Sally and Ronnie's BIG Adventure
by Vaughan Patrick
Smashwords edition
Copyright 2011 Vaughan Patrick
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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SALLY & RONNIE’S BIG ADVENTURE
PART 1
Once upon a time there were two children who lived in a big house with their Mummy, Daddy and a cat called Rufus. Sally was 9 and had long brown hair which reached to her waist while Ronnie was 7 and wore a super-hero costume all the time, even when he went to bed. Their house didn’t have a very big garden and what little room there was had been taken up with a garden shed, (where their Daddy kept his lawn mower) and neat garden beds where Mummy grew all sorts of plants which she was always either weeding or watering. Sally liked to ride her bike but there wasn’t nearly enough room for that in the garden. Ronnie liked to kick his football but he couldn’t do this in the garden either because when he did, the ball went into the flowerbeds all the time, despite Ronnie being pretty good at football. The only one who could play happily in the garden was Rufus the cat! Sometimes they would see him stalking butterflies but mostly he would curl up and go to sleep in one of the many plant-pots.
On weekends, when they were not at school Sally and Ronnie used to play with their toys. Their favorite toy was their D.S. game but Mummy would only let them play with them for a limited time. ‘You’ll ruin your eyes!’ she would tell them, but when she was out shopping their Daddy used to let them play with with their D.S’s all the time. Their Mummy much preferred them to make things and the shelves around the house were covered in all the lovely things that they had made. Ronnie would sit at their craft table and make cars and rockets out of cardboard which he would paint with bright colours, while Sally enjoyed making things from clay which she would also paint once they had dried and gone hard.
Sally and Ronnie were two ordinary children living ordinary lives in an ordinary street. So it was quite remarkable to everyone that they would have such an extraordinary adventure and no one was more surprised than Sally and Ronnie themselves.
I guess you are wondering how it all started? Well, it was a very ordinary day (much like today really). Mummy was kneeling in the garden weeding as usual. She was being helped by Rufus who kept digging little holes in the newly weeded dirt before racing around in circles chasing his tail. Daddy was sitting on the couch watching a football game on the television. As he stared at the big screen he would occasionally put some chips in his mouth and you could hear him crunch them all over the house. Sally and Ronnie were bored and were looking for something exciting to do.
‘Why don’t we visit the wood?’ Sally whispered to Ronnie.
The wood was a forrest of trees that sat beyond the fence at the bottom of their garden. They sometimes visited the wood with their Daddy looking for mushrooms, but they were not allowed to got into the wood on their own in case they got lost.
‘I think Mummy and Daddy would be cross if we went on our own.’ said Ronnie.
‘Well you can stay here then!’ Sally said taking an apple from the kitchen bench and heading into the garden.
‘I’m coming, I’m coming’ Ronnie said running after her, his cape flapping behind him.
They walked past Mummy who was so busy looking for weeds she never noticed them. Rufus the cat did notice them but just looked at them with his head on one side before giving himself a good scratch. When they got to the garden shed Sally walked between the shed and the fence to where there was some timber boards missing. ‘Come on’ she said to Ronnie before disappearing through the gap in the fence. Ronnie scrambled after her. He was a little bit afraid but he didn’t want to miss out on any adventure that Sally might have.
Once through the gap in the fence they needed to climb through quite a thick cluster of bushes and small trees before finding the walking path that they had sometimes walked along with their Daddy. Sally was the first onto the path and she stood picking leaves and twigs off her hair and clothes as she waited for Ronnie to pull himself through.
As Ronnie emerged from the thicket Sally took his hand, ‘We should keep our eyes out for mushrooms. Wouldn’t Daddy be surprised if we came home with a bag full of big juicy mushrooms?’
The path was quite narrow and weaved between the trees on either side. In some areas of the wood the trees were so close together that the sun had trouble getting through. They walked along looking for somewhere that mushrooms might grow but didn’t see any. They did hear birds singing and they even saw a rabbit. It suddenly appeared in front of them, stopped in the middle of the path, looked at them and then without taking its eyes off the two children rubbed its face with both its paws before hopping off into the undergrowth and disappearing!
Ronnie had picked up a long stick and as they walked along the path he flicked it at the bushes on his side of the path. He was getting a bit bored of the wood, he wanted an adventure and yet here he was looking for silly mushrooms which he didn’t even like. He thought about turning back but he was a bit frightened of being on his own so he decided he’d stick with Sally who knew lots of things and wouldn’t get them lost.
Suddenly the path entered a large open space. The big trees around this circle of grass were wide enough apart that the sun was able to light up the whole area such that it was much brighter than the path they’d entered by. They both had to shade their eyes from the brightness as they looked around the circle. Apart from lush green grass the circle also had a number of large stones that were equally spaced and were as tall as Ronnie and smooth on each side. The stones were very similar in shape, not identical in size but certainly the same shape. However, what Sally and Ronnie noticed most of all were the mushrooms! There were hundreds of them! So many of them that as they walked around the circle they had to be careful to not tread on them.
‘Wow’ said Sally, ‘Have you ever seen so many mushrooms?’ And she immediately started to pick them and carefully place them in her bag. (She went everywhere with her Barbie backpack which at the moment only held the apple she’d taken from the kitchen).
Ronnie also started to pick mushrooms although he wasn’t as careful as Sally. He specifically went around looking for the BIGGEST mushrooms and as he found each one he’d call to Sally “Look at this one, it’s a giant!’
They very soon had filled Sally’s bag. ‘Lets go home and show Mummy and Daddy how clever we’ve been. They can have these for dinner tonight.’
‘Ugh, Yuk!’ said Ronnie who hated mushrooms.
As Sally carefully lifted the bag onto her back and took hold of of her brother’s hand, she looked around for the path that they’d come along. As she stood and looked she saw that there were a number of paths that led into the clearing. Which one had they taken?
