Welcome to Willowvale

by Rebecca Johnson

  Hannah nodded quickly and took a deep breath. She started up the road towards the house. They could see the dog on the verandah, and he made no sound as Hannah approached on Bedazzled. Then he suddenly disappeared.

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Talika, pointing. Just like the other day, the dog had slipped through the hole in the fence and was lying in wait in the grass.

  But this time Hannah knew he was there. As she got nearer, she uncurled the twine, so that when she dropped the bone on the ground, it flowed out easily. The bone lay there but the dog’s head was pointed towards Hannah’s horse.

  ‘Look at the bone,’ Abbey whispered, willing the dog on. ‘Look at the juicy bone.’

  Suddenly, the dog burst out out from its hiding place, barking, and ran towards Bedazzled and Hannah. Hannah took off up the road, the bone bouncing and bumping noisily along the road behind her.

  Curious, the dog looked at the bone, and when it realised what it was, it picked up speed to follow it.

  Hannah urged Bedazzled on, and pretty soon she was a good hundred metres away, with the dog trailing fifty metres behind her, snapping at the bone.

  Abbey knew this was her cue. She jogged up the road beside Pepper, while holding the rope that tied her horse to Pudding. Talika bobbed along beside her on her little pony.

  They stopped just short of the side fence, and Talika whispered that all was clear. As quickly as she could, Abbey snuck out from behind Pepper, darted down behind the fence and crawled along to the hole.

  ‘Yuck, what was that?’ she whispered to herself as she squeezed through and felt her knee press down on something squishy. She looked down, worried that she may have knelt in dog poo. There, just inside the fence, was an enormous dead toad covered in buzzing flies. Abbey’s first reaction was to gag, but then a tiny idea crept into her head. She scrabbled along on her hands and knees until she reached the verandah, then popped her head up. Talika gave her the thumbs up. The bushes on the far fence stopped her from being able to see Hannah, but they also protected her from the neighbour’s view.

  Hurry up, signalled Talika.

  Abbey gave her the thumbs up. She looked down at the hessian bags beside the front door.

  ‘Bingo!’ she said to herself as she saw the dog’s bed matted with dog hair. She scooped up a handful and went to put it into the plastic bag from her back pocket, then she stopped. She had other plans for the plastic bag. Instead, she put the hair straight into her pocket. From the corner of her eye she saw Talika waving madly.

  Abbey was about to wave back when she realised it wasn’t a victorious wave – it was a panicked wave!

  Then Abbey heard hooves cantering down the road. It was Hannah on Bedazzled. There was no sign of the dog or the bone. Something was wrong.

  ‘He’s coming back,’ yelled Hannah. ‘Get out, quick!’

  Abbey jumped to her feet and sprinted across the short distance to the fence. She was on her hands and knees about to climb through the hole in the fence when she heard the sound of a car approaching.

  She grabbed the bag from her back pocket and opened it up. She could see the car turning in now, and her friends trying to look casual as they patted their horses’ necks.

  ‘Abbey?’ said Hannah in a whispered hiss. ‘Hurry up!’

  Abbey put the bag over the dead toad and grabbed it. The bag was thin enough to feel the warty lumps on its skin. She tried not to think too much about it. Gathering all her courage, she scampered across the grass and came up behind Pepper, just as the man stepped out of his car and slammed the door hard behind him.

  She jumped up into her saddle and threw the toad into her saddlebag.

  ‘Ride,’ was all she said, and the three girls headed for home, without looking back.

  ‘Phew, that was too close,’ said Abbey, leaping down from Pepper in one quick movement. She reached into her saddlebag.

  ‘What on earth?’ exclaimed Hannah, as Abbey pulled the brown lump out of the bag.

  ‘I know, I know,’ laughed Abbey. ‘It is the grossest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s huge!’ She held the top of the bag and swung it back and forth in front of her friends.

  ‘What is it?’ said Talika, gagging.

  ‘A dead toad!’ laughed Abbey. The other two girls looked totally bewildered.

  ‘Parasites!’ said Abbey excitedly. ‘I thought we could dissect him and see what’s in there.’

