A Deer Called Dotty

by Helen Peters

  “Liar!” shouted Jasmine. “Liar and murderer! You let your dog kill that duck and now you let him almost kill my fawn. Dotty’s lost her leg because of him and you don’t care one bit. He could have killed her and you still wouldn’t care. You’re a horrible person and I hate you! I hate you so much! I’m going to call the police and they’ll come and arrest you and have your dog put down, and it will serve you right because you’re evil!”

  Bella stood wide-eyed and open-mouthed in shock. Jasmine suddenly realised that the entire playground had gone silent. The teachers had come out to lead their classes into school, and every single teacher was staring at her.

  As the world reshaped itself around her, Jasmine saw the head teacher detach herself from the horrified group of staff and stride purposefully and fatefully towards her.

  “Come with me, please,” she said to Jasmine and Bella. “To my office. Now.”

  Jasmine sat in the head teacher’s office, her mouth stubbornly closed. Why could nobody else in the world see the blindingly obvious truth? Of course it had been Bella’s dog that had attacked Dotty. Anyone with half a brain could have worked that out. And yet here was Mrs Allerton, just like her own parents, saying there was no actual evidence.

  Bella had been interviewed separately, so Jasmine didn’t know exactly what she’d said, but it wasn’t hard to guess. Of course she would say her dog hadn’t done it, but why would anyone believe Bella’s word against hers?

  It was never a good idea to argue with Mrs Allerton, though. So, once Jasmine had stated her case as forcefully as she could, she kept her mouth shut and let the head teacher speak.

  But then Mrs Allerton said, “You need to apologise to Bella.”

  “What!” exclaimed Jasmine. “No!”

  “Yes.”

  Jasmine shook her head. “Never. I’m not apologising to her. I meant everything I said. She is evil and so is her dog.”

  Mrs Allerton held up her hand for silence. “I’m going to give you a minute to reconsider your decision, Jasmine, before I phone your parents. Just sit there and have a good think.”

  She picked up a letter from her desk and began to read it. Jasmine sat with her arms crossed, looking out of the window at the trees in the playground. If Mrs Allerton thought she was going to change her mind, she had another think coming.

  “Well?” said the head, after a silence that seemed to have lasted far longer than a minute.

  Jasmine’s stomach squirmed, but she shook her head again. “I can’t apologise to Bella.”

  Mrs Allerton gave a heavy sigh. She tapped a few keys on her computer keyboard and then she picked up the phone and dialled a number.

  Jasmine hoped she was dialling the home number. Neither of her parents would be in to answer the phone. But Mrs Allerton had clearly called Nadia’s mobile, because within a few rings she said, “Oh, hello, Mrs Green.”

  Jasmine listened with a heavy heart as the head teacher relayed their conversation. She knew better than to expect sympathy from her mother.

  When Mrs Allerton had finished explaining, there was a long silence as she listened to Nadia’s reply. Jasmine strained to hear, but she couldn’t make out the words. All she could hear was the head teacher saying things like, “Oh, I see,” and “How interesting.”

  What could Mum possibly be saying that took that long and was that interesting?

  Then Mrs Allerton said, “Yes, I think that would be a very good idea.” There was a pause and then she said, “That will be fine. Twelve o’clock then. Thank you.”

  She put the phone down and looked at Jasmine.

  “Your mother is coming into school at lunchtime,” she said. “Until then, you can work in the corner of my office. I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to return to your classroom.”

  Jasmine spent the rest of the morning at a little table in the corner of the head teacher’s office. It was impossible to concentrate on the worksheets in front of her. Was she going to be expelled? Why else would Mum be leaving work in the middle of the day to come to the school?

  They wouldn’t really expel her for this, would they? But they might suspend her. Oh, Mum and Dad were going to be so mad.

  She checked the clock again. Five past eleven. Surely this clock was slower than every other clock in the world. Never had a morning dragged on so long.

  On the dot of twelve o’clock, there was a knock at the door. Jasmine didn’t turn round, but she heard the door open and the school secretary say, “Mrs Green’s here to see you, Jill.”

