The Grace Trilogy

By Dale Cusack

The Grace Trilogy - For the first time, all three electrifying volumes in one book.

The Drawl, horrifying creatures from a higher dimension have started feeding on humans. Grace has seen them, but she is the only one who can. Grace soon learns she is not alone in the fight against evil; cats also have the ability to see them. Follow Grace and Boot as they face their greatest fears!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dale Cusack
• Release date: Dec 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452386133

Dale Cusack

Dale Cusack was born in Australia in 1970 and moved to New Zealand before his first birthday. He has written many short stories and four novels for children.Dale mainly writes for the tween and teen readers although adults still enjoy his stories.He is fluent in Japanese and Mandarin and holds an Asian languages degree. Dale is married with one son and is currently living in Christchurch, New Zealand.He enjoys discussing his stories with his readers and invites their feedback at every opportunity.

Book preview

The Grace Trilogy

Written By

DALE CUSACK

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 Dale Cusack

Legal

This ebook is entirely a work of fiction, all events described are works of the author’s imagination any resemblances to persons living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Contents

Volume I

Grace and the Drawl

Vol 1 Prologue

Vol.1 Chapter One

Vol.1 Chapter Two

Vol.1 Chapter Three

Vol.1 Chapter Four

Vol.1 Chapter Five

Vol.1 Chapter Six

Vol.1 Chapter Seven

Vol.1 Chapter Eight

Vol.1 Chapter Nine

Vol.1 Chapter Ten

Vol.1 Chapter Eleven

Vol.1 Chapter Twelve

Vol.1 Chapter Thirteen

Vol.1 Chapter Fourteen

Vol.1 Chapter Fifteen

Volume II

Grace and the Revenge of the Drawl

Vol.2 Chapter One

Vol.2 Chapter Two

Vol.2 Chapter Three

Vol.2 Chapter Four

Vol.2 Chapter Five

Vol.2 Chapter Six

Vol.2 Chapter Seven

Vol.2 Chapter Eight

Vol.2 Chapter Nine

Vol.2 Chapter Ten

Vol.2 Chapter Eleven

Vol.2 Epilogue

Volume III

Grace and the Drawl Invasion of Earth

Vol.3 Prologue

Vol.3 Chapter One

Vol.3 Chapter Two

Vol.3 Chapter Three

Vol.3 Chapter Four

Vol.3 Chapter Five

Vol.3 Chapter Six

Vol.3 Chapter Seven

Vol.3 Chapter Eight

Vol.3 Chapter Nine

Vol.3 Chapter Ten

Vol.3 Chapter Eleven

Vol.3 Chapter Twelve

Vol.3 Chapter Thirteen

Vol.3 Chapter Fourteen

Vol.3 Chapter Fifteen

Vol.3 Chapter Sixteen

Vol.3 Chapter Seventeen

Vol.3 Chapter Eighteen

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Other Books

Volume I

GRACE AND THE DRAWL

Written By

DALE CUSACK

Prologue

~Seven years earlier~

It was the day Grace died that they first came for her. It had started out as a brilliant day. The sun was shining, the wind was absent and the birds chirped happily in the trees around the edge of the frozen lake. Grace was ice skating on Lake Pearson with her brother and father. There were a few families enjoying the lake that day.

‘Look at me daddy,’ Grace called out as she whizzed along on the skates she had received from her grandparents last Christmas. She had relentlessly bugged her parents to go skating and when the lakes had finally submitted to winter’s bitter cold her parents had relented and taken Grace, and her younger brother Jason, skating.

‘Don’t go too far Grace,’ said her dad as he skated along with Jason. It was Jason’s first time on the ice and his dad had to hold his hand to stop him from falling.

It was a loud crack and a quick scream that grabbed his attention. As only a parent could, he instinctively knew something terrible had happened. Frantically scanning the lake surface for his daughter he saw nothing. He sat Jason down on the ice and skated furiously out to where he had last seen Grace.

