Julie Trent and the Lightning Read online

  JULIE TRENT

  and the lightning

  by

  Laura Emmet

  Copyright © 2002 by Laura Emmet.

  All rights reserved in the United Kingdom, the USA and other territories.

  The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happenings.

  The right of Laura Emmet to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This book is provided free subject to the condition that it shall not be, by way of trade or otherwise be re-sold or hired out or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the publisher.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical without prior written permission from the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying.

  Trademark (TM) to Julie Trent and the Lightning, including characters, events, places and fictional technology is owned by Donard Publishing.

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  Contents

  Chapter One—The Lightning.

  Chapter Two—The Cave.

  Chapter Three — The Escape.

  Chapter Four—Leaving Home.

  Chapter Five—The Ship.

  Chapter Six—The Long Journey.

  Chapter Seven—The Meteor Storm.

  Chapter Eight—Explanations.

  Chapter Nine—The New Guests.

  Chapter Ten—The Birthday Party.

  Chapter Eleven—The Last Day on the Ship.

  Chapter Twelve—The Planet of Light and Hope.

  Chapter Thirteen—The Troganor.

  Chapter Fourteen—The Tour.

  Chapter Fifteen—The Gift.

  Chapter Sixteen—The Interrogation.

  Chapter Seventeen—The Truth.

  Chapter Eighteen—The Fight.

  Chapter Nineteen—The Plan.

  Chapter Twenty—Revolution.

  Chapter Twenty-One—Saving The Children.

  Chapter Twenty-Two—Julie’s Ship.

  Chapter Twenty-Three—Back on the Planet of Light and Hope.

  Chapter Twenty-Four—Old Friends.

  Chapter One—The Lightning.

  Julie Trent’s life had just ended. She hadn’t died, it just seemed that way. Her parents, John and Marcy Trent had casually announced that the family was moving from their home in Oklahoma to start a new life in Los Angeles, and two short months later Julie’s world ceased to exist.

  Her friends, her school, her old neighborhood with its colorful patchwork of oddly shaped house and countless familiar faces, had vanished. Their replacement was a series of characterless, boxy, white buildings that appeared to stretch as far as the eye could see, or as far as she wished to look. The faces on the streets had a history that she was not a part of.

  She hated her new school. It was all gray and square and was more like a prison than a place where young friends met to grow-up and learn. There was no grass play area like at her old school and at recess the kids simply hung around in small groups and didn’t say very much. The walls round the school and those of the building itself, both inside and out, were covered with colorful graffiti which she never stopped to read for fear that by doing so she might somehow be contaminated and end up with a spray can in her hand, making her own additions to the ugly art-work—if that happened then she would be a part of her new community and she swore to her parents that she would never like this place—she hated everything about the city—the people, the smells, the sounds—everything!

  The only light part to the situation was the fact that she had only two more weeks of school before the summer break, and then she could really go to work on her parents, to let them know just how unhappy she was in this place and how uncivilized and unreasonable they had been when they forced her to move from the home that she loved and the friends that she cared for so very much. They would be the longest two weeks of her life as she found herself walking on eggshells when in school, and forcing a hefty huff when at home.

  She had made two new friends at school—Clara Smyth and Karen Glass—they were the only kids in her class who didn’t frighten, repulse or bore her. There was definitely something very disturbing about the greater number of her classmates, and she could not quite say what it was that made her feel uneasy. Perhaps it was because she was new and they had been treating her like some kind of zoo animal? Perhaps it was their in-your-face attitude or the poor regard they paid to the teachers? Perhaps it was the way they dressed or the strange language they spoke and gestures they used? These things all played a part in making her feel disturbed.

  The kids had collectively voted on her nickname—Pasty, on account of her pale complexion, blond hair and light blue eyes—just one more thing she hated. When she told her mom about her nickname through fake tears and the saddest face she could put on, her mom simply smiled sympathetically and said that twelve-year-olds could sometimes be cruel, and that it could have been worse. There was something worrying about that statement “it could have been worse” as if it were naturally leading on to “not as bad as it’s going to be”.

  Outside school she had only met one other kid—Roy, the ten-year-old son of the couple next door. There were other kids in the neighborhood, but if the kids from school made her feel uneasy, the kids from the neighborhood frightened the life out of her. Roy wasn’t too bad. Like Julie, he had only recently moved to the city. Like Julie, he had made very few friends since he arrived in Los Angeles. Like Julie, he loved to complain—a lot!

  It was Saturday and Julie was going on her first date in Los Angeles. Julie’s parents were going on the date, as was Roy and his folks too. It was supposed to be fun, but Julie had protested that there would be no fun in spending a whole Saturday with boring Roy and his boring parents. The fact that is was a barbecue in the hills did in no way make the prospect any more appealing, and she had deliberately rolled her eyes with disgust when her dad told her of the proposal.

