The Mouse Read online

  The only thing the lightning had left her with was a slight tingling in her arms. It had started when Sunny was twelve, just a slight buzzing in her fingertips, only once every couple of months or so. It had gotten worse, and spread to her whole arms in the last couple of years.

  Or better, Sunny thought to herself. It was actually a pleasant sensation, that slight tingle that gave her excited butterflies in her tummy. Her doctor told her that it should settle down in time, and it was probably just related to the plethora of teenage hormones coursing through her body. Not that he would know, she thought wryly. It had never happened to anyone else.

  Later, after a satisfying hour in the waves, Sunny lay on the floor of her room ignoring the homework spread out around her. A book of Shakespeare’s works lay open near her head – amongst other things, she was supposed to be prepping for an audition in the morning. Archie sat on a fluffy blanket beside her, and Sunny was fully occupied tickling his toes.

  Abducting Archie and hiding him in her room gave her a double kick of satisfaction – she imagined that it irritated Steph to have her only child taken away, and it gave her a lovely warm buzzy feeling to see Archie smile his gummy smile at her. Archie clearly loved Sunny already, and she looked forward to rubbing their relationship in Steph’s face for years to come. She only felt a faint shame in fantasising that Archie would grow to love her far more than his own mother. It was petty and she knew it, but there was a sense of misguided justice there, seeing that her father had fallen head-over-heels in love with Steph.

  It would never be more than he loved his daughter, of course. But Sunny was dramatic enough to indulge in some self-righteous pity once in a while.

  Sunny propped herself up on her elbow, cupping her cheek, and she looked down at Archie fondly. He was just delicious, with his round rosy cheeks, soft sticky-up hair and stubby legs kicking out in front of him. It’s times like this that I could almost forgive Steph for ruining my life, she thought happily.

  Then she looked down and saw that her other hand had sunk beneath the floorboards and disappeared.

  Chapter 2

  Her heart stopped, and she jerked her hand back up and stared at it.

  Had she imagined it? In her fuzzy contentment had she been tricked by her eyes? Her arms had been tingling for a good hour before; she barely registered it when she was so relaxed, it was as if her hand had temporarily lost all its substance and sunk through the floor…

  She pulled her hand closer to her eyes and stared at it, hard. It looked normal. Like it always had done. She must have imagined it. Her heart thumped, and she looked back down at Archie beside her. He smiled and gave her a slow, deliberate high-five on the hand that had disappeared. They connected, and she felt his pudgy palm against her own.

  It was completely normal. It was just a trick of the late-afternoon sunshine. Sunny exhaled and laughed to herself.

  “Honey, dinner! Steph had put her head around the stairwell and called up so Sunny could hear her. Sunny pulled a grotesque face at the sound of her stepmother’s voice, mostly for Archie’s benefit, gathered him up in her arms and headed downstairs.

  Sunny and her new family lived in a cute two-story fibro house at the end of a cul-de-sac, two streets away from One Mile Beach. It was a quiet end of town, and you could hear the waves crashing at night. From the street, the front of the house looked like a tiny, inconspicuous nineteen-sixties cottage, but Ben had designed a fantastic extension. The old wall of the back of the house was completely removed, a second story with all the bedrooms added, and finally, wall-to-ceiling glass placed on the entire back section. From her room upstairs, Sunny could see a tiny glimpse of the ocean. The whole back half of the house was open plan, the kitchen, dining area, and living room all flowing seamlessly into each living space. It was a beautiful house in a beautiful part of town.

  The only problem with the town itself was the insane amount of relatives that Steph seemed to have here. They all had turned out okay, Sunny had to admit to herself, and none of them had Steph’s annoying self-possession or her selfish instincts. What irritated Sunny the most was how no one else could see how transparent Steph was, pretending to be a sweet, wholesome and grounded beach baby. Take away the dream catchers and the yoga classes, and she was cold, calculating and determined to get what she wanted at any cost. She had wanted Ben, and she’d gotten him. Sunny couldn’t forgive her.

