We weren’t supposed to bring living things to the history project. But Willie Jones swore his pet lizard never behaved badly, and that he’d only brought it because he said it just sat and did nothing in its special glass container, except doze on the pebbles and mini pond.
‘Well, he is quiet all right,’ said Miss Lee, holding up the container for all to see.
‘Lizards have been around since prehistoric times,’ said Willie, reading from a scrap of paper in case he’d forget the words. ‘They taste and smell with their tongues. They know more than we think. It is said that they can predict strange things.’
‘Maybe,’ said Miss Lee. ‘But I doubt it, looking at this lazy creature.’
‘I looked it all up on Google,’ said Willie. ‘So it must be right.’
At my turn I was proud of my china cup. OK, the truth is I only thought of the bring-to-school thing that morning, so I nicked the cup from our kitchen dresser where Mum keeps stuff that’s only used for people she wants to impress. The best part was making up a history story to go with it.
‘It belonged to Grace O’Malley, the pirate queen,’ I said, holding it up. ‘She used to have tea-parties in her castle with her crew after their raids and that was the cup she drank from.’
Miss Lee took the cup and looked underneath. Then she smiled and pointed to the words on the bottom. Made in Taiwan.
‘Eh, well,’ I spluttered, frantically trying to come up with something intelligent (how is it that intelligence is never there when you need it)? ‘There used to be a place called Taiwan in Ireland long ago,’ I went on. ‘It broke away from the west coast … an earthquake smashed through it and it floated away …’ I was cut off by the yells of laughter.
‘Very good, Milo,’ Miss Lee said. ‘Take good care of your – eh – precious pirate cup, and mind you don’t pick up any swashbuckling habits from it.’
The rest of the class were still laughing as I made my way to my desk, trying to hide my face in my sweater.
‘Now, Shane,’ said Miss Lee. ‘What do you have to show us?’
With a flourish like one of those magicians on TV, Shane took the stone from a Chinese takeaway bag. Everyone sniggered.
‘A stone!’
‘A lump of rock!’
‘Way to go, big guy! WRONG way, ha-ha!’
But Miss Lee wasn’t laughing. She stared at the carving. ‘Where did you get this, Shane?’ she asked.
But before Shane could answer, Willie Jones’s lizard went mad. It began leaping about, scratching at the glass, trying to escape. And it did. While we were all shouting and crawling around the floor to catch it, our principal looked in to see what the noise was about. We all stopped and stared at her. Not because we were scared or anything, but we were always fascinated by her moustache and the way it wobbled when she was annoyed.
‘Ss-sorry, Mrs Riley,’ stuttered Miss Lee from the floor. ‘Slight mishap with our history project.’
That was when the lizard made for the door. With a hairy shriek, Mrs Riley slammed the door and scarpered. Miss Lee got up and brushed her skirt and, once the lizard was safely back in his glass case, she made Willie put a heavy book over the top. Funnily enough, the lizard calmed down when Shane put the stone back into the bag. Even though the rest of the class were still laughing, I got that strange, tingly feeling again.
‘Shane,’ said Miss Lee, ‘You must mind that stone. In fact, there’s one in the museum that looks just like it.’ She reached out and took the stone from the bag again. ‘Ask your granny where she …’ She broke off as the lizard went mad again.
On our way home from school, Shane was boasting. ‘I told you this stone is special,’ he said. ‘Didn’t I tell you Miss Lee would be impressed?’
‘Dunno, Shane,’ I muttered. ‘It spooked me the way it made Willie’s lizard go crazy.’
Shane laughed. ‘It probably recognised its own great-great-multi-great-granddaddy carved on the back of my stone.’
I shivered. Could a stone be that powerful?