Poppy Pym and the Beastly Blizzard

by Laura Wood

  “I don’t know,” I frowned. “Do you think things will be filed under her name?”

  “We’d better hope so,” Ingrid said, pushing her glasses up her nose, “because we have no idea what paper she wrote for.”

  “So, fingers crossed it’ll be under S for Susan,” I said. “Evangeline Susan.”

  The three of us began opening the file drawers, looking for the right place.

  “I’ve got it!” Kip hissed at last. “There’s a file here for SUSAN, EVANGELINE!”

  “Ohhh!” I exclaimed, as Kip slipped out a very thin brown folder. “It doesn’t look like there’s much in there,” I said doubtfully.

  Kip gently opened the file, and a single, slightly yellow sheet of paper fluttered out to the ground. I bent to pick it up and the three of us gathered around, shining our torches on the words there.

  “Oh, wow,” I said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “I can’t believe it!” Ingrid exclaimed.

  “Is that…” Kip’s quivering finger jabbed at the piece of paper in my hands. “What I think it is?”

  I was silent, reading as fast as I could, taking in every word. What I held in my hands was a newspaper article … and the subject of that article was not at all what I was expecting. It was, in fact, very surprising. I’ve stuck a photocopy of the story here so that you can read it yourself.

  “Wow,” I breathed again, the paper trembling in my hands.

  Kip was still pointing at the photograph that accompanied the article. It was of my mum, a smile on her face as she stood in the falling snow, wrapped in a thick coat, a round, furry hat pulled down low on her head. Her cheeks were pink and her eyes were sparkling as she pointed to the ground. And there it was, just as she described – an enormous footprint, easily three times the size of a normal man’s, with four distinct toe prints. Of course, the reason that Kip was currently hyperventilating in my ear wasn’t because of Evangeline’s story (even though it was pretty impressive). No, the reason for Kip’s anxiety, and the reason that Ingrid had turned so pale that she was almost see-through, was because we had seen those footprints before. In fact, they were exactly the same as the ones we had seen only hours earlier … in the woods at Saint Smithen’s.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “A YETI!” Kip howled, breaking the silence in impressive style.

  Ingrid and I both jumped.

  “Now, Kip,” Ingrid said nervously, eyeing the piece of paper in my hand with unease. “Don’t go jumping to conclusions…”

  “I’m not jumping anywhere!” Kip exclaimed. “Those prints are EXACTLY the same as the ones we found following us in the woods and you know it.”

  “They do look very similar,” I admitted, squinting at the picture more closely.

  “There, you see!” Kip was triumphant.

  “But those ones in the picture are humongous,” Ingrid said. “Definitely bigger than the ones we saw.”

  I nodded in agreement.

  “OK,” Kip said, very animated. “Maybe we have a smaller yeti… A baby yeti… I don’t know. But what I do know is that there is an actual yeti here at Saint Smithen’s RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT NOW and we were standing right near it and it could have eaten us with its TERRIBLE FANGS.” Here Kip ran out of air and had to sit down very quickly on the floor with a little thump.

  Ingrid remained quite pale. “I still think there’s another explanation,” she said and her voice was getting firmer. “What on earth would a yeti be doing here? It’s only just started snowing, and after all it’s hardly the sort of place that some kind of giant monster could stay hidden. There are people everywhere. Someone would have seen something, we would have heard stories…” She trailed off.

  “Ingrid’s right,” I said, folding the article carefully and slipping it in my pocket. “Think about it … yetis don’t pop up out of nowhere, do they? They live in the mountains. Remember in Dougie Valentine and the Yeti of Disaster? That’s set in the Himalayas too, just like my mum’s story.”

  “I don’t know!” Kip exclaimed, waving his arms about rather wildly. “I’m not exactly some sort of yeti expert. No wonder that first set of footprints was running away… If there was a YETI chasing after me, I’d be running pretty fast as well.”

  “OK, so we’ll just have to try and find out more about yetis,” I replied thoughtfully, tapping my chin with my fingertip. “That way we can determine the likelihood of Saint Smithen’s having its very own yeti in the garden.” I paused here, turning this idea over in my mind. “You know who I bet will have a lot of stories about them?” I said slowly.

