Blackberries by Robert Curtis

Author:Robert Curtis [Curtis, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Children's Fiction - Action Adventure
ISBN: 9781743351208
Publisher: D Books
Published: 2013-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

12 Out of Mexico

The tin lids are sitting on the concrete slab. (Not too close to the poisonous pear in the fishhook-shaped crack.) Viola passes a cup to Mary.

‘A cup of water, please. I’m too drained of energy to turn the tap on.’

Mary drags herself to the tap, and turns it on... Nothing comes out of it. The tap has gone dry!

‘How will we wash our singlets now?’ Mary asks.

‘By dry-cleaning,’ Viola says. ‘All singlets will have to be washed in dust. Dust is dry as dust.’

Actually everyone is singlet-less these days, in the furnace-like heat.

Uncumber says, ‘It’s more serious than that. We won’t be able to live here any more.’

‘Where will we go?’ Viola asks.

‘To the water tank, out where we found the goat.’

‘That’s probably dried up as well, by now.’

‘Well to Forty Four Gallon Creek.’

‘How far away is it?’

‘About three days’ walk.’

‘We won’t last three days without water in this heat.’

‘We can get water from the car’s radio.’

‘What?’

‘Radiator, I mean... There’s a little brass tap on the bottom part of it.’

‘It will be rusty.’

‘What will?’

‘The water in the radiator.’

‘It’s better than nothing.’

They pack their things.

‘Is the cat coming?’ asks Mary.

‘Yes,’ says Uncumber.

‘What about the fox-gloves?’ Viola asks. ‘The creek bank is probably covered in those.’

‘We have no choice. If we stay here we are doomed to a lingering death when the radiator water runs out. And there’s nowhere else to go.’

‘...Except Pluto.’

Everyone looks at Viola; even Frantik the crow, who is standing on the shower pipe.

‘Where?’ asks Uncumber.

‘Pluto.’

‘The planet?’

‘Technically, it’s not a planet.’

‘Pluto is in the depths of the Solar System, Viola.’

‘Yes. It’s nice and cold. And fruit flourishes there.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I saw a photo of a custard-apple, in the Torrid Zone. The photo was taken by the Hubble Telescope.’

‘We can’t go to Pluto, because we haven’t got a submarine,’ says Mary.

‘A space ship isn’t required− if that’s what you mean by submarine.’

‘Well are we going to build a DC3, or something?’

‘No. We can go by sums.’

‘To Pluto, by sums?’ Uncumber asks.

‘Yes. I read how to do it in a science-fiction book called A13872. In chapter one, a cosmonaut went to A13872− which is one of the asteroids− by sums.’

‘Do you mean he did the navigation by sums... with his indelible pencil?’ asks Uncumber.

‘No, he was transmitted to A13872 by arithmetic, arriving one second later− in a dry sea.’

‘Were there any aliens on A18371?’ Mary asks. (She is frightened of aliens.)

‘Yes,’ says Viola. ‘In the sarsaparilla trees that dotted the shore of the dry sea. A white one, with a burst appendix. The asteroid was in darkness, but the alien was revealed in the pale glow of a mosquito.’

Uncumber: ‘The pale glow of what?’

‘A mosquito. Light came out of its eyes.’

‘Oh.’

‘The light was split by one of the fat black hairy sarsaparilla trees, but the alien could be seen creeping in. Others were in the deeper shadows...’

‘Did they have burst appendixes?’

‘Yes.’

Mary shrieks.

‘...The mosquito went out,’ Viola continues, ‘and the darkness pressed in again. The cosmonaut waited for another mozzie to flare.

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