Roar to the Rescue!

by Ian Whybrow

  ‘But nobody even knows where he is,’ Jack pointed out. ‘Not even the police!’

  ‘Hmm, socks filled with mouldy oranges,’ murmured Siri. ‘That is most imaginative, Charlie, but …’

  ‘Yes, they would be excellent because they wouldn’t do any serious damage,’ she explained. ‘And best of all, the police could easily trace Red Van Man if he was sticky all over!’

  Harry was grateful to Charlie for wanting to help. ‘Perhaps we should go over the facts of the case?’ he said. ‘It may help us all.’

  ‘Good idea, Harry,’ replied Siri. ‘Tell us again what happened.’

  Chapter 5

  So Harry went over what had happened. Everyone knew and liked Mr Oakley. He was Harry’s nearest neighbour and he owned the farm just along the lane from where Harry and his family lived. When Harry’s dad had died, before Harry was two, Mr Oakley had made it his business to keep an eye on the family. It was hard to believe that anyone would take advantage of such a nice person.

  At the weekend, Mr Oakley had come over to Harry’s house while the whole family was out and started tidying up the hedges with his hedge-trimmer. While he was working, a red van pulled up and the driver got out and started unloading furniture on to Harry’s drive. Mr Oakley stopped his machine and asked what was going on.

  ‘The man said he was delivering some “antiques” for the lady of the house,’ explained Harry. ‘“They’re wanted urgent” were his exact words to Mr Oakley. “And I need folding money for them.”’ The words ‘folding money’ were new to Harry, which was why he remembered them. ‘Unless he was paid in cash, the man said, he had orders to take everything back to the shop.’

  Charlie, Jack and Siri stayed silent, listening carefully to Harry’s story.

  Mr Oakley hadn’t wanted Harry’s mum to be disappointed. Because that day was market-day and he had just sold some sheep, he happened to be carrying £300 in cash. So he paid the man and helped him put the furniture into the garage. There was a big dining table and a set of chairs.

  When Mr Oakley asked for a receipt, the man told him that ‘the lady’ already had one. But then he gave him a business card for a shop called Bygones in Stapleton, a village ten miles away. On the back of the card, the name ‘Barry’ was written in pencil.

  ‘Then he thanked Mr Oakley and drove off in the red van,’ concluded Harry.

  ‘And your mum said she’d never ordered any furniture?’ asked Siri.

  Harry nodded. ‘That’s right. And, as soon as Mum saw it, she could see that it was just a load of old woodwormy junk, not proper antiques at all.’

  ‘What a dirty trick!’ said Jack, disgusted, waving the lamp and making their shadows dance on the walls.

  ‘A crook, that’s what he is!’ added Charlie. ‘What did he look like?’

  ‘Middle-aged. Greasy white hair combed straight back. Work clothes. That’s it,’ said Harry.

  Siri stroked his chin. ‘Hmm. Did Mr Oakley take the number plate of the van?’ he asked.

  ‘No, he didn’t know anything was wrong until we got home,’ said Harry. ‘But he did phone the number on the card and ask for Barry.’

  ‘And what happened?’ asked Charlie.

  ‘A lady answered. She said her husband’s name was Barry, but he didn’t own a red van, they didn’t have an assistant and they didn’t sell furniture. Bygones only sells small stuff – plates and books, bits of silver, things like that,’ explained Harry. ‘She had no idea how the man had got hold of her husband’s card.’

  ‘… And when your nan heard that, she called the police,’ added Siri.

  ‘Yes. But the policeman who came to see us had bad news,’ said Harry. ‘He told us if the police ever catch up with Red Van Man, he can just say that he sold the furniture to Mr Oakley. There’s nobody else who can prove that things happened the way Mr Oakley says they did.’

  ‘So your mum’s lost three hundred pounds? Wow!’ breathed Jack. ‘I could buy a brilliant BMX for that.’

  ‘Mum’s OK. It’s Mr Oakley who got robbed,’ sighed Harry. ‘He won’t let Mum pay him back. He says it serves him right for being a silly old fool.’

  ‘That’s not true!’ said Charlie, feeling sorry for him.

  ‘We must find Red Van Man and force him to pay for his crime!’ added Siri.

