by Duncan Ball
Emily at the Zoo
Most of the time Emily’s life was just like anyone else’s. But she had to remember certain things, like to be careful not to hit her finger. And to take the bubble cover with her when she went out. Sometimes she put her hand in her pocket so people wouldn’t stare or ask her about her eyefinger. But mostly she didn’t care what people thought.
One day Emily asked her mother if they could go to the zoo. Her mother said ‘Yes, of course’ and Emily invited her friend Janey Star along. Janey’s mother came along too.
Emily had been there many times. She loved animals. She wanted to learn everything she could about them. Janey had never been to any zoo. The only place she’d seen wild animals was on television and in the movies. She didn’t really want to go — but she did anyway.
Emily walked through the zoo telling Janey lots of things about animals. Mrs Eyefinger and Mrs Star walked behind.
‘Did you know that elephants keep growing for as long as they live?’ Emily asked Janey.
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘It’s true,’ Emily said. ‘And did you know that the ostrich is the biggest bird in the world?’
‘No, I didn’t.’
‘And that all insects have six legs?’
‘Really?’
‘Spiders have eight legs. They’re not insects,’ Emily added.
‘They’re still bugs,’ Janey said. ‘I don’t like bugs.’
‘And did you know that giraffes only have seven bones in their necks just like people?’
‘Is that true?’ Janey asked politely.
‘Cross my heart,’ Emily said. ‘I read it in a book. Did you know that owls can turn their heads around backward without moving the rest of them? Their eyes can’t move the way people’s eyes do so they have to turn their heads.’
‘Very interesting,’ Janey said. But she really wasn’t interested.
‘I can see behind myself too,’ Emily laughed, pointing her eyefinger behind her. She looked at her mother and Janey’s mother. ‘And did you know that —’
‘Stop!’ Janey said. ‘I can’t remember all those things.’
‘Do you want me to tell them to you again so that you can remember them?’ Emily asked.
‘No. It’s all too boring. You can be the animal expert. I don’t care about animals. I just want to be an actor. Your name’s Eyefinger and you have an eye on your finger. My name’s Star and I want to be a movie star.’
Emily couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to be an movie star.
Mrs Eyefinger and Mrs Star were walking very slowly.
‘You two go on ahead,’ Mrs Star called out. ‘We’ll catch up with you.’
Emily led Janey to the snake house. The snakes were all in glass cages.
‘They give me the creeps,’ Janey said. ‘They make me shiver just to look at them.’
‘Snakes can open their mouths really wide. They can eat things that are bigger than their heads,’ Emily said. ‘Some of them wrap themselves around small animals and squish them down till they’re small enough to fit them into their mouths. Then they eat them.’
‘That’s disgusting,’ Janey said. ‘Snakes are horrible!’
‘It’s nature,’ said Emily. ‘Snakes can’t help the way they are.’
‘Well I can’t help it if I don’t like them,’ Janey said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
Just then a keeper appeared.
‘She’s gone!’ he yelled. ‘She’s gone! The anaconda isn’t in her cage!’
Sure enough, the glass in one of the snake cages was broken. Emily looked in. There was no snake inside.
‘What’s an anaconda?’ Janey asked.
‘It’s a very big snake of the squeezing kind,’ Emily explained.
‘Oh, great,’ Janey muttered.
Soon other keepers came running. The people who had been looking at the snakes hurried away. They suddenly decided that it would be nicer to be somewhere else. Somewhere where there weren’t any missing snakes.
Keepers dashed around peering into cracks and down holes. They even looked up in the trees for the lost snake. But they couldn’t find her anywhere.
Emily was having fun watching all the excitement. Janey wasn’t. She was so frightened that she couldn’t even move. She just stood there, trembling.
One of the keepers noticed Janey.
‘I’m the head keeper,’ the woman said. ‘Is there anything wrong? Are you sick or something?’
‘She doesn’t like snakes very much,’ Emily said. ‘I think she’s frightened.’
‘Don’t worry,’ the head keeper said to Janey, ‘Anna is a harmless old snake. She doesn’t bite people. She can’t even squeeze her food anymore. She only eats pre-squozen food. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about.’
