by Paul Cooper
Looking like the world’s worst window cleaner, Pete tapped on the thickened glass and shouted, ‘Stop the plane!’
Inside the cockpit, Oswald did not slow the plane down – he just leaned to one side so he could see past the pig on his windscreen. The plane was still picking up speed for take-off. Pete’s eyes grew wide as he began to slide down off the window.
This wasn’t good …
Meanwhile Curly had caught up with Barney, the runaway bear cub.
‘What did you think you were doing?’ the trainee PiP demanded. ‘Didn’t I tell you to stay with me?’
The little bear just shrugged. ‘Dunno.’
‘Here,’ said Curly with a sigh. He held out the battered old teddy bear. ‘You dropped this again.’
Barney looked at the stuffed toy with disgust. ‘I don’t WANT that smelly old toy!’ he cried. ‘Big Momma got it for me from a charity shop! I keep throwing it away and you keep on bringing it back to me. I want a computer game, not a silly old stuffed toy!’
Curly wasn’t sure what to say to that. Luckily he didn’t have to say anything because:
1) The sound of the small jet approaching along the runway made conversation difficult.
2) A strange figure in a business suit crashed through the beehives near them, screaming at the top of his lungs. It was Mr Sweetie, and he was screaming because a gigantic cloud of bees was chasing him.
Sweetie looked up to see his own plane approaching down the runway. As he did this, he stumbled and went sprawling on to the ground, right in front of Curly and Barney.
The cloud of bees caught up with him immediately, but they did not stop at Sweetie. They had seen something even better; the bees zoomed towards the on-coming jet.
It was clear what they were aiming for – Pete. Thousands of bees descended on the honey-drenched pig, swarming all over the plane’s honey-smeared windscreen, too, and covering every centimetre of the glass.
Now Oswald was unable to see anything at all. The plane swerved blindly off the runway. It trundled across the rough terrain, smashing wooden hives out of the way, before coming to a stop right in front of Curly, the bear cub and Sweetie. Pete fell to the ground, still covered from head to trotter in bees.
‘Are you OK?’ cried Curly.
‘I’m fine,’ answered Pete above the sound of buzzing. ‘They’re not stinging me at all. They must think I’m the King Bee!’
Sweetie was looking at the bee-covered pig as if his own worst nightmare had come to life. He held out his paws to Curly.
‘I give up,’ he cried. ‘Just keep that giant bee thing away from me!’
While the PiPs were arresting Sweetie, none of them noticed the plane door open and Oswald stagger out. Quickly assessing the situation, the koala began to scamper away.
Then he spotted something and stopped.
He rubbed his red-rimmed eyes and edged towards Barney.
‘Can … can I see that teddy bear?’ he asked in a trembling voice.
‘You can have it,’ said Barney, throwing the battered old bear to the scientist.
Oswald caught it in both paws and stared in red-eyed disbelief. In his mind stirred a childhood memory of a young koala mislaying his favourite stuffed toy; of a young cub unable to get to sleep at bedtime because he couldn’t stop thinking and thinking about that toy.
‘Snooky-Ookums, after all these years, is it really you?’ His voice choked with emotion. ‘I thought I’d lost you forever.’
Oswald hugged the teddy to his lab coat. Then, ignoring the stares of the pigs and the furious buzzing of the bees and the roar of the motorbikes, he curled up on the ground and fell fast asleep for the first time in years.
EPILOGUE
It was all over. The bikers had rounded up all of the Sweetie Foods workers. One of the Gruesome Grizzlies had gone to the city and woken up the main population of Ursalona. The Bear Island police had eventually arrived, yawning, and bundled Sweetie and the sleeping Oswald into Panda cars.
The PiPs began to say their farewells. Curly was relieved to hand young Barney back to his parents, who had been brought out to Bear Bottom Farm by the police. Reluctantly the bees had flown away from Pete back to their hives. The PiPs went to say their goodbyes to Big Momma and the Gruesome Grizzlies.
‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ Curly said. ‘If Barney didn’t make the emergency call, then who did?’
Babe, still looking sleepy because he’d only recently woken up, leaned towards Big Momma and whispered something.
‘Babe’s a little shy,’ said Big Momma, ‘but he wants me to tell you that he made the call.’
