Troy reached the window and smacked it hard.
‘Too easy,’ he announced as he came crashing back down to earth. ‘I can do that with my eyes closed.’
Troy and I had been given a trampoline for Christmas. Not a normal trampoline with protective netting and plastic piping as springs. No, Mum and Dad brought an ancient one home from a garage sale. Old biting springs. Giant rusty metal rails. A small hole in the corner of the mat. I guess it was cheaper than the iPad Troy and I had been begging for.
Just to prove how little Dad cared about safety, he let us set it up on the cement slab out the back. As long as we weren’t inside fighting over the PlayStation, he didn’t care.
Mum, on the other hand, tried to reassure herself by covering the rusty rails in bubble wrap. This lasted a whole hour before Troy and I popped all the bubbles.
Every jump came with a high-pitched squeak that had our ‘new’ neighbours slamming their windows shut.
Our ‘new’ neighbours weren’t all that new. But no one who moves into that house ever lasts more than six months.
So we just call everyone who lives there our ‘new’ neighbours.
For the past three weeks, Troy and I had been competing to see who could jump higher. We set the trampoline up against the side of the house and used Dad’s blue pool-cue chalk on our hands to mark our height.
Troy’s blue handprint sat clean on our older sister Nina’s upstairs window. She opened it up when she heard the commotion.
‘Just stop it!’ Nina yelled. ‘It’s so annoying!’
‘It’s so annoying!’ Troy mimicked. ‘At least we’re still using our present.’
‘Yeah, what happened to the mobile phone Mum and Dad bought you?’ I chimed in.
Troy and I smirked. We already knew the answer.
‘Didn’t you know it isn’t waterproof?’
We laughed. Nina gritted her teeth before slamming her window shut.
‘All right.’ I turned to my younger brother. ‘You want a challenge?’
‘Hit me,’ Troy accepted.
I pointed to the roof. Troy shook his head.
‘No, Paddy. We’ve tried this. It’s impossible to reach the roof. We can’t get enough spring.’
‘I didn’t say you have to reach the roof,’ I began, crossing my arms. ‘I challenge you to jump from it.’
Troy’s eyes traced the side of the house all the way to the top. He scratched his head.
‘You want me to jump from up there?’ he asked uncertainly.
I nodded.
‘That’s, like, two storeys high,’ he said. ‘And the trampoline is on the cement. How do you know I won’t fall through?’
I gave him a grin. He was right; it was a crazy idea. But I knew what it took to make him do it.
‘Well, I guess you’ll just have to find out. That’s if you’re not too chicken?’
Troy looked at me with furious eyes. He hated being called chicken.
‘Where’s Dad’s ladder?’
Troy stood on top of the roof looking down at the trampoline.
‘You ready?’ I called out.
‘Are you sure it will hold?’ he asked, hesitating.
Troy swallowed and stepped forward.
‘Geronimo!’ he screamed as he jumped from the roof. He came down in a blur of speed.
He hit the trampoline.
Then disappeared.
Gone. Nothing. Not even a squeak of the springs.
‘Troy?’ I called out. ‘Where’d you go?’
Silence.
‘Troy?’ I repeated anxiously.
I started looking around, trying to find him. I even climbed the ladder and looked up on the roof, as if I had just imagined him jumping. Nothing.
I was so confused. I didn’t know what to do. I was about to call out to Mum, but I knew she would never believe Troy had disappeared into thin air. Disappeared into a trampoline.
I had to find Troy myself. I had to disappear into the trampoline and find my little brother.
I looked up at the roof again. It was my only hope.
Standing at the edge of the roof, I now understood why Troy was worried about jumping. The trampoline looked so small against the cement ground. But this was no time to be afraid.
I took a deep breath and jumped. With my eyes set on the trampoline, I watched the black rectangle grow. Larger and larger. I braced myself for impact.
But I never hit the mat.
Instead, I splashed into deep, dark water.
So dark that I couldn’t see a thing.
Then I felt something grab my wrist and pull me up out of the blackness. I was met by blinding light. I shielded my eyes, blinking until everything came into focus.
I looked around and noticed I was sitting on the trampoline. On the cement in my backyard. Pushed up against the side of the house. Everything looked normal. Except that, for some reason, Dad’s ladder no longer stood against the side of the house.
