Leni was torn. It would break her heart to lose the newly hatched dodo to this woman who’d stop at nothing to get what she wanted. But she couldn’t stand by while Giavanna crushed Popcorn either.
Nearby, the molasses tank was bubbling away and the amber light was still flashing. Leni looked over to Shoober. The cleaners still had him firmly in their grasp. He was flinching, but running out of fight, like a fish out of water.
Professor Scissorson cupped the dodo in both hands, Professor Flowers bit his bottom lip and as for Popcorn, well, he looked as sick as a parrot.
“So?” said Giavanna, raising an overplucked eyebrow. “Which is it to be?”
Her perfume was so heavy and sweet, Leni could almost taste it.
“You do understand what I’m saying, little girl? If you don’t give me the dodo I’ll make your green friend go extinct,” said Giavanna.
Leni looked at the defenceless dodo, then at poor Popcorn, and thought to herself, What would Muppa do?
But before she could come up with an answer to her own question, an ear-splitting siren rang out. It made Leni jump. It made them all jump. And in that critical moment, half a heartbeat at most, Giavanna let go of Popcorn.
“Argh!” she screamed, as the parakeet flapped his wings and tried to escape. “Who set off that wretched alarm?”
Popcorn’s claws got caught in Giavanna’s big hairdo and he desperately tried to break free while she desperately tried to recapture him. Finally, he disentangled himself and wasted no time flying over to Leni’s shoulder. His eyes returned from bulging to beady again – and Giavanna was left with hair like a bird’s nest.
“The alarm went off automatically,” said Professor Flowers, checking the gauge on the side of the molasses tank. The amber light had now started to flash red. “There’s a malfunction – most likely triggered by the mops jamming up inside the centrifuge, causing fermentation and a build-up of pressure inside the tank,” he continued. Then, turning to Leni, he announced, “We’ve got to get out of here.” His voice sounded calm but his eyes told a different story. “Now.”
Giavanna brushed the hair from her eyes and made a last-ditch lunge at the dodo chick, but Leni was too quick for her. She stuck out her foot and tripped up the wicked woman by her leopard-print boots so she stumbled and fell, and in a flurry of tangled hair and pink Lycra, she landed on top of Pawpaw and Beanbag.
“I don’t want to alarm you, but the tank’s about to explode,” Professor Flowers called out in a shaky voice.
But there was one more thing Marion wanted to do before they made a run for it. “So, Mr Shoober, your wife is fed up of you, is she? Well we’re happy to do the dirty work for her.”
Marion grabbed a plunger from inside the giant sugar bag and squelched it straight onto Shoober’s bald head. She tightened her grip on the handle and spun him round again and again.
“Stop! Stop! Owwww!” howled the tycoon.
But Marion was having too much fun. “I’ve always wanted to take the plunge, and now I am!” she exclaimed.
Quickly, Leni wrapped the precious dodo chick in Professor Flowers’s owl hanky and passed her to Professor Scissorson, who placed her gently into her shirt pocket. Then Leni, the professors and the cleaners made a dash for the door. In the heart of the factory, the molasses tank was starting to tremble and a dull rumble was getting louder, drowned out only by the sound of the siren.
Professor Flowers tried the door but it was jammed. “We’re locked in,” he gulped, pushing harder and harder at the door handle.
Could it be all over – just when they’d almost made it?
Leni stepped forward and pulled the handle.
“Oh,” said Professor Flowers sheepishly as the door opened.
“You silly goose!” laughed Professor Scissorson when they burst into the outside world again.
“What can I say? Once a bird brain, always a bird brain,” shrugged Professor Flowers.
“Come on, to the jeep!” shouted Professor Scissorson. “Follow me!”
Leni, the professors and the cleaners tore along the gravel drive of Shoober’s mansion, and down towards the iron gates as fast as their legs would carry them.
Leni led the way to the hidden jeep and jumped into the back, while Marion and Mimi sat either side of her and Popcorn perched on the frame.
