Chapter Eight
The mayor drove in his big, posh council limousine, along the street in the direction of the school. Blind Freddy held his lollipop stiffly to attention and saluted, then ushered the car through the open school gates. The mayor had come to announce the winner of the art prize and give out the award.
Everyone cheered, except for the ones who didn’t know who the guy in the big car was, and when they found out they cheered too. But by then it was too late. The mayor’s limousine had already swept inside.
The principal greeted the important man, then we all trooped into the assembly hall for this was to be a really big occasion. Mr Sandilands was in a good mood, for after all, he had entered Horse, by Gordon Sandilands in the sculpture section and this morning the winner was to be announced and the prize awarded.
‘Hope you win, sir,’ said the suck-up ventriloquist from the body of Year Six.
‘Well,’ Mr Sandilands tried to look modest, ‘I’m in with a chance.’
On the assembly hall stage, the mayor looked magnificent in his long coat with white fur at the lapels and a heavy brass chain around his neck. ‘Good morning, Mr Principal, teachers and boys and girls,’ he began.
‘Good morning, Mr Mayor, teachers and Mr Principal,’ we all chanted back.
‘I have come here today to perform a pleasant duty,’ the mayor went on.
‘So he’s not putting up the rates, then?’ Isobel Simms whispered to me.
‘Shh,’ I hissed. ‘Say the wrong thing and he won’t empty your wheelie bin.’
The mayor went on, ‘I have to present the prize in the sculpture section. A realistic piece of work too, I might add.’
Ms Carter, the art teacher, came forward wheeling the covered up sculpture on a trolley. ‘Here it is, Mr Mayor,’ she bowed and backed away.
The mayor whipped the cover off the sculpture. ‘And the winner is, a very lifelike whale.’
‘It’s a Boeing 737,’ Rosa Thurwell shouted. ‘Can’t you see? It’s got Qantas on the side.’
‘Is it? Has it?’ The mayor blinked. ‘Oh, well, you live and learn. So, come up here, young lady and receive your prize.’
Thud! That was Mr Sandilands jaw dropping because he hadn’t won. ‘How can a Boeing 737 be lifelike?’ he demanded. ‘It’s a thing! An object!’
‘I only said that when I thought it was a whale,’ the mayor explained.
Rosa went to the stage, beaming with pride. The principal stepped forward and said, ‘I think, Mr Mayor, this achievement calls for a gold star. It’s a school tradition.’
‘Oh yes,’ the mayor agreed, ‘we must observe traditions.’
‘So, Mr Mayor, would you please place the gold star on Rosa’s — um — aircraft thing?’
The mayor put the sticky gold star in his forefinger, then with a smile, pressed it into the plane’s body. But there came a loud pop as his finger went right through the skin of the aeroplane. ‘Oh, dear,’ he said. ‘Sorry about that.’
When he tried to pull out, he found his forefinger had gone through the chicken wire and a jaggedy bit had stuck in like a fish hook, trapping him inside the sculpture.
‘Oh, heavens,’ the principal said. ‘Let me hold it steady so you can pull out, Mr Mayor.’ But the principal held on too tightly and with loud pa-choong noises, both of his thumbs went through the skin and inside the Boeing 737, but on the other side. Both men were stuck like harpooned whales. ‘I think I’m bleeding,’ the principal went on. ‘Not a lot, but bleeding all the same.’
‘Will this take long?’ the mayor asked. ‘I have another appointment.’
‘Be careful with my sculpture,’ Rosa cried anxiously.
‘Has anyone got a pair of wire cutters?’ the principal asked, still trying to preserve his dignity in front of so many faces.
‘I have wire cutters.’ Ms Carter sprang forward, brandishing the implement and making a snap-snap noise. ‘I keep them for art work.’
‘You’re not going to cut up my Boeing 737, are you?’ Rosa was horrified.
‘Serves you right, Rosa Thurwell!’ Mr Sandilands bawled. ‘It’s not a patch on my horse.’
‘Ooh-ah, I might be fainting,’ the principal gasped. ‘Mr Mayor, will you kindly buckle at the knees and slump down to the floor with me?’
‘Stop! Stop!’ Rosa cried. ‘You stupid, stupid men!’
Ms Carter ordered her to stand aside, then she got busy with the wire cutters. In about ten seconds, the Boeing 737 was in dozens of blood-soaked pieces. The mayor was annoyed, the principal looked white and to make things worse, his gore was all over the art prize. It was a book full of photos of brightly painted wooden cubes.