The ice had cracked and Grace had plunged into the water. She thumped at the ice with her tiny fists. She clawed at it trying to find purchase. Yet it was so slippery she couldn’t hold on, the current carrying her away from the crack she had fallen through. Grace’s small lungs started to burn as they demanded oxygen. The burning fought its way up her chest. She could see people above her on the ice. They looked all twisted and distorted.

Grace bashed her hands against the barrier until her skin split. She tried to scream but no sound would come out. She listened but could hear nothing, nothing but the torturous beating of her own heart tearing at her eardrums, straining the veins and arteries of her body, her lungs burning inside her chest.

Grace’s father skated up and down the surface of the frozen lake frantically trying to find his daughter. He had found the hole that had swallowed her but she couldn’t be seen. He and the other parents spread out to look but they were moving away from Grace as the current dragged her down.

Why can’t he see me? Why can’t he hear me? she thought as she watched her father move out of sight. Her brain was so tired. It was so cold in here, so very, very cold. Darkness started to close in. Slowly at first, hiding all the little details surrounding her, and then, getting greedier, it started to nibble away at her vision. Soon it had devoured everything. All Grace could see was a tiny ball of light, then a pin prick, then nothing. Her mind fought it at first, it didn’t want to let go, it was too soon, much too soon. She was too young. So many experiences, tastes, sounds and sights left to see; her first kiss, her wedding day, so many memories that would never be. She couldn’t fight the urge to breath any longer, her lungs were tearing at her throat, she gulped in a mouthful of icy cold water, then another and another, retching until her lungs were full.

Then her mind accepted its fate, calmed down and told her not to fight it. Grace couldn’t feel the cold sting of the water anymore. She started to sink backwards drifting down, down, down….

The ambulance arrived within fifteen minutes. Grace’s father had found her, catching sight of the red jacket she wore through the surface of the ice. He’d smashed his way through the ice breaking his knuckles and tearing the skin. Then he dived into the lake and recovered his daughter’s body. When Grace was pulled from the water her heart wasn’t beating. The paramedics wrapped her in thermal blankets and started CPR.

At the hospital the doctors told Grace’s parents that the extreme cold had made it possible to resuscitate Grace. Her parent’s elation was short lived, however. Grace was alive again, but now in a coma.

Grace wasn’t alone in the dark depths of her coma for long, however. Something had found her. Found her alone, weak and frightened. It would visit her many, many times and each time Grace would scream and scream until her throat was raw and her lungs ached. But no one answered. No one ever came to help her.

Then one day everything changed. Shadow came.

Last night, dusk.

The large ginger cat waddled down to the end of the concrete driveway and sat facing the last of the sun’s light. He joined all the other neighbourhood cats who had gathered to watch the sunset. It was a regular occurrence for them. All over the world cats gathered in driveways and waited. The ginger cat looked over at the mottled brown male. He looked agitated, impatient. This was his first time on duty.

‘Here they come,’ he whispered to himself.

~~~~

For their entertaining ways and choosing to share their lives with us, I dedicate this book to all the worlds’ cats.

~~~~

Chapter One

Grace was just like any other teenage girl. There were posters of teen idols on her bedroom walls. She worried about zits on her face, and her heart skipped a little faster whenever Grant Minke smiled at her in English class. Grace was a normal teenage girl in every way. That was until today.

‘May I be excused?’ asked Grace as she pushed her chair back from the table and started to rise.

‘You may,’ came her mother’s reply. ‘But don’t forget to take your plate up to the sink.’

Grace was already racing towards the door when her mother pulled her up. She returned to the table scooped up her dishes and deposited them on the bench, then beat a hasty exit, lest her brother find some way of weaselling out of doing the dishes. It seemed like every week he conjured up more and more imaginative ways to avoid washing up.

Usually mum would prefix the request with something like:

‘But you do a better job than him.’ Just because my brother is lazy why does that mean I have to do it? Grace thought as she skipped down to her room. Closing her bedroom door, she flopped onto her bed and emptied her school bag full of books onto the floor. She had a stack of homework, but it was a teen magazine that caught her attention. Flicking through the pages, it took only a short time for her to feel guilty about the homework she wasn’t doing, so to make herself feel better about it, she gave her room a brief tidy up. Funny how chores seemed less bothersome when the alternative was something worse.