  Hannah’s face was priceless. ‘You have spent way too much time around your brothers,’ she said. ‘That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard.’

  Talika nodded in agreement.

  ‘Well, I reckon Mrs Parry will think I’m very enthusiastic!’ said Abbey.

  ‘Did you at least get some dog hair?’ groaned Hannah, eyeing the bag with loathing.

  ‘I sure did,’ said Abbey, pulling the clump of hair from her shirt pocket.

  ‘Brilliant,’ said Hannah. ‘Your plan worked, Abbey. Now we can compare it to the hair in the laboratory that was on Poppet.’

  Abbey nodded, then began scratching around under her shirt.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ said Talika.

  ‘I think that hair’s made me really itchy,’ said Abbey. ‘Let’s put the horses away and go up, so I can have a shower. I’ll leave the toad at the back door till I can talk to Mrs Parry about it.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said the other two, backing away.

  On the way up to the lab, the itching got worse. It felt like her whole body was on fire. Abbey was starting to get freaked out. ‘Ew, I must have dog hair all over me. My skin feels like it’s just crawling with it.’ She began scratching her head.

  ‘Here,’ said Hannah when they reached the door to the boarding house. ‘Give me a look.’

  Hannah lifted the back of Abbey’s hair and looked down the back of her shirt. Talika stood on tiptoes to see as well.

  ‘Fleas!’ screeched Hannah, leaping back.

  ‘Parasites!’ cheered Talika.

  ‘Hannah!’ snapped Elizabeth as she rounded the corner with her friends.

  The school captain’s thunderous face said it all. Girls at Willowvale Grammar did not get fleas! The Sheriff leapt into action.

  Abbey was on the verge of tears as she was dragged into the downstairs bathroom. Elizabeth even stood guard while Abbey miserably showered under hot water turned up full bore. As Abbey looked down, she saw little black dots swirling in the pool of water around her feet. She had the presence of mind to push a few drowned specimens off to the side. It seemed a pity to go to the trouble of getting fleas, if you couldn’t save a few for your assignment.

  Hannah, Elizabeth and Talika were waiting in awkward silence when Abbey emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and one around her head.

  ‘I am only going to ask you this once,’ said Elizabeth through clenched teeth. ‘How . . . did . . . you . . . get . . . fleas?’

  It was Hannah who replied. She stood tall and looked her sister in the eye. ‘She got them trying to save the school’s sheep from being killed by a dog. You can dob on us if you like, and get us into trouble, just like you did poor Miss Beckett. You knew it was me in the hall, and you didn’t even give me a chance to tell you my very good reason for being up. I would never have done that to you, Elizabeth, you know I wouldn’t.’

  Hannah stopped, and the girls could see her swallowing angry tears before she got control again and lifted up her chin.

  ‘Any decent sister wouldn’t. So run off and tell Ms Sterling whatever you like, but I’ll be here with two people who actually care about me more than getting a pat on the back.’

  Elizabeth went bright red. Hannah had ­obviously never spoken back to her like that before, and she didn’t quite know how to handle it. In the end, she just nodded and slipped out of the room.

  ‘Come on,’ said Abbey, giving Hannah a quick hu
g before ducking back into the shower recess and scooping all the dead fleas into a vial. ‘Before we get hauled up to the office, let’s go and put our evidence in the science room so we can show Mrs Parry on Monday.’

  When they left the bathroom, they found Miss Beckett walking backwards and forwards from the back door to the bathroom with a can of fly spray.

  ‘Just killing a few fleas!’ she grimaced.

  The girls couldn’t help getting the giggles as they headed for the lab.

  They were surprised to find Mrs Parry in her office on a Saturday marking papers.

  ‘I’ve got a busy week,’ she explained, ‘so I thought I’d just pop in and get a bit done while my husband plays cricket in town.’

  Abbey showed her the dog hair she’d retrieved from her shirt pocket.

  Mrs Parry looked impressed with their sample. ‘I actually think you have a case here,’ she said, as she placed the USB microscope over the specimens. It showed a clear match in their colour and texture on the large screen. ‘If they are not from the same dog, I’d be pretty surprised.’

  The girls high fived.

