Four Children and It Read online

  I heard the car draw up outside the house. It was Dad coming back from his shopping trip.

  ‘Kids? Come and see what I’ve got,’ he called.

  I thought he’d just gone to Sainsbury’s for the weekend food shopping, but when I went downstairs I saw he was holding a big cage in his hands.

  ‘Robbie? Where are you, son?’ Dad called, setting the cage down in the living room.

  Robbie came running in, a plastic animal in each hand – and then stood still. He dropped his lion and elephant on the carpet where they lay, paws in the air, forgotten. Robbie stepped towards the cage cautiously, trembling with excitement.

  ‘I know your mum has a No Pet policy, and I understand. You can’t have a dog cooped up in your little flat, and it wouldn’t be fair to it anyway when you’re out all day – but I thought this little chappie wouldn’t cause too much trouble.’

  Robbie knelt down in front of the cage, his eyes huge. He peered through the bars. Two beady brown eyes peered back at him.

  ‘It’s a hamster!’ Robbie whispered. ‘Oh, can I get him out, Dad, just so I can say hello to him properly?’

  ‘Yes, if you’re careful,’ said Dad.

  ‘Very, very careful!’ said Alice nervously.

  Robbie undid the side of the cage and slipped his hand in slowly. He stroked the hamster on the tip of its golden head, down its little wriggly body, and then gently picked it up. The hamster scrabbled for a moment.

  ‘Watch him!’ said Alice.

  Robbie held it cupped in his hands, whispering to it reassuringly. The hamster looked up at him as if it understood straight away that it was safe and protected.

  ‘Do you like him, son?’ Dad asked.

  ‘Oh, Dad, I love him.’

  ‘Look at you! You’ve got a real knack with animals, I can see that. So what are you going to call him?’

  ‘His name’s Giant,’ said Robbie, stroking the tiny creature.

  ‘He’s so sweet. Look at his little nose twitching!’ I said. ‘Oh, Robs, you’re so lucky.’

  ‘You can share him if you like,’ said Robbie. ‘You can come and stroke him whenever I’m busy.’

  ‘Can I have a stroke, Robbie?’ said Smash. ‘Oh, Dave, can’t I have a hamster too?’

  ‘No!’ said Alice. ‘Absolutely not.’

  ‘You can share him with Robbie and me if you like, Smash,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, but you’re going home tomorrow!’

  ‘Well, we could send you bulletins about him, and photos, and you can maybe come and visit him.’

  ‘Can I?’ said Smash.

  ‘Only you have to be extra quiet and gentle and never ever shout or he’ll panic,’ said Robbie.

  ‘Am I ever anything else?’ said Smash, which made us all laugh.

  ‘I’ve got you a little present, Smash,’ said Dad, fumbling in a carrier. He brought out a little folded black thing. Smash took it uncertainly. She shook it out.

  ‘What is it? A swimming costume?’ she said.

  ‘It’s a leotard. You know, girls wear them when they’re doing gymnastics. I know you said you weren’t interested, but when I saw my mate Tim in the gym he was still talking about you. He’s still running his gym courses and I wondered if you’d find it fun after all. You could start on Monday.’ Dad paused. ‘Of course, you don’t have to go. In fact maybe it was a stupid idea.’

  ‘No, no, it’s a great idea,’ said Smash. She was very red in the face. ‘Thanks, Dave,’ she said awkwardly. ‘Hey, will that boy who beat me at Shipwreck be there too? I hope so. I’m so going to beat him back.’

  ‘What’s in your other carrier, David?’ Alice asked.

  ‘I nipped into a bookshop. I picked this up for Maudie, seeing as she liked that nursery-rhyme puppet show so much. It looks kind of familiar, all these funny pictures. Did I give you the same book when you were little, Rosy-Posy?’

  ‘Oh, Dad, yes, the exact same one. Look, Maudie!’ I flipped through the book. ‘Who’s that?’ I said.

  ‘Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle!’ Maudie shouted, stabbing at the page delightedly.

  ‘And these two?’ I said, turning the pages.

  ‘Jack and Jill, Jack and Jill!’ Maudie cried.

  ‘Good heavens, how does she know that?’ said Alice. ‘She’s not reading, is she?’

  Maudie chuckled. I found her the Ring-o’-roses page. She circled her finger round the dancing children and then went, ‘Atishoo atishoo!’

  ‘My goodness, that’s right!’ said Dad.

  ‘I bet she knows this one too,’ I said, flipping backwards and forwards through the book. ‘There! Who are they, Maudie?’

  ‘Polly and Sukey and the kettle!’ said Maudie. ‘Oh dear, they’ve all gone away.’

  ‘We’ve got a child genius!’ said Dad. He was fishing in his carrier bag. ‘I wanted to find a book for you too, Rosy-Posy, but it’s so difficult, you’ve read so many. So in the end I plumped for this.’ He handed me a big fat blue book with a lovely swirly marbled cover. I took hold of it and opened it at the first page. It was empty.

  ‘It’s a notebook. I thought you might like to write your own stories in it,’ said Dad.

  ‘Oh, Dad, that’s a really fantastic present!’ I said.

  ‘You can write all about this holiday,’ said Smash.

  ‘All the sandpit part,’ said Robbie meaningfully.

  ‘And then you can get it published and end up with a whole long queue of people at a book-signing!’ said Smash.

  I stroked the blank pages – and then wrote the very first sentence in my best handwriting. Dad and Alice started preparing tea together. Smash changed into her leotard and did a few practice handstands. Robbie started training his hamster to run on the little wheel inside his cage. Maudie sat with the nursery-rhyme book in her lap, singing to all her favourites.

  ‘I think the Psammead did work its magic after all,’ I said. ‘Robbie’s got a real live animal to love and I might just write a proper story and Smash has suddenly got everyone liking her. The Psammead looked into all our hearts and saw what we really wanted.’

  ‘What about Maudie?’ said Smash. ‘Do you think it really was that ice cream?’

  I went and knelt down beside Maudie.

  ‘Maudie, listen a minute.’

  ‘Hey diddle diddle,’ sang Maudie, pointing to the right page.

  ‘Yes, it’s a lovely book.’

  ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill.’

  ‘Maudie, concentrate a minute. When we were all by the sandpit and the Psammead – you know, the monkey, when it was looking right at you, remember?’

  ‘Atishoo atishoo,’ Maudie sneezed.

  ‘What were you thinking about when you were cuddled up with the monkey?’

  ‘They’ve all gone away,’ Maudie sang, shaking her head. ‘Monkey gone away.’

  ‘Yes, I know.’

  ‘But Monkey come back,’ said Maudie.

  ‘Do you think so? Is that what you were hoping?’ Smash asked.

  ‘Yes, my Monkey. See Monkey more,’ said Maudie.

  ‘We all hope so,’ said Smash. ‘Oh, you clever little thing, Maudie. I bet that was your heart’s desire, to see Monkey again and again and again.’

  ‘But hang on,’ said Robbie, looking stricken. ‘If it’s a Psammead wish it will stop happening as soon as it’s sunset. Oh no, I can’t bear it if Giant disappears!’

  But when we went to bed that night, long after dark, Giant was still happily squeaking in his cage, and Smash’s dad had sent her another email. And my notebook still had its first sentence:

  ‘What’s that you’re reading?’ said Smash, grabbing the book out of my hand.

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