The crowd went wild.
‘That was perfect, Ted!’ said Willow. ‘You were amazing!’
Ted’s heart was in his mouth. It had been the most intense five minutes of his life, and he had loved every second.
Eventually, the crowd stopped cheering. Ted just stood there, looking out into the crowd. He could see Nancy, Titus and Frank. The badgers, the rabbits, the squirrels. Even Pamela was perched on the back row, though Frank had insisted on her wearing a muzzle in case she got carried away and ate someone.
‘Everyone? C-can I have your attention, please? I just wanted to say something,’ Ted stammered. A hush fell over the audience. ‘I just wanna say… I’ve had the most amazing time here in Grimwood. An awful lot has happened. But you guys have all been such good friends to me and Nancy.’
‘WAHEY!’ cheered Frank and Wiggy.
‘Shurrup,’ said Nancy, trying to hide a smile.
‘I wanted to say thank you,’ said Ted. ‘Thank you for being so welcoming and for looking out for us when it mattered the most. As you know, me and Nancy are heading back to the Big City after the show.’
There were a few ‘boos’ and Titus honked into Frank’s armpit.
‘I promise I will never forget you,’ said Ted. ‘I will miss you all SO much – especially you, Willow. You’re the best friend I’ve ever had.’
Big fat tears rolled down Willow’s cheeks.
‘But I also need to say thank you to my big sister, Nancy. Firstly, for letting us stay on so I could do the show. But also because without her, I wouldn’t be here. She’s looked after me for as long as I can remember. So even though I’m sad to leave Grimwood, I’m also happy. Because I’ll be with her. And wherever she goes, I go. Because she’s my home.’
Willow and Ted hugged, and he sobbed into his adorable friend’s neck. In fact, everyone sobbed into everyone else’s neck, because it was the cutest and saddest thing ever, and that was a fact.
WAAAAAH!
While everyone was bawling, Nancy quietly trotted up to the stage.
‘Can everyone stop crying?’ barked Nancy into the microphone. ‘Because I’ve got something to say an’ all.’
‘Ooooooh!’ said everyone.
‘When we first came here I thought you were all a load of massive weirdos.’
‘Well, she’s not wrong,’ said Titus.
‘And to be honest…’ continued Nancy, ‘I still think you’re a load of massive weirdos. But you’ve been good to Ted. And you’ve been good to me, even when I didn’t deserve it.’
Frank gave her a wink.
‘And it’s clear as the snout on my face that I’ve never seen my little brother look as happy as he has here in Grimwood.’
Ted wiped his eyes.
‘So I’ve decided. We’re staying.’
‘Gasp!’ gasped everyone.
‘That all right with you, Titus?’ asked Nancy.
‘Oh, but you MUST stay!’ boomed Titus. ‘You fit right in! BOTH of you.’
Ted didn’t know what to say.
He hugged Nancy with all of his might while everyone else CHEERED and blew kazoos and someone started playing a jig on a fiddle.
‘I love you, sis,’ he whispered.
‘I love you too, bro,’ whispered Nancy.
She looked around them.
Among the trees she saw the electricity pylon, the shopping trolleys, the stinky pond, Titus’s rusty campervan and the bright stars that lit up the inky black sky above them.
‘Do you mean it, Nance?’ he said. ‘Can we really stay here?’
‘Yeah,’ said Nancy. ‘We can. Grimwood is weird. But Grimwood is our home.’
First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
Text and illustrations copyright © 2021 Nadia Shireen
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
The right of Nadia Shireen to be identified as the author and the illustrator of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
HB ISBN 978-1-4711-9930-1
eBook ISBN 978-1-4711-9932-5
eAudio ISBN 978-1-3985-0011-2
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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