he wasn’t sure that would help. He didn’t want to learn something that might upset him, or worse hurt him. He felt that Zed was being selfish, by not letting him in, on what was going on.
“ He’s up to something,” Barry continued, “ but I don’t know what. Do you think I should confront him? You know, get it all out in the open?”
“ You do what you think is right. Do you trust him?”
“ I suppose so. It’s just bloody irritating,” said Barry.
“ Well, if you trust him you are going to have to wait and let him come to you. It may be nothing. Mind that hole.” Penny mentioned.
“ What ho………” Barry never finished as he went over on his bad foot, yet again.
“ Ow, ow, ow,” he ow,ed.
“ Still as clumsy as ever,” said Penny, trying hard not to laugh.
“ Why do they have to have rabbit holes in the country?” said Barry.
“ You would have thought that the cow had been aware of it?” said Penny.
Barry looked at his arm as he sat up.
“Oh yuk,” he said.
***
When Barry, assisted by Penny, finally made it back to the farmhouse, he sat down in the kitchen, and Penny got a cloth and warm soapy water to remove the now drying cow pat on his arm. Aunt Betty was nowhere to be seen, which was unusual.
After a few minutes, there was the sound of a vehicle pulling up in the drive.
Penny got up to look outside, and saw Zed and Aunt Betty get out of a big black car, with tinted windows. Two men got out and started to unload some stuff from the boot.
Aunt Betty, carrying a huge golf umbrella, skipped off toward the back of the house. Zed came straight in to the kitchen, looking a bit glum.
“ Hello,” said Barry. “ Where have you been?”
“ Hi,” said Zed.
He had a note in his hand, which he passed to Barry, not knowing what to say.
Barry opened the note and read. Dear son, We hope this note finds you well. We are both ok, but we think it best for you to stay with Aunt Betty for the rest of the holidays. We are going to be away for a bit longer that we expected. We are so sorry, but under the circumstances we both feel that you are in the best and safest place. Contact with us will be impossible, but we will get a message to you as soon as we can. We have sent you some new parts for the robot. Good luck, all our love, Mum and Dad. P.S. It’s important that you get the robot working. Also do not change the mains leads around. It could be fatal…
Barry stared at the note in disbelief. He read it again, but the words came out the same.
Another five weeks of this, he thought.
“ I can’t handle this,” he said, and got up to leave, but as soon as he put weight on his foot, he knew he was going to have to sit down again.
Zed had already read the note, but Penny picked it up and read it out loud.
Barry listened, hoping he’d missed something. He had a thousand questions, starting with How, Who, What, Where, When and Why? And if not, why not?
“ Zed,” he said finally, “ are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
“ I guess there’s no time like the present,” said Zed. “ What do you want to know first?
“ What’s happening would be a start?” said Barry.
“ This is not going to be easy,” said Zed carefully, “ but here goes.”
He paused for dramatic effect, and then continued.
“ Your parent’s have become targets for some middle-eastern terrorist
group. The Ministry have placed them into hiding for their own safety.”
Barry’s chin was hovering just above the floor. If his mouth had got any wider, it would have been a great place to park a small car.
“ You bloody liar,” yelled Penny. “ You’re making it up.”
“ I wish I was,” said Zed.
“ I still can’t handle this,” mumbled Barry. “ So what did they do?”
“ From what I can understand,” Zed started, “ your Dad was part of a team of people who were sent to the middle-east to finalise an arms deal. An argument started, and your Dad was accused of insulting one of the leaders. Something about him calling one of the Arabs, a hot headed, brain-fried wanker.”
“ Oh,” was all that Barry could say at this moment. Yep that sounds like my Dad, he thought.
“ So, where are they?” asked Penny, now sensing Zed was telling the truth. Well, trying to make this stuff up isn’t easy you know.
“ If we knew that, we would be in as much danger as they are,” Zed answered logically.
“ My brain hurts. I want to go home,” said Barry.
“ You can’t,” said Zed.
“ Why not?” asked Barry. All he wanted at the moment was his favourite teddy.
“ Don’t be stupid. That’s the first place they would look. As the note says, you are safest here. Nobody knows you’re here.”
“ Makes sense,” said Penny, “ but where do you fit in?”
“ Ah,” said Zed “ that’s the easy bit. I also belong to the Ministry. Our parent’s were all members, and I become a junior agent last year. Your parent’s, Barry, decided that you shouldn’t follow in their footsteps, to keep you away from all the problems that they had faced. There was never going to be a right time to tell you what was going on, but since that has happened, now was a good a time as any.”
“Thanks.” Said Barry.
***
Barry was numb.
All this for his own safety.
The secrecy. The comings and goings. He slapped his forehead when he realised where he’d seen the ministry crest, and the big black cars with tinted windows. It was all beginning to make some kind of sense. He needed to talk to an adult, but who?
Aunt Betty entered the room, looking almost normal, in a two piece tweed suit, which is something we all associate with the country. But she still had her wellies, which she’d painted with red and green stripes.
“ Does he know yet?” she asked.
“ What?” said Barry, utterly shocked, “ Not you as well?”
“ Oh yes, deary,” said Aunt Betty. “ It’s easy when you’re mad, coz nobody would believe me anyway.”
“ I didn’t see that coming,” said Barry
“ I have a new name as well,”
“ Really, like what?” asked Penny.
“ Aunt B.” she proudly announced.
“ Why?” said Barry.
Aunt B pointed at Zed “ Well, if he can sound like a letter from the alphabet, so can I,” she said.
“As nutty as the nuttiest thing ever,” said Barry. “ I need to lie down. It’s been one of those days.”
But it hadn’t finished yet.
