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"What did we do? Back there? I saw the bombs drop! And I'm a very good observer! But we got down to the police station before it happened! So either I'm mad - and I'm not mad - or we-"
"Ran through time," said Yoless.
"Look, it was just a direction," said Joh
Kirsty rolled her eyes. "Can you do it again?"
"I ... don't think so. I can't remember how I did it."
"He was probably in a state of heightened awareness," said Yoless. "I've read about them."
"What ... drugs?" said Kirsty suspiciously.
"Me? I don't even like coffee!" said Joh
"But It's an amazing talent! Think of the things you-"
Joh
"Come on," he said, and started ru
"But-" Kirsty began.
"I can't do it again," said Joh
Bigmac and Wobbler weren't in trouble, if only because there had been so much trouble just recently that there was, for a while, no more to get into.
"This is an air-raid shelter?" said Bigmac. "I thought they were all - you know, steel and stuff Big doors that go hiss. Lights flashing on and off. You know." He heaved on one end of a shed which had smashed into the air-raid shelter belonging to No. 9. "Not just some corrugated iron and dirt with lettuces growing on top."
Wobbler had rescued a shovel from the ruin of someone's greenhouse, and used it to heave bricks out of the way. The shelter door opened and a middleaged woman staggered out.
She was wearing a floral pi
"Where's Michael?" the woman shouted. "Where is he? Has anyone seen him? I turned my back for two seconds to grab Adolf and Stalin and he was out the door like a-"
"Kid in a green jersey?" said Wobbler. "Got glasses? Ears like the World Cup? He's looking for shrapnel."
"He's safe?" She sagged with relief. "I don't know what I'd have told his mother!"
"You all right?" said Bigmac. "I'm afraid your house is a bit ... flatter than it was ... "
Mrs Density looked at what was left of No. 9.
"Oh, well. Worse things happen at sea," she said vaguely.
"Do they?" said Bigmac, mystified.
"It's just a blessing we weren't in it," said Mrs Density.
There was a clink of brickwork and a firemen slid down the debris towards them.
"All right, Mrs Density?" he said. "I reckon You're the last one. Fancy a nice cup of tea?"
"Oh, hello, Bill," she said.
"Who're these lads, then?" said the fireman.
"We ... were just helping out," said Wobbler
"Were you? Oh. Right. Well, come away out of it, the pair of you. We reckon There's an unexploded one at Number 12." The fireman stared at Bigmac's clothes for a moment, and then shrugged. He gently took the goldfish bowl from Mrs Density and put his other arm around her shoulders.
"A nice cup of tea and a blanket," he said. "Just the thing, eh? Come along, luv."
The boys watched them slide and scramble through the fallen bricks.
"You get bombed and they give you a cup of tea?" said Bigmac.
"I s'pose It's better than getting bombed and never ever getting one again," said Wobbler. "Anyway, there-"
"Eeeeyyyyooooowwwwmmmm!" screamed a voice behind them.
They turned. Wobbler's grandfather was standing on a pile of bricks and looked like a small devil in the light of the fires. He was covered in soot, and was waving something through the air and making aeroplane noises.
"That looks like-"Bigmac began.
"It's a bit off'f a bomb!" said the boy. "Nearly the whole tail fin! I don't know anyone who's got nearly a whole tail fin!"
He zoomed the twisted metal through the air again.
"Er ... kid?" said Wobbler.
The boy lowered the fin.
"You know about ... motorbikes?" said Wobbler.
"Oh, no," said Bigmac. "You can't tell him anything about-"
"You just shut up!" said Wobbler. "You've got a grandad!"
"Yes, but there has to be a warder there when I go an" see him."
Wobbler looked back at the boy.
"Dangerous things, motorbikes," he said.
"I'm going to have a big one when I grow up," said his grandfather. "With rockets on it, an" machine guns and everythin'. Eeeooowwmmmm!"
"Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," said Wobbler, in the special dumb voice for talking to children. "You don't want to go crashing it, do you."