Then she hurried off.
‘There, you see?’ Emily said. ‘Anna is harmless.’
Janey stopped shivering.
‘All right, but let’s go somewhere else,’ she said.
Just as they were leaving, Emily saw something strange. There was a long pipe, one of those drains that takes rainwater down from the roof. As she looked at it, it wiggled a tiny bit.
‘I think that pipe just wiggled,’ Emily said. ‘I wonder if Anna is in there.’
‘If she is,’ Janey said, ‘I’m sure the keepers will find her.’
‘They can’t,’ Emily said. ‘The pipe is all bendy at the bottom and at the top. They can’t possibly see in it. They can’t see around corners.’
‘Well neither can I,’ Janey said. ‘Can we just get out of here?’
Emily got down on her knees and put her hand into the drainpipe. It was a big pipe and her hand fit in easily. She poked her fingers around the bend. Then she opened the eyelid on her eyefinger and peered up into the darkness. Sure enough, there was Anna Anaconda’s tail way up in the pipe.
‘I’ve found her!’ Emily called out. ‘Anna’s in here!’
The keepers all stopped what they were doing and hurried over.
‘How do you know she’s in there?’ the head keeper asked. ‘Are you touching her?’
‘No, I’m just looking at her,’ Emily said.
The keepers were all very puzzled. One of them scratched his head.
Emily pulled her hand out of the drain pipe and took the bubble off the end of her finger. She held her eyefinger up proudly for everyone to see.
‘Goodness!’ a keeper said. ‘I’ve never seen one of those before.’
‘Most people haven’t,’ Emily said. ‘I think I have the only one in the world.’
‘Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,’ the head keeper said. ‘An eye on the end of your finger. What’s it like having an eye on your finger?’
‘It’s good but it does cause some problems,’ Emily said. ‘What I always say is: On the one hand I like it. But on the other hand I don’t.’
The keepers all laughed.
In a few minutes they had taken down the drain pipe. The big snake slid out onto the ground. Two of the keepers picked Anna up and she gave them a little hug as they put her in a big wooden box.
‘Because you helped us,’ the head keeper said, ‘you girls can come to the zoo any time you want. It won’t cost you anything.’
Emily was overjoyed.
‘Thank you very much,’ she said.
‘You’re very welcome,’ the woman said. ‘If we ever lose a snake again, we’ll know just who to call.’
‘Can we go now?’ Janey whispered to Emily.
‘Just let me take a picture for the newspaper,’ the head keeper said, pulling out a camera. ‘Now hold that finger eye thing of yours up so we can all see it.’
And that was how Emily and Janey got their picture on the front page of the newspaper.
‘Now we’re famous,’ Janey told Emily. ‘I like being famous. I feel like a movie star. Zoos aren’t such boring places after all. Thanks for taking me, Emily.’
8.
Emily’s Adventure at Se
a
One day Emily’s class took a boat trip to an island. After eating dozens of sandwiches and two dozen biscuits, the children climbed back on the boat. But before they got home a blanket of fog rolled in. The fog was so thick that no one could see a thing.
‘This is terrible,’ Captain Sailwell (who was a very good sailor) said as he dropped anchor and stopped the boat in the middle of the water. ‘I don’t know how we’ll ever get home. We can’t keep sailing because there are rocks all around. If we hit one, we will surely sink. I’ve never seen such thick fog. Why, I can’t even see the nose in front of my face.’
‘I can see the nose in front of my face,’ Emily said. ‘But I don’t know what good that will do.’
‘I just mean that I can’t see very far in this fog,’ the captain explained.
The captain thought for a moment. He thought and he thought. Then, suddenly, his eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped and he snapped his fingers.
‘Did you just get a bright idea?’ Emily’s teacher, Ms Plump, asked.
‘No, I just remembered that I left my foghorn on the kitchen table this morning,’ the captain said. ‘Oh, what a terrible mess! What am I going to do?’
‘I have an idea,’ Ms Plump said, trying to snap her fingers but not making any noise. ‘Why don’t we ask Emily to stand in the front of the boat —’
‘The what?’ the captain interrupted. ‘Boats don’t have fronts, they have bows. You’re a teacher, you ought to know that.’
