There's a Yeti in the Playground!

by Pamela Butchart

  So Jodi said that we were going to have to ABANDON trying to find Zach until we got Gary back and in an ambulance.

  But then Gary managed to get his fingers working again and he unwrapped his face and said, “I’m fine! LOOK! I’m fine!”

  And we looked and saw that his nose wasn’t that red any more.

  So then Jodi put her hand on Gary’s head and closed her eyes as if she was taking his temperature with her hand and then Jodi said he was

  but that she’d still need to keep an eye on him.

  And then Gary said, “I know where Zach is.”

  And me and Jodi both gasped and said, “WHERE?!” at EXACTLY the same time.

  But Gary said that we wouldn’t be able to see Zach unless he showed us and that you could only see him from the roof of the bike shed. And he didn’t say anything annoying or make any of his annoying faces so we knew that he was SERIOUS.

  So we climbed up the fence and on to the roof.

  And as soon as we got up there Gary said, “LIE FLAT! Don’t let it see you!”

  So me and Jodi DROPPED DOWN FLAT and

  to the edge of the roof so we could see.

  And that’s when Gary told us that he had been YETI WATCHING for a while and that he’d spotted it FIVE TIMES.

  That’s when Jodi said, “Where? What was it doing?”

  And Gary said that he didn’t know but it kept wandering ALL OVER the playground and that he thought it was stuck and couldn’t find the way out.

  But then Jodi said, “I think she knows EXACTLY where the way out is. She’s not lost. She’s HUNGRY. She probably SMELLED YOU but can’t figure out where you are.”

  And Gary GULPED and then he pointed over to the cabin library and said, “Look. There!”

  But we couldn’t see anything.

  And then Gary said, “The roof. Look at the ROOF.”

  And that’s when we saw Zach.

  And Jodi said, “He’s ALIVE!”

  And I STARED at her because I hadn’t realised that she thought Zach might not be ALIVE!!

  Then Jodi said, “Can he see us?”

  And Gary said that he didn’t think so and that he’d tried waving to him but that he hadn’t waved back. Then Gary said that he’d been too scared to shout over in case the YETI heard him and came back.

  Then all of a sudden Jodi said, “SHHHHHH! Do you hear that?”

  That’s when Jodi said that she thought she could hear the ARMY CHOPPER in the distance and that it was NOW OR NEVER. Which I knew meant we had to get Maisie back from the

  And that’s when I SMELLED THE SMELL AGAIN.

  And Gary held his nose and said, “YUCK! Who was that? Was that YOU, Izzy? It wasn’t ME!!”

  And I said that I KNEW it wasn’t him and that it was the YETI and that it meant the YETI was CLOSE.

  And then all of a sudden Gary gasped and grabbed my arm and whispered, “It’s back!” And he pointed down to the ground.

  And I almost SCREAMED because the YETI was RIGHT BELOW US!

  We all STARED as the YETI made a GROANING sound and moved past us REALLY SLOWLY in the snow.

  And then all of a sudden it stopped.

  Jodi grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight.

  And then Gary Petrie squeezed my other hand and I just let him because I was TERRIFIED.

  Then Jodi whispered, “Does it still have Maisie?”

  But I couldn’t see anything except for the YETI’S big hairy back!

  Then Gary whispered, “Why has it stopped?”

  But no one needed to answer that question.

  Because that’s when we all saw that Zach had finally spotted us.

  And he was waving at us.

  And jumping up and down.

  And then he started YELLING AND WHISTLING!

  And then all of a sudden the YETI started to move.

  FAST.

  And Jodi said, “Oh no!”

  Because the YETI had spotted Zach.

  And she was headed STRAIGHT FOR HIM!

  Before I knew what I was doing I’d climbed down from the roof and was RACING across the playground.

  And Jodi was running after me shouting, “ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION!” because she obviously wanted me to stop but I COULDN’T.

  The next thirty seconds were a bit of a BLUR but before I knew it I was at the CABIN LIBRARY and Zach was leaning over the roof looking down at me shouting, “IZZY! What are you DOING?! GRAB MY HAND!!”

