Hat Trick! (19 page)

Tuesday—afternoon

MR
PASQUALI had told each of us during the day to get to training early.

‘I’ve also arranged for Scott to be delayed at the office,’ he told me. ‘I’m going to ring Mrs Grimes there when we’re ready.’

‘The bat?’ I asked.

Mr Pasquali nodded. ‘It’s been engraved and there’s a place for our signatures up near the splice.’

We all gathered together before training and Mr Pasquali made the presentation. Scott had no idea it had been planned. He seemed a little stunned.

The engraver had carved a short inscription:
Scott Craven scored 134 not out with this bat. U–13 Southwestern Division,’
and below was the date. We had signed our names neatly down each side of the splice, up near the top of the bat. Mr Pasquali had too.

I think Scott was genuinely happy with what we’d done. He didn’t even bowl pace during centrewicket practice and everyone was rapt with that. Although Jimbo said later that he probably did that deliberately so we wouldn’t gain confidence from playing him before the finals.

Wednesday—afternoon

Jay insisted on coming along on Wednesday to meet with Jim. There was something Jay had discovered about the diary that he’d been holding back, ever since we’d left him with it when we walked up the street to get the paper. Maybe he would tell Jim.

We’d just reached the outside glass doors when I saw a familiar face. Mr Smale and two guys, dressed like security, were standing on the other side of the doors, talking. Mr Smale looked straight at me then turned to the guards.

‘Oh no, not again,’ I yelled, turning to run. Jay just stood there, mouth hanging loose, a stupid grin on his face.

‘I wonder who they’re after?’ he said.

I grabbed him by the arm. ‘We’re not hanging around to find out. C’mon!’

We dashed off around the outside with me a couple of metres ahead of Jay.

‘Come on, over this way!’ I yelled.

‘But, Toby—’

‘Jay! Come on!’

I started running across the car park. Jay followed. We dashed between a few cars, Jay almost getting smashed by a door that suddenly opened in front of him.

‘Watch it!’ a lady shouted at him.

‘The station!’ I yelled, pointing away to the left. A silver train was snaking towards us. ‘It’s over there! Come on, Jay!’

We scrambled forward, weaving between the cars. I heard Jay yell out behind me. He’d fallen next to a van. Maybe it had started moving and knocked him.

‘Jay? You okay?’ I raced back.

Jay had tripped over a basket someone was unpacking.

‘C’mon!’ I cried. I grabbed Jay by the arm again and together we stumbled down a path that headed towards the station. A train thundered in as we raced past the small ticket office.

‘T-tickets?’ Jay gasped.

‘Forget it,’ I said, dragging him towards the train. The automatic doors closed as we fell inside. Jay tumbled into the lap of an old lady. He excused himself and jumped up.

‘Wow, that was close,’ I sighed, holding the metal bar.

‘But, Toby. There was no one chasing us!’ Jay had finally got his breath back.

The train started up, then immediately slowed. We raced to the window as it came to a stop.

‘What’s happening?’ Jay asked.

‘Maybe the security guys have radioed ahead and stopped the train.’

I opened the door and leaned forwards carefully to look out. To my amazement, a policeman was climbing aboard.

‘Jay, we’re gonna jump, okay?’ The doors started to close. ‘Quick—
now
!’

I jumped and Jay squeezed through and followed. We stumbled onto the platform, then turned to watch the train pull out of the station.

‘Won’t he follow us?’ Jay asked.

‘He won’t be able to open the doors.’ A moment later I saw the policeman and defiantly stared at him through the window as the train passed by. But he hardly appeared to notice me. He seemed more interested in the passengers inside the train.

‘Let’s go,’ I said.

‘Home?’

‘No, the last place they’d expect to find us. Back to the MCG.’

There was no sign of Mr Smale but the two security guards were still standing in the same spot they’d been in 15 minutes ago.

‘See,’ Jay hissed at me as the doors closed behind us.

‘Hey, boys?’ one of them called out as we tried to slink past. We both froze.

‘Your class headed that way—you’d better hurry.’ He was pointing up a ramp to the left.

‘Th-thanks,’ I mumbled. There must be a school group visiting the museum.

We hared up the ramp and into an awesome display of sporting history. We kept a low profile for another 10 minutes, mingling with the school group and checking out the displays before heading towards the library.