Professor Scissorson clambered into the driver’s seat and started the ignition.
“Wait for me!” panted Professsor Flowers. As he scrambled into the passenger side, the rumbling inside the factory started to get even louder. Then suddenly, a pop! pop! pop! sound peppered the air, like a giant popcorn machine turned up to maximum poppage power.
Professor Scissorson plunged the jeep into gear. The vehicle roared to life, just as an almighty explosion met their ears. It made the ground shake under their wheels.
Leni turned round to see what was going on behind them. And it was not a pretty sight.
The wild-haired Giavanna was running down the driveway, followed by the plunger-headed Shoober. They were both screaming in terror – probably because they were being chased by a fast-flowing river of molasses. It was slicking down the driveway at an alarming speed and already had the mansion in its gloopy grip.
Leni yelled back to their getaway driver. “As fast as you can, Professor Scissorson!” she called. “It’s coming this way!”
Professor Scissorson floored the accelerator on the jeep and they sped off. Professor Flowers clutched the inside door handle and soon they left the treacly torrent far behind them.
“Eat our dust!” cried the cleaners in triumph.
“We got out of there just in time,” said a relieved Professor Flowers.
“Those rotters got what they deserved,” laughed Marion.
“They were as bad as each other,” added Mimi.
“How could they even think about taking my precious dodo?” said Professor Scissorson.
“How is she, by the way?” asked Leni.
The professor checked her shirt pocket. “Good,” she replied.
“Good!” squawked Popcorn. He looked happy to feel the wind in his feathers once again.
Professor Scissorson had to swerve to avoid a giant tortoise crossing the road. And then Professor Flowers began explaining the finer details of the chemical reactions that had caused the explosion in the molasses tank.
But Leni was in another world. Professor Flowers’s words washed over her and she barely noticed the bumpy ride back. She was just relieved they’d escaped with both the dodo and Popcorn intact.
Not long afterwards they came to a halt. “Oh we’re back are we? Well thank you, Professor Scissorson.” The English man smiled at her.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. “And by the way, you can call me Celia.”
Leni had never been so glad to be back at Baie de la Vie, and she bounded up to hut 603. As soon as Professor Scissorson unlocked the door, she burst in.
“Loretta and Lionel, we have someone for you to meet!” called Leni.
They all trooped into the indoor aviary and gathered in the pigeon-playground in front of the birds’ cubbyholes. The professor removed the little dodo hatchling from her pocket, still wrapped in Professor Flowers’s hanky, and passed her to Leni. Then she took Loretta and Lionel from their pigeonholes and brought them out to meet their new daughter.
Leni carefully introduced the squab to her new mum and dad. Going beak-to-beak, the pink pigeons cooed over the baby dodo.
“Look, they’re bonding,” said Leni.
“Sweet,” said Professor Scissorson.
Then the other pink pigeons started cooing too, like a gaggle of adoring aunties and uncles.
The cleaners broke into applause and Marion had to pass Mimi a tissue as she was getting teary. “She’s gorgeous,” said Marion. “You must be so proud.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your help, ladies. In fact, without all your help,” replied the professor.
Later, Professor Scissorson he
ld a celebration party by making a small campfire on the beach and inviting them all to enjoy a mug of tea brewed in a billycan on the fire.
Professor Flowers took a sip. “It’s delicious, Celia,” he remarked. His glasses started to steam up, so he took them off and put them in his top pocket.
“It’s how I brew it back home,” replied Professor Scissorson. She opened a can of biscuits and offered him one. Then, looking like she wanted to say something important, she took a deep breath.
“I want to thank you, Professor Flowers, for all…”
“Please, Celia,” interrupted Professor Flowers. “Call me Jethro.”
“Jethro!” chirped Popcorn.
The old man looked at the bird. “You stay out of it,” he teased.
“Right-o,” smiled Professor Scissorson nervously. “Well, Jethro, I just want to say that I am sorry I doubted you. I never in a million years thought you would help me and then when you showed up at the factory, I…I…well I just didn’t think you had it in you.”