  “Professor Tweep,” Ingrid jumped in. “He’s bound to have some ideas.”

  “Right,” I agreed. “It’s lucky that he’s staying around for the holidays. We can talk to him about it in the morning. Ask him what he knows. Plus, there’s bound to be some books right here in the library that we can borrow.”

  “OK,” said Kip. “So the plan is that we find out everything we can about yetis and how to fight them, like if they’re allergic to garlic or something … just in case.”

  “That’s vampires,” Ingrid pointed out helpfully.

  “I know it’s vampires,” Kip huffed, “but, as they both have fangs, I thought perhaps there may be a connection.”

  There was actually a curious logic to that, I thought.

  At that moment Letty stuck her head around the door. “What are you three doing?” she asked, dazzling us by shining her torch in our eyes. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Almost,” I said. “Just need to pick up a couple of books. How did your sabotage go?”

  Letty chuckled. “It went very well, thank you,” she said with a glint in her eye that made me think I never wanted to get on the wrong side of her.

  “Let’s go then,” I said, carefully returning my mother’s empty file to the cabinet, and closing the drawer.

  A few minutes later we left the library with a couple of interesting-looking books tucked under our arms. (Ingrid had made sure the books were checked out properly on our library cards because stealing books from the library was a step too far for all of our consciences.) I pulled the door carefully shut behind us, hearing the lock click back into place.

  “It’s like we were neeeeeeeever here,” Kip mumbled from behind the layers of clothing we had squished him back into. “Well, let’s not hang around,” he said, lumbering forward into the snow. “No need to be standing out here in the cold and the snow and the open terrain where anything could happen and anything could see us and…”

  “Are you all right, Kip?” Letty asked.

  “Fine, fine.” Kip panted, a slightly queasy look on his face.

  Out in the darkness an owl screeched and we all instinctively froze. I had to admit that in the pitch-black middle of the night, the idea of giant scary monsters creeping around Saint Smithen’s didn’t seem quite so far-fetched. I swallowed.

  “OK.” My voice was a bit higher than usual, so I lowered it to a rough growl. “Let’s get back to the dorm.”

  “Have you got a cold, Poppy?” Letty looked alarmed. “That’s come on suddenly.”

  Kip swung around, his slightly queasy look getting even queasier.

  “No,” I said in my normal voice. “Just needed to clear my throat.”

  “Oh, right.” As Letty was oblivious to the potential presence of a yeti, and I didn’t have the first idea how to explain it to her, she was understandably finding our skittishness confusing.

  At that moment a twig snapped somewhere nearby and all three of us squeaked.

  “BEGONE, CREATURE!” Kip yelled dramatically.

  A small grey squirrel hopped across the path in front of us, stopping to look us over, its head tipped to one side, its cute little eyes blinking rapidly.

  There was a moment of silence.

  “Um, are you sure you lot are all right?” Letty asked finally.

  “Oh, yes,” I nodded eagerly.

  “Kip’s just really afraid of
squirrels,” Ingrid said.

  Kip glowered. “Errr… Hang on a minute…” he began, shaking his head.

  “Really?” Letty snorted.

  Kip glowered more, and I kicked his leg. “Yeah,” he said, sulkily. “I was – er – attacked by an evil squirrel once. It was massive. More like the size of a dog, a big dog. Kind of like a wolf. In a lot of ways it was like I was attacked by a wolf and I manfully held it at bay.”

  “It stole his chocolate bar,” I added. “It was a difficult time for him. He doesn’t like to talk about it much.”

  Kip looked genuinely outraged by this, and now Letty nodded knowingly. After all, everyone knew that nothing came between Kip and his food.

  There was a rustling noise and another snap. Probably more squirrels. Hopefully.

  “OK, well, given my terrible fear of squirrels, I think it’s best if we get inside as quickly as possible,” Kip said, already scuttling down the library steps like an angry crab, as fast as his very padded legs could carry him.

  “Agreed,” I said. And Ingrid and I followed quickly behind.