"Oh, I won't crash," said his grandfather, confidently.
"Mrs Density"s daughter"s a nice little girl, isn't she," said Wobbler desperately.
"She's all smelly and horrible. Eeeeeoowwmmm! Anyway, You're fat, mister!"
He ran down the far side of the heap. They saw his shadow darting between the firemen, and heard the occasional "Voommrnm!"
"Come on," said Bigmac. "Let's get back to the church. The man said they thought there was an unexploded bomb-"
"He just didn't want to listen!" said Wobbler. "I would've listened!"
"Yeah, sure," said Bigmac.
"Well, I would!"
"Sure. Come on."
"I could've helped him if only he'd listened! I know stuff? Why won't he listen? I could make life a lot easier for him!"
"All right, I believe you. Now Let's go, shall we?"
They reached the church just as Joh
"Everyone all right?" said Kirsty. "Why are you covered in soot, you two?"
"We've been rescuing people," said Wobbler, proudly. "Well, sort of."
They looked at the wreck of Paradise Street. People were standing around in small groups, and sitting on the ruins. Some ladies in official-looking hats had set up a table with a tea urn on it. There were still a few small fires, however, and the occasional crash and tinkle as a high-altitude cocktail onion fell back to earth in a coating of ice.
Joh
"Everyone got out, Joh
"I know."
"The siren was just in time."
"I know."
Behind him, Joh
"We found out about that," said Bigmac's voice. "They get a nice cup of tea and told to cheer up because it could be worse."
"That's all?"
"Well ... There's biscuits, too."
Joh
And his mind's eye saw the other street. It was here, too, happening at the same time. There were the same fires and the same piles of rubble and the same fire engines. But there were no people - except the ones carrying stretchers.
We're in a new time, he thought.
Everything you do changes everything. And every time you move in time you arrive in a time a little bit different to the one you left. What you do doesn't change the future, just a future.
There's millions of places when the bombs killed everyone in Paradise Street.
But it didn't happen here.
The ghostly images faded away as the other time veered off into it's own future.
"Joh
"Yeah, no point in staying," said Bigmac.
Joh
"Okay," he said.
"Are we going by trolley or are we going to ... walk?" said Kirsty.
Joh
"Trolley," he said.
It was waiting where they'd left it. But there was no sign of Guilty.
"Oh, no!" said Kirsty. "We're not going to look for a cat."
"He went to watch the bombing," said Wobbler. "Don't know what happened to him after that."
Joh
"Don't worry about the cat," he said. "Cats find their own way home."
The Golden Threads Club occupied the old church on Friday mornings. Sometimes there was a folk singer, or entertainment from local schools, if this couldn't be avoided. Mainly there was tea and a chat.
This was usually about how things were worse now than they had ever been, especially those golden days when you could buy practically anything for sixpence and still have change.
There was a change in the air and five figures appeared.
The Golden Threaders watched them suspiciously, in case they broke into "The Streets of London". They also noted that they were under thirty years old, and therefore almost certainly criminals. For one thing, They'd apparently stolen a shopping trolley. And one of them was black.
"Er... " said Joh
"Is this the theatre group?" said Kirsty. The others were astonished at the quick thinking. "Oh, no, wrong church hall, very sorry."
They edged towards the door, pushing the trolley.
The Threaders watched them owlishly, tea-cups cooling in their hands.
Wobbler opened the door and ushered the others through it.
"Don't forget, one of them was black," said Yoless, as he stepped out. He rolled his eyes sarcastically and waved his hands in the air. "We's goin' to de carnivaaal!"
Some Other Now ...
The air outside smelled of 1996. Kirsty looked at her watch.
"Ten-thirty on Saturday morning," she said. "Not bad."
"Er, your watch is at ten-thirty on Saturday morning," said Joh
"Good point."
"But I think we are, anyway. This all looks right."
"Looks fine to me," said Wobbler.
"We've been out all night," said Yoless. "My mum'll go spare.
"Tell her you stopped at my place and the phone was broken," said Wobbler.