Double Trouble Read online

‘Nooo!’ said Tilly.

  ‘You’d think they were living in the Dark Ages,’ I said.

  Tilly giggled. ‘I think the Dark Ages came after Ancient Roman times.’

  ‘Who cares about minor details like that?’ I said. ‘We have to do something to help Prima. She’s our friend. She saved you from the wolves and me from the onion farm. We can’t abandon her to a miserable life of sitting at home doing embroidery and playing really awful music.’

  ‘But we can’t change any of that. That’s the Roman way of life.’

  ‘I know, but if Prima was married to someone she actually loved, then surely that would make all the difference? She’d be happy and she might manage not to die of boredom.’

  ‘But you heard what she said. Her father won’t allow her to marry a slave.’

  ‘Maybe there’s something we can do about that,’ I said.

  ‘But …’

  I grinned. At last I knew something about history that Tilly didn’t.

  ‘Felix doesn’t have to be a slave forever,’ I said. ‘A master can grant a slave his freedom, and then he’d be free to marry anyone he wants.’

  ‘But what can we do to make that happen? I don’t fancy going back to Pompeii again, and even if we did, how could we explain to Julius?’

  Then she giggled. ‘I don’t suppose we could persuade Patrick to hop back to ancient times for a few minutes?’ she said. ‘Julius would listen to him, I bet.’

  I giggled too, glad that Patrick was busy polishing his glasses, and paying no attention to our conversation.

  ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘but would Patrick remember the message? He’d probably get distracted and try to tell Julius a long story about his Latin teacher’s sister’s ingrown toenail, or something irrelevant like that.’

  Suddenly I had an idea. ‘Remember how Julius used to get loads of letters every day?’

  Tilly grinned. ‘How could I forget? That messenger boy was totally cute.’

  I rolled my eyes. ‘Forget the messenger boy and remember how seriously Julius took those letters.’

  Tilly nodded. ‘I remember.’

  ‘Well, we could get Patrick to write Julius a letter,’ I said. ‘We could make it all official-looking, and Prima could take it back to her father. Maybe he’d do as the letter suggested. Maybe –’

  ‘Hang on a sec. Have we figured out how Prima’s going to get back to her father yet?’

  ‘Er … no. But that’s not important right now. Let’s get the letter written and we can worry about the other details later.’

  Much later, Patrick held up the letter.

  ‘It was very nice to write the old language,’ he said. ‘It’s like being back in university again. I wrote exactly what you said. Will I read it back to you?’

  Tilly and I nodded and he began, translating into English as he read.

  Dear Titus Julius Arcanus,

  It has come to my attention that your slave Felix has done some wonderful things lately. He saved your life when you hurt your leg, and then he jumped into the sea and saved your daughter’s life too. I am just an interested observer, but I would suggest that your slave Felix has earned his freedom. I would also suggest that you could reward him by letting him marry your daughter. You don’t have to do what I say, but I think you should.

  Sincerely,

  Doctor Patrick Turner

  I took the letter from him and handed it to Prima. She read it very slowly and then a smile spread across her face.

  ‘Yay, she’s up for it!’ said Tilly.

  Then Prima said something to Patrick.

  ‘She will give the letter to her father and say it was written by a very kind, very important man,’ he said, blushing slightly.

  Poor Patrick. He probably hadn’t felt important for a very long time.

  ‘I don’t suppose you have any sealing wax or anything?’ I said then, remembering the letters that the messenger used to bring to Julius.

  The doctor shook his head and pretended to be cross. ‘I’m not that old, you know, young lady. Sealing wax went out long before my time.’

  I didn’t want to give up. ‘Or an official-looking stamp or something?’

  Patrick turned and started to rummage through a drawer in the desk.

  ‘I think there might be some things here from my old surgery. Kathleen always tries to throw them out, but I won’t let her. I’m hoping that maybe one day I’ll be well enough to practise as a doctor again.’

  I felt a sudden rush of pity for the poor old man. He was so kind and helpful, and had no sense of how confused he was.

