Squishy Taylor in Zero Gravity Read Online Free Page A

wearily through his phone and barely even glances at us.
    We follow him into the lift and Vee nudges my arm, nodding at his pyjamas. I try not to laugh. Jessie frowns at us. At the ninth floor, the lift stops and we follow Pyjama Man out. He goes straight to the door by the lift and digs for his keys. Where now?
    Jessie spots the fire-escape door at the end of the corridor and leads the way to it. As soon as we reach the stairs and the door closes behind us, our giggles burst out.
    ‘We made it!’ I say. We high-five each other.
    ‘That man was wearing pyjama s ,’ Jessie says, in the same tone she uses when she discovers a new fact on the internet.
    ‘On the street ,’ Vee says. ‘Why was he wearing pyjamas on the street?’
    I start running up the stairs. ‘No idea,’ I say. ‘Let’s go find a rocket.’
    The others chase me up the stairs. My astronaut training has paid off. I can run even faster than I used to and Vee is right behind. Jessie is slower, but we’re all at the top pretty soon. The door to the roof is different from in our building. There’s no gate and the stairs go all the way up. The door looks as though people open it all the time.
    There is a sign. ‘Residents and guests only,’ Jessie reads aloud.
    ‘I laugh in the face of residents,’ I say, pushing open the door. It’s like our favourite line from Lightspeed Kids , but funny because I changed it from ‘enemies’ to ‘residents’.
    Vee snorts and laughs. ‘Especially when the residents wear pyjamas,’ she says.
    I step out onto the roof and into a garden. Someone’s growing vegetables and flowers up here. It’s like our balcony times a million. So many pots and tubs and wooden boxes full of plants.
    ‘Dad would love this,’ I say. Dad’s job is making other people’s gardens good. He has all these books about gardens that people grow in strange places.
    ‘Hey look,’ Vee says. ‘ S trawberries! ’ They’re still green but so cute, tucked in under their leaves.
    Then I remember to look for the rocket. It’s on the other side of the roof. In between it and us is a tall wire fence.
    The rocket is covered with a huge piece of blue plastic.
    ‘It does look rocket-shaped,’ Jessie admits from where we’re standing with our faces pushed up against the wire. ‘But you can’t actually see what’s underneath.’

    I pull back, looking for a way in. The fence has a gate with a padlock.
    I can do the bobby-pin trick on most padlocks.
    ‘Anyone got a bobby pin?’ I ask. Jessie and Vee shake their heads.
    ‘Hi there,’ says a voice behind us. We jump. It’s Pyjama Man, but he’s not wearing pyjamas anymore. He’s wearing jeans and a T-shirt, like Dad wears.
    I gulp. Busted.
    ‘Um, hello,’ Jessie says to Pyjama Man, who’s carrying a glass of fizzy water with a slice of lemon in it.
    Vee pinches me and whispers, ‘Don’t look so guilty.’
    ‘Hi!’ I say brightly, doing my smile-and-look-them-in-the-eye thing. Mum would be proud.
    ‘I’ve never seen you kids here before,’ he says. ‘What are you up to?’
    My heart beats faster. Quickly! Make something up. ‘Um, we’re visiting our, um, cousin,’ I say. ‘He lives downstairs.’
    ‘Actually, we should probably check how he’s going,’ Jessie says, and turns towards the door.
    Pyjama Man sits on a wooden chair and leans back with a sigh. I’m following Jessie, but Vee doesn’t move.
    ‘Why were you wearing pyjamas?’ she asks him. I stop to see what he says.
    He looks confused, then laughs. ‘Oh, you mean my scrubs? They’re my nursing uniform.’
    Scrubs? Nursing uniform? Then I imagine him with a white face-mask standing next to a hospital bed. He’s right. Nurses wear pyjamas. I’ve seen it on TV.
    The man sips his fizzy water while Vee stares at him. Then he asks, ‘Is your cousin that cute kid who lives on the fifth floor?’
    ‘Yes,’ says Vee.
    ‘No,’ Jessie says, at the same time.
    The man raises his eyebrows. Jessie and Vee look