“Oh Wolf! What did you expect? Had you forgotten that people don’t eat babies?”
“I can’t think why not. There seems to be a very good supply,” the wolf said.
“Would you eat wolf cubs?”
“Certainly. If I was hungry.”
“Well, most people don’t eat babies. So when they saw you sniffing into prams, they realized that you weren’t a human. They knew you were a wolf.”
“No, they don’t. They don’t know what I am. Didn’t you hear what they said? They think I’m very unusual,” the wolf said, with a little pride.
“Don’t be too pleased about that. It’s because you’re so unusual that they want to dissect you.”
“What’s dissect?” the wolf asked.
“Cut you up to find out how you work.”
“Cut me up alive!” the wolf cried.
“Not alive. Dead.”
“Cut me up, dead?”
“Or shoot you and stuff you. Not with food. With cotton wool, or whatever you stuff dead creatures with,” Polly explained.
The wolf shuddered.
“Or they might want to hunt you. With dogs.”
“What am I going to do?” the wolf said, and at his howl, several people in the crowd turned round to see what was happening.
“Don’t stand so close, little girl. That animal is dangerous,” a man in spectacles said.
“I’ve met him before,” Polly said.
“Then you know that he is a threat to our community,” Spectacles said.
Polly thought quickly. “I’ll tell you what I do know. He’s a very strange animal. There’s never been anything quite like him here before.” (That’s true enough, she said to herself.) “In fact he’s Unique.”
“I am NOT,” she heard the wolf mutter behind the net, but she took no notice and went on.
“You know what a fuss everyone makes about not letting rare kinds of plants and animals disappear. I can tell you, if you hurt this animal, there’s going to be a terrible fuss. You’ll get blamed by everyone important. The Queen will be angry, and the Prime Minister will be furious, and I wouldn’t wonder if the whole village didn’t get punished.”
There were murmurs among the crowd. They were obviously impressed. She heard, “Seems to know what she’s talking about.” “Don’t want the place to get a bad name.” “Remember what the Green Party said on television the other night, about preserving the balance of Nature.”
“I expect one of the television stars would tell everyone what a terrible thing had happened here,” Polly said, reminded of the power of TV.
“She’s right. We don’t want to be held up to scorn as vandals,” the tweedy man said.
“Animal Rights,” said a thin woman who hadn’t spoken before.
“I still think it should be put behind bars. In a zoo,” said a fat man.
“Polly! I won’t go into a zoo,” the wolf said in an under-tone.
“Can’t I have it to keep in my room?” a small boy asked his mum, who said, “Sorry, sweetie, I don’t think Dad would like it.”
“That wouldn’t be too bad,” the wolf said, looking over the small boy hungrily.
“He shouldn’t be in a zoo. He should be allowed to roam free,” Polly said.
“Not around our village!” someone said quickly.
“Where he belongs. In forests, or on hills. Wherever he came from,” the thin woman said.
“Where did you come from, Wolf?” Polly asked, wondering why she had never asked this question before.
“Can’t remember. I didn’t come out of a box, I do know that.”
“In fact, he’s almost certainly one of an endangered species,” Polly said.
“I don’t! I wouldn’t, anyway, if you let me go!” the wolf cried.
“Wouldn’t what?” Polly asked.
“Make dangerous speeches. It’s not the sort of thing I do.”
“I didn’t say speeches, I said . . . what that means is that you’re very special and we ought to take great care nothing terrible happens to you.”
“Now that makes sense . . . Why don’t all the other . . .” the wolf began, but he was interrupted by the man in spectacles, who had raised his hand and said, “Ahem! Ahem! It seems to me that we should take a vote on the question of what to do with this . . . this . . . unusual animal. I for one am not prepared to take the responsibility of advising its destruction . . .”
“What’s that?” the wolf whispered to Polly.
“Killing you,” Polly whispered back.
“. . . by whatever means. The choice therefore lies between sending it to one of the many zoological institutions in this country, or, as my friend here has suggested, letting it go free to its natural habitat . . .”
“Natural what?” the wolf wanted to know.
“Where you live, Wolf.”
“. . . wherever that may be. Could we have a show of hands, please? Those wishing the animal to go to a zoo put up their hands.”
He counted. “Four . . . six . . . Are you holding up your hand, Madam, or adjusting a hatpin? . . . Seven . . .”
“Wolf! If I loosened the net here, could you creep out?” Polly whispered. She had discovered that she could pull the edge of the net a little away from the bottom of the tea chest.
“If I make myself very thin.”
“And if I do, will you promise . . .?” But Spectacles had now finished the first count and there were too many people looking round. Polly waited till she heard the second counting begin. Then she finished the sentence. “Will you promise not to try to catch me to eat ever again?”
“Of course. I promise. Now let me out,” the Wolf said, far too quickly.
“You didn’t mean that. Think about it.”
The wolf thought. “You mean really, truly, never?”
“Really, truly, never.”
“But it’s been fun! Hasn’t it?”
“Sometimes. Frightening, too.”
“Being frightened is fun. And anyway, you’re so clever, Polly. You’ve always managed to escape up till now.”
“You’ve never said I was clever before,” Polly said.
“I didn’t realize how clever you are till I heard you say that about dangerous speeches,” the wolf said.
Polly was pleased. She began to say, “Well, just promise . . .” But the sentence never got said, for at that moment the wolf, seeing that she wasn’t thinking about holding the net as tightly as before, pushed his head up and pulled it out of her hands. There was a bump, a crash, and a moment later, the wolf was out of the tea chest, free of the net, and was streaking down the High Street, terrifying passers-by and only just avoiding cars and bicycles.
Luckily no one blamed Polly.
“But I wonder what he thinks his natural habitat is? I’m sure it’s not forests or hills, it’s much more likely to be this village where he knows his way around,” she thought and wondered if she would ever see him again. Probably. He wasn’t likely to give up now that on this occasion it had been the wolf who had flattered and fooled her. Clever Polly had for once met a not-so-stupid wolf.
The Complete Polly and the Wolf Page 22