  “Thank you,” said Mrs Allerton. “Show her in, please. Jasmine, you’d better come and sit over here.”

  Jasmine felt sick as she sat down opposite the head teacher’s desk. When her mum walked in, she didn’t dare look up. She could imagine her fury at being called away from work to deal with this.

  The room was so hot. Why weren’t the windows open?

  Mrs Allerton greeted Nadia and asked her to take a seat beside Jasmine.

  “Your mother has kindly taken the time to come here,” she said, “because she’s found out some new information about what happened to your fawn, and we thought it would be good if you knew as soon as possible.”

  Jasmine stared at her mother. New information?

  “Would you like to tell us what you know, Mrs Green?” said Mrs Allerton.

  “Thank you,” said Mum. “I had a phone call this morning from a retired man who lives in the village. He was flying a drone over the woods yesterday evening, and this morning he looked through the footage on his TV, to see it more clearly. And he noticed something he hadn’t seen before.”

  She paused.

  “What did he notice?” asked Jasmine, unable to contain herself.

  “He saw a roe deer fawn being chased into the woods and attacked,” said Nadia.

  “I knew it!” said Jasmine. “I told you it was her dog, didn’t I? She can apologise to me now.”

  “It wasn’t Bella’s dog,” said Nadia.

  Jasmine’s heart felt as though it was being gripped in a vice. Not Sky? It couldn’t have been Sky. Please don’t let it have been Sky, she thought.

  “It wasn’t a dog that attacked Dotty,” said Mum.

  Jasmine stared at her, unable to take this in. Then sheer relief flooded through her body. It wasn’t Sky!

  “It was a fox,” said Mum. “A big hungry-looking fox. I’ve seen the footage.”

  “Oh, poor Dotty!” said Jasmine, shuddering as she saw in her mind’s eye a horribly vivid picture of the little fawn being set upon by a huge hungry fox.

  Then she frowned in puzzlement. A three-week-old fawn would never be able to fight off a fox.

  “How did she get away?” she asked.

  Mum smiled. “That’s the amazing thing. Sky saved her.”

  “Sky? How?”

  “You saw Sky run into the wood, didn’t you?

  And you heard him barking. He was chasing the fox away, Jasmine. Sky saw off the fox, and then he ran back to you. It’s all in the film footage.”

  Jasmine gazed at her mother in astonishment and growing delight as these extraordinary facts sank in. Sky wasn’t the attacker. He was a hero!

  “I phoned Ella straightaway,” said Mum. “She was so relieved she was in tears, poor thing. I’m so pleased for her. She’s been miserable.”

  Jasmine was filled with an overwhelming happiness. Everything was all right again.

  And then the head teacher spoke and brought her straight back down to earth.

  “So, Jasmine,” she said, “I think you’ll agree now that you owe Bella an apology. I’ll see your mum out and then we’ll talk.”

  Nadia gave Jasmine a very stern look. “Make sure you apologise properly to Bella,” she said. “I’m not at all happy with your behaviour.”

  Mrs Allerton showed Mum out of the room, thanking her for giving up her time to come into school.

  “Not at all,” said Mum. “I’m very sorry that my daughter has taken up so much of your day
.”

  Jasmine strained to hear the reply, but they were too far away by then and there was a lot of lunchtime noise in the corridor. After a couple of minutes, the door opened again and Mrs Allerton reappeared. Behind her was Bella Bradley.

  “Sit down, Bella,” said the head teacher, indicating the chair where Mum had sat.

  Bella perched on the edge of the chair, her back very straight. She didn’t look at Jasmine. Jasmine didn’t look at her. “Jasmine,” said Mrs Allerton, “do you have something to say to Bella?”

  Jasmine took a deep breath. She kept her eyes on the head teacher’s desk.

  “It wasn’t your dog that attacked Dotty,” she said.

  “I knew it!” said Bella. “It was your dog all along. I told you!”

  “It was not my dog,” said Jasmine. “It was a fox. My dog saw off the fox and saved Dotty.”