  ‘Yeah, but how?’ asked Jack.

  ‘We make our own investigation and solve this mystery!’ said Siri, thumping his knee with his fist. ‘The place to begin is Bygones of Stapleton. I’m sure we’ll find a clue there. Let’s go, GOGOs!’ He stood up with excitement. Clunk. Then he sat down again, holding his head. He’d forgotten how low the ceiling was.

  Ouch.

  ‘I agree,’ said Harry. ‘Tomorrow is Saturday so let’s go then and see what we can find.’

  Chapter 6

  ‘No, Mr Oakley – don’t give him your money!’

  Harry sat up in bed and felt for the switch on his bedside lamp. Light! That’s what you need to get rid of a nightmare. He’d had a horrible dream where he was trying to save Mr Oakley from being robbed. But all that happened was that Red Van Man knocked him to the ground, then got in his car and drove away again. Harry could still hear the sound of him revving the engine.

  Where was that switch? He felt around, scattering a pile of books. He almost knocked over a glass of water. Something wasn’t quite right. This was definitely his room and he was sure he was awake. He was in his own bed – yet the shocking rip-roar of the van’s revving engine did not stop.

  VRRROOOOOM –VAAAH! VRRROOOOOM –VAAAH!

  The noise rattled the windows and made the air in the room seem to vibrate. At last he found the switch and flicked the lamp on.

  What Harry saw knocked the breath out of him. A thing – scaly and covered with flaky greenish skin – filled the room. In fact, part of it spilled out through the open door into the corridor! It lay there like some huge crocodile, but with something that looked like a flapping broken fence stuck on to its back. Slowly, back and forth, it was scraping the side of its long evil jaw against the wardrobe like a saw. The thing had its eye closed and was groaning. That was the sound Harry could hear, not the engine from his nightmare. Now and then its great jaws snapped together like a trap.

  As Harry ducked under his duvet, pulling it around his ears for protection, the thing turned its long snout towards him. He heard its breath hissing as its nostrils winked open and closed, sniffing him.

  Fssssss! Fssssss!

  The gust of air from its nostrils sent the curtains flapping. Harry risked taking a peek out from under the duvet. For a moment the creature glowed like molten rock and then cooled to the colour of oily mud.

  Harry gasped, his heart pounding as he expected to be gulped down like a meatball. Then he saw something that set his mind whirling. As the other side of the long flat head swung towards him, Harry saw that its skull was worn smooth. It was missing an eye!

  ‘Spinosaurus?’ whispered Harry. I must still be dreaming, he thought.

  ‘Ahhhhh!’ rumbled the monster in a deep voice. Its one good eye was half-closed and its clusters of ragged teeth formed into a kind of smile. ‘Sorry to scare you. That side of my face keeps itching.’ The beast turned his good eye on the boy again. ‘Nice to see you again, Harry. Three-Horned Face said you would be in touch eventually. What took you so long?’

  Harry’s mouth dropped open. ‘Three-Horned Face? You mean Triceratops?’

  ‘The very same,’ grinned the monster.

  ‘But I left all my dinosaurs in the bucket in the attic,’ Harry whispered. ‘I’ve grown out of them. I’ve finished with them.’

  ‘Oh no,’ said Spinosaurus. ‘Humans don’t finish with dinosaurs, not once they get to know us. If we like somebody, we back you up. We never go away. B.U.Ds stick around.’

  ‘Buds?’ asked Harry.

  ‘B-U-Ds. Back-Up Dinosaurs,’ said Spinosaurus.

  ‘But it’s been ages!’

  ‘Ah, you can lose touch wit
h us for a while; that’s normal. But B.U.Ds are always around. We’re patient. We go back millions of years, remember. We can wait. Then we come back at just the right moment.’

  ‘Are you the spinosaurus I picked up the other day?’ asked Harry, still amazed.

  ‘It took courage to try to protect me,’ said the creature. ‘Now all the dinosaurs are yours to command.’ His crocodile jaws formed into a sort-of smile.

  ‘All the dinosaurs?’ said Harry.

  ‘Yes, B.U.Ds are everywhere, really. We’re hidden, that’s all. We can fit into any space. The important thing is … you have to believe in us. That’s hard for a lot of people. But not for you, Harry.’

