At this point, Sam, who had watched a lot of science-fiction films, thought, Oh no. I know how this goes. We climb up the ladder. Then the aliens open the silver door in their enormous silver craft. Then we go in and there’s a long, black, empty space that we float up through because there’s no gravity. Then we arrive at a part of the ship that is very white and there are some strange medical-looking instruments and two operating-theatre beds. Then the aliens come in and thank us for helping them with their research …
He was about to scream, “AAAAARGGGHHHHH! DON’T GO UP THE LADDER, RUBY! DON’T GO! THEY WANT TO PROBE US! THEY WANT TO …” when he noticed something about the big solemn voice.
“Don’t be frightened,” it was saying. “Just get on the ladder.”
What he noticed about it was … it was what his mum had called a Brummie voice. It had a Brummie accent.
That seemed a little odd, for an alien. Obviously, Birmingham was quite a long way away. But still, in all the science-fiction films he’d seen, even when the aliens did speak English, they rarely had local accents.
“Ruby,” he said to Ruby, who, he noticed, had squeezed her eyes tight shut. “Open your eyes …”
“I don’t want to!” she said.
“No, I think it’s OK.”
Slowly, she did as she was told. But she still couldn’t see, because the light was still very, very bright.
“Look up!” said Sam.
Ruby particularly didn’t want to do that. Up was where the light, and the noise, and the ladder were coming from. She didn’t want to look up, because it might hurt her eyes, but also because that’s where the frightening aliens in their frightening ship were. Because by now even rational scientific Ruby was convinced that’s what it was.
“Ruby …” said Sam. “Honestly. Look up.”
So she did. She put her hand over her eyes and stared into the sky. At first, it looked just like a really, really bright light was up there shining down at her. Maybe it was a star, after all.
But then a shape moved across the light. A human shape, in a human uniform. And the shape shouted, “Children! It’s PC Middleton! From the police! You met me at your house. Don’t worry! Step on to the ladder! Climb up the ladder! And then, get on to the …”
“Helicopter!” said Ruby, excitedly, finally realising, through the noise, and the light, and the wind, what it was.