Old men on TV had told Tommy’s mum and dad that if the air heated up by one degree, then people would get sick and not have enough water to drink. But Tommy had put a cup of water in the fridge and set it to one degree and it felt cold when he dipped his little finger in. So he thought the men were wrong. A degree wasn’t very hot.
Later, more men on Dad’s tablet looked very serious and very sad when they said the air had actually been heated two degrees. They said that life as Tommy knew it was unsustainable, and things would change. Mum came back one day from the shop with a bottle of wine and sat him down on the sofa and told him that there were bad men from foreign countries like where they had gone on holiday that might come to visit soon. She said she had to watch the TV for a while but Tommy couldn’t see, and she sent him outside to play. Tommy was a good boy. He did what he was told. But as he went from the living room he turned and saw Mum open the bottle and take a big gulp of wine, and then she started to cry.
Tommy was scared. He got even more scared when he went to John’s house to see if he wanted to play and he came out but then his mum snatched him up in her arms and took him off to the car instead of hide and seek. There were suitcases in the boot. Tommy asked her if they were going on holiday. John’s mum smiled and said yes and then John’s dad came out and their car made a big noise like a tiger as it roared away.
The street baked in the sun. There was no-one else about. Tommy played ball against the wall of John’s house, trying not to think about Mum crying and drinking wine. He wanted to go home because his skin was starting to hurt and go red. Dad had told him that all the ozone had gone out of the sky because bad people started to use nasty things again like they used to. Tommy had asked why. Dad had said it was because they were cheap.
But he said there was more to it and that Tommy would learn more when he was bigger. Tommy decided he was big enough. He was going to go home but then a group of men and women in black clothes knocked on a door down the road and then when no one came they smashed the window and climbed in. Tommy could hear sirens in the distance so he knew the other bad men must be coming and that he should get inside. So he went the other way down the street. Tarmac dripped and the paint on Mrs. Brown’s fence oozed into the cracks in the pavement.
He walked really far and then he was at Mr. Smith’s house. Mr. Smith had been the librarian at Tommy’s school until the library closed down to make the shelter. But now that Tommy was big enough, he thought that Mr. Smith might still have some computer programmes to tell him about why it was so hot even though the water in the fridge was cold. So Tommy went and knocked on Mr. Smith’s door and Mr. Smith opened it and looked surprised and put down a glass of something brown that looked like pop. Then he laughed when Tommy asked if he could have some pop too and didn’t give him any. But Tommy didn’t get the joke.
There was a loud rattling noise all through Mr. Smith’s house, like there was a train track under the house like they had in London. Mr. Smith asked why Tommy was out and Tommy told him and then Mr. Smith said he needed to make a phone call. But before he went Tommy told him he was big enough to know why it was hot and why there were no more polar bears other than the one in the museum in town and why he couldn’t have a bath any more and most of all why there were bad men coming. Mr. Smith sighed and put down his glass and got out some old books which were like Dad’s tablet but instead of swiping one screen it had lots of screens that you turned over. And while Mr. Smith went to make his call, Tommy looked at the pictures of clouds and suns with arrows pointing all over and red lines and maps of the world that were getting smaller and seas that were getting bigger until his head hurt. He took a sip of Mr. Smith’s pop but it wasn’t like the pop Dad bought at the shop. And then he looked at the words but there were lots of big words he didn’t know and he thought that if adults thought that all these deserts and cars and planes that the book was showing him had something to do with why they had stopped him going to the zoo or on holiday any more then they were all silly.
The rattling grew to an earthquake. It made Tommy’s toes feel funny. He looked down at the flowery carpet, wide-eyed. Mr. Smith had a monster in his basement, pacing up and down looking for a way out, or a dinosaur, or maybe a time machine. He felt scared but then he felt brave. If he was big enough to look at the books then he was big enough to face a monster. Maybe he’d be famous if he killed it, like St. George or King Arthur.
