Rain May and Captain Daniel (9 page)

‘Skirts are so like, yesterday,' I whispered. I didn't want to hurt Madison's feelings. She couldn't help it if she spoke American. Becky and I cracked up. But even with all the dancing and the smoke machine and having our hair spray-painted, I couldn't help thinking about Daniel lying in his narrow hospital bed, waiting.

Maggie and I tried to pretend it was a normal Saturday the next morning. We did our chores but we didn't leave the kitchen in case the phone rang and we were both watching the clock, counting the minutes.

‘Couldn't we ring?' I begged. ‘Couldn't we ring the Intensive Care Unit and then we'd know?'

‘He might not even be out yet,' Maggie said. ‘We don't know how long the operation will take and we don't want to be bugging the busy staff. No, we'll wait for Diana to ring us, as we said we would, Rain.'

When the phone finally rang Maggie and I both stared at it, unable to move.

‘Go on, Mum,' I said on the fourth ring, ‘or she'll think we're not here.'

‘Hello.' Maggie's voice sounded wavery and then there was silence and then she gave me the thumbs-up. ‘Oh Diana, we're both so relieved. That's such good news. Thank god.'

We emailed everyone, of course, even Julia, who had actually visited Daniel in her own time and taken him some Star Trek novels.

‘You won't be able to visit,' Maggie cautioned. ‘He'll be in ICU for a few days. Then they'll transfer him back to the ward, and then after a week or so there he'll be home again. Children recover amazingly quickly.'

On Monday, Madison sat down with me and talked Star Trek the whole lunch hour, as if the costume had made me an instant soul mate.

‘You are the most interesting person I've met in Australia,' she said. ‘I just know we're going to be friends forever.'

When I got home from school there was a package on the kitchen table.

‘For you,' Maggie said. She was at the stove stirring. She was taking the soup very seriously.

The package was small and addressed to:

Rain May and Captain Daniel

c/- 7 Cosmo Road

Clarkson

I turned it over. On the back it simply said: from Ensign Julia.

I opened up the packet and a little CD box fell out. Inside were two CDs neatly labelled ‘
Enterprise
, Episode One' and ‘
Enterprise
, Episode Two'.

‘What?'

‘There's a card,' Maggie said over my shoulder.

On the front of the card was a picture of a spaceship. Inside was the message:

Rain May and Captain Daniel,

Forwarding to you both the first episodes of the brand new
Star Trek
series. Hot off the optic fibre. More where they come from, same computer, same channel, next fortnight. Ask no questions, just download and enjoy.

‘Do you know what she's talking about?' Maggie asked.

‘No. But I guess we'd better put one in and see. It's a Star Trek thing, that's obvious.'

We put the CD in the CD drive of the computer. A boy came on the screen painting a model.

‘It's a movie,' Maggie said. ‘She's sent you a movie?'

The images were clear but jerky. It was like watching something that sometimes almost slowed down and then went back to normal speed. After the boy there was a field of some sort and an alien running through it pursued by some other aliens. He ran into this wheat silo and these little guys flattened themselves and went under the door of it. And then the silo exploded and a farmer came out and shot the alien. It didn't make any sense.

Then there was this dicky music and some credits started to come up and I realised that Ensign Julia had sent me pure gold.

‘It's the latest
Star Trek
series,' I said to Maggie. ‘It hasn't been released here yet. Wow! This is amazing. Daniel will be over the moon.'

‘Will we watch it, or will we wait for Daniel?' Maggie asked.

‘We'll watch this episode,' I said, ‘so I can tell him about it. But we'll keep the other one until he comes home. Don't you think?'

‘Okay.'

It was wonderful. It was exciting and even scary. I didn't like the flat guys one little bit but I loved the Doctor and his weird clown smile. And I thought the Chief Engineer was pretty cute.

‘Madison will be so jealous,' I said at the end. ‘This is the one thing she wanted to stay in the States for.'

‘That?'

‘Oh Maggie, you don't understand. She's a Trekkie. And she thinks Scott Bakula is a total stud puppy.'

‘A what?'

‘I prefer the Chief Engineer myself,' I said.

‘Which one was Scott Bakula?'

‘He's the Captain, Mum. Maybe you're just too old for this.'

