The Recycled Window
by
Anne deNize
Copyright 2010 Anne deNize
*****
Chapter 1
“That’s a funny-looking house. How come all the windows are different?” Hannah liked moving to a new house although leaving her friends behind was hard. But this house looked odd. The windows were all sizes and shapes.
“That’s the recycling,” said her father. “In this area all houses have to contain a minimum of 20 percent recycled materials. Some builders recycle stone or the timbers and some recycle whole components. This one chose to use windows from various sources. It looks like this one on the left is from a church and one over there could be from an old sailing ship.”
“Weird,” was all Hannah could say at this point.
“It’s an interesting feature, dear,” said her mother. “There aren’t many houses like this.”
Hannah liked that idea. It was fun having a house that nobody else had. She would write to her friend, Pammie, and tell her about it.
“Come inside and see your room,” suggested Dad. “You’ll like it.”
Everybody knows what you’d like better than you do, Hannah thought. She followed her father through the house and up the wooden stairway. It smelled new, woody and sunshiny.
“Here you are,” Dad said. “Your very own room.” Hannah stood in the middle and turned around. This was all wood, too. It had a pinewood smell. Her bed from home had been put in place against one wall. It looked a bit bare, being just the bed and mattress; all the bedclothes were still in the box on the landing. The window had a painted wooden frame with an arch at the top. The greeny brass catches on the window were curly and old-fashioned. Her rug with a cat on it would look really good in the middle of the floor, by the bed. She was delighted to see a large bookcase built in on the same wall as the door. All her books would fit into there easily.
She looked down on the front garden. There was a tree covered in pink blossom, dropping pale petals like snow. A bunch of daffodils in the far corner made a satisfying splodge of bright yellow. Her mother was carrying in bits and pieces of bedding and groceries out of the car. It had been a long journey from the old house.
“Oh, shut up, damn you!” her mother shouted. “I’m doing the shopping order tomorrow!”
That’ll be the fridge, thought Hannah. It’s probably telling her she needs groceries. She went downstairs to see what was going on.
Her mother was still talking to the fridge. “All right then, print a grocery list,” she grudgingly conceded.
“Printing,” said the fridge calmly. Hannah heard the printer in her father’s study start up. It was the way the fridge spoke so calmly, whatever you yelled at it, that annoyed her mother. It always stays cool, thought Hannah, and giggled.
“I can’t find a damn thing,” exclaimed her mother, crossly. “It’s all either in a box or in some cupboard.”
“Like the place where you put it yesterday?” teased Hannah’s father.
“Yes, but irrelevant. Be useful instead of just sitting there laughing at me.”
“Yes, dear,” said her father meekly.
“And don’t you ‘yes dear’ me in that tone of voice either!”
Hannah could see from the smile that her mother wasn’t really angry. If her parents were teasing each other then all was fine. She went to see if she could help find things.
“I need the colander, love, can you see if you can find it for me, please?” asked her mother. “And you,” she pointed at Hannah’s father, “you can find two sharp knives and the chopping board.” Between them they managed to put all the pieces together and Hannah set the table for dinner.
The next morning was dull and overcast and Hannah was pleased that it was still the holidays – school would come soon enough. Today she would explore. She hadn’t yet been into every room in the house or all the way round the garden. She was intrigued by the garden shed she had seen from upstairs. Its windows looked like they had come from a school with small panes of glass and wooden strips in between each pane. The timber door was painted blue with a gold stripe all around, about six inches from the edge. The curly black iron handle looked just right for a garden shed.
After breakfast, Hannah stacked the dishwasher and then explored the house. Upstairs there were four bedrooms. Her parents’ bedroom was painted in lilac and had a dressing room and an ensuite bathroom with a shower. Then there was her bedroom, wooden boards with green window frames. Then a blue one with timber panels like hers for her brother Toby when he came home from staying at their cousins’ place.
The fourth room had pink roses on the wallpaper and her mother had decided it was the spare bedroom and studio. Which meant it would very soon smell of paint and have pictures all over the walls. There was also a big bathroom that Hannah and Toby would use. It had a long bath with metal feet shaped like lions’ feet. She was looking forward to trying out the bath. Maybe she would have bubbles.
Downstairs had the kitchen, dining room, a toilet, a sitting room, a study for Dad and another small room that only had a swivel desk chair in it.
“What’s that small room at the back?” Hannah asked her father who was in his study unpacking books.
“We haven’t quite decided yet,” said her father. “I’ve put a chair there for the moment. Maybe it could be a TV room or a small library.”
“Can I have it for a study?” asked Hannah. “I could do my homework there. And maybe we could put the computer in there.”
“Could be an idea,” said her father. “It’s not big enough to be anything else. And that window doesn’t let in much light. We could still put bookshelves around.”