‘Yuk!’ said Rosa so everyone could hear. ‘I’m not even touching that gruesome object!’
‘I don’t blame her, ‘Isobel commented to me: ‘The wooden cubes are off-cuts from the sawmill. Julia Dawson paints them in pastel colours. Calls it art.’
‘She gets around, that Julia Dawson,’ I said. ‘My mum bought one of her paintings.’
‘Your mum too?’ Isobel asked and we smiled together at this shared moment in our young lives.
In the end, the principal went off in an ambulance, the mayor drove back to the town hall saying no more school visits for him. No sir-ee! Besides, his education finished at age fourteen and they didn’t have art prizes in his day.
In a quiet moment, I had another word with Tim Wong-Smith. ‘It’s about my denouement, Tim,’ I said. ‘You want to hear it?’
‘Shoot,’ he agreed.
‘You did it,’ I said. ‘You turned up the fans and stamped on your own horse.’
‘Congratulations, Charlie.’ He applauded. ‘Only took you eight chapters to work it out. So tell me, how did you crack the case?’
‘You once said, “I’m sorry it was you who got the blame, Charlie.” So who did you expect would get the blame, eh?’
‘Sean Dingwall,’ Tim said. ‘Just to wipe the gold star smile off his face. But that’s not proof. You need more, Charlie.’
‘Got it,’ I told him. ‘You also said, it could be fun trying to discover who damaged your horse.’
‘Well, it was fun. You looking for a culprit while all the time it was me. But you still need more than that, Charlie.’
‘Right,’ I said. ‘Cop this. When we were doing the re-enactment, and I was being Sean, you told me to go inside the art room and turn up the fans to position five.’ This was my moment of triumph, or as we detectives say: the gotcha bit! ‘The only way you could have known the fans were at position five, Tim, was if you’d switched them on yourself.’
‘Good one,’ Tim said. ‘Anything else?’
‘Also at the re-enactment when I turned the fans up high, there was another sculpture on the front desk. In all that wind, Tim, it didn’t blow off, did it? It means yours didn’t blow off either.’
‘All right, Charlie.’ Tim held his wrists out for me to put the handcuffs on. ‘I’ll come clean.’
‘But there’s more,’ I went on. ‘When I told you that somebody knew how the damage to your horse was done, you said, “So, looks like it’s confession time?” You thought I was accusing you, but I meant Rosa Thurwell.’
‘I nearly gave up then, Charlie,’ Tim laughed. ‘But when you said it was Rosa, I was off the hook.’
‘But not for long, Old Tim, Timbo, Timbogle,’ I said in a friendly sort of way. ‘I know you did it, but why?’
‘Well,’ Tim explained, ‘as soon as I knew Mr Sandilands was entering his horse sculpture for the art prize, I decided to withdraw. I mean, you saw how he went on when Rosa won, so I couldn’t have that.’
‘But you could have just pulled out and still kept your horse, Tim.’
‘Thought of that, but Ms Carter wouldn’t allow it, so it had to be something final,’ he said. ‘Besides, one of Thunder’s eyes was higher up than the other. I’m a perfectionist, Charlie.’
So, the mystery was solved and I didn’t even bother about getting
the first two letters home cancelled. It was enough to know I was innocent.
These days, I sit at morning break and lunch time with Tim Wong-Smith and Isobel Simms, who are my best friends in all the world.
Rosa and Sean are not on speaking terms any more. Come to that, they’re not speaking with anybody, which is because no one’s speaking with them, except the phantom ventriloquist who continues to make certain words come from unusual places.
But Rosa and Sean will probably be back in action before too long, because friendships come and friendships go.
And, as Isobel is fond of saying, some go on forever.
The End
About the Writer
David McRobbie has been writing busily for most of his adult life — radio and TV scripts, school reading books and now, e-books, like the one you’ve just read.
For the last twenty-five years, as a full-time writer living and working in Australia, David has published over thirty paperback novels and short story collections for children and teenagers.
He has also written three television series, and radio plays.
If you have enjoyed reading this free copy of Stars, then why not write a review and tell everyone what you thought of the story. You can also look for other books by the same author, either online or in paperback.
David McRobbie has also written …
Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Ghosts — It is a wintry Scottish night in 1937. The train from London to Glasgow crashes and shortly after this tragic event two ghosts appear — a girl and boy who had been living passengers on the train.
