Girl Wonder and the Terrific Twins (2 page)

“OK, Terrific Twins, I have a plan,” I said. “We’re going to help cool down all those people around the pool who are watching.”

“Why?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah! Why?” Edward repeated.

“Because we’re superheroes. We must help people,” I said.

“How?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah! How?” said Edward.

“How about if we jog past all those hot, sticky, sweaty people, splattering them with drops of cold water? That would cool them down,” I suggested.

“Good idea,” said Anthony.

“Yeah! Good idea!” said Edward.

“Where are you lot going?” Mum asked us as we got out of the pool.

“Just for a walk, Mum,” I said.

“Well, be careful and stay away from the deep end,” Mum replied.

We walked to the opposite corner of the pool.

“Ready, Terrific Twins?” I asked.

“Ready!”

The three of us formed a line and jogged along, shaking our hands and heads as we went and splattering the grown-ups with water. I must admit, they didn’t look too pleased.

Then Anthony bumped into a woman who was noodle thin. Her arms spun around as she tried to keep her balance. She grabbed the man wearing glasses next to her who grabbed the bald man next to him. The thin woman yelled
as she plunged into the pool followed by the man with glasses, then the bald man. As the bald man was falling he grabbed the arm of the woman next to him. Everyone was grabbing everyone else to stop themselves from falling into the pool – but it didn’t help. The whole line of men and women tumbled into the water.

SPLOSH! SPLASH!

“Oh dear!” I muttered.

Mum came running up to us.

“Maxine, Anthony, Edward, what have you three rascals been doing now?” Mum asked. “And you should have more sense than to run around a swimming pool. It’s dangerous. You might have slipped.”

I looked across at all those men and women, coughing and spluttering and wringing out their skirts and jackets and
dresses. They were all glaring at us. It looked like we were the only ones who
hadn’t
slipped.

“What were you three doing?” Mum asked, her hands on her hips. But we didn’t get the chance to explain. We got chucked out of the swimming pool. Mum was so embarrassed.

All the way home she kept saying, “I’ll never live this down . . . I’ll never live this down.”

“Your plan was feeble,” Anthony mumbled in the back seat next to me.

“Yeah! Foolish-feeble,” Edward grumbled.

“But it worked, didn’t it?” I said. “We did cool down all those people.”

“I want a dog,” I said.

“I want a cat,” said Anthony.

“I want a rabbit,” said Edward.

Mum put her hands on her hips. “I’m not getting three different pets. In fact I’m not sure if I should even get one.”

“But . . .” I said.

“But . . .” said Anthony.

“But . . .” Edward repeated.

“No buts!” Mum argued. “I don’t think you three realize how much work is involved in owning a pet.”

“We do!” I said.

“We do!” said Anthony.

“We do!” said Edward.

Then Mum got a funny look in her eyes. The same look she gets when she has one of her ideas and she thinks it’s a good one.

I wonder why her ideas always seem to get me and the twins into trouble?

“Stay there, you three. I’ll be right back,” Mum said, and off she dashed.

My brothers and I looked at each other and shrugged. Before we got bored just standing and waiting, Mum came back with a large box in her hands.

“What’s in the box?” we asked.

Mum put the box down on the carpet. We peered into it.

“A cat!” I said, surprised.

“It’s Mr McBain’s cat. Her name is Syrup because she’s the exact same colour as golden syrup.”

Mr McBain is our other next-door neighbour. He’s a tall, elderly man with hair that only grows on the sides of his head. The top of his head is shiny and smooth like an egg.

“How come we’ve got her?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah! How come?” asked Edward.

“If you three can look after Syrup for this weekend without getting into trouble then we’ll talk seriously about which pet to get – but only then,” Mum said.

“What do we do first?” I asked.

Anthony, Edward and I knelt down around the box.

“First, take Syrup out of the box. Then take her litter tray out of the box and put it in the conservatory near the washing
machine. Then you can feed her. Mr McBain also gave me two tins of cat food. They’re in my trouser pockets. After that you can play with her,” Mum said.

So I picked Syrup out of the box and held her against my chest and stroked her. She was warm and her fur was soft. Her breath tickled my face. I liked her.