***
The car may have gone, but it had left behind a huge mess. A mess that needed clearing up. While Barry sat on his bed, trying to understand what was going on, Zed and Penny started to clear the mess away. There were boxes of all shapes and sizes, some heavy, some not. Zed suggested that everything should be put in the barn, out of sight of any passes-by.
“ What is all this stuff?” asked Penny.
“ Just a few essentials that the Ministry thought might be useful,” said Zed as he opened one of the longer heavier boxes, and lifted out a rocket launcher.
“ What the hell is that thing?” asked Penny, shocked.
“ What, this old thing? It’s just a bog standard rocket launcher. Extremely accurate over 200 yards and could take out a tank.”
“ Is that classed as essential then?”
“ Not really, but these might be,” said Zed as he opened a box full of Second World War machine guns.
“ You have to be careful with these,” he continued, “ they have a bit of a kick.”
“ You know how to use all his stuff?” Penny asked, utterly amazed.
“ Of course. I guess I spent too much time with my folks during my school summer holidays.”
“ Wow,” said Penny.
“ Wow,” said Barry as he entered the barn. He looked at all the stuff.
“ Look at all this stuff,” he said, as he lifted the lid on a box full of hand grenades.
“ Easy tiger. They’re not toys you know,” said Zed, cautiously.
“ Obviously,” said Barry, “ but what’s it all for?”
“ Just in case we get visitors of the not nice persuasion,” said Zed.
“ Oh,” said Barry, more confused than ever.
“ We could start a small war with this stuff,” said Penny.
“ Or finish it,” said Zed with a look of wisdom beyond his years.
“ In time, I will show you how to use these arms, but you must remember to be careful at all times. As I said before, these are not toys, and they could have some bugger’s eye out, if not handled properly. First of all, we need to cover this stuff up. Penny, give me a hand with that tarpaulin. That should be good enough for now.”
They covered the mound of boxes, and Zed picked up a small box and said,
“ We’ll have to charge these up.”
“ What are they?” asked Barry.
“ Walkie-talkies. I think it best if we carry one each, that way we stay in touch with each other, at all times. I also have a direct telephone link with the Ministry, in case we need help.”
“ How much help do you think we’ll need, with that lot in there?” asked Barry.
“ You never can tell. Just a precaution, I suppose,” said Zed.
Penny knew a joke about precaution, but decided this wasn’t the time, or place.
“ Is there anything you haven’t thought of?” asked Barry.
“ No, why?” said Zed.
“ I was just wondering why the robot was so important,” said Barry.
“ Except that,” said Zed. “ I hadn’t thought of that."
***
Barry struggled to keep up with Zed and Penny the following morning, as they all made their way to the barn.
“ Come on, slow coach,” said Penny.
“ K’off,” mumbled Barry.
“ Charming,” she said. “ Grumpy git.”
“ Give him a chance,” said Zed, “ it can’t be easy for him. Barry, is the robot ready?”
“ I don’t know. It’s where we left it the other day.”
“ So, does that mean we have to start again?”
“ I’ll check it, when I get there that is. After the surge of electricity, I’m hoping the circuitry hasn’t burnt out. But I’m also hoping that I can reset the computer.”
“ Sounds complicated,” said Penny.
“ Not really. I’ve spent a lot of time with my dad.”
On that word, he paused, and thought how much he missed his dad, and his mum. He wanted a hug. Not much to ask, is it?
“ You were saying,” said Penny, which broke his trance.
“ Sorry. Oh yeah. I’ve watched my dad many times, so I’m sure I know what to do,”
“ Ok,” said Zed, “ We’ll leave you to it, unless you need the help.”
“ I might need someone to help me remove some of the casing, and passing me some tools.”
“Alright,” said Zed, “ where do we start?”
“ We’ll start at the very beginning,” said Barry, in his best singing voice, and almost in tune.
The next few hours heard bangs and crashes coming from the barn, with the occasional silence that always accompanies the fiddly bits. It was going to take longer than Barry originally thought. The circuitry was more damaged than he’d hoped, but amazingly, the robot’s computer was intact. With the new parts that Barry’s dad had sent, the robot was near completion. Penny sat and watched, fascinated, and did her bit by bringing the boys the odd drink here and there.
“ That’s the voice box installed,” said Barry, with a sense of triumph.
Zed was gobsmacked.
“ You never said it could talk,” he said
“ You didn’t ask,” said Barry trying to be funny.
“ Ha, bloody ha. What will it say?” asked Zed.
“ I have no idea. It depends on how much information my dad had time to load into its voice program. We should know in about half an hour. I’ve just got to finish re-wiring the mains circuit, then we should be able to boot up.”
“ Eh?” said Penny
“ That’s a technical term. It means start.”
“ Oh,” said Penny, “ of course it does, silly me. I knew that. I did!”
“ Whatever,” said Barry, as he continued with the wires.
“ What’s that on the front?” asked Penny, pointing to a small screen.
“ That’s the external display. It shows us what basic information the built-in computer is thinking. When we start him up, all its data will show up on the screen, in it’s most basic form. It will show us if it has a problem, how much memory it has, how big its vocabulary is, and most importantly, whether its working or not.”
“ That’s very interesting, but how come it’s a him, all of a sudden?” asked Penny, secretly hoping the robot was female.
“ Something this technically advanced, has to be a male, doesn’t it?” Barry asked Zed.
“ Leave me out of it,” said Zed “ dodgy ground, and all that.”
“ Well, I’m not bothered either way,” said Barry, realising that he’d made a sexist remark. Why do we refer to ships as she? And more to the point, who cares?
“ Must crack on,” said Barry, keeping his head down, expecting an apple at any moment.