In Search of the Time and Space Mach (2 page)

Max climbed in the car with her mum and said nothing. As they drove away she could hear the chanting of ‘slime lady' slowly recede behind them as they moved further away from the school.

Her mother sat staring ahead, gripping the steering wheel like she was trying to squeeze it into another shape. But Max knew the silence wasn't going to last long.

‘What's got into you lately?' said Max's mum in her at-her-wits'-end voice.

Max also knew that when a conversation started this way it never got any better.

‘Nothing,' said Max.

‘Don't tell me “nothing”. The last few weeks you've been moody, you've barely said a word and I can't remember the last time I saw you really smile.'

‘Why is everyone so concerned about me being Ms Smiley?' Max exploded.

‘Everyone who?' asked her mum.

‘Doesn't matter,' said Max and sunk down lower into her seat to the crunch of plastic bags her mum had laid out so Max's slimed clothes wouldn't wreck the upholstery.

‘Yes it matters. It's like you don't care for anything any more. You used to be such a happy girl, always off playing with other kids, but now it's
like you don't want to have anything to do with anyone,' and here there was a well-timed pause before her mother added, ‘including me.'

‘Well you don't have to worry about that much longer,' said Max perking up. ‘As soon as Dad picks me up tomorrow I'll be out of your hair for six weeks.'

Max's mother faced the road and although it seemed impossible, gripped the wheel even harder. Her voice softened.

‘Actually, there's been a change of plans.'

The way her mother said it Max knew these new plans weren't a good thing for her.

‘What change of plans?' she asked suspiciously.

‘Your father has been offered a very important film to direct and won't be able to come back to Australia this year.'

Max's dad lived in America and her mother wanted nothing to do with him after he fell in love with a famous actress and moved to Hollywood, where the weather is always sunny and people are tanned and sit around in cafes all day. Even though it sounded like a really boring way to live, compared to spending six weeks in her mother's company, it would be heaven.

‘But we all agreed that Dad was going to come here for his holidays!' Max cried.

‘Sweetie, this is a big opportunity for your father and it was a really hard decision for him. I know it doesn't seem fair …'

‘Well if he can't come here, I'll go to America and be with him,' Max said decisively. ‘I'm old enough to fly by myself and I'd have much more fun staying with Dad and his new wife than I will staying here.'

Max knew this would hurt her mother, and that's exactly what it did.

‘Now Max, your father's going to be too busy to look after you. You know that when he directs he has no time for anybody …'

Max looked away and mumbled into the window.

‘If you'd made more time to be with us instead of your dumb job maybe Dad wouldn't have left us in the first place.'

Max jerked forward as her mother pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the car.

Her eyes shifted towards her mother's beetroot red face, that always meant one thing. She was really going to get it now.

‘Look Max, I know it's hard for you to understand but what happened between your father and me was very complicated. I know you think it's
my fault we got divorced but there was a lot more involved than you know about.'

‘Like what?' asked Max.

‘When you're older, you and I will sit down and have a long talk about it, but for now you're too young and you just wouldn't understand,' said Max's mum, softening her voice.

Max looked away. She hated it when her mother treated her like a kid.

‘Please Max, we don't have time to talk now. We have to get you home so you can pack.'

Max turned sharply.

‘Pack for where?' she asked.

Her mum took a deep breath.

‘For the farm. It's been arranged that you'll spend the holidays with Uncle Ben and Aunt Eleanor. They're expecting us tonight.'

Uncle Ben and Aunt Eleanor! The same Uncle Ben and Aunt Eleanor who lived in the country, a million miles from anywhere? Who spent their days raising sheep and stomping through cow manure? The thought of spending her holidays with this pair of country bumpkins was as horrifying as being locked in a cage with giant, man-eating spiders! And as exciting as being strapped to a chair and being made to watch the Oprah Winfrey show for the rest of her life.

Really, really boring!

Suddenly, being with her mother didn't seem so bad after all.

‘Why can't I stay with you?' Max pleaded.

‘Because things are really busy for me now and I think it would be better if you got out of the city for a while and breathed some fresh country air.'

Max sat staring out the windshield at the city. She felt like she was seeing it for the last time, convinced that if she was made to go to the farm, boredom would take hold of her within days and leave her a shivering, zombied mess.