‘Lets go’ said Ronnie pulling on her hand.
‘No wait, we need to take the right path.’ She looked this way and that way but they all looked very similar. As she began to walk towards the path that she thought was the right one she saw another that also looked like the right one. As she dithered Ronnie began to get frightened.
‘Come on’ he said, ‘it’s starting to get dark and I’m hungry.’ He didn’t want to admit to Sally that he was scared but he hung onto her hand very tightly.
Sally, who was a very sensible girl and wanted to reassure her little brother said, ‘Look, you sit and eat the apple while I look at each of the pathways. I’m sure I can find the right one.’
Ronnie sat beneath one of the large trees and began eating the apple. From this place he watched Sally as she went around the circle looking down each of the six pathways trying to decide which one they had arrived on. It was very quiet. He heard only the odd bird singing in the distance and above his head the gentle rustling of the leaves. He was about to take another bite of the apple when he thought he heard a voice.
‘Help me’ the tiny voice said, ‘Please help me.’
Ronnie looked around but he couldn’t see anyone. He stood up and looked around the base of the tree.
‘Help’ the tiny voice said again.
Ronnie stepped closer to the tree and looked around it. What he saw made him drop his apple and fall back onto his bottom in complete surprise!
‘Help me’ the tiny voice said to him.
He immediately jumped up and raced over to Sally. ‘Sally, come quickly, you won’t believe what I’ve found!’
Sally was still trying to decide the right path but Ronnie grabbed her hand and pulled her with all his strength to follow him.
‘All right, all right I’m coming.’ And she followed her excited brother over to the tree where the half eaten apple lay on the grass.
As they got closer to the tree Ronnie got behind her and pushed her to look around the back of it.
‘Its not anything horrible is it’ said Sally who knew that Ronnie was always looking for things that would make Sally scream and run away.
Ronnie pushed her forward, ‘No, go on and look, go on’ he said giving her one final push.
As Sally slowly looked behind the tree she heard the tiny voice ‘Help me. Please help me.’ Her mouth dropped open she was so surprised. She was so surprised that she forgot that she couldn’t find the right path! She was MORE surprised that she had every been in her WHOLE LIFE!!!
Standing no higher than the length of her hand was a FAIRY!
What would you do if you found a fairy in trouble?
PART 2
The fairy looked up at her and said in a tiny fairy voice, ‘Help me, I’ve got my foot stuck.’
Sally knelt down to get a little closer and Ronnie did the same. She could see that the fairy had tiny wings that were so thin you could see right through them and on its feet were tiny boots with very tiny laces. It wore a short dress that looked like it was made from the finest silk. The fairy had pointed ears and a rather large nose, although Sally would never say this to the fairy as that would be rude when they’d only just met. Instead she reached down and took hold of the tiny root that the fairy’s foot was stuck beneath and gave it a mighty pull. As she did, the fairy’s foot came free and the fairy fell back and started immediately to rub the foot that had been stuck.
‘Oh that’s better, I’ve been stuck here for almost 3 years.’
‘3 years!’ Sally said in amazement.
‘Well not quite 3 years, 1014 days to be exact. I thought I was going to be here forever. I lost my voice twice trying to make people hear. It was SO frustrating.’ She held one hand to her head to show the two children how frustrating it had been.
‘Well we are happy that we could help you, aren’t we Ronnie?’
Ronnie was staring at the fairy with his mouth hanging open. He didn’t speak but just nodded his head in agreement.
‘Perhaps you could help us?’ said Sally. We don’t seem to be able to find our way home. There are six paths and they all look so alike.’
‘The fairy smiled at the two children. ‘This is your lucky day my friends, you have just rescued a good fairy.’
‘You mean there are bad fairies’ blurted Ronnie who was still amazed that he was kneeling in front of a real live fairy.
‘Oh yes’ said the fairy, ‘they cause all sorts of trouble.’
‘Really?’ said Ronnie who sounding like he didn’t believe it.
‘Have you ever lost your favorite toy?’ The fairy saw them both nod their heads, ‘Bad fairy work!’
The children looked at each other.
‘Ever found black marks on your clothes even though you hadn’t played with anything remotely like the colour black?’
‘Bad fairies?’ said Sally and the fairy nodded her head.
‘What about finding you are wearing odd socks?’
‘Not bad fairies??’
‘You bet!’ said the fairy. ‘They cause all sorts of trouble.’
‘But we’ve never seen one,’ said Ronnie.
‘Of course you haven’t, humans can’t see them, but have you ever felt something tickle your leg, but when you look there is nothing there?’
‘Bad fairies?’ Ronnie said (he was getting the hang of this)
‘Got it in one!’ said the fairy standing up and taking a few practice steps on her stiff foot that had been trapped under the root for the past 1014 days.
Sally looked a little puzzled, ‘Couldn’t you have used magic to get your foot out from the root?’
‘If it were only that easy’ sighed the fairy shaking her head from side to side. ‘I can make it rain but I can’t move a root. How silly is that?’
‘You can make it rain!’
‘Well, perhaps not rain but I could certainly make it spit a little.’ She could see that the children didn’t understand so she explained a little more. ‘We fairies of the wood can do all sorts of magic,’ she waved her hands around to emphasise the point, ‘but we cannot hurt the forest or any of the creatures in it. Yanking on a root is counted as hurting the tree, so I couldn’t do it.’
As the children watched the fairy started to flap its wings and slowly rose off the ground but very quickly dropped back down. ‘I’m a bit out of practice’ said the fairy who looked a little embarrassed.
‘What other magic can you do’ said Ronnie who had quite forgotten that he was talking to a fairy because he desperately wanted to know all about magic.
The fairy flapped its wings again and gentle rose above the ground as she spoke, ‘Oh let me see’ and as she spoke she waved her hand at Ronnie and suddenly his trousers were on back to front!
