The Riverbank Otter

by Sarah Lean

  Tiger waved a fishing net through the water, checking every now and again to see what was caught in it. There were plenty of weeds. Some were long and flat, some were curly and tangled. Tiger drew them in her journal before May Days suggested they go for a walk to see what else they could spot.

  “We need to look out for more birds,” said Tiger.

  The riverbank curved and swerved. Tiger and her grandmother stepped through grasses and brambles, willows and wildflowers, where a white-beaked coot clucked and called out, startled by them coming close. It was quiet enough to hear the grass snap underfoot.

  They crouched and parted the reeds. Across on the other bank, standing tall and still as a statue, was a long, thin grey bird called a heron.

  All the birds were ticked now, except for the kingfisher.

  On the other bank, a herd of soft-eyed cows were grazing. Snorty breath puffed from their damp noses as they waded into the edge of the river, interested to see who was over the other side.

  “Hello, cows,” said Tiger as they swished their tails. “It’s just us having a look for a good home for an otter, but you’re not on my list.”

  “Look who else is coming,” said May Days a little further along the bank when she saw Spinaway heading their way.

  “Over here!” called Tiger, waving.

  Tom waved back as Grumps dropped the sail and the boat coasted to the bank.

  Tom looked excited. “There are loads of muddy places along the bank where the otter could make a holt,” he said, which Tiger had explained to him was what an otter’s home was called. “And I also found what you most wanted.” But it wasn’t diamonds or pearls or gold in his plastic treasure chest.

  Tom walked steadily to the bow of the rocking boat, while carrying his chest, which was full of water. He had good sea-legs and didn’t spill a drop as he stepped ashore.

  In the box, little fish darted about and all sorts of tiny creatures wriggled and squirmed, all of which were good signs that there would be plenty of food for an otter.

  “Treasure!” said Tiger and Tom together.

  Tiger was releasing all the creatures back into the river when she saw something. She shaded her eyes to see what it was.

  A dazzling little bird with a waistcoat of gold and a cloak of glimmering blue swooped low over the middle of the water. It scooped its beak along the water before flying up and landing further down on a bare branch sticking out over the river. It had been fishing.

  “It must be a kingfisher!” Tiger whooped, hoping that May Days would be surprised that she had guessed what it was. But once again her grandmother gently smiled and nodded, and didn’t seem at all surprised that Tiger knew. Tiger sighed, and decided there and then that she would give up trying to surprise May Days.

  They all went and sat on the picnic blanket and shared cloudy lemonade under a clear sky, amidst the chirp of the crickets and the whiney zing of gnats. As they sat there, Tiger went through the list of fish and the pirates confirmed they had seen most of them.

  The list was complete except for one thing.

  “What does an eel look like?” said Tom.

  “It looks like a snake,” said Tiger. She’d looked up all the fish that morning in one of May Days’s nature books and drawn pictures in her journal. “It’s an otter’s favourite food.”

  “Over there on the inside bend where the water is calm might be a good place to find them,” said Grumps, pointing to the opposite side of the river. “Why don’t we go and have a look? We’ll need a nature spotter to identify it, though.”

  Tiger breathed deeply and thought of how important it was for her to find a home for Lucky the otter. She looked at May Days, whose eyes were wide and blinking. May Days squeezed Tiger’s hand, knowing that she was afraid to go on the boat. Tiger was determined to do it, because it would be helping Lucky.

  “OK, sail me over,” she said. “I’m the nature spotter and I know what eels look like.”

  Tiger wore a lifejacket and clung tightly to the side of the boat as Grumps pushed away from the bank. Tiger looked up as the sail billowed like a square cloud above her and felt how smoothly and expertly Tom sailed her across. It wasn’t as wobbly or scary as she had remembered.

  At the bend in the river, Tom tied the rope to a branch of a huge old willow tree that had fallen, the thick trunk leaning out almost horizontally over the water towards the middle.

