CHAPTER 1
Billy Boswell was an ordinary, excitable, 14 year old.At the Matthew Arnold secondary school he attendedin Oxford, he wasn't regarded as terribly bright. Infact his school reports always said the same thing: a bit of adreamer, could do better if concentrated more. He was quiteshy and did not make friends very easily. His only true friendwas Frank Jenkins who he had known through all theirinfant school days. Frank was a few months older, but theirinterests were the same. They shared an early morning paperround at the weekends and split the money 50.50, although itwas Billy who had the best bike and the little towing trailerthat his dad had made him for carrying the papers.
They had been saving a long time for a school trip toBrazil which was booked for the following year. It wasterribly expensive and Mr Boswell could not really affordit. Billy's friend Frank was going and he didn't want todisappoint Billy, so he had made a promise. If Billy couldsave up one hundred pounds towards the cost of the holiday,then he would pay the rest.
Billy lived in a rather modest semi-detached house onthe outskirts of Oxford with his parents Brian and Helen,his young sister Beth and their black and white cat, Sooty.The house was near North Hinksey down a quiet laneoverlooking lush green fields. Surrounded by a stream,the fields often flooded during the winter, but it was stillpopular with dog walkers and other ramblers. Frank, on theother hand, was rather more privileged and lived in a smartfour bedroom detached house half way up Cumnor Hill,about a mile away. He too lived with his parents. He alsohad an older brother, James, who he didn't like very muchdue to the fact he was always calling him wimp or crater facejust because he had a bad case of acne. Frank also sufferedfrom bad headaches which caused him to miss schooloccasionally. Frank's parents had taken him to the doctor'sa few times, but he was always diagnosed with a bad case ofmigraine.
"He will grow out of it, just give him a few aspirinsand let him sleep it off." That was Doctor Jackson's generalresponse, and it usually cured the problem.
Billy and Frank were up early that particular Saturdaymorning.
After delivering the papers their weekend usually endedup at Billy's house in his bedroom watching Star Warsfilms, or in the evening looking up at the stars through thebrand new telescope he had received for his birthday. Frankwas a bit jealous and had asked his Dad if he could have atelescope for Christmas, only better than Billy's and morepowerful. His father had agreed, but for now he would haveto make do with Billy's. That evening they had been lookingfor different stars and jotting them down on Billy's giant wallmap of the night sky. In fact all of Billy's walls were filledwith maps and pictures of outer space; he even had a signedphoto of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon,which took pride of place over his headboard.
"What's that bright star?" asked Frank as he peeredthrough the telescope. He let Billy take a look while hechecked the wall maps.
"It's not on any of our maps; do you think it's a new star?"
"I shouldn't think so," said Billy after studying theobject for several minutes. "It's more likely a shooting staror something, which will probably burn itself out." A raisedvoice from downstairs broke their concentration.
"Come along Billy, your supper's ready! Frank willhave to go home, it's school tomorrow." They quickly wentdownstairs and Frank said goodbye to Mr and Mrs Boswell.He got on his bike and rode off into the darkness.
"See you in school tomorrow!" he shouted at Billy as hedisappeared around the corner. Billy peered up at the sky,but could see no sign of the mysterious star.
CHAPTER 2
The next day, after school dinner, the bright star wasstill on Billy's mind. "Let's go and see Mr Roberts,"said Billy. "I bet he'll be able to tell us what it was."Mr Roberts was their science master and both boys likedhim very much; in fact he was the only teacher they trustedand could talk to, because he was on their wavelength. MrRoberts was busy marking exam papers, but he paused toanswer their questions.
"It was probably a shooting star," said Mr Roberts "or anasteroid breaking up. Now I really must get on with thesepapers."
"Thanks, sir!" said the boys as they left the classroom.Nothing more was said about the bright star that day.
That evening Billy was bored. He had agreed to lookafter his little sister, Beth, while his mother and father wentshopping. Beth was 8 years old, just the age when she couldbe very annoying, especially to a space research explorerlike Billy. He was watching the Sky at Night, his favouritetelevision programme when Beth interrupted
"Can I watch Hannah Montana?"
"No," said Billy. "I am watching this and I am older thanyou so I have first choice." Beth started to make silly sobbingnoises, which she knew would annoy him. Billy got up andthrew the TV remote controller at her.
"There, watch what you damn well like!" he said as hestormed off up the stairs to his bedroom. He lay on his bedfor a few minutes until he remembered the bright star. Helooked through his telescope, but thick dark clouds coveredthe night sky and he could see nothing, so he switched on hiscomputer and played Space Invaders. Half an hour later hismother and father returned, with their arms full of shopping.