  “Squirrels? Really?” I heard Letty mutter.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  When we woke the next morning it was to find a blizzard raging outside. Ingrid, Letty and I huddled around the window, watching the fat snowflakes whirl.

  “Woah,” I breathed, my breath fogging up the glass in front of me.

  While we had been sleeping, an ENORMOUS amount of snow had fallen out of the sky. Everything was whiter than white. The view from our window was almost unrecognizable as once-familiar objects had turned into mountains of snow of varying shapes and sizes. It was like being on another planet, or, at least, in the middle of a snow globe that had just had a very vigorous shaking.

  “I don’t think I’m going to be going home today,” Letty said, wide-eyed.

  “I think we’d better go and try to find the grown-ups,” Ingrid said, “and see what’s going on.”

  We pulled on our warmest clothes and headed through the corridors and downstairs to the front door. Here we found Mr Grant in a luminous orange outfit that seemed to have been made for skiing, puffing and panting as he attacked the snow outside the doorway with an enormous shovel. He was also wearing a purple hat with earflaps and a pair of goggles. I actually thought it was a pretty excellent look and wondered if I would be able to carry it off myself.

  “Hello, girls,” he said, a grin splitting his handsome face and scrunching up the long scar on his cheek. (Rumour had it that he had got the scar in a fight with an alligator … and, of course, that Mr Grant had been the winner.)

  “Hello, sir,” I said. “I can’t believe there’s so much snow!”

  Mr Grant nodded. “I had to come and dig you out,” he said, and he leaned against the shovel for a moment, catching his breath. “It was so high it was blocking all the doors.”

  We crept outside and I saw he was right. The path that Mr Grant had dug was banked on both sides by snow that reached almost to my waist.

  “You three should get over to the dining hall,” Mr Grant said. “Professor Tweep is dishing out hot tea and toast, and Miss Baxter is trying to get in touch with everyone’s parents.”

  We did as he suggested, moving as fast as we could through the swirling snow that continued to fall without showing any sign of letting up. The wind whipped my pigtails around and stung my cheeks. I tried to keep my eye out for any sign of our alleged yeti, but it was impossible to see a thing when the weather was so bad.

  It was a big relief to step into the nice, warm dining hall, although I was surprised to see Kip sitting at one of the tables next to Mei Zhang. Kip’s arms were folded, and he was staring straight down at his food, a deep strawberry blush creeping up his neck as Mei made animated conversation.

  “Hi, Kip; hi, Mei,” I said, slipping into the seat across from Kip. He barely looked up from his breakfast.

  “Hi, Poppy,” Mei said sunnily. “Pretty crazy weather, hey?”

  “You can say that again,” I replied, looking towards the tall windows where you could clearly see how high the snow was piled up. “So, your parents couldn’t get here either?” I asked, unwinding my scarf from around my neck. Ingrid appeared with two plates of toast and I accepted one from her gratefully.

  Mei shook her head. “No, my mum and dad didn’t want to risk the drive yesterday because it was supposed to clear today.” She gestured towards the window. “No one knew this was coming.” She didn’t seem too upset about the state of events, but that could have something to do with Kip’s presence. I was distracted by the thought of my own family. Were they going to be able to make it to Saint Smithen’s today? It seemed unlikely.

  Kip looked at me and Ingrid significantly, mumbling through a mouthful of toast, “It’s like being up on some mountain in the Himalayas or something.”

  Mei giggled. “You’re so right, Kip,” she said.

  We were interrupted then by the arrival of Miss Baxter. “Hello, children,” she said. “Poppy,” she turned to me, “I’m sorry but I haven’t been able to reach your family. I’m not sure where they are, but unless conditions improve dramatically I don’t think they’ll be able to get here today.”

  I felt my heart sink. Were we going to be stuck here for the whole holidays? And where were my family? A knot of worry coiled tightly inside my stomach. I hoped they were OK.

  “I’m sure they’re absolutely fine,” Miss Baxter placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, obviously reading my emotions in my face. “The weather is just playing havoc with the phone lines. We’re lucky everything is still working here. Poor Mr Grant and Miss Susan have been out digging through the snow all morning.” She turned to look at the chaotic weather outside with a sigh. “It doesn’t seem like this blizzard is going to end any time soon.”

