An Owl Called Star

by Helen Peters

  “Are we going to release him now?” asked Tom, when Nadia returned.

  “Not now, no. Owls need to be released at dusk, which will be about half past five today. It’s lucky I’m not on call.”

  In the car, Jasmine gazed out of the window in silence, desperately hoping Biscuit would be back in her cage when they got home. Suddenly she frowned and leaned forward. Nadia had driven right past the entrance to the farm.

  “Mum? Where are we going?”

  “I thought we’d have a look at the release site. I want to check that there aren’t any hazards that might harm Star. It will be too dark to check this evening.”

  “What do you mean? What release site?”

  “The barn where you found him,” said Mum. “It’s very important to release an owl at the same place you found it.”

  Jasmine gasped. “No!”

  Nadia glanced at her in the rear-view mirror.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Jasmine and Tom shot each other fearful looks.

  “It’s just … the barn is where he was injured,” said Jasmine. “It wouldn’t be fair to release him there. What if he flies into the window again?”

  “That’s why I want to check it out,” said Nadia. “If I think the window is what harmed him, I’ll phone the owner and ask permission to board it up.”

  “But…” said Jasmine, desperately searching for a way out of this horrific situation. “I think the barn’s haunted.”

  Nadia burst out laughing. “Oh, come on, Jasmine. I know it’s Halloween, but really!”

  “It is, though,” said Jasmine. “When Tom and I were up there the other night we heard all these really spooky noises. Didn’t we, Tom? And somebody died in that barn once, and everyone says his ghost comes out at Halloween.”

  Nadia shook her head. “That’s complete rubbish and you know it. Honestly, Jasmine, you are ridiculous sometimes.”

  She parked the car at the entrance to the field.

  “We’ll release Star outside the barn, won’t we?” said Tom. “Not inside?”

  “Outside, yes,” Nadia said. “Come on, you two. Let’s go and have a look around.”

  There weren’t any decorations on the outside of the barn, Jasmine reassured herself. They would just have to make sure Mum didn’t go inside. And there was no reason why she would. Was there?

  “What a perfect location for barn owls,” said Nadia, looking at the dilapidated old building. “Can you show me exactly where you found him?”

  “It was over here,” said Jasmine. “Look. That’s where he was lying.”

  “I’m impressed you spotted him in all this undergrowth,” said Nadia.

  “It was only because he was so white. I thought he was a plastic bag or something.”

  “See that smudge in the dirt?” Tom said to Nadia, pointing to the window. “Do you think that’s where Star crashed into the glass?”

  “I think it’s very likely,” said Nadia. “I’ll ask the owner if I can board it up.”

  “So shall we go now?” asked Jasmine. The sooner they got Mum away from here, the better.

  “Why are you in such a hurry?” asked Nadia. “I want to have a look around for any other hazards. I’d have thought you’d want to make sure Star had the best possible chance of a safe release.”

  “I do,” said Jasmine, guiltily. “Of course I do.”

  “Are there any other windows?” Nadia asked.

  “No,” said Tom. “Only this one.”

  “Are you sure?” She was heading towards the barn door.

  “There aren’t,” said Jasmine. “Honestly. We checked.”

  “I’d like to have a look inside anyway,” said Nadia. “In case there are any other potential hazards.”

  Jasmine shot Tom a desperate look. Mum was almost at the door.

  “I wonder if –” Nadia began. And then she stopped dead in the doorway.

  Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Jasmine felt as though something was squeezing her chest and stopping her from breathing. The silence was unbearable.

  Slowly, Nadia turned to face the children.

  “Jasmine?”

  Jasmine didn’t dare look at her. She kept her eyes on the ground. She said nothing. What could she say?

  Nadia stepped inside the barn. “Jasmine. Tom. Come in here, please. I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

  Nadia stood in the centre of the barn, her eyes roaming left and right, up and down. From the silhouetted creatures hanging from the beams to her Christmas lights strung along the walls. From the bottle of ketchup to the tub of peeled grapes to the tangle of cooked spaghetti. And finally, back to Tom and Jasmine, standing at the doorway in petrified silence.

