by David Barron
Chapter Six Fluff helps Molly catch the Thieves
That next day Molly awoke and went downstairs, where her father and mother had been up most of the night, putting back the overturned furniture, and ornaments that had lain scattered on the floor. Her mother looked shattered, and after lunch had went to her bed to catch up on some of her lost sleep. Molly helped her dad with some cleaning and tidying, and then went into the garden to sit on the swing. Fluff had went with her and said that he had to go to Fluffa, but he would be back. Later that night molly sat watching the television when she felt something brush against her leg, and guessing it was Fluff, and that he would wish to talk, she said goodnight to her parents, and went upstairs. In her room Fluff appeared and said,
"Wonderful news molly, the king has loaned me the sniffiegangle, so once he’s on the scent we’ll find these bad people for you." Molly said
"What’s a sniffiegangle then, and what can he do to help Fluff?" Fluff explained that a sniffiegangle was like a human bloodhound but used magic as well as his fantastic slobbertube to find things. Molly laughed,
"What’s a slobbertube doesn’t sound very healthy you know?" Fluff said a few words in his language and beside him appeared a cross between a dog and an aardvark, but this creature was bright pink, with lemon dots running down its back. She could see in an instant what a slobbertube was, because its snout was leaking slobber all over her carpet. Fluff put the sniffiegangle to work, and it combed the bedroom rooting into this and that box, and then out of the bedroom door down the stairs, and into the living room. Luckily he too knew when to become invisible, but he did leave behind a kind of slime trail right through the house. Molly’s mum was not amused and was telling her father so,
"Do you see that, what is it, its horrid, hope this isn’t something you’ve brought in on your shoes?" Her father was insisting it was nothing to do with him, but checked his shoes anyway. After the sniffiegangle had done his work, Fluff told molly to follow him and they crept down the stairs and out the front door, following the creature all the way to the village, where he stopped outside Roland’s house.
Molly was stupefied, surely it had gotten things wrong or picked up on another scent, couldn’t be Roland. She said so to Fluff who had words with the creature, and turning back insisted that this was indeed the place. Molly said that they must go home, and tell her father and mother. Of course when Molly returned home she didn’t know what to tell her parents, they’d ask how she knew, and she told Fluff of her fears. So molly came up with a plan, she asked Fluff to go back to Roland’s house and bring one of his personal possessions from there, and she would say she found it in her room, then they could give it to her father, and he in turn could give it to the police. Fluff agreed it was a great plan and hurried off to get the needed proof. He was back in an instant with a satchel belonging to Roland, and molly made quick work of alerting her father to its presence under her bed. Her dad wondered how it had gotten there and she said she must have kicked it there, when she was tidying her room and hadn’t noticed it till now. Father then asked if Roland had ever been in the house and molly assured him he hadn’t, so her dad called the police. They came quite quickly and took the bag away. Next day the police were at the door early and said they had made an arrest, and that all the stolen goods had been found and would be returned to them very soon. Molly’s mum and dad were ecstatic and gave molly a big hug saying that she was a very good girl, and should be very proud, and how if she hadn’t found that bag they would never have gotten their stuff back. Molly was very happy but a little sad for Roland too and wondered why he would go to these kinds of lengths to get his own back on her; surely he didn’t hate her that much. Molly thanked Fluff very much for all his help, and told him to remember to thank the king as well for the loan of the sniffiegangle. That day they found out that it wasn’t Roland who had been arrested but his older brother, who didn’t even know them, but worked on the milk cart and had noticed that their house was empty. He was screaming his innocence down at the station and telling the police that they were all liars as he hadn’t taken any satchel with him on the job, not realising that he had just confessed anyway. Molly got on then with enjoying the rest of her holiday, and soon it was time to return to school. She had had lots of fun during the rest of the break with Fluff, even going back once or twice to Fluffa to see the king, and had ended up being granted honorary citizenship for helping with the children’s reading and writing whilst she’d been there. Now it was time to think about books and learning, and going back to school, and molly was a bit apprehensive about bumping into Roland again.