  “I told you it wasn’t Rupert,” said Bella. “I said I could see him all the time.”

  “Yes,” said Jasmine.

  Silence.

  Mrs Allerton turned to Jasmine.

  “Don’t you have anything else to say, Jasmine?”

  Jasmine was hoping she had said enough. But clearly it wasn’t enough to satisfy the head teacher.

  “I’m sorry I shouted at you,” she said. “I didn’t mean it.”

  Bella looked directly at her for the first time. “You did mean it,” she said. “You totally meant it.”

  Jasmine was taken aback. Bella was right. She had meant it. She had called Bella evil. She had called her dog evil. She had threatened to call the police and have Bella’s dog put down. She had screamed at Bella in front of the whole school. And she had refused to listen when literally everybody had told her she was being unreasonable.

  How would she have felt if Bella had said those things about her and Sky? She would have gone crazy. Looking at Bella now, sitting quietly opposite her, she felt a grudging respect. There was no way she could have behaved with that sort of dignity if their places had been switched.

  She took another deep breath.

  “You’re right,” she said. “I did mean it at the time. I’m sorry. I was really worried about Dotty.”

  She stopped. She knew that wasn’t the whole truth. She had been worried about Dotty, of course, but would she have reacted quite so violently if it had been anybody else’s dog in that field?

  “And I don’t like you or your dog, so I was really angry.”

  Mrs Allerton’s eyebrows shot up into her fringe.

  “I don’t like you either,” said Bella. “Your dog’s all right, though.”

  “Thanks,” said Jasmine.

  The corner of Mrs Allerton’s mouth twitched slightly. “Well,” she said. “That was an apology of sorts, I suppose. I think we’ve established that you’re never going to be best friends, but I would really appreciate it if you could make it through the rest of the year without any more arguments. Civil behaviour, that’s all I’m asking. Do you think you can manage that?”

  “Yes, Mrs Allerton,” they said.

  “That’s amazing,” said Tom, when Jasmine told him the story as they walked home from school. “I can’t believe Sky did that. What a hero.”

  “Sky would never hurt Dotty,” said Jasmine. “Or any animal.”

  Tom glanced at her. “I didn’t really think he’d hurt her. I just thought I should say he was in the field. Just so your mum and dad knew all the facts, you know?”

  “I know,” said Jasmine. Tom was much more reasonable and level-headed than she was. He never lost his temper or wrongly accused people.

  “Ella must be so happy,” said Tom.

  When they walked into the farmhouse, Ella was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea and eating toast. Sky sat proudly beside her, and both of them looked perfectly contented. Sky got up and trotted towards Jasmine, wagging his tail. Jasmine threw her arms around him.

  “Sky saved Dotty!” said Ella. “He was a hero.”

  “He’s the best dog ever,” said Jasmine, hugging him tightly. Sky licked her left ear.

  “If he hadn’t been there, and he hadn’t been off the lead,” said Ella, “then poor little Dotty…” She shuddered.

  “You saved her life,” said Jasmine. “You and Sky.”

  And she kissed Sky’s head and buried her face in his long silky coat.

  At five o’clock, as Jasmine was feeding the cats in the scullery, the back door opened and Nadia appeared, carrying the puppy crate.

  “Oh!” cried Jasmine. “She’s home!”

  “She’s home,” said Nadia. “And she’ll be very pleased to see you.”

  She set the crate down and Jasmine knelt beside it, smiling at the little fawn curled up on the cage floor. Dotty squeaked in greeting.

  “Hello, Dotty,” said Jasmine, unfastening the catches. “It’s so lovely to see you again.”

  She opened the door and Dotty licked her hand. Then, to Jasmine’s amazement, she struggled to her feet and stumbled out of the crate. She nuzzled into Jasmine’s neck and started to lick her face.

  “You’re walking!” exclaimed Jasmine. “You clever girl!”

  She gathered the little fawn into her arms and hugged her, careful not to touch the bandaged stump where Dotty’s leg had been.

  “That’s the first time she’s stood up,” said Nadia. “She must have wanted to walk for you.”

