Mo
I couldn’t believe what she was suggesting.

‘No, Lottie. We are not torturing Jax.’

‘Let’s think it through first, before we make a decision,’ Lottie said, in an annoying way, as if she was talking to a baby or a really, really old person.

‘I’ve thought it through. It’s INSANE!’

‘He’s the only one of the Junkers we have a chance of overpowering. We don’t have to really hurt him, just tie him up and threaten him until he gives us some answers.’

‘That’s horrible, Lottie. I won’t do it.’

‘You don’t still think he’s your friend, do you?’

I kind of did, actually. No matter what had happened between us, I couldn’t help thinking that he wanted to be my friend. We had lots in common and he’d always seemed happy when we’d been together.

‘Not my friend, exactly, but I think he’s a good guy, deep down.’

‘He’s such a good guy that he pretended to like you so he could sneak into your room, go into your stupid secret box and steal from you. Friends don’t do that. Good guys don’t do that.’

‘It’s not as simple as that, Lottie.’

‘Seems pretty simple to me.’

‘Well, if that’s the way you want to look at things, would you call someone who snooped through your private things a friend?’

‘It was for your own good,’ Lottie said. ‘If I hadn’t taken a look inside everyone’s secret boxes, I wouldn’t know half the useful stuff I do.’

‘It’s still wrong.’

‘Don’t you want to know what your mum has in her box? Here’s a spoiler – it’s all stuff to do with your dad.’

What? Everything stopped for a moment. I didn’t know my mum had kept Dad’s stuff, or why she hadn’t told me about it, but I felt hurt. He was my dad. Surely it was my right to see? I felt tears prickle the backs of my eyes.

‘She’s probably keeping it to show to you when you’re older,’ Lottie said gently, looking as though she felt bad. ‘You know what grown-ups are like – they always think we won’t be able to handle anything, when actually we’re far better at handling things than they are.’

I nodded. I knew Mum would never mean to hurt me. And I knew it was wrong to look through people’s private things. But I was desperate to see.

‘I know where the box is,’ Lottie said. ‘What if I were to go and get it, for my own personal benefit, and just look through it while you happen to be here in the room?’

‘OK,’ I said.

 

A minute later she came back, with the box. We sat on my bed and she opened it. There wasn’t much inside – just a few random things. But they were my dad’s things and that made them special. There was a grey hoody, a bit bobbly and faded, folded carefully in the corner. I didn’t dare unfold it, in case I couldn’t get it back the way it was, but I leant in and sniffed it. I don’t know why I thought it would still smell of him – he hadn’t worn it for over ten years and the scent would have faded away long ago. It would have been nice, to smell his smell.

There was a glass trophy for contributions to biomedical science and a cuddly toy – a ginger cat – tucked next to the hoody.

‘It looks just like Schrodinger,’ Lottie said. ‘Let’s see if there’s anything in the box that might give us a clue.’ She started carefully picking things up and inspecting them.

‘Look, Mo – this must be your dad,’ she said, showing me a photo of Mum and Dad laughing together.

‘Yes, that’s him,’ I said. Mum had given me a few pictures of him so I recognised him straight away.

‘Oh, he had a tattoo,’ Lottie said, ‘How unexpected. I didn’t think science geeks had tattoos.’

‘I didn’t know he had one.’ I looked at the photo of my dad, smiling in the sunshine, his T-shirt showing off a tattoo on his right arm. He looked so happy.

I felt a tear roll down my cheek. I suddenly realised why Mum had kept this stuff hidden away. Losing my dad must have been the worst thing that had ever happened to her and looking at his stuff could only make her feel that pain all over again. This box was private and it felt wrong to be looking through it, even if he was my dad. I knew she’d show me it when she felt ready.

‘Let’s put it back, Lottie,’ I said.

‘Are you sure?’

I took one last look as I nodded. ‘Wait,’ I said. ‘What’s this?’ I picked up a see-through plastic bag that had a label on the front which said ‘Metropolitan Police – Recovered Items.’

‘It must have been your dad’s stuff that they found when he disappeared,’ Lottie said, peering through the plastic.

There were keys, coins and something else: a Mr Gideon’s Rainbow Swirl lolly wrapper.

I stared at it.

Lottie gasped.

‘I’ve never seen another ice cream van called Mr Gideon’s,’ I said.

‘I don’t think there is another one,’ Lottie whispered.

‘You don’t think…’ I could hardly bear to think it, let alone say it.

Lottie and me looked at each other for a moment and I knew what had to be done.

‘We need to talk to Jax.’

 

I couldn’t sleep that night. I didn’t even really try. I thought about my dad: the way he’d disappeared so suddenly and without a trace. The ice cream wrapper could just be a coincidence, but I didn’t think so. I wanted to ask Mum, but I knew it would make her sad. She’d seemed so much happier since we moved in with the Buttons and I didn’t want anything to ruin that for her.

Dad was a scientist: a biomedical engineer. And his name was Morris, like mine. He was working on building incredible prosthetic body parts, so that if people had an accident and lost an arm, or if their kidney or a section of their heart wasn’t working, he could make them a replacement. Had the Junkers taken him to stop me from being born? Or did they take him because his prosthetics meant people wouldn’t need to buy their harvested body parts?

I got up and peeped through a gap in the curtains. All the lights in the Junker house were on – I supposed they must be working on building a new junking bracelet in time for Halloween. I shivered. I used to love that house, and they’d made it into something I was afraid of.

I sat at my desk and opened my laptop, bracing myself to do something that I’d always been too scared to do. I Googled ‘Morris Delaney disappearance’. There was something I needed to know.

The article I found is in the evidence box, called Exhibit O.

Fears Growing After Shock Disappearance of Scientist

There is growing concern about the welfare of renowned scientist Morris Delaney, who disappeared on 5th August in mysterious circumstances. Mr Delaney left the home he shared with partner Emma Appleby at around 2:45pm, asserting that he was heading to the shops to buy groceries. He was last seen walking down a local street, with no apparent signs of distress or anything to suggest he would not be returning. Ms Appleby reported him missing at around 21:00 hours the same evening, after he failed to return and made no contact.

Such behaviour is described as ‘completely out of character’ for bioengineer Mr Delaney, who is responsible for the most pioneering techniques in human transplants in British medical history. The police admit they have ‘no leads’ in the case.

I pulled my not-at-all-secret box out from under my bed and found the list of solar flares. I knew what I’d find before I found it, and I knew it would make me sick with dread, but it had to be done.

My dad vanished on 5th August 2008, at approximately 3pm. On 5th August 2008, there were two X-class solar flares, at 3:12pm and 4:09pm. It wasn’t a coincidence. My dad hadn’t disappeared. He’d been junked.

I opened my desk drawer and looked at the photo of him, which I’d borrowed from my mum’s box. He hadn’t known what was coming. I wondered if he was frightened when they took him. I wondered if he thought of Mum in the last moments. He never even knew he was going to have a son. For the first time ever, my dad seemed like a real person to me, and not just the idea of a person I had never known. I cried and cried.