The immense bear in the Viking helmet nodded and gave a sweet little smile.
Big Momma was clapping Tammy on the back. ‘Anyway, that was a great motorbike jump,’ the leader of the biker gang said. ‘You should come back to Bear Island, Tammy. We could get lunch together.’
Tammy thought this over. ‘To be honest, all this excitement has given me a bit of an appetite right now. How about we grab a pizza or two before I fly back?’
And so, only a couple of hours after their legendary eating contest, the two headed off to get some grub.
That evening there were no emergency calls and so, for once, the Pigs in Planes had a quiet evening in back on Snout Island.
Curly wanted to show Tammy his favourite book from when he was little, 101 Songs and Rhymes for Little Piglets. In return she taught him the secret bikers’ oath and special handshake, in case he ever ran into the Hogs on Hogs.
Pete bumped into Lola in the corridor outside the Common Room.
‘Where’s Peregrine?’ he asked.
‘In there with Brian. Bri’s just telling him about communication in social insects.’ Lola rolled her eyes.
The captain went in and found the medic and the Wing Commander in the comfy chairs in front of the fire. Brian was relaxing in his beige cardigan and telling Peregrine all about the bees.
‘It’s really quite interesting, actually, how they can give precise information just by dancing.’ Brian glanced at the Wing Commander. ‘Isn’t that interesting, Peregrine? … Peregrine?’
The Wing Commander’s eyes were open, but his head lolled forward and a rumbling snore escaped from him. Peregrine was asleep.
‘My explanation of the life cycle of social insects wasn’t so boring, was it?’ asked Brian anxiously.
‘Course not, Bri,’ Pete said. ‘It’s just that … Lola gave Peregrine a spoonful of the proper New Formula honey in his warm milk, that’s all.’
The captain glanced at the door where Lola was shaking her head to indicate that she had done no such thing, but Pete figured that the medic didn’t need to know this.
The two pigs looked into the fire for a few minutes. Although neither of them spoke, they each knew what the other was thinking about. At last, Brian said,
‘So, Peter … can you remember the nightmare you had?’
‘Crikey, yes!’ said Pete. ‘It was horrible!’ He paused, looking at his friend’s eager little face in the glow of the firelight. How could he say that his nightmare had involved becoming a pig very much like Brian? ‘I … I was being chased by these monsters who wanted to nick my shades. What about you, Bri? What did you dream about?’
Brian bit his lip. How could he say that his nightmare had involved becoming a cool pig not completely unlike Pete?
‘Er, yes, well … I dreamed I was at the supermarket wearing nothing but a tiny pair of pants. It was terrible.’
‘Doesn’t sound too bad to me,’ said Pete with a shrug. ‘Takes all sorts, I guess.’
He clapped his friend on one shoulder and smiled. ‘Anyway, Bri, I’d love to hear you explain some more about bee communication, or whatever. That would be … quite interesting, actually.’
‘OK, Pete, but first …’ Brian pointed a trotter at Lola who was coming in with a selection of hats in her arms. ‘Let’s just see Lola balance that tiny cowboy hat on Peregrine’s head!’
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2. Tammy’s word for a big old motorbike.
5. The Gruesome ________ .
7. What Dr Oswald needed to help him sleep.
8. Bear ________ Farm.
9. What bears do in winter.
11. The name of the bear cub who doesn’t go to sleep.
1. Dr Oswald is one of these.
3. The capital of Bear Island.
4. In their nightmares Pete and Brian compete in Ultimate ____ Challenge.
6. The evil bear.
9. This food made all the bears fall asleep.
10. The challenge between Tammy and Big Mamma.
* Click here for the answers.
Unscramble these words:
1. HMCEINCA
2. PEERBEKEE
3. ANSILD
4. WSOADL
5. IOBTOKERM
6. LSAEPE
7. NASSLSSEGU
8. RUBON
9. ARGACIDN
10. MYTMA
* Click here for the answers.
Find the words opposite hidden in this grid. (Look carefully – some may be backwards or diagonal!)
* Click here for the answers.
1. MECHANIC
2. BEEKEEPER
3. ISLAND
4. OSWALD
5. MOTORBIKE
6. ASLEEP
7. SUNGLASSES
8. BRUNO
9. CARDIGAN
10. TAMMY