Page 53 of Starry Nights over Dragonfly Lake

Beth turned to see Dodgy Del walking towards them, pulling a trolley full of boxes behind him.

‘Told you I’d come good,’ he announced, with a wide smile.

‘With what?’ asked Lily, bewildered.

‘With all the space stuff for tonight,’ replied Del, stopping to unfold the top of a box. ‘Here you go! I reckon they’re going to sell like hot cakes.’

Ben peered into the box and brought out what appeared to be a small telescope on a short tripod stand.

Intrigued, Beth slid off her stool and went to inspect it. Shetook it from Ben’s hands and studied it closely. It certainly wasn’t a brand she had ever heard of which concerned her. Worse was when she peered into the lens and immediately drew back in alarm.

‘There’s no way you’re going to see any stars with this magnification,’ she said. ‘It’s too weak and doesn’t appear to be set up properly. Are there any instruction leaflets?’

Del shook his head. ‘They just came like this,’ he said, with a shrug.

Ben had taken a tripod out of the box and when he stood it on the snooker table, it immediately fell over. He looked at Del with raised eyebrows.

‘Okay, so the telescopes are a bust,’ said Del quickly. ‘What about these?’

He opened the next box with a flourish and brought out a handful of different-coloured spectacles.

‘They’re eclipse glasses,’ said Beth, taking a set from him.

‘Yeah,’ said Del, nodding enthusiastically. ‘So your audience can view the moon.’

‘But there isn’t an eclipse tonight,’ Beth told him.

‘And these are actually regular sunglasses with the word eclipse stuck on the side,’ said Lily, holding one up.

Del sighed. ‘I was trying to help,’ he said.

‘As cheaply as possible as per usual,’ murmured Ben.

‘I suppose you don’t want the posters either,’ muttered Del, his shoulders sagging.

‘Posters?’ asked Beth, now feeling even worse than before.

Ben unrolled a couple of posters from a tube. ‘This is forStar Wars,’ he said.

‘It’s set in space, isn’t it?’ replied Del.

‘Don’t tell me, they’re all for space movies?’ said Ben, unravelling the next one which was forMuppets from Space.

‘Everyone loves the Muppets,’ muttered Del.

Beth shook her head and wondered whether she could feel much worse.

But then Lily began to unroll a much larger poster. In fact, it turned out to be a full-length cut-out of an astronaut. She then quickly rifled through the posters and drew out another one.

‘Oh yeah,’ said Del, looking at them. ‘I think they were for a school project. I put them in at the last minute.’

Beth looked at Lily and expected her to look despairingly back at her. How could this possibly help her talk later? But instead, her best friend was grinning.

‘I have the most brilliant idea,’ she said. ‘Del, you’re a genius!’

‘I am?’ asked Del, goggled-eyed.

‘He is?’ Even Ben looked shocked.