  I climbed up to the window ledge and Zach pulled me up on to the roof and I was in so much SHOCK that I had to lie down and just let the snow fall on my face for a second.

  Then Zach said, “Why did you run over here like that? The YETI almost GOT YOU!”

  And I felt a SHIVER go down my spine when Zach said that because even though I didn’t remember running past the YETI I know that I must have. So I jumped up and told Zach that we needed to get out of there NOW and that the YETI was headed THIS WAY and that I’d come to SAVE HIM (even though I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to do that).

  But Zach said that he KNEW the YETI was headed straight for him and that that was what he WANTED to happen and that that was why he’d been doing all the WAVING and YELLING and WHISTLING.

  Then he started running around the roof touching things and pulling things and I had

  what he was doing until he said, “You almost got caught in my YETI TRAP!”

  And I GASPED when I saw what he had made.

  Because Zach had attached the net to bits of ROPE and he’d tied loads of WEIRD KNOTS all over the place. It was AWESOME!

  That’s when Zach told me that he’d lost us after he SMELLED THE SMELL and that he was worried that the YETI had CAPTURED us so he ran back to the PE cupboard to get the ropes and dragged them all the way up here to make the TRAP.

  I was AMAZED because the YETI trap looked really PROFESSIONAL and I had no idea Zach could do stuff like that.

  Zach said, “I’m probably going to get expelled for this.”

  So I said that me and Jodi were DEFINITELY getting expelled and I told him about Mrs Seith’s broken heels and the BARE FEET and he looked SHOCKED.

  And that’s when I remembered that there was a YETI COMING TO EAT US so I rolled over on to my stomach and crawled to the edge of the roof to look for it.

  But it was GONE.

  I looked up and saw that Jodi and Gary were still on top of the old bike shed and that they were both waving at us LOADS and it looked like they were trying to tell us something.

  Jodi was shouting something but the wind and snow were blowing SO HARD that I couldn’t hear what it was.

  I thought that maybe they were trying to tell us that the YETI was close. But I couldn’t see it anywhere.

  And that’s when I realised that Jodi was using MAKATON again.

  And I GASPED.

  Because I knew what the sign she was doing meant.

  Jodi was trying to tell us that the YETI was BEHIND US!

  Me and Zach both turned around REALLY SLOWLY.

  And that’s when we saw the tip of the YETI’S HEAD!

  It was climbing up the side of the cabin to GET US!

  Zach LEAPED up and shouted, “HELP ME PULL!”

  And I saw he was pulling on his YETI TRAP so I helped and then all of a sudden the YETI head disappeared and there was a LOUD GROAN.

  And Zach yelled, “GOTCHA!”

  And I couldn’t believe it. We’d TRAPPED THE YETI!

  So I yelled, “QUICK! Maisie might be stuck in the trap TOO! We need to get her out before the ARMY CHOPPER gets here and takes them both to Mount Everest!”

  But Zach just STARED at me because he obviously had NO IDEA what I was talking about. And that’s when I remembered that he didn’t know about the whole MAISIE YETI BABY THING.

  I looked over the side at the YETI to see if Maisie was trapped with it but it was hard to see because of all the THRASHING and the FUR.

  So I climbed down and Zach said, “BE CAREFUL! Don’t get
too close!”

  But I knew that I HAD to get close because if Maisie was stuck inside with the YETI then I was going to rip a little hole in the net to get her out.

  But then all of a sudden the YETI stopped thrashing and started SCREAMING.

  And I was surprised at how HUMAN a YETI CRY could sound.

  And that’s when I realised that I RECOGNISED the scream a bit. It sounded like MAISIE’S scream, only it was DEEPER and LOUDER.

  I watched as the YETI kicked and screamed and

  And that’s when I realised that the YETI WASN’T A YETI.

  It was a

  And it wasn’t just ANY human woman.

  It was Maisie’s mum!

  Jodi came RACING over and I was just about to tell her that the YETI wasn’t a YETI when she said, “IT’S NOT A YETI!”

