Happy Holiday, Hammy the Wonder Hamster!

by Poppy Harris

  There was no escape. With his glasses misting up, Tim meekly followed Grandie downstairs.

  ‘Where are you staying, Tim?’ asked Nan as she poured the tea.

  ‘I have a room at the Hamster and Spinacher,’ said Tim, who was still thinking about his microspeck. ‘I mean, the Sandwich and Hammocker …’

  ‘Oh, you mean the Hammock and Spinnaker,’ she corrected him. ‘When you’ve warmed up and your clothes are dry, we’ll take you back there. Don’t you have any shoes?’

  Tim’s sandals had come off while he was in the water, and Grandie’s shoes wouldn’t fit him. Nan offered to phone the Hammock and Spinnaker and ask to have his shoes brought round, but Tim said that he had caused enough trouble already and wouldn’t hear of it. It was really that he didn’t want anyone calling the Hammock and Spinnaker asking for ‘Dr Thompson’s’ shoes, because he had booked the room under his real name, Dr Taverner, and Lizzie the landlady wouldn’t know anything about a Dr Thompson.

  ‘I’ll go home in bare feet,’ he said hastily. ‘I don’t mind, really.’

  ‘Well, you can get those feet warm by our fire first,’ said Nan firmly. ‘It scares me to think what might have happened to you. You’ve had a very lucky escape. I don’t know what might have happened if our Bethany and Sam hadn’t been there.’

  ‘Yes, Bethany,’ he replied eagerly, ‘I really need to thank her very much. Where is she?’

  ‘She’s out,’ said Nan. ‘I expect she’ll be home soon.’

  Good, thought Tim, who presumed Nan meant Bethany had come back from the beach and gone out again. I can steal the hamster while she’s out of the way. Then he had what seemed to him like a very good idea. ‘Perhaps I could write her a thank you note!’ he said. ‘I could leave it in her room for her.’

  He imagined himself writing the note and leaving it in Bethany’s room. While he was in there, he would find the hamster cage – it was bound to be there somewhere – grab the animal, and get it out of the house without anyone knowing. That bit might be difficult. If he could go back wearing Grandie’s dressing gown, he could put the hamster in the pocket. His own clothes might by dry by then, and he wasn’t sure he could fit a hamster into the pocket of his shorts or hide it under his T-shirt. Perhaps if he shivered or coughed, they would lend him the dressing gown until he got his own clothes back. Yes, that was the best way. He shivered and coughed convincingly.

  ‘A thank you note!’ said Nan. ‘What a nice idea! I’ll bring you some paper and a pen.’ When Tim had started to write, she added, ‘But there’s no need to take it upstairs. You’re still shivery, and now you’ve got a cough. We’ll just leave your note here on the mantelpiece and Bethany will see it as soon as she gets home. Oh, here’s our Sam! Sam, come and keep Tim company! You can tell him all about your holiday. And your rabbit. And tell Tim about all those computer games you play, because I’m sure he’ll understand them far better than I do.’

  Tim sighed deeply but managed to turn it into a yawn. He closed his eyes and wondered if he’d ever get his hands on that hamster. Sam sat down on the floor beside him.

  ‘Hi!’ he said. ‘Which one shall I talk about first?’

  *

  Bethany hurried home, Hamilton safe in the bag over her shoulder next to a few shells and pebbles and a handful of sand. She kept her hand over him, partly to keep him warm, but also just so that she could feel he was safe. After all her worry about him, it was so precious to feel the warm rise and fall of his breathing and the little pattering beat of his heart. Nan had left the back door unlocked for her, and, not wanting to disturb Hamilton, she left her sandals outside and slipped into the house as quietly as possible.

  ‘There you are!’ said Nan, who was taking something made of lycra from the tumble dryer. ‘Dr Thompson’s in the sitting room. He wanted to say thank you.’

  Bethany ran upstairs first, placed Hamilton gently in his nest box and covered him up to keep him warm, then went to the sitting room to meet Dr Thompson. But looking round the door, she saw Sam seated on the floor talking to Tim, who was fast asleep next to the fire with his mouth open. It would be a shame to wake him, so she left without a sound.