“Maybe we should have a cat and not a dog,” I thought.

Anthony took out Syrup’s litter tray and put it in the conservatory. Edward got the two tins of cat food out of Mum’s tracksuit trouser pockets.

“Later on we’ll all have to pop to the shop at the top of the road and get some more cat food,” said Mum.

Mum opened one of the tins and put the food in Syrup’s bowl which was also in the box. We all crouched down around Syrup as she ate.

“I want a cat, Mum,” I said.

“So do I,” Anthony said.

“Yeah! Me too!” said Edward.

“We’ll see,” was all Mum said.

After Syrup had eaten her lunch we took her outside whilst Mum went to watch the telly. I was still holding her.

“Syrup, this is our garden,” I said.

“Miaow!” Syrup replied, having a look around.

Then, before any of us had a chance to blink, Syrup struggled out of my arms, scurried across our garden and scooted up our apple tree.

“What do we do now?” Anthony asked.

“Yeah! What?” asked Edward.

“We can’t call Mum,” I said. “She’ll say we can’t look after a pet for one minute without getting into trouble.”

“So what are we going to do?” asked Anthony.

“Yeah! What?” Edward repeated.

So I said, “This is a job for Girl Wonder and . . .”

“The Terrific Twins!” Anthony and Edward grinned.

Then we all spun around until we were dizzy.

“All right, Terrific Twins, I have a plan,” I said. “We’ll climb up the tree and get Syrup down.”

And that’s what we did. Slowly and carefully. We each climbed up the tree. (I helped the twins get on to the first branch as they couldn’t quite reach it.) Up and up we went. Up and up. And above us I could see Syrup staring down at us.

Just as we got close to her, guess what she did?

She yawned. She stretched her back. Then she scooted
down
the tree.

“Huh! Why didn’t she do that
before
we came up here?” I said.

We all looked down. The ground looked far,
far
away.

“What are you kids up to?” Mr McBain called out from his garden.

“What do you children think you’re doing?” shouted Miss Ree from her garden.

“Get down at once before you hurt yourselves.”

I looked at Anthony and Edward and they looked at me. Then we all burst into tears.

“We can’t get down,” I sobbed. “The ground is far,
far
away.”

Then Mum came running out into the garden.

“Maxine, Anthony, Edward, what have you been doing now?” she said, her hands on her hips.

“We were trying to rescue the cat,” I sniffed.

“Maxine, cats climb up trees all the
time. Unlike you lot, they have no trouble climbing down either. You should have left Syrup up there,” Mr McBain said.

“Mum, I want to come down,” wailed Anthony.

“Yeah! Me too!” Edward joined in.

“I’m going to have to call the Fire Brigade,” Mum said.

Within minutes we heard the sound of the fire engine siren – WOO WOO WOO WOO! Mum ran into the house to let them in. Seconds later she came out into the garden followed by three firefighters, one woman and two men. They all stood below our apple tree. We peered down at them. We’d never seen firefighters up close before. The firemen
placed two ladders against the trunk of the tree.

“It’s all right. We’ll soon have you down,” said the firewoman.

“Don’t worry,” said one of the firemen. “You’ll soon be on the ground.”

They carried Anthony and Edward down first. I looked around. I could see across all the neighbours’ gardens.
Everyone
was watching us.

“All right, Maxine, take my hands,” said the firewoman, lifting me round on to her back. “I’m going to give you a piggyback ride. In Scotland we call it a collybucky.”

“A collybucky! That’s a funny name.” I laughed.

“No funnier than piggyback,” said the firewoman. “Here we are down on the ground.”

I looked around, surprised. I hadn’t
even noticed us coming down.

“Say thank you to the firepeople,” Mum said.

“Thank you very much,” we said.

“Right, you three – go into the house. I’ve got a few things to say to you,” Mum said sternly. “And Syrup is going straight back to Mr McBain.”

We went into the kitchen and looked through the window. Mum was talking to the firepeople.

“Mum’s going to spend for ever telling us off now,” Anthony said to me, annoyed.

“Yeah! For ever!” Edward agreed.

“Your plan was stinky,” Anthony grumbled.