  Julie huffed and puffed all morning just to reinforce her resistance to the planned day ahead. John and Marcy simply took no notice—they had a lot of practice at not taking any notice of Julie when she was in one of her many moods. Julie pulled on her favorite black boots which her mom had said were much too small for her, and she was right, and that was the very reason why Julie put them on in the first place. She stomped through the house just to make the point and draw attention to the fact. Clunk, clunk, clunk through the kitchen. Click, click, click up the stairs. Clunk, click, clunk in the bathroom. Nothing. Not so much as a despondent sigh from her long suffering mother. Click, click, click back to her bedroom to change in to a pair of sneakers that wouldn’t strangle her poor feet—it made Julie feel sore that her mom had won again, and without even trying.

  Two hours after her protest began and it came to an end as she got into the car and waited for her parents. She continued to wait. Her mom and dad had been talking to Roy’s parents for almost ten minutes at the front of their house—this was not acceptable—this whole stupid day was their idea and now they were keeping her waiting! Finally, her parents approached the car. Her mom was smiling. Roy’s mom got into Roy’s dad’s car as Roy and his dad went round to the trunk. Julie’s mom and dad got into their car. A minute later the door next to her opened and Roy climbed in beside her. Great! Could this day get any better? Roy turned to her and smiled. His little, round glasses refle
cted the sunlight into her eyes and she flailed her arms wildly to show her discomfort.

  “Roy wanted to ride with us,” her mom beamed, with menace, as she turned to face them.

  “Really?” Julie replied, sarcastically.

  “Hi Julie,” Roy said, in a half whine, as if he didn’t want to be wasting his Saturday either.

  Julie’s dad also spun round to face Roy and Julie, and with dread she knew exactly what he was going to say.

  “You kids buckle-up, now,” he said, and Julie rolled her eyes. “We don’t want to be making any stops at the emergency room.”

  Every time! Every time without fail, and only ever when she had a friend in the car. He would turn round, smile widely and say that same stupid thing—not that what he was saying was stupid, only that she would have already buckled-up, as would her friend, in this case Roy. It was the first thing Roy did as soon as his butt was in the seat.

  It took them almost an hour to get to the spot in the hills that Roy’s dad had raved on about all week. Roy’s mom looked like a dumb dog as she gazed up into Roy’s dad’s face and nodded while he spoke, smiling all the time, even though there was nothing funny about what he was saying. Roy’s mom did that a lot. At least she didn’t say much, which was more than could be said about Julie’s mom who had an opinion on, or story about, everything—all of which were silly, and some of which were extremely embarrassing.

  Julie grudgingly grunted yes when Roy’s dad asked if she liked the location he had picked. It was beautiful and trying as hard as she could there was nothing bad about the place that she could bring to mind to remark on. The air was clean and lightly scented with the fine perfume of wild flowers. There was a large patch of short-cropped grass, and behind them stood a solid wall of natural rock, that was gray and cold looking. The breeze was cool, but not too cold. The view of the city somehow made it look small and not at all intimidating. It even looked clean from way up there.

  Within ten minutes the two dads had set up two barbecues. Roy’s dad got his lit first and offered to give Julie’s dad a hand with his barbecue. Julie’s dad said he was fine, but there was the hint of distress in his voice and a look of mild concern on his face. That all changed as he beamed when smoke started to bellow from the red, metal barbecue. The moms busied themselves with the food. Roy’s mom had brought at least half a dozen large Tupperware boxes filled with all kinds of salads and dressings—one nut-free, just for Roy. He suffered from some strange kind of illness which meant he couldn’t eat anything with nuts in it—he couldn’t even touch nuts or he’d swell up like a balloon. On the first day he had called round to visit them he had shirked “Are there nuts in that?!” every time Julie’s mom offered him a biscuit or soft drink. In the end he drank some mineral water with ice in it, and ate nothing, just to be safe.

  As Julie and Roy sat on the grass while the grown-ups prepared the meal Roy obsessed about a fly that had been bothering them. He was convinced it was a killer bee. He had read something in the paper his dad brought home from work each day about killer bees from South America which had crossed with domestic bees in North America and were set to kill everyone in sight. Julie thought this was probably an exaggeration, as she hadn’t heard anything about it on the news. Roy continued to fuss so Julie got up and walked over to the grown-ups—one of her mom’s stories or Roy’s mom’s aimless grinning at Roy’s dad would be less annoying than Roy’s constant moaning. Not to be put off, Roy joined them.

  “Mom,” he began, moaning. “There is a bee over there. I think it might be one of those killer bees.”

  Julie rolled her eyes and walked away. Roy continued to explain his theory to his over protective mother. Julie’s mom suggested that it was probably just an ordinary bee, or a fly, but if Roy did get stung by a killer bee she had the antidote in the car. Roy bought the story and calm descended on the group once more. Roy and Julie sat back down. After a few minutes the killer bee returned. Julie got to her feet.

  “Want to go for a walk?” she asked.

  She secretly hoped that he had some strange affliction that meant he wasn’t able to go with her. Perhaps walking caused his head to explode, or something.

  “Yeah!” he said, as he sprung to his feet.

