Seriously Weird: Gerald's Bird

My teeth broke through the waxy apple shell and closed on ... air. The apple was completely hollow. Empty as an egg after you've scooped the insides out. Dry as a balloon.

"Put that down please!"

The man in the gray suit was looking at me. I felt my face going red.

"What do you think you're doing !" demanded Mrs Bletcher. She was really cross. "You were told to leave things alone. See that sign? Don't touch! I'll talk to you later about this!"

Some of the other kids laughed, others choked back their giggles. I thought it was funny too, but I kept my face long and serious, so Mrs Bletcher would think I was real sorry.

After that, we went into a large room, with examples of what the waxworks made. Most of the stuff was boring. Who wants to look at copies of things we can see anyway? If it looks as real as the real thing, why bother making a fake?

But the wax people were something else!

They were the same size as real people, and they were dressed in real clothes, like you'd buy in the shops. Some of the girls got scared. They thought the wax people were going to suddenly start talking. Us boys weren't bothered though. We thought it was a joke, so we had the girls on.

Right down the end of the line of wax people was a boy. He had jeans on, and a red shirt, and sandals. His face was so real I had to look twice, just to make sure he was made of wax and not some smart-alek kid having us on. He stared back at us as we passed. His eyes were blue, and shiny, just like real eyes, and his hair was slightly messed up, like real hair gets after you've brushed it a bit crooked.

Camile said, "He makes me feel sad."

"Why?" I asked

"Because he's not a real boy. Wouldn't it be nice if he could come back to school with us?"

"Yeah!"

We moved out of the room and followed the man in the suit until we were back at the front door of the Waxworks Museum. The man in the suit shook Mrs Bletcher's hand and was going to say more but his phone