28 28The journey home with Prima took ages and ages. Who’d have thought a bin lorry would be so exciting? Or two toddlers in a double buggy?
When we finally made it to my house, I couldn’t face going inside, so we went into the back garden.
Prima amused herself by spinning the rotary washing line in circles and running round after it like a crazy girl.
Tilly and I went and sat on the grass.
‘So now what are we going to do?’ asked Tilly.
I shrugged. I had absolutely no idea what we were going to do next.
‘We’re the ones who brought Prima here,’ said Tilly. ‘So she’s our responsibility.’
‘I know. But we can’t cope with this on our own. It’s too big. We’ll have to get some help.’
‘From whom?’
‘From someone who’d believe us when we say, “This is Prima and she’s come to visit us from Ancient Rome, and we’re wondering if we should send her back. And incidentally, we’ve just spent a few days being slaves and watching Vesuvius destroying Pompeii. Oh, and by the way, did I mention the magical cat who seems to be part of this whole time-travelling thing?”’
I sighed. ‘That sounds totally crazy to me, even though I know for sure it’s true.’
‘And there’s another thing,’ said Tilly. ‘Even if we did manage to find someone who believed us, they’d probably haul poor Prima off and do scientific experiments on her, like they tried to do with ET.’
‘But we have to do something. We can’t just keep her here. We’ve both got hockey practice tonight.’
‘And I’ve got swimming this afternoon. And what about school on Monday?’
I giggled. ‘Mrs Simms is always going on about historical artefacts. What would she say if we brought Prima in for Show and Tell?’
Tilly giggled too. ‘That would be so amazing,’ she said.
I sighed. ‘But you know how formal Mrs Simms is. She’d insist on putting Prima’s name on the register. And what would we say when she asked awkward stuff like her date of birth?’
‘Or the name of her last school?’
I sighed again. ‘Anyway, it wouldn’t be fair on Prima. She’s worried about her mum and dad and Secunda. And she misses Felix. She’s had some excitement here, but it’s time for her to go home now.’
‘And there’s something else too,’ said Tilly. ‘Remember when Columbus went to America, loads of native Americans died because they couldn’t fight the diseases that the explorers had brought with them.’
‘So Prima could be at risk from modern diseases?’
Tilly nodded. ‘Probably. And we wouldn’t want to find out the hard way, would we?’
I knew she was right. There were all kinds of good reasons for sending Prima back home. All we had to figure out was how to do it.
When we went inside, Mum handed Prima’s tunic to her. While we were gone, she had washed and dried and ironed it.
Tilly laughed. ‘Prima must think your mum is a slave,’ she said to me.
‘I heard that, Tilly,’ said Mum. ‘And you’re right, sometimes I do feel like a slave around here.’
‘Trust me, Mum,’ I said. ‘Being a slave is harder than you’d think.’
Before she could answer, Prima began to sniff the tunic and stroke her face with it.
‘I think maybe her family uses a different brand of fabric conditioner,’ said Tilly.
While Prima changed back into her own clothes, I dug around in my wardrobe for an old rucksack.
‘What’s that for?’ asked Tilly.
‘If Prima does manage to get back home, wouldn’t it be nice if she brought some presents from the future?’ I asked.
‘That’s a totally brilliant idea,’ said Tilly. ‘Now let’s get Prima out of here so we can do this properly.’
I took Prima out to the back garden and bribed Stephen to keep an eye on her, while she ran around the washing line. Then I went back up to my room.
Tilly was sitting on my bed, holding the empty rucksack.
‘This is an amazing opportunity,’ she said. ‘So we have to think really carefully about what we send back with Prima. Have you any ideas?’
‘Maybe we should send her back with a pizza?’ I suggested. ‘I was really disappointed to learn that they didn’t have pizzas in ancient times. Maybe if we don’t send one back now, pizza will never be invented – and how tragic would that be?’
‘Totally tragic,’ said Tilly.
Suddenly I had another idea. I ran into Stephen’s room and returned with his talking Buzz Lightyear toy.
‘Prima can give this to Felix,’ I said. ‘I know he’s too old for toys, but this would be a huge novelty back in Pompeii. Maybe it would help Felix to impress Julius.’
‘I’m not so sure about giving that to Prima,’ said Tilly.
‘Stephen won’t mind,’ I said. ‘He never plays with it any more.’
‘That’s not what I meant. It’s just that … maybe it’s against the rules.’
‘There are rules? Since when?’
She sighed. ‘I don’t know. But maybe it’s wrong to send something made of plastic back to a time thousands of years before it’s been invented.’
She did have a point. While I was thinking about it, I pulled the string on the toy’s back and the mechanical voice said ‘To infinity and beyond!’
‘When the makers of that toy talked about infinity, they didn’t know how right they were,’ I said. ‘Doesn’t it seem kind of appropriate to send it back a few thousand years?’
Tilly shrugged. ‘I’m still not sure. But if we ever hear that it was the wrong thing to do, we can go back to the year 79 and pick it up again.’
I shook my head quickly. ‘No way. I plan to stay in the twenty-first century for a while, if that’s OK with you. Now what else will we put in?’
Before long, the rucksack was full. Inside it were:
the letter to Julius
Buzz Lightyear
a small pizza in a box
a few cherry tomatoes
a big bag of salt and vinegar crisps
a huge packet of colouring pencils
some gel pens
a picture book and a rag doll for Secunda
some embroidery threads I’d found in an old craft kit for Livia
‘That’s the easy part finished,’ said Tilly as she zipped up the bag.
‘And the hard part is?’
‘The hard part is figuring out how exactly we’re going to get Prima and all this stuff back to Ancient Pompeii.’