“You underestimated me, didn’t you?” said Professor Flowers, chuckling. He dunked his biscuit into his tea.
“I did,” she admitted. “Actually I’m ashamed to say it now, but at one stage I thought it was you who had stolen the egg.”
Leni wondered how Professor Flowers would take this, and not surprisingly, he looked hurt. “Listen, Celia,” he replied. “We may have had our differences over the years but there’s no way I would steal…”
“I know that now, of course and I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s okay,” said Professor Flowesrs quietly. “I realize we haven’t always seen eye to eye.” He slurped his tea.
“Eye to eye!” squawked Popcorn loudly. He was sitting on Leni’s shoulder, and enjoying all this.
“I know, Jethro. I was feeling sorry for myself. I was jealous.”
“Well, that’s very big of you, Celia. Thank you,” said Professor Flowers.
“But,” she added, “I have been wondering – how did you all work out that Leni and I were at Shoober’s mansion?”
Professor Flowers wiped away some biscuit crumbs from his moustache. “I injected an egg with some dodo DNA – though I can’t remember exactly which one. I had six, you see.
“Anyway, I put them all in cubbyholes, hoping that the pigeons might still sit on them. And, I was delighted to find that they all did. Each of the eggs was adopted by a pigeon who duly sat on it.
“Now I just had to watch and wait. This morning, I spotted the cleaners’ buggy outside your hut, Celia, so I decided to clear off so I wouldn’t be in their way when they came to my place. I thought a quick outing to stretch my legs and do a spot of birdwatching would be just the ticket.”
The professor cleared his throat. “As I was walking down the road,” he continued, “I heard a strange sound. A sort of muffled shriek, coming from somewhere within the woods. At first I thought it might be a Mauritius bulbul. But then I wandered into the woods and who should I find but Marion and Mimi? Well, I couldn’t believe it.”
“Believe me, we were very grateful to see you,” said Mimi.
“We were tied up under a tree – those horrible men had bound and gagged us,” said Marion. “They stole your egg, Professor Scissorson, and then they returned to swap back the golf buggy for their faster getaway car.”
“They weren’t very smart though,” continued Mimi. “They couldn’t resist bragging about stealing the egg and blurted out who their boss was. And everyone knows where the Sugar King lives.”
“As soon as I realized those ghastly goons had your egg, Celia, I didn’t think twice,” said Professor Flowers. “It didn’t matter any more who was going to de-extinct the dodo first. I just knew we had to try and get it back.”
“The three of us jumped into the buggy and hit the road,” said Mimi. “To be honest we’d have been there sooner, but it was an uphill ride.”
“In a golf buggy,” Marion reminded them.
“We thought we’d never get there,” Mimi went on. “At one point we were overtaken by a wasp.”
“But you made it,” said Leni. “Just in time, too.”
“And it’s thanks to you all,” said Professor Scissorson, “that the dodo is here with us now.”
Suddenly they were interrupted by a hullabaloo coming from Flowers’s hut. It sounded like the pigeons were causing pandemonium inside.
“What’s all that cooing about?” wondered Leni.
Professor Flowers set down his mug of tea in the sand and stood up. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” he said.
Professor Flowers left the campfire gathering and went to see what all the fuss was about inside hut 187.
A few moments later, they heard him call out, “Come here, all of you! You’re not going to believe this!”
They all raced across the sand to his hut. Inside, the professor’s books, papers and lab equipment were scattered around in total chaos.
“Oh my word!” said Professor Scissorson, clasping her hand to her collarbone.
“I know!” cried Professor Flowers. He reached down and picked up a green book from the floor. “My logbook! I’ve found it!”
“I meant the mess,” said Professor Scissorson. “How can you work like this?”
Then Leni caught sight of something else. Something that explained what all the cooing was really about.
“Professor Flowers!” she whispered. “All of you, look!”
She pointed a quivering finger towards one of the pigeonholes on the top row of his loft. Everybody let out a gasp except Professor Flowers.
