I phoned him, walking and looking over my shoulder the whole time, but there was no answer.

And then Whizzy appeared, properly and totally.

16

Electrification

This time, Whizzy was about my size and hovered centimetres from the ground. Behind it, tiny things fluttered. I couldn’t make them out properly – Whizzy was too bright – but I guessed they were moths.

The folded layers of light. The graceful head with those seahorse curves that don’t stay still long enough for you to really focus. Wow – Whizzy is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Is this why some people think there are angels?

‘Whizzy,’ I whispered. My breath was unbelievably trembly. ‘Please hide. Neither of us are safe.’

But Whizzy didn’t understand.

‘This way, Whizzy,’ I said. ‘We need to get off the road and out of sight.’

I sprinted down a footpath that leads to the river. It’s one of our places, and there’s a huge abandoned electricity pylon that doesn’t work any more.

Whizzy followed.

Carefully, I took out my phone and called Sam, and just as he picked up, Whizzy skyrocketed up into the sky too fast for my eyes to follow. A little stack of pale pancake clouds floated almost exactly above my head.

‘Sam, where are you? Get to the pylon now! Whizzy’s here!’

‘Coming! Just left Malusky’s Corner. Please make it stay this time! What’s it doing?’

‘It’s a scribble of pink in the sky! It’s brilliant!’

A second later, Whizzy was down again. My phone was strangely warm, and it throbbed. The air smelt a bit burned, and a tiny rumble of baby thunder – the gentlest possible – sounded very close.

‘What now?’ Sam said, between fast, jerky breaths. ‘Tell me!’

‘The size keeps changing. It’s gone really long – it stretches out metres and metres behind. Now it’s small – only as long as my arm.’

Whizzy hung steadily in the air like a candle flame and seemed to throw curiosity at me like handfuls of sand. I stood still as we tried to work each other out.

‘Its lower half looks different today – thick and wavy, like melted glass. You can’t see much of the fiery insides.’

‘Yep, yep,’ Sam said, panting.

Whizzy dived to the ground, making me jump, then spread out wide and long.

‘It’s wobbling like a washing machine doing a spin!’

Something sizzled. Was Whizzy getting energy from the ground?

A few raindrops fell and I took a step back. Water plus electricity equals nothing good. But what would happen when water hit Whizzy? I found out immediately: fizzing, mostly.

‘Where are you?’ I said to Sam. ‘Get here! You have to see what it’s doing to these raindrops!’