Cuckoo-Spit (short story)

A young teenage boy, Jason, starts the first entry in a diary his granddad bought him for Christmas, stating that he only started it because strange things have been happening lately. A boy in the year above, Chris Rutter, has disappeared.

The next day, Jason befriends a boy at his school called Graham Cook during PE class. That evening, a neighbour informs Jason's mother that Chris Rutter's mother has also disappeared. During history class a week later, Jason sees a man and a boy stood on the street outside. Their faces appear to be muddled up, their eyes glowing ominously. That night, Jason learns that Graham did not come home from school and begins to worry about him.

That weekend, Jason walks to a nearby field, where he notes that the tall grass is covered with cuckoo-spit, a substance created by frog-hopper nymphs as a form of protection and a source of moisture. After hearing a sound like an old car engine, he rushes to another part of the field where he sees a blue hut, out of which steps a thin man in a crumpled suit. A girl then steps from the bushes and summons the thin man to a stream, where a metallic pear-drop shaped object lies. The man notes that the hull must have fractured on impact, meaning that something inside has escaped.

After being spotted, Jason rushes home and goes to bed early, where he sees the same man who was stood outside school a few days before and Graham Cook, their faces both jumbled up and their eyes glowing. The following day, Jason sneaks back to the field and sits by the blue hut, eventually falling asleep. He is woken up when the girl opens the door and steps out. The man follows, and the two of them agree that Jason could be used as bait to help neutralise the creatures they are chasing. That night, he sneaks out of the house and sees Graham stood outside. After Graham takes his hand, Jason is sent to sleep and wakes up in a house full of bodies. Accidentally falling onto one, he causes it to decompose, revealing a small creature resembling a centipede the size of a puppy, with no eyes or mouth.

Graham steps from the kitchen, holding one of the creatures, and approaches Jason, who notices that the substance that the bodies are composed of is like cuckoo-spit. The Doctor then appears, alongside Rose, and sets fire to the house, killing all of the creatures, before taking Jason back home. The following day, a neighbour tells Jason's parents that the police had found a house burned to the ground, with the remains of some bodies. Jason decides not to tell anyone what really happened.

Characters

References

Films

Jason has a poster of Jaws on his bedroom wall.
Jason watches the film Where Eagles Dare on the TV with his dad.

TV series

Jason used to have a model of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek.
Jason watches Superstars on TV.
Jason assumes the Doctor and Rose are police officers, but says they are not very much like the ones on Z-Cars.
Jason's parents watch That's Life on TV.
Jason's granddad watches Crown Court.

References to the real world

Jason's dad does not think Thatcher will become prime minister as she is known as "the milk snatcher".
Jason has a model Spitfire in his bedroom.
Jason listens to a radio programme featuring Jimmy Savile.

Notes

This is the first story to be published in the first of the annual storybooks published by Panini Books.

Continuity

to be added