“What is it?” he asked, confused.
Leni had to remove his glasses from his top pocket and hand them to him.
Now he could see, along with the others, that sitting in the little cubbyhole, as bold as brass, was another little dodo squab.
“Two dodos in one day! Can it be possible?” cried Leni.
Professor Flowers peered through his specs at the miraculous bird, who was being tended to by its pigeon mum. When he realized what it was, he started crying with joy.
Like Professor Scissorson’s dodo, this chick’s eyes were closed. The mother pigeon was fussing over it and all the other pigeons were cooing in delight.
“Look, it’s getting milk from its mum,” sniffed the overjoyed professor.
“Milk?” said Mimi. “I didn’t know pigeons could even make milk.”
“Well it’s not milk exactly,” explained Leni. “Pigeons are one of the few bird species that produce a curd-like substance in part of their digestive tract, a bit like milk. Both parents produce it and they use it to feed their babies.”
“Well what do you know?” said an amazed Mimi.
The baby seemed to be thriving. So now there were two dodos. Two! The news was still sinking in when Leni felt a familiar tension in the air again. She noticed Professor Flowers cast a glance over at Professor Scissorson while wiping away his tears of happiness. But also that Professor Scissorson was struggling not to burst into tears of despair.
They were both thinking the same thing, Leni realized. Whose dodo was first?
“Honestly, Celia, I am not trying to steal your thunder…” began Professor Flowers.
Profesor Scissorson composed herself. “You haven’t stolen my thunder, Jethro,” she replied curtly. “Obviously my dodo was first. Yours has only just this moment hatched.”
“Well, we don’t know exactly when it hatched, do we?” said Professor Flowers quickly. “After all, we’ve been chasing around after your dodo, saving her from a wretched calamity and…”
“Professors, stop! Both of you!” interrupted Leni. “It doesn’t matter whose dodo hatched first,” she said. “What matters is that there are two healthy dodos.”
Just then the squab started fluffing out its downy grey feathers and flexing its legs, as if trying to strut. It was gaining confidence. “Well look at that,” remarked Professor Flowers. “He’s already ruling the roost.”
“Do you think it’s a male?” asked Leni.
“I’d say so,” replied Professor Flowers.
“So if one’s a boy and one’s a girl, well…” Leni let her thought hang in the air.
The professors both looked awkward for a moment, and then Professor Flowers acknowledged it. “You’re right, Leni. In evolutionary terms, a solo dodo is a no-go,” he said.
He switched his attention to Professor Scissorson now. “In order for the species to continue, maybe, you know, Celia…we could…let them meet? See if they get on?” he suggested. “But only if you say so.”
Leni knew that this plan would mean Professor Scissorson cooperating with Professor Flowers, but would she go for it?
“Come on, Celia, what do you say?” encouraged Professor Flowers. “Who knows, maybe there might even be more little dodos in the future.”
“Oh, all right,” said Professor Scissorson, extending her hand. “Congratulations on your dodo, Jethro.”
“Thank you, Celia, you won’t regret it,” said Professor Flowers, shaking on it.
“And, erm, keep up the good work. All right mate?”
“Indeed. Keep up the good work, old chum,” Professor Flowers smiled.
“Well, you know the old saying,” cheered a croaky voice behind them. “Birds of a feather, flock together.”
They all turned around to see the silhouette of a small figure standing in the doorway, framed by the Mauritian sunlight.
“MUPPA!” yelled Leni. “You’re back!” She raced over to her grandmother and gave her a huge hug.
“When I got your last letter I just knew I had to come home,” said the old lady with a wide smile. “I didn’t want to miss this moment for the world.”
The dodos grew bigger every day, and after a while the professors said that Leni could care for them. So she set up a special dodo suite in her tree house and with Muppa’s help, she looked after the two thriving chicks.
The professors could have packed up their field labs and gone their separate ways, but they hung around, saying they wanted to stay on the island to do more important research.
The Great Dodo Comeback Page 9