Hannah went back to look at the window. It didn’t let in much light at all. And there were drawings on it. She moved the chair and sat down to study the window. It had a metal frame that was set inside another wooden one. It looked really thick and the garden on the other side was all blurry. And the pictures in the glass were moving. Curious to see why, Hannah went to the sitting room and looked out. There wasn’t any wind today; it was just a grey sky. That wasn’t what made the pictures in the window move.
Coming back to the little room, she looked at the pictures in the glass. If she made her eyes a bit out of focus and shaded them with her hand, the pictures came a little clearer. And they definitely were moving. She could see where one circle had moved further away from the frame since she had first looked at it.
Hannah tried closing the door, putting the blinds down on the other little window at the end, turning the lights on and trying again with them off. She could see best if the lights were off and the other blinds closed. The pictures were still very pale, though, and not easy to see. There were spots and one huge spherical object that had marks all over it. She also confirmed without a doubt that the pictures were moving. Very slowly, but still moving. The big sphere moved from the middle of the window to the side while she was conducting her experiments with lights and blinds.
It was all very puzzling.
Chapter 2
The garden ran all the way around the house. There were shrubs and flowers on all sides and a tree with an old tyre hung up as a swing. This was excellent for standing on if you held on to the rope above. She could swing and see right over the fence to next door. That was a weird house too. It looked as though all the doors were recycled. Each one was different. The windows looked the same as each other. Comparing the two, she preferred to have funny windows.
As she watched and swung, two children came around the corner. The younger one, a boy, carried a cricket bat and ball while the older girl carried some stumps. It
didn’t take them long to set up the wicket and argue out who was batting first. Apparently the boy won and he settled himself in front of the wicket, handling the bat very professionally. The girl walked back a few steps and then bowled. Hannah decided that perhaps the girl needed a bit more practice at the bowling but it was still coming close enough that the boy could swing at it.
All of a sudden there was a ‘thwack’ and the ball came shooting wildly over the fence, narrowly missing Hannah on her swing.
“Hey, careful,” she called, “that nearly hit me.”
“Whoops,” said the boy, his hand over his mouth as he looked at the girl. She shrugged her shoulders and headed out the gate, reappearing shortly at Hannah’s front gate. Hannah retrieved the ball.
“Umm, do you mind?” said the girl. She had shiny, red blonde, curly hair and brown eyes. There was a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. She looked a bit younger than Hannah. She gestured at the ball in Hannah’s hand.
Hannah looked down at the ball and handed it over.
“Sorry about that,” said the girl. “It didn’t really hit you, did it?”
“Just nearly,” said Hannah. “I was on the swing and it came past and hit the tree.”
“Sorry,” said the girl again. “My name is Ella, what’s yours?”
“Hannah,” said Hannah. “Is that your brother?” She pointed at the blond boy who had followed and was shyly hanging on to the gate.
“That’s my brother, Joe,” said Ella
“I’ve got a brother, too,” said Hannah “but he’s bigger than me. And he is staying at our cousins’ place this week for some of the holidays. Dad is going to fetch him tomorrow in the car.”
She had protested about not going too, but Mum had said one at a time was enough to inflict on her sister. She had then had to explain what ‘inflict’ meant and Hannah didn’t like it. But Mum had given her a big hug and said she was only joking, and didn’t Hannah want to come and see the new house? Which she did, of course. She cheered up when Mum pointed out that she would be seeing it first, Toby would just have to wait.
“What’s his name?” asked Ella.
“Toby,” said Hannah. “He loves aeroplanes and spaceships.”
“What’s it like having a big brother?” asked Ella curiously.
“Okay, I suppose,” replied Hannah, “what’s it like having a little brother?”
Ella glanced at Joe, still clutching the gate and watching. “He’s okay, I guess. He doesn’t say much although he knows a lot. It’ll be better when he gets bigger and can play games properly.”
This made sense to Hannah. At least Toby could hit the ball straight. Once she had persuaded him to play with her, that is. He was often busy painting his model planes or out with his friends and didn’t have time to play. Then a thought struck her.
“Maybe we could play together,” she said. “Joe can join in.”
Ella grinned. “Good idea. Want to come over and play cricket now?”
“Okay,” said Hannah, “wait while I tell Mum.” She went to the front door and called out to her mother. “I’m just going next door to play with Ella,” she said. Her mother came to the door and then came out and met Ella and Joe. She walked around to the next door’s gate with them and saw the wicket set up and the bat where Joe had dropped it.
“Not too long,” said Mum, “lunch will be very soon.” She then left them to play and walked back through the gates and inside.
Hannah really enjoyed playing cricket with Ella and Joe and wasn’t ready to come in when her mother called. She said goodbye reluctantly and went home for lunch. Her mother asked about what they had been playing and Hannah told her all about Ella and Joe and how the ball had nearly hit her when she was on the swing. She also talked about the window in the room she already thought of as her study.
“And the pictures move, Mum,” she said. “I measured the big circle against the frame and it was right in the middle, and then later it was partly off the side. And it’s not what’s outside, because I looked.”