  “I’m going to walk the plank,” said Tom, and Grumps gave him a leg up to climb along the fallen tree. The trunk was too curved to walk safely along it, so he sat down, a leg either side, and shuffled along as far as he could.

  From the boat and the tree, Tiger and Tom leaned out over the river.

  “There!” said Tom, pointing. “Is it an eel?”

  “No,” said Tiger. “It’s a weed.” Tiger concentrated hard, as she so wanted to find this last special thing on the list for the otter. In the crystal clear water, she saw a shoal of tiny little greenish fish, each smaller than her smallest finger. She told Tom to be really quiet and stay still and just keep looking. And then, all of a sudden, Tiger shouted, “I can see an eel! I can see two! I can see lots!”

  “My goodness!” called May Days who had heard Tiger from the other bank. “I wasn’t expecting that!”

  Tiger stopped clinging to the side of the boat and stood up, raising her arms, finding her balance with her feet as the boat rocked slightly.

  “I knew we’d find them, May Days,” she called across the water. She was happy May Days finally looked surprised, even if it was because of the eels, rather than something she’d done. Tiger didn’t feel disappointed as she was too excited to have found everything on the list needed for Lucky’s new home.

  “We did it, Tom!” Tiger beamed at her friend.

  It hadn’t been the same without Tom. But, even though they’d been interested in their own things, they had found a way to work together and stay the best of friends.

  “I think we are both explorers,” Tom said.

  “And treasure hunters!” Tiger grinned.

  “What did she say? What did she say?” said Tiger when May Days climbed into the tent that evening after having telephoned Miss Popescu. The vet had been very pleased to hear the good news and would be coming tomorrow.

  May Days gave Tiger a big hug. “I’m so proud of how much you cared about finding the otter a good home. And it really surprised me how brave you were when you decided to go out on the boat even though you were scared.”

  “Did I really surprise you?” Tiger asked, a little puzzled. She hadn’t even known she was surprising her grandmother when she’d done it. “I thought you were just amazed that there were eels in the river.”

  “No, it was you who amazed me! And it was marvellous how you and Tom started off not being able to agree, but you have ended up just as good friends as ever.”

  They laughed to the chirp of the cricket chorus outside as May Days turned out the lamp in the tent.

  Tiger was saving some pages in her journal for making more notes about the otter. In the meantime, by the light of a torch under the covers, she wrote across a whole page:

  Miss Popescu arrived early with some friends to build a large wire pen for the otter down by the riverbank as his temporary home. There was a stiff-sided paddling pool filled with river water inside the pen, and a wooden box.

  “Is it … is it …?” Tiger said, hardly able to catch her breath.

  “Yes, a very lucky otter is inside the box,” said May Days.

  It was important to let the otter take his time getting used to the new surroundings. In a few days, they would open the pen so he could find his way back to the wild. Lucky had been looked after by people while he’d recovered from his injury, but now he needed to be able to look after himself. Tiger’s job was to keep him fed and happy until he was ready to go.

  Tiger and May Days sat on the jetty that jutted out over the river, where they could see along the bank to the pen and wooden box in the distance. So
metimes the straw inside shuffled, and sometimes a nose and whiskers wriggled out and then disappeared again. When two webbed paws reached out from the straw, followed by two bright eyes in a soft brown face, Tiger and May Days squeezed each other’s hands.

  “It’s so rare to see otters,” whispered May Days.

  “He is so beautiful,” murmured Tiger, feeling proud of herself for being determined to overcome things that scared and worried her.

  May Days had planted flowers in the pots outside the conservatory. The weather was glorious. The sun shone with hardly a cloud in the sky, and warm soft breezes blew along the river. Tom and Grumps went off sailing every day.