‘Smale’s probably up there now, knowing our luck,’ I said to Jay as we got closer. ‘We’ll take the secret door.’

I looked down the corridor, checking that no one was around, then pulled the door open. There was no sign of Mr Smale as we entered, but Jim looked up from his desk and waved us over.

‘Well, now, come along and sit yourselves down and tell me everything again,’ said Jim.

I repeated what I knew, going into detail about everything Mr Smale had done. I sensed Jay was agitated and wanting to butt in, but I finished without interruption.

‘Well, this does change things, I’m afraid,’ said Jim. ‘I must admit, it has surprised me that Phillip has persisted for so long here. It would appear he is after something. Perhaps he knows a little more about the
Wisden
s, time travel and scorecards than he would like everyone to believe.’

‘There’s something else,’ Jay said quietly.

We both looked at him. The tone of his voice suggested something important.

‘I’ve got the scorecard.’

Jim looked completely stunned. I jumped up from my seat. But at that moment the door opened
and the group of school kids we had snuck in with surged into the room. In no time they had filled up all available space in the small library. Luckily David, the main librarian, was with them and soon organised them into a group in front of the
Wisden
s bookcase.

Jay and I pushed our chairs in to make more space. David introduced Jim, talked about the
Wisden
s, and then the group moved on. One of the kids hung back.

‘Would you like to look at one?’ Jim asked the boy. He nodded. I had the weirdest feeling as I watched Jim and the kid look at an old
Wisden
. That had been me just a short time ago. I studied the kid’s face closely: there was obviously no strange stuff happening. A minute later he joined the rest of the group.

‘There’s always one or two who want a look,’ Jim said, smiling, as Jay and I sat down again. ‘Now, Jay. You were saying?’ Jim licked his lips and leaned forwards eagerly.

Jay reached into his pocket and pulled out a small faded yellow card. It had words near the top and numbers down the side.

Jim held out his hand. ‘Please?’

But Jay was leaning back, smiling. ‘Now, just let me—’

‘Jay!’ I hissed. ‘It’s not yours. Give it to Jim.’

Reluctantly Jay passed the card across to Jim. Jim held it in his hands, almost tentatively, then slowly
turned it over and read aloud what was written on the back:

‘Two hours is all the time

So before it’s up, read these lines.’

‘Where’d you find it, Jay?’ I asked.

‘Well, I had this idea, but I wanted to see for myself. So when you guys went off down Nash Street the other day, I carefully made a slit in the back cover. And there it was! I saw it on a movie once—these guys had hidden this map in the inside cover of a book. And it was an old movie, so I thought maybe it would be the same.’

‘Well, well. Bravo, Jay. Goodness me.’ Jim seemed amazed at the discovery.

Jay was looking very pleased with himself.

‘So, who have you told?’ I asked.

‘No one!’ he retorted, sounding offended.

‘I hope not, Jay,’ Jim said gravely.

‘Well, only Rahul, but he—’

‘Rahul!’ I cried. Some of the kids turned to look at us. ‘
Rahul
? He’d want it more than anyone. He’d try and go back to India.’

‘There’s no one who wouldn’t want it, Toby,’ said Jim. ‘And we know that there are people who are determined to get it. Jay, may I look after it?’

‘Sure. Anyway, I had this idea,’ Jay said. ‘Toby and me, we could go into business. A travel business. We could use the scorecard to take people to games of
their choice. I’d collect all the money and Toby could be the tour guide.’

Jim straightened. ‘Do you know what would really happen, Jay?’

‘I’d be making us bucketloads of money and Toby would be a worldwide sensation,’ Jay replied quickly.

‘Exactly!’ Jim said.

‘He’d be on the front covers of newspapers and magazines,’ Jay continued.

‘You are right, Jay. He’d be talked about, interviewed, quizzed, hounded and followed for the rest of his life. He’d have his brain scanned and all sorts of scientific tests done so this extraordinary phenomenon could be explained. His life would be a misery.’

Jay was defiant. ‘Well, yeah, maybe, but we’d be rich.’

‘Money doesn’t create happiness, Jay. That comes from within.’

There was a commotion at the door and Mr Smale burst in. ‘Ah!’ he cried, pointing at us. By now the class, with their teacher and David, had left via the secret door.

