I looked up from what I was doing (swapping swimming caps round – I reckoned I preferred having a red head to an egg-head or bush-head).
‘What’s wrong, Thing?’ I asked, glancing up from fitting the white rubber over the trampoline tin. ‘You’re home, sweet home!’
Thing looked as squished as the icing, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re stuck inside a sweaty sports hold-all for the whole of a party.
‘Peh,’ muttered Thing, now scrambling inside the Mystery Machine van, and sitting with its furry back to us.
Jackson – who’d started eating the cake since it was going spare – frowned at me.
‘Maybe I could cheer it up?’ he mumbled with his mouth full, while grabbing a can of Coke he’d nabbed from the party. ‘I could burp a song it liked!’
Of course a suggestion like that deserved to be ignored, so that’s what I did.
‘Thing,’ I said softly, getting down on my hands and knees so my face was at van-level. ‘Please tell us what’s wrong!’
‘Not like monsterer looking at me!’ it mumbled.
‘The print-out!’ I said, straightening up and pointing to the laminated cartoon of the Loch Ness You-Know-What.
‘Sorry, Thing!’ said Jackson, reaching over and snatching the picture off the skinny branch with a twang. ‘I didn’t know it would frighten you so much. I just thought you’d think it was cool. But see – it’s gone now!’
Thing swizzled round, with a wary peek at where the picture wasn’t.
‘And I sorry,’ it purred, rubbing its paws together, ‘for troublings I make at poo party …’
DON’T I glowered at Jackson, before he burst out laughing.
‘OK,’ he said, swallowing his sniggers. ‘If we’re all saying sorry, then I want to say sorry I told you that your head looked like a ping-pong ball in swimming lessons, Ruby!’
‘Oh! Thank you!’ I said in surprise.
Jackson apologising for being a big baboon didn’t happen very often. About as often as ducks go moo.
‘Though it WAS better than the dumb flowery hat you had on today,’ he added, annoyingly.
I huffed for a second, but knew he had a point. I didn’t suit looking like a bush.
‘And sorry I said you were a know-it-all, and all that stuff,’ he added with a shrug. ‘I guess you are kind of smart and sensible and whatever …’
It was a bit rambly, but I was still touched. Maybe it was time I added a sorry of my own?
‘Well, I’m sorry if I ever sound bossy,’ I told him.
As Jackson and I grinned at each other, Thing scuttled on to my lap, threw itself star-shaped against my belly and squeezed me tight.
‘Er, what are you doing?’ I asked it.
‘Rubby and Boy happy. I happy. So I genorrr you,’ it purred so loudly it made my tummy rumble.
‘Hold on; this is what you thought “ignoring” meant?’ I asked, remembering that evening I marched all miserable and mumfy up the garden.
‘It not this?’ Thing purred in surprise.
‘No! Ignoring means pretending someone isn’t there,’ I explained.
‘Oh!’ squeaked Thing. ‘I thought it sound like nice word. Like a huggy word.’
‘Hey, you me and Thing – let’s ALL genorrr each other!’ announced Jackson.
And with that, he threw his arms around us both in a big bear hug, which was kind of embarrassing and kind of, well, nice.
(*Yeah – same as Jackson will never be annoying and Thing will never, ever do a single speck more rubbish magic. In my dreams!!)
Copyright
First published in 2012
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2012
All rights reserved
© Karen McCombie, 2012
Illustrations © Alex T. Smith, 2012
The right of Karen McCombie to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 978–0–571–27262–4 [epub edition]
The Legend of the Loch Ness Lilo Page 5