‘That’s amazing! said Sally, ‘Show us something else.
The fairy was now floating above the ground so the two children stood up as the fairy rose to be level with their faces. She turned to face Sally and waved her hand again.
Ronnie looked his sister up and down but couldn’t see any of her clothes on back to front. ‘It hasn’t worked.’ he said looking at the fairy in an understanding way as he had a lot of experience of magic never working.
The fairy spoke to Sally, ‘How do you feel?’
Sally felt completely normal and said to the fairy, ‘Je me sens tres bien.’ (I feel very well)
‘Oh my God, you’re speaking a foreign language’ said Ronnie who was VERY impressed in deed (with the fairy’s magic not Sally’s language skills)
‘It’s french’ said the fairy, ‘would you like me to change it?’
‘Je prefere ma propre langue, si ce n’est grave’ (I prefer my own language if that’s okay) said Sally feeling quite strange speaking in a language that she didn’t understand. The fairy waved her hand again. ‘Am I back to English?’ said Sally and realised that she was, as soon as she heard herself.
‘Well’ said the fairy, ‘I need to get back to fairy work. I have a lot to catch up on and my family will be wondering where I have got too.’
As the two children watched her she kept moving very quickly between them much like a dragonfly darts about.
‘As a good fairy, I can grant you both a wish, if you are interested.’
‘A wish?’
‘Yes, anything you like I can make happen but be careful, you can only have one wish so you must choose carefully.’
Ronnie didn’t have to think very long before shouting out, ‘I want superpowers!’ When Sally heard this she shook her head, trust her brother to want something ridiculous.
‘What are superpowers? said the fairy looking slightly confused.
‘You know, able to lift heavy things like buses and cars, able to fly...’ he thought a bit more, ‘able to see through things...err super hearing obviously...’
The fairy waited patiently as Ronnie continued to list all the superpowers that he could remember from the comics that he’d read and the movies that he’d seen. When he ran out of ideas the fairy spoke. ‘I think your list is much more than just one wish so I’ll grant you only one. I’ll give you great strength.’ The fairy waved her hands and then turned to Sally. ‘What would you wish for?’
Sally had been thinking very hard and just as she began to think that she couldn’t decide, she thought of something she’d often dreamed of. ‘I would like to be able to talk to animals.’
The fairy waved her hands and then spoke to both of them. ‘I have given you something quite special but there are a couple of rules that you must understand before I leave.’
‘I knew there would be rules’ moaned Ronnie as he looked around for something heavy to pick up.
The fairy ignored him and said, ‘There are only two rules, firstly you can only use these powers to do good things and secondly, you must not show or tell anyone that you have these powers. Do you understand?’
Both together they said, ‘Yes, we understand.’
‘I hope you do, because if you break either of these rules your powers will disappear instantly, never to return.’
Sally and her brother looked at each other and then at the fairy that continued to hover in front of them.
‘Thank you again for setting me free from the tree root. Don’t worry about getting home, follow your heart and you won’t get lost.’
‘Can we come and see you again? said Sally.
The fairy hesitated for a moment, ‘Well, it is unusual to meet with humans but I’ll tell you what, if you ever get into big trouble and you need my help, all you need to do is to come back to this circle and call my name.’
‘What is your name?’
‘It is a name that you must keep secret, you must never tell another person otherwise I won’t answer the call.’ The fairy came close to Sally’s ear and whispered her name before zipping to Ronnie’s ear and doing the same. ‘Now I must be gone.’ Suddenly the fairy disappeared and Sally and Ronnie were left alone in the grass circle.
Sally looked around and the circle appeared just the same as when they had arrived. Had it really happened? Had they really just been talking to a fairy? As these thoughts entered her head she realised that they had been gone for ages and their parents would be very worried. She turned to Ronnie.
‘We need to get going, Mummy and Daddy will be looking for us. They’ll be worried sick we’ve been away so long.’
Ronnie ignored his sister and raced over to the BIGGEST rock in the circle. Sally watched him as he put his arms around one side of it (it was far to big to put his arms all the way around) and lifted it off the ground!!
‘It’s REAL, I have super strength!!’ and he danced around the circle holding the huge rock above his head with only one hand. ‘I can’t wait to show the kids at school!’
‘Ronnie’ Sally shouted to him, ‘put the rock back where it was.’
‘Don’t be such a sissy’ he said but he did as Sally asked.
She smiled at him and put her arm around him. ‘Now remember what the fairy said, you cannot tell anyone otherwise you won’t be strong any more AND you can only use your strength to do good things.’
‘I will, Superheros always do only good things.’
‘Ronnie, you are not a Superhero and you need to be very careful. What if you had dropped that rock and hurt a tree. That would not have been a good thing would it?’
Ronnie considered what she had said and realised that he could have so easily hurt a tree and his great strength would have vanished in a flash! ‘I see what you mean, but what good is it having all this strength if you can’t show anyone?’
‘You’ll just have to figure that out won’t you? Now, lets get going before it gets dark.’
She lifted her backpack with the mushrooms onto her back and then took his hand. She remembered what the fairy had said about the way back. ‘Follow your heart’ the fairy had said so Sally looked at the six paths and then walked towards the one she felt sure was the right one. ‘This way’ she said and Ronnie, holding her hand very carefully (he didn’t want to crush her hand with his super strength) went with her down the dark path.
It wasn’t long before they found the place where they’d come through the bushes onto the track. Sally went first and Ronnie followed her. When she found their fence and the missing boards she squeezed through and waited for Ronnie.
They stood behind the shed and Sally helped Ronnie remove all the leaves and stuff from his hair and clothes before taking a deep breath. ‘Let me do the talking okay?’ Ronnie nodded in agreement, ‘And remember, we can’t tell anyone what has happened.’
They entered the garden together and found Mummy still weeding the garden. Sally led Ronnie up to her mother and said, ‘Mummy, we’re really sorry we were gone for so long. We just forgot the time.’