After putting it off for almost forty five minutes Grace turned her attention to the school work. She was a reasonably solid student, due mainly to the fact that she studied hard rather than any natural ability. Her parents encouraged her and made sure she did her assignments, took an interest in how she was doing, as they did with her brother. But Jason was quite a bit younger than his sister, and not as much was expected of him yet. Their parents had always made Grace study after dinner. When she was little her father had helped her to learn to read and told her stories about the world. He had spent a little time each day making sure she had a good foundation before she was ready to start school.

‘If only my parents had shown more interest...,’ he would say with a distant look in his eye reminiscing about his own childhood.

Now, however, he would come home from work tired, not saying much, just zoning out in front of the TV. In fact lately the whole family seemed to just sit facing the idiot box, rotting their brains thought Grace as she finished her last piece of homework and dropped her books back into her satchel ready for school the next day.

Grace flicked off the light and set out to see what the rest of the family was doing. Needless to say she found them in the lounge.

‘Where’s mum?’ Grace asked her father. At first it looked like he hadn’t heard his daughter. He just sat staring at the telly.

‘Dad?’ Grace repeated. Finally her father looked up, his eyes were drooping and his face looked flaccid. He looks terrible. If working and being a grown up does this to you, I seriously don’t want it! Grace thought to herself brushing the tight flesh of her cheek as she eyed the deep wrinkles in her father’s face. How he has aged in the last few weeks. Work must be killing him. And yet his job wasn’t all that high powered, he was a marketing manager for an IT company; it wasn’t as though he was running the country.

‘Your mum’s making a hot drink, why not go and see if she needs help?’ her dad eventually managed to reply before turning his attention back to some dumb show he was watching about doctors and police. It seemed every show on TV was about doctors or detectives these days. Grace trudged down the hall into the kitchen.

‘What ya doing mum?’ she asked as she stepped into the kitchen. Grace’s mum was a kind looking middle-aged women with a figure many younger women would be envious of. She smiled up at her daughter and pointed to the fridge.

‘You’re just in time to lend a hand. Can you feed Boot? I’m not sure if there’s any food left in the refrigerator but there’s a fresh tin of cat food in the garage.’

The fridge was empty so Grace retrieved the cat food from the pantry in the garage and came back inside and opened the drawer to find the tin opener. At the sound of the lid being removed from the tin Boot came running through the cat door.

‘He must just sit out there listening for it I swear!’ said Joyce, Grace’s mum. Boot was a stray that had started hanging around a few months back. He was a large black cat with a white cravat under his chin and a placid and gentle nature. Grace’s mum wasn’t really a cat person but her dad was, so Boot was permitted to stay. It wasn’t that Joyce was against cats. It’s just that you are either a cat person or a dog person and Joyce was a dog person. Grace emptied half the tin into Boot’s bowl, and gave his back a good rubbing while he purred madly with his face buried in food.

‘Would you take this into your father love?’ Joyce asked handing Grace a hot cup of ribena. Grace caught the sweet waft of rum. Her father had a rule about drinking caffeinated drinks after lunch. He said it kept him awake, and he would be grouchy the next day. The rum was his dentist’s idea. It seemed that dear old dad had been a tooth grinder in his younger days, so the dentist had suggested the toddy as a way to calm him down in his sleep. Grace stole a sip as she padded down the corridor into the TV room. The ribena was sweet but the rum gave it a bitter edge, Grace couldn’t fathom the appeal. It ruined a perfectly good drink she thought.

‘Here’s your rumbina dad,’ she announced as she deposited the cup on the coffee table in front of him. As she turned to look at her father, Boot pushed open the door and wandered in.

Grace’s face went pale, as her eyes fell on her dad. She sucked in lungs full of air to scream. Hovering over her father from behind his chair was some ghastly apparition. A dark figure with long black claws was clutching her father’s head. It seemed to be sucking something from out of her dad’s skull. Her father rolled his eyes up at his daughter, barely seeing her.

As Boot moved into the room he too saw the creature. As he looked from the creature to Grace, he stared at Grace’s expression. Boot hissed and raised his heckles as he crouched back onto his haunches.

