Alfie the Werewolf 4: Wolf Wood

by Paul van Loon

  ‘He wants me to dig, Grandpa. Under the oldest stone. Then I can save them, that’s what they said. And I can save the werewolf graveyard too.’

  Grandpa Werewolf rubbed his muzzle. He stared at Alfie. ‘Then you have to start digging, Alfie. The Elder wouldn’t say something like that unless he meant it. There must be an even bigger secret. A secret even I don’t know.’

  ‘But what does he mean, Grandpa? A headstone? Which one? There are hundreds of them here.’

  Grandpa Werewolf pointed at the Scoffle. ‘I think it knows. Look. You can see that it’s searching for something.’

  The Scoffle ran back and forth between the graves and seemed agitated. It wasn’t really running, it was more like lurching. It growled and grunted and sniffed the headstones and its long tail kept slapping the ground.

  ‘Follow the beast,’ Alfie mumbled. ‘That must be what they meant.’

  ‘The Scoffle is an extraordinary beast with extraordinary gifts,’ said Grandpa Werewolf.

  ‘Amazing,’ Dad said. ‘It escaped from its cage on this very day, as if it knew something important was going to happen.’

  Grandpa Werewolf nodded. ‘Everything in life has a meaning. There’s a reason the Scoffle ended up with you. Maybe it also heard what the ancestors told you, Alfie.’

  ‘Wrow, now I get it. This is the real secret of Werewolf Wood. That our ancestors’ spirits live here. That’s right, isn’t it, Grandpa?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Grandpa Werewolf said. ‘There are many secrets. Follow the Scoffle quickly now, otherwise you’ll lose it.’

  ‘Wrow, what about you, Grandpa?’

  ‘You mustn’t wait for me, Alfie. I can hardly move with this broken leg.’

  ‘I can’t leave you alone, Grandpa.’

  Dad knelt down next to Grandpa Werewolf. ‘I’ll stay here with Grandpa. Hurry up now and start digging.’

  33

  Doesn’t Anyone Have a Pen?

  ‘Where’s that stupid thing got to?’ With an angry face and a red ear, Vincent searched the ground, but couldn’t find his pen anywhere. Larissa and Ahmed winked at each other.

  ‘Poor ear,’ giggled Larissa. ‘Poor pen.’

  She made a hiding gesture with her hand and Ahmed quickly slipped the pen into a pocket.

  Vincent stood up and glared suspiciously at his classmates. They quickly looked away. The mayor cleared his throat impatiently.

  ‘Hmmm. What’s going on here? Doesn’t anyone have a pen on them? I need a pen for this contract.’

  ‘Um, I haven’t got a pen,’ Mr French said, blushing. He had a beautiful fountain pen in his inside pocket, but of course he didn’t want the mayor to sign the contract.

  Mr French screwed up his eyes.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ said Rose. ‘I know that look. Sir is going to do something crazy.’

  Ahmed nodded. ‘Yep, he always gets that expression on his face when he’s about to tip the wastepaper basket out over someone’s head at school.’

  Mr French suddenly reached out and snatched the contract from the mayor’s hand. The mayor looked on goggle-eyed. ‘Hey, what are you doing?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mr Mayor, but you mustn’t sign this contract. It’s not right.’ He quickly ripped it in half. The children started cheering.

  ‘Go, sir!’

  ‘This, this is too much,’ the mayor stammered. ‘What a cheek. How dare you, Mr French.’

  Mr French smiled, tearing the contract into smaller and smaller strips. He rolled the strips up into balls.

  ‘There. Goodbye, contract. Watch this, Mr Mayor. I’m not finished yet.’ He put the balls of paper in his mouth and started to chew them. ‘Mmmm, yummy, contract chewing gum.’

  The protest group was still cheering. Even the parents were clapping.

  The mayor stamped his foot furiously. ‘I think it’s a disgrace.’

  All of a sudden, Rattlebones tapped him on the shoulder.

  ‘What?’ snarled the mayor.

  34

  A Box

  Tim, Alfie and Noura raced off after the Scoffle, their shadows long and thin in the moonlight. The Scoffle walked further and further into the graveyard, snuffling and searching. Sometimes it stopped to sniff a headstone and claw clods of earth up out of the ground before lurching on quickly. Finally they reached one of the graveyard’s far corners.