  Then he beamed as he pulled out some old-fashioned rubber stamps.

  ‘Here they are,’ he said. ‘Now, which one would you like?’

  ‘What do they say?’ I asked.

  ‘Hmm, this first one says URINE SAMPLE ENCLOSED.’

  Tilly and I giggled. ‘That’s not really what we had in mind. What else have you got?’

  Patrick read the next one. ‘PAID WITH THANKS.’

  ‘Perfect,’ I said. ‘After all, Felix has paid for his freedom twice over.’ I folded up the letter and Patrick used red ink to stamp the fold.

  Just then Kathleen came in and we knew it was time to leave.

  ‘I think Patrick has really enjoyed your visit,’ she said as he stood up and formally shook our hands.

  I tried not to feel too guilty as I wondered what his poor confused mind must have made of this whole event. Then we thanked them both and left.

  It wasn’t lunchtime yet, but already it felt like it had been a very long day.

  28

  The journey home with Prima took ages and ages. Who’d have thought a bin lorry would be so exciting? Or two toddlers in a double buggy?

  When we finally made it to my house, I couldn’t face going inside, so we went into the back garden.

  Prima amused herself by spinning the rotary washing line in circles and running round after it like a crazy girl.

  Tilly and I went and sat on the grass.

  ‘So now what are we going to do?’ asked Tilly.

  I shrugged. I had absolutely no idea what we were going to do next.

  ‘We’re the ones who brought Prima here,’ said Tilly. ‘So she’s our responsibility.’

  ‘I know. But we can’t cope with this on our own. It’s too big. We’ll have to get some help.’

  ‘From whom?’

  ‘From someone who’d believe us when we say, “This is Prima and she’s come to visit us from Ancient Rome, and we’re wondering if we should send her back. And incidentally, we’ve just spent a few days being slaves and watching Vesuvius destroying Pompeii. Oh, and by the way, did I mention the magical cat who seems to be part of this whole time-travelling thing?”’

  I sighed. ‘That sounds totally crazy to me, even though I know for sure it’s true.’

  ‘And there’s another thing,’ said Tilly. ‘Even if we did manage to find someone who believed us, they’d probably haul poor Prima off and do scientific experiments on her, like they tried to do with ET.’

  ‘But we have to do something. We can’t just keep her here. We’ve both got hockey practice tonight.’

  ‘And I’ve got swimming this afternoon. And what about school on Monday?’

  I giggled. ‘Mrs Simms is always going on about historical artefacts. What would she say if we brought Prima in for Show and Tell?’

  Tilly giggled too. ‘That would be so amazing,’ she said.

  I sighed. ‘But you know how formal Mrs Simms is. She’d insist on putting Prima’s name on the register. And what would we say when she asked awkward stuff like her date of birth?’

  ‘Or the name of her last school?’

  I sighed again. ‘Anyway, it wouldn’t be fair on Prima. She’s worried about her mum and dad and Secunda. And she misses Felix. She’s had some
excitement here, but it’s time for her to go home now.’

  ‘And there’s something else too,’ said Tilly. ‘Remember when Columbus went to America, loads of native Americans died because they couldn’t fight the diseases that the explorers had brought with them.’

  ‘So Prima could be at risk from modern diseases?’

  Tilly nodded. ‘Probably. And we wouldn’t want to find out the hard way, would we?’

  I knew she was right. There were all kinds of good reasons for sending Prima back home. All we had to figure out was how to do it.

  When we went inside, Mum handed Prima’s tunic to her. While we were gone, she had washed and dried and ironed it.

  Tilly laughed. ‘Prima must think your mum is a slave,’ she said to me.

  ‘I heard that, Tilly,’ said Mum. ‘And you’re right, sometimes I do feel like a slave around here.’

  ‘Trust me, Mum,’ I said. ‘Being a slave is harder than you’d think.’

  Before she could answer, Prima began to sniff the tunic and stroke her face with it.

  ‘I think maybe her family uses a different brand of fabric conditioner,’ said Tilly.

  While Prima changed back into her own clothes, I dug around in my wardrobe for an old rucksack.

