Jack Strong and the Red Giant

Chapter Six: Padget

The boy was plonked on one of the floating chairs, his head in a mound of food. His shaggy orange hair made him look like some kind of troll. Before him on a plate as large as Jack's dinner table back home were several heavily battered fish and some huge, chunky chips dripping with salt and vinegar. There was also a giant side plate of the greenest, mushiest peas ever, as well as a pan-sized jug of steaming hot gravy, onions and all. The boy's stumpy legs wiggled beneath him as his podgy, green fingers shoved handful after handful of chips into his mouth. Jack glanced down the table and noticed that three or four other dishes had been similarly destroyed by this big green eating machine.

He thought he'd better say something. "Hey!" he said, slightly higher-pitched than he'd intended.

The boy jumped, sending chips flying around the room.

"What do you want?" he asked, looking frightened.

Jack was almost as flustered as he was. "I don't want anything," he said. "We were coming down the corridor when we smelled the food. I'm Jack, this is Grunt."

The green boy eyed them both suspiciously for a few seconds, then he opened his mouth. "My name is Padget Pen'argon," he said in a haughty, puffed-up voice. "My father is the Direktor of the Thane Konsortium, the biggest, richest and most powerful in all of Thral. What Konsortium does your dad own?

"My dad doesn't own any Konsortium," replied Jack, not entirely sure what a Konsortium was. "In fact he doesn't own anything. He just works in a chocolate factory."

"What, he's just a worker," said Padget. "You mean to say you're POOR?"

"Well yes, I suppose so," said Jack, his cheeks reddening. "But..."

Jack was going to say how it didn't matter and that for him his dad had the best job in the world, but he didn't get the chance, Padget had already turned his attentions towards Grunt.

"Hello," he said as Grunt finished hoovering-up the remains of Padget's chips. "I'm Padget. My Dad is..."

All Grunt did of course was grunt, though even if he could speak Jack didn't think it would have done much good. Given the state he was in when he arrived on the ship, he suspected that Grunt was even less well-off than he was, and besides Grunt had only one thing on his mind now and that was FOOD. As soon as Padget opened his mouth Grunt dived head first into the floating banquet, his hands scooping-up fistfuls of fish, chips and mushy peas into his gaping mouth.

Jack saw his chance and approached Padget again. "How did you get on board?" he asked. "What do you remember?"

"Get on board what?" Padget replied.

"The spaceship of course."

"What spaceship? What are you talking about?"

Jack wasn't sure if he was pulling his leg or not. "This one, obviously. You do realise you're on a spaceship don't you?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Padget. "That's impossible. If I was on a spaceship you would think I would have noticed."

"It's not impossible, here I'll prove it."

Jack remembered how they had discovered the hoverseats. So he took a chance and placed his hand on one of the stone walls and thought of space. The wall instantly faded away to reveal a big blue planet ringed by an icy-white mane of moons.

"Very clever," said Padget. "Nice try, but I'm not having it."

"Well, how else do you all explain this?" asked Jack, pointing towards the big blue blob in the middle of the wall.