by Duncan Ball
‘What’s going on?’ the director yelled. ‘Find out what’s wrong with that girl and bring her back. She’s probably in her trailer! Honestly, stars,’ he added, shaking his head, ‘why do they have to be so difficult?’
‘She’s not in her trailer!’ someone yelled.
‘Well find her! People don’t just disappear into thin air!’ the director shouted back. ‘Okay, cut the lights, we’re wasting electricity.’
‘What do you think happened?’ Janey asked when she joined Emily.
‘I don’t know,’ Emily said. ‘One minute everything was going perfectly and the next minute she ran away.’
‘Maybe she got dirt in her eye,’ Janey said. ‘There were plants and dirt flying everywhere. Or maybe she was about to throw up. Acting can be very scary. It can make you sick.’
Emily thought for a minute.
‘I don’t know what happened,’ Emily said, ‘but I’m going to try and find out. I’ll be back in a minute.’
Emily went out the side door and headed towards the star’s trailer. Instead of going in she slipped around behind it and climbed the back fence. Then she ran along a path through the woods. Soon she heard the soft sound of someone crying. She made her way through the bushes and around a big rock. There was Melody Wu, her head in her arms, sobbing.
‘Melody?’ Emily said. ‘Are you okay?’
Melody looked up, startled, and quickly covered her face with her hands. ‘Get away from me!’ she shouted. ‘Leave me alone!’
‘Are you sure I can’t help you?’
‘Yes, I’m sure! Just go away!’
‘Okay, I’m going,’ Emily said.
‘Wait a minute,’ Melody said, sounding less angry. ‘Can I use your phone?’
‘My phone? I don’t have one. Sorry.’
‘You don’t have a phone? What kind of person doesn’t have a phone?’
‘A person like me,’ Emily said, ‘and you.’
‘Of course I have a phone! I’ve got four of them! I don’t have one with me because I’m acting in a movie! Are you stupid?’
‘You don’t have to be rude,’ Emily said.
‘I’m sorry,’ Melody said. ‘Don’t go. I promise I won’t be rude.’
Emily thought about it. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘I’ll stay.’
Melody still had her hands covering her face but tears were flowing down through her fingers. ‘But could you turn your back?’ the girl asked. ‘Please?’
Emily sighed. ‘Yes, all right,’ she said, turning her back to Melody. ‘Now how can I help you?’
‘I have to get out of here before they find me,’ Melody said, taking her hands away from her face. ‘I have to get to a taxi before one of those photographers takes my picture. I just have to get away from here.’
‘You’re not going back to the movie set?’
‘No.’
‘Is it because of your face?’ Emily asked.
‘Hey! I told you not to look!’
‘No, you didn’t,’ Emily said. ‘You told me to turn my back, and I did. But you didn’t say I couldn’t look at you with this,’ she added, wiggling her eyefinger at Melody behind her back.
Emily’s eyefinger had seen the star’s face and it was all red and puffy, and covered in little bumps.
‘What is that thing on your finger?!’ Melody screamed. ‘It’s horrible! Get it away from me!’
‘That thing is part of me,’ Emily said. ‘I have an eye on the end of my finger. I’ve had it all my life.’
‘You have an eye on your finger?’ the star said. ‘You’re an alien! A real alien. I can’t believe it. An eye on a finger. It’s got to be fake.’
‘Well, it’s not and it works the same as my other eyes. Melody, you’re allergic to plants, aren’t you?’
Melody looked at her in surprise. ‘Who told you that?’
‘Nobody told me anything. Some flowers give my mum a rash. All she has to do is sniff them and her skin turns all red like yours. But with her it goes away in a few hours.’
‘The same with me,’ Melody said. ‘But I don’t know which flowers I’m allergic to. I’m allergic to lots and lots of things.’
‘So if you knew that some flowers were a problem, why did you say you’d be in a film called The Greenhouse?’
‘Because I didn’t know it was about a greenhouse. I thought it was about a green house. Like a house that was green. My agent said it was a good film for me. He doesn’t know about my allergies. By the way, what’s your name?’
