The Curse of the Incredibly Bad News (12/26)

The Curse of the Incredibly Bad News (12/26)

14 year-old Ben Johnston is bright, quirky and impulsive. He is bored by life in the small coastal town of Werrinup where the only excitement is when his very organised, ironing-is-a-lost-art-form mother forgets to check his homework. But when he thinks he's on the trail of the Werrinup Thief he stumbles into a mystery as big as the Universe.    Ben thinks he has identified the culprit as his best buddy Francis and, in hot pursuit, he follows Francis through a storm drain. On the other side he finds himself in unfamiliar territory but is distracted by the pursuit of Francis.  The Thief gives Ben the slip.   Ben is on the way home (he thinks) when he comes across a beautiful girl, a year or so older.  As soon as they're close together, huge purple bugs swoop to attack them. The bugs are about 20 cm long with three-fanged snake heads dragon-fly wings and a mean attitude.  But a woman stands waiting. With Ninja-like moves and a kind of laser-shooting wand she zaps the bugs and is gone. Ben is astonished when he recognises that the woman was his mother, Veronica.   Ben finds he's in another Werrinup, similar but different.  In his confusion re Francis he does not notice the changes until he reaches his house where Ben finds his bedroom is occupied by the girl he's just seen, Katherine. The impulsive Ben and the sharp, logical Katherine are instantly at odds.  And neither can explain why they live in versions of the same house nor why Katherine's long lost mother is Ben's mother, Veronica.   In fact while the two Werrinups look alike in many respects in this second Werrinup "Law and Order" is the message for the day. The streetscape is dominated by "No" signs (as in "No Fishing", "No Walking on the Grass" etc) and the local Mrs Dunkly, a hard-dealing shop owner in Ben's Werrinup, is a haughty, conniving real estate agent in Katherine's world. In short Katherine's Werrinup is a regimented place and Ben soon falls foul of the rules. He is about to be carted off to jail when Francis Thief sneaks him away.  After his escape Katherine follows Ben into his world. Their appearance together triggers another purple bug attack and Veronica fends them off, identifying them as 'welkin'.   Ben and Katherine realise they live in parallel worlds and that Francis Thief, a doppelganger of Ben's friend, visits from yet a third world. But how and why is a mystery - and so is their mother.  All Veronica will tell them is that thousands of worlds are being destroyed and that they mustn't risk being in the same one at the same time. His mother has some explaining to do but Ben sure isn't bored any more.