Their mother looked up, ‘What do you mean darling, you haven’t been gone for long.’
Sally was relieved her Mummy wasn’t cross, ‘We thought you’d be worried.’
Her Mummy smiled at the both of them, ‘Darlings, why would I be worried? I watched you step behind the garden shed and I was about to come and see what you were doing when you stepped back into the garden. You were gone for less than a moment!’
Sally was a little puzzled, maybe her mother had been in the sun for too long she was going a bit crazy. She remembered the mushrooms. Lifting her Barbie backpack from her shoulders she said, ‘We’ve bought you a surprise Mummy,’ and she opened the bag and tipped it towards her mother. Both Sally and Ronnie looked very pleased with themselves as their Mummy leaned over and looked into the bag.
‘Oh that’s nice of you dear, I just fancied an apple,’ and as she spoke she reached into the bag and took the apple and began to polish it on her shirt.
Both Sally and Ronnie’s jaw dropped in surprise as they looked into the now EMPTY bag! Not a single mushroom in sight!
They looked at each other in astonishment as a voice said, ‘Have you got anything for me?’
Sally looked to where the voice was coming from and saw Rufus looking at her with a little grin on his face. ‘No I’m sorry we don’t,’ she said.
‘Oh bother’ said Rufus and wandered closer and began to rub himself against her leg. ‘Doesn’t he know he’s wearing his trousers back to front?’ said the cat looking at Ronnie’s pants.
Sally quickly realised that only she could understand what the cat was saying as her Mummy returned to weeding the garden.
PART 3
After their adventure in the wood both Sally and Ronnie were ravenously hungry and that evening ate all their dinner and more besides. Although Ronnie didn’t tell either of his parents about his super strength, he did keep looking in the mirror to see if his muscles in his arms were any bigger (they weren’t). After their bath they both sat on Sally’s bed talking about what they would do the next day, which was a school day. Rufus sat on the mat and watched them with his head tilted slightly to one side.
Ronnie stood in front of Sally’s mirror and flexed his arm muscles for the tenth time. Sally rolled her eyes, sometimes boys could be very annoying.
‘Why don’t I have big muscles in my arms? It’s not fair!’ he said rather grumpily.
‘Maybe because your strength comes from magic and not from exercise?’ said Sally as though it was obvious. ‘You need to stop looking in the mirror all the time, people will begin to think you are crazy.’
Ronnie got bored with checking his muscles, ‘I’m going to bed’ he said before lifting Sally’s bed (with her on it) above his head.
‘Put me down, you idiot!’ Sally said as she hung on to the bed, frightened that she might roll off.
After Ronnie went to bed, Sally was joined by Rufus the cat who often came and curled up on Sally’s bed. He liked to sleep at her feet all night. If Sally woke up during the night she could hear Rufus breathing. Occasionally Rufus would get up, stretch, walk around in circles a couple of time before settling down and going back to sleep.
Sally said to Rufus, ‘Meeooww’ (which in cat language was ‘Hello Rufus, are you coming to sleep on my bed?’)
‘Yes I am’ said Rufus (although to anyone other than Sally it would have sounded like ‘Meeeoow’). He sat and started to wash his back leg starting at his hip but slowly working towards his foot which he spent quite a bit of time on. Eventually he put his foot down and looked at Sally with a curious look on his face. ‘How long have you been able to talk cat language?’
Sally knew she couldn’t divulge how she’d got the power to talk to animals so she said, ‘Not long Rufus, but I’m really pleased that I can talk to you!’
‘Your parents were talking about you today,’ said the cat as he licked his front paw and then wiped it over his face a couple of times, before doing the same thing with his other paw. ‘They are pleased you are doing so well at school but are worried about your brother.’
‘Why?’ said Sally.
‘They are worried about his reading, whatever that is.’ said the cat as he curled up and sighed before closing his eyes and tucking his face under his tail.
Anyone watching Sally and the cat talking would have seen Sally saying ‘Meeooww’ followed by Rufus saying ‘Meeooww’ back to her. Sally was amazed that humans have hundreds and hundreds of words to choose from when they speak to each other, but cats only have one. The secret was in how the word was said, for example, you could say ‘Meeooww’ which means ‘I think I will go into the garden and hunt butterflies’ or you could say ‘Meeooww’ which means ‘‘This fish is nice’. Sally thought it would be so much easier if human language was like cat language. Think how easier spelling lessons would be? Once you mastered how to spell ‘meeooww’, which is not all that difficult, you could go out to play. So much more sensible!
The following day they were up early, dressed and finishing breakfast when their Mummy said, ‘Here are your play-lunches’ and she gave one box to Sally and one to Ronnie.
Sally picked up her Barbie back-pack and opening it half expected to find it full of mushrooms (it wasn’t), before putting her school books and play-lunch inside. She remembered what Rufus had said the night before so she said to her Mummy, ‘Ronnie has asked me to help him with his reading.’
Her mother looked surprised, ‘Really?’ turning to Ronnie she said, ‘That’s very clever of you Ronnie, I’m really pleased!’ and she gave him a big hug and a kiss.
After they left the house and on their way to school Ronnie said to Sally, ‘What was all that about? I didn’t ask you to help me with my reading.’
Sally smiled at her brother, ‘Rufus told me they were worried about your reading so I thought I’d say something to make them worry less.’
‘What a good idea!’
‘That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try harder.’
‘I prefer to kick my football than read a silly book.’
‘You just haven’t found the right books. When you find a good book you won’t be able to put it down, you see. I’ll even help you find good ones if you like.’
‘Okay, thanks Sal,’ and having said that Ronnie quickly looked up and down the street before lifting a car above his head and moving it across the street under a No Parking sign.’
‘RONNIE, what did you do that for?’