‘Emily. Emily Eyefinger.’
‘Eyefinger? That’s a made-up name, right?’
‘No, it’s not. It’s my real name,’ Emily said. ‘Now why don’t you go back to the movie? They can put some make-up on you. Or maybe they can get rid of all the flowers and just have plants without flowers.’
‘Emily, you really don’t understand. I can’t go back. This isn’t about the movie. It’s about me, Melody Wu, Perfect Miss. I have millions of fans. There’s a magazine about me and a website and everything. It’s all about being perfect. Don’t you see – I have to be perfect! I can’t get all red and horrible every time there are flowers.’
‘But you’re not perfect.’
‘I know that but my fans don’t.’
‘Well, that’s silly,’ Emily said. ‘Look at me, I have an eye on the end of my finger.’
‘But that’s a good thing, isn’t it?’
‘Sometimes it is and sometimes it’s not,’ Emily said. ‘I have to be careful not to get dirt in it or soap in it when I wash my hands. I will never be able to play the piano or the violin or do lots of other things. Sometimes that makes me sad and I just want to be like other kids. Then I think, no, I don’t want to be them. I’m me and I want to be me.’
Melody thought about this for a minute. ‘I can see you’ve thought about this a lot,’ she said.
‘Yes, I have,’ Emily said. ‘Now why don’t you come with me to my house? You can use the telephone and talk to the director. I’m sure everything will be okay.’
‘That’s very kind of you, Emily. But can you do me one other gigantic favour? Please don’t tell anyone about this.’
‘Of course.’
‘What a fantastic film!’ Janey said as they left the movie theatre. ‘It seems like ages since we made it. Didn’t you love it, Emily?’
‘Yes, it was really good,’ Emily said, ‘and so exciting even though I knew what was going to happen in the end. And I thought you were wonderful!’
‘Thanks, Em. I wasn’t bad, was I? And Melody was great too. She has all these allergies to everything and she’s still a big movie star. Did you know they had to redo that last scene using plastic flowers because of her allergies?’
‘No, I didn’t know that.’
‘In her next movie she wants to play a girl with an eye in the back of her head,’ Janey said. ‘I read about it in Perfect Miss Magazine. Hey, why not on the end of her finger, Em? They could call it Perfect Miss Eyefinger. Hey, why are you smiling?’
‘It’s funny,’ Emily said.
And with this Emily smiled another big secret smile.
3.
Emily the Elephant Girl
‘Hello, I’m Mr Macaw-ber. What’s your name?’
‘My name is Emily.’
‘Hello, I’m Mr Macaw-ber. What’s your name? Squawk.’
‘I already told you. My name is Emily, Emily Eyefinger.’
Emily and her parents were visiting the Wilderness Wildlife Park. Mrs Eyefinger’s sister, Della, was the new director of the park and the Eyefingers had come to see where she worked.
The wildlife park wasn’t really a zoo. Here the animals lived in big enclosures. Some of the animals – like the elephants and giraffes and wild deer – were all in together, just as they would be in the wild.
Emily and her parents had hired bicycles and were riding around the paths in the park.
‘I love it here,’ Emily said to her parents. ‘It’s like being in the mi
ddle of Africa with wild animals all around us.’
‘It’s a good thing there are fences or the lions might have us for breakfast,’ Mr Eyefinger said.
Since their arrival at the park Mr Macawber, a big parrot, wanted to be Emily’s friend. Mr Macawber was free to fly around and he followed Emily everywhere and sometimes rode on the handlebars of her bicycle.
‘I’m Mr Macaw-ber. What’s your name? Squawk.’
‘Ouch! That noise hurt my ear!’ Emily said. ‘I know who you are. Now behave yourself.’
‘They got away! They got away!’ the parrot screeched.
‘Who got away?’ Emily asked.
‘They got away! They got away!’ he screeched again. ‘I’m Mr Macaw-ber. What’s your name?’
Emily watched the giraffes being fed. One of the keepers handed her an apple and a giraffe stretched its neck down and took it from her hand with its mouth. Later she saw the keepers throwing fish to the seals.
