The Phonecall

‘Hi this is Lucy.’

‘Lucy, it’s Jonathan. So glad you’re there.’ The roundness and beauty of rocky hills and misty lochs sounded in his voice. It was a young voice, but had an edge of manhood about it. He wasn’t a boy.

Warmth seeped from the top of her head, into her heart.

‘That’s nice of you to call,’ she said, desperately casual. ‘What time is it there?’

‘It’s almost seven,’ he said. ‘But I’ve been up for hours.’ She liked the way he rolled his ‘r’s. ‘I can hear the sun in your voice,’ he said.

‘Really?’ she laughed. ‘But it’s been raining all day!’

He laughed too. ‘I can still hear it. It must be warm there.’

‘Yeah, sticky and hot. But I want to know everything. Is this going to be expensive for you?’

‘Not at all. In fact I have this calling card that’s a really good deal. I can call you cheaper than I can call my neighbours.’

‘What does it look like in Scotland today?’ Lucy said, nervously winding a pipe of hair around her finger and then sticking the end into her mouth.

‘It’s grey, and it’s freezing. The Firth of Forth is foaming and frothy, and beating the land into shape, fed by the cold North Sea. The clouds are low and dense. People are really grumpy as they huddle against the wind and drag themselves to work. But I’m lucky … I’m all bundled up in my pyjamas listening to cheesy eighties music in my grandpa-slippers, drinking hot tea and talking to a girl with a beautiful sunny voice on the other side of the world.’

Lucy felt herself blush.

‘What’s Australia like today?’

‘It’s hot. Probably thirty-four degrees. That’s Celsius. Humid too. Been raining all this time. From my window I can see two Kookaburras — I gave them names a while back — Kevin and Evan. My dog Jaffa’s at my feet. The hills are green outside and … I don’t know …’ she laughed. ‘Is this small talk and should we get to the point?’

Jonathan laughed too. ‘If you like. Kookaburras. I can hardly imagine.’

‘Yeah, sometimes if you give Kevin a juicy bit of sausage outside our kitchen and you time it right you can gently stroke his back as he eats. You have to be fast though. Sneak in a cuddle before he turns his beak on you.’

‘I’m jealous,’ Jonathan said. ‘Well, I wish I could see you Lucy. No chance of Skype?’

‘Nope.’

‘Maybe it’s better you don’t see me anyway, I’m as pale as an albino earthworm after months without sun. But I’d like to see you, if I could.’

‘Well, that wouldn’t be fair, would it?’

‘I suppose not. Would you send me a picture? Email it?’

‘Only if you send me one at the exact same time,’ she said smiling. ‘Whether you’re an earthworm or not.’

Lucy Wright, sixteen and a paraplegic after a recent car accident that took her mother’s life, lives in Queensland on a 10,000 acre farm with her father. When Lucy investigates strange lights over the creek at the bottom of the property, she discovers a mystery that links the lights to the science of cymatics and Scotland’s ancient Rosslyn Chapel.

But beyond the chapel is an even larger mystery. One that links the music the chapel contains to Norway’s mysterious Hessdalen lights, and beyond that to Saturn and to the stars. Lucy’s discoveries catapult her into a parallel universe connected to our own by means of resonance and sound, where a newly emerging world trembles on the edge of disaster. As realities divide, her mission in this new world is revealed and she finds herself part of a love story that will span the galaxy.