‘Yes, all right. We could get Emily to stand in the bow and stick her arm way out in the fog to look for rocks.’
‘What good will standing in the front — I mean, the bow — and putting out her arm do?’
‘She has an eye on the end of her finger,’ Ms Plump said.
‘An eye on the end of her finger?’ Captain Sailwell said. ‘Goodness, she doesn’t too! What will they think of next? Come to think of it, didn’t I see a picture of you in the newspaper?’
‘Yes, at the zoo,’ Emily said with a smile.
‘Well, that eye thing of yours certainly must be handy,’ the captain said with a giggle.
‘Would you mind looking for rocks, Emily?’ Ms Plump asked.
‘I’d be happy to,’ Emily said.
Emily stood in the bow and pointed her finger into the fog. The captain pulled up the anchor and started the boat going forward slowly.
‘I think I can hear waves hitting rocks ahead of us somewhere,’ Captain Sailwell said. ‘Can you see them?’
‘I’m sorry but I can’t see anything,’ said Emily. She took off the bubble to see more clearly. ‘The fog is too thick.’
‘Maybe you need a longer arm,’ the captain said. ‘I’m sure it’ll get longer when you grow up. But I don’t think we want to wait that long. We’d better drop the anchor.’
‘No, wait,’ Emily said. (It was her turn for a bright idea.) ‘Why don’t I climb out on that pointy stick?’
‘What pointy stick?’ asked Captain Sailwell. ‘What are you talking about? There aren’t any pointy sticks on boats. Everything has a proper name. There are masts and booms and stays and sheets but no pointy sticks.’
‘Well what do you call that big long stick that goes out from the bow of the boat,’ Emily asked.
‘Oh, that pointy stick,’ Captain Sailwell mumbled. ‘I never did know the name of that thing. What about it?’
‘If I climb out on that, my finger will be way out front. Then I can see better.’
‘Well, I’ll be dipped,’ the captain said. ‘Now there’s a bright idea.’
Captain Sailwell and Ms Plump tied a safety line to Emily in case she fell off. Then they lifted her up and helped her out on the pointy stick at the bow of the boat.
‘Okay,’ Emily said. ‘Now I can see better. But please go slowly.’
And so it was that Emily saved her entire class. She called out, ‘Rock on the right!’ and ‘Rock on the left!’ and ‘Rock straight ahead’ until the captain had steered the boat safely back to shore.
Emily climbed back down the pointy stick and then went ashore with everyone else. Everyone was very happy, even Terry Meaney.
‘You can come sailing with me anytime,’ the captain told Emily. ‘Especially when it’s foggy.’
9.
Emily’s Mouse
One morning in May, Emily and her parents drove to a place in the country where people used to dig for gold. All over a grassy hill they saw hundreds of deep holes that had once been mines.
‘It’s a good place to have a picnic. But we’ll have to be very careful not to fall in a hole,’ Emily’s mother said. ‘Please don’t skip, Emily. It makes me nervous.’
Emily didn’t skip. She was extremely careful as she walked around. She stopped now and then and poked her finger into the grass.
‘What are you looking for, dear?’ Mr Eyefinger asked.
‘Insects,’ said Emily.
‘What, creepy crawlies?’ her father asked.
‘Insects,’ Emily said. ‘You know I love animals.’
‘Yes, dear, I do,’ said Mr Eyefinger.
When Emily wanted to look down in a mine, she lay on the ground and crawled up to it, peeping carefully over the edge with her finger.
Later, while Emily and her parents were lying on a blanket, a head suddenly popped up out of one of the holes.
‘Help!’ it screamed.
‘Help?’ asked Mr Eyefinger who couldn’t think of anything else to say.
‘Yes, help!’ the man said again, and he scrambled up a rope and out of the hole. ‘My son is down there. He can’t get out.’
‘We’d better go for help,’ Mr Eyefinger said.
‘There’s no time for that,’ the man said. ‘He’ll run out of air. You see, he wriggled down a very tight tunnel and now he’s stuck. I tried to get a rope around his foot to pull him loose but I couldn’t get close enough. The tunnel is too small.’
