by Zizou Corder
Magdalen and Aneba sat up late with Major Tib and Mabel (once Magdalen could be prised from her son’s side, and persuaded that he was OK with the Lions to guard him, and Mabel could be prised from hers).
No one could decide what to do with Rafi, because although he was the long-lost child, he was also pretty high up in the villain department, and while they didn’t want to mistrust him right at the beginning of the new family life, they actually, well, didn’t trust him. In the end Aneba said he’d just keep him in the half nelson all night, and see how things went.
The HCE and Maccomo spent the night on a Cuban gunship, where it was felt they wouldn’t make any trouble.
The next day, after a late breakfast, Charlie convened a huge meeting, at which everybody – animals included – was to say what they wanted to do now. Ninu and Charlie would translate.
It was a complete shambles, of course, because mostly people wanted to turn back time, and go and live with their parents in their happy childhood days, but that wasn’t exactly possible, so Charlie moved them on swiftly to real things that they wanted. It ended up, after an awful lot of hooing and haing, like this:
Elsina and the Young Lion wanted to go home, and take Charlie with them, and Maccomo too so that they could keep him prisoner properly this time.
Major Tib wanted Elsina and the Young Lion to rejoin the Circus, and George the leopard too, and Charlie if he promised not to steal any more animals.
Magdalen wanted to go home to London and have a long hot bath.
Aneba wanted to collect samples of all the plants on the island before going home to London and having a long hot bath.
Mabel wanted to stay with the Circus, and to take Rafi too, and to teach him all she knew.
Sergei wanted to go wherever Charlie was going.
Ninu wanted to go wherever Charlie was going, as long as that was back to Essaouira.
Claudio wanted to go back to Venice with King Boris.
King Boris wanted to deliver the HCE to Interpol, because, as he said, all this is all very well but there is such a thing as the rule of law.
Jungko the fork-tailed cat wanted to join the Circus, if Marta the nesting cat was allowed to come too, though she couldn’t quite see how they would make a performance, but she promised they would try.
Marta the nesting cat wanted to go wherever Jungko was going.
Seventeen and Twenty-One wanted to go home to Ghana and find their mother.
Auntie Auntie wanted a strong brandy, and then, she supposed, perhaps a fabulous job in New York.
George actually quite wanted to join the Circus too, but he was embarrassed to admit it.
The tigers wanted to stay with Mabel; in fact, one of them nearly cried just at the idea of going anywhere without her.
The wild monkeys wanted the circus monkeys to come and join them on the island.
The circus monkeys wanted to join the wild monkeys on the island.
The zebras also wanted to join the wild monkeys on the island.
The bees had flown away.
Julius wanted himself and Hans and Charlie to stay on the island and found a children’s and animals’ Free Republic.
Hans wanted to bring the Learned Pig along with him.
The Learned Pig wanted to stop being Learned, if that was all right, as it wasn’t really his nature, and could he just stay on the beach?
Blue wanted to stay with Jake Yeboa, wherever he was going.
Jake Yeboa wanted to go home and train for the World Cup, and win it.
The other Starlets wanted to do what Jake Yeboa wanted, and could they take the dogs with them too?
The HCE wanted everybody to listen to reason, so that things could get back to normal, but … well, he was shouted down.
Maccomo wouldn’t say what he wanted. When pressed, he said he wanted Mabel. When she said, ‘Not on your nelly, slaver,’ he said – to Charlie’s surprise – that the animals should get whatever they wanted and the humans should rot, because humans caused all the damage in the world and the sooner they made themselves extinct, the better it would be for all the other creatures.
Rafi wanted to go back to Europe. He’d work his passage, he said. Maybe on the Circe, if they’d have him. He’d hang out with Mabel if she wanted, he supposed. He wanted to find his dog, he said, who he’d lost touch with in Paris.
Sally-Ann wanted to make everybody some more food. And then go home. She was from Tennessee. She thought. Somewhere in Tennessee.
Alex didn’t know what he wanted, but he’d think about it.
Pirouette wanted not to miss the beginning of the Mississippi tour, because she had been perfecting a rather extraordinary new flying trapeze move.
Madame Barbue, the Bearded Lady, said she wanted to set up a sweet shop in Paris, and, actually, since you asked, not be bearded any more. At that Auntie Auntie woke up and said, ‘Well, that’s easy,’ and went off to make her a potion.
And Charlie?
Well, first Charlie wanted a good long uninterrupted session on the computer with Ninu, dismantling all the Corporacy Communities and following up his worldwide alert. He’d do that after lunch. In the meantime, he arranged that he, his mum, his dad, Sergei, Ninu and everybody who wanted to join the Circus would do so, until the Circus reached their hometown (as it was bound to in due course), whereupon they would be free to go home if they wanted – as he would. The Lions, the Starlets (and the dogs), and Seventeen and Twenty-One would all go home with Younus, who would stop off in Ghana on the way to Essaouira. No humans would stay on San Antonio: the animals would take it over, and the humans who did not want to accept a ride with Younus or the Circe could all go to Cuba with the warships and think things through from there. Unless they wanted to go to Haiti.
So in a way everybody got what they wanted except:
Julius, who had to forsake his idea of a Free Republic.
Major Tib, but he had the tigers and now George, and the two peculiar new cats took up no room, and Mabel would be glad to have her sister, and the husband looked good at least, he could do some strongman thing, no doubt … so Major Tib was happy enough. At least Mabel hadn’t said she wanted to leave. Major Tib suddenly realized that, actually, he wanted to marry Mabel. But when he tried to bring it up, Mabel gave such a horrified look that Charlie and the Lions got the giggles, so that was that.
Charlie, who didn’t tell anyone that 49.9 per cent of him wanted to go and be with the Lions in the forest. (Elsina and the Young Lion knew, but they’d already made their peace, and said their goodbyes.)
Alex, who, not knowing what he wanted, was fated never to achieve it.
The HCE, who didn’t deserve it anyway.
Maccomo, who to make things easier, was offered the choice of going to Interpol with King Boris and the HCE, or going back with the Lions. He chose the Lions.
Ninu, who had to choose between Charlie and home.
He chose Charlie, of course.
The End … forever.
Acknowledgements
Thanks yet again to the usual honorees: Fred van Deelen for his beautiful maps and diagrams, and to Paul Hodgson for presenting the music to match.
The lovely Puffin ladies, with their everlastingly lovely footwear, specially Sarah Hughes, Adele Minchin, Tania Vian-Smith, Kirsten Grant, Elaine McQuade, Lesley Levene, Shannon Park and Francesco Dow. And the Puffin gentlemen, Tom Sanderson, for our glamorous and dramatic new cover look, and Matt Phillips.
And the agents: Linda Shaughnessy, Rob Kraitt, Teresa Nicholls, Anjali Pratap, Sylvie Rabineau. And Derek Johns: is he totally without flaw?
And to Melanie Phillips for helping design San Antonio.
Special thanks again to Robert Lockhart for writing us a gorgeous evocative soundtrack. Most of the tunes are available in a book written for the piano, with a CD of the music played by a small orchestra, so you don’t even have to play it yourself. It is called Music from Zizou Corder’s Lionboy, by Robert Lockhart, and published by Faber Music. You
can get it from music shops or online from www.fabermusic.com.
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First published 2006
Published in this edition 2007
Text copyright © Zizou Corder, 2006
Illustrations copyright © Fred van Deelen, 2006
Music copyright © Robert Lockhart, 2006
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-0-141-93595-9
