Only the truth this time. Dad gave him a hug and Leo pushed his bike under the house.

  There was a box in Leo’s room that he hadn’t unpacked. That night, he lifted it onto his desk and peeled off the tape. The first thing he pulled out was his space lamp. When it was switched on, it threw stars all over a darkened room. Next was the pile of coloured stones he used to play Asteroids. There were a few space books and a poster of the planets. And finally his album of alien friends.

  On the opening page was the Gronk, the first playdough alien he’d made. He smiled at his crooked Prep writing. Then there was a Fump, a Wozzle and a Meeb. He turned the pages and remembered each alien until he stopped at a picture that didn’t match the others. It was the photo he’d taken on the morning he met Ralph, the shot of the messy bed. Ralph hadn’t materialised in the printed picture, but Leo had glued it in the book anyway. Just because you couldn’t see something, didn’t mean it wasn’t there.

  He touched the photo. ‘Tomorrow you see.’

  He didn’t really know what tomorrow would bring. And he had never felt more alone. All the days in front of him were as blank as an empty sky.

  He put the album back in the box, opened the curtains and climbed into bed. But he was so tired the stars blurred into fuzzy white spots. He closed his eyes and sank into a sleep so dreamless and deep that he almost didn’t hear the thump on the wall outside his room.

  He opened one eye. His heartbeat throbbed in his head. Then he sat up and watched a short, furry shape fumble through the window and hit the floor. The stumpy silhouette stood up, brushed itself off and then stepped into the square of moonlight that fell into the room.

  ‘Ralph?’ Leo’s voice shook. ‘It’s really you?’

  Ralph flapped his ears and wiggled his horns. His eyes shone. ‘Sorry I’m late.’

  Leo threw the blankets aside and wrapped his arms around his friend, nearly knocking him over. His fur was soft and it shimmered.

  ‘I still need you,’ Leo said.

  ‘I know.’ Ralph hugged him tight.

  For weeks, Leo had kept his promise a secret. Now he had to keep Ralph a secret and it started as soon as the sun lit up his room.

  ‘Bye, love.’ Mum gave him a kiss as he yawned awake. ‘Anything big happening today?’

  He stretched. Rubbed his eyes. Felt his furry friend snuggle beside him. ‘Not really – just a normal day.’

  ‘Okay, love you.’

  He listened as her shoes clicked out the door, down the steps, then he peeked out the window and watched her walk across the patchy field towards the high school buildings. Ralph was slow to wake. Leo tickled his flappy ears. Ralph swatted his hand away, rolled over and started snoring again. Leo poked his mushroom nose.

  ‘Hey!’ Ralph sat up this time. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Leo bounded out of bed and stretched his arms out wide. ‘You’re here – nothing’s wrong!’

  As he got ready for school, he told Ralph everything about Dundle. The dry lagoon. The empty pool. Ms Pengari and all her costumes. When he mentioned the tower, Ralph stopped him.

  ‘Wait – tell me about the tower.’ His fur was the colour of warm custard.

  ‘It’s huge,’ said Leo. ‘Bigger than anything else in the town. And there are stairs that go up through the middle.’

  ‘All the way to the top?’

  ‘Yeah. Why?’

  Ralph’s horns stood straight and his ears fluttered. ‘Oh, nothing.’ He spread his paws out wide, like Leo had. ‘Let’s go to school!’

  Leo threw his bag on his back and grabbed the soccer ball from his wardrobe.

  ‘Is that for Gus?’ said Ralph.

  ‘Yeah.’

  Leo had told him about the ball in the tree, but he hadn’t talked about Gus. Ralph might have read the name on the ball. Or perhaps he just knew, the way he knew which window to climb in last night. Leo didn’t think hard about it. He had his friend again, his most important thing in the world. It felt like a missing puzzle piece was locked back into place and it was time to give Gus his own missing piece.

  When Leo walked to his classroom that morning, he held his head a bit higher and added a skip between his steps. He didn’t need a lunchtime buddy. Had no need for Mum and Dad’s lists. None of that mattered anymore because Ralph was right there, trotting beside him, a shade of buttery gold.