  ‘What’s that for?’ asked Tilly.

  ‘If Prima does manage to get back home, wouldn’t it be nice if she brought some presents from the future?’ I asked.

  ‘That’s a totally brilliant idea,’ said Tilly. ‘Now let’s get Prima out of here so we can do this properly.’

  I took Prima out to the back garden and bribed Stephen to keep an eye on her, while she ran around the washing line. Then I went back up to my room.

  Tilly was sitting on my bed, holding the empty rucksack.

  ‘This is an amazing opportunity,’ she said. ‘So we have to think really carefully about what we send back with Prima. Have you any ideas?’

  ‘Maybe we should send her back with a pizza?’ I suggested. ‘I was really disappointed to learn that they didn’t have pizzas in ancient times. Maybe if we don’t send one back now, pizza will never be invented – and how tragic would that be?’

  ‘Totally tragic,’ said Tilly.

  Suddenly I had another idea. I ran into Stephen’s room and returned with his talking Buzz Lightyear toy.

  ‘Prima can give this to Felix,’ I said. ‘I know he’s too old for toys, but this would be a huge novelty back in Pompeii. Maybe it would help Felix to impress Julius.’

  ‘I’m not so sure about giving that to Prima,’ said Tilly.

  ‘Stephen won’t mind,’ I said. ‘He never plays with it any more.’

  ‘That’s not what I meant. It’s just that … maybe it’s against the rules.’

  ‘There are rules? Since when?’

  She sighed. ‘I don’t know. But maybe it’s wrong to send something made of plastic back to a time thousands of years before it’s been invented.’

  She did have a point. While I was thinking about it, I pulled the string on the toy’s back and the mechanical voice said ‘To infinity and beyond!’

  ‘When the makers of that toy talked about infinity, they didn’t know how right they were,’ I said. ‘Doesn’t it seem kind of appropriate to send it back a few thousand years?’

  Tilly shrugged. ‘I’m still not sure. But if we ever hear that it was the wrong thing to do, we can go back to the year 79 and pick it up again.’

  I shook my head quickly. ‘No way. I plan to stay in the twenty-first century for a while, if that’s OK with you. Now what else will we put in?’

  Before long, the rucksack was full. Inside it were:

  the letter to Julius

  Buzz Lightyear

  a small pizza in a box

  a few cherry tomatoes

  a big bag of salt and vinegar crisps

  a huge packet of colouring pencils

  some gel pens

  a picture book and a rag doll for Secunda

  some embroidery threads I’d found in an old craft kit for Livia

  ‘That’s the easy part finished,’ said Tilly as she zipped up the bag.

  ‘And the hard part is?’

  ‘The hard part is figuring out how exactly we’re going to get Prima and all this stuff back to Ancient Pompeii.’

  29

  When we got back to the garden, Prima had stopped chasing the washing in circles. Now she was running up and down the small plastic slide that Stephen had stopped playing on years earlier. Stephen was very glad to see us.

  ‘I don’t care if you tell Dad about the shed window,’ he said. ‘Just don’t ever ask me to mind Prima again. It’s too scary.’

  Suddenly I felt sorry for him. ‘Dad knows about the shed window,’ I said. ‘He doesn’t mind.’

  At first Stephen looked relieved, before he realized that I’d been tricking him for months. He was getting ready to scream at me when Tilly stepped in.

  ‘If you’re not busy, Stephen, would you just wait here with Prima for another few minutes? Lauren and I have to –’

  Before she could finish, Stephen had raced inside, slamming the back door behind him. I knew exactly how he felt.

  Tilly and I sat on the grass.

  ‘All we have to do is persuade Saturn to take Prima back home,’ said Tilly, like that was the easiest thing in the world.

  I was still very worried.

  ‘We have no real idea how this whole time-travel stuff works,’ I said. ‘Even if we manage to persuade Saturn to whisk Prima away from here, that might not be the right way to go. How can we trust him to take her to the right time and place? She could end up on the Titanic like I did – and she wouldn’t know what a disaster that turned out to be.’