Emily also went to a talk about snakes and lizards. When the keeper put some lizards on the ground Mr Macawber screeched, ‘They got away! They got away!’ and everyone laughed.
Mrs Eyefinger’s sister had promised to give Emily her own private tour of the zoo. She was waiting for Emily beside a sign that said:
Staff Only
‘There’s a lot to see,’ her aunt said, taking the parrot off Emily’s shoulder. ‘Now, Mr Macawber, this tour isn’t for you. You stay here and bother someone else for a change. I think Emily needs a break from you.’
‘I do like him though,’ Emily said.
‘Everyone likes him but he can be a bit of a pest if you let him.’
Aunt Della put the parrot on a fencepost. Then she opened a metal door and led Emily inside. Emily heard Mr Macawber say, ‘They got away! They got away!’
‘Parrots only repeat what people say,’ Emily said. ‘Where do you suppose he heard that?’
‘Probably from me,’ her aunt said. ‘I’ll explain later. Come along and I’ll show you our animal hospital.’
In one part of the animal hospital was a cage with a baby elephant in it. The baby elephant was in the corner cuddled up with something very strange. It looked like another baby elephant but when Emily looked closely she could see it was an elephant doll that was as big as the baby elephant itself.
‘This is Gaja,’ her aunt said. ‘We made that doll to keep her company while we operated on her mother. We named the doll Gaja Junior. Baby elephants need lots of cuddles. They’re a lot like people. Gaja doesn’t have a father and we knew she’d worry if she didn’t have company.’
‘Oh,’ Emily sighed. ‘She’s such a cutie pootie. Look at her little eyes. I hope her mum’s okay.’
‘Her mum is fine. It was just a small operation but we had to put her to sleep to do it. She’s just waking up now and we’re about to let Gaja see her again. Hey, Gaja’s looking right at you, Emily. Would you like to go in the cage and say hello to her?’
Emily went into the cage. The baby elephant came over to her and wrapped her trunk around Emily. She pressed her cheek to Emily’s tummy and rocked back and forth.
‘She likes you,’ Aunt Della said. ‘You must have a way with animals. How would you like to open the other side of the cage and let her go back to her mother?’
Emily led Gaja over and opened the door to the main part of the enclosure. At first Gaja snuggled up to Emily but then she saw her mother and raced outside.
When Emily’s aunt finished showing Emily around she told her a secret. ‘We have a problem at the park right now but you’re not allowed to tell anyone, except your parents. Someone is opening the gates to the enclosures at night and letting the animals out.’
‘Who would want to do a thing like that?’
‘We don’t know. Maybe a gang that’s trying to kidnap the animals.’
‘Have you lost a lot of animals?’
‘Not yet but a giraffe walked all the way into town and we had a lot of trouble catching it and bringing it back. And we found an antelope down at the river and two porcupines up a tree just outside the park. We think it’s someone who wants to sell them. They can’t be very smart because, although they’ve let the animals out, they haven’t stolen any yet.’
‘It might be someone who doesn’t think that animals should be locked up,’ Emily said. ‘They might only want to let them loose.’
‘We’ve thought of that but it’s a silly thing to do because the animals couldn’t find the food they need. They’d all probably wander off and die. Or get hit by a car. Some of the keepers have stayed awake all night to see if they can catch whoever is doing this but they never see anything.’
‘How do they unlock the gates?’ Emily asked.
‘The enclosures aren’t really locked. Most of them are just closed with twisted wire or a steel ring that holds the posts together. We thought of chaining and locking them but then the robbers would just cut the fence wire. The only animals that are behind very strong fences with locked gates are the dangerous ones like leopards and lions and bears,’ her aunt explained. She gave a sigh. ‘Last week when I came to work, one of the enclosures was open and two pangolins – they’re a kind of anteater – were missing.’
‘Is that when Mr Macawber heard you yell, “They got away! They got away!”?’
‘Yes, exactly. Anyway, I found them walking around the cycle path. Pangloss and Pandora are such a pair of old sweeties that they let me pick them up and take them back to their enclosure.’
‘It’s a pity that Mr Macawber can’t tell you who’s doing it.’