Ronnie had a great big smile on his face, ‘Remember our grumpy neighbour who wouldn’t give me back my football when I kicked it over his fence?’
‘Yes’
‘Well that was his car! Ha ha, that’ll teach him.’
‘But you’re only allowed to do good things,’ said Sally, worried that her brother had just made a really big mistake.
‘That’s okay, he was parked in front of a fire hydrant so it was good that I moved it out of the way. If there was a fire in this street the fire engine will be able to get to the hydrant for a supply of water.’ He tapped his head, ‘Up here for thinking!’
It was late afternoon and Sally and her brother were walking home from school when someone came running down the street yelling, ‘Stop the train, stop the train.’
‘Whatever is the matter’ Sally asked the man as he ran past them.
‘A huge gum tree has fallen across the railway line near the railway station. We must stop the train!’ And he sprinted off down the street waving his arms and shouting ‘Stop the train, stop the train.’
‘Come on,’ Sally said to her brother, ‘if we get there in time you can lift the tree off the railway line.’
They started running down the street and when they came to the big park they turned into it (the railway station sat just the other side of the park). As they got closer to the station they could see the tree as well as hundreds of people standing on the platform holding their heads saying, ‘What can we do, what can we do?’
‘Quickly,’ said Sally, ‘lift the tree off the track, I can hear the train coming!’
‘But won’t the people see me? I’m not allowed to show anyone my secret strength!’
‘Oh my goodness, you’re right! We need to distract them!’ Sally looked around the park and spotted a large flock of Cockatoos that were sitting in a big tree minding their own business. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled really loudly. All the Cockatoos looked up and when Sally saw she had their attention she made this awful Cockatoo squawk ‘SQAAARRWK’ (which in Cockatoo language meant ‘Quickly, we need your help!’). All the Cockatoos immediately took off and flew over to Sally who them gave them more instructions, ‘SQAAARRWK SQAAARRWK’ which caused them to immediately take to the air.
‘What did you tell them?’
‘You’ll see, but you need to quickly get ready to lift the tree. When I see that everyone is looking at the birds I’ll give you a signal okay?’
Ronnie raced over to the tree and got ready to lift it. He could already hear the train in the distance thundering down the track but he kept his eye on Sally who was studying the crowd of people.
The people, who were still holding their heads and saying ‘What can we do, what can we do?’ suddenly saw the flock of Cockatoos swooping down towards them. Instead of flying in all different directions (as Cocky’s are want to do) they were flying in FORMATION! The people had seen nothing like it! There were 3 groups of birds, each group was led by a single Cockatoo who was followed by 2 Cockatoos, who in turn were followed by 3 Cockatoos, who were followed by 4 Cockatoos! They looked like 3 huge white triangles swooping down and showing off to all the people.
All the people switched from saying ‘What can we do, what can we do?’ to saying ‘Look at the birds, look at the birds’.
Sally knew this was the moment and gave Ronnie a wave to tell him that it was okay to lift the tree.
Ronnie saw the signal and immediately started to lift the HUGE tree. It moved quite slowly as it was a very BIG tree indeed and certainly bigger than anything Ronnie had lifted before. He had only just got it off the track when the train came ZOOMING under the tree and past the station (it didn’t stop at this station which was something else the people complained about).
As it shot by, people sitting on the train, who had been watching the scenery out of the windows suddenly saw a small boy HOLDING THIS ENORMOUS TREE OVER HIS HEAD! They rubbed their eyes in disbelief and when they opened them again the train had shot past Ronnie and all they could see were cows in a paddock chewing grass.
Ronnie quickly put the tree down and smacked his hands together (they were covered in dust from the old tree) before racing over to Sally.
‘Well done Ronnie, that was amazing and only just in time!’ She then lifted her head and put her hands around her mouth ‘SQAAARRWK’ she called and the moment she did the Cockatoos broke out of formation and started flying as they normally did.
The people on the station’s platform, who had been holding their heads and saying ‘Look at the birds, look at the birds’ saw the birds stop flying in formation and also realised that the train had gone through the station! They immediately began holding their heads and saying, ‘The train jumped over the tree, the train jumped over the tree!’ before noticing that the tree was no longer over the track, but was now laying parallel with the railway lines.
Sally saw the puzzled look on the people’s faces and turned to Ronnie, ‘I think this would be a good time to start heading home, before people start asking questions.’
As they began walking home they heard the Fire Engine arrive at the station ringing it’s bell. The Chief Fireman got down from his bright red fire engine and called to the people on the platform. ‘We were told a tree was across the track. Who called the fire brigade?’
All the people on the platform looked at him and then, holding their heads started looking at each other saying, ‘Who called the fire brigade, who called the fire brigade?’
The Chief Fireman shook his head and climbed back into his fire engine calling to the driver, ‘Okay, back to the Fire Station, we’re not needed here after all!’
Sally took hold of Ronnie’s hand and together they began skipping down the road. They were HEROS!
PART 4
It was early Saturday morning and everyone in the house were asleep including Rufus who was curled up on Sally’s bed. Ronnie was asleep in his room, sprawled across his bed with the covers kicked off, while Mummy and Daddy slept soundly even though Daddy was snoring but not keeping Mummy awake because she always wore cotton wool ear plugs.
It was daylight outside but nothing stirred. There were the odd crows calling in the distance, but other than that everything was still.
Sally felt a tickle under her nose. She gave her nose a scratch and turned over. She felt it again. ‘Stop it Rufus’ she said but didn’t open her eyes. Again she felt a tickle under her nose and this time she opened her eyes. What she saw made her wake up VERY quickly. It was a fairy hovering right in front of her face! She rubbed her eyes in case she was dreaming, but when she looked again it was still there. Unlike the first fairy (that Sally had rescued) this was a tiny man. He had the same wings and was able to zip about like a dragonfly but he was dressed completely differently, (which is hardly surprising as the first fairy wore a dress!) He had on a tiny black tracksuit which was stretched quite tightly across his fat belly and he wore a sporting hat back-to-front on his head. A cigar hung from the corner of his mouth and the general impression Sally had was that this fairy had some VERY bad habits. ‘Of course’ she thought, ‘this must be a bad fairy!’