  He found Gus before class, standing on the dusty oval. He looked lost, a statue in a school shirt, like he was waiting for his ball to fall from the sky.

  Ralph squeezed Leo’s finger. ‘Call out to him.’

  Leo held the ball in his other hand. ‘Really?’

  His friend pushed him in the back. ‘Go on.’

  Leo took a few steps onto the oval. ‘Gus! Over here!’

  Gus turned.

  Leo held the ball high. ‘It’s yours!’ He was better at yelling than he thought.

  Gus came closer and called back, ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  A toothy smile spread across Gus’s face. He leapt and did an awkward dance in the dirt. He was too big to do any of it gracefully, but he didn’t seem to care. ‘You’re the best!’ He started to run to Leo then stopped. ‘Hey – kick it from there.’

  Leo scrunched his nose. ‘What?’

  ‘Kick it!’

  Leo had never kicked a ball properly in his life. He always missed and landed on his back, or stood on the ball and fell on his face.

  ‘Kick it.’

  It wasn’t Gus’s voice. It was Ralph’s. He waggled his horns and hopped from foot to foot. ‘You can do it.’

  Maybe Ralph was right. Maybe he could do it. He held the ball with both hands, straight out in front. He narrowed his eyes, focused on the ball and took a few strides. In one quick movement, he dropped the ball and prodded his leg forward. He could see in his mind what was supposed to happen. The ball would hurtle through the air in a perfect curve and land at Gus’s feet. But he missed. His leg flew past the ball, his other foot skidded in the dirt, and he clattered to the ground in a jumble of limbs.

  Gus ran over and lifted him up with one hand. ‘Are you okay?’

  Leo clapped dirt off his shirt and shorts. Tears pricked his eyes.

  ‘Thanks again for finding my ball,’ said Gus. ‘I can’t believe it.’

  Leo rubbed a grazed elbow. ‘It was at the top of a tree.’

  ‘What – did you climb up and get it?’

  ‘Yeah.’ He didn’t say why – that he’d thought it was a balloon from space.

  ‘Wow. Thanks.’

  Gus strode off, dribbling the ball with his feet. Leo straightened the bag on his back and Ralph held his finger as they walked to class.

  When his elbow stopped stinging, and the embarrassment wore off, Leo scowled at his friend. ‘Can’t believe you made me kick a ball.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Ralph. ‘But it looked pretty funny.’ His fur turned cheeky orange.

  Ms Pengari marched around the room, dressed as a lifeguard: red-and-yellow cap, whistle round her neck and a pair of pineapple sunglasses covering half her face.

  Ralph leant in close to Leo. ‘She reminds me of some aliens I know, from the planet Quon.’

  The teacher moved between the desks and talked about the Dundle pool. ‘You’ve had a week to come up with ideas. I want to know how we can raise some money so we can go swimming again.’ She swept an arm towards the inflatable toys, still hanging from the ceiling. ‘These poor creatures must be returned to their natural habitat – a swimming pool full of noisy kids.’

  Suggestions came from around the room. Some children wanted to sell biscuits. Others wanted a fun run. Leo hadn’t thought much about it. With Ralph by his side, he was keen to explore the night sky again, but he didn’t see how that could raise any money.

  Halfway through the lesson, there was a loud bang from the side of the room. The children jumped in their seats and turned around. The noise had come from the air-con unit, an old box-shaped thing that chugged from behind the teacher’s desk, but had now started to splutter and cough. It banged again, hissed like a punctured tyre and went quiet.

  ‘Well, that’s broken,’ said one of the boys.

  Ms Pengari wasted no time. ‘We can’t stay here,’ she said. ‘We’ll roast.’ She looked out the window, back at the students, then grabbed a jangle of keys from her desk drawer. ‘Hats on, everyone. Let’s go.’

  Ralph skipped beside Leo as the class followed Ms Pengari to a small building near the back fence. She unlocked the door, switched on the air-con and invited everyone in. There were paint-spattered benches, sinks along the walls, and shelves stacked with art gear: brushes, crayons, pencils and pens. Leo sat on a plastic stool and Ralph climbed onto his knee.