She hated the country and she hated even more the idea of spending it with two chicken farmers she hardly knew.

Her mother leant over and stroked her cheek.

‘I realise this is hard for you Max, but you know I love you. I've certainly been busy lately and these last few years without Dad have been hard on the both of us, but it will get better. I promise.'

Max's mother gave her a quick kiss and started the car.

‘We'd better get going,' she said, looking at her watch.

Max wiped the kiss away and crossed her arms against her chest.

Her mum worked in the publicity department of a major TV station and her life was full of dinners, openings, famous people and parties. It seemed pretty cruisy to Max and as they drove on in silence, she knew she was the one who had the hard life.

This was one of the hardest assignments yet for Alex Crane.

She'd been captured and was being driven to the secret hideout of the infamous Camilla La Koole, the most notorious mastermind of poisons the world had ever seen. Camilla's cunning plans saw her befriend the rich and famous and when they least expected it, spray them with her poisons. Each poison was enough to keep the person immobile until she could steal their riches and escape.

And when her victims awoke they remembered nothing.

Camilla was the richest and most clever woman the underworld had ever known, and Spyforce had Alex Crane on the case to bring her evil ways to an end.

Of course Alex wasn't really captured. She'd let Camilla trap her and armed with a Spyforce micro-recorder in her watch and a piece of Truth Gum, which when chewed forced the chewer to tell the truth, she'd trick Camilla into confessing all.

Just one piece of gum.

Max's head was thrown forward and her pen skidded across her book as the car came to an
abrupt stop. A cattle dog had run onto the road and her mother had seen it just in time to stop.

Max stopped thinking of Alex Crane and looked around her. She wasn't superspy Alex Crane in some exotic spy location, she was Max Remy and she was in Mindawarra. A town that had one pub, a Chinese restaurant, a police station and a general store with a couple of petrol bowsers out front. The only person in sight was an old man asleep on the bench at a bus stop that looked like there hadn't been a bus through for about a hundred years.

This was Mindawarra. Max's home for the entire school holidays.

‘According to this, Ben and Eleanor's farm is about three k's east of here,' said her mum, poring over a map. ‘So it won't be long now.'

Long until what? Max thought. Until she became comatose with boredom as she spent the summer watching cows graze? Great.

The sun was just starting to set when they pulled onto a dirt track and, after three dusty, potholed kilometres, came upon a house that looked like something out of a horror film: broken down, creaky and smothered by evil-looking trees. The only person who could possibly feel at home
here was some half-crazed lunatic who'd had their brain removed at birth.

Ben and Eleanor came rushing out to meet them. Max almost got smothered in the folds of clothes as Eleanor swooped on her and gave her a hug. She untangled herself, lucky to escape alive.

Ben stepped towards Max's mother and the two exchanged a brief handshake.

‘Hello,' they both said coolly.

Max's mother wiped her hand with a hanky as if to wipe the handshake away. She then mumbled a quick hello to her sister and what sounded like a quiet ‘thank you'.

‘Would you like to come in for a quick cuppa?' asked Eleanor.

‘No thanks. I really should be going. I'm late already.' Then she turned to Max. ‘Bye, sweetie. Anything you need just call me. Okay? I love you.'

And with that she was gone. A small cloud of dust following her car out of the front gate and back to the city.

Back to the real world.

Eleanor picked up Max's bags.

‘Come on, Max. I'll show you to your room,' she said cheerily.

Max followed Eleanor and only just missed
stepping on dog poo before walking up the creaky, dusty front steps.

At the top she turned and looked around her. There wasn't another house in sight. This really was the end of the world and she'd been farmed out like some dumb animal to graze with a couple of hillbillies. Max pictured herself as an old woman walking off the farm, fat from years of eating steak and potatoes every night and watching cows wander around dusty paddocks.

She jumped back as a chicken flapped past her as if from nowhere. She covered her face with her arms as it landed and then cackled like it was having a good laugh at her.

‘You won't think it's so funny when you're next Sunday's lunch,' she snapped.