I felt a tap on my shoulder.
‘Paddy?’
I turned around. Sitting behind me on the trampoline was a man with a giant beard. As I looked closer, I realised this wasn’t just some random person sitting beside me. It was Troy. An older, hairier version of my brother.
He chuckled, his beard bouncing on his face.
‘You look ridiculous.’ He laughed nervously, his voice deep. His eyes slightly anxious.
I jumped off the trampoline and ran for the downstairs window. I couldn’t believe what I saw in the reflection there. I had a moustache. I had long hair. I had forehead wrinkles!
‘What is going on?’ I called out to my not-so-young younger brother.
‘The trampoline,’ Troy answered. ‘It must be a portal into our futures.’
‘This can’t be,’ I said, stroking Troy’s long beard. ‘This is just a dream.’
Troy tugged on my moustache.
‘Ouch!’ I yelled out. ‘What did you do that for?’
‘I wanted to see if it was real.’
Just then, the window above opened. Out popped my sister’s head. An older head. An adult head.
‘Don’t you two have jobs to go to or something?’ she asked.
‘Nina?’ I asked.
‘No, Paddy, it’s Lady Gaga.’
A cry came from inside her room. A baby’s cry. A cry different to my baby sister Bella’s.
‘Now look what you’ve done. You’ve woken Madison.’
Troy and I looked at each other in shock.
‘Okay,’ Troy finally said.
‘Sorry,’ I added.
Nina shook her head before returning inside and shutting the window.
Frozen in fear, Troy and I continued to stare at each other.
‘This is too weird,’ I said. ‘We need to get back home.’
‘But we are home,’ Troy replied, his thick beard almost hiding his trembling lips.
I looked at him with horrified eyes. I could feel the wrinkles on my forehead move.
‘No, Troy. I want to go back to being a kid again.’
Troy could hear the fear in my voice.
‘All right,’ he said as he turned and looked at the roof. ‘Let’s go find Dad’s ladder.’
This was all too familiar, I thought as I stood on the edge of the roof looking down at the trampoline.
‘You ready?’ Troy asked.
All I could do was nod before we jumped together. We fell down towards the black mat. Faster and faster. I could feel my hair flying in the breeze. My moustache flicking my lips.
Then I hit the trampoline and entered dark water. This time, I swam to the surface myself. I let my eyes adjust to the light. The trampoline came into view. The cement. The house. Everything as it was before. All except the ladder.
A voice came from behind. I turned around. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Sitting on the trampoline was a man. No hair. Grey beard. Wrinkly, spotty skin.
‘Troy?’ I asked in shock.
Troy leaned forward and plucked a hair from my ear.
‘Ouch!’ I yelled. ‘That hurt!’
He held it up. It was as white as snow.
‘Paddy,’ he said, his eyes wide. ‘We’re old!’
The window above opened. Out poked a head. But it wasn’t Nina’s.
‘Uncle Troy? Uncle Paddy, is everything okay?’ the woman asked. ‘Do you guys need me to bring down your walking sticks?’
Troy and I looked at each other.
‘The ladder!’ we both cried.
Our legs were too frail to stand on the roof. We sat on the edge looking down at the trampoline.
‘This is it,’ Troy said, rubbing his back. ‘If things don’t work out, it was nice to know you, brother.’
We leaned in to give each other a hug but lost our balance and fell off the roof. We tumbled out of control.
I closed my eyes as I hit the black water. I swam to the surface and felt the bright light behind my eyelids.
I slowly opened my eyes. The surroundings gradually came into view. The trampoline. The cement. The house. Dad’s ladder.
I jumped off the trampoline and ran to the downstairs window. I looked at my reflection. The moustache was gone. No ear hairs. No wrinkles. I was staring back at me. Twelve-year-old Paddy Thompson.
‘Yes!’ I yelled out in relief.
I spun around to see if Troy was back to normal too.
But he wasn’t there.
The window above opened. Nina poked her head out. The real Nina.
‘How many times do I have to tell you to stop being so annoying?’ she called out.
‘At least a hundred!’ a familiar voice shouted.
Nina and I both looked up to see nine-year-old Troy standing on the edge of the roof.
‘Geronimo!’