  And then Gary Petrie appeared and he was carrying Maisie and as SOON as she saw that we had caught her mum in a YETI TRAP she started SCREAMING.

  And that made Maisie’s mum scream EVEN LOUDER.

  And that’s when I realised that we’d made a MASSIVE MISTAKE.

  As soon as we managed to get some of Zach’s SUPER KNOTS out, Maisie’s mum RAN over to Maisie and gave her a great big hug (even though she was still covered in most of the net).

  And she squeezed Maisie SO TIGHT that Maisie actually SQUEAKED.

  Then Mr Graves appeared and he was FURIOUS and he said that he’d EVENTUALLY been able to find us because of all the SCREAMING and that we were in SERIOUS TROUBLE and that we needed to all get back inside NOW!

  And then he spotted Maisie’s mum and he looked confused.

  And he said, “Um. Mrs Miller? Is that YOU?”

  And we knew that he probably didn’t recognise her because of all the fur and snow and the giant net.

  Once we were inside, Zach kept on apologising to Maisie’s mum over and over again but she wasn’t even listening because she was too busy putting Maisie into the RECOVERY POSITION. And she looked a bit like she was going to start CRYING. And I felt a bit like crying myself because it had been a SERIOUSLY STRESSFUL day and I didn’t really know what was going on or why Maisie’s mum had dressed up as a YETI and been running around our playground.

  Maisie’s mum said that she hadn’t meant to scare us and that she was just trying to get to Maisie to

  And that’s when we found out that her car had got stuck in the snow a mile from the school and that she’d had to WALK all the way here and that her legs and back were aching and that was why she’d been HUNCHED OVER and GROANING.

  That’s when Mr Graves ran and got Maisie’s mum a chair and helped her to take her HUGE HAIRY COAT off. And I could see that he was a bit shocked that she had ANOTHER furry coat on underneath that one. And every time she took something off there was ANOTHER layer underneath.

  Then Maisie’s mum said, “I tried to come in through the front gates but they were locked. I pressed the buzzer but no one from the office answered.”

  And I looked at Jodi because we knew that the office ladies had gone home early.

  And then she said, “So I came round the back and tried to walk through the playground to get in that way. And that’s when I heard my little

  screaming!”

  That’s when Maisie told us that her mum had found her in the old bike shed after she’d run away from us and that her mum had carried her all the way back to the school.

  Then Maisie’s mum said, “I came back to try to rescue the rest of you because Maisie said you were still out there!”

  That’s when Jodi said that as soon as I’d jumped down from the bike shed to save Zach she’d noticed something odd about the YETI’S feet. And that’s when I looked at Maisie’s mum’s feet and saw that she was wearing the same FURRY BOOTS as Maisie and that her boots had PINK STRAPS.

  Jodi said that that’s when she realised that it WASN’T a YETI because YETIS don’t have pink laces in their boot, or any boots at all! And that it was just Maisie’s mum wearing a HUGE hairy coat.

  And that’s when I realised that the fur we’d found next to Maisie’s mitten must have come from her mum’s coat.

  Jodi said that was why she’d shouted, “ABORT MISSION!”

  So I said, “But I saw you signing with Makaton. You said,

  But Jodi said that she DIDN’T and that she’d been signing the word “STOP!” over and over and that’s when I realised that I was even WORSE at Makaton that I thought I was.

  Then Gary said, “So what was that horrible SMELL? Izzy said it was the YETI.”

  And that’s when Jodi’s face went BRIGHT RED and she looked down at the ground and said, “It was me. I think it’s the beans. They must be out of date. I’m sorry.”

  And that’s when I remembered about Jodi’s SORE STOMACH and how she’d gone up for THIRDS AND FOURTHS of the WAR BEANS!

  And I looked at Jodi with my mouth WIDE OPEN because I couldn’t BELIEVE that she didn’t say anything before now, and I’m not saying what happened was all her fault or anything, but she DEFINITELY should have told us that the smell was coming from HER and not the YETI!!

  But Jodi just looked away and said, “So what’s going on? Is there still a BEAST FROM THE EAST headed this way?”