So while Mr. Smith was still talking quietly in the next room, Tommy went in the kitchen and stood on tiptoes to take a rolling pin off the counter and then he saw the open doorway leading down to the monster. He hoped there was another door at the bottom so that he had time to say a prayer and get ready for battle.
Slowly, silently, listening for trouble, the boy crept down the stairs.
He got to the bottom and saw there wasn’t another door and suddenly he felt frightened again. But then the monster rumbled to a standstill and he thought that maybe it was more frightened of him than he was frightened of it. He thought about his Mum again, tears on the cushions, and he knew he had to be brave for her and save the world. He charged.
He closed his eyes and swung his rolling pin with all his might but there were no claws or snarling fangs. Only heat.
The thick air was stifling. It burned his throat. He blinked back tears of pain, dropped his weapon, raised his pudgy hands as if they could defend him from the smouldering breath of the dragon which awaited him. But there was no dragon. The rattle came back, grew to a tremble, a tremor, a cataclysm of sound. And then Tommy opened his eyes properly and looked across the tiny room and saw why the world was on fire.
He saw, with open-mouthed wonder, that the cars and planes and icebergs and arrows had nothing to do with any of it. Mary at school had revealed one fateful day that her grandma had told her that adults weren’t always right, and now he believed it. Even his own mum and dad had been wrong. The men on the TV and the tablet. It was all wrong and Tommy could show them why.
Mr. Smith had a washing machine in his basement. A washing machine that was dangerously out of control. Like when the bathroom light had gone out last week and Mum had had to get a man out in a van to fix some wires in a hole that he cut out of the wall. But rather than stopping working like the light the washing machine was working faster and faster and faster, the clothes within spinning to a tornado blur of white, the very earth shaking to the core beneath its molten metal base. Tommy saw that there was a big pile of steaming clothes on top, all juddering about, and they must have been making it heat up.
The air had gone up two degrees because Mr. Smith had a bad washing machine.
Footsteps on the stairs. Tommy looked round and saw Mr. Smith, looking pale and drawn and thoughtful, drinking cola again, hesitating, wanting to speak but maybe not finding the right words. But whatever he was going to say didn’t matter any more, because Tommy got there first and in a flurry of triumph told Mr. Smith all about how the clothes on top of his washing machine had made it get all hot and how the heat was going up the stairs and making the air warm outside. And that if he didn’t turn it off soon, all the birds and the bees were going to die and then there would be no more flowers or food and then the deserts would come to England and they’d have to dig water out of sand dunes.
Mr. Smith smiled a strange smile that was more sad then funny, but then he seemed to get it and all the sad went away and he hurried over with a cry of delight and pressed a button on the red-hot machine. It beeped and slowly slowly slowly it stopped spinning but now Tommy was spinning in the old man’s arms held aloft, the hero of the world, and already he could feel the air getting cooler. Mr. Smith told him well done and that his dad was coming to get him and that he shouldn’t have really had his washing machine on all this time and that it was good of Tommy to tell him so. Then he patted Tommy on the head and took him upstairs for a glass of cola that tasted better.
Together, they waited at the window for Dad. Tommy trembled with joy. He looked out at the road and thought that the haze was getting less wavy and that there were less sirens and that the bad men had decided to go home and that there’d be no more smashed windows and it was all because he was brave enough to explore Mr. Smith’s basement. He studied Mr. Smith’s hair carefully between hopeful scans for polar bears. Mary’s grandma had also said that old people can get muddled up even if they do know what’s right. Some of Mr. Smith’s hair was grey, and that’s why he’d forgotten the washing machine that nearly killed the world.
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Soon he saw Dad’s car coming fast up the road. Dad got out and came up the drive looking angry. He didn’t know that Tommy had saved the world yet. But Mr. Smith went out and told him quickly. Tommy was a bit sad that he didn’t get to say the good news, but he thought it was kind to let Mr. Smith talk about how forgetful he’d been and Mum was always proud of how kind Tommy was.