  Although Tiger and Tom had very different projects, they looked for ways to help each other too. Tom reported on anything new he saw on the river, which Tiger added to her nature spotter’s map. Tom collected interesting objects to show everyone, although his treasure chest had now gone missing. He found pale driftwood like bones, pebbles crusty with crystals, and things Tom called leaf skeletons (quite piratey), which were leaves that had crumbled until there was nothing left but the veins. Tiger made a copy of her map for Tom and coloured it in and added all the things he collected, so they both had their own different records.

  Tiger wanted to go and watch the otter, but he wouldn’t come out if he knew she was there. So she brought one of the big window boards from the boathouse to hide behind, and propped it up in front of a large rock in the grass nearby.

  Holly the cat was very interested in Lucky’s bowl of fish and always went with Tiger to check on the otter.

  Tiger had been putting the bowl through a flap in the pen. It was important not to put her hands inside if Lucky was out of his box. Otters had sharp teeth and might mistake a finger for a small wriggling fish. Tiger knew Lucky was eating the fish, as it kept disappearing, but she hadn’t seen him come out of his box since she was with May Days a few days ago.

  Miss Popescu called at Willowgate again on her way to work and Tiger read her the report she had made in her journal.

  “Is he happy?” Tiger asked Miss Popsecu. She desperately wanted to see the otter, but was more worried that he was staying in his box because something was wrong.

  “Otters are normally playful and inquisitive, but they are shy,” said Miss Popescu.

  Tiger thought about this. Grumps and Tom loved sailing. May Days and Tiger loved finding wildlife. They were all happy doing what they were good at. Tiger had an idea and explained it to Miss Popescu to make sure it was the right thing to do. The vet agreed it would make Lucky happy if he was doing what he was good at too.

  Tiger asked Tom to come and help, closely followed by Holly, who smelled suspiciously fishy. Holly had taken some of Lucky’s dinner while Tiger put the bowl down and wasn’t looking.

  “Is it a job for a pirate or a nature spotter?” said Tom.

  “Neither,” said Tiger, “but it’s the kind of thing we would be good at working out together.”

  Tiger’s idea was to put fish in Lucky’s paddling pool so he could feel like he was catching a real fish in the river. The only problem was that the children were not allowed to go in the pen, and they couldn’t reach it from outside.

  “So how can we get the fish in the paddling pool without him seeing us?” Tiger asked.

  “We could throw them over the top of the pen,” suggested Tom. “That way it would sound like fish leaping to catch flies and plopping back in the water.” Tiger thought this was an excellent idea and hoped it would encourage Lucky to come out. They took the bowl of fish to their hiding place behind the board.

  “You throw them and I’ll hold the bowl away from Holly,” said Tiger, “otherwise she’ll eat all of Lucky’s dinner.” With the fish out of her reach, Holly sauntered off, nose in the air.

  Tom had a good throwing arm. Splash! The piece of fish landed in the pool. Immediately they heard the straw in the box shuffling. Tiger peeped over the top of the board. Lying on his back, the otter peered over at the pool. His eyes twinkled brightly.

  “Throw another piece,” whispered Tiger.

  Plop!

  Lucky slid out a little way from under the straw. He turned his head on the side, his front webbed paws dangling over his tummy. He wriggled out a little bit more, lay his head back and twitched his nose and shuffled his shoulders.

  “One more,” whispered Tiger again.

  Splat!

  Lucky scampered out of the box. He looked around to see if anyone was there, his nose twitching in the air, before running across to the pool. He circled it before standing on his hind legs to look inside. Tiger had to put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from giggling out loud as Lucky climbed over the side of the paddling pool and dived into the water.

  Tiger and Tom crouched down against the board, trying not to laugh as they heard the water in the pool sloshing around. And then it all went quiet.

  The children peeped over the top of the board, but there was no sign of the otter. Perhaps he was swimming underwater or had gone back in his box? And then Tiger saw a bright pair of dark eyes looking up at her. She gasped and then slowly lowered herself back down, pulling Tom with her.

  “He’s right in front of us, standing on his back legs against the pen,” whispered Tiger.