‘Phillip. Do join us,’ Jim said, managing to hide the scorecard just in time.

Smale looked from me to Jim then back to me.

‘Jim, I brought in some of the family cricket archives. The 1912 programs we were talking about, do you recall?’

‘Well, certainly, Phillip. I’d be most—’

‘It appears that one has gone missing. I think perhaps before the children leave we should check them both.’

‘Phillip, I hardly—’

‘Those programs are very valuable, Jim. You said so yourself. I certainly won’t be bringing in any more of the cricket material under these circumstances.’

Jim looked at me and Jay. ‘Is that all right, boys?’

We stood up and turned out our pockets.

Smale looked disappointed. ‘Well, everything seems to be in order. Jim?’

‘Phillip, are you suggesting that I—’

‘If everyone is searched then I will be satisfied that the fault lies with me and that perhaps I have misplaced one of the programs,’ Smale said coolly.

Somehow he’d latched onto us and he wasn’t letting go. Did he know the scorecard was only a metre away?

‘Phillip, I understand your concern,’ Jim said evenly. ‘However, I will not be searched in front of visitors to the library.’

Smale looked like he was about to argue, but Jim held his gaze. Suddenly he smiled.

‘Thank you, Jim. I’m sorry about all this. I’m just rather upset at the thought of one of those 1912 programs disappearing. I shall go and speak with David and the teacher of the group currently visiting.’

Jim nodded and turned to us. ‘Well, boys, thank you for coming to see me.’ He held out his hand and I felt the scorecard, cool against my palm.

‘Goodbye, Jay.’ Jim shook his hand too.

I kept my hand in my pocket, closed gently but firmly around the scorecard, until we had left the building.

‘Got it,’ I muttered to Jay as we left.

When India played Australia in a Twenty20 match in Melbourne on 1 February 2008, they managed a rare feat. It was the first and, so far, only time that 10 of the 11 batters didn’t reach double figures. Only Irfan Pathan managed to get to double figures, making 26 out of a total of 74.

Thursday—morning

I
put the scorecard in a tight plastic pocket—the type card-shop owners sell expensive cricket cards in—and, thinking it would be safer if it was with me allthe time, I took it to school. Big mistake.

It must have happened during the lesson before recess. We were playing touch football out on the oval. I didn’t want the card to get creased or damaged, so I put it in my pencil case and left it in my bag. When I checked on it at the start of recess it had gone.

I immediately thought of Jay and set off to find him, but no one had seen him. Then I started to panic. I flew up to the library, thinking he might have borrowed one of the
Wisden
s that the school had recently bought. None of them were on the shelves.

‘Miss Thomson, can you tell me who’s got the
Wisden
s?’ I said urgently. ‘It’s just that I’m about to give a talk and I’ve got to check on some info. I was—’

‘Well, I can tell you who’s got one of them. Jay Barclay. He borrowed it about half an hour ago. Hang on, I’ll check the other one.’ She pushed some buttons on the keyboard, but I didn’t wait to find out. ‘Thanks,’ I called, running out again.

Where would he go?
I headed down to the boys’ toilets. I saw the
Wisden
straight away. It was lying open on the floor in the farthest cubicle.

I dashed forwards and picked it up, desperately trying to read any of the words. I didn’t notice the sound of footsteps till they stopped just outside the door.

‘Catching up on a bit of reading, are we?’ Scott Craven snarled. ‘Why you gotta do it in the toilets?’

‘Forget it, Scott,’ I said, folding the corner of the page to bookmark it and moving to get past him.

‘Forget what?’

He moved to block my path.

I opened the book again. ‘Scott, what’s it say on this page?’

‘Can’t you read, Toby Jones?’

‘No. Not this book. The writing’s too small. Just give me a few words. Please?’

In spite of the desperation in my voice, he wouldn’t help.

‘You know, you really annoy me, Jones.’

He edged closer, backing me against the far wall of
the cubicle. ‘You think you’re the world’s best cricketer, but you’re not. You get all the attention—’

I’d had enough. I pushed him away so hard that he reeled into the door, banging his head against it before crashing to the ground. The
Wisden
landed next to him.

