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Back The Lightning Catcher Save as PDF
Chapters (45)
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. Acknowledgements

At breakfast just now, Lily demanded an egg. Mum’s face stayed straight and set, but her eyes looked excited; Lily hasn’t been able to keep much down at breakfast for two years. It’s her worst time. And now she wants eggs. Mum struggled so much to pretend to be casual that I felt quite sorry for her. Then Lily went out and I heard Mum telling Dad on the phone. ‘I hardly dare believe it, Jerome,’ she said. ‘She’s eating eggs and potatoes again … I know! Two years at least. And her face is filling out. It’s like a dream come true.’

I bit my nails all through that. What if something goes wrong? Whizzy’s a wild creature. Anything might happen. It still feels weird even having Lily home from hospital, so … what if Whizzy makes a mistake?

Time to go out again. Sam’s waiting, and today’s the day he’s going to see Whizzy. I’m determined.

20

Tombard

3.30 p.m.

Typing this in my bedroom, but can’t stay here. Need to get back to Lilac Farm, but Mum won’t let me. She says they won’t want me there.

And now there’s a text from Dad:

Dad: How today?

Will he even notice if I tell him? Is there any point?

Me: Disaster. Sam thinks it’s my fault, and it is, but didn’t mean it
Dad: Fallen out? It’ll blow over. What happened?

I had to stop and think. We aren’t supposed to tell Dad anything worrying when he’s miles away.

Me: Some lads. Doesn’t matter
Dad: Alfie? What’s happened?
Me: Just some stupid stuff with lads. We’re all OK

It started out so brilliantly. The plan was to lure Whizzy down so Sam could see her. We met on the rec field. We weren’t quite sure how we’d do it, but it had to involve electricity. We both wore our football shirts because they make epic amounts of static, and rubbed them against our bellies again and again. Couldn’t wait for him to see her properly.

Sam’s hair was just starting to stand on end with the static when this bunch of lads appeared. The tallest of the group had pale hair, and eyebrows so white they were hardly there.

I nudged Sam. ‘Who’s that?’

‘Tombard.’ His voice was low and full of a million warnings. ‘He’s in Year Nine. Lives in Newton Moorby.’

‘Tom Bard?

‘Thomas Lombard. But always called Tombard – never Thomas.’

‘Why?’

‘Dunno. Too many Toms in his class, probably. You know what it’s like for Toms in ours. But you don’t get it wrong. Not with him. Mr Lombard is his grandad.’

I shuddered and pulled a face. ‘Who are the others?’

‘They’re his gang. You don’t get too near them. No one does.’