My Super Sister and the Birthday Party Page 5
‘But I don’t understand. Why would Queenie-May want him?’ Saffie asked, going over to the window again. She jumped back in shock as a shrill voice suddenly answered her from outside.
‘To make sure you don’t tell any interfering grown-ups about me, of course!’
And there was Queenie-May, her long dress hitched up and tucked into her knickers as she climbed back over the window ledge into the room.
‘Queenie-May, where have you been? What have you done with Howard?’ I demanded furiously, but she only smirked while busying herself with straightening out her dress.
‘You shall have him back in due course if you are good little girls and don’t tell anyone about me,’ she finally said. ‘Oh – and I want a ride in that fabulous aeroplane I just went to have a look at in your front garden.’
‘That’s impossible,’ I said promptly. ‘Grandpa’s aeroplane can’t fly. There’s no engine.
‘Come now, Emma, that shouldn’t be a problem for you girls, should it?’ She gave me a knowing look. ‘Anyway, Saffie’s already told me she’s planning to make it fly on your grandfather’s birthday tomorrow.’
I looked at my sister. ‘You are?’
Saffie flushed. ‘I thought we could have a surprise midnight feast on Grandpa’s birthday and that I could make his aeroplane fly over the garden with a banner saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I was going to tell you . . . I was just worried in case you said it wasn’t a good idea.’
‘Well, I think it’s a marvellous idea!’ Queenie-May declared in her silkiest voice. ‘Though you won’t see the HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner in the dark of course. That’s why I’ve volunteered to ride in the plane. That way I can shine a torch directly on it as we fly by!’
‘No way,’ I said at once, whirling round to face her. ‘There’s no way you’re going anywhere near Grandpa’s plane!’
‘I beg your pardon?’ Queenie-May narrowed her eyes, her tone of voice instantly becoming threatening. ‘I’d start planning that midnight party now if I were you, Emma, and one way or another you will arrange that aeroplane ride for me. Unless of course you never want to see your precious teddy bear ever again!’
CHAPTER 8
The following day was Grandpa’s birthday and we woke up to discover that Granny had sneaked into our room while we were sleeping and taken Saffie’s Supergirl outfit to put in the wash. Lying on the bottom of Saffie’s bed was a pretty summer dress.
‘Saffie, please don’t make a big fuss,’ I begged when she looked really cross. ‘We don’t want to spoil today for Grandpa. Mum and Dad will be here soon, so let’s just get ready and go downstairs.’ I went over to pull back the curtains and take a look outside.
‘It’s a glorious day for a plane ride, don’t you think?’ Queenie-May greeted me cheerfully from her seat on the sunny window ledge. She had stayed there all night hidden from view behind the closed curtains. ‘Perhaps it would be more fun to fly during the day? What do you think?’
‘I think you’re a very bad doll and if you don’t tell us where Howard is you’ll be sorry,’ I threatened.
Queenie-May just laughed in my face and said she would tell us after we organized her plane ride.
Mum and Dad arrived later that morning (after Saffie and I had spent ages searching in vain for Howard). Our parents were gobsmacked when they saw Grandpa’s model plane and Dad stayed out on the front lawn for ages, admiring it and asking Grandpa loads of questions.
As soon as Mum came inside I grabbed her hand and took her straight into the living room to show her the doll’s house.
‘Oooh!’ she burst out when she saw it on the coffee table. ‘I haven’t seen that for years!’
‘Come and look inside,’ I said, opening up the front for her and making the most of having her all to myself since Saffie had stayed outside with Dad and Grandpa.
‘Oh, Emma, this is marvellous!’ she said, kneeling down next to me to get a closer look. ‘I’d forgotten how cute the furniture was – look at the teeny fish tank! Oh, and isn’t the little rocking horse sweet? Oh, look. There’s Mrs Percival, the nanny – I’d forgotten how stern she was! And there are Clancy and Lucy, the twins.’
When I asked Mum if it would spoil it for her if I made the dolls come alive she gave me a funny look, so I quickly explained what Grandpa had told me.
