7
THE HONEST TRUTH
I lie on my bed and wonder how Mum will react when I tell her that I gave Dad’s rock to Taylor. What will she say when I tell her that Taylor was an alien who was also my girlfriend? The only person who can help me is Justice. I pull out my phone.
When Mum comes home, I’m sitting on my bed and Justice is nervously spinning a football on his finger. Mum stands at my bedroom door.
‘Who’s this Taylor that Dylan’s told me about?’ she asks.
‘Oh, she was this hot-as alien who loved Dylan,’ explains Justice. ‘She needed Dylan’s stone so she and her family could go back to their planet.’
Mum raises both eyebrows and looks at me. ‘An alien? Your dad’s stone?’ she asks in disbelief.
I look at Justice. He looks at me. We sound gammin’, but we aren’t. ‘Justice is telling the truth,’ I say. ‘Taylor’s family collected the rest of the meteorite that landed in Lake Moondarra.’
Mum thinks long and hard about what we’ve told her. ‘Where’s Taylor now?’ she asks skeptically.
Justice puts down the football and jumps in. ‘Back on her planet, like I told you! Her dad has this really sick spaceship with rockets and lights and stuff, hey Dylan?’
‘That’s right,’ I say. ‘I know this all sounds pretty weird, but it’s the honest truth, Mum.’
I tell her everything, like how my powers were taken away for good. Poor Mum. It’s a lot to take in. She tells Justice to go home and I stare out the window at the stars. I wonder if Taylor is watching from Terrandia.
I’ve slept in. It’s 9.30 and I’m late for school! I blast out of my room and see a suitcase on the lounge room floor.
Mum comes out of the kitchen with a cup of tea. Her eyes are puffy. She’s been crying again.
‘Have your breakfast, then get dressed. It’s time to leave,’ she says.
‘What? Where are we going?’ I ask.
‘We’re not going anywhere,’ Mum says. ‘But you’re going to stay with Nanna.’
Mum’s sending me back to Mount Isa. This totally sucks. I mean, I love Mount Isa, but I’ve told her the truth — isn’t that enough?
She puts her cup on the coffee table and sits on the couch. ‘Come here,’ she says, patting the cushion.
Will she growl me again? I can’t take two growlings in twenty-four hours. I sit down and play with the drawstring of my Broncos pyjama pants.
‘I’m not angry Dylan, but I’m disappointed,’ she says.
She said this to me once in Mount Isa when I mixed up Nanna’s medication with Mongrel’s. Nanna was on heart pills and Mongrel had something wrong with her eye. I crushed up one of Nanna’s pills by mistake and mixed it in Mongrel’s food. Her hair fell out and she was clean bald for months. Everyone thought she was the ugliest cat they’d ever seen. Still, it was better Mongrel going bald instead of Nanna.
‘This whole Deadly D thing happened so quickly,’ I explain. ‘I never meant to do anything wrong.’
‘I need time to think and I have to trust you again,’ Mum says.
That’s the worst thing — Mum not being able to trust me. I’ve let her down.
‘You and Justice might have had fun at the footy doing interviews, signing autographs and big-noting yourself, but you took it too far.’
There’s nothing I can say so I shut my gob. It looks like I’m off to stay with Nanna. I get dressed and carry my suitcase out to the car. Mum starts the ignition, but as she backs out of the driveway, she brakes. Is she having second thoughts? Will she cancel my flight? Do I get to go to school and hang out with my main man, Justice Jones?
‘Where’s your phone?’ she demands.
‘In my pocket.’
‘Give it to me.’
Mum just sits there with her hand out. We aren’t going anywhere until I give her my mobile.
‘Don’t think that you’re going to be sending Justice emails, either,’ she says. ‘Nanna’s on to you.’