“That’s very peculiar,” said her mother, “is there some sort of transfer or glass decoration on it?”
“I don’t think so,” said Hannah, “but I’ll check. How would I find out where the window came from?”
“The house plans might show something,” said her mother. I think your father might have an idea where to find them. Why don’t you ask him about them?”
That evening, when Hannah asked her father about the house plans, he showed her how to look them up on the internet. There was a special password that he had got when they bought the house and when they entered it in, the screen showed the house plans and all the accompanying certificates and legal documents. The Recycling Declaration told about all the windows in the house, giving references for where they came from. She found the small study on the plans and wrote down the number for the window. Then she looked up the number on the Recycling Declaration. It said:
Window 14/1 small study. Reclaimed from dismantled ISS Apex (Reg. ISS 21/42)
Now, what did all that mean? She wondered. But it was time for bed.
Chapter 3
The next day Dad fetched Toby home. Hannah thought it was more fun when Toby was home. He teased her a lot but he still played games with her when he wasn’t off somewhere with his friends. She told him about Ella and Joe and took him to the little study to see the strange window.
“I don’t see any big spheres or circles or anything, kid,” he said. “Sure you’re not imagining things?”
“No, look harder,” said Hannah. She looked hard too, making sure the other blinds were down and the light off. The big sphere with markings had gone, but there was another, much smaller one, closer to the top of the window. That had markings on it too. She pointed it out to Toby.
“I see it now,” he said. “But what makes you say it’s moving?”
“Look,” she said. “I’ll put my finger on top of it and we wait. It goes really slowly so you have to be patient.” She did as described and Toby agreed that she was right on top of the little moon. While they waited she told Toby about the rest of the house and the garden shed.
“We can do some more exploring later, if you like,” she offered.
“Here, you must have moved your finger,” said Toby. “You’ve slipped off the circle.”
“No, I didn’t move my finger, the circle moved,” she snapped. “You do it, go on, you try.” She was annoyed that he’d assumed her finger had slipped. The whole point of the exercise was to show how the picture moved by itself.
“I don’t believe it,” said Toby when the little circle slipped out from under his finger, too. “Pictures can’t move. Not stills anyway. And not on plain windows.” He tried again, and again the circle moved out. It was now half way down the window and more to the right. “Where the heck did this come from anyway?”
“ISS Apex 21/42, whatever that means,” said Hannah. “I looked it up on the plans. All the windows are recycled from somewhere and that’s what the plan and Declaration said for this one. Look, I wrote it down,” she showed him the piece of paper she had taken from the computer printer and written on.
“But that’s an old exploration spaceship,” he exclaimed. “There was some mystery about its last voyage; I think it was found derelict or something. Anyway, eventually it was scrapped. I guess parts of it have been reused and this must be one of them. Pretty incredible, though, that it ended up in our house.”
Hannah shrugged. “It had to end up somewhere. And our house has recycled windows. The doors probably went to a doors house, like Ella’s.”
“A doors house?” asked Toby
“Yes, you know. One where the recycled bits are the doors, not the windows or roof. Ella and Joe’s house is a doors house.” She took him outside and showed him how to stand on the tyre and look over the fence.
“Cool,” said Toby.
; “I think ours is the best,” announced Hannah. Toby thought for a moment.
“Mm, I think you might be right, it’s still pretty neat, though.”
“Window, Toby!” said Hannah, dragging him away. “What’s the ISS Apex? Show me! What’s ISS stand for?”
“International Space Ship,” said Toby. “All the ships made as part of the International Space Agency programme were called ISS something. This one was the ISS Apex.”
“But what was the mystery?”
“I can’t remember, let’s go and look it up. Race you to the computer!” Having anticipated this suggestion, Hannah was already on the way as fast as she could run. She started opening the box with the computer in it.
“Dad said we could have it in this room,” she said. “But you’ll need to get the table from Dad’s study next door. It’s in the corner.”
Toby followed instructions and fetched the table. He then lifted the computer out of the cardboard box it had been packed into for moving. They set about assembly; Very soon the computer was all joined up and switched on. A Google search on ‘ISS Apex’ produced a list of hits that they scrolled through.
Toby skimmed through a couple of items and then found a news report that mentioned the ship.
Mystery Derelict
It is a mystery what has happened to the crew of the ISS Apex, found floating in orbit around Mars earlier this week with no crew aboard. The crew of seven had been away ten months on the ISA exploration vessel on a voyage to Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, known to retain a thin atmosphere.
The only sign of life in the deserted ship was a final message from Captain John Russell warning people away from the moon. “There’s nothing for earth-people here,” he said. “It is vitally important we cease exploratory missions to Europa.”
Hannah looked at Toby in wonder.
“What happened to them? Where did they go?”
“Nobody knows. They have just never been found. The strange thing is, there was nowhere they could have gone to. There were no signs in the ship and definitely no bodies.”