‘Is there something I can do for you?’ Sally said, quite prepared to disappear under her bed covers.
‘We need your help Mate’ he said in a rather silly voice.
‘My help? What can I do to help?’
‘You need to come with me immediately, the Queen of the Fairies commands it!’
‘There is a Queen of the fairies?’ Sally was beginning to get a bit dizzy trying to keep her eyes on the fairy as it dashed about in front of her face.
‘Of course, and she doesn’t like to be kept waiting!’
‘Okay okay but can you stop whizzing about so much, you’re making me quite dizzy.’
The bad fairy settled onto her bed rather clumsily as Sally climbed off her bed and began to get dressed. Rufus stood up and stretched and said to Sally, ‘Is it time to get up?’
‘No, it’s still very early. You stay here.’
‘Oh gooood’ said the cat and made a rather half hearted swipe at the fairy who (like a fly you try to swat) was much too quick for him. Rufus settled down and curled his front paws underneath himself. ‘I’ll just rest for a moment’ he said yawning before instantly falling asleep.
Sally tip-toed into Ronnie’s room and gave him a shove.
‘What do you want?’ he said when he finally focused his eyes and saw it was Sally poking him in the ribs.
‘We have to go back into the wood.’
‘Go back!’ he said rather too loudly.
‘Shhhhhhush’ Sally said and pointed to the bad fairy who was sitting on Ronnie’s bed-head trying to light his cigar. ‘We’ve been summoned by the Queen of the Fairies. We HAVE to go!’
Seeing the bad fairy Ronnie decided to hurry and jumped out of bed, pulling on trousers and shirt. After tying his shoelaces he stood and looked at Sally. ‘Ready?’
‘You need to comb your hair, you can’t meet a Queen looking like that!’
Ronnie licked both his hands and wiped them over his hair, ‘Happy now?’
Sally got a brush and gave his hair a quick once over before stepping back. ‘Okay, lets go!’
They tip-toed down the passage way and into the kitchen with the bad fairy hovering behind them blowing out tiny puffs of smoke from his cigar and coughing tiny coughs. As they stepped into the garden Sally closed the back door very quietly so as not to wake Mummy and Daddy. Soon they were through the hole in the fence behind the shed and struggling through the brush before finding the path.
When they arrived at the grass circle Sally put her hands around her mouth and called out the good fairy’s name, ‘********’ (I can’t write it down because it’s SO secret). Only a second passed before the good fairy appeared.
‘Oh I’m so glad that you are here’ she said in a tiny voice. ‘We need your help and the Queen wishes to speak to you as soon as possible.’
‘Lead the way’ said Sally who was getting quite used to speaking to fairies (whereas Ronnie was still very shy of them).
As the good fairy led them down one of the paths she said, ‘You are very privileged to be allowed to visit fairyland, I can’t remember any other human going there EVER!’ As she spoke she screwed up her face as the bad fairy’s smoke got up her nose causing her to sneeze. ‘Ashew!’ and with that she waved her hands and the bad fairy’s cigar disappeared!
As they went further down the path the trees above them closed in and it got darker and darker as the sun struggled to penetrate the dense foliage. Ronnie was beginning to get a bit frightened when suddenly the fairies came to an abrupt stop causing Sally to stop and Ronnie to bump into her. Before they had a chance to speak a small glow appeared in front of them. As it got closer it got brighter and both Sally and Ronnie realised that this was the Queen of the Fairies!
She hovered in front of them so they were able to get a good look at her. She was very beautiful although older than one would imagine a Queen to be and she was dressed in the most wonderful gossamer dress.
‘Welcome to Fairyland’ said the Queen and as she spoke the whole area lit up as if someone had suddenly turned on the lights!
Sally and Ronnie were speechless. They were surrounded by hundreds of fairies who each shone just a little bit of light but together lit up the whole wood. They looked around at all the fairies that hovered around them. Most were good fairies but there were a number of bad fairies who sat on branches of trees scratching their fat tummies and occasionally letting out tiny fairy farts. (as they did, the closest good fairies would move away holding their noses!)
‘We have asked you here because we need your help.’ said the Queen looking very regal. She came closer to the two children, ‘We have discovered that human’s plan to destroy the wood and build houses.’ As she said this there was a collective sigh from all the fairies gathered around them.
‘That is terrible’ said Sally.
‘This wood has been left untouched for hundreds of years. Once there were woods everywhere but slowly humans have been tearing them down and the fairies are running out of places to live.’ (All the fairies whispered ‘Oh no!’)
‘I’m not sure what two children can do but we’ll think of something,’ said Sally.
‘You must stop them. If this wood is destroyed then all the fairies will disappear.’ (All the fairies whispered ‘Disappear, oh no!’)
‘There’s no time to waste, we must get back and work out a plan,’ said Sally and Ronnie nodded in agreement.
The Queen hovered closer to them. ‘You are good children. You have been given extraordinary powers,’ as she said this she looked sideways at the fairy who they had rescued, ‘..much to my annoyance, I have to say. However, you have used these powers only for good so this is why I have asked you here. You need to do all you can to stop this tragedy from happening.’
‘We will, we promise!’ Ronnie said.
‘If you need our help you know how to find us. Now go!’ As the Queen said this, the whole area suddenly turned dark as the fairies stopped glowing and all Sally and Ronnie could see were the tiny glows coming from tiny little cigars.
They returned home just as their Mummy was making breakfast. It was Saturday and Daddy was enjoying a lie-in.
‘Mummy Mummy they’re going to destroy the wood, we need to stop them!’