The ghosts somehow find their way into a nearby orphanage where only 12-year-old Beatrice McMullin can see them, which then begins a tricky partnership. The ghosts initially have trouble communicating with Beatrice, but they work on this part of their ghostly skills. They have something on their mind, and need Beatrice’s help to achieve their aim.
Meanwhile, two other ghosts, adults this time, observe this growing contact, and don’t like what they see. They set about making sure the relationship doesn’t last.
From then on, the tale becomes complicated and full of twists and turns with several groups of people in pursuit of the same goal.
This is a Scottish ghost story with just a hint of comedy.
•
Robo-dude — Shaun is no ordinary teenage boy, in fact he’s not a boy at all. Shaun is a robot, otherwise known as Robo-dude, a domestic helper around the house. He has been bought by mother and daughter, Sandra and Chloe Wilson to bring some cleanliness and order into their busy lives.
After a few teething problems, Shaun fits in very well. The house has never been so tidy. Then Chloe discovers there are other tasks Robo-dude can perform, all it takes is an App and a few minutes with an Allen key and Shaun can do ironing, bake cakes or even hold intelligent conversations.
But in every tale there must be conflict, and so it is in this one. Things don’t run altogether smoothly because unknown to Chloe and her mother, Shaun has secret abilities. Other players know this and want Shaun for their own not quite so legal purposes.
In the end it falls to Shaun to restore some sort of calm, which he does in a quite disorderly and spectacular way.
•
Mandragora — Two shipwrecked survivors, a seventeen-year-old girl and a young seaman, shelter in a cave to wait out a storm. There they find warmth, security and love. When they leave the cave something evil is left behind.
A hundred years later, another young couple uncover the place where the lovers found sanctuary. But some things are best left undisturbed.
Here are four of them. Mandragora.
This is a gripping tale of teenage love, and demonic possession.
•
In Prior’s Pocket — Teenager Bill Fields and his father move into a new but old house, which is one of four identical dwellings in Prior’s Pocket. For Bill, the place takes some getting used to; it’s old and spooky, especially in the daytime when he comes home to an empty house.
One day, he finds the place has an attic and discovers up there a scale model house. Bill sets about restoring it, cleaning and reconditioning to make the small dwelling as good as new. His father points out that the model is a representation of the place they now live in, so maybe the original architect made it to show how the houses would look once they were built.
There is a family of tiny life-like figures occupying the model house — father, mother, teenage daughter and a maid-servant. Bill gives them names and as time goes on, he becomes more and more absorbed in the life he has created for them. Before long, he finds himself actually inside the model house and back in the year 1927.
But more than that — the family, when he meets them, are in crisis and they look to Bill to help end their agony.
This is a time-travel mystery adventure story.
•
She — available as an e-book. Rob Braden is an ordinary schoolboy in a typical high school. Then Livy barges into his peaceful life. Livy, the She of the story, starts to annoy Rob, first in a small way, but things become serious when she challenges Rob to a dare, which he reluctantly undertakes. They both discover that the object of the dare is far from innocent.
In fact it’s part of a cunning criminal conspiracy. And there are people who are less than pleased at the way things have turned out.
She is a fast-paced thriller with just a hint of comedy.
•
Falling Up Stairs — available as an e-book. Some say the boyhood years are like falling up stairs — quite painful but you eventually reach the top. Here are two stories about boys in the middle of their hurtful journeys. Matthew wants to win the girl of his dreams — but those dreams intrude into his realities. Geoffrey, in the second story, just wants a well-ordered life — hard to do when he finds himself caught up in a bank robbery.
•
Vinnie’s War — e-book and paperback. (Allen & Unwin, Australia.)
It’s 1939 and Britain is at war. Twelve-year-old Vinnie, a homeless orphan, is evacuated from London to the English countryside where he meets prejudice and treachery. But he finds friendship and a place to belong. The story is based on real events and both the paperback and e-book contain WW2 images.
•
To Brave The Seas — e-book and paperback. (Allen & Unwin, Australia.)
Fifteen-year-old Adam Chisholm joins Britain’s Merchant Navy in wartime. His first ship takes him on a stormy Atlantic convoy where he faces seasickness, submarines and shipwreck. A gripping story of a teenage life at sea, based on real events. The paperback and e-book contain WW2 images and a glossary of naval terms.
•
A Good Arriving — e-book.
A thriller for teenagers, set in 1830s England, then on a sea voyage to Australia.
•
A Whole Lot of Wayne — e-book.
Twenty-five tales of a boy growing up. It’s a funny collection of stories, a whole lot of Wayne, and a whole lot of e-book.
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