  Ms Pengari took off her pineapple sunglasses. ‘The good news is the air-con works. The other good news is we didn’t bring our books, so we’ll have some free art time.’

  The children cheered and gathered supplies from the cupboards and shelves. Some kids tipped paint into cups and others grabbed wire and blocks of styrofoam. Leo used fishing line to slice off a lump of damp clay. He broke it into smaller chunks and rolled them into perfect spheres.

  Ralph sat on the bench. ‘What are you making?’

  Leo kept his voice low. ‘The planets.’

  ‘And the moons?’

  ‘Not all of them. Maybe just Ralphora.’

  It had been a while since Leo had talked like this and he wanted to dive back into his old games.

  ‘Hey, Ralph. We should play Asteroids when we get home.’

  Ralph looked away. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘What about Other Worlds? We could play it from the verandah.’

  Ralph’s fur was a dull beige. Not the yellow Leo expected. ‘Not much fun without a telescope.’

  Leo winced at the memory of their big goodbye, when he had thrown the telescope in the bin.

  ‘What are you making?’

  Leo bunched his eyebrows. ‘I already told you.’

  ‘Huh?’

  Leo froze. It wasn’t Ralph talking this time. It was Gus, sitting on his other side. He kept rolling the clay. ‘I’m – making some planets.’

  Gus inspected the spheres. ‘I don’t know much about space. What do you like about it?’

  This huge kid had a way of asking questions that Leo wanted to answer, like he was offering a perfect peach you just had to bite into.

  ‘That’s – well, that’s what I like. That we don’t know much about it. It’s mysterious and we’ve still got lots to find out.’ He returned the question. ‘What are you making?’

  Gus hunched, like he wanted to make himself smaller. ‘Oh, just me and my dad. Playing soccer.’

  They were quiet for a while. Leo shaped his planets. Gus made some soccer goals. Ralph practised handstands at the side of the room.

  Then Gus tossed a question that Leo didn’t want to touch. ‘Who’s Ralph?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Ralph. I heard you say something about Ralph before.’

  The ball of clay slipped from Leo’s fingers and landed on the table. ‘He’s – he’s a friend from my old school.’

  He waited for Gus’s curiosity to fade, like sitting out a storm. He busied himself with another blob of clay, rolling it against the surface of the bench. After a few mindless minutes, he held in his hands a smooth cylinder. He stood it on one end and made a bunch of tall legs to hold it up. It was the strange tower near the lagoon. Ralph was suddenly beside him, staring at the miniature tower. His fur washed lemon-yellow and he didn’t look away.

  A few days later, Leo waited with his family on the footpath outside a tall wooden house. His hair was slicked back and he wore a collared shirt tucked into long pants. As he tightened then loosened his belt, a streetlight blinked on and coated them all with an orange glow.

  ‘What’s this all about again?’ Dad lifted an esky of drinks from the boot of the car.

  ‘I told you.’ Mum took a pencil from behind his ear. ‘Every year Mr Oliver hosts a welcome back barbecue for all the high school teachers.’

  Peg fussed with her headband. ‘Who’s Mr Oliver?’

  ‘He’s the principal. My boss.’ Mum pulled her stern teacher face. ‘So you all have to behave yourselves. Especially you.’ She pointed a finger at Dad’s chest and kissed him on the cheek.

  Leo pulled a face. Ralph went cross-eyed. ‘You be good too,’ Leo whispered as they walked through the gate.

  ‘Wow!’ Peg’s mouth dropped open. ‘Look at this place!’

  Cushions and blankets were spilt across the grass. Small lanterns nestled in the forks of trees and fairy lights zigzagged above their heads like a ceiling of stars. There were tables spread with cheese and dips, the smell of barbecued sausages wafted in the air, and jangly country music blared from a pair of speakers.

  Leo and Peg followed Mum’s orders and said hello to Mr Oliver. He was a lean man with a friendly face that bent forward, so he seemed interested all the time.

  ‘Nice to meet you, kids.’ He leant towards Leo and shook his hand.

  Then they were free. For Peg, that meant bouncing up to every other teacher’s kid who came through the gate, linking arms and inventing games. Leo piled a plate with mini sausage rolls and sat under a lantern in the corner of the yard, next to a pool fence. Ralph did somersaults on the grass.

