are you so excited about it?’ I said.
‘I like Stanley! And he brought me sweets from Hong Kong.’
I thought it would take more than sweets to bribe Lucy, but apparently I was wrong.
‘What kind of sweets?’ I asked grudgingly. Lucy held out a sticky hand with a small wrapped sweet in it.
‘Here!’ she said.
I popped it in my mouth. I hate to admit it, but it was delicious.
It tasted like lychee. Which is my favourite fruit. It’s a fruit from Asia that tastes AMAZING. It’s sort of like a cherry, if a cherry had a shell. It has three layers – the bumpy red outside that you peel, the white fruit inside that you eat, and a big brown seed in the middle.
‘Thank you,’ I said with my mouth full of lychee candy. I wondered if Stanley had any more. That would be the only good thing about him coming to stay with us.
‘Sam! What are you doing pouting and kicking the floor?’ my mum said as she hung up the phone. ‘You know better than that.’
‘Why is Stanley here?’ I demanded. ‘And why is he staying in my room? In my BED?’
‘He’s here because he has a new baby brother and sister, and his parents need some time to get the twins settled. And he’s here because he’s family, and family is always welcome.’
Twins! I looked at Lucy and imagined if there were two of her.
‘But why is he in my room?’
My mum sighed. ‘Because he’s your cousin, Sam. And you two will have fun! Why don’t you show him your SPACE BLASTERS cards or something?’
‘Why can’t he stay in the garage? Or on the roof ?’
‘WU GABO!’4 Mum shouted. ‘Get upstairs and be nice to your cousin. Right now.’
I marched up the stairs, back to my room. It wasn’t as if I had a choice in the matter.
At least I didn’t have to go camping.
The next morning at breakfast, everyone kept asking Stanley questions. You would have thought he was the most interesting person in the whole universe.
My dad laughed at all his dumb jokes.
My mum complimented him on his hair.
Lucy wanted to sit next to him.
And Na-Na, my grandma who lives with us, gave him extra congee!5
Even Butterbutt climbed on his lap! And Butterbutt only likes Lucy.
If they all liked Stanley so much, why couldn’t he sleep in THEIR rooms? Or not-sleep, I should say. Stanley was up all last night because of something called ‘jet lag’, which apparently means when you fly across the world your body doesn’t know what time it is. He told me about it in his typical know-it-all way. Even though I’ve been on aeroplanes too. And a real spaceship at the Space Museum.6
‘If Spaceman Jack can travel at warp speed and not get jet lag, I don’t understand why you got it from just going on an aeroplane,’ I said after about a million hours of him telling me about all the things he does in Hong Kong and how cool his life is there. Who cares that they have the most awesome arcades in the world? Or that Stanley supposedly has a top score on a bajillion of the games? Or that at this amusement park called Ocean Park, you can ride roller coasters, watch pandas and see sharks?7
‘It’s as if I’m from the future,’ Stanley went on. ‘I left on Saturday and arrived here on Friday. I’m basically a time traveller.’
‘You just took a flight,’ I grumbled. ‘No big deal.’ It wasn’t as if he’d gone on a spaceship. Then I’d be impressed. Maybe.
‘Hey, Sam,’ Stanley said in between bites of congee. ‘Remember when you first came to Hong Kong and there was a typhoon8 and you were so scared?’
‘I was NOT,’ I said with a scowl.
‘That typhoon wasn’t even a big one. We had an even bigger typhoon after you left! It made our whole apartment building shake.’
‘You should see the storms on SPACE BLASTERS,’ I said. ‘Spaceman Jack and Captain Jane have to fly through them while blasting evil alien lords. Way harder than just hiding in your apartment building.’
‘Is SPACE BLASTERS that show you kept talking about last night? The one that is like Star Wars ?’
‘It’s not like Star Wars,’ I scoffed. ‘Everyone knows SPACE BLASTERS is way better.’
‘Cool,’ said Stanley. ‘Maybe after breakfast you could show me an episode or two.’
I was so surprised that I almost dropped my congee spoon.
Just as we finished breakfast, the phone rang. My dad answered it.
‘Oh hello, Bill! How are you?’
I figured Bill was one of Dad’s friends or a neighbour or something and went into the living room to show Stanley my SPACE BLASTERS cards and to explain to him how the SPACE BLASTERS universe works. Finally something that I could explain to him !
‘Camping? Why, that sounds great! I’m sure Sam would love to go,’ said my dad.
I froze in my tracks.
What?
My dad went on, ‘The only thing is, we’ve got his cousin Stanley here with us.’
Whew! Who would have thought I’d be saved by Stanley, of all people?
But then Stanley turned to my mum. ‘I love camping!’ he said. ‘I’m actually a camping pro.’
Oh no.
‘Hold on a second, Bill,’ said my dad. He turned to my mum and Stanley. ‘Would you like to go camping, Stanley?’
‘I’d love to!’ said Stanley.
No, no, no. This was not good.
‘Can I go too?’ Lucy chimed in. ‘I’ll bring Butterbutt!’
‘NO!’ everyone said at the same time. We all knew Butterbutt plus Lucy plus the outdoors was a recipe for disaster.
‘I never get to do anything,’ Lucy grumbled. ‘Butterbutt and I will just camp in the back garden then, won’t we, Butterbutt?’
Butterbutt