  ‘You mean you came to me because I couldn’t bring myself to throw you away?’ gasped Harry.

  ‘That’s it! Deep down, we matter to you. That’s why you cleaned me up and put me in a safe place after I had been attacked.’ With a hiss, Spinosaurus ran the back of a clawed front paw over his melted face. ‘You don’t believe in us in the old way, of course. That’s because we’re not quite the same as we were when you were younger. These days we’re a lot scarier, I think you’ll agree.’

  In a flash, he gave a terrifying grunt, pulled himself up on his mighty hind legs, lit up for a moment like a giant neon sign and snapped his bony jaws. He hooked his long scaly snout under the duvet and tossed it into the air! Then he smiled. ‘We’ve grown up too, you see?’

  ‘D-do you mean you’ve become full-size?’ stammered Harry, who was now sitting on a bare mattress. He wondered what Rocco and his friends would think if he brought a real dinosaur to school.

  ‘Sometimes we’re full-size, yes,’ the creature replied, stretching out again and making himself less scary. ‘As a matter of fact, I’m only half-size at the moment. But to make things easy for you, from now on, if you need to call on one of us for back-up – just check on your key-ring. But only for problems you really can’t tackle on your own. Understand?’

  Suddenly there were footsteps in the hallway. Mum rushed into the room in her nightie and snapped the main bedroom light on.

  Chapter 7

  ‘Harry!’ Mum gasped, looking from Harry sitting up in bed to the duvet on the floor. ‘What’s the matter? Did you have a nightmare?’

  She felt his forehead. ‘You’re dreadfully hot. Wait, I’ll get an aspirin.’

  ‘No, it’s OK, Mum. I fell out of bed, that’s all.’ Harry was relieved – and amazed – to see that Spinosaurus had completely disappeared.

  Mum carried on fussing anyway. She tucked Harry under the duvet as if he was still a little boy. Then she clicked off the lights before she closed the door.

  Harry counted to a hundred before he reached out and turned on his bedside lamp. There was no sign of the dinosaur.

  With a creak, the wardrobe door opened by itself. Harry pulled the duvet over his ears again. A snout with winking nostrils appeared.

  Fssssss.

  Then, like a telescope slowly clicking out, section by section, Spinosaurus expanded himself. He sat up on his back legs. This time, even fully formed, he was no bigger than a large dog. For the first time, Harry noticed the tip of his tail. It had a hole clean through it.

  ‘As I was saying,’ rumbled the beast, moving its snapping snout closer, ‘we fit into any space and we’re scarier than we were … A bit more … real, you might say. Fssssss! But don’t worry. We are also invisible to other people. We are solid, but we leave no footprints. But if you wish, you can command us to show ourselves.’ He gave a sudden hop and jumped in front of Harry’s full-length mirror. There was no reflection.

  Harry suddenly felt very tired. ‘So you came because …’

  ‘You got in touch. You stroked me nose-to-tail. If you want a B.U.D. pocket-size and plasticated, you must run your hand along it the other way. Remember that.’

  ‘P-pocket-size? Plasticated?’ stammered Harry.

  ‘Some creatures hibernate,’ explained Spinosaurus. ‘Special dinosaurs like us prefer to plasticate.’

  Harry covered his mouth to stifle a yawn. His eyes were feeling heavy. ‘So the others are out there, waiting to back me up if I need them? Triceratops, Anchisaurus … all of them?’ He yawned again. ‘I think I need to sleep. Can we talk again in the morning?’

  ‘Certainly. As you wish. We are at your service.’

  ‘Where are the others now, exactly?’ asked Harry. ‘In the attic?’

  ‘Let’s just say they’re waiting for you to get in touch …’ said the dinosaur. ‘They can sense when you have a problem. They will decide which of them can best help. If you need them, you know the drill: check on your key-ring. Now put your hand out.’

  Harry let his arm hang over the side of the bed. It crossed his mind that even a small spinosaurus could snap it off at the elbow. Instead it rubbed against him like a cat. The skin was as rough as tree-bark, not at all slimy, and surprisingly warm. Slowly the creature moved himself backwards against Harry’s trailing fingers, tail-to-nose.

  Then suddenly it was gone.

  ‘Where are you?’ whispered Harry.