  The annoying hippy was now putting a plate of burritos in the middle of the huge scrubbed wooden table in the dining area.

  “Get into it, love,” Steph said, gesturing to the burritos and smiling at Sunny.

  “You get out of it, you weasely little nutjob,” she muttered under her breath.

  “What was that, Sunny?” Ben had come in from behind her.

  “Nothing!” Sunny’s face was the picture of innocence. “Hi, Dad.”

  Ben, solid, stocky, with broad shoulders and a mess of red-gold hair, threw his bag on the counter as he came in from the hallway and moved to kiss his young wife. She giggled girlishly; Sunny gagged and rolled her eyes.

  “Good surf, Sunny?”

  “Brilliant.”

  “I knew you would love it!” Steph gave Sunny a condescending smile. It was Steph that had taught Sunny to surf the moment they had moved to Forster, in a very transparent attempt to win her over and, Sunny suspected, mostly to show off how good she was.

  “So, you’re trying out for the play tomorrow, right?” Steph attempted some conversation with Sunny. “I can help if you want, we could run lines or something. Who are you reading for?”

  “Iago,” Sunny said flatly. She stared hard at Steph, willing her to ask her who that was, and why she wanted to play a man. Most people thought that Othello was the main character.

  “Oh, great!” Steph didn’t bite.

  Sunny was deflated momentarily, then perked up. “Yeah, you could help me with my lines. You would make a perfect Iago.”

  “Oh.” Steph looked down as she registered the insult. “Well, of course I could help, if you want.”

  Trust her to take the high road.

  “It’s fine. I know the play backwards.” Sunny turned her attention back to her burrito.

  “You know what, I take back my words. You made a brilliant Iago.” Annabel barely ever praised anyone, and Sunny enjoyed the feeling. It was lunchtime at Forster High, and Sunny had just taken the English department by storm with her portrayal, outclassing the meagre selection of seventeen-year-old boys that had tried out for the part.

  Simon, Sunny, and Annabel lay outside on the grass in the far corner of the sports field, under the huge sycamores that flanked the school. The sun shining down on them through the green of the trees and the salt breeze coming in from the ocean created a beautiful dreamy atmosphere. They all had a free period after lunch, so the concept of two hours lazing in the last of the warm autumn sunshine had Sunny purring with satisfaction.

  “So do you think you’ll get the part?” Simon asked her.

  “I can’t see why I shouldn’t.”

  “Because of Mr Creepy Pants?” The head of English and Drama, Mr Cresants, was an old, bad-tempered dinosaur, loathed by most of the school.

  Sunny snorted. “Why do you think I went for Iago? The man is a complete misogynist. I bet he wishes for the days when women were forbidden from acting. He hates having to deal with girls, I think; he doesn’t desire them sexually, and he finds them completely useless on any level. It’s a shame that back in his day he had to stay in the closet, I bet that’s what made him such a woman-hater.”

  “So you think he’s definitely gay?” Annabel raised her eyebrows.

  “Mr Barnes told me that whenever he’s been sick, Cresants asks Hillingsworth if he can substitute boys P.E.” Simon replied. People tended to share information with Simon quite freely. “I feel bad for the guy.”

  “That’s so enlightened of you, Simon,” Annabel smiled fondly.

  “I’m just very confident of my sexuality, that’s
all.” Simon grinned; he put both hands behind his handsome head and lay back on the grass.

  “He’s got to give it to you, though. You killed it. Everyone saw it. Mr Hillingsworth was there watching, everyone heard him say how great you were at it, even though you’re five foot nothing and obviously a chick. At least you won’t have to strap down your boobs.” Annabel tossed back her dark hair, put her head down on Simon’s belly and closed her eyes.

  “I’ll think of something,” Sunny lay back on the grass. Maybe she could suggest playing Iago on stilts.

  The satisfaction of pissing off her drama teacher gave her a warm glow. She smiled to herself and turned her head when she heard Simon snoring softly.

