Chapter 1

 

 

Bad luck had followed Ben Williams around for as long as he could remember. He thought sometimes that it was like a faithful puppy, ready to trip him up when he least expected it. Of course being only fourteen years old some people might think he wasn’t old enough to have seen a lot of bad luck. But then everyone else was not like him. Something was either breaking on him for no apparent reason, catching fire, or he was injuring himself. Or the simple act of kicking a football proved a disaster… like today.

 

It was a rainy, windy Sunday morning, the soccer ground a sodden, muddy mess. The ball was so waterlogged it had been like kicking a bag of oranges. The game was almost over and neither team had scored. But it would take only one goal to put Ben’s team into the finals and he was suddenly in a great position to do just that.

 

He had just got a nice pass from Luke out on the wing, sailing over the defenders to land right in front of him. As he got control of it he knew there was only the goalkeeper in front of him. But with only seconds left in the game he knew he had to make a shot pretty quickly.

 

As he heard the sound of defenders running up from behind, he kicked the bally slightly ahead of him. The goal keeper too was moving, heading toward him to try and put him off the kick. He charged forward and landed a solid kick to the heavy ball and watched it fly up into the air.

 

It cleared the goalkeeper and Ben grinned as it came down right in front of the net, a bounce from making a goal. It hit the ground with a wet thump and… stopped, stuck in a pile of mud! The whistle for fulltime was heard, followed by groans of dismay from his team mates as they came running up… as well as cheers from the other team because they were in the finals.

 

Ben just stood there, disbelief on his face at the rotten luck that had run up and bitten him once again. He walked over to the ball, the goalkeeper bent over it with a bemused expression.

 

‘Phew… that was close!’ he said. ‘It hit a patch of mud and got stuck! That should have been a goal.’

 

‘Tell me about it,’ Ben muttered sourly.

 

‘Bad luck, Ben!’ said a voice behind him and he looked around to see Luke and a bunch of his team mates approaching. Luke was one of his best friends, not only on the team but going to the same school as he did.

 

‘Again with the bad luck, Williams,’ said another boy called Tim who Ben didn’t like that much. He was a bit of a bully to some of the smaller boys. ‘It was like that goal you missed earlier in the season. Hit the cross bar, then bounced up and down between it and the ground like crazy before being scooped up by the keeper.’

 

‘Yeah… or like that one that hit that seagull… that would have been a goal too,’ said another boy.

 

‘Okay… we all know about them!’ Ben replied angrily. ‘I still have more goals than you for the season, Tim.’

 

‘Yeah, but the ones you miss are just… weird!’ Tim sneered.

 

‘Sit on it, Bennings!’ Ben retorted and stormed off with Luke hurrying behind him.

 

‘Don’t let it get you down, Ben,’ he said. ‘It’s just… well…’

 

‘Bad luck!’ Ben snapped.

 

‘Yeah… but that can happen to anyone!’ Luke replied, trying to make his friend feel a little better.

 

‘Come on, Luke!’ Ben said. ‘I’m always having bad luck. I broke that chemistry setup in science class this year… I mean, I just bumped into the table and the whole lot came crashing down! Even Mr Powell couldn’t figure out why it happened.’

 

Mr Powell was their science teacher at their high school and Ben and Luke were in the third year.

 

‘Yeah… but…’ Luke went to say, but Ben had the bit in his teeth now and wasn’t about to let up till he had a few things off his chest.

 

‘Then last year doing that skateboard jump… a simple jump over a rubbish bin and then the wheel hits that bit of dog poo and I’m suddenly on my back with a broken arm.’

 

‘Well… dog poo is slippery…’

 

‘And that ATM machine I used last month… put my card in it to get some money and the bloody thing starts smoking!’ Ben went on.

 

‘But they said it was an electrical fault… not your fault.’

 

‘I know, I know… but it happened to me! Why not the guy before me… or after me. Why me!’

 

They were off the ground by now and heading into the clubroom to get changed before heading home. Luke got in front of Ben and bringing him to a stop, put a hand on his shoulder.

