The Unlikely Time Traveller Read Online Free PDF Page B

seen which way Robbie went.
    He knitted his eyebrows together and frowned. “It is better you never return to this place,” he said, “horse disturber.”
    In other situations this could have been funny.
    “Actually…” I coughed, spluttered, and recovered myvoice. “Sorry about the horses, really, I didn’t mean… I mean I’m looking for a friend. I… um… lost him. Maybe you saw…” I was going to describe Robbie when suddenly this futuristic boy in front of me screamed and took a quick step back.
    “You have no I-band!”
    I shrugged. What else could I do?
    “You have lost your Immunity band,” he said, like it was the worst possible thing in the world. Then he said it again, louder, like I was deaf. He took another step back, as though he might catch a terrible infection from me.
    I tried to smile, and to not look diseased or like a terrorist. “I… um… lost it,” I lied and shrugged again. “Look, I don’t come from around here, I mean, not really. I’m a traveller.”
    “That I worked out.” He looked at my clothes. I had on a skateboarding T-shirt, a red hoodie and black trousers. I had thought I looked pretty cool, but suddenly, next to this ultra-hip-looking guy from the future, I felt old-fashioned.
    “I just want to find my friend,” I mumbled pathetically. I looked around, as though Robbie might suddenly appear from behind a tree. “He’s also a… a traveller. Maybe you saw him?”
    “The one you call numpty and fool? The same? These are words for friend?”
    I nodded. Now I felt a fool. “Robbie,” I muttered. “That’s his name. We were… um… playing tig.” It sounded pretty lame but I couldn’t think of anything else. “And, um… I’ve got to find him, and catch him.”
    It occurred to me that this future boy might actually help me. I smiled at him.
    He didn’t smile back. “You need to catch this friend?”
    “Yeah.”
    The boy kept his distance but bowed towards me, like I had seen people on TV bow before they kick someone in judo.
    “My name is Ness,” he said, staring at me with his dark blue eyes.
    “I’m Saul,” I said and, because I was trying to fit in, I did what he did, and bowed.

9
    “Right, Ness, I’d better go and look for Robbie,” I said lamely, lingering by the tree, looking around at how everything had changed. The garden where Robbie, Will, Agnes and I have our den is right next to a big old ruined house. As far as I could tell, here in the future (if this really was the future – how could I find out?), the ruin had been rebuilt as stables. To the side of the stables there was a round building made of glass and wood that could be a house. Maybe Ness lived there?
    I doubted the old shed that was our den would have survived another hundred years, but I wanted to see. I edged out from the tree to get a view up the garden. No den. There was some kind of bench. I wondered if the buried time-capsule tin had survived, and glanced down, but couldn’t see any patch under the yew tree that resembled Astroturf. The stone wall around the garden wasn’t crumbling any more. Someone had repaired it. Against the wall, spread-out trees dripped with small orange plums. Now that the horses had stopped stamping it felt calm in the garden. Ness seemed to be the only person around. Birds sang in the trees. I would tell Agnes she was right – it seemed peaceful in the future and her wild overgrown garden had turned into some kind of old folk’s home for horses! Agnes would love it. But Agnes would have to wait. I couldn’t go home without Robbie.
    “You are strange.” Ness cut across my thoughts. “You speak strange. You dress strange. I do wonder perhaps if you make mirth of me and my old horses.” He pulled a carrot from his pocket and crunched into it. “And it is poor skill to lose a friend.”
    My jaw fell open – like this was all my fault! “Actually,” I started, “ he lost me. Robbie can be pretty stupid, you know.”
    Ness just raised