Emily's Dream

by Holly Webb

  “Thanks, Dad! I did wonder if you could, but it felt a bit mean asking when you said you were really busy this weekend.”

  Her dad shrugged. “Well. You did say the shelter badly needs the money. And it’s sad seeing a lovely old place like this falling apart.” He peered at the doors, and frowned. “After I’ve been to the Johnsons’ this morning I’ll nip home and find the wood for you.”

  By now the other two were wriggling out of the tent door, yawning and blinking owlishly.

  “Uuurrrh, it’s chilly,” Poppy muttered, and Emily handed her a mug of hot chocolate. Poppy woke up a bit after she’d had a couple of mouthfuls, and eyed Izzy’s dad.

  “Hi, Mr Armstrong…” she said, sounding confused, and obviously wondering why he was there, and whether she’d missed something.

  “He’s come to cut the grass,” Emily explained, taking pity on her. “And hopefully mend the doors too.”

  “If the grass is all cut,” Izzy said, as she dived back into the tent again to put her clothes on, “we need to think about how we’re going to use all that big space outside.” The next bit was totally muffled, and Emily guessed she was pulling her sweater over her head and still talking.

  “What did you say?” she asked, as Izzy came out again, looking worryingly awake and organised. She was even holding a pen.

  “Games!” Izzy said briskly, pulling her notebook out of her pocket. “What are we going to do?”

  “I’m not awake yet,” Maya moaned. “It isn’t even eight o’clock. I can’t think.”

  Emily grinned at her mum. “It’s like a lie-in, not getting up till now. Sukie usually wakes up at about half-past five and yells till everyone else wakes up too. I wonder how Dad’s doing…”

  Her mum sighed happily. “It does seem very peaceful. Eat some cereal, you lot. Maybe that’ll wake you all up. Have you had breakfast?” she asked Izzy’s dad, waving a bowl at him.

  “I could have a second breakfast… Izzy never lets me have these,” her dad explained, pouring himself the chocolatey cereal. “She says they’re bad for us.”

  Izzy went pink, and Emily’s mum laughed as she handed the bowls around. “Don’t worry, Izzy, I totally agree with you. But you’ve never been shopping with Emily and Toby and James. I come home with stuff I never intended to buy at all. Especially now we do the self-scanning thing. James bought smoked salmon last week. He doesn’t even like it, and it was very expensive. Sukie’s even worse, she just chucks everything in the trolley without scanning it, and then the people at the checkout think we’re trying to shoplift… Anyway, I think chocolate cereal’s OK for weekends. And especially for camping. We always have treats then.”

  “What games are we going to have at the party?” Izzy said, changing the subject, and balancing her notebook on her knee behind the bowl.

  “I still like the idea of pass the guinea pig,” Maya sighed, scooping the last of her cereal into her mouth. “I love them so much – the way they squeak, and they always look so surprised.”

  “You could adopt one from the shelter,” Poppy pointed out, and Maya looked at her in surprise.

  “I s’pose I could. I hadn’t thought of it. I reckon Henry might think it was breakfast on legs, though.”

  Emily snorted. “I don’t know. Some of those guinea pigs at the shelter are massive. I think they could take Henry, no problem. Especially if you had two of them.”

  Maya smiled to herself. “It is nearly my birthday. And Mum was saying she hadn’t got a clue what to get me.”

  Emily nodded, swallowing a little. She wished it was that easy. She stared down at her bowl, very carefully not looking at her mum.

  Poppy was chewing the end of her spoon, and scowling. “Maybe… Hmmmm… It would be good if we did stuff that made people think about the shelter, wouldn’t it? And if the grass is cut outside, there’ll be loads of room. As long as it’s not raining. Why don’t we have a dog show?”

  Emily widened her eyes. “Isn’t that a bit complicated? I mean, you have to know all about the different breeds, it’s really tricky. I mean, I know some, but I couldn’t tell you what colour eyes a Lhasa apso’s supposed to have, or anything like that.”

  “A whatter whatter?” Maya asked.

  Emily shrugged. “Mad hairy thing. But really cute. You see? No way we can judge a dog show.”