‘Who’s going to destroy the wood Darling?’ her mother said rather absentmindedly as she lifted the milk out of the fridge.
‘I don’t know’ said Sally, ‘but we need to stop them.’
‘Of course we do Darling, but lets have breakfast first shall we?’
Sally didn’t hesitate, ‘Come on’ she said to Ronnie and raced upstairs to Daddy, who was fast asleep when they both landed on the bed.
‘Daddy Daddy, they’re going to destroy the wood, we need to stop them.’
‘We MUST stop them!’ Ronnie added to emphasise the point.
Their father groaned as the two children jumped up and down on the bed, he knew that this was the end of his treasured lie-in.
‘Who told you this?’
‘Errrr, I don’t know. I think I heard it at school.’
‘Well I’ve not heard that story and I’m sure if anyone was going to touch that wood it’d be all over the news.’
‘But it’s TRUE-OOOOO!’ shouted Ronnie, they’re going to build houses all over it!!! We’ve got to stop them NOWWW!!’
‘Look kids, you go and have your breakfast and let me get showered and dressed. When I’ve had some breakfast, we’ll find out if there is any truth in this story. Okay?’
‘Okay Daddy, but hurry!’
As he was eating his breakfast they explained the urgency once more. He didn’t think there was anything in it because neither he nor Mummy had heard anything about any building where the wood stood. Eventually, he did agree to take them both to the local council office.
‘If anyone is planning to build around here the council would have to approve it.’ He was certain this would settle the matter.
An hour later they were pulling into the Council car park. Walking towards the big building with its broad flight of steps across the front, Ronnie was the first to see the big silver Rolls Royce limousine.
‘Crickey, look at that!’
Sally looked through the drivers window and noticed on the front seat a folder with DEV ESTATE DEVELOPMENTS written on its cover. ‘Hmm,’ she thought, ‘bit of a coincidence.’ The she saw the dog on the back seat. It was an old German Shepard and it was panting with its tongue handing out.
‘You poor thing’ said Sally and tried to open the door but it was locked. Her father was climbing the stairs so she looked at Ronnie and gave him wink.
Ronnie grinned and taking hold of the door wrenched it open with his amazing strength.
Inside the car it was like a furnace and the old dog looked like it could hardly move. ‘Woof woof woof’ she said (which means ‘Come on old boy, we’ll get you a drink of water’).
The dog’s ears picked up when he heard a human speaking dog language. He climbed out of the car saying ‘Woof woof’ (which means ‘Phew, thats bloody hot in there!’). Just then a voice shouted out.
‘Hey you, what do you think you are doing?’
They looked up and saw a big fat man with a bald head stumbling down the steps. ‘Get off my car you ragamuffins!’ He yelled which only attracted the attention of their father who turned and hurried back to them.
The fat man reached the car and seeing the damage to the door he grabbed Sally and shouted ‘Call the police, I’ve caught a thief’.
Just as the security man appeared at the top of the stair, Sally’s Daddy arrived and grabbed Sally just as Ronnie kicked the fat man in the shin!
‘Whats going on here?’ said the security man.
The fat man was hopping on one leg and holding his shin. ‘These kids broke into my car, I want them arrested!’ he shouted.
The security man recognised the builder, ‘Ah Mr Dev, I’ll get the police.’
‘Hang on a minute before you go rushing off to call the Police’ said Daddy. ‘If you take a look at the extensive damage to the door you’ll realise that it would be impossible for children to do!’
The security man and the fat man looked at the badly buckled door and saw the point Daddy was making. ‘However,’ said Daddy, ‘I think you should call the Police because it’s a crime to lock dogs in cars that are sitting in the sun.’
‘But but but’ said the fat man.
‘No buts Mr Dev, this dog needs a drink as soon as possible’ and with that the security man dashed off to get a bowl of water.
When they got into the Council Offices they met the local Mayor leaving his office.
‘Ah, just the man’ said Daddy as the Mayor gave him a creepy smile. ‘Can you tell me, are there plans to develop the wood?’
‘Who told you that?’ said the Mayor looking suddenly nervous.
‘Is it true?’
The Mayor took on a sheepish look, ‘We did ask for people’s comments at the public meeting.’
‘What meeting?’
‘The one we held last week before the council voted.’
‘How many people attended?’
‘Errr, I can’t remember exact numbers...’
‘Roughly!’ Daddy was getting pretty angry.
‘Two’
‘I don’t believe it, this is a disgrace! Now I know why that awful Mr Dev was here. I bet he’s got his fingers into this.’
‘It’ll be a lovely development. A beautiful flat golf course surrounded by exclusive homes.’
Just then Sally interrupted, ‘What about the rare and endangered animals that live in the wood?’
Daddy, Ronnie and the Mayor all looked slightly surprised at Sally’s statement before the Mayor explained, ‘Little girl, we’ve had experts look at the wildlife in the woods and NOTHING is rare OR endangered!’
‘I’ll show you!’ shouted Sally before storming out the door followed by Ronnie and Daddy.
On the drive home Daddy wanted to know where Sally had got the idea that anything rare or endangered lived in the wood. ‘I think we’ve lost this one if they’ve had experts looking at this.’
Sally looked at her brother Ronnie and said to her Daddy, ‘We’ll show them, experts or no experts we’ll PROVE it!’
The only problem was, Sally had absolutely NO IDEA how she was going to find any rare or endangered animals at short notice!
PART 5
Sally, Ronnie and their Daddy arrived home and soon were sitting in the kitchen where Daddy explained to Mummy what had happened at the council office.
‘That’s terrible’ said Mummy, ‘what are we going to do? We can’t just let the wood be destroyed.’
‘I think the first thing we should do is to make sure that all our neighbours know what Mr Dev and the Mayor are planning.’ Daddy said.
‘You should also go and see the local newspaper. I’m sure they’d be interested in this story.’ Mummy added.
