Mo
‘Did you stop Mr Gideon’s van?’ I said, looking up at Hector and trying to ignore the blood trickling down my knee.

‘I did,’ Hector said.

‘But there’s no crossing.’

‘When you wield an instrument as mighty as this one, you can make crossings wherever you go. All you have to do is stand in the middle of the road and bang it on the ground. People stop – most of the time. I think mine is broken though: it doesn’t always work properly.’

‘Of course it’s broken; it’s being held together by sellotape,’ Lottie said.

‘I meant it’s broken internally – it only functions intermittently.’

‘Hold on,’ I said. ‘It’s a stick. What do you think it’s supposed to do?’

‘Stop traffic. Obviously.’ Hector rolled his eyes.

‘But how exactly do you think it does that?’

‘You point it at the vehicles and it controls their braking systems, forcing them to stop.’

‘What?’ Lottie snorted.

‘Wait, let me get this straight,’ I stood up with difficulty – my knee was starting to sting. ‘Are you saying that you think there is technology inside the lollipop that is so advanced it can control any approaching vehicle, just by waving the stick around?’

‘Is that not right?’ Hector frowned.

Lottie and me looked at each other and burst out laughing.

‘What?’ Hector looked confused. ‘What does it do, then?’

After the terrifying ten minutes we’d just been through, the look on Hector’s face was just incredibly funny. We laughed so hard.

‘Hey!’ Hector said. ‘This is a bit harsh. I’m not from these parts – how am I supposed to know? How does it work then? I know you’re dying to tell me.’

‘Well, you stand in the road…’ Lottie said.

‘…and hold the stick…’ I added.

‘…and hope for the best.’

Hector’s face fell and we started laughing again.

‘What?’ He looked panicked. ‘You mean they aren’t forced to stop? I have no control? So I’m risking my life every time I step off the pavement?’

‘Yep,’ said Lottie.

‘The cars could just run you over if they wanted to,’ I said.

‘You could get flattened.’ Lottie patted his arm.

‘You could get squished.’ I nodded.

‘Sorry.’ Lottie and me looked at each other. ‘Not sorry!’

‘I’m glad you find it so funny. Where I come from, we don’t have lollipop people. It’s all tech. Crossings are sensor activated.’

‘Where do you come from?’ I asked.

‘I’d have thought you would have worked that out by now,’ Hector said. ‘I come from the future.’

‘How do you know that, Mo?’ Lottie shouted. ‘He’s crazy; he’s been watching us for weeks; and he has strawberry laces falling out of his pocket.’

‘Not mouse brains,’ I sniggered.

‘What’s this about mouse brains?’ Hector said.

‘Your pocket,’ said Lottie, ‘is full of sweets.’

Hector looked down at the squiggly red lace worming its way out of his pocket. He pulled it out and crammed it into his mouth.

‘Well spotted,’ he said. ‘Yes, Junkers do eat a lot of sugar, but so does anyone who comes back from the future. Friends included.’

‘You’re the one who left us the envelope,’ I said. ‘I figured it wasn’t Mr Gideon when we found out he’s Lorelai’s boyfriend.’

‘Gideon Melville is Lorelai’s husband, actually,’ Hector said between chews. ‘And Jax is their son.’ He picked a bit of lace from between his teeth, examined it on the end of his finger and then put it back into his mouth and swallowed. ‘Don’t judge me.’

‘How do we know we can trust you?’ Lottie said. She’d never liked Hector and she hated being proved wrong.

‘I just rescued you from a Junker’s ice cream van.’

‘Excuse me,’ Lottie said, ‘You only stopped the van. We actually rescued ourselves.’

‘We couldn’t have got out without his help, Lottie,’ I said.

‘And I’ve been giving you warnings, and information to help you,’ Hector pointed out.

‘He did, Lottie – his information helped us a lot.’

‘We worked most of it out for ourselves,’ Lottie said.

‘Yeah, all by ourselves, we randomly worked out that there are people called Junkers who abduct children and can time-jump,’ I said. She was being ridiculously stubborn.

‘Maybe not that, specifically,’ she said. ‘But we worked out other stuff.’

‘Look,’ said Hector. ‘I’m a friend from the future. When we found out you might be being hunted by the Junkers, I was sent back in time to help you.’

‘Who sent you?’ I said.

‘You did. Both of you.’

‘You know future us?’ Lottie said.

‘I know you both very well. We’re like family.’

Lottie and me looked at each other, and then a hundred questions exploded out of both of our mouths.

‘What’s my hair like in the future?’ Lottie said.

‘Am I a professor?’ I said.

‘Have I climbed Mount Everest single-handedly?’ said Lottie. ‘And do I have a pet gorilla?’

‘Have I successfully trained an army of ants?’ There were so many things I wanted to know!

‘I’ll tell you one thing,’ Hector said, ‘the bossy and annoying stuff you do doesn’t ever change.’

‘Excellent,’ said Lottie.

‘But you guys have watched all the time-travel movies,’ Hector said. ‘You know how this works. I can’t mess with the timeline. I can’t tell you anything that might change the future.’

‘But you already told us a whole bunch of stuff,’ I said.

‘Ah, yes. Maybe one or two things. But you two didn’t seem to understand the danger you were in. You weren’t taking it seriously at all. And if you should fail, or if anything bad happens to you, then we’re all doomed.’

‘Listen, Hector, if that even is your real name,’ Lottie said. ‘You chose to send us creepy notes and nutty envelopes full of forbidden information. We didn’t make you. Don’t blame it on us.’

‘Calm down, Lott-Lott. I come in peace.’ Hector stuck his fingers up at us.

‘What?’ Lottie said.

‘Peace. You know – I believe this is the gesture you use to symbolize peace?’ He pointed at his swearing fingers with his other hand.

‘Hector,’ I said. ‘You’re giving us the two-finger swear.’

‘Really? This is a swear? How have I got that wrong?’

‘You have to turn your hand the other way to say peace,’ Lottie said. ‘Everyone knows that.’

‘But why would you make the peace sign and the two-finger swear sign so similar?’ Hector frowned. ‘That’s just asking for trouble.’

‘And you need to hold them still, not wiggle them,’ I said.

‘Yeah, now you’re doing bunny ears,’ Lottie rolled her eyes. ‘You shouldn’t really do that to someone unless they’re your friend.’

‘Otherwise it can come across as a bit mean,’ I said. ‘Like you’re making fun of them.’

‘Bunny ears?’ Hector looked very confused.

‘Yes,’ Lottie was getting seriously annoyed. ‘You know – you photo bomb. You do the bunny ears.’

‘Why do you have all these ridiculous hand gestures? How completely stupid!’ Hector made a face and put his hand in his pocket.

‘I can show you some other hand gestures if you like,’ Lottie said.

We were getting nowhere.

‘Shall we just all agree to be friends and move forwards?’ I said. ‘We’ve got quite a lot on and, if we don’t get home soon, Mum’s going to notice we’re gone and then we really will be doomed. Also, I’m a little bit worried about Mr Gideon coming back and finding us and abducting us for real.’

‘Good point, Mo. Quite right,’ Hector said.

‘Fine,’ said Lottie. ‘So what happens next?’

‘We need to talk,’ said Hector. ‘And you two need to work on that competition entry. Don’t want to pile the pressure on, but…’

‘Yes, we know,’ I said. ‘We have to win.’