a nine-hour time difference – that’s nine hours behind.’
‘Oh, I thought Twinford was nine hours ahead,’ said her father.
‘Other way around, Dad.’
‘In that case, sleep tight!’ said her mother.
‘Bon appétit,’ said Ruby.
An hour later and she was woken again, this time by the sound of a fly. Judging by the insistent racket it was making, it was in its death throes, and was making a noise like it might be buzzing about on its back, legs in the air.
Still caught in sleep, Ruby attempted to bat it away, but her hand hit the edge of something solid and her eyes blinked open to find, not a noisy upside-down insect, but her Spectrum Escape Watch vibrating on the nightstand. Words in green blinked at her from the face on the dial.
A message from Hitch.
City planetarium 04.35 Row F seat 6
It was four am, really not a good time to greet the day. But if Hitch was planning on taking her into HQ to meet with her (possibly) murderous boss, then four am was as good a time as any.
Ruby reached for her glasses, struggled to her feet, fell over, cursed, hobbled to the bathroom, washed her face, brushed her teeth, combed her hair, and peered at herself with bleary eyes.
Redfort, you have to pull it together, she told herself.
Ruby decided the only way she could wake up would be to stand under the shower. This she did, and it did the trick. She peered out of the window into the still-dark morning. Cold, she thought, colder than yesterday. The temperature was really dropping.
She dug out some thermal leggings and pulled her jeans on over them, found a thermal undershirt, a T-shirt with the words, don’t wake me printed across the front, a black zip top and a snow parka and earmuffs. Snow was not forecast, but the air had turned icy. When she was ready, she picked up her backpack, tiptoed down the stairs and out of the front door. The only people riding the subway from Green Street were nightshift workers and early birds.
She arrived at the planetarium and was surprised to find the doors open and a guy selling tickets. She had been prepared for a little breaking and entering.
She went up to the booth. ‘What’s the deal?’ asked Ruby.
‘What do you mean what’s the deal?’ said the young man in the ticket booth.
‘How come you’re open? It’s four-thirty in the am.’
‘It’s to celebrate the anniversary of last year’s moon landing, you know, Apollo 17?’ said the guy.
‘I hate to burst your balloon, but you know you’re early?’ said Ruby. ‘The anniversary is December seventh.’
‘Yeah, we do know that, but a lot of people want to come so we’re doing a whole month of events,’ said the guy, pointing at the huge poster framed there on the wall. ‘There’s a whole deal of stuff going on. You might have heard, the Observatory on Meteor Island is building a new telescope … it’s been in the news, you know: Planet Twinford – 1974’s City of Space?’
‘But it isn’t 1974,’ said Ruby.
‘Yeah, but it will be in like four weeks,’ said the guy. ‘You really haven’t heard anything about this?’
Ruby was looking blank. Then, ‘Oh yeah, I think maybe my parents were invited to something spacey, what was it?’
‘Could it be the Galaxy Concert? Or the Astro Lectures? Or the Deep Space Gala?’ suggested the guy, before adding a little sarcastically, ‘what planet have you been on, man?’
‘Planet Geek,’ said Ruby. ‘I guess you might have a ticket for me, in the name of Redfort.’
The guy shuffled through his stack of prepaid tickets and handed her an envelope.
‘Enjoy!’ he said.
Ruby opened the door to the auditorium and tiptoed quietly down the steps. All the seats in the middle section were taken but towards the edges there were plenty of empty seats. She found F and began sidling along the row.
She sat down. All the seats around her were unoccupied and there was no sign of Hitch.
Mr Punctuality appeared to be late.
She began to watch the show and quickly became absorbed by the commentary.
‘Hey,’ said a voice.
RUBY: ‘Jeepers! I didn’t hear you arrive.’
HITCH: ‘You seem tense, kid.’
RUBY: ‘Well, now you mention it …’
HITCH: ‘By the way, have you eaten breakfast?’
RUBY: ‘What, are you kidding? It’s not even five am.’
He handed her a paper bag.
‘Thanks,’ she said. She pulled out a donut.
HITCH: ‘From Blacker.’
RUBY: ‘What’s he doing up at this hour?’
HITCH: ‘It’s all hands on deck while there’s a madman at large.’
Like every other member of the audience his eyes were trained on the ceiling, where the night sky rotated slowly above them.
Hitch pointed up at a cluster of stars. ‘That’s Hercules, right?’
Ruby tutted. ‘Orion,’ she said.
‘You sure?’
‘Course I’m sure,’ said Ruby. ‘I read up on all that stuff about a billion light years ago when I was five years old. I can draw you every constellation going – blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back.’
‘That sounds like quite a party trick,’ said Hitch. ‘Who could know when that talent might come in handy.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Ruby. ‘What are we doing here anyway?’
‘Oh, you know,’ said Hitch, ‘it’s very soothing contemplating the stars, don’t you think?’
‘I guess,’ she said, giving him a ‘what’s got into you?’ look.
‘So how was geek camp?’ he asked.
‘Geeky,’ replied Ruby. ‘So you been busy?’
‘Pretty busy, at least up until your parents flew to Paris. Boy, do they have a social life!’
‘So what made you think they needed a vacation?’
‘What makes you think it was my idea?’
‘Mrs Digby told me it was.’
‘Well, I have got to admit, they were driving me a little crazy. Do you have any idea how many parties they attend?’
‘I’ve been living with them the past thirteen years – what do you think?’
‘So you understand,’ said Hitch.
‘More than anyone,’ said Ruby. ‘I also understand Mrs Digby mysteriously won a free cruise round the Caribbean, what I don’t understand is how?’
‘I know, who would have guessed?’
‘Not her, that’s for sure,’ said Ruby.
‘Life is full of surprises,’ said Hitch.
‘So what, you felt like you wanted the place to yourself?’
‘We