  Standing there, abandoned and alone, under a gnarled ancient tree, was an old headstone. It was cracked and green with moss. The name on it was unreadable. Growling and grunting, the Scoffle circled the stone. Alfie scratched away the moss and sand until letters appeared. It said: Alfred Spanman 1003-1118.

  ‘Wow, that must be one of your ancestors, Alfie,’ said Tim.

  ‘Wrow, why do you say that?’

  Tim pointed at the name on the stone. ‘Spanman is a bit like Span.’

  ‘Wrraaa, true,’ growled Noura. ‘You’re Alfie Span and he’s Alfred Spanman. Definitely related. Couldn’t be clearer.’

  Tim whistled. ‘Yikes, he was born a thousand years ago, d’you see that? And he lived to be a hundred and fifteen. Maybe he’s the old grey werewolf himself.’

  Alfie nodded. ‘Yes, maybe.’

  The Scoffle grunted and sniffed the headstone from all sides. Suddenly its eyes almost popped out of its head. Its long hair stood up straight. For a moment it looked like a giant porcupine. Then it started digging furiously, throwing up sand all around the headstone.

  Tim, Noura and Alfie watched excitedly as clods of earth flew past their ears.

  ‘Is this a good idea?’ Tim whispered. ‘Soon it’ll dig up the skeleton of a dead werewolf. There can’t be anything else left in this grave. It’s hundreds of years old. If there was a coffin in it, it would have rotted away long ago.’

  The Scoffle kept at it and suddenly gave a quiet whimper. It had dug a big hole under the headstone. It grunted and buried its snout further in the earth.’

  ‘What’s it doing?’ Tim whispered.

  Alfie shook his head. ‘No idea, but it’s trying very hard to tell us something.’

  With an angry growl, the Scoffle tugged at something in the hole, its whole body jerking and shuddering. Finally it gave up. It gave another quiet whimper, then sat down next to the hole, watching Alfie silently from under its long hair.

  ‘What is it?’ growled Alfie. ‘What have you found?’

  The Scoffle didn’t answer. It just stared at Alfie and waited.

  ‘Wrraaa, I get it,’ growled Noura. ‘It wants us to get something out of the hole.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘What’s in it, of course.’

  ‘Hey, not so fast,’ Tim blurted. ‘Next thing we’ll be pulling out a bunch of old bones and a werewolf skull. And what will we do then?’

  Alfie scratched under his chin. ‘Then we’ll throw them back in the hole. But we have to find out what’s under this stone. Lend a paw, will you, Noura?’

  ‘OK, roll up those furry sleeves, Alfie.’

  Noura squatted next to Alfie and together they dug even more earth out from under the stone.

  ‘Wrow, I feel something,’ Alfie said suddenly. ‘Something hard.’

  Noura nodded. ‘It’s still half buried. That’s why the Scoffle couldn’t get it out.’

  ‘Bones,’ said Tim. ‘Wanna bet?’

  Quickly they scratched away even more earth. Tim held his breath. Together Alfie and Noura lifted something up above ground. Not bones, but a small metal box. Alfie looked at it from all sides. It was magnificently decorated. The lock was an eye, a closed eye. On the lid and on the side there were pictures of a wolf. He was wearing a crown on his head and bracelets on his paws.

  ‘What kind of box is that, Alfie?’ Tim whispered.

  ‘I don’t know, but it’s pretty heavy. That wolf on it looks like the old werewolf. Let’s see if we can open it. I don’t have a key though.’

  ‘Never mind,’ Tim said. ‘That box has been lying here waiting for us for centuries. I bet it will open even without a
key.’

  Alfie looked at Tim with surprise. ‘Maybe it’s got the old grey werewolf’s bones in it, Tim.’

  ‘I don’t care, Alfie. I want to find out what’s inside.’

  ‘OK, here we go.’

  Carefully, Alfie laid a paw on the lid. In that same instant, the eye on the lock opened. Just like that. It looked at Alfie and winked.

  Alfie was shocked. He hesitated for a moment, then tugged on the lid. It opened without any trouble at all. Alfie looked in the box with Noura and Tim leaning over his shoulders.

  ‘Wrow.’

  ‘Wrraaa.’

  ‘Wow.’

  35

  The Pen

  Rattlebones smiled coolly and stuck his hand in his inside pocket. ‘Don’t worry, mayor. We’re ready for everything. Here’s another contract. The Boss has got plenty of spares in the car. Don’t you worry about a thing.’