  ‘Where did you say you got this from?’

  ‘The dog’s bed,’ said Abbey simply, and luckily, Mrs Parry didn’t ask any more questions.

  ‘Mrs Parry,’ said Talika, ‘would you drive us down to the council next week so we can tell them what the science is showing? Mr McPhail tried getting them to take some action, but they said we had no evidence that the dog was responsible. Do you think you could have a try?’

  Mrs Parry hesitated. Then she nodded. ‘It would be good to put an end to this,’ she said. ‘Poor Mr McPhail has had to come all the way into school this weekend to lock up the sheep. He can’t keep that up forever. I’m happy to try and help out.’

  ‘Oh, and there’s one more thing,’ said Abbey, smiling sweetly. ‘I kind of found a cane toad, a really big one, that I thought might have parasites in it. I don’t suppose you’d help me dissect it? I heard that some toads carry a parasite called a lungworm.’

  Mrs Parry stared at Abbey for a moment before removing her latex gloves and straightening her skirt. ‘Um, Abbey, as much as I admire your enthusiasm, cutting up a dead toad is not high on my list of things I’d like to do.’

  ‘I guess that’s a no then,’ said Abbey.

  ‘But Mrs Parry, you said that you wanted us to find unusual parasites. Surely this would be our chance?’ said Talika.

  Abbey’s jaw dropped open in surprise.

  Mrs Parry laughed. ‘I guess I did, Talika,’ she said. ‘All right, go and get it and we’ll have a quick look before I head home.’

  Abbey raced out the back door just as Miss Beckett was about to open the toad bag.

  ‘I’ll take that,’ said Abbey, before the poor boarding house supervisor was in for another unpleasant surprise.

  She ran back to their science room with the huge toad swinging along in the bag beside her.

  ‘Well,’ said Mrs Parry, her hand to her chest when she saw it. ‘That is the biggest toad I’ve seen in a long time.’

  Abbey smiled proudly.

  Hannah rolled her eyes.

  They all put gloves, masks, goggles and aprons on and gathered around the specimen. Mrs Parry turned the toad over and sliced it neatly down the middle, pulling the skin back. They all peered inside.

  ‘I really am going to have to sit this one out,’ said Hannah, fanning herself with a piece of paper and heading for the window.

  ‘Look, there are its lungs!’ said Talika.

  Abbey laughed. She couldn’t believe this once-shy girl who had lived in an apartment in India was getting so excited about dissecting a dead toad. She obviously wasn’t the least bit squeamish.

  ‘If only your parents could see you now, Talika!’ she said proudly.

  ‘My mother would die a thousand deaths,’ said Talika, who was now holding the tweezers as Mrs Parry sliced open a lung.

  Hannah and Abbey shook their heads and laughed.

  ‘I can’t believe we haven’t been called up to the office yet,’ said Abbey at dinner.

  ‘Elizabeth actually smiled at me when she walked past,’ said Hannah. ‘Maybe she took some notice of what I said.’

  Abbey wasn’t convinced. She thought it was just as likely that Elizabeth was simply planning her next attack.

  Hannah had pushed her dessert to the side. ‘I don’t think I’m going to want to eat anything out of my tuckbox tonight at the movie,’ she sighed. ‘I just can’t get the image of that dissected toad out of my brain.’

  ‘What a pity,’ said Abbey. ‘I have an enormous bag of Freddo Frogs I was going to share!’

  ‘Well . . .’ said Hannah.

  Talika reached over and began finishing Hannah’s custard for her. ‘I cannot believe we are the proud owners of a lungworm specimen!’

  That night, they curled up on beanbags and lounges with all the other year seven and eight boarders and watched a movie with Miss Beckett. They passed their snacks around for everyone to share.

  The next morning after breakfast, Miss Beckett surprised everyone by suggesting a Sunday picnic in the park. The girls read books under the trees and played ball games. Hannah turned out to be as good at catching a ball as she was at riding a horse.

  It was the first time, thought Abbey, as she munched on a biscuit and watched everyone laughing and talking, that she actually felt like she was part of a family again. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was missing her family terribly, and she was sure she wasn’t alone in that feeling.