She laughed. ‘Oh, yes! I remember now. I told Granny that I wanted to be in charge of my doll’s house, not her! I was a stubborn little thing back then, always wanting to do everything on my own! But actually I think it would be great fun if you brought the dolls to life for us, Emma!’
So I did, and it was really good fun getting to know the doll’s-house family together. (Though Mrs Percival gave Mum quite a telling-off for scaring the children when she first stuck her head inside the nursery to say hello!)
‘So now what do you think the chances are of Saffie being able to go to school after the summer?’ I heard Mum asking Granny later as they made lunch.
Saffie was out in the back garden playing, and I had come into the kitchen to get a drink.
Granny laughed. ‘About zero!’
Mum sighed. ‘Has she been really awful?’
‘Ever since I had to confiscate Elvira and Dorothy she’s been difficult. Mind you, Emma’s come on a lot. She’s much more confident about using her superpower now.’
Mum sighed again. ‘Mother, you do realize I sent the girls here hoping that Saffie would learn to use her power less – not so that Emma could learn to use hers more.’
‘But, Mum, we have to learn to use our powers properly so that we can take care of ourselves,’ I pointed out.
‘Really?’ Mum gave me an unimpressed look and I could tell she thought I was just quoting Granny. ‘In case you haven’t noticed, you and Saffie are still children, which means you don’t have to take care of yourselves. That’s what I’m here for. And Daddy.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘Actually there are no buts,’ she interrupted me. ‘You see, I think there’s a reason why this superpower always skips a generation. I think it’s because those in the family who have it need the protection of their parents – and later on their children – who don’t.’
None of us spoke for a moment or two and I looked at Granny to see if she was going to comment.
Finally Granny said, ‘That’s an interesting point, Marsha, especially if you think about what happened to your Aunt Penelope. Perhaps having a family of her own might have made a difference . . .’
‘Perhaps,’ Mum agreed, ‘though we’ll never know for sure. Anyway . . . let’s not think about Aunt Penelope now. Come on . . . We’d better tell Dad about the birthday treat we’ve got planned for him today. We thought you could come too, Mother, and Jim can stay here with the girls.’
It turned out that Mum was planning to take Grandpa to a huge model aeroplane exhibition that afternoon.
‘Can’t we come too?’ Saffie and I both begged when we first heard about it.
Mum explained that this was an exhibition for grown-up collectors and that there would be lots of different model aeroplanes and lots and lots of information posted up about each one of them, all of which Grandpa would want to read carefully.
‘I’m sure you’d both get very bored,’ she said firmly. ‘I really think you’ll be better off staying here with Daddy. If you ask him nicely I’m sure he’ll take you to the park.’
‘The park? Oh yes, I really want to go to the park!’ my sister exclaimed at once, and I knew right away what she was thinking. The play park near Granny’s house has a massive climbing frame that both Granny and Mum are too scared to let Saffie go on. Dad would let her play on it though.
‘Mum, is it all right if we give Grandpa his birthday present at his party?’ I asked after Grandpa had gone upstairs to get ready for his afternoon out. (We’d already asked Granny if we could throw Grandpa a surprise midnight feast and she’d thought it a brilliant idea.)
‘Of course,’ Mum said, giving me a smile.
We had just made the jelly, which I was putting in the fridge to set, when Dad got a phone call from his work. Dad always says he’ll just be a minute when he answers work calls – but it nearly always takes much longer.
I went to join Saffie in the front garden and found her looking a bit alarmed as she stood staring at Grandpa’s model plane. I soon saw why. Queenie-May was sitting in the cockpit, a bright red headscarf tied around her hair and my sister’s swimming goggles covering her eyes. I had to admit that she was such a good fit she could almost have been the real model pilot.
‘What are you doing here?’ I hissed.
‘I am waiting for my aeroplane ride,’ Queenie-May replied haughtily. ‘Though it would have been nice if you’d had the decency to come and fetch me. It’s extremely difficult climbing down that ivy in this gown. By the way, Saffie, it’s so pleasing to see you in a pretty dress for a change – much more appropriate than that ridiculous fancy-dress costume!’