  Mr French almost choked. Quickly he spat out the balls of paper.

  ‘And here’s a pen too, mayor,’ Rattlebones continued. ‘It’s the Boss’s own gold fountain pen.’

  The mayor took the pen and studied it. There were two letters on it: A.S.

  ‘Wow, I haven’t got a pen as beautiful as this, and I’m the mayor.’

  The corners of Rattlebones’s mouth curled up slightly. ‘If you sign this contract, you’ll be able to buy a hundred pens like this. So hurry up and sign and you’ll make the Boss a very happy man.’

  The mayor took the pen. For a moment he wavered. ‘Who is this boss of yours anyway. Why doesn’t he get out of the car?’

  ‘Because he’s a villain, of course,’ Mr French exclaimed. ‘A wood-chopping louse. A forest filcher. A sneaky plant swiper. He’s probably wanted by the police. That’s why he won’t get out of the car.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Rattlebones said. ‘You mustn’t insult the Boss, schoolteacher. He’s just very shy. That’s why he’d rather stay in the car.’

  ‘But, Mr Mayor,’ said one of the parents, ‘you can’t sign a contract like that. You have to consult the town council first.’

  The mayor raised an eyebrow and looked at the black car. The hand that was sticking out of the window waved the bag of money back and forth.

  ‘Consult the town council? Nonsense. That could take months. And even then nothing would be decided. I’ll decide for myself. I know what’s good for the town, so …’ With a flourish, the mayor put pen to paper.

  ‘Please don’t do it,’ Mr French begged.

  The children of the WROW protest group held their breath.

  Larissa’s bottom lip trembled. ‘Oh, poor Wolf Wood,’ she sniffed.

  Suddenly there was a lot of noise. Footsteps, voices, breaking branches.

  Annoyed, the mayor looked up. ‘What now? Do I get some peace and quiet to sign this contract or what?’

  ‘No, wait,’ a voice called. Two panting figures emerged from between the trees. It was Tim and Dad. Together they were carrying the iron box.

  ‘Mr Mayor, wait!’ Dad called. ‘First you have to see this.’

  36

  A Change of Mind?

  The mayor gave a deep sigh. ‘What is it this time? Why does everyone keep interrupting me? All I want to do is sign a document. In exchange I get that lovely bag of money. Then everything’s agreed and everyone can go home.’

  ‘Wait, Mr Mayor.’ Tim and Dad hurried forward. Everyone looked at them with surprise.

  ‘Who’s that man with the helmet on?’ whispered Larissa.

  ‘That’s Tim Friend’s father,’ Rose answered. ‘He recently became Alfie’s father too.’

  Dad held out the box. ‘We have something important here. It might make you change your mind.’

  Mr French looked at Tim and Dad. He hadn’t expected anything like this and he had no idea what was happening. ‘Mr Mayor,’ he said, ‘please listen to Mr Friend and his son for a moment.’

  ‘Why is he wearing that funny-looking helmet?’ whispered Larissa.

  Rose giggled. ‘Because Mr Friend’s a weirdo. That’s what my mum says. And she should know. She’s been an expert on weirdos, ever since she married Dad.’

  Larissa and Rose both giggled.

  ‘Quiet, I can hear something,’ Ahmed said.

  From inside the car came an angry cry. Rattlebones pushed Mr French out of the way.

  ‘Enough. Stop. The Boss is running out of patience. We want you to sign that contract now. Don’t pay any attention to these oddballs. We’re doing business.’

  Dad tipped his M3 helmet down over his eyebrows and glared at Rattlebones. ‘Exactly. Business. That’s why we’re here too.’

  ‘Right,’ said Tim.

  A wrinkle of surprise appeared on Rattlebones’s forehead. ‘You! Don’t I know you from somewhere?’

  ‘Mr Friend?’ said Larissa. ‘But Alfie is called Alfie Span. How can he be his father?’

  Rose sighed. ‘Span is his real parents’ name, dumbo. But they abandoned him ages ago.’

  Larissa nodded. ‘I get it. So Alfie is actually Alfie Friend now.’

  Rose shrugged. ‘I don’t know about that.’

  ‘Shhh,’ said Ahmed. ‘What’s going to happen now? What’s in that box?’

  Tim quickly moved behind Dad.