  “I don’t mean that sort of dog show!” Poppy shook her head. “I mean a fun dog show. Waggiest tail. Dog that looks most like its owner. Oooooh! Dog fancy dress! OK, someone else has to be in charge – I need to enter Billy.”

  Izzy was scribbling frantically, and everyone was nodding.

  “Very good idea,” Emily’s mum agreed. “And if you charge a little bit to enter each class – a pound maybe – then that raises you even more money. I’m sure I could find you some rosettes on the Internet, and perhaps you could give some dog treats for the first prize as well.”

  The girls packed the breakfast things into a bowl to wash up later, still talking excitedly about different dog show ideas. Emily’s mum got out the tins of white paint that Emily’s dad had found at the back of their garage, and Emily handed round a pile of ancient shirts.

  “I’ve never done this before,” Maya murmured, looking at the walls rather anxiously.

  “It’s OK,” Emily assured her. “It’s not difficult. You just splash it on – I mean, there’s no radiators to go round, or worrying about not getting it on the carpet. Just go for it.”

  “However bad we are, it’s still going to look loads better,” Poppy agreed, loading up her brush, and slapping a big stroke of white paint across the dirty plaster. “Look! It looks fab! Actually, it would be really nice to draw on…” She half closed her eyes, looking around as if she could see the walls covered in glittering colour.

  “No!” Emily pushed Poppy’s brush back against the wall. “At least, not until we’ve painted everything white. Then we’ll think about it!”

  “Hey! Look at this!” Izzy’s dad stood in the doorway, staring round admiringly. “It looks amazing – it’s bigger!”

  “It does look bigger,” Emily agreed. “It’s the white, I suppose. We’re almost done. Just this little bit. And guess what we found!”

  Izzy grabbed her dad’s hand, and pulled him over to the darkest corner.

  “An old tin bath!” He laughed. “Maybe someone was using it to feed the animals from. Or they just put all their old bits of rubbish in the barn. You were lucky the whole place wasn’t filled up with junk.” He walked round it, rubbing his chin. “Just a couple of holes in it… It would be brilliant in a garden, you know. Imagine it all full of tulips.” He put on a very serious face. “Miss Harris, Miss Armstrong, could I make you an offer for this beautiful bath? Ten pounds to the party fund? Actually, I tell you what – how about I buy it off you, but I’ll plant it up and leave it here until after the party?”

  Emily blinked. “I was going to get Mum to take it home with us and take it to the tip!” she said, giggling. “Yes, please buy it! It’ll look really nice with flowers in – like the barn’s got people here all the time.”

  “Someone’s coming with a dog,” Poppy called from the top of the stepladder. “I can hear barking.”

  “Oh, maybe it’s Lucy,” Emily said, hurrying over to look. “She said she’d come if there weren’t too many people looking round the shelter this afternoon.” Then she squeaked delightedly. “Mrs Everett! And you’ve got Charlie. Mum, look, I know you’ve met Mrs Everett, but this is her gorgeous dog that I’ve been walking.” She made a fuss of Charlie, tickling him under the chin until he rolled over and waved his paws in the air.

  Her mum laughed and crouched down to stroke him. “He’s lovely. You know, your dad had a dog really like Charlie when we first met. He was called Tigger because he bounced everywhere.”

  Emily nodded. “Charlie’s a bit bouncy when he’s about to go for a walk, but most of the time he’s a little star. Aren’t you?”

  Charlie wriggled the right way
up, and did his angelic melting-eyed look at Emily’s mum, resting his chin on her knees and staring up at her soulfully.

  Emily looked up anxiously at Mrs Everett. “I’ve just thought. You’ve come a long way. Are you… I mean, is your leg all right?”

  Mrs Everett smiled at her, and sighed. “I might sit down on that bit of wall over there for a bit, Emily. I’m having a good day, and it’s been a lovely walk, but it’s a bit far for me now, to be honest. But haven’t you made the old barn look nice? Cutting the grass has made a huge difference. And the paint! How’s the planning coming along?”

  Emily had told Mrs Everett all about the rescue centre, and the party. Mrs Everett always invited her in after she’d walked Charlie, and she was nice to talk to. She’d had some good ideas for the party already. Emily’s favourite was a craft table for everyone to make animal hats to dress up in.