  They cleared the adventure with the responsible people, who at that point looked anything but responsible. Julie’s dad and Roy’s dad were wearing matching chef’s hats. Roy’s dad also wore an apron that had, “Kiss the Chef!” written on it. Julie just knew that her dad would be so jealous of the apron, and would pass some remark about how lame it was when they got home—her dad could be so childish at times.

  “Kids,” Julie’s dad began, in his buckle-up, voice. “Don’t mooch too far, and stay where we can keep an eye on you.”

  “Yes dad,” Julie said, despondently.

  They went as far as the rock face to begin with. There were a lot of boulders lying all over the place. They jumped from boulder to boulder for a short while. This was hard work, trying to stop from falling over when she landed on a boulder—it began to hurt the backs of her legs. Then from nowhere, Julie had the most splendid idea.

  “What about a game of hide and seek?” she suggested.

  “Ugh? Yeah!” Roy said.

  She took this to mean yes.

  “I’ll hide first,” she said.

  “But…” Roy protested.

  “But nothing,” Julie snapped. “It’s my game so I go first. You have to count to 100. SLOWLY. Can you count to 100?”

  “I can count to one million!”

  “Okay then, count to one million! I’m off.”

  With that, she turned, and ran off as fast as she could. She came to a sudden stop and glared round at Roy. Roy was standing with a sheepish look on his face, staring straight at her.

  “Look the other way when you’re counting, lame brain!” she shouted.

  Roy turned around and looked the other way without putting up any further resistance—after all, this was her game and the unwritten rule book said that whoever suggested the game dictated the rules of the game—every kid knew that, and Roy was no exception.

  “And start counting again!” she yelled, as she continued on her way.

  Where to hide? The boulders? Just round the corner? Perhaps she could double back to the barbecue? Roy would fall for this trick, of that she had no doubt. Then again, there was a chance that Roy would give up after a few minutes and head back to his parents. Busted! No, she needed somewhere where Roy would never think of looking in a million years. After scanning her surroundings desperately a few times she found that very spot. It wasn’t so much that he would never think of looking there, rather, he would never dare to look there. Just behind a large group of boulders, on the boundary of what she perceived to be the limits of where they were allowed to play, there was a dark opening in the rock face. It was about her height, and as she drew closer she could tell that it extended well into the rock. She entered the darkness casually, more concerned that Roy would soon be on her heals than by what might actually be hiding in the cave. It was very dark, very cold and very damp and she didn’t have to go too far into the opening before she felt safe from the pursuing Roy.

  She crouched down and listened. She was hardly breathing at all. Every now and again a bird would sing out or she would catch the distant laughter from her parents or Roy’s parents. These sounds sent an excited tingle up her spine as she checked to make certain it wasn’t Roy. She waited as the tension inside her grew, almost to the point where she was going to move to the edge of the opening to try and spot Roy. There was no need. Softly at first, and then more loudly, she could hear the clumsy approach of Roy. He was muttering something, but she couldn’t make it out. No doubt he was complaining about something—a man-eating butterfly, or whatnot. He was right outside the cave. The mumbling stopped as he peered in from a safe distance. Julie lowered herself towards the ground and smiled. Roy hovered around the entrance for a few tense moments as he strained as hard as he could in
an effort to spot her.

  “Julie,” he called out, in an uncertain voice. “If you’re in there, I’m not coming in to get you.”

  He waited for a response. There was nothing.

  “JULIE! If you’re in there I’m not coming in to find you! There could be bears. Rats. SNAKES!”

  She didn’t move but she was alarmed by what he said. In her haste to find a Roy-proof hiding place she hadn’t thought about wild animals. She tried hard to think back to what she had been told in school about the wildlife to be found in and around Los Angeles—on that day she was more concerned about the wildlife to be found in her own classroom. Frantically she tried to recall that information, but it was no use—she couldn’t remember.

  “I’m moving on now,” Roy continued. “If there is a snake or a rat in there don’t ask me for help.”

  Rats she didn’t mind. Her friend, Jesse, back home, her real home that is, had a pet rat, Blacky. It was cool. Not frightening at all. Snakes were another matter altogether—she was terrified of snakes! Snakes, with their small black dots for eyes, and that long, thin tongue, always on the move—there was something very unnatural about snakes.

  Then she heard it. It echoed through the small cave and it made her jump. It was a large, sustained explosion. It was lightning. The second strike was louder and partially lit-up the cave. She moved towards the entrance, but before she got there three more flashes lit the place up, and three more explosions echoed around the walls. The last of the explosions were a lot louder and sharper than the first had been. It was as if the lightning was getting closer.

  When she got to the entrance she had expected to see Roy standing there crying. Or perhaps he would not be there at all as he ran back to their parents as soon as the first flashes of light and loud explosions had occurred. She was wrong. Roy was standing there. He was totally calm, but the expression on his face was one of utter terror. Julie spun round as she tried to glance at what he was looking at. The city. Lightning was striking the ground all over the city. Not just the city. The lightning struck the surrounding countryside, and as far into the distance as Julie could strain to look. Not only that, it looked as if it was getting worse. She grabbed Roy’s arm.