Saffie gave Queenie-May a furious glare. ‘My Supergirl outfit is not ridiculous!’
Queenie-May laughed. ‘Do you know, you remind me of that other little girl I lived with! Penelope had the dearest, crossest scowl, just like you, and she had a wonderfully bad temper. She and I got into so much trouble together! It was such fun! I can teach you some of the naughty tricks we used to play on people if you like.’
‘I don’t need you to teach me anything!’ my sister replied sharply.
Queenie-May just laughed again. ‘Do you know, I’m getting to like you more and more the crosser you get? I always did prefer strong-willed little girls. I’d much rather play with you than Little Miss Boring over there.’
‘My sister is not boring,’ Saffie defended me. ‘She’s sensible – and she can’t even help that because Mummy says she was born that way.’
‘Saffie—’ I began, not sure whether to be annoyed because she was making it sound like I had something wrong with me, or pleased because she was standing up for me to Queenie-May.
‘Look – are you going to bring this plane to life or not?’ Queenie-May goaded her. ‘Because the sooner you do, the sooner I’ll tell you where I left that rotten old bear.’
‘You’d better tell!’ Saffie snarled back. She saw Queenie-May’s darkening expression and quickly gave in. ‘I can get the plane to fly you over those woods and back. Will that do?’
‘That sounds perfect,’ Queenie-May replied with a triumphant grin.
‘Saffie . . . be careful . . .’ I murmured, but even I was beginning to think this might be the only way to find Howard.
Saffie slid shut the cockpit roof and stood back to focus all her attention on Grandpa’s plane.
Pretty soon the plane was looking different. Saffie nearly always gives things faces when she animates them and this was no exception. The plane had grown a smiley mouth and two round eyes on stalks, and Queenie-May let out a shriek of delight as it started to move. First it rolled over the grass and then on to the driveway, rolling bumpily across the ground on its little wheels.
‘Saffie, where’s it going?’ I asked as we followed it.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when the plane answered for itself. ‘To find a runway, of course!’
The plane turned on to the pavement and started to pick up speed as I kept my fingers crossed that no neighbours were looking.
I watched Saffie running after it shouting out instructions that I couldn’t hear. Then she stood back and watched as it took off.
‘Wow!’ I gasped, only wishing that Grandpa could see his beautiful aeroplane soaring up into the sky so gracefully. Not for the first time I wished that I could animate very large objects like Saffie could.
I followed my sister as she hurried round to the back of the house. She didn’t take her eyes off the plane as it flew over the field behind the house, and on over the woods, getting smaller and smaller the further away it got.
Suddenly the plane tipped over abruptly so that it was flying upside down.
‘I hope that’s exciting enough for her,’ Saffie said through gritted teeth.
Before it could disappear from view the plane turned round in a little arc and began to fly back over the woods – the right way up this time.
Just then Dad appeared in the kitchen doorway holding our bowl of jelly. ‘Girls, I think you’ve put too much water in this. It doesn’t look like it’s going to set.’ He looked up and let out a startled gasp as he spotted Grandpa’s plane – and the bowl of jelly slipped through his fingers.
As the glass bowl smashed on to the concrete patio Saffie’s concentration broke.
‘Saffie!’ I cried out, but it was too late.
All we could do was watch in horror as Grandpa’s aeroplane nosedived into the trees.
CHAPTER 9
‘What are we going to do?’ I murmured, almost in tears after my sister had tried to re-animate the plane by imagining it in her head and found that she couldn’t.
Dad was furious with us. ‘How could you do this to Grandpa?’ he yelled. It was hard to have him looking at us like we were criminals.
‘Let’s bring the gnomes to life,’ Saffie suggested suddenly.
Dad looked at her as if he thought she had gone completely loopy. ‘Why?’ he demanded.
‘Because we need a search-and-rescue team,’ Saffie reasoned. ‘That’s what would happen if the plane was real.’