He got to his feet, blazing with anger. ‘We’re gonna keep this quiet, eh, Jones?’

He came at me, his hands raised. I ducked, then body-slammed him straight back into the door, which was slowly opening. Again he crashed to the floor, this time dazed.

‘Use your fists and fight properly,’ he said, struggling to get up.

‘Can you just read this one bit for me?’ I asked again. He flung out his right arm and I saw his fist heading for my face. Without knowing quite how, I threw up my right arm, deflecting his punch.

‘There’s no need to fight. I’m just asking you to read a few lines from the
Wisden
,’ I said.

Lunging at me, Scott tripped and crashed to the floor. He doubled over, struggling for breath. I grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him up, then pushed him against the cubicle wall.

‘You want to help, Scott, or what?’

He swore, then came at me again, but I was ready. I put up my arms again, but this time surprised him by throwing out a hard punch. It caught him unawares. He staggered back.

I picked up the
Wisden
, found the right page and thrust the book beneath his face.

‘
Read
,’ I hissed.

‘11 M-march,’ he whispered. ‘World C-cup semifinal.’ He looked up at me. ‘What is it with—’

‘Just read!’

‘Australia v New Zealand. Madras—’

‘The date?’ I hissed. ‘When was it? Point!’

His eyes searched the page.

‘Here. I
said
, 11 March—’

Suddenly Scott slammed the book closed and barged past me. He was out of the toilets in a flash. I set off after him but at the end of the corridor almost knocked over Mr Beechworth, the vice-principal.

‘Why the rush, Toby Jones? Just
walk
back to class.’

‘But—’

‘
Immediately
!’

I walked as quickly as I dared back to the classroom. As I’d suspected, neither Rahul nor Jay was there. Mr Pasquali raised his eyebrows at me but didn’t say anything. I scrawled a message on a scrap of paper and tossed it across to Georgie when Mr Pasquali’s back was turned.

Where’s Rahul and Jay?

She shrugged.

When I caught up with her at lunchtime, I told her all about the scorecard and that I thought they might have travelled to India.

‘Well, if you’re dumb enough to leave the scorecard lying around, and knowing what we know about Jay, it was bound to happen.’

It wasn’t the answer I’d expected. She must have seen my look of disappointment.

‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘Leave it till the end of school.’

‘But they’ve only got two hours. They’ll probably forget that in their excitement.’

‘Well, maybe they’re back already. Why not go and look?’

I hung around the toilets all lunchtime but there was no sign of them. For the last 10 minutes I actually shut the door of the far cubicle and sat there. It felt weird to think that any minute I might get squashed by two kids coming through from another time. Maybe I’d actually see them reappear.

After lunch, as happened on every other day, the class roll was taken.

‘Anyone seen Jay and Rahul?’ Mr Pasquali asked.

‘I think they might still be helping out with some jobs in the office,’ Georgie said quickly. ‘Mr Beechworth said to say they’d be a bit late.’

‘Okay. Thanks, Georgie. Right, maths books out, please.’

The afternoon lesson dragged on.

Finally I said to Georgie: ‘I’ve got to tell him.’

‘Don’t be stupid. What on earth can Mr Pasquali do? Just tell their parents, your parents, the whole school—’

Mr Pasquali interrupted our whispers. ‘Georgie, go and see how Jay and Rahul are getting on, would you?’

‘Can I go too, Mr P?’ I asked.

‘I think Georgie can handle this mission solo, right, Georgie?’

‘Guess so, Mr Pasquali.’

A few minutes later she returned. I watched her closely. The day was becoming a series of lies.

‘Um, they said that Jay was sick and he’s gone home. But since there wasn’t anyone at his place, Rahul’s parents came to collect him and they took both Rahul and Jay home.’ She stared at Mr Pasquali a moment, almost daring him to challenge her, then went back to her seat.

‘Looks like they’ll miss training,’ I added, a bit lamely.

‘Let’s hope they’re both well enough for Saturday,’ said Mr Pasquali, who looked puzzled.

Georgie put her head down, as though her maths had suddenly become totally engrossing. I looked over at Scott Craven. He also had his head down, but his eyes were roving about, taking in everything. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t say anything about what had happened in the toilets.

After school Georgie and I were called into the office.

‘Now, no more games, you two. Where are Jay and Rahul?’ demanded Mr Beechworth.