  He sat up urgently and grabbed his jeans that were hanging over the back of his chair. He needed to check something. If you want us pocket-size …

  When he reached into the right front pocket, his fingers found his keys. There was something new on his key-ring. It was a collection of small, thin plastic cards. When he held them up to the light, they shone all colours, like patches of oil. He flipped through them, looking for pictures or writing, but they were blank. Without warning, one of them started to feel warm. It began to glow. Suddenly Harry could make out a shape forming on it. There! The spinosaurus! It was on the card, swinging by its tail from his key-ring! Harry tipped the card away from him to get a better look. The spinosaurus turned his snout towards the boy and his good eye winked at him. Harry placed his thumb on the glowing body of the creature.

  ‘So if I need you, I just run my thumb along your body, nose-to-tail,’ he muttered sleepily. The eye winked again.

  Harry let himself fall backwards and was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. A split second before things went black, two words formed in his mind:

  B.U.D.

  Plasticated.

  Chapter 8

  By ten o’clock the following morning, the GOGOs were on their mission. Harry still couldn’t believe what had happened in the middle of the night, but he reached into his pocket and checked his key-ring for the little collection of cards. Good. They were there.

  It was a fabulous sunny day. The sky was blue, birds sang their heads off – and nobody noticed. Harry and his friends were all too busy pedalling fast along the country lanes towards Stapleton. (All except Charlie, who preferred to rumble along on her trusty dragon-board. When she needed a tow, Jack was happy to let her hang on to the back of his BMX.) Siri was riding an old-fashioned bike with the world’s clankiest mudguards.

  ‘So it worked,’ laughed Harry. ‘You got your bike out of jail! What did you say to your parents?’

  ‘Simple,’ puffed Siri. ‘I reminded them that I had to exercise to stay healthy.’

  ‘Yeah, right!’ said Charlie. ‘So where are you supposed to be today? Did you tell them a naughty lie?’

  ‘Not exactly,’ replied Siri, looking a bit ashamed. ‘I told them the truth. I am helping Mr Oakley.’

  ‘Me too!’ Jack, Charlie and Harry laughed together.

  They pushed on, encouraging one another on the steep hills and wahoo-ing as they went down the other side. There was no traffic to speak of. In an hour they saw no more than six cars and a tractor.

  They came to a cattle grid and everyone slowed down.

  ‘Time for lunch!’ said Siri, braking hard and getting off his bike. ‘I trust you have all brought lashings of ginger beer!’

  ‘Who do you think we are, the Famous Four or something?’ yelled Harry, with a hoot of laughter. He raised a cloud of dust with a wheelie. ‘We’re the GOGOs! We all hate ginger beer.’

>   ‘Oh dear,’ said Siri. ‘Then I suppose you will also hate my mother’s amazing samosas and onion bhajis. I will have to eat all twenty of them myself!’

  ‘Whoa! Yes, please!’ squealed Charlie. ‘They’re delicious. Swap you a cheese and pickle sandwich for two of each!’

  While the others bumped their wheels over the metal poles of the cattle grid, Jack could not resist the chance to test the stunt pegs on his bike.

  ‘Watch this!’ he called as his friends got their picnic ready on the grass.

  Alongside the grid a low iron railing was fixed. Jack checked his helmet was strapped on tight. Then he rode twenty metres back the way they’d come, turned and pedalled fast to get up plenty of speed. With his blond hair flying, he flipped up both wheels. He performed an ear-splitting grind along the rail and cleared the cattle grid with barely a couple of centimetres to spare.

  Wow! His friends were amazed. ‘I’m glad my parents aren’t here to see you do that,’ said Siri.

  As Jack got high-fives all round, Charlie gave him a double helping of chocolate brownies.

  Ten minutes later they were all off again and racing. They didn’t pause for breath until they reached the centre of Stapleton. It wasn’t exactly busy: there was just the village store and the shop next to it – Bygones. The four children parked their bikes and skateboard outside. It was time for the investigation to begin.

  Chapter 9

  An old-fashioned bell jingled as the children piled through the door of Bygones and gazed at the shelves loaded with secondhand books, china, glass, jewellery and all sorts of other treasures. Every inch of the walls was covered with old paintings.