  Sam had been very helpful, keeping Tim company. He had chatted about cricket, rock pools, rabbits and reaching Level Five on Fantasy Koala Quest, while Tim had leant back in his chair, closed his eyes and pretended to listen. Suddenly he felt very tired. Soon he was dreaming of swimming round and round a rock pool with a rabbit, while a koala with a cricket bat paddled his canoe out to sea. He was still dreaming when Nan came in.

  ‘Bless him,’ she said softly. ‘All that excitement and then a comfy chair near the fire, of course he’s fallen asleep. It seems a real pity to disturb him, but I think he should be in his bed at the Hammock and Spinnaker. His clothes are dry now, so I’ll take him back there.’ She shook Tim gently by the shoulder. ‘Dr Thompson!’

  Tim woke up with a shout, because in his dream the rabbit was trying to drown him. Bethany wandered upstairs to check that Hamilton hadn’t been scared by the noise. She was still there when Tim, with bare feet and wearing his canoeing kit under Grandie’s dressing gown, was bundled into Nan and Grandie’s car and driven back to the Hammock and Spinnaker.

  ‘Our Bethany will be sad to have missed you,’ said Nan, ‘but I’ll make sure she gets your note.’

  ‘Oh, yes, and please say thank you from me,’ said Tim, remembering at last that Bethany had, after all, saved his life while he was trying to steal her hamster. He ought to try to see her. There was still tomorrow.

  Back at the Hammock and Spinnaker, he relived the scene at the bay – the way he had lost control of the canoe, how it had tipped one way, and then tipped the other way, and then finally tipped him into the freezing sea. He saw again the child throwing the lifebelt …

  There had definitely been something beside her – something hamster-like, he was sure of it. It wasn’t just the freezing cold water that was making him imagine things, was it?

  Lizzie the landlady brought him a cup of tea. ‘Are you feeling better now?’ she asked. ‘Everybody’s heard about your little adventure today. Didn’t you have a life-jacket? Now drink that while it’s hot. That’s a nice dressing gown you’ve got on.’

  Tim smiled to himself. It was Bethany’s grandfather’s. That meant he’d have to take it back to the house tomorrow. One more chance.

  The next morning was bright and sunny, and Bethany woke up looking forward to one last visit to the beach. Hamilton was already standing on the windowsill, with his paws on the glass and his nose twitching. He turned towards her, his eyes shining, and pointed hopefully towards the sandy beach.

  ‘That’s what I want to do, too,’ she said. ‘It’s our last morning. Grandie’s taking us home later today, but I don’t suppose he’ll want to go just yet.’

  Hamilton ran to the door, squeezed underneath it and scurried along the landing to stand at the door of Nan and Grandie’s room. He didn’t even need to go in to hear what sounded like a motorbike engine but which was only Grandie snoring. How could anyone sleep through that? He shook his head in disapproval, slipped under the door and, out of kindness to Nan, tickled Grandie under the chin (taking good care not to get too close to that snorting mouth). As he had hoped, the tickle made Grandie’s mouth close (Hamilton got even further out of the way when that was happening), and the snoring stopped. Hamilton ran back to Bethany and put his head to one side on his paws to show that Nan and Grandie were asleep.

  ‘If they’re not even up yet, there’s plenty of time,’ said Bethany, and she jumped out of bed to get dressed. ‘Hamilton, don’t you dare go one inch out of my sight. I’ve had quite enough scares for one holiday.’

  This time, Bethany remembered her cardigan, and Hamilton refused to go in her shoulder bag as he preferred to sit in her pocket, from where he could look out. Down on the beach there was time for one more castle, with a bridge, battlements and flags at every corner, and they wrote, ‘GOODBYE, KETTLE BAY�
�� in big letters in the sand. When an aeroplane roared overhead, Hamilton gazed up until he fell over backwards, and he lay looking at the sky and wondering why all his favourite things were happening at once. He tried writing his own name by running through the sand to make furrows and leaping from one letter to another to keep them from joining together. It wasn’t very clear as the sand kept trickling back into the letters as soon as they were made, but he was pleased with it.

  ‘I don’t want to go home,’ sighed Bethany. ‘I love it here. I wish we could stay.’