  “We’re going to have a dog show. Oh! You could enter Charlie, he’d win waggiest tail, no problem. Actually—” Emily looked hopeful. “Would you like to be a judge instead? You’d be really good at it!”

  “Oh, yes.” Poppy nodded, peering down from the ladder. “You, and Lucy from the rescue centre. That would be great.”

  “I’d love to.” Mrs Everett smiled at them all. “I was trying to think of a way I could help you all. Oooh, I’m looking forward to this party now, girls. You’d better decide on a date and get those tickets out there, hadn’t you?”

  Emily and Maya checked with Lucy about the date for the party when she came to see how they were doing later on. She was amazed at how good they’d made the barn look.

  “I wish we’d thought about doing something like this ages ago,” she murmured, wandering around the barn as they told her all their plans.

  “We need you to help us choose when to have the party,” Emily explained. “It would be great if you could help with the dog-show judging – you know loads about dogs. And we’ll need to make sure there’s lots of volunteers at the shelter on the day too, to show people around.”

  They were all really hoping that some party guests would fall in love with the cats and dogs they saw, and that lots of the pets would end up being rehomed.

  “Do you think we can still have the party in half-term?” Izzy suggested. “That’s what you said first of all, wasn’t it? Do you think we can be ready in time? It’s only three weeks from now. Four weeks if we made the party on the second Saturday. And that’s the first of June, so it’ll be an easy date for people to remember, too.”

  Lucy nodded. “That sounds good to me. I’ll let all the volunteers know that it would be great if they could help out then.”

  “And they get to come to the party as well,” Emily added quickly. “Just not all at the same time.”

  Izzy looked down at her notes worriedly. “I really hope it doesn’t rain. I know we wanted the barn so things can be inside if it does, but it would be hard to squash a dog show in here too.”

  Poppy nodded. “I know, and that bit does sound like it’s going to be really fun.” She looked modestly down at her feet, and then snorted with laughter as Emily elbowed her in the ribs.

  “What are you going to dress Billy up as?” Maya asked

  “I honestly don’t know.” Poppy frowned. “It would be good to find something he looks a bit like anyway… A little boy did once ask his mum if Billy was an anteater when we were in the park. But I’m not sure how I’d make an anteater costume. Actually I’m not sure how I’d get Billy to keep any sort of costume on for more than ten seconds.”

  “Why an anteater?” Emily asked. “He doesn’t look like an anteater!”

  Poppy shrugged. “Well, I don’t think he does. But it was his long nose, I guess. I wonder if I could make him a dinosaur costume? Billy the T-rex?”

  “I wish we could enter cats as well,” Maya said. “But I suppose it would be a disaster. I just like the idea of dressing Henry up.”

  Emily raised her eyebrows. “Maya, I’ve met your cat. He’d have your hand off if you tried to dress him up.”

  Maya sighed. “Probably. He isn’t talking to me at the moment, anyway. It’s because I was trying to get him to eat vegetarian cat food again. I tried ages ago, but I got it out again the other day, just to see if he’d changed his mind. Like people are supposed to have to try new foods seventeen times and then they get used to the taste.”

  “I suppose he still didn’t like it?” Lucy asked, laughing.

  “No. He just sniffed at it, then he went out and caught a mouse. I’m not sure if he was trying to tell me something, or if it was just a coincidence, but he did give me a really dirty look. And then he let the mouse go in the kitchen, and it got under the dishwasher. Anna blamed me, as well!”

  “He is descended from tigers, Maya,” Emily pointed out. “He probably thinks vegetarian cat food is an insult.”

  “It’s very expensive!” Maya protested. “But he just likes tins. Or catching his own.” She grinned to herself. “If I did dress him up, I think I’d dress him as a dog, just to be really mean. Oooh, Poppy, he could be a double act with Billy. You could make Billy a cat!”

  Poppy rolled her eyes. “He’d probably try to chase himself.”

  “Maybe I could enter one of the dogs from the shelter?” Emily said thoughtfully, but then she saw Lucy’s doubtful face. “No, I suppose not. They might be a bit too nervous for something like that.” She sighed quietly. Mrs Everett would probably have let her enter Charlie, but it wouldn’t be fair, when she was one of the judges!