  ‘But –’

  I didn’t let her finish. ‘What if Prima gets lost in time and she’s all on her own?’ I said. ‘Maybe we should go with her just in case?’

  Tilly shook her head. ‘It’s not like we’ve known Prima forever, is it?’

  ‘It feels like we’ve known her forever,’ I said. ‘We’ve been through a lot together.’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ said Tilly. ‘But I think there’s a better chance of Saturn taking Prima back to her own place and time if we’re not there to distract him.’

  ‘That’s true,’ I said. ‘But there’s one other thing – even if Saturn gets Prima home to Pompeii, how is he going to get back here to us afterwards?’

  Tilly hugged me. ‘We can’t be sure he will. We’ll just have to hope.’

  She had a point. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I lost Saturn, but for Prima’s sake, I had to be brave.

  So I left Tilly to sort Prima out while I went inside to look for my unsuspecting pet.

  A few minutes later, Prima was sitting in the middle of our lawn with my old rucksack on her back and Saturn in her arms. Prima was staring at us, like she knew that something important was going to happen. I wanted to hug her, but I didn’t dare.

  ‘Friends forever?’ I said.

  ‘Friends … forever,’ she repeated slowly, and then she smiled at me almost like she understood.

  Tilly and I were sitting nearby, careful not to touch any part of Prima or Saturn or the rucksack. I was sooo tempted to reach out and stroke Saturn’s soft fur, but I knew that would be a really, really bad idea.

  I picked up the paper and pencils I’d brought outside with me, and Prima smiled. I drew a picture of a house.

  ‘Domus,’ I said, using the word Prima had taught us.

  Prima thought it was a game. She pointed at my house. ‘Domus,’ she said. ‘House.’

  Tilly shook her head. ‘No, Prima,’ she said. ‘This isn’t a language lesson. This is important. We’re trying to send you home.’

  Of course Prima didn’t understand.

  I drew thr
ee stick figures in the house. ‘Julius, Livia, Secunda,’ I said, pointing. Then I drew two more – a boy and girl holding hands. ‘Felix and Prima,’ I said.

  Now Prima smiled and nodded.

  I gazed at Saturn. ‘I know you’ve done a lot of time-travelling lately, and you must be a bit tired,’ I said. ‘But this is important. Prima needs to go home, and Tilly and I can’t go along, so we’re trusting you to take her, OK?’

  Saturn blinked and his odd eyes opened wide.

  ‘It’s all your fault,’ I said. ‘You brought her here and you’ve got to take her back.’

  Saturn sat in Prima’s arms, looking bored.

  ‘Maybe she should stroke him,’ said Tilly, miming a stroking action.

  Prima noticed and began to stroke Saturn. For a few minutes nothing happened and I had a horrible feeling that we were wasting our time.

  In my mind I was trying to think of a way of integrating Prima into my life forever. I was already trying to figure out how I was going to persuade my parents to adopt this strange, lovely girl, who had appeared out of nowhere.

  Then Saturn went rigid. He arched his back and began to tremble.

  ‘It’s working,’ whispered Tilly. ‘And I think I know –’

  Before she could finish her sentence, Saturn flicked his tail. As if in slow motion, it arched through the air and touched the side of Tilly’s arm.

  ‘Nooo,’ I screamed as I threw myself forward and grabbed her other arm.

  Then everything seemed to happen at once. Prima and Saturn shimmered and then became transparent, before vanishing completely.

  I tried to pull Tilly away, but it was like trying to move a mountain. I watched in horror as her arm and then her body began to shimmer and become transparent.

  ‘No way, Tilly!’ I screamed. ‘You’re not going with them! I’m not letting you go!’

  I ground my heels into the grass and pulled like I had never pulled before. The shimmery effect was moving along Tilly’s arm towards my desperately clutching fingers. I knew that if I didn’t let go soon, I was going to be in big, big trouble.

  Then, just when I thought my muscles were going to explode, I tumbled backwards and Tilly – a perfect, solid, non-transparent Tilly – tumbled on top of me.