Grace couldn’t take her eyes off the creature; it was so dark, so black. It seemed to just swallow light. And yet it hardly seemed to be there at all. Maybe it was just a shadow from the TV. But then the creature moved. It raised its head and looked up. Facing straight at Grace it opened its mouth. A roar tore out through its horrible gaping hole. Its breath was chilling and its ferocity froze its way deep down into Grace’s bones. Grace wanted to act, wanted to tear it away from her father. She tried to force her body to move, commanded her head to turn and look for something to strike with, and yet her body refused to function. She was frozen in place. After a few seconds her brain overwhelmed by what was happening, simply shut down. The last thing Grace saw before her head hit the ground was Boot and he appeared to be wearing clothes. But that’s crazy she thought as she fainted into unconsciousness.

Chapter Two

Boot walked through the jade gardens. He crossed over the little bridge that connected the palace to the main grounds and paused to check the pond for goldfish. Old habits he thought as he grinned to himself. He climbed the last set of stairs past the two palace guards who stood watching over the grounds, large pikes in their paws. They were immaculately dressed in flamboyant pantaloons and bright white tunics. Both cats wore the insignia of the Emperor.

Boot wasn’t meeting with the Emperor, however. His boss Jasper was just one of many other cats who worked in the palace. Boot made his way to his office, walked in and meowed a greeting.

‘We have a development, something amazing has happened!’ uttered Boot, trying to sound nonchalant, but failing to contain his excitement about the news he was so eager to deliver.

‘The humans I’m protecting, one of them, Grace the young girl, saw it last night when it came. She was in the room, looked straight at it and fainted.’

‘Don’t be silly Boot,’ snapped Jasper. ‘You know very well that humans can’t see the Drawl. No human has ever seen one. They are blissfully unaware of the danger surrounding them, and equally unaware of our efforts to protect them.’

Boot studied his superior’s face in an effort to find some trace, some hint of doubt. A sign that maybe he believed Boot was right, but there was nothing, Jasper’s face had the solemn look of a bureaucrat who had seen it all before.

‘Now if there is nothing else to report...?’ Jasper enquired moving Boot by the arm towards the door. Before Boot could protest he found himself in the hall outside Jasper’s office.

Despondent and disappointed Boot headed out the way he had come in.

‘I know what I saw,’ he muttered to himself. ‘And I’m going to prove it!’

Back in his office Jasper fumbled with a chain around his neck. Pulling forth a key, he opened a locked drawer under his desk, and removed a small manila file with one word typed in bold across the cover - Grace.

He hurried out of his office with the file under his arm.

Jasper took hold of the two large brass handles on the meeting room doors and pulled them open. Two cats were already seated around a circular wooden table. One was large and grey with age, the other younger and very alert. The older one wore a uniform, the younger a white lab coat. Jasper acknowledged both cats as he sat down.

‘This had better be important Jasper,’ said Yang, the younger cat. ‘I’m a very busy feline.’ He looked Jasper up and down as he spoke. Noticing the file Jasper had opened before him, he twitched his ears forward.

Jasper cleared his throat and started to brief the two cats about the Grace file. Listening in silence they waited until Jasper had finished then sat quietly for a moment. Finally Yang drew a long slow breath and spoke again.

‘You are sure about this information?’ he asked.

Jasper didn’t hesitate.

‘I know both cats involved personally, both good men, good soldiers. There is no doubting their testimony. I just don’t know what this means to us--’

‘Let us worry about that. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will take it from here. You may go back to work now,’ the younger cat cut him off.

Jasper scooped up the folder’s contents, turned and left. As the door clicked shut behind him the older cat spoke.

‘The emperor needs to be told.’

‘Yes, but be careful Talus my friend. There are spies everywhere,’ warned Yang. ‘Now I must get back to work. We are so close to a breakthrough I daren’t leave the lab for too long.’ With a concerned look on his face he rose and walked towards the door.