  ‘Hey, Ralph.’ He bit into a sausage roll. ‘What should we do to help the town pool? I want to do something about space.’

  Ralph sat up and frowned. ‘What’s so good about the town pool?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Ralph stood. ‘There’s a perfectly good pool right there.’ He was orange all over and there was a cheeky smirk on his face.

  Leo had seen that look before. ‘Ralph? What are you doing?’

  He didn’t answer. Just edged closer to the pool fence.

  ‘Ralph?’

  He stuck an arm through the fence, then a leg.

  ‘Ralph – don’t.’

  His whole body wriggled through and he was suddenly at the pool’s edge, grinning.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Leo couldn’t hide the bubble of delight in his voice. ‘You can’t go swimming now.’

  Ralph poked a hairy foot at the water and nearly dunked it in. He giggled and pulled it back. Then he tiptoed along the edge of the pool, arms out wide, like a tightrope walker. He swayed left and right, threatening to overbalance and fall in.

  ‘Not funny, Ralph!’

  Leo didn’t mean it – it was hilarious. Ralph skipped and bopped all around the pool. Pretended to dive in, wiggled some wonky dance moves and shook his body like he was covered in cockroaches. He was a scruffy whirlwind of silliness, spinning and twirling until Leo collapsed against the pool fence, out of breath with laughter.

  ‘Leo, what are you doing?’ Mum was holding a glass of punch. Her head was tilted to the side like she was trying to solve a puzzle. ‘Were you talking to someone?’

  Leo tried to flatten his crumpled shirt and get his breath back. ‘It was just a bit noisy,’ he said, still puffing. ‘So I sat over here.’

  She narrowed her eyes. Scanned either side of him like she was hunting for the real answer. ‘Well, I think you should come back.’

  She rejoined the crowd. He sighed.

  Ralph squeezed back through the fence. ‘Do you think she knows I’m here?’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Here,’ said Ralph. ‘In Dundle.’

  Leo never struggled talking to Ralph. Words came out easily. But this time, he didn’t know what to say.

  On Saturday, Leo rode his bike like a bullet round the lagoon. The sun was barely awake but already blinding and bright, as if it had never slept. Cockatoos dotted the trees, kangaroos chewed tufts of grass, and clouds of yellow butterflies swept all around. Leo pedalled hard and laughed even harder. Laughed because he couldn’t help it, because it was a beautiful day, but mostly because his best friend Ralph was right there with him, clinging on like a furry backpack.

  As he zoomed around for another lap, Mum, Dad and Peg set up a barbecue breakfast in the nearby park. It was a big circuit and he was mostly out of their sight, which made it easier to talk to Ralph.

  ‘Am I going too fast?’

  ‘Never!’

  ‘Wanna go faster?’

  ‘Yes!’

  Leo pumped his legs harder. The pedals spun in blurry circles. Ducks flapped off the path and dragonflies veered out of the way. Ralph’s sun-kissed fur danced in the wind and Leo felt the warmth of it against his neck. His big mushroom nose drank in the morning air right next to Leo’s face.

  ‘Stop!’ Ralph pointed a hairy paw. He had spotted the tower.

  Leo stopped the bike. He felt something shift in Ralph.

  ‘I want a closer look,’ his friend said.

  Leo steered off the path and bumped the bike along the dirt. He pedalled into the tower’s shadow, slowed down and looked up. It was even bigger up close. Birds wheeled around the roof, clouds floated past, and it seemed everything was moving except the tower, like the whole world was spinning around this bulging metal tank.

  Leo took his feet off the pedals and planted them on the ground. Ralph slid off his back and stood at the wire fence that bordered the tower.

  ‘Dad said it’s for holding water,’ said Leo. ‘But not for plants or the pool. More important stuff.’

  Ralph’s ears lifted. His fur was yellow. ‘Yeah, important stuff.’

  Leo rested his bike on the ground and crouched next to his friend, staring up. ‘Are you okay?’

  Ralph blinked. ‘Yeah. I’m glad I saw it.’ Then he shook himself like he was waking from a dream. ‘Let’s get back to breakfast.’

 

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