‘I think they’re ghosts.’
‘Really? Real ghosts?’ Emily asked. ‘But there aren’t any such things as ghosts.’
‘I was only kidding. But they may as well be ghosts. We’ve watched all the entrances to the park and never seen anyone coming and going at night.’
Emily met her parents again and told them everything Aunt Della had said. She told her parents that she wanted a baby elephant like Gaja for her birthday. Her father said, ‘Keep dreaming.’
‘Of course you’d have to have Gaja’s mother too, to look after her,’ Mrs Eyefinger said. ‘Maybe they could sleep in your room.’
Later, Mrs Eyefinger’s sister came back to talk to them again before the wildlife park closed. It was then that Emily had an idea.
‘Maybe I could watch for the animal robbers,’ she said.
‘That’s very kind of you, Emily, but you might not be safe. Besides, they never come if we’re watching.’
‘What if they didn’t know I was here? What if I was invisible?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Do you know that elephant doll you made for Gaja?’
‘Yes?’
‘I could get into it and keep watch.’
‘Emily, what are you talking about?’ her mother asked.
Emily told her parents about Gaja’s doll.
‘It’s all coming apart anyway,’ Emily said. ‘I could take the stuffing out, pick out the eyes and wear it like a suit.’
‘That’s a great idea, Emily,’ Aunt Della said. ‘I might do it myself.’
‘But you won’t fit in the doll,’ Emily said. ‘You’re too big. It’s perfect for a kid like me. Besides, with my eyefinger I can watch all around me. I won’t miss anything. Put me in the enclosure with Gaja and her mother and I’ll watch for the wildlife robbers. I’ve done this sort of thing lots of times.’
Emily’s aunt thought about it. ‘Of course the robbers might come to another part of the zoo,’ she said. ‘But the elephant enclosure is in the middle of the park and you can see all around. It might just work.’
At the end of the day after all the visitors had left the park Emily put on the elephant suit. She practised walking on her hands and feet. Her eyefinger was tucked into her eyefinger hand so as not to hurt it. She could see out the eye holes but they weren’t in quite the right places. She had to keep turning her head to see out one side and then the other. Aunt Della p
ut a string with a whistle on it around Emily’s neck.
‘As soon as you see anything, Emily,’ her aunt said, ‘blow the whistle and we’ll come running, okay?’
Emily walked up the little hill to the highest part of the elephant enclosure. Gaja saw her straight away and came running. She pushed up against Emily and cuddled her with her trunk.
‘Oh, Gaja, please leave me alone,’ Emily said. ‘I can’t play with you now.’
But Gaja kept giving her elephant cuddles.
After a while, Emily sat down and put her eyefinger hand through the trunk of the elephant doll. She could now see out both sides and she could also see behind with her eyefinger.
Gaja snuggled up beside Emily and went to sleep.
An hour went by and then two hours but nothing happened. From time to time a peacock screeched and gave Emily a fright.
It was a few minutes after midnight that Emily heard a faint squeak and then a creaking noise. She looked around but couldn’t see anything unusual. Suddenly there was an animal right next to her.
‘A buffalo!’ she thought. ‘How did it get in here?’
Then she saw a wild pig and some monkeys racing across the park.
Emily blew her whistle as loudly as she could.
‘They’ll never hear it,’ she thought. ‘I’ve got to get out of this suit.’
Emily climbed out of it and blew the whistle again. This time it was so loud that a lion roared and the wild dogs began barking. She walked past all the enclosures one by one pointing her torch and saw that some of the gates were open. Lights came on around the park and the keepers came running. They shone their torches in every direction.
‘Where did they go, Emily?!’ Aunt Della said. ‘We didn’t see anyone!’
‘Neither did I,’ Emily said. ‘Maybe they are invisible after all.’
Just then there was another squeak and a creak and the sound of something hitting the ground.
‘Over there!’ Emily whispered. ‘Over that way! Quick!’
Emily and the keepers raced across the elephant enclosure to the other side. An African porcupine was slowly pushing the gate open. A loop of twisted wire fell at their feet.