Dad came to the door and called for Tommy, and Tommy trotted out with his palms up to the still, blazing sky. It was very very hot even though the washing machine had been off for minutes now. But Tommy decided it was because the sky was so big and that it would take a long time to cool down, and besides, the washing machine wasn’t cold yet.
At first, Dad looked just as worried as he had since the first time the prime minister had turned off his plane crash programme to talk to them all. Maybe he wasn’t quite sure it was over yet. But halfway along the ride home he found his smile and asked Tommy how he had saved the world and Tommy told him all about his adventure and how he’d really hoped to fight a monster but saving the world was pretty great anyway. And Dad laughed at that but as they got closer and closer to home the frown came back and when they got out he told Tommy to go straight to his bedroom because he had a surprise for him.
Curled up on his bed with the air conditioning straining against the choked sky, Tommy began to worry. He would have lots of things to do now he was a hero. So instead of playing on a game he got started on his speech for the news and when he got stuck on that he drew the medal that he’d ask the Queen for. He couldn’t wait to tell all his friends but when he looked out the window no-one had come out yet because they didn’t know about the washing machine, so he went back to his speech so he could say what had happened soon. He thought he heard shouting downstairs, angry, hoarse shouting like when Dad lost his job two days ago, but it soon went away. Tommy thought that it was the bad men angry that they couldn’t steal stuff from people’s houses any more. Then there was a knock on his door and it was his Dad, looking all sweaty and out of breath, and he said in a strange voice that Tommy’s surprise was ready and Tommy went downstairs.
It was a party that Dad had made as a surprise. There was cake on paper plates and candles and a paper banner that said congratulations on it, which meant well done for saving the world, Dad told him. There was only Mum there because Dad went round the house making lots of banging sounds while he ate the cake, and John had gone on holiday, and Mary was in hospital, and David and Jess weren’t allowed out any more. Mum was all sad and she had a big red splotch on her cheek and she looked at the floor and cried when Tommy told her all about the washing machine, and how he wanted to go and see the polar bears come back and go on the TV to make a picture with arrows to show the adults what had happened and how he wanted a big green cross as a medal. The crying was okay because Mary’s grandma said that there were tears of joy as well as sadness, and Mum could only be happy about what Tommy had done.
When he’d finished his cake Tommy heard helicopters going above the street and he ran to the window but Mum made him come back and closed all the curtains. She tried to speak and tried again and then she said that she couldn’t let the reporters see her hero without a new suit. Then she sat and waited watching the TV while Tommy went up for his notebook and told her all the things he was going to say on the news. He had to ask her three times what she thought but in the end she said it was good.
At long last Dad came back and wiped at his eyes and said how proud he was of Tommy, and that they were going to go on holiday now. Tommy asked if it was to see the polar bears and Dad said yes. Tommy tried to run for the car but Dad dragged him back by the hand and looked all down the street first. Then he put Tommy in the back of the car, surrounded by suitcases. Mum got in next to him. Dad didn’t talk to her. He had eyes only for Tommy.
Dad started the car and drove away. Tommy waved bye-bye to the house. Mum put her hand over her eyes. She still had the bottle of wine in her hand. She didn’t seem to know it was empty. Tommy giggled, his own secret joke.
He asked if they were going on a plane but Dad said they were going on a boat instead. He was driving very fast down the road. Tommy asked if they were late and Dad didn’t say. Tommy asked if they were nearly there and Dad just shook his head. Then he turned on the radio and told Tommy to get his I-Spy book out the seat.
He did. First, he listened to see if they knew about the washing machine yet, but the men were all talking quickly about armies and barrels of water and something called checkpoints. Dad drove even faster. Then Tommy looked through his book even though he should be doing his speech. He looked for a house with a chimney first. He was sad when he saw one because it was on fire and there were no fire engines to put it out. He hadn’t been quick enough to find the washing machine. Some things had got too hot already. He hoped the people that lived there had gone on holiday too.