  ‘I know you,’ said Rattlebones. He jabbed a finger at Tim. ‘I’m sure of it. But where from?’

  ‘Mr Mayor, please don’t listen to these characters,’ Dad said. ‘We have something very special for you here. Have a look.’ Tim and Dad held the box right under the mayor’s nose.

  ‘Look at this,’ Dad said. ‘Show him, Tim.’

  Very slowly, Tim opened the lid of the box.

  Everyone held their breath, including the mayor. First his face turned a slow red. Then purple.

  ‘That, that, that’s an enormous …’

  Dad nodded. ‘Exactly. You’ve hit the nail on the head, Mr Mayor. This is just what you think it is.’

  Mr French and the children jostled around Tim and Dad, almost blinded by the shining light coming out of the box. They saw a crown with diamonds. Bracelets with precious gems. Earrings. A necklace with glittering sapphires and emeralds. And everything was made of gold, pure gold.

  ‘Treasure,’ whispered the mayor.

  Dad nodded. ‘That’s right. It’s stunning, amazing, priceless treasure. And in exchange for Wolf Wood it’s yours. I mean, the town’s, of course.’

  ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute,’ shouted Rattlebones. ‘That’s not fair. This treasure is worth a lot more than our bag of money.’

  The mayor squinted. ‘You’re right, Rattlebones. This treasure is sure to be worth much more. It’s real bling, as the kids would say. This is enough to build five new town halls.’ A broad smile appeared on his face. ‘It’s a deal. I’ll take the treasure.’

  Tim jumped for joy.

  ‘Fantastic,’ Dad said. ‘You get this box and Wolf Wood becomes the property of the WROW Foundation.’

  Dad and the mayor shook hands.

  Mr French and the children cheered and started clapping. The parents clapped too, as hard as they could. Vincent was the only one to pull a nasty face.

  ‘Drat, no football pitches.’

  ‘Ouch,’ he yelled, when Larissa stamped on his toes.

  Rattlebones turned deathly pale. ‘The Boss is not going to like this,’ he whispered.

  From the black car they heard a blaring, furious cry.

  ‘No! No! No! I won’t allow it.’

  37

  What Now?

  Hiding behind the black car were Alfie and Noura, who had come with Tim and Dad. Nobody was allowed to see them, but they could see and hear everything.

  The mayor shook Dad’s hand.

  ‘Yippee, Werewolf Wood has been saved,’ whispered Noura. ‘Grandpa Werewolf is going to be so happy.’

  Alfie nodded. ‘Thanks to my ancestors’ werewolf treasure trove. Now their ghosts will rest in peace.’

  Then they heard the furious cry from inside the
black car.

  ‘Wrow, the Boss isn’t happy,’ said Alfie, who had recognized the black limo immediately.

  Then right away he dived out of sight, because Rattlebones had come running up. He stuck his head in through the open driver’s side window. ‘What now, Boss?’

  Cautiously Alfie pressed his ear against the window on the other side.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ whispered Noura.

  ‘Wait a sec,’ growled Alfie. He heard the Boss’s voice.

  ‘Don’t worry, Rattlebones. I’ve just called the Chopper, the Chipper and the Cutter. They’ll be here any minute.’

  ‘Where were they, Boss?’

  ‘Oh, they were off somewhere in the wood chasing some idiot who was throwing rocks and mud at them. But now they’re coming straight here.’

  Rattlebones looked over his shoulder at the mayor and Mr French’s class. Everyone was dancing and shouting.

  ‘Hooray, Wolf Wood is ours.’

  The Boss scowled. ‘Just you wait, Rattlebones. There’ll be nothing left of this protest group. If they won’t give me Wolf Wood, I’ll take it.’

  Alfie had heard every word and looked at Noura. ‘Things are going to go wrong, after all. They’re going to use violence.’

  ‘What? Are they going to cut down Werewolf Wood anyway?’

  A red glow blazed in Alfie’s eyes. ‘No, they can’t.’

  Suddenly he felt the black balloon again, a balloon full of anger that slowly inflated until it burst. Alfie’s anger came rushing out. He couldn’t do a thing about it.

  ‘Wrow,’ he roared. He pulled open the door and leapt into the car. Sitting behind the steering wheel was the Boss: a fat man with white hair and glasses with round lenses. His hair stood on end. He looked up and saw a furious white wolf with glasses sitting there in his car. His hair stood on end as he stared at Alfie.