Free Invisible! by Robert Swindells Page A

by the door which led from the garage to the house as his parents unloaded the car.
    â€˜You can watch in your room. Your dad’s got somebody coming in a few minutes.’
    â€˜Who?’
    â€˜Never you mind. Here – take these through.’
    Lee took two bulging carriers from his mother. ‘Who’s coming? Why can’t I see ‘em?’
    â€˜Lee.’ Mr Kippax frowned at his son. ‘Don’t argue with your mother, OK? Put that stuff in the kitchen and go upstairs.’
    â€˜Yes, Dad.’
    Lee went through the door. Rosie, motionlessagainst a breeze-block wall, watched as Mr and Mrs Kippax picked up their stuff and followed him. Should she go too, or stay here? Would they lock the door and if they did, was there a way she could escape once she’d seen what was under that plastic?
    I’ve
got
to stay, haven’t I? Take a peek in the bin-bag
, then
worry about getting out.
Laden with carriers, Mr Kippax followed his wife through the door and pushed it closed with his bottom. Rosie heard a latch click home, and at the same instant the garage was plunged into total darkness.
    Drat! Never thought of that. No window. Can’t see a hand in front of my face. Don’t know where the switches are. Why didn’t I bring a
torch,
for Pete’s sake? (Because it’d look a bit funny, that’s why – a torch floating along the street all by itself.) Still, I should’ve been prepared in some way.
    Gotta
do
something. Can’t just stand here freezing. Move.
Where,
though?
She frowned in the blackness, trying to remember the layout of the place. There was a board. Pegboard painted white with tools racked up on it, somewhere to her right. Under the board was a bench with a vice and a power-drill. Shelves below, full ofstuff. A lamp, perhaps. A torch. Matches would do.
Have to search by feel but that’s OK – I’ve probably got all night.
    She crabbed right, keeping the breeze-blocks at her back.
Go slow. Don’t trip. Don’t knock anything over.
When she thought she’d travelled far enough she raised her right arm and felt for the board. It wasn’t there.
On a bit, then. Slowly, slowly. Now, try again. Nothing. It’s here somewhere though, unless I imagined it. Wish Daddy Bear was here. Shut up. There – I’ve found it. Smooth and cool, just like me. Now for the bench … there. And underneath, down here somewhere … all sorts of rubbish. Careful then. Lift things one by one, feel ‘em, put them on the floor. That way you won’t be looking at the same stuff twice. Looking at! If only.
    Time passed. She couldn’t identify most of the items her groping hands found, but none of them was a torch or lamp. She’d cleared the top shelf and made a start on the lower one when she heard a click. The lights came on. Mr Kippax, in the doorway, growled an oath as he spotted the stuff on the floor. Rosie shrank away as he strode towards her, murder in his eyes.

Lee laughed out loud and slapped his knees as Bart Simpson pulled down his jeans and mooned the Prime Minister of Australia while a band somewhere struck up
The Star-Spangled Banner. Mega! Way to go, Bart. Best episode ever, this.
    â€˜Lee!’
    Oh-oh.
‘Yes, Dad?’
    â€˜I’ll give you “yes dad”. Get down here
now.’ Oh heck – now what have I done?
‘Coming, Dad.’
    â€˜What you been playing at, eh?’
    Lee gaped at the stuff all over the garage floor. ‘Wasn’t
me
, Dad. Never left my room.’
    â€˜Don’t lie to me, boy.’
    â€˜I’m not. I haven’t been in here, Dad. Honest.’
    â€˜So who
did
this? Your
mother?
The Invisible
Man?
’
    â€˜I dunno, Dad, but it wasn’t me.’
    â€˜Oh, wasn’t it? Well I’ll tell you one thing – it’s
you
’s going to put it all back, and you’d better be quick about it. I’ve somebody coming any minute