  She and Tom sat very still, holding their breath.

  “I think he can smell the fish,” said Tiger very quietly.

  “Shall I throw some more?” said Tom.

  “Let’s do it all at once and then run away,” said Tiger, knowing that the otter had to stop relying on people to feed him.

  Tiger and Tom grabbed handfuls of fish and together threw them all at once over the top of the pen. They landed in the pool.

  Plop! Plop-plop-plop!

  The children ran away, but Tiger couldn’t help turning back to see Lucky as he dived over the side of the pool and lay on his back happily munching fish with his bright white teeth, as if he had caught them himself.

  Tiger and May Days had fish pie for tea while Holly wound around and around their legs.

  “This isn’t Lucky’s dinner, is it?” said Tiger.

  “No,” said May Days, picking up Holly, who had just jumped up on the table, and putting her back on the floor. “And it’s not Holly’s either!”

  Tiger wrote in her journal.

  The next time Miss Popescu came to visit, Tiger told her how Lucky was getting more and more confident in his surroundings and how happy he was. It was time for the next stage of releasing the otter back into the wild where he belonged, and they went down to the pen to prepare, calling for Tom on the way.

  “I think Lucky’s going to love living on the river,” said Tiger.

  Tom tied a bowline knot in a long piece of rope around the latch on the gate of the pen. Once opened, Lucky was free to leave when he wanted. Until then, Tiger would still need to feed him.

  “One day you’ll come down to the pen and he’ll be gone,” said Miss Popescu. “But then you will have done a great thing by letting him go.”

  Hiding behind the board, Tom and Tiger held the rope and pulled. The latch popped up and the gate opened.

  Lucky didn’t leave.

  Tiger had been at Willowgate now for nearly two weeks, but only had two more days left there before she went home. For three days after the vet’s visit and the opening of the gate, Lucky was still eating the fish that Tom and Tiger threw in the pool. He was still diving in his pool, running across the grass and sometimes standing up at the fence. He didn’t seem ready to go.

  Tiger was in the boathouse working on the pirate map of the river for Tom. She wanted to do something to surprise him for helping her find the eels and all the other important things. When she finished drawing, she managed to find a moment to talk to Grumps by himself as Tom was busy practising a new rope knot. Then Tiger asked Tom to come and watch Lucky with her while Grumps went for a little sail up the river for Tiger, taking the pirate map with him …

  “This is for you,” said T
iger to Tom the next day, handing over a scroll tied with a ribbon and sealed with candle wax. It was the finished pirate map, but when Tom unravelled it he saw it was actually a treasure map, with a big X marking the spot where he could find his prize! Tom was excited and wanted to hunt for the treasure right away.

  “Please would everyone come out in Spinaway?” he said. “It’s much better when we do things together.”

  May Days looked unsure. “I’ve got a few things to do in the … err … conservatory,” she said.

  “You’ve already cleaned it,” said Tiger, wrinkling her eyebrows together, as she was confused by May Days’s answer.

  “Oh, but I haven’t finished washing the windows,” said May Days, and off she went before Tiger could remind her the windows were already sparkling – she had helped her clean them a few days ago!

  “Are you coming, Tiger? I’m much better at sailing now,” said Tom. “It gets easier when you keep practising things.”

  Perhaps Tom was right and it would be even easier for Tiger to go on the water this time, so she agreed, feeling only half as scared as last time. Grumps strapped her into a lifejacket and helped her into the boat.

  A soft breeze wafted the boat steadily up the river. Tiger relaxed and soon she saw sticklebacks swimming alongside them in the clear water. She heard mayflies fizzing past her ears and smelled the sweet wildflowers on the banks. Ahead, a trout burst up through the surface to catch a hovering fly and plopped back into the water. Spinaway hardly made a sound as it criss-crossed the river. Grumps and Tom sat at the back like captains, their faces turned to the sun, and Tiger felt safe and sound, wondering why she had been so worried before.