"Billy swore at me!" said Beth as her mother came intothe lounge. "He said damn."
"Well, that's not a very nice word but it's not reallyswearing. I expect you were annoying him again" Hermother went back into the kitchen to unpack the groceries.
The next morning Billy and Frank met at the schoolgates. It was raining and very overcast as they made theirway to the school entrance. Two new girls had moved intothe area and had just started school. They were 14 year oldtwins, Susan and Sarah. They were in Billy's class and satright in front of him. He had never taken much interest ingirls before; as far as he was concerned they were just likehis sister, annoying and spoilt. But Susan and Sarah weredifferent. He desperately wanted to speak to them, butwords failed to come from his mouth. So the whole lessonfinished with him trying to think up a witty sentence, but tono avail as the girls got up and left, without him uttering asingle word. The next day he waited by the classroom door,pretending to tie his shoe laces. As the two girls approachedhe stood up and opened the door for them.
"Hello, my name's Billy," he heard himself say. Both girlsgiggled and carried on into the classroom. Billy felt awkwardand could feel his face turning bright red. He decided tokeep his feelings to himself. He didn't even tell his bestfriend Frank, who he was sure would laugh.
CHAPTER 3
On Friday evening Billy was at the dining room tablewith his family eating his dinner. It was Billy'sfavourite: sausages, eggs and chips. He glancedout of the dining room window. It was still raining, it hadbeen raining all week and the stream at the front of the housenext to the road had flooded, covering part of the fields. Thetelevision was on, showing the 6 o'clock news.
Billy was not taking much interest until the newsreadersaid "Now here's something for all you buddingastronomers. We have just been informed that a smallasteroid heading toward earth will enter our atmospheretomorrow evening. Scientists from Harwell expect it tobreak up on entry and burn up, but there is a chance somesmall pieces of rock, or a meteor shower as it is best known,may hit the earth. It has not been confirmed, but the Northof England seems the most likely place to see the shower,although it could come as far south as the Midlands. So, ifyou want to witness a spectacular firework display, I suggestyou dig out your binoculars and look up at the sky aroundmidnight tomorrow. We will have another update later."
Billy sat for a few minutes mesmerized until his dadasked him: "Do you think that was the bright star you sawlast week?"
"I don't know," said Billy. "I suppose it could have been.May I leave the table now?"
"Not until you have finished your dinner" said hismother. Billy gobbled down the last mouthful of chipsand rushed up to his bedroom. He took the lens cap off histelescope and peered into the eyepiece. It was not quite darkyet, but he could still make out the approaching asteroid. Heran downstairs.
"I can see it! I can see it!" he shouted. "Can Frank havea sleepover tomorrow night so we can watch the meteorshower on my telescope?" Billy looked at his dad first,knowing that he had the final say in the Boswell household.
"I don't see why not" said his father. His motherinterrupted "As long as you don't stay up all night, you boysneed your sleep."
"OK, Mum, we'll be in bed as soon as the asteroid breaksup." Billy rushed back upstairs to text Frank. The nextmorning the boys set off on their early morning paper round.They quickly delivered the eighty or so papers in recordtime, then sat down in front of the television and switched iton.
"Has the news been on yet, Mum?" asked Billy.
"Not yet" said his mother. "Switch to the breakfastchannel on BBC 1, they have updates of the news every 30minutes." They both sat there, glued to the television screen,waiting for news of the asteroid.
"And finally," the news reader said. "The asteroid ona collision course with Earth will burn up over southernScotland in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is thoughtto be part of a planet that disintegrated when it collidedwith another asteroid. Scientists say it may have happenedhundreds of years ago and has been floating around spaceall this time until it fell into the Earth's gravity. If it's a clearnight you might be able to see the asteroid disintegrate as itenters our atmosphere. There will be another update later.That's all for now—Goodbye." Billy got up and switched offthe television.
"Well, that's a bit disappointing" he said. "I don't thinkwe will see much unless it stops raining, Frank."
"Never mind boys, it might still be a very clear night,"said Billy's mother, feeling rather sorry for them. They bothdragged themselves up the stairs to the landing windowoverlooking the fields, to peer out through the misted upwindow.
"We can't even go outside" said Billy, "the fields are allflooded." They both made their way into Billy's bedroom.He had plenty of toys scattered around the place to keepthem both amused until the big event that night. Aftertucking into a big plateful of stew and dumplings that Billy'smother had made them for supper, Frank moaned about thestart of another headache, so Billy went to the bathroom andgave him some aspirin before they both fell asleep around 11pm. Billy's mum peered into their bedroom as she was goingto bed.
"Do you think I should wake them?" she asked herhusband who was coming up the stairs. He crept into theboy's bedroom and looked through the telescope.