‘We don’t know. They’ve left the school, that’s all we know,’ I explained. And it was the truth—though not all the truth.

‘This is very serious. Their parents—’

There was a sudden commotion in the hallway outside and we all turned to look. We heard raised voices and Mr Beechworth went to investigate.

‘So, what else do we say?’ I muttered to Georgie who was looking worried.

Then: ‘It’s them!’ she cried. We hurried to the door and looked out into the corridor. Mr Pasquali was also out there and so were Jay’s and Rahul’s parents.

Jay and Rahul both looked wrecked. Their clothes were torn and their faces were filthy. They also looked spooked.

Mr Pasquali turned to Georgie and me. ‘Off to training, you two. We’ll deal with your side of the story later.’

I went through the motions at training. Georgie was equally distracted and even Scott was subdued. Rahul and Jay never turned up. Mr Pasquali finally arrived, 15 minutes late. He thanked Jono for organising the nets and didn’t say anything more about it.

I hung around with Georgie afterwards, helping pack up the kit, knowing that it would be better to cop it from Mr P now rather than later.

‘You have disappointed me, both of you,’ he said. ‘Don’t you ever,
ever
let that happen again. It was totally irresponsible of you to lie for them the way you did. We have a hard enough time as it is looking after students
within
the boundaries of this school, let alone when they take it into their heads to run off on some silly adventure. Do I make myself clear?’

‘Yes, Mr Pasquali,’ we both said. I looked up at his face as I spoke. He was obviously very upset. He nodded curtly, pointed to the kit, then headed off. After ten or so paces he stopped and turned. Neither of us had moved.

‘I hope Mr Beechworth isn’t thinking cricket when he speaks with you tomorrow morning. He wants to see you at 8.30 in his office. Don’t be late.’ He walked back towards the school buildings.

I turned to Georgie when Mr Pasquali was out of hearing. ‘Get into CROC tonight, 8.30, okay?’

‘Couldn’t you pick another time?’ she said sarcastically.

I didn’t get what she meant until I was halfway home.

Thursday—evening

CROC (cricket online chat) was a chatroom we had devised to discuss cricket, and other things too. Only a few kids had the password. I just hoped that Jay and Rahul would log on. I’d rung a few times before dinner but both phones were engaged.

Georgie, Jay and Rahul were on when I logged on just after 8.30. I was afraid to ask Rahul directly about his brother and his whole family situation. Hopefully it would just come out.

Toby: well?

Jay: sorry

Toby: what happened?

Rahul: i’ll tell, jay. we tried to go back to india

Jay: it was my idea

Rahul: true, but i encouraged it

Georgie: did you achieve anything?

Rahul: save my brother, no. it was dumb, i think we were about 2 days out

Toby: you were away for more than 2 hours though

Rahul: i know, we got stuck on a bus. the freak guy with the cloak saved us

Toby: what?

Georgie: the same one that almost killed toby?

Rahul: yep, it was soooo weird

Jay: he gave me a message for you toby

Rahul: dad’s calling

Georgie: you guys in trouble?

Jay: not so bad, my folks reckon i deserve what punishment i get at school

Rahul: i’m grounded on top of that

Toby: where’s the scorecard?

Jay: i’ve got it, and i’m giving it back to you tomorrow toby, promise

Toby: bloody hope so jay

Georgie: jay?

Rahul: guys, talk tomorrow, okay?

Georgie: cya, rahul

Toby: yep. bye rahul well, jay?

Jay: what can i say? it was dumb and i did wrong. big time. i’m sorry, toby.
toby? you there? toby…c’mon, man.

Georgie: toby?

Toby: what was it like?

Jay: shocking. horrible. smelly. we walked forever. there were people everywhere, on buses, walking on the roads. it was like rahul was possessed. if i’d known there’s no way i would have gone.

Georgie: it was dumb, jay

Jay: so you’ve said, both of you, i know. you can have the stupid scorecard toby.

Toby: jay, you are bloody lucky

Jay: what?

Georgie: you might not have come back at all

Jay: yeah, i know

Toby: i’m going, jay, tell me everything tomorrow

Jay: we still friends?

Toby: course we are, idiot

Jay: bye

Georgie: bye guys