I couldn't wait to tell Madison. I biked around to Becky's place straightaway. They were both in the bedroom.

‘Have I got something to tell you,' I said.

‘Hey girlfriend!' Madison said, putting her magazine down.

‘I've just seen the first episode of
Enterprise
.'

‘You've what?' Becky said, waving her fingers in the air to dry the polish.

‘Where?' Madison asked. ‘How?'

I ignored the questions.

‘The music is so stupid,' I said. ‘It completely sucks. But Chief Engineer Tripp is a total stud puppy.'

‘Oh, how did you get to see that?' Madison said. ‘I'd die for it. I would.'

‘Ask no questions,' I said. ‘Let's just say it was hot off the optic fibre.'

I told Madison a little more, about the Captain's dog and the way the Doctor said ‘Optimism, Captain', just to get her going. And then Becky's mum came in and said it was nearly dinner time and I left.

‘Oh Rain,' Madison wailed, walking me out to my bike, ‘I've got to see it. You know I've got to see it. Is there any way I can?'

‘I'll work on it,' I promised. ‘I'll work on it for you, Madison, because after all we're girlfriends, right?'

‘Power,' I said to Maggie when I got home, ‘there's nothing like it.'

‘Rain, I don't like that sentiment much,' Maggie said. ‘Power is very, well, powerful, I guess. But you have to use it for good, not evil.'

‘Oh, this is good power,' I told her. ‘This is excellent power.'

The Captain's Log, Supplemental, Stardate 021101

Finally moved to Ward Seven West. A physiotherapist comes and makes me cough.

I've made a friend. There's an Indian boy in the bed next to me. His name is D'nesh Singh and he's from Fiji. He couldn't eat the food. He cried in the night because he couldn't eat the food and his father didn't know what to do, but then the Counsellor suggested he bring in some takeaway curry. Every night the curry smell in our ward threatens to overpower the hospital smell and the doctors and registrars come by and rub their bellies.

D'nesh's father is a doctor, too, and he also plays chess, so the Counsellor went out and bought a chess set for us. So far, D'nesh has won eight games and I've won nine. He coughs louder, though, and his scar is bigger.

If we're playing chess when the doctors make their rounds, sometimes one will peer at the game and suggest a move. I don't want to go back to school. I don't want to go back to school at all.

I tried to talk the Counsellor into letting me have the rest of the year off. I told her I'd study by myself. We could do it together. It'd be just as good, I said, as going back to school. Probably better. I'd learn more.

She smiled sadly at me. I think she'd secretly like me to be at home. But my social skills would suffer, she and the Doctor agreed.

The only person I miss from school is Rain. She was so cool coming in as Data. That was amazing.

The thing is that she's drifting over to the girls' side. When she talks about school she talks about Becky and this American girl, Madison. She doesn't notice but she mentions them all the time now. So when I get back it'll just be me again. And I don't want it to be like that.

I wish I could go to Fiji with D'nesh. He says that in his school everyone respects you if you're clever. He said I'd be so popular at his school. He said I'd have the status of a warrior. Wow!

Trekkies Rule!

Madison was waiting for me at the school gate the next day.

‘When can I see it,' she asked, ‘when?'

‘Well, the thing is,' I said, ‘it's not mine. It belongs to a friend of mine.'

I'd thought about
Enterprise
and power and Daniel for most of the night. Honest, I'd hardly slept. I was so exhausted when Maggie called out that it was time to get up that I nearly faked a tummy ache to stay home, but I had to go to school because I had to put the plan in action.

Madison was wildly popular. Madison with her flippy pony tail and her weird way of talking was the girl everyone wanted to know and most of them wanted to be. She had it. Star quality. Don't ask me why. I couldn't understand it. Because she'd adopted me, the other girls, and even the boys, were including me in their games. Madison wouldn't play if Becky and I didn't play, so they had to.

I had something Madison wanted desperately. And I wanted something Madison had. I wanted to borrow some of her popularity. Not for me, I was doing fine. I needed it for Daniel. Because I could see that when he got back to school, it was all going to go back to being him sitting eating his lunch by himself, with me beside him watching the others play basketball.

‘Who?' Madison demanded. ‘Do I know them?'

‘No, you don't. It's a boy called Daniel. He goes to school here, but he's in hospital at the moment. Becky and Tom know him, but they don't like him very much. Or at least, he doesn't think they do. So I don't think he'd like me lending the CD to you because you're their cousin.'