  Their first lesson on Monday was with Mr McPhail and the girls rushed down to the sheep yards, eager for their first shearing lesson.

  Mr McPhail showed the girls how to hold the sheep so that it would lie still for the shearing process. ‘You will work in pairs when it is your turn to do this, so that you are able to control your sheep. And there is a definite order that the shearing must be done in,’ he said, demonstrating as he spoke. The sheep between his legs lay perfectly still as he slowly and carefully made his way across its stomach with the electric shears.

  ‘I hope Valentina’s as well behaved as that sheep,’ murmured Hannah.

  ‘First the belly, then the inside thighs, outside right thigh, tail, chin, face, neck, front left leg, sides and back, front right leg and right side to finish. Always hold the loose skin tightly so there is no chance of cutting the sheep.’

  The wool fell away in big bunches. It was amazing to see just how much wool could come from one sheep.

  ‘That’s a few jumpers, right there!’ said Abbey.

  The girls couldn’t wait to have a go, and Mr McPhail let them all have a practice using the shears on some old sheepskins he had brought in for them.

  ‘My brothers are going to be so impressed when I go home and shear a sheep,’ laughed Abbey as she zoomed straight up the middle with her shears.

  ‘Valentina is going to stand out from the crowd,’ said Hannah as she explored what happened when you cut the wool in different directions.

  ‘I wonder if I could practise on one of Mum’s poodles?’ Talika mumbled to herself.

  The day sped by, and finally classes finished and it was time to meet the council to present their evidence. Mrs Parry met the girls after school to take them in.

  The woman behind the counter looked over her glasses at the teacher and the girls as they placed the vials on the desk in front of her.

  ‘You see,’ said Abbey, ‘this is the hair from the injured sheep, and this is the hair from the dog’s bed, and our science teacher will testify that they are a match.’

  The council lady cleared her throat loudly enough to gain the attention of the man working in the booth next to hers. He glared at them. She reached over and plucked a form from one of the slots on the wall.

  ‘What we have here
is Form 12b – nuisance dog complaints,’ she said in what sounded like a robot voice. ‘This list here outlines all the things council will accept as evidence of a nuisance dog: video footage, photographs, a trapped animal, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I cannot, for the life of me, see microscopic evidence on this list. While you may be able to get a cameo appearance on a detective show, I’m afraid we are going to need a bit more evidence than that.’ She paused, seeming to enjoy her little speech. ‘And another thing: how are we to know that you didn’t just get all the hair from the dog’s bed? You’d be surprised what people will do to get rid of their neighbour’s dog.’

  Abbey opened her mouth to retort, and Mrs Parry gave her a look. And that was the end of that.

  The girls left the council, disheartened about the way they had been treated.

  ‘I’m sorry, girls,’ said Mrs Parry on the drive back to school. ‘But nothing was going to change that woman’s attitude, and I didn’t want to get them offside trying to push it.’

  ‘Back to the drawing board,’ said Abbey in frustration.

  ‘Maybe not,’ said Talika. She pulled her mobile phone out from her pocket and made a call.

  ‘Hello, Father,’ she said. She paused. ‘I love it,’ she replied, smiling at Abbey and Hannah. ‘Yes, yes, I am. Yes, Father, I will. Yes, Father, I am working very hard.’

  She listened as she was obviously given further instructions.

  ‘Father,’ she said, ‘I am sorry to interrupt, but I have a slight problem.’

  Talika went on to explain what had just ­happened. ‘So, I was wondering if we might be able to have one of the mobile surveillance cameras you sell, just so that we can catch the dog in the act?’

  Abbey’s jaw dropped. What a clever idea!

  Talika looked at them and winked.

  ‘That would be wonderful, Father, thank you. I will wait for him at the front office at five. Goodbye, Father. Yes, I will. Yes, yes, I definitely will. Please give my love to Mother.’

  Talika put her phone back into her pocket and beamed. ‘My father is sending his driver over this afternoon with a Maxview 2000 for us to use. That’s what he does. He has a chain of electronics stores. The lady at the council said she needed video evidence of the dog up to mischief, so now we can get the proof we need. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it earlier!’