  Jasmine kissed Dotty’s shiny black nose. “You’re amazing,” she said. “I can’t believe you’re already walking, after everything that’s happened to you.”

  She set the fawn on the floor, curious to see how well she could walk. Dotty hobbled across the tiles to where Toffee was sitting. She started to lick Toffee’s face. Toffee began to purr.

  Nadia’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wow,” she said. “She’s really pleased to be home.”

  “Oh, Dotty,” said Jasmine. “It’s so good to have you back.”

  Over the next week, Dotty grew stronger and stronger. Jasmine spent every moment she could with her, building up her strength and confidence. Each morning and evening they went for walks around the garden, with Dotty on a lead. She adapted remarkably quickly to walking on three legs. The loss of a limb didn’t seem to bother her at all.

  “She won’t be able to live in the wild, though, will she?” said Jasmine to her mum on the following Saturday. Nadia was weeding a flower bed and Jasmine was walking Dotty around the garden. “I’ve been reading about deer with three legs and people say herd animals with three legs can be OK in the wild, because the group looks out for them. But it’s bad for roe deer, because they mostly live alone. I’m not going to release Dotty on her own and then have her killed.”

  “Nobody’s asking you to do that,” said Nadia, uprooting a dandelion with her trowel.

  Jasmine stared at her mother, her eyes wide with hope. “Really?”

  “I’m sure the rescue centre over at Anslow will take her. We’re in contact with them a lot at the surgery and they’re very nice. I think they’ve already got some three-legged deer there.”

  “But why can’t I keep her?”

  “Jasmine, you’ve got enough animals already. Dotty will need an enclosure with deer-proof fencing. And it will be good for her to live with other deer.”

  “She’d be much happier staying here. I know she would.”

  “You mean you would.”

  “We both would.”

  Nadia stood up and brushed the soil from her hands. “I’m not going to argue about it. I need to go and collect Manu.”

  Jasmine gazed at her mother’s back as she made her way up the path. How could she persuade her that Dotty had to stay?

  She was standing by the orchard fence pondering this question when Tom arrived half an hour later.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “You look sad.”

  Jasmine told him what Nadia had said about the rescue centre.

  “I couldn’t bear it if she had to go,” she said. “But I don’t know what to do. You
can’t exactly keep a deer in secret. She needs a big outdoor place with high fences, and—”

  She stopped and stared into the orchard, where Truffle and Bramble lay dozing under an apple tree.

  “I’ve got an idea,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Come and see. Come on, Dotty.”

  She unbolted the gate that led into the orchard. It was a big orchard, surrounded by a high fence. A fence that was definitely deerproof.

  Jasmine shut the gate behind them. Dotty sniffed at the long grass.

  “Bramble!” called Jasmine.

  Bramble’s ears pricked and she raised her head enquiringly. Then she got to her feet and trotted towards Jasmine, wagging her tail.

  Jasmine had been so careful to keep Dotty away from dogs that this felt very strange. But everything was different now, and it was surely worth a try.

  “Sit, Bramble,” said Jasmine.

  Bramble sat, looking expectantly at Jasmine. Dotty stared at the spaniel. Then she stretched out her long neck and licked Bramble’s face.

  Jasmine held her breath and clasped Dotty’s lead tightly in case Bramble snapped.

  But Bramble didn’t snap. She sat perfectly still, as though waiting to see what this strange new creature might do next.

  Dotty licked the spaniel’s face again. Bramble turned her head to look at her. Dotty started to nuzzle her coat, nibbling very gently at the fur on her neck.

  The old spaniel got to her feet. Jasmine tensed.

  Bramble started to sniff Dotty’s neck. Then she sniffed along her back. Tom and Jasmine watched, motionless, as the two animals explored each other’s scents.

  Then Bramble put out her long pink tongue and started to lick the side of Dotty’s face, around the corners of her mouth. Dotty nuzzled in closer.

  Tom and Jasmine grinned at each other. They were bonding!

  They watched for a while in silence as the two animals groomed each other. It was amazing to see the bond developing between the old spaniel and the young fawn.