  Maybe sitting on the shoulders of one of the boys from the basketball team, with a big cape draped over her shoulders? That could work. Or, perhaps, rolling around the stage on a jacked-up hoverboard?

  With her eyes closed, she could hear the distant calls of the boys on the playing field. Much closer, the trees rustled gently in the slight breeze, and small birds called to each other with a soft merry tweet. The sun was gentle and caressing, it warmed her skin, radiating heat straight to her bones. She felt peaceful tranquillity, lying there on the grass in the sunshine with her friends.

  Her whole body buzzed softly, and she felt her shoulders sink beneath the grass.

  Chapter 3

  Sunny sat up abruptly, her heart pounding. She didn’t imagine it! Her shoulders just sank four inches into the turf below her. She’d felt her head tilt…

  She glanced over her shoulder at Simon and Annabel, both dozing peacefully, completely oblivious to the fact that something seriously weird just happened. Sunny focused on her breathing and got her heart rate under control. She looked around her slowly. The golden light still streamed between the leaves of the trees, the green and gold atmosphere was dreamy and thick with salty air. She could hear the first fifteen rugby team warming up at the far end of the field; the sound was calming and strangely soporific.

  The soft buzzy feeling crept back slowly. Sunny looked down at her hand, she stared at it hard, as if she’d never seen it before. Concentrating, she pulled the tingling feeling into her hand and waved it right through her schoolbag beside her.

  Holy shit.

  She mentally pushed the strange vibrations back and the patted the schoolbag. Yep, still there. She wasn’t disappearing. Reassured and lulled by the soft dream-like atmosphere and the warm sunshine, barely thinking about what she was doing, Sunny concentrated the tingling in both hands, then let it flow up, up her arms and to her shoulders and her neck and her jaw and up to her eyes and then –

  Her vision changed suddenly, what had been warm sunshine was suddenly softer, gentler; the green of the grass and the trees bright and glowing, deeper and much more alive somehow. The landscape of the buildings and hills beyond shimmered softly as though viewed underwater. The figures running around the far end of the sports field shone brilliantly as though different coloured flames burned within them. Sunny looked around – it was so crazy, like an alternate universe! Her head span out of control; she closed her eyes and pushed back the vibrations and opened her eyes to see the world returned to normal.

  Sunny scrambled to her feet and looked around wildly. Everything was normal again, she was back, from a dream-world and straight back to reality. Adrenaline surged through her when she realised that what happened was real – actually really real!

  She couldn’t control the violent shaking of her body. She staggered and looked down to see Annabel open one eye and look up at her.

  “Did you go somewhere? What’s up? You look like you just shat a porcupine.”

  “No, I’m good, I’m fine… um, I…” Sunny looked around wildly for inspiration, but her mind was blank. “Ah, I gotta go.” She flung her bag over she shoulders and made a run for it.

  “Are you wagging the rest of the day? Annabel’s shout floated softly towards her as she stumbled towards the school gate. “Can weeeeee coooommmmmeee?”

  Sunny ran all the way home, running faster and faster, trying to escape the insanity that was creeping up on her. She tried to leave all her thoughts behind her, but she couldn’t run fast enough, and they quickly caught up. A part of her brain registered that Steph’s car wasn’t in the driveway – a blessing, no one to hover over her. She got her key in the lock and ran up the stairs to her room as fast as her legs could carry her.

  Sunny slammed her door and leaned against it, panting. She could see her reflection in the full-length mirror hanging near her wardrobe; at least she still had a reflection! What the hell was going on?

  Focusing, she took some deep breaths, tried to calm herself, and attempted to make sense of the thoughts tumbling through her head.

  So the tingling in her limbs actually meant something. Apparently a by-product of the lightening that had killed her mother… it was somehow making her… transparent? Substance-less? But what was the place that she had gone to when she had let the vibrations travel up to her head? It was just like reality, but somehow more… the buildings shimmered, the trees and people glowed like fire. What was that? Had she sunk into a different dimension? An alternate reality? Or a more real reality that anyone else could see?