  “I’m waiting,” she said.

  But Jasmine’s mind was frozen as well as her body. She could think of absolutely nothing to say. Tom wasn’t saying anything either. And Mum was just standing there. Waiting.

  After what seemed like forever, Mum said, “You told me you were meeting some friends this evening to go trick-or-treating.”

  “We are,” said Jasmine.

  “So what’s all this for, then?”

  “We thought it would be nice to decorate the barn for Halloween.”

  “Just for the two of you?”

  “Yes,” said Jasmine, her insides squirming.

  “You’ve gone to quite a bit of trouble, haven’t you? You must have spent some time making all these decorations. And finding my Christmas lights.”

  “Yes,” muttered Jasmine.

  “And making all those cupcakes and biscuits. Enough for quite a lot of people, I would think.”

  Jasmine said nothing.

  “And taking Sky for that long walk in the woods this morning? I did wonder why you took a backpack with you. And I also wonder why you didn’t mention any of this to me.”

  Nadia’s phone started to ring. She gave Jasmine a steely look as she took it out of her pocket.

  “Don’t move,” she said.

  Jasmine hoped it would be a call about an animal. Nothing too serious, obviously, but something that Mum would have to rush off to immediately and that would take a long time. So long, in fact, that when she came back she would have forgotten all about the decorated barn.

  “Really?” said Nadia to the person on the phone. She gave Jasmine an even steelier glare. “How interesting. And what did this top-secret invitation say, exactly?”

  Jasmine’s stomach plummeted. Tom clenched his fists. This was it. Nothing could save them now.

  As Nadia listened to the caller, her expression grew grimmer by the second.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “Yes, you’re absolutely right. Incredibly irresponsible. And potentially dangerous, as you say. Yes, it is lucky you found out in time. As a matter of fact, Karen, I’ve just found out myself, so I would have phoned you any minute now if you hadn’t beaten me to it. I’ve got Jasmine right here, and I’m going to put her on the line to apologise in person.”

  Jasmine stared at her mother in horror.

  “It’s Noah’s mum,” Nadia said, handing her the phone. “I think you’d better grovel, don’t you?”

  Jasmine thought nothing could be worse than apologising to Noah’s angry mother. But she was wrong.

  When she handed the phone back, the only thing Mum said was, “I’m so furious I can’t even speak to you right now.” And she kept her word. The journey home was completely silent.

  When they got home, Mum handed Jasmine a sheet of paper and a pen.

  “Write down the name of everyone you’ve invited to this secret party,” she said.

  With a glance of despair at Tom, Jasmine silently wrote down all the names. She handed the list to Mum.

  “Fifteen people!” said Nadia. “You were planning to host a party for fifteen children in a dangerously dilapidated farm building – a building that doesn’t even belong to us, by the way – in the middle of nowhere, without any of those children’s parents having a clue where they were
! Honestly, Jasmine, I don’t even know what to say.”

  Her face looked tighter and tenser than Jasmine had ever seen it. She went to the fridge and took down the class list of addresses and phone numbers.

  “You’re going to phone the parents of every child you’ve invited, and explain exactly what you were planning to do and why it’s all cancelled. And then you’ll have to hand the phone to me so I can apologise too. And by the end of all that, I hope you’ll have realised exactly why your secret Halloween party was such a stupid idea.”

  The following hour was the worst of Jasmine’s entire life. Even if she lived to be a hundred, she thought, nothing in her future could ever be as bad as that.

  And then, just as she finished the last hideous phone call, the doorbell rang.

  “That’ll be Tom’s mum,” said Nadia. “You can invite her in and apologise in person.”

  With a sinking heart, Jasmine opened the door. She had already had to explain everything to Tom’s mum over the phone, and Mel had not been at all happy.

  But it wasn’t Mel on the doorstep.

  It was Aisha and her mum.

  “Surprise!” said Aisha.

  Jasmine stood rooted to the spot.

  “But… But you said…” she stammered. “I thought… You said Monday… It’s Sunday.”