  “Wait,” Kip said, a terrible thought obviously occurring to him. “We do have enough food, don’t we? If we’re snowed in here for ages I mean, should we be rationing supplies? I’d better not waste anything.” He crammed more toast into his face, “I’m going to need a lot of energy,” he mumbled. “And this bread has already been toasted, so…”

  “Don’t worry, Kip.” Miss Baxter seemed like she was trying not to laugh. “I’m sure we’ve got enough supplies in the kitchens to keep us in beans-on-toast for weeks if we need to – not that we will need to,” she said hastily, catching sight of our faces. “We’ll have everyone up and moving in no time, I’m sure.”

  “What do you mean, you’re sure?” Kip asked suspiciously. “Has anyone actually done a proper stocktake?”

  “Well, no,” Miss Baxter admitted. “But I’m really not worried.”

  Just then Ingrid’s mum and dad wandered in and Miss Baxter went off to fetch them a couple of steaming cups of coffee.

  “Maybe she’s not worried now,” Kip muttered as Miss Baxter walked away, “but she’ll be sorry when someone’s gnawing on one of her legs.”

  “What’s that out there in the snow?” Ingrid said suddenly, her voice carrying across the room and drawing everyone’s attention.

  I followed her finger to where it was pointing out of the window.

  On the horizon something was moving towards the school at a thundering pace. Something big.

  I scraped back my chair and went to take a closer look. The others came to join me, huddling around the glass. Even Miss Baxter was there, a confused expression hovering over her face.

  “It’s something big, and … furry!” Mei exclaimed.

  I felt Kip’s nails digging into my arm. “It’s happening!” he hissed. “The yeti attack; it’s happening!”

  “It looks like some kind of animal.” Miss Baxter’s voice was uncertain, a little nervous.

  “It’s a yeti!” moaned Kip.

  “That’s no yeti!” I exclaimed, a smile creeping across my face like a glorious sunrise. “That’s a lion!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  “A lion?” Mr Blammel boomed. “There’s a lion ru
nning towards the school? Hadn’t we better do something? Quick! Barricade the door!”

  “Don’t worry,” I said, already bundling myself back into my coat as quickly as I could. “She’s a very friendly lion.” And with that, I dashed out into the freezing elements.

  The snow was still falling, though slower now, and I could see Buttercup loping towards the school at a brisk pace. She seemed to be quite enjoying the weather, springing along and sending a spray of snow in her wake. As she drew nearer I realized that Buttercup was pulling something behind her … and not just something, but someone. Buttercup was wearing a harness with soft leather reins attached to it, and this was attached to a lightweight sledge on which a very small, rather stern-looking lady sat very primly. She was positively swathed in black, and her hair was as white as the snow on the ground.

  “Great-Aunt Hortence!” I yelled into the wind, and Buttercup’s ears pricked up. A big liony grin stretched across her face and her speed picked up as she lumbered towards me. On reaching me she leapt up, putting her two big front paws on my shoulders and giving my face a good lick. (I don’t know if you’re terribly familiar with lion breath, by the way, but no matter how much you love the lion in question it’s NOT a pleasant experience.)

  In the distance I heard Mr Blammel’s quivering voice shout, “POPPY’S BEING EATEN BY A LION!”

  Meanwhile, Great-Aunt Hortence had leapt nimbly from the sledge.

  “Very good, Buttercup,” she said, laying a gloved hand on the lion’s head. Buttercup purred and rubbed herself against Great-Aunt Hortence’s voluminous black skirts. “Yes, well that’s quite enough of that, thank you,” she said, brushing the lion hair off her clothes.

  “Ah, Poppy.” Her crisp voice snapped through the cold air, and she came to look me over with a pair of very blue, flinty eyes. “I see you’ve grown,” she said.

  I wrapped her in a careful hug. She was only the tiniest bit taller than me, and through all her black clothing I could feel her bones were as fragile as a little bird. Still, the person who took Great-Aunt Hortence’s size as an indication of her personality would be sorely mistaken. There was a reason Luigi referred to her as “the dragon”.