  It would have been so much fun to enter her own dog in the show, that was all.

  “I emailed the man at the newspaper,” Izzy told Emily at school later that week. “I told him about the party, and I attached the information you sent about the shelter, and the photos of Twinkle, and Honey and the puppies, and that gorgeous white cat. I said people could ring up the shelter and book their tickets, and then pay on the day. That’s right, isn’t it?”

  Emily nodded. “I can’t think of a better way. We can’t really give out our phone numbers when we’re going to be at school all day.”

  “I really hope they put it in the paper,” Izzy said. “We’ve put lots of posters up, but everyone gets that paper through their door, so it would make a big difference. I emailed the local radio people too, and the TV news programme – the ones who came to film the fashion show. I hope Lucy doesn’t mind, because I said they could call the shelter as well, if they wanted to go and film there.”

  “She’d love it,” Emily said. “Well, she would if they told her before they were coming so she didn’t have her worst jeans on, anyway. Think how many extra people would go to the shelter, or even just give them some money, if it was on TV.” She grinned. “And imagine how cute Posy would be. And the puppies! Still, even if it doesn’t get on the news, I’m sure people will know about it. I went to walk Charlie last night, and Mrs Everett told me she went into town with her daughter to go shopping, and she saw four posters for the party! So we must have done something right.”

  “Hi, Emily! Hi, Maya!” Lucy popped her head round the door to the cats’ area and waved. “If I were you, I wouldn’t go anywhere near Sal in the office. She says she’s done nothing but answer the phone to people wanting party tickets this week. She doesn’t usually come in on a Saturday, but she said she’d have to so as to catch up with all the other stuff she should have been doing.”

  “Really?” Emily squeaked excitedly. “Have lots of people asked for tickets then? How many are coming?”

  “More than a hundred already,” Lucy told her, laughing at Emily’s half-horrified, half-excited face. “And you’ve got eleven entries for the dog fancy dress, six for the dog who looks most like their owner, and ten for waggiest tail!”

  “But that’s twenty-seven pounds just from the dog show bit!” Emily gasped, and Maya grabbed her hands and they started to dance madly around the yard.

  “I’m really glad my mum said she’d help with the food,” Emily said, panting, as t
hey slowed down and staggered dizzily back towards Lucy. “More than a hundred people?”

  “And that’s only after a week,” Lucy pointed out. “There’s another two weeks till the party. It could be lots more.” She put an arm round each of them. “I actually think you girls are going to raise enough money to get the roof mended, do you realise? The newspaper article was amazing – a couple of people have sent us cheques already, you know! There was one old gentleman who said he was probably a bit old for a party, but he really wanted to help.”

  Emily nodded. “It was a lovely piece – a whole page, and they put all the photos in.”

  “Do you want to hear the absolute best thing?” Lucy said, beaming. “A lady rang up yesterday to say that Posy was gorgeous, and her family loved Jack Russells, and could they come and meet her. They’re coming today.”

  “Yeeeess!” Emily hugged her. “Oh, can we go and brush Posy? Or give her a bath, maybe?”

  Maya grabbed her hand. “It might be too late. Look, there’s a car pulling up. It could be them already.”

  Emily looked anxiously over at the car, and the people getting out of it. Posy was really cute – she was quite stubborn, but Lucy said all Jack Russells were like that. And if these people loved Jack Russells, perhaps they wouldn’t mind.

  “I want to listen to what they say about her!” Maya whispered. “I hope they’re nice. I want her to live somewhere lovely.”

  Emily nodded. She wanted fabulous homes for all the dogs, especially Barney, because he was so funny, and she knew it was going to be hard to find owners for such an old dog. And then there was her favourite dog at the shelter, Twinkle the whippet. Twinkle needed someone really gentle. They all needed special people, that was the problem.

  “Could you take Spike and Twinkle out for me, girls?” Lucy asked, as she hurried over towards the gate. “And Lulu and Sam, if you can manage two each?”

  “Course,” Emily said eagerly. “Be slow putting their leads on,” she added to Maya in a whisper, and Maya nodded. They strolled over towards the pens, eavesdropping on Lucy talking to the family who’d come to see Posy. They seemed nice – a couple, and their son, who looked about fourteen.