  Hamilton tipped up her bag so that her phone fell out (which, for hamster paws, was a lot easier than dragging the phone out). He opened the phone book, found her home number and pointed to it.

  ‘You want me to phone Mum and Dad?’ she said, puzzled. Hamilton shook his head, put his paws on where his hips should be and wrinkled up his nose at her.

  ‘Oh, you mean I’ll see Mum and Dad soon,’ she said. ‘Yes, I suppose that’ll be nice.’ He took the phone back and showed her another name in the phone book.

  ‘Chloe,’ she read. ‘Yes, I’ve missed Chloe. I’ll see how Toffee’s doing, and I’ve collected some shells for her. It’ll be fun to give them to her.’

  U’LL HAVE YR OWN ROOM AGAIN, he texted. After a little thought, he added, CAN WE COME HERE AGAIN?

  ‘Oh, Hamilton, of course we can! We’ll be back soon!’ she said, and picked him up, but he wriggled to be down again. He was very fond of Bethany, but she would always be there. The beach was a treat to be enjoyed while he could. By the time he’d explored the sandcastle, run round the moat in circles and chewed the drawbridge into shreds, more people were coming to the beach, some with dogs to walk, and Bethany decided it was time to take Hamilton home.

  Later that morning, Tim Taverner called at Nan and Grandie’s house with Grandie’s dressing gown, a bunch of flowers and a gift-wrapped box of chocolates. He looked a lot smarter and more impressive than he had the day before.

  ‘Hello again!’ he said as Nan opened the door. ‘I didn’t get to say thank you to Bethany properly yesterday, so I’ve brought her some flowers and a present.’

  ‘How lovely!’ said Nan. ‘But I’m afraid you’ve just missed her. What a shame!’

  ‘Oh!’ gasped Tim. ‘Oh! Yes, that is a shame!’

  He looked so disappointed that Nan felt very sorry for him. ‘Martin just took Bethany and Sam home,’ she said, and in the hope of making him feel better, added, ‘– they didn’t want to go. They’d had a lovely time.’

  Tim couldn’t quite believe it. Why was that hamster always one step ahead of him?

  ‘Oh … I … I … ,’ he stammered, ‘I so wanted to meet her.’

  ‘If you’d been twenty minutes earlier, you’d have caught her,’ she said, which made it worse for poor Tim. ‘Off they went with their collections of shells – and Bethany’s hamster. She insisted on bringing it!’

  ‘Hamster,’ repeated Tim weakly.

  ‘Yes, she won’t be parted from it,’ said Nan. ‘I’m so sorry you missed her, but I’ll see her again soon. I’ll take her the present.’

  ‘The flowers won’t last,’ he said lamely, then added, ‘so perhaps you’d like them, to say thank you for looking after me.’

  ‘Oh, you sweetie!’ she said, and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Would you like to come in for a coffee?’

  But Tim didn’t want to stay at Kettle Bay a moment longer.

  Back at home, Bethany put Hamilton’s cage back in its place and opened the door. Hamilton woke up, let himself out and jumped on to the bed.

  Now that she was home, Bethany found that it felt good to be there, with her own bed and her own things around her. Hamilton, who was bouncing on her bed, seemed to be glad too. He suddenly stopped bouncing, tapped her hand and put his paws over his eyes.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

  He shook his head, pointed at her and did it again.

  ‘Oh, you want me to hide my eyes?’ she said. ‘OK.’

  She covered her face and listened. There was a bit of scuffling and clattering from the cage, then the click of keys on her phone and a gentle scratch on her arm to tell her she could look. Laid out in a row was her phone with the message PRESENT 4 U, their special pebble and a very battered lolly-stick flag with a picture of a hamster.

  ‘Hamilton, what perfect presents!’ she cried. ‘And I’ve brought back a present for you, too.’

  She placed a paper bag on the floor, and Hamilton climbed down to it and wriggled himself inside. First, he pulled out a bit of driftwood and chewed it. Oh, that is good! It tasted of the seaside, and the texture was perfect, too.

  ‘There’s something else in there,’ said Bethany. Hamilton looked again – and this time he hurled himself into the bag, ripping it open in his enthusiasm as he rolled over and over in the most wonderful present – lovely, light, soft, swishy, swirly SAND!