I thought about the time a bird had fallen down our grandparents’ chimney and got stuck behind their blocked-up fireplace. The gnomes had carried out a brilliant rescue mission using some rope that had been in the garage, and one of them had abseiled down the inside of the chimney with a pen torch gripped between his teeth. (That was before Granny had bought them night-vision goggles.)
‘It’s amazing what Granny’s gnomes can do when they work together, Daddy,’ Saffie added.
‘It’s true, Dad,’ I backed her up. ‘Granny calls them her mini commandos.’ And as I thought about that I started to get an idea.
‘Shall I bring them all to life right now?’ Saffie was saying enthusiastically.
As Dad pulled a horrified face I said quickly, ‘Wait a minute, Saffie. I don’t think we need to.’
And I slowly outlined my plan.
‘So you want to fly one of the gnomes over the accident site to look for the plane – a sort of reconnaissance mission if you like?’ Dad clarified slowly. ‘And you want to send this gnome there on the back of one of the topiary birds from your grandmother’s hedge?’
I nodded. ‘We could just send the bird on its own, but I think that a gnome’s feedback might be more reliable. So will you cut one of the birds off the hedge for us, Dad?’
Dad sighed. ‘Do I have a choice?’
‘Let’s use the seagull, Daddy,’ Saffie suggested. ‘It already has its wings spread out as if it’s flying, so I won’t have to make it grow them. It will be easy to fly as it is.’
As Dad went to the garage to fetch Grandpa’s hedge-cutter, Saffie and I discussed which gnome would be the best one to animate.
‘I think we should ask Walter what he thinks,’ Saffie said as Dad came back and set to work on the hedge.
‘No way,’ I replied. ‘He’ll want to know what happened and he won’t stop lecturing us for ages.’
The hedge seagull was quite jumpy once Saffie had brought her to life. ‘A plane crash in the trees you say?’ she squawked. ‘Are any nests destroyed? Are any trees on fire? I don’t want my feathers singed!’
‘You’re not made of feathers – you’re made of leaves,’ I pointed out, but the highly strung bird just gave me a panicky stare with the beady eyes Saffie had given her.
Saffie and I eventually agreed that the best gnome for the job was the one who had rescued the bird from Granny’s chimney, since he was obviously brave and didn’t mind heig
hts. His name was Percy and he was Granny’s accordion-playing gnome. He wore bright orange dungarees, which meant he was very easy to spot.
As soon as Percy was animated and we had explained what we needed him to do he put down his accordion and began some warm-up stretches.
‘I always like to limber up before a mission,’ he explained before throwing himself down on the ground to do some press-ups.
Keeping a safe distance away, Dad cleared his throat to get our attention. ‘Emma, do you think you could tell . . . um . . . Percy to be very careful not to accidently dislodge the plane if it is stuck in the trees?’
‘Don’t you worry, Jim,’ Percy answered him directly. ‘I know exactly what I’m doing!’
Poor Dad turned pale and I had a feeling he found it really disturbing to be on first-name terms with a garden gnome.
Nobody spoke while Percy and the seagull were away, though we all started speaking at once the second they landed safely on the back lawn again.
‘It’s good news! The plane is caught in the treetops,’ Percy informed us with a grin as he jumped off on to the ground.
‘What about the doll?’ I asked. ‘Is she all right?’
‘I think so. She’s certainly still on board. I want to fly back there now with a couple of ropes. I can throw down the ends of the ropes to that doll and get her to tie them on. Then it should be possible to tow the whole thing out of the trees. But we have to hurry. It looks as if it could fall at any minute.’
‘Dad, can you please go and see if there’s any rope in the garage?’ I said urgently.
‘I’ll be as quick as I can,’ Dad replied.
He soon arrived back from the garage with two coils of rope, which he and Percy carefully tied around the seagull’s middle. He looked nervous as he asked, ‘So what will we say if the neighbours see any of this?’
‘We say we’re flying some remote-controlled toys,’ I answered straight away. ‘But don’t worry, Dad. Granny and Grandpa’s neighbours aren’t nosy like ours.’