‘What’s up Joe? Have a bad dream? Are you okay?’

‘Nothing, no and yes!’ whispered Joe loudly in reply. ‘Geez, Frank. You’re starting to sound like mum!’

Frank playfully tried to take a swipe at him, delighted that Joe seemed to be back to his normal self again. Joe ducked and plonked himself down on the side of the bed.

‘So why the 6.00am wake up call?’ asked Frank.

‘It’s not much, Frank,’ began Joe, ‘but I can sort of remember some details.’

Frank was suddenly extremely interested.

‘What can you remember?’ he asked Joe.

‘Everything was soft,’ said Joe, his eyes round.

‘What was soft?’ prompted his brother.

Joe frowned.

‘Underneath me. I was laying on something soft. Really soft. And someone touched my face really gently. You know, like mum does.’

Frank ran his hand through his dark hair. These details weren’t much to go on, but it was encouraging that Joe could remember bits and pieces. Maybe he’d remember more!

‘That’s great, Joe,’ Frank told his brother. ‘Perhaps more will come back to you.’

Joe stood up and began pacing restlessly around the room. In the dim light of the morning Frank could still make out the unruly hair and excited but frustrated expression on his brother’s face. Recalling a simple technique he had read about, Frank sat up and urged Joe to come back and sit next to him.

‘Let’s try something to help you remember,’ he suggested.

‘I’m game!’ replied Joe.

‘You said you felt something soft beneath you. Under your back or your front?’

‘My back,’ answered Joe decisively.

‘Lay down here,’ Frank told him.

Joe obliged and shut his eyes.

‘Why did you shut your eyes?’ asked Frank.

‘I couldn’t see anything!’ said Joe excitedly, his blue eyes flashing.

‘Okay, shut them again,’ Frank told him, ‘and tell me what you could hear.’

Joe laid still, his mind struggling to find more clues in the recesses of his mind. Needing to find a notebook and pen, Frank switched on the bedside light. Joe immediately sat bolt upright!

‘A click!’ he exclaimed. ‘I heard a click, more than once!’

Frank wrote down ‘Soft. ‘Gentle’ touch of cheek. Eyes closed. (Blindfold?) Heard ‘click’.’

‘Joe, this is great!’ Frank enthused, and grinned at the brother he thought he would never see again.

‘Let’s try again later,’ said Joe, practically leaping off the bed. ‘I’m starving!’

Still grinning from ear to ear, Frank followed his brother downstairs to wreak havoc in the kitchen.

……

Later that morning, Frank and Joe went down to Prito’s pizza restaurant for a celebratory get-together with some of their close friends. The place wasn’t normally open at 10.00am, but Tony had got his Dad open up just for Frank, Joe, Chet, Callie, Phil and Biff. After warm greetings, slaps on the back, and even a hug from Callie, the small group managed to have a great laugh at the front page of the Bayport Times. Under the headline, ‘Local Teen Returned Unharmed’, there was a huge picture of Biff looking directly at the camera, finger pointed and a murderous look in his eye. Directly under the picture was the caption ‘Aggressive but loyal friend warns press away from Hardy brothers.’ Biff’s face reddened first with indignation and then with embarrassment. Joe flung an arm around his friend’s shoulders and raised his other hand in the air to silence the group.

‘I just want to say that I’m really grateful Biff was there yesterday. I was so out of it, those reporters would have walked all over me. You’re a true friend Biff and I thank you for it!’

‘Here, here!’ echoed Frank and Chet, and Biff felt the last of the guilt he had felt since Joe’s disappearance under his watch, disappear.

‘’Have you spoken to Vanessa?’ asked Callie, changing the subject.

‘Not yet,’ replied Joe, ‘because she’s gone bush for a week. She’ll probably freak out about what’s happened, but I’ll have to tell her because it’s been all over the news. Someone will tell her the moment she gets back. She’s back in two days.’

After another enjoyable hour, the Hardys returned home. They had to park in the road as a black car was parked in their driveway. As they walked up to the house, Joe recognised Jake sitting in the driver’s seat.

‘Jake? What are you doing here?’ Joe asked.

Jake extended his hand to shake Joe’s and then Frank’s hand.

‘Waiting for Greta,’ he explained. ‘She’s come to visit you. Glad you’re okay. We can’t stay long, so I said I’d wait out here. See you round.’

Feeling like they had been dismissed, Frank and Joe went inside. As they walked into the lounge, Greta put down her tea cup and rushed over to Joe, hugging him.’

‘Oh Joe!’ she exclaimed. ‘I just HAD to make sure you were okay! Your poor mother must have been out of her mind! You’re not hurt? Oh, I feel so awful that this happened because you were trying to help me!’

Frank watched with amusement as Joe extricated himself from the embrace. Laura, who was sitting on the couch, held her mouth in a polite but tight smile. She clearly thought Greta was being a little too demonstrative towards her son. Frank couldn’t be totally sure, but he even thought he saw his mother roll her eyes ever so slightly!

‘I must be going, now that I’ve seen with my own eyes that you’re alright Joe,’ Greta gushed. ‘Laura, tell Fenton that I hope he solves this case but I won’t hold it against him he doesn’t want to set foot in my gym ever again!’

‘Goodbye Greta,’ said Laura, and watched as the woman kissed Frank then Joe on the cheek before hurrying out to the car and the waiting Jake.

Their attention placed squarely on Greta, neither Frank nor their mother noticed Joe perch himself on the arm of the chair and stare open-mouthed at nothing.

As Laura took the tea things into the kitchen, Frank put his hand on Joe’s shoulder.

‘What’s the matter Joe?’ he asked softly.

Joe looked up into his brother’s eyes.