 

‘Okay… so you have a bit of bad luck,’ he said with a grin. ‘Just get over it. It’s not like it’s going to kill you.’

 

Ben started at that and Luke’s eyes suddenly went wide as he realized what he’d said.

 

‘Look… I didn’t mean that… it just slipped out,’ he defended.

 

Ben shook his head.

 

‘It’s okay, Luke,’ he replied. ‘It’s cool.’

 

But it wasn’t that cool. Not to Ben. It had reminded him of more bad luck… awful luck in fact. Only two years ago his mother had died after being hit by a car. Which had left him an orphan as he’d never known his father.

 

His mother had never talked about it and Ben had never asked. He wasn’t the only kid in his class who either didn’t know their father and they’d just walked out.

 

It was until after she had died that his grandmother had told him that he had been some guy his mum had met whilst in Europe. Ben knew what a one night stand was, so he hadn’t been totally shocked. His grandmother had told him that he’d been Spanish, so whilst he had never known him, it was kind of cool to know that his dad was a foreign dude.

 

Since then he had been living with his grandmother, Alice Williams and the past two years had been pretty happy considering the loss they had both shared. But it was still just another piece of bad luck, the worst imaginable.

 

‘Sorry again, man,’ Luke said, watching Ben’s thoughtful expression.

 

Ben waved his apology away.

 

‘Hey… no problems. We’re friends, right.’

 

‘Still coming over tonight for some serious gaming?’ he asked. ‘I’m going to whip your arse this time!’

 

‘In your dreams!’ Ben replied. ‘I’m going to burn you!’

 

They were playing a racing videogame at the moment and Ben was pretty good at it. It was the one thing that bad luck didn’t seem to affect.

 

‘No way… I’m going to beat you this time!’ Luke said.

 

They got changed then, getting out of their wet and muddy uniforms. Ben put them in a plastic bag so they wouldn’t get the rest of his sports bag wet. His coach, David Chen came up to him as he slipped into a warm tracksuit.

 

‘That was a nice kick, Ben,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t believe how the ball just got stuck in the mud. What are the odds, eh?’

 

‘Yeah… would have been nice to make the finals,’ Ben said.

 

‘Well… let’s look forward to next season,’ David said. ‘That was the top team today and they didn’t score against us. Next year we’ll beat them for sure.’

 

‘Hey, yeah! Sounds good to me coach.’ Ben grinned.

 

The coach called the team together once everyone had changed for a brief meeting. He reminded everyone that since this had been the last game they wouldn’t be together again until the club’s awards night in a few weeks. He announced the names of a few boys who would be moving to a different age division next year and the night would be their last time with the team. Tim Bennings was one of them, which didn’t displease Ben one bit.

 

Then everyone began to leave, Ben saying goodbye to a few close team mates and making sure what time he was to come over to Luke’s. He usually got a lift home with his dad, but today they were going to a relative’s place for lunch. So Ben had to catch the bus.

 

* * *

 

He headed toward the street to a bus shelter nearby, glad for the cover as it was still raining. But as he had only been waiting for a short time when he saw a large black car approaching along the street. It quite old fashioned, they type that Ben sometimes saw on old gangster movies.

 

He thought he recognised it and sure enough it pulled up by the shelter. Ben grinned as a window wound down and he saw the elderly man inside.

 

‘Hey, Mr Wallace!’ he said.

 

‘Get in, Ben,’ Mr Wallace said. ‘I thought it was you. You’ll catch a death in this weather.’

 

Ben quickly opened the door and slid into the passenger seat, closing the door again against the rain and cold. Inside it was nice and warm and gave a sigh of relief.

 

‘How was soccer today?’ Mr Wallace asked as he got the car moving again in the traffic. ‘Did you win?’

 

‘No… neither team scored.’

 

‘Well, it was a pretty awful day for it,’ Mr Wallace chuckled.