‘What were you doing down there?’ Mr Eyefinger asked. ‘Were you looking for gold?’
‘Heaven’s no. My name is Professor Mousefinder and I spend a lot of time searching for certain … certain small furry animals that live down holes.’
‘Mice?’ asked Emily. ‘Is that what you look for?’
‘Why, yes. How did you know?’
‘I just guessed,’ Emily said.
‘My son, Malcolm, and I were looking for a rare kind of mouse. Malcolm saw one and followed it into the tunnel. Then he got stuck. Please, does anyone have any idea how we might rescue him?’
Everyone thought for a minute and then Emily said ‘I’m the smallest one here. Maybe I could go down there and get into that tiny tunnel and tie a rope around his feet.’
‘I’m afraid you’re not as small as my Malcolm,’ the professor said. ‘Besides, he squiggled around a very narrow corner. You’d have to be able to see around corners to get a rope on his feet.’
‘I can see around corners,’ Emily said showing him her eyefinger.
‘Good grief!’ the professor cried. ‘You’ve got an eye on the end of your finger. Yuck! Oh, oh, I’m terribly sorry I said that,’ he added.
‘That’s all right,’ Emily said. ‘Don’t be embarrassed. Lots of people are surprised to see an eye on the end of a finger.’
And so it was that they gave Emily a torch and lowered her down to the bottom of the hole. She quickly found the tiny tunnel and crawled along until she couldn’t go any further.
‘Are you in there, Malcolm?’ she called.
There was a muffled noise up ahead that sounded like, ‘Uuummmppphhhh, ooooorrrrrmmmmmppppph!’
‘Everything’s going to be all right,’ Emily said. ‘I’m Emily Eyefinger and I’ve come to rescue you.’
‘Uuuuoooooooppppprrrmmmmpppphh!’
Emily put the torch in her eyefinger hand and reached around a very narrow corner. With her eyefinger she could see the bottoms of Malcolm’s shoes. She quickly untied the rope from her waist and reached around the corner to tie it to
his feet. But they were too far away and she couldn’t quite reach them.
Emily pulled the rope back and made a loop at the end. Then she reached around again and threw the loop toward Malcolm. Again and again she threw it but missed his feet. Finally she caught them. She pulled the rope tight around his ankles.
‘Thank goodness for my eyefinger,’ she said with a sigh.
‘Uuuuoooooooppppprrrmmmmpppphh!’ Malcolm cried again, this time much louder than before.
Then Emily squirmed back out of the tunnel and stood at the bottom of the hole.
‘Hello up there,’ she called.
Three heads peered down at her.
‘Did you find him?’ asked Professor Mousefinder. ‘Is he all right?’
‘He’s fine,’ Emily said. ‘I tied the rope around his feet. Now all you have to do is pull.’
‘Okay, everybody pull!’ Mrs Eyefinger cried.
The rope grew tight and then began shooting past Emily. She stepped back against the dirt wall as the rope went faster and faster. Dust and dirt filled the air and Emily quickly put her eyefinger hand in her pocket. Down in the tunnel she heard a long scream that got louder and louder.
‘YiiiiooooooowwwwwwwwwwW!’
Finally a big dirty lump of something shot out of the tunnel and dangled upside down in the hole. The big dirty lump of something was Malcolm and he was screaming louder than ever.
‘Heeeeeelp!’ he cried.
In his hands he clutched a small mouse.
‘You’re safe now!’ Emily said.
‘Heeeeeelp!’ Malcolm cried again.
The rope jerked and he went flying upwards and out of the ground.
After a minute or two, Emily’s parents and the two Mousefinders peeked down the hole again.
‘Are you okay down there?’ Professor Mousefinder asked.
‘I’m fine,’ said Emily. ‘But I wouldn’t mind if you pulled me up too.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Professor Mousefinder.
He threw down the rope and they all pulled Emily to safety.
‘Thank you very much, Emily. If it hadn’t been for that eye thing of yours,’ Professor Mousefinder said, ‘I’m sure I would have lost little Malcolm.’
