‘This baby snake’s dangerous? You should see the snakes in Hong Kong. Pythons that are bigger than you.’
‘Fang is NOT a baby,’ I said. I wanted to grab Fang out of Stanley’s hands, but I wasn’t sure how to do that without making Fang angry. No matter what Stanley said, Fang is dangerous. Only the bravest people can handle him. Like me. And occasionally my sister Lucy. ‘I’ve been to Hong Kong. And I never saw a snake bigger than me – or Fang!’
I’ve never actually seen ANY snakes in Hong Kong, but I didn’t need to share that detail.
I stormed out of my room and went to find my mum in the kitchen. She was on the phone speaking Cantonese.
‘Mum!’ I knocked on the table in front of her to get her attention. ‘MUM!’
She ignored me and carried on. ‘He arrived safe and sound,’ she said down the phone. She must have been talking to Stanley’s parents in Hong Kong. ‘We’re so glad to have him here.’
I stuck my tongue out.
My mum gave me a mum glare, which is significantly worse than a normal glare. ‘Stop that!’ she mouthed.
I sat down next to her at the table and kicked the floor. I couldn’t believe that my mum was making me give up my bed for Stanley!
My little sister Lucy came running in, her cat Butterbutt in her arms.
‘STANLEY’S HERE! Stanley’s here!’ Lucy shouted, spinning around.
‘Why are you so excited about it?’ I said.
‘I like Stanley! And he brought me sweets from Hong Kong.’
I thought it would take more than sweets to bribe Lucy, but apparently I was wrong.
‘What kind of sweets?’ I asked grudgingly. Lucy held out a sticky hand with a small wrapped sweet in it.
‘Here!’ she said.
I popped it in my mouth. I hate to admit it, but it was delicious.
It tasted like lychee. Which is my favourite fruit. It’s a fruit from Asia that tastes AMAZING. It’s sort of like a cherry, if a cherry had a shell. It has three layers – the bumpy red outside that you peel, the white fruit inside that you eat, and a big brown seed in the middle.
‘Thank you,’ I said with my mouth full of lychee candy. I wondered if Stanley had any more. That would be the only good thing about him coming to stay with us.
‘Sam! What are you doing pouting and kicking the floor?’ my mum said as she hung up the phone. ‘You know better than that.’
‘Why is Stanley here?’ I demanded. ‘And why is he staying in my room? In my BED?’
‘He’s here because he has a new baby brother and sister, and his parents need some time to get the twins settled. And he’s here because he’s family, and family is always welcome.’
Twins! I looked at Lucy and imagined if there were two of her.
‘But why is he in my room?’
My mum sighed. ‘Because he’s your cousin, Sam. And you two will have fun! Why don’t you show him your SPACE BLASTERS cards or something?’
‘Why can’t he stay in the garage? Or on the roof ?’
‘WU GABO!’4 Mum shouted. ‘Get upstairs and be nice to your cousin. Right now.’
I marched up the stairs, back to my room. It wasn’t as if I had a choice in the matter.
At least I didn’t have to go camping.
The next morning at breakfast, everyone kept asking Stanley questions. You would have thought he was the most interesting person in the whole universe.
My dad laughed at all his dumb jokes.
My mum complimented him on his hair.
Lucy wanted to sit next to him.
And Na-Na, my grandma who lives with us, gave him extra congee!5
Even Butterbutt climbed on his lap! And Butterbutt only likes Lucy.
If they all liked Stanley so much, why couldn’t he sleep in THEIR rooms? Or not-sleep, I should say. Stanley was up all last night because of something called ‘jet lag’, which apparently means when you fly across the world your body doesn’t know what time it is. He told me about it in his typical know-it-all way. Even though I’ve been on aeroplanes too. And a real spaceship at the Space Museum.6
‘If Spaceman Jack can travel at warp speed and not get jet lag, I don’t understand why you got it from just going on an aeroplane,’ I said after about a million hours of him telling me about all the things he does in Hong Kong and how cool his life is there. Who cares that they have the most awesome arcades in the world? Or that Stanley supposedly has a top score on a bajillion of the games? Or that at this amusement park called Ocean Park, you can ride roller coasters, watch pandas and see sharks?7
‘It’s as if I’m from the future,’ Stanley went on. ‘I left on Saturday and arrived here on Friday. I’m basically a time traveller.’
‘You just took a flight,’ I grumbled. ‘No big deal.’ It wasn’t as if he’d gone on a spaceship. Then I’d be impressed. Maybe.
‘Hey, Sam,’ Stanley said in between bites of congee. ‘Remember when you first came to Hong Kong and there was a typhoon8 and you were so scared?’
‘I was NOT,’ I said with a scowl.
‘That typhoon wasn’t even a big one. We had an even bigger typhoon after you left! It made our whole apartment building shake.’
‘You
