Edie Amelia and the Runcible River Fever (9 page)

‘The basket,' Edie whispered, ‘quick, let's hide in the basket.'

The girls scrambled in as fast as they could. Mister resisted.

‘Get in!' Edie hissed. ‘What's wrong with you?'

Eventually, fearing for his safety, she grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down onto a cushion which read
Home, sweet home
. There wasn't much room for all three of them, but it would have to do.

Edie looked around her. There was an esky, which on further inspection was found to be brimming with supplies: everything from cellophane-wrapped goodies and lowfat energy bars to salt-renewing beverages. There were maps detailing a proposed air route, a first-aid kit and some large bottles of water lying to one side. When Edie spied a khaki tarpaulin next to the esky, she pulled it over the top of them. Hogmanay was so close she could hear him grunt. Then something heavy and box-shaped
landed right on top of her. Sounds of heavy breathing came from inside it.

‘What's wrong with your dog, Sparks?' whispered Cheesy in her ear. ‘He won't stop snuffling.'

‘I don't want to alarm you,' Edie replied, ‘but
someone else
just landed in the basket.'

T
he three adventurers lay very still as a car door was opened and closed, and then a motor started. With a lurch and one or two bumps the car began to move, towing the trailer behind it. The trailer, the big plastic bag, the wicker balloon basket and the basket's occupants were being taken out of the hangar and up the steep hill. One thing seemed certain: there was no turning back. The girls clung to each other for support and the crate with the heavy-breathing creature inside it was now in danger of squashing Mister.

‘Here, boy, get away from that,' whispered Edie.

‘What have we done?' Cheesy said over and over.

‘Please, Cheesy, you've got to try to calm down,' said Edie. ‘He's your dad, after all. Let's just stay rational and find a way to explain everything to him. I know—we're studying balloon baskets and part of our project is to see how large they are and whether they are fit for pets.'

But Cheesy wasn't listening. ‘It doesn't make sense,' she said. ‘Dad must have repaired the balloon. I bet that's what's in the plastic bag. But if he thinks he'll be flying at forty thousand feet, which, according to
The Whiz-kids' Encyclopaedia
would be the record-breaking height requirement, surely he'd need more than a
tarpaulin and a pair of orange overalls to keep him warm. Isn't it freezing up there in outer space?'

‘Well, it's a good job
we'll
be there to make him see sense,' said Edie, now glad of her woolly knickers.

‘I'm scared,' said Cheesy, shivering. ‘What if Dad gets really, really angry? He's not himself, you know.'

‘Shh,' said Edie bravely. ‘We'll be fine.'

She jiggled the crate with her left foot and whatever was inside it squeaked. The girls peeped over the top of the tarpaulin. They were now on higher ground and travelling along a tree-shaded country road. As the sun began to set they stopped at a farm gate on which there was a notice stating that beyond it lay the Runcible Refuge for Distressed Dromedaries, adding that if anyone wanted to come in they needed a permit. Hogmanay got out of the car, took a key from his pocket and unlocked the gate.

‘That's the key. The missing key!'
whispered Edie, ticking it off her list. At least she had tracked down one of Doctor Stuart's missing items. ‘And we've come to the RRFDD. But I'm confused. What's the RRFD?'

When Hogmanay came back from the gate and climbed into the driver's seat, his passengers dived back under the tarpaulin. After a bone-jarring ride along a rutted track, the trailer stopped. The girls poked their heads up and saw they were in the middle of a flat green field populated by fuzzy white shapes on legs. Edie thought they must be giant dogs with shrunken heads.

‘Alpacas,' said Cheesy, always glad to display any superior knowledge she happened to have.

‘Hold on. Strictly speaking they're not dromedaries, are they?' said Edie.

‘They're American cousins of dromedaries, with similar toes,' said Cheesy.

Edie felt her Worries rising. Even though she'd asked Cheesy to keep calm, the fact that they'd got into the balloon basket,
uninvited, was going to have consequences. She took a few deep breaths to drive the Worries back down.

Hogmanay undid the back of the trailer and manhandled the big plastic bag onto the grass. Edie was frozen with fear. Had they dared to look out of the basket they would have seen an auburn-bearded Scotsman in orange overalls humming to country music on his car radio while preparing a balloon for take-off before an inquisitive audience of not-very-distressed-looking alpacas.

‘Shoo, ye big gits,' said Hogmanay,
causing the animals to bleat and skitter about. Mister gave a raspy bark, but Hogmanay seemed too preoccupied to hear it.

‘Shh, boy,' whispered Edie. ‘I know they don't look it, but they're distressed animals. Remember what the sign said?'

‘I don't care much for them either,' said Cheesy, and patted Mister's ears.

Now they were back in daylight Edie was able to see through a crack in the wicker balloon basket. (She fleetingly hoped that the woodworms had not been gnawing at it.) Hogmanay was close enough for her to hear his ragged breathing as he completed his many tasks. He lugged tanks and canisters of all shapes and sizes out of the car, then released the contents of the plastic bag onto the grass. Cheesy had been right; Edie couldn't see it clearly, but she could tell it was the repaired balloon envelope. Hogmanay began to inflate the giant mass of polyurethane. The
WHOOSH
of the flame igniting scattered the alpacas in all directions like hooved dandelions. Mister flattened his ears, disappeared back under the tarpaulin
and lay between the girls. Edie and Cheesy kept very still, even though they knew it was pointless because any second now they'd be discovered and the jig would be up.

‘Here we are then,' they heard Hogmanay say as he lowered the basket from the trailer with a pulley. Cheesy's elbow was in Edie's back and Mister Pants, squashed between them, blew his hot breath in Edie's face.

‘This is heavier than I remember,' Hogmanay muttered as he moved the basket onto the field. ‘Let me see . . .'

Just then a car screeched to a halt close by and Hogmanay left off inspecting the basket. ‘You took your time! I thought you'd never make it!' he called to someone.

‘There's a curfew, or hadn't you heard?' said a husky female voice. ‘I've come straight from the Town Meeting where the Mayor's declared a lockdown. I'll have you know I'm risking my job at
The Daily Bugle
by being here, so this had better be good. Whoops! Are these baby camels friendly?'

‘What on earth is going on?' whispered Cheesy.

‘Has your dad invited the newspaper?' Edie asked.

‘You should get a snap of me as I launch,' Hogmanay was saying. ‘How about I get it all ready to go then pose like
this
? Believe me, Trudy Truelove, you'll be running the headline:
Runcible Scot Finds Fever Cure and Breaks World Record
.'

‘I'm surprised you didn't suggest
Hogmanay Saves the World
,' said the journalist.

‘Even better,' said Hogmanay, missing her sarcasm completely.

E
die felt her Worries rising fast and, worse, they were turning into Angry Worries. It was surely
her
father's discovery of a Fever cure that good old light-fingered Hogmanay was trying to pass off as his own. However bad the crisis was, it wasn't enough to justify nicking from a friend, or spraying
another friend with woodworm repellent. Edie began to scratch at the itchy spots that had appeared on her arms and legs. She felt clammy and feverish and fervently wished that everything in Runcible could once again be on an even keel, which Edie understood to be a mariner's way of saying that all was shipshape and that none of the sailors below deck had scurvy.