***

The imperial palace was large, but far from excessive. It was grand, but not grandiose. The current emperor, Gleetus, believed in moderation. He thought the money for massive monuments was better spent on education and basic health care for his subjects, than in building edifices to his ego. He was a practical cat, still young and full of life. His father had reigned for many, many years but had done so, for the large part, from his sick bed and little great work had been completed. The empire was in neglect when the younger heir took the throne. But he had been raised well, and had compassion and understanding to temper the brilliance of his mind.

General Talus found the Emperor sitting behind a large desk in a tastefully decorated room with his secretary Emus and religious attaché Thaal. Talus bowed low as he entered the brightly lit room.

‘Greetings Emperor,’ he said in his deep baritone voice that betrayed his age.

‘Ah Talus my friend, come in, sit down. Tell me what news you bring of the war?’ the Emperor enquired as he rose from behind his desk and moved towards a sofa in the middle of the room. ‘Emus, would you be so kind as to bring us some refreshments?’

‘Thank you,’ replied Talus. ‘The war doesn’t go all that well. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Drawl were busy with the humans, I’m not sure where we would stand. It seems like every day their numbers increase, and their appetite grows stronger. We need some advantage, a new weapon or tactic, because if we don’t find something soon…,’ Talus hesitated, ‘I see us losing this war.’ The General looked tired, the conflict worn like a medal emblazoned on his face, aged him beyond his years.

This wasn’t news to the Emperor and he quickly changed the subject.

‘So what brings you here today General?’ he asked, as Emus returned with refreshments. Talus waited as Emus poured tea and arranged some food on a platter before them, then quietly left through a side door.

‘Have you heard of the Grace file?’ Talus began as he sat forwards in his chair.

‘The girl in the prophecy?’ interrupted Thaal, who had remained silent up to this point.

‘Yes, of course,’ replied the Emperor. ‘I was briefed on the situation when it happened a while ago now, about six standard years if I’m not mistaken.’

‘Seven standard years,’ corrected Thaal, whose mind was already pondering the religious significance of the number seven.

‘Well today Boot, one of the deep cover operatives assigned to protect humans, filed a report with his superior that one of the humans he is protecting had seen a Drawl. That human is this same girl, Grace,’ Talus paused to study the Emperor’s face, but it gave no clue as to what he was thinking.

The General continued. ‘Our scientists have been working on a device, a machine that could take this human and make her aware of our dimension. Enable us to communicate with her, explain the situation. Maybe we could convince her to enlist the other humans’ help in the war against the Drawl. What do you think?’

The Emperor stroked his whiskers thoughtfully. He was known for his incredible concentration. He could condense hours of thought into mere minutes and make an informed and considered opinion very quickly. He shot a glance at his religious counsel.

‘What do you have to say on the matter Thaal?’ he questioned.

‘This is indeed an intriguing development. The ancient texts do speak of one who would be born of the humans, a lowdim with the ability to see beyond their own dimension. If it is this human, then his Holiness the cat Pope would be most keen to meet her.’

‘So it’s settled then. General, liaise with the scientists to have her brought across. I would like to meet her myself. Imagine a talking human. What a novelty.’ And with that the Emperor rose and moved toward his desk, signalling an end to the meeting. As the General was leaving Emus reappeared from a little room off to the side and escorted the General to the door.

***

Thaal slipped out unseen and strode through passageways known only to the religious sect who inhabited the palace. He made his way across the great parade and caught a cyclo to the other end of town. The vehicle pulled up outside the papal temple and Thaal stepped out onto the footpath. He didn’t pay the driver. Members of religious orders seldom paid for anything. It was considered a blessing to provide service for those who worked for the cat Pope.

Thaal entered the papal palace through the main gates. The guards, much more lavishly dressed than the imperial guards, snapped to attention as he passed. This palace was much more extravagant than the imperial one he had just left. The Pope wished his subjects to associate the splendour of the palace with the splendour of heaven. No expense was spared. Gold was everywhere. Even the marbled floors were inlaid with gold leaf and ornate statues decorated the foyers. Large oil paintings depicted heroic scenes of cat saints from the past. The grandest painting of them all was hung in the main foyer. It depicted the current cat Pope banishing the Drawl from their dimension with a staff of light and the breath of God.