  “We came home early,” said Aisha. “So we thought we’d collect Biscuit now, if that’s OK.”

  Jasmine made a huge effort to seem normal. “Yes, of course,” she said, with a big fake smile.

  “Jasmine!” called Mum. “Don’t leave Mel on the doorstep.”

  Jasmine pulled herself together. “The problem is,” she whispered urgently to Aisha, “I still haven’t quite got round to telling my mum about Biscuit. So would you mind … you know … not mentioning it?”

  Aisha pulled a face. “That’s awkward. Why should I say I’m here, if I’m not collecting Biscuit?”

  “Also,” Jasmine whispered, “she’s found out about the Halloween party and she’s really mad at me.”

  “Oh, great,” said Aisha. “Even more awkward.”

  “Hi, Mel!” called Nadia, opening the door from the kitchen. She looked surprised for a moment, and then she smiled. “Oh, hello, Aisha. Hi, Rana.”

  “Aisha and her mum are here about the Halloween party,” said Jasmine, giving Aisha a meaningful look.

  “Oh, are they?” said Nadia. She gave Rana a strained smile. “You’d better come in.”

  Manu was sitting at the kitchen table next to Tom, drawing skeletons. When Aisha walked in, the boys’ eyes opened wide in shock. Jasmine knew they were thinking exactly the same as she was. How on earth were they going to deal with this situation?

  “I’m so very sorry about the party,” said Mum. “I hope Jasmine has apologised profusely.”

  Rana said something to Aisha in Arabic. Jasmine remembered the phrase from the other evening. She was pretty sure Rana was thanking Nadia for looking after the hamster. Thank goodness Mum didn’t understand Arabic.

  “My mum says thank you so much for inviting me to the Halloween party,” said Aisha. “She says it was very kind of Jasmine and Tom to organise a party.”

  Jasmine looked at her friend in gratitude. She was certain Aisha’s mum hadn’t said anything of the sort. Good old Aisha.

  Aisha’s mum smiled at Nadia. “Thank you,” she said in English.

  “Oh,” said Mum, looking a bit taken aback. “Well, yes, I suppose it was kind. It’s just a shame they didn’t think of asking permission beforehand.”

  Rana spoke to Aisha again. It was all in Arabic, except for one word at the end. “Biscuit.”

  Nadia looked puzzled.

  “Er, should we come back tomorrow instead?” Aisha asked Jasmine.

  “Yes, please,” said Jasmine. “Thank you.”

  Nadia looked curiously from Jasmine to Aisha and back again.

  Aisha turned to her mum and was half way through a sentence when Manu shouted, “Biscuit!”

  Everyone turned and stared at him. Tom and Jasmine’s eyes darted frantically around the room.

  “Where?” asked Jasmine.

  “Manu, why are you shouting?” asked Mum. “If you want a biscuit, you can ask nicely.”

  “Sorry,” said Manu. “Please may I have a biscuit?”

  Mum tutted and opened the cupboard where she kept the biscuits. As soon as her back was turned, Manu pointed frantically to the corner of the room, where there was a little hole in the skirting board.

  “She was there,” he mouthed at Jasmine. “And then I don’t know where she went.”

  “What?” said Aisha, who unfortunately had been looking at Manu too. “Who was there?”

  Then she gasped and her eyes opened very wide. “No! Have you lost Biscuit?”

  Mum stood up, holding an empty tin. She gave Aisha a funny look.

  “I haven’t lost the biscuits, but it appears that somebody,” she said, glaring at Manu, “has decided to help themselves to the entire tin.”

  Manu’s face was a picture of wounded innocence. “Why do you always think it’s me?”

  “Because it is always you.”

  “That’s not fair. It wasn’t me who lost Biscuit.”

  “What is this about losing biscuits? The biscuits aren’t lost. They’ve been eaten.”

  “Well, this one nearly got eaten,” said Manu, giving Jasmine a meaningful stare, “and then somebody lost it.”

  “What’s happened to Biscuit?” asked Aisha. “Will somebody tell me what’s going on?”