 

Mr Wallace was one of Ben’s neighbours. He was quite an elderly man, older than his grandmother, which made him at least over sixty which was pretty old. He had a shock of wavy white hair and sky blue eyes. He was tall and thin and had befriended Ben and his grandmother a couple of years ago when they had moved into their small house.

 

He lived next door in a large old mansion. His grandmother had told him that the house was well over a hundred years old, which was a pretty long time Ben thought.

 

And inside the house Mr Wallace had an unusual museum full of some pretty amazing things. He had told Ben that he had been an archaeologist and had travelled to many different countries looking for evidence of old civilizations. Ben thought he must have gone to some pretty awesome places as the museum housed some truly weird stuff.

 

Ben also did some odd jobs around the house for him and he never missed the chance to have a look at the collection. Mr Wallace hadn’t added much to it over the two years he had known him, but it was always interesting to look at it again.

 

‘You’ve got school holidays now haven’t you?’ the man asked.

 

Ben nodded.

 

‘Yep, they start tomorrow.’

 

‘Well, I’ve got an odd job for you around the house if you’re interested,’ Mr Wallace said.

 

‘Sure. You can always count on me, Mr Wallace,’ Ben replied eagerly as Mr Wallace always paid him very well for any work he did. There was a new video game he wanted and if he got that, the holidays wouldn’t be so dull.

 

‘Very good,’ Mr Wallace said. ‘Why don’t you come over tomorrow morning and I’ll tell you what I need done.’

 

They chatted on then, Mr Wallace asking how his grandmother was and how the school year was going. Then they were turning into their street and he pulled the car up in front of Ben’s house.

 

Ben got out and gave Mr Wallace a quick wave before dashing through the rain up the front path to his front door. He fished out a key from his sports bag and let himself in.

 

‘Hi, honey!’ his grandmother’s voice called from the kitchen. ‘How was the game?’

 

Ben made his way to the kitchen and found her sitting at the table working on one of a jigsaw puzzle that she liked doing. She liked really complicated ones and Ben saw that this new one looked very much so. When she was finished with them she always packed them away between two pieces of cardboard so they would stay together. She had a few framed and they hung on the walls of the house.

 

‘No-one scored… so we didn’t make the finals,’ Ben replied, going to fridge and helping himself to a small carton of flavoured milk.

 

‘Oh, that’s too bad,’ she replied with a sympathetic smile.

 

Alice Williams was a woman in her late fifties, quite small like Ben’s mother had been with light brown hair and dark eyes. Ben himself was the opposite, quite tall for a fourteen year old and he figured that his dad, whoever he was, must have been tall… or at least he liked think so.

 

‘Well, make yourself a sandwich if you’re hungry,’ Alice said. ‘But we’re having a big curry tonight, so don’t eat too much.’

 

Ben grinned.

 

‘You know me, gran. I could eat all day.’

 

‘A growing boy,’ she nodded. ‘Did you catch the bus home?’

 

‘I almost did, but then Mr Wallace came past and gave me a lift,’ he replied. ‘Saved me from getting wet again. I got soaked playing today.’

 

‘I bet you did. How is Mr Wallace?’

 

‘He looks fine. He’s got a job for me around the house, so I’m going over there tomorrow.’

 

‘Sorry we can’t do anything more exciting this year,’ Alice said apologetically. ‘I know most of your friends are going away.’

 

Ben bent down and kissed her on a cheek.

 

‘Don’t worry about it, gran,’ he said. ‘Maybe next year.’

 

Ben knew that money was tight in the house as his gran lived on a pension and some savings. Ben’s grandfather had died long before he had been born, having lost his life in the Vietnam War and his gran had brought up her two children on her own. His Uncle James was a mining engineer and spent most of his time overseas.

 

They were comfortable, his gran owning their house and Ben didn’t go without too often. He had a computer and a television in his room and wore good clothing. But holidays were expensive and they had done without them mostly.

 

‘Is it okay if I go round to Luke’s tonight?’ he asked. ‘I won’t see him till school starts again.’

 

‘Of course you can,’ Alice replied. ‘Playing video games I suppose.’

 

‘Absolutely!’ Ben grinned.