Sally didn’t think that any of these ideas would protect the wood. ‘Come on Ronnie, we need to think up a plan!’
In Sally’s bedroom she sat at her computer with Ronnie standing beside her. She typed into Google, “rarest animals in Australia” and hit enter.
Looking at the list that appeared both Sally and Ronnie were very surprised that so many Australian animals were described as rare. Sally looked at her brother and smiled, ‘There MUST be an animal here we can find in the wood.’ They both began looking at each animal.
‘Lets see’ said Sally reading from the screen, ‘Bridled Nail-Tail Wallaby’
‘No, it lives in Queensland’ said Ronnie from over her shoulder.
‘What about the Eastern Barred Bandicoot? It’s so CUTE!’
‘Cute yes, Western Australian it isn’t!’ said Ronnie looking down the list.
‘Here’s one!’ said Sally, ‘the Numbat!’
‘What a funny name! It’s cute though, it looks like a squirrel with stripes!’
Sally looked at her brother with a glint in her eyes, ‘More important Ronnie, it’s ONLY found in Western Australia!!’ She began to read the screen to Ronnie.
‘The Numbat is a small mammal with gold and black stripes and a long fluffy tail. A fully grown female is not much bigger than a man’s hand.’
Ronnie liked the sound of the Numbat even though it had a very funny name!
‘It says here that Numbats used to be very common and lived all over Australia. But in 1871 people bought Red Foxes to Australia and they started to eat Numbats’
‘Why did they bring foxes to Australia?’ said Ronnie.
Sally sighed as she thought of all the little Numbats, ‘I don’t know but it was a really stupid thing to do. It says here...By 1910 the Numbat had disappeared from all of south-eastern Australia and were confined to a few small pockets in the south-west of Western Australia. In 1982, with less than 200 individual animals left, the Numbat was named the world’s most endangered species!’
‘Wow’ said Ronnie. ‘Something so rare must be difficult to find. Do you think we can find some in our wood?’
‘Of course we can because I have a plan! First we need my makeup kit that I got last Christmas and we also need to borrow Mummy’s camera.’ Sally also printed a photo of the Numbat. ‘You bring the photo of the Numbat and the makeup kit and I’ll go ask Mummy for her camera.’ And off she raced leaving Ronnie wondering what her plan was.
Ronnie was completely puzzled as to how these things would help them find a Numbat in the woods but he went along with his sister anyway.
Before too long they were beyond the fence and walking down the track. They hadn’t gone too far when they saw the grey rabbit sitting on the track, just as they had the first time they’d walked this way.
Sally said to Ronnie, ‘Shhh, stand perfectly still Ronnie.’
Ronnie stood still and watched as Sally slowly walked towards the rabbit making a squeaking sound. The rabbit watched Sally and then started squeaking back. Sally squeaked again before turning to Ronnie and waving him to come closer.
‘Show him the picture of the Numbat’ Sally said.
Ronnie did as he was asked and watched as the rabbit looked closely at the picture while at the same time twitching his nose.
Sally squeaked again. ‘I’m asking him if he knows of any animals that look anything like the Numbat.’
The rabbit squeaked again and Sally listened intently. ‘He says that there is an animal that lives in the forest that’s similar but it’s just a common Possum.’ She squeaked again and the rabbit replied.
‘What did he say?’ said Ronnie.
‘He’s agreed to take us to the home of a Possum friend of his. We need to follow him but to do it quietly.’
They followed the rabbit as quietly as possible deep into the wood and it wasn’t long before they came to a clearing beside a small dried up creek. The rabbit squeaked and waited and before too long a possum appeared in one of the trees and grunted to the trio below.
Sally grunted at the possum, ‘We need your help Mr Possum to save the forrest.’
The possum grunted back to Sally, ‘Me? How can I save the forrest and how can you speak possum speak?’
‘We rescued a fairy and she granted my brother and I one wish’ grunted Sally.
‘I see’ grunted the possum, ‘what did your brother ask for?’
‘Super-human strength’ grunted Sally.
The possum shook its head, ‘I could have guessed!’
As Sally explained to Ronnie what they had been saying the possum was joined by a mother possum with two baby possums clinging to her back.
The possums descended from the tree and listened to Sally grunt as Ronnie showed them the photo of the Numbat.
‘There are no Numbats in this wood’ grunted the mother possum which her husband nodded his head in agreement.
Sally explained to the possums the threat to the wood and the need to make people THINK that Numbats lived there. She explained that she had brought with her some makeup and as possums were very similar in size and shape to the Numbat perhaps they could fool people.
The possums thought this to be the funniest thing they had heard but were willing to help in any way they could. Soon the father possum was standing perfectly still with his tail sticking straight out, as Sally applied makeup and Ronnie held the photograph of the Numbat so that Sally could copy what it looked like.
‘There’ said Sally, ‘it’s the best we can do’ standing back to admire her handiwork. ‘All we need now is a photograph.’
Sally got Ronnie to kneel on the ground and hold out his hand as if feeding the possum. The possum pretended to eat from Ronnie’s hand while at the same time making sure his colourful tail was sticking out. Once Sally was happy with the pose she took a picture of them both.
‘Perfect’ said Sally and using the screen on the camera showed the possums the photograph that she had taken.
‘I rather like the look of myself’ grunted the possum as he shook his fluffy tail and all of Sally’s makeup started to fall away.
‘Thank you so much Mr Possum,’ grunted Sally.
‘Anything to save the wood’ grunted the possum and his family grunted agreement. ‘Perhaps your brother could help us with something?’
The possums led Sally and her brother to the dried up creek bed which they followed for about 100 metres. ‘This is our problem’ grunted the possum.
Sally and Ronnie saw that a huge tree had fallen across the creek and stopped the water flowing.
‘This has caused us no end of problems and affected all of the animals and plants that rely on the water downstream’ grunted the possum.
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