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Category:
Historical Fiction
Publisher: Citiria Publishing
Type: Fiction
Pages: 214
Copyright: Feb 5, 2017
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
When will Jim's life stop going bang?
Soon it will be Bonfire Night, and Jim’s making his own fireworks. Crazy Joe Materson says there’s an unexploded bomb in his garden, and Dad’s in league with him to blow up the sand-stealing excavator.
When dead Uncle Buddy appears from out of a stain on the wallpaper and takes Jim back to World War 2, that’s bad enough - but then Old Beardy, the Beach Hermit, gets involved.
Excerpt
At ten, I took off my shoes, pulled the chain on the cuckoo clock to wind the weight to the top again, turned the light out and sat on the bed. I drew my vest up over my head and when it cleared my eyes, it seemed to me that a man was standing in the wallpaper, where the stain was, as if he were half part of it and half not. It was as if he’d always been there but somehow I’d not been aware. As my eyes adapted to the gloom I saw he had a funny cap on his head, two buttons on its front; a brownish jacket with big front pockets, lapels hanging down over them; an enormous belt of dull green canvas; and strange baggy trousers.
I thought, “I’m dreaming,” but then I heard the night birds calling in the distance, and I knew I wasn’t. Goose pimples stood up all over my arms, and the skin on the back of my neck prickled.
“It’s all right Jim. I used to be friends with your father. In the war.”
His voice sounded soft, muffled, but I had no trouble making out the words.
“You’re not having a good time of it here with your mum, are you?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m your uncle Buddy, Jim. I died before you were born.” He shook his head, and his wispy hair flew about.
“But what are you doing here now? You’re—”
“Dead. That’s the word. But that doesn’t matter. The war was just over when you were born, Jim.” Suddenly he detached himself from the wall and walked forward, stood beside the bed.
I looked up at his face. It was reddish-brown as if he’d been in the sun. He had on a uniform—khaki shirt and shorts—the same as in the mantelpiece picture.
“Come on Jim. We’ve got work to do.” Buddy reached his hand out.
I took it.
Buddy turned and stepped straight towards the stain in the wall.
As I got closer I saw in the dim light that it wasn’t really a stain at all, it was more like a shivering sort of movement that you couldn’t really focus on.
Buddy stepped through and pulled me after him.
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