  And Mr Graves looked a bit confused for a minute and then he smiled and said, “Ah. I think I know what’s happened here. Who told you about the Beast from the East?”

  And we just looked at each other and didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to admit that we’d caused a DIVERSION and sneaked into the staffroom and

  on all the teachers because we knew that we were ALREADY IN ENOUGH TROUBLE.

  So that’s when Mr Graves explained that the Beast from the East wasn’t actually a BEAST and that it was a TERRIBLE SNOW STORM that people had just NICKNAMED the Beast from the East.

  Mr Graves said that the storm had started in Russia and come all the way to Scotland and that there was a RED WEATHER WARNING and that it wasn’t safe to travel and that lots of cars and vans, buses and trains had got stuck in the snow. But the good news was that they’d heard on the radio not long ago that the storm was CALMING and that the roads would be cleared and that the buses would be back on by this evening.

  So I asked Mr Graves why all the teachers had been so UPSET and why Mr Beattie and some of the other teachers had been crying if our lives hadn’t been at risk after all.

  And that’s when Mr Graves coughed and said that it was because the teachers worked REALLY HARD and that they were just a bit upset that they had to stay at school for an extra couple of hours after a LONG WEEK.

  And I looked at Jodi and she looked at me because that didn’t really make any sense because WE’D been here all week too but we didn’t start crying when we found out we had to stay for an extra couple of hours!

  But then Zach said, “So what was making the WEIRD WAILING sound?”

  And that’s when Maisie’s mum started hugging Maisie really tightly again and she said, “That was me. I was just SO WORRIED about my LITTLE LAMB! I couldn’t stop CRYING!”

  Mr Graves put his hand on Maisie’s mum’s shoulder and apologised over and over for not being able to keep us inside the school where we should have been.

  And then he gave us all a bit of a LOOK and we all knew that that meant we were getting

  But Maisie’s mum wasn’t really listening to Mr Graves because she was too busy taking Maisie’s PULSE.

  I was a bit annoyed at the LOOK Mr Graves had given us because everything wasn’t just OUR fault. And it had been Maisie’s mum who had been the one running around the playground dressed as a YETI! And I was about to say that when Mrs Seith appeared and I knew that this was IT and that she was probably about to take four letters out of her pocket that said:

  But she didn’t.

  She said, “If it’s OK with you, Mr Graves, I’ll be going home now.”

  And we all saw that she was only wearing one shoe. But nobody said anything. And as soon as Mr Graves said yes, Mrs Seith did a lit
tle smile and RAN out of the school. She even buried straight through the snowdrift blocking the gates. And I watched her for ages because she looked funny going up and down and up and down because she only had one heel and I knew that she must be desperate to get home and get a new pair of high heels on because she obviously loves wearing them so much.

  Jodi looked at me and smiled a HUGE SMILE because she was thinking the same thing as me and that we had GOT AWAY with not going to class AND with stealing the Year 6 coats AND with taking the Postits and the big net and all the rope without permission AND for going outside on a YETI MISSION when we were supposed to be in class.

  Then Zach said, “Can we go home now, too?”

  And Mr Graves said, “Not quite yet. Most of the cars in the car park are still buried in the snow and the entrance to the school is still blocked with snow. And we don’t seem to have a shovel anywhere.”

  And that’s when Maisie’s mum LEAPED up, put her big hairy coat back on and rushed out into the snow.

  And when she came back she had a HUGE BACKPACK with her and there was loads of stuff strapped to it like a massive PILLOW and a FRYING PAN and a SHOVEL.

  Maisie’s mum said that she brought “EVERYTHING THAT SHE COULD” as SOON as she heard about the school and the snow.

  And then she gave the shovel to Mr Graves and he said thank you.

  But then he just sort of stood there so we asked him if he was OK and he said that he was fine but that he didn’t actually have a COAT with him and that he’d only worn his SUIT JACKET to work.

  So Maisie’s mum took off her

  and put it over Mr Graves’s shoulders and said, “There you go.”