Two almost-teenagers from the future, one old-timer and a local pipsqueak squeezed into some seats near the top of the stadium, surrounded on all sides by excited, screaming fans. Despite his tummy flipping like a nervous pancake, Frankie couldn’t help but feel excited too. He was at the Olympics!
Down on the field, three extremely fit-looking men went through their warm-up routines.
‘Phew, they’re clothed!’ whispered Frankie to Drew. ‘Well, sort of.’ The men were wearing bits of cloth tied around their waists, and not much else. From where they were sitting it looked like they were wearing nappies.
‘The first event must be javelin,’ Drew replied, grinning. ‘Look.’ Sure enough, sticking out of the ground behind the athletes was a row of gleaming spears.
‘We’re not here to watch the events,’ Grandad reminded them tersely. ‘We’re here to find Lou. Can anyone spot her?’
Frankie scanned faces, searching for his sister. What will we do if she isn’t here? he wondered. Could they really return home without her?
The surprising thing was how bad this made him feel. He would’ve thought that life without Lou would be quite appealing (apart from the whole having-to-explain-her-disappearance-to-his-parents thing). But now that it was starting to seem like a very real possibility, he wasn’t sure he liked the idea at all.
He found himself thinking about how spending so much time around adults had made Alexi a bit odd. Maybe something similar had happened with him and Lou? He remembered one time when Lou had helped him cut something out with scissors when he was too small to use them himself. Everyone had praised her and he’d felt really mad about it. After that, getting mad at Lou for being good at stuff had become a habit. Frankie felt a little guilty twinge.
Drew passed his hacky sack from hand to hand, a wistful expression on his face. ‘Are you sure I can’t go out there and at least demonstrate how hacky sack is played?’ he asked Grandad.
‘If ye even think about doing that,’ retorted Grandad, ‘I will take ye back to the Stone Age and leave ye in a cave somewhere. And guess what? There was no wi-fi back then.’
Drew gasped, but not at the idea of existing with no wi-fi (although that was also upsetting). ‘Look!’ he said. ‘There’s a late entry.’
Sure enough, another figure was striding onto the field from the athlete’s entrance. But, unlike the other athletes, this competitor was dressed in a full robe and their hair was hidden beneath a strange, tight-fitting hat. They appeared to be the youngest of the athletes, although just as tall (Frankie had noticed that most of the locals were fairly short by modern standards). Frankie squinted at the figure. Something about the way this person was walking was familiar. Very familiar …
‘Is that –’ Grandad started, but Drew got in first.
‘It’s Lou!’ he screeched, leaping to his feet and waving his hands frantically over his head. ‘Lou! LOU! Over here!’