"I couldn't see a thing," he said as he crept back on to thelanding. "There's no point in waking them if they can't seeanything, it's too overcast." They both went to their bedroomand closed the door.
CHAPTER 4
It was 12.55 am when Billy woke up. He sat bolt uprightafter remembering what they were there for and lookedat his night vision clock on the wall. He jumped out ofbed, then went over and shook Frank awake.
"Quick, we may have missed it!" Frank, still half asleep,rubbed his eyes and stumbled over to Billy who wasfrantically trying to focus his telescope.
"I can't see a bloody thing!" said Billy. He glanced atthe wall clock again. It now read 1.05 am. He slumped backdown in his chair.
"You have a look, Frank." After they had both lookedthrough the telescope for another 20 minutes, Billy opened apacket of crisps and noisily ate them all.
"It's nearly 1.30 am" said Frank. "Let's go back to bed."
As they both were about to climb back into bed the darkbedroom was lit up by a bright red light. A loud rushingsound like a jet engine followed and they rushed to thelanding window. It was dark, but they saw several objectshitting the water soaked fields with a loud whoosh. Then itall went silent. Frank and Billy looked at each other.
"Do you think that was part of the asteroid?" askedFrank. Billy didn't answer as he raced off. He reached thebottom of the stairs before Frank caught up with him.
"Come on" said Billy "let's go and see what it was!"They raced to the front door. Then, realising they were stillbarefoot and in their pyjamas, Billy ran to the back porchand pulled on his Wellington boots and overcoat.
"What about me?" said Frank. Billy passed his friend hisdad's Wellingtons and overcoat.
"Quick, put these on!" He then tiptoed to the front door,pausing at the foot of the stairs to listen for any movementfrom his parent's room. It was all quiet. Frank soon joinedhim, Billy opened the front door and they both crept outinto the night. Although it had stopped raining, it wasstill overcast. Billy led the way along the road to a smallfootbridge over the swollen stream, his torch picking outthe footpath in front of them. He was glad he had put on hisWellingtons; he could hear the ground squelching underfoot.Billy knew the area well and went straight to the point ofimpact. He shone his torch ahead and could see a large craterof earth where the meteorite had landed. His torch wasnot really strong enough to follow the path that had beengouged out of the earth, but it was already beginning to fillwith water.
"Come on, Frank," said Billy. His friend was finding ithard to keep up with Wellingtons that were 3 sizes too bigfor him and an overcoat that nearly touched the ground,but he didn't complain. They followed the trail left by themeteorite right across the field into the top stream. Billyshone his torch into the water. It was just strong enough topick out a rounded object buried in the far bank just belowthe waterline.
"That must be it!" said Billy excitedly "Go on Frank, goin and get it!"
"Why me?" muttered Frank.
"Because you are taller than me and you have the biggestboots." Frank started wading in.
"The water's too deep!" he yelled as the water startedcoming over the tops of his Wellingtons, but he kept on untilhe reached the far bank. The water was up to his waist as hereached down and grabbed the rock. It was still warm to thetouch and about the size of a small football. He had to useboth hands to loosen it from the muddy bank before it brokefree. Frank held the rock above his head
"I've got it!" he cried, smiling from ear to ear as he strodethrough the muddy water and threw the rock down byBilly's feet. They both looked at it in disbelief. Frank startedto shiver, he was soaked from the waist down.
"Come on," said Billy feeling rather sorry for his friend,"let's get back to the house so you can dry off." Billy slippedthe rock inside his overcoat then they started their muddyjourney home. It was slow going, but at least the moon hadat last made an appearance through the night sky givingthem enough light to see where they were going. Billyslipped his key in the front door and opened it.
"Take off your muddy wellies and overcoat" said Billy,"We don't want to make a mess over my mum's clean floor."They carried their wet clothes to the back porch then Billygave Frank some towels to dry off. He took off his wetpyjamas and wrapped the towels around himself. Feeling alittle better they put the wet clothes on the radiator to dryout. Billy washed the meteorite rock under the tap until mostof the mud had been cleaned off.
"Let's take it upstairs to my bedroom and examine itunder the magnifying glass" he said. They crept back toBilly's bedroom and put the rock on the table. Billy turnedthe spotlight on it and for the first time they could see howshiny and smooth it was. In some places it was a greentranslucent colour, down one side there were deep creviceswhich were still partly filled with mud. It wasn't actuallyround as first thought, more oblong with several sharpbits sticking out. Frank thought these were where bits hadbeen broken off when it had disintegrated. While Frankwas getting dressed in his day clothes, Billy held up themagnifying glass and started cleaning the mud out of thecracks and crevices.