As the secretary opened the heavily engraved door for him Thaal strode into the Pope’s office and greeted his holiness by dropping to one knee and kissing his ring.

‘Your worship,’ he whispered. ‘I bring interesting news.’ The Pope helped Thaal to his feet and beckoned him towards an over-stuffed red leather sofa in the middle of the room. The Pope himself preferred a plain wooden chair. It was an interesting counterpoint to the opulence of the rest of the building, but it helped to create an air of piety and humility, which the Pope was well aware of.

‘First a little refreshment Thaal?’ suggested the Pope.

Thaal knew it was a request impossible to refuse.

‘Yes that would be most appreciated,’ he replied. The Pope made idle chit chat while his servants came and brought food and drinks for them. Then he set about nibbling on a piece of cake and sipping on his steaming hot cup of tea. Thaal could do little but play along. He knew the Pope was testing his patience. It was one of the many little mind games the pontiff enjoyed. Thaal just smiled and enjoyed his tea.

‘So, this news you bring Thaal,’ the Pope finally asked. ‘What is so important it can’t wait?’

‘It is the prophecy. I think she is ready,’ he started. The Pope’s ears twitched at the word prophecy. Thaal continued: ‘An operative assigned to protect the humans has reported that the girl has seen a Drawl.’

‘And you are sure this is the same girl from before?’ the Pope questioned.

‘I am, and not only that, the Emperor is planning to have her brought across. They claim to have a machine….’

The Pope’s eyes widened.

‘They will bring her here? Impossible, no human has ever…,’ but his voice trailed off as he thought more about it.

‘I will pray on it,’ he said finally. Thaal knew the conversation was over. As he rose to leave he realized things had not gone as he had hoped.

Chapter Three

Grace slowly opened one eye, took a cautious look around and then opened the other. She was lying on the couch in her living room. Her mother was leaning over her fanning her with her apron. Her dad was looking on with a concerned look on his face.

‘Oh Gracie what happened?’ asked her mother. ‘I heard this bang and when I came in I found you lying on the floor.’

Grace’s memory of what had happened suddenly returned and she kicked her feet to sit up. She jerked her head about frantically, but couldn’t see anything that didn’t belong. Her father was sitting at the end of the sofa smiling at her. The cat was asleep on the other lounge seat. The hot drink Grace had brought in for her dad still sat where she had left it. It was as if nothing had happened.

‘There was this, this…,’ Grace’s mind struggled to find the right words to describe what she had seen, ‘horrible black monster and it was sucking your brains out Dad.’ Grace studied her father’s face. He wore a bemused look. But there were no signs of horrible disfigurement. No claw marks on his face, and he certainly didn’t look like someone who had been made a happy meal of for some hungry monster.

‘Grace, are you taking drugs?’ her mother blurted out. Always direct and not one to dress things up or pussyfoot around, her mother got straight to the point. ‘You know just because all the kids at school are doing it, doesn’t mean--’

‘Mum I’m not doing drugs OK!’ interrupted Grace, looking up at her mother’s face which was slowly turning red, a rouge of embarrassment, anxiety and relief.

‘Relax Joyce, it’s probably hormonal. You know all kids go through it when they get to their teens, why I remember when I was going through puberty--’

‘Eww!’ interjected Grace. ‘That’s like enough of the icky OK? It’s not hormones, it’s just…,’ Grace thought about it but she was at a loss to explain what it was as well. Maybe I’m working too hard at school, or is it anxiety about my midterms? Grace looked at Boot. The last thing she remembered was the cat leaping through the air. Boot was now tucked up into a tiny ball half buried in the sofa cushions sleeping happily away. No doubt trying to look as small and as inconspicuous as possible in the hope that mother doesn’t see him before she goes to bed. But it seldom works and usually Boot is unceremoniously dumped outside at night. Occasionally if he is lucky he will sneak into either Grace’s or her brother’s room and sleep curled up at the bottom of the bed.

‘Well I think it’s an early night for you young lady. Off you go and brush your teeth.’

Grace was tired, too tired to argue. So she shot her mother a half-hearted dirty look instead, and then shuffled off down to the bathroom.