There weren’t any birds and there were no rabbits, even though they were in the countryside now. He ticked off hitch-hiker because he saw one lying down for a nap in a ditch. Then they went round the corner and there was another one with a piece of wood raised above his head, like Tommy about to fight the monster that wasn’t there. Dad didn’t stop for him. Tommy looked at the back of Dad’s head for a while. He thought Dad was kind. But he was just going faster and faster.
They went fast until they went round another bend and there were cars stopped in the road and Dad cried out and slammed on the brakes. Mum’s head bounced off the seat in front of her and the bottle smashed against her face and made her bleed. Tommy was worried but she said she was okay and just looked out the window at the cars that had stopped. Dad turned round and asked if Tommy was okay. Tommy said he was but he thought Mum looked ill. Dad didn’t look at her. He was panting. He opened his window and stuck his head out and then pulled it back in and began fumbling around for something in the glove compartment.
There was shouting ahead in the road.
Mum began to moan. She was still bleeding. Someone banged something a few cars up. Someone screamed. Tommy asked why people were being mean when they should all be having parties and looking for animals. Dad ignored him, so he asked again and again and again while Dad looked for the thing he had lost. Then Dad turned and screamed at him to be quiet and spat drops of spit in his face and Tommy began to cry, because he’d been so good and he was a hero and he didn’t know why people were still being nasty. He threw away his I-Spy book and got his speech out again and began writing words, any words, because he needed to let everyone know that things were going to be alright.
Dad found what he was looking for. He looked at Tommy again with wild eyes and said he was sorry and that he was a little bit scared because the people that made the washing machines that got too hot would lose a lot of money because of what Tommy had found out, and they would be looking for Tommy, and Tommy had to hide. But that soon they would be on the boat and then Tommy could make his speech and the prime minister would make the washing machine people behave and then Tommy would be famous. And then Dad got out of the car and walked away.
Tommy thought about what Dad had told him, and felt a quiver of excitement shiver up his legs. He was a real hero but sometimes heroes had enemies. Like James Bond, he was a wanted man. A man on a new mission. He couldn’t be caught.
He took off his seatbelt and wriggled under the suitcases. He thought Mum was asleep but then she groaned and helped to put a pile of clothes over his legs and back. It was hot under the clothes. Tommy began to puff and pant like his Dad, like the washing machine melting in the furnace under Mr. Smith’s house, and wondered when it would start to get cool.
The shouting got louder. Tommy peeked out of his spy’s safe house and saw the people in the car ahead get out and run. There were two ladies shouting and then a man that could have been Dad. Mum must have thought so too because she pushed open her door and tottered out into the verge. Spots of blood dotted the leather seat where she had sat. Dad would be cross at that.
But right now, Tommy had to hide. The washing machine men were coming. Their helicopters thundered overhead, and he realised with a prickle of shock that they’d been looking for him ever since his party. They were getting closer.
Someone with a voice half like the headmaster at school and half like a robot blared out. Tommy snuggled deeper into his seat. He hadn’t finished saving the world yet. Mum and Dad hadn’t come back. Maybe they were beating up the baddies ahead so they could escape to the boat and then he could make his speech and then he could get his medal.
The shouting cut off. The helicopters roared on towards the horizon. Silence descended.
And then, heavy boots on the slimy melting road, coming his way.
Tommy waited. Waited. Listened. And thought hard about his medal.
A big green cross.
The boots got louder. Like an army marching.
He closed his eyes. Pricked his ears.
And heard a bird chirping merrily in the sunset. He smiled.
It would be a grand medal. A green cross.
Louder. Louder.
Shadows on the seat.
He held his breath. Screwed his eyes tighter. Pictured the medal.
The door opening.
A big. Green. Cross.