‘But … you could borrow it, couldn't you, and I could watch it at your place?'

‘That would be cheating. Friends don't do that.'

‘I've got to see it. I've just got to see it.'

‘Well, one thing I thought of,' I said slowly, ‘but it probably wouldn't work.'

‘Yeah, yeah?'

‘See, I thought we could start a
Star Trek
Club at school, a fan club. I mean there might only be the three of us, you, me and Daniel, but that would be okay. Then maybe we could persuade Daniel to let us meet sometime after school, at his house, and because we were in the club, he'd have to share. There'll be more episodes. We've, I mean, he's got two already.'

Madison practically swooned.

‘I'll tell you what, Rain,' she said when she recovered, ‘why don't we make this Daniel the president of the Club.'

‘Brilliant,' I said. ‘You've got to hand it to you Americans, you're fantastic at international relations.'

‘Rain, you're weird, but I just love you.'

Of course everyone wanted to be in the
Star Trek
Club. We all put in fifty cents to join and that went to getting out the early videos to initiate the non-Trek-kies among us. Our first meeting was at my place. We elected the office bearers — Daniel for President, Madison as Social Secretary, Becky as Treasurer. I offered to write the club newsletter.

There were a few murmurs about Daniel being President, but to my amazement Tom told everyone to shut up.

‘We are lucky enough to have a dedicated Trekkie who knows everything about Star Trek,' he said. ‘After all, what do you know, Oliver Canning? Anyway, if you're not happy you don't have to stay.'

In the end the club had fifteen members. Maggie made bucketloads of popcorn and we settled down to watch
Star Trek: The Original Series
with Mr Spock and Captain Kirk. The only person missing was Daniel himself but he'd be back. And he'd be back as President of the Clarkson Primary School
Star Trek
Club. Actually, Madison suggested we cut out the Primary School bit, to make it shorter.

‘Power,' I said to Maggie when everyone straggled home, still calling out ‘Live Long and Prosper' to each other.

‘I'm proud of you, Rain May,' Maggie said. ‘When are you going to see Daniel?'

‘Ensign Julia and I are going to deliver his official invitation to be President of the Clarkson
Star Trek
Club and to inform him that his first act should be the screening of
Enterprise, Episode One
accompanied by the Counsellor's killer chocolate cake. Julia's picking me up instead of Dad. Is that okay, Mum?'

‘Yes, of course it is.' Mum put her hands on my shoulders and held me in front of her. ‘It hasn't been too bad, has it, coming here to live?'

‘It's been great, Mum. I'm sorry I was so horrid to start with.'

‘And we pick up the puppy in a couple of days, Daniel comes home, Christmas is just around the corner.'

‘Yep, looking good.'

‘I want to know if it's okay with you if we all do Christmas together — Diana and Mark and Daniel and you and me. And you'd spend Christmas Eve with your dad and Julia.'

‘It sounds great. I'd love that. Daniel will love that.'

‘And Rain, I want you to know that I am so proud of you. You're the best. You know that?'

I wriggled away from her before she had a chance to get all kissy and weepy. I had things to do. I had an invitation to write.

The Captain's Log, Supplemental, Stardate 021101

I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. President of the Clarkson
Star Trek
Club. Elected President. They
all
elected me.

I was scared I'd cry in front of Rain but I didn't. I just sat there, my mouth wide open, until the Counsellor told me gently that I'd catch flies if I stayed like that any longer.

Turns out the American girl's a Trekkie, too, but she says Trekker, because that's what they say over there. And Rain's going to do a newsletter and she says the Club is all anyone ever talks about these days at school and everyone's waiting for me to come back because they all want to learn Volcan three-dimensional chess and how to swear in Klingon.

I know boys are not meant to say things like this. And I don't mean it in the way that you write your names on the bus seat or anything like that, but I'm really, really pleased Rain moved next door and became my best friend. And I know we'll be friends forever now, because you don't just forget seeing a platypus with someone, do you? Or how that person showed you who you could be, if you tried. And they cared enough.

On Daniel's Fridge

smile
we are celebrating
every brilliant thing
but most of all
our much missed
star boy
now home again
welcome back
best friend