***

‘More power!’ commanded Yang, the head scientist of the Institute of Applied Defence, the most renowned scientist in the whole empire and chief scientific advisor to the Emperor. Yang was a brilliant scholar, raw talent coupled with unbridled enthusiasm made for one fantastic discovery after another. His achievements were the pride of cats across the nation. Yang’s brightest student was Yin, a young short haired turquoise coloured cat with bright green eyes; eyes that often distracted Yang from his work. They had been working on this project for several months now. It had started off as conjecture over a coffee. Outlandish ideas scribbled on a napkin. Yang had been showing off and Yin not wanting to seem dim had also theorized wildly. The result was an outstanding piece of inter-dimensional theory. Nothing more would have been made of it, however, if it hadn’t been for an accidental discovery by Yin in an unrelated experiment. They would never have made the leap from paper tissue to a near working prototype.

‘Now ease it off, and stop!’ The glowing blue light in the chamber centred in the room abated. Yang approached and opened the small door on the side. He reached in and retrieved a small red object.

‘Primary inspection of 3D object looks positive. Integrity seems nominal,’ he babbled on in his usual narrative drone. Science was an anomaly, exciting to do, but boring to report on. After a few minutes Yang held the object up, watched the light play off its shiny red surface, inspected its curves and without warning, took a large bite from it.

‘Eww yuck! Oh that’s disgusting. I mean really, what do lodims find appealing in that?’ He spat the small piece of apple from his mouth and tossed the remaining fruit onto the lab bench. Yin looked on smiling, not just at Yang brushing the apple pulp out of his tongue, but because the experiment had been a success.

‘I think we are ready to test it on something bigger, something more…alive,’ suggested Yang. He looked at Yin, but she wasn’t nodding.

‘But we have no way of knowing how it will react with a living, breathing, moving thing. It’s all very well moving fruit but….’ Yin’s eyes flashed a look at the pile of failures in the corner. Fruit that had been turned inside out or burned beyond recognition and some had disturbingly vanished from both dimensions.

‘A human is not a piece of fruit. What if we turned this Girl inside out? Can we justify the risk?’ she questioned Yang.

‘The risk is not ours to justify, it’s up to the Emperor,’ Yang replied, trying to avoid the question.

‘But you are his chief scientific advisor. It will be your recommendation that the machine is ready.’

Yang paced across the room tugging on his bottom lip. Sometimes Yin was just too bright for her own good he scowled to himself. Lost in thought Dr. Yang could pace for hours. Whenever any doubt remains go back to first principles his father had taught him. Yang sighed and called his assistant over.

‘Let’s start again from the beginning,’ he said.

***

‘Race you!’ shouted Jason, as he tore off ahead of Grace towards the front gate. Grace didn’t want to run in her school shoes, but her spirit of sibling rivalry got the better of her and she sprinted after her brother. Jason paused at the mailbox and checked inside, grabbed the mail, gave it a quick glance before stuffing it back into the box.

‘It’s for you,’ he shouted over his shoulder as he took off up the path and disappeared inside. Grace stopped running and grabbed her letter. She followed Jason inside, went straight to her room and dumped her school bag on the floor. Flopping down onto the bed she kicked her shoes off, rolled onto her belly and examined her letter.

The letter was from her grandmother, whose once beautiful handwriting had been replaced by a barely legible scrawl. Grace’s grandma was now very old and not in the best of health. Grace read and reread the letter then she rolled off the bed and sat down at the writing desk her father had spent all one winter a few years back making for her. Grace had learned most of the swear words commonly used by adults by listening to her father yelling away in his workshop that year. She scratched around in one of the cubby holes and finally pulled out her special writing paper, not the everyday stuff she used for homework but the paper she wrote important things on, like the love letters to Grant Minke, even though she never posted them. There was a small pile sitting in a locked drawer in her desk.

Grace finished her letter and stamped it with a green frog sitting on a lily pad with the words Miss You printed neatly underneath. She folded it tidily and slid it into the envelope. Then she put it on the dinner table for mum to post in the morning. In the kitchen Grace could hear Boot scratching