Max stepped onto the verandah that circled the house and then through the flyscreen door that slammed closed behind her. Inside, she couldn't believe what she saw. She was standing in a long, dark corridor that led all the way through the house to the kitchen at the end. Cobwebs dangled from lights that looked like they were from the last century. As she stepped carefully forward, she looked into the lounge room to her left and stared open-mouthed at its giant lounges, bare wooden
floor and creepy pictures of really old people propped up on a mantelpiece that looked like it took all its strength just to stay up. Through frayed curtains, a large window let in streaks of greyish light like frozen lightning bolts. There were bookshelves lining almost every wall and a large glass cabinet that contained some old ornaments, yellowing papers and books left over from the Dark Ages. A tall lamp stood in the corner like a skinny man with a large hat and nowhere to go while a squat table nestled underneath it.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

There was no TV. What kind of a house had no TV?

‘Max, I'm in here.'

Max followed Eleanor's voice out of the TV-less lounge room.

Then she saw something she really couldn't believe. Her room. That's what Eleanor called it anyway. It wasn't a proper room but a bed on the back verandah. The ‘sleep-out' they called it, and Eleanor showed it to Max like it was the most special room in the whole place. At least here she'd have a quick getaway in the middle of the night if the whole relic of a house fell down around them.

‘I'll leave you here to get settled in. Dinner will
be ready in about twenty minutes,' said Eleanor.

Max looked around the sleep-out.

‘Thanks, but I'm not hungry. I think I'll just go to bed early.'

Eleanor smiled, but Max could tell she was disappointed.

‘Goodnight then. We'll see you in the morning,' she said and closed the door behind her.

Max wondered what a great spy would do to get out of this situation. How would she plan her escape? In the middle of nowhere and trapped in a house with no TV.

Max changed into her pyjamas and slid into bed. She could hear Eleanor and Ben laughing in the kitchen, that is when they weren't singing off-key and talking at the top of their voices.

She pulled the blankets over her head and thought about her dad in America. She missed him and wondered why he was always too busy to spend time with her. She turned over in her squeaky bed and wished she was at home, with its big-screen TV, cozy lounge room and bed with soft, comfortable pillows.

Eventually Ben and Eleanor quietened down and the lights in the house were turned off.

Just as Max was about to fall asleep, she heard
a noise. It was like an animal sniffing at the door of the verandah, only centimetres from where she was asleep. The hinges creaked as the door opened slowly. Max held her breath as she thought of who it might be. Maybe it was some terrible monster or a raving lunatic who lived deep in the bush and only came out at night.

In the moonlight Max saw an old cricket bat on the floorboards near her bed. She moved slowly, trying not to be heard but the squeaking springs of the bed were like a hungry cat that wouldn't be quiet. She reached out and picked up the bat, sitting bolt upright in bed, ready to strike.

Then she heard footsteps. She had to tell herself to take another breath she was so scared she'd stopped breathing.

Then she saw the silhouette of a large figure and heard the sound of heavy boots trying to be quiet as they stepped towards her.

Closer and closer.

This was it, thought Max. I'm going to die!

A madman had broken into the house and was coming to get her. Max could hardly hear her own thoughts, her heart was beating so loudly in her chest.

She was done for. She could see the headlines
now: ‘Girl disappears from farm without a trace.' For years police would try and solve the mystery of her disappearance. Her mother would sob and sob and make sure her make-up was on properly before the TV news team interviewed her about her lost child. But what she'd forget to say is that it was her idea to send Max away in the first place even though Max had begged to stay with her. If she did disappear her mum wouldn't have to worry about cooking her dinner, or coming home early, or Max's new shoes that she'd wrecked. Life would be great for her mum. No more Max to worry about, just all those famous people and a life full of parties.

Then the screen door opened and the footsteps receded into the night.

Phew! She was safe. For now. But who knew when the lunatic would be back or if there were more of them hiding in the bushes, ready to steal into the night and scare innocent children.

Max got out of bed and snuck to the window. She watched the beam of a torch as it made its way to a small shed. A light was turned on inside the shed and she could see the black silhouette of a man. Who was he and what was he doing? Maybe he was a crazed psychopath creating a devastating device of evil. Maybe he was no better than Dr
Evilbrain and it was up to Max to stop him before he destroyed the world.

Max climbed into bed and gripped the bat firmly just in case she needed it. She lay there staring at the door and listening to every rustle, hoot and buzzing sound that filled the night air. The end of the holidays seemed a very long way away.