  It was terrifying. But it was beautiful.

  And she had been able to control it. She had come back.

  Could she do it again?

  She looked down at her hands, they were thoroughly substantial and exactly as they were supposed to be. They weren’t even tingling. It was only when she was happy and relaxed the vibrations came.

  Thinking furiously, she pulled her hair out of her hair band and combed her fingers through it. She got one of her hairbrushes out of her dresser and started running it through her hair, starting at the tips and working her way up, slowly edging all the knots out. Her hair was very thick, and the summer sun had turned it a very pretty colour – all dark ashy blonde with auburn and golden highlights. She slowly calmed down as she studied herself in her mirror – with her hair all brushed out she looked like a big-eyed lion cub who had prematurely grown a huge mane. She had a couple more freckles on her nose, too.

  Suddenly bored with her reflection, and noting that bored was good because it calmed her down, she thought that she probably needed to be a bit more relaxed and happy for this to work. She picked up the remote, flicked on the TV and heaved herself up onto her bed. Some infomercials came on, but they weren’t what she wanted. She brought up the menu and put on the next episode of her favourite show that she hadn’t watched yet. As the theme music started, she mentally caught up on the last episode she saw and began to feel vague enthusiasm, despite the world-shaking events happening to her. There was slight buzzing in her fingertips…

  She isolated the feeling and pushed it up to her wrists.

  She gently waved her hand through her bedpost. Then, she pushed the feeling all the way back, made a fist, then knocked on the wood.

  Her breath exhaled in wonder.

  Sunny looked back at the TV in time to see someone beheaded. Uh, ick, that wouldn’t do. She flicked it off, took a deep breath, cleared her head, then thought of Archie. His cute little button nose, his chubby fingers, the way he waved his arms around like a mad raver. The tingling started in her fingers again, and without thinking about it, she pushed the vibrations all the way up to the top of her head.

  It was incredible. The whole room glowed softly, as if everything had a coating of luminescence. Everything was softer yet so much more real. In the corner of her desk, she saw a faint greenish light. She was confused at first, then realized it was her goldfish, Eric. Just past him, her tiny cactus was glowing bright pink.

  They were the only living objects in the room, and they were lit up like coloured lightbulbs.

  What did she look like? She floated over to the mirror and was perplexed to see nothing at all. What was this? Was she invisible? She looked down at herself and could see that she was glowing a soft yellow-orange. She was vis
ible, to herself at least. But nothing appeared in the mirror in front of her.

  It took her half a heartbeat to realise that she was floating; her whole body was weightless like she was completely submerged in very salty water but could move effortlessly. Wow.

  She giggled softly and moved her arms above her head. She willed herself upwards and glided another foot into the air. Delighted, she drifted easily up again, up, up, until her head should have touched the ceiling but it didn’t, she just sailed right through it…

  She came out up on top of the roof of the house and looked around, breathless with wonder. The ocean blazed a deep blue and sparkled silver, aqua and gold in some places. Cape Hawke loomed in the distance to the right, a huge hill set right on the edge of the beach; it was majestic and shone brightly with so many colours it looked like a rainbow, and it thrummed with energy. Even the air around her seemed to glow.

  This place was magnificent. Sunny looked around and drank it all in, marvelling at the beauty of it all.

  Her euphoria dimmed when she looked down to see Steph’s little Honda weave through the cul-de-sac towards the house. Sighing inwardly, Sunny willed herself down back into her bedroom and set herself over her bed. She heard Steph put the key in the lock and open the front door, as she pushed the soft buzzing back down from her head. She fell six inches with a huff on her doona.

  Well, Sunny thought. I think a little practice is in order.

  Chapter 4

  Steph was in the house, but so what? The possibilities hit Sunny with the force of a slap to the face. She could go into this alternate dimension and travel anywhere. Maybe anywhere in the world. And just pop back into reality wherever she wanted.