  “Will somebody tell me what’s going on?” said Mum. “I’m completely confused.”

  Rana turned to Aisha and started talking very fast in Arabic. Aisha interrupted her. Everybody started talking at once.

  Suddenly another voice cut through the chaos.

  “Sorry for walking in, Nadia, but the door was open.”

  It was Tom’s mum, with a very strained look on her face.

  “Sorry,” she said again. “It looks like you’re busy here. Hello, Aisha. Hello, Rana. Tom, fetch your things and we’ll get out of Nadia’s way. You’ve caused quite enough trouble for one day. I’m so sorry, Nadia. I’m absolutely mortified.”

  “Oh, honestly, Mel, please don’t apologise,” said Nadia. “If I know anything about my daughter, I can bet she was the one behind all this.”

  “I’m sure Tom was just as much involved as Jasmine was,” said Mel. “Come on, Tom, we’re going home. Put your shoes on.”

  She picked up a pair of trainers from the floor.

  “AAARGHH!!”

  She dropped them as though they were red-hot coals. One landed on the floor and the other on the table.

  Everyone stared, open-mouthed, as Mel stepped back from the shoe on the table as though it was a ticking bomb. She pointed a trembling finger at it.

  “In there,” she whispered. “In there. A… a … a rodent.”

  Everybody’s eyes turned to Tom’s trainer. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

  And then a little pink nose and a set of white whiskers popped up from the tongue of the shoe, followed by the cutest little face with bright black curious eyes.

  Mel shrieked and clutched Jasmine’s arm. “A rat!”

  “A hamster!” said Nadia in wonder.

  “Biscuit!” said everybody else.

  “Biscuit! You’re back!” said Jasmine. “Oh, thank goodness!”

  Aisha scooped the little hamster out of the shoe, cupped her gently in her hands and kissed the top of her head.

  “Come on, Biscuit,” she said. “Let’s take you home.”

  “I’m so, so sorry, Aisha,” said Jasmine, as Rana put Biscuit’s cage in the car. “I’m so sorry we let her escape. I wouldn’t blame you if you hated me forever.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” said Aisha.

  “But it was. It was completely my fault.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Aisha. “I’m just glad she’s back. It’s always awful when she escapes.”<
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  Jasmine stared at her. “She’s escaped before?”

  “Twice before. Once we found her in the garden, and once she was gone for days and then she just turned up in her cage again. So don’t feel bad about it. She just likes escaping. Don’t you, Biscuit?”

  “I wish I could escape, don’t you?” said Jasmine to Tom. “I’d rather live under the floorboards for the rest of my life than go back in that kitchen and face our mums.”

  Tom shuddered. “They were seriously mad before they found out about Biscuit. I can’t even imagine what they’re going to do to us now.”

  “So I’m basically going to spend the whole of half term being a slave to my family,” said Jasmine to Tom on the phone an hour later. “Fetching in the logs, emptying the dishwasher, laying and clearing away the table for every meal, hoovering the house. I might as well be called Cinderella.”

  “I’m not allowed any TV or games the whole week,” said Tom. “She’s hidden all the remotes and controllers.”

  “And no Halloween,” said Jasmine. “Stuck indoors on our own while everyone else goes out trick-or-treating and having parties.”

  “What about releasing Star?” asked Tom. “Is your mum going to take him on her own?”

  “I don’t know. She was so mad I didn’t dare ask. But it will be so unfair if we don’t get to be there, when it was us who found him.”

  “I know,” said Tom. “And I won’t even get the chance to say goodbye to him.”

  Jasmine spent the whole afternoon doing chores. Over the next few hours, her anger at her parents gradually turned into anger at herself. It had been a stupid idea to plan a secret Halloween party. What had she been thinking? Somebody’s parents were bound to have found out sooner or later, even if Mum hadn’t seen the decorations in the barn. How had she ever imagined they would get away with it?

  And why hadn’t she told her parents about Biscuit straightaway? They would have been annoyed at first, but they would have understood it was an emergency, and they wouldn’t really have minded her looking after a hamster for a few days. Why had she kept it secret?