Girl Wonder to the Rescue (6 page)

“Mum, we heard a strange noise when we were coming home from school . . .”

“And so we went to have a look . . .”

“And we found a puppy in a cardboard box . . .”

“And the puppy was all wet and cold . . .”

“And we couldn’t leave it . . .”

We all spoke at once whilst I held out
my hands to Mum, to show her what we’d found.

“Maxine, what’s going on?” Mum frowned.

We all tried to tell her again what happened, but Mum put one hand up.

“One at a time. Maxine, you start.”

“We found him in the storm, Mum . . .” I began. And very slowly, very carefully, I told Mum exactly what had happened.

“So we couldn’t just leave him there, could we, Mum?” I said.

Edward, Anthony and I all held our breath as we waited for Mum to answer. She looked at each of us in turn and then down at the puppy.

“No, of course you couldn’t,” she smiled at last. “Bring him into the kitchen.”

We followed Mum into the kitchen where she got out a cardboard box she’d used to carry home the shopping.

“Anthony, get me some old newspapers from the living room. Edward, run upstairs and get me an old towel. I’ll warm up some milk on the cooker,” said Mum.

For the next half an hour we were all busy. We lined the box with newspapers until it was very soft and warm. Then Mum very carefully dried our puppy’s fur.

“This towel is just for the puppy from now on,” Mum told us.

Then we poured out some warm milk into a saucer. But although the puppy opened its eyes, it was too weak to stand up and drink.

Mum squatted down over the puppy, a
deep frown on her face. She very gently stroked its fur.

“Aren’t you pretty? As you were found in a thunderstorm, we should call you Thunder,” Mum said gently. “Come on then, Thunder. You have to drink your milk if you want to get better.”

I looked at Mum. Thunder was the perfect name for our puppy. I looked at our puppy again. It looked so weak.

“Don’t let our puppy die, Mum.” Anthony sniffed.

“Yeah, don’t let it die.” Edward shook his head.

“Edward, go and wash out one of my rubber gloves over there by the sink – inside and out,” Mum said.

Edward ran over to the sink and did just that. Then Mum poured the rest of the warm milk from the saucepan into her glove. As we watched, she carefully
pricked a small hole in one of the fingers of the glove. Then she came over to our puppy. Mum squeezed the glove finger until some of the milk dribbled out and ran along the puppy’s lips. Thunder’s tongue snaked out to lick up the milk.

“Hooray!” we all shouted.

“Not so fast.” Mum shook her head. “We’ve still got a long way to go yet.”

Mum squeezed out some more milk. Thunder licked that up as well. Then Mum held the finger of the rubber glove over Thunder’s mouth. I held my breath, waiting anxiously to see if Thunder would feed. He licked the finger of the rubber glove once. And again. Then he lifted his head slightly and began to suck on the finger. The twins and I danced around the kitchen. Thunder was feeding!

“As soon as he’s better and able to stand on his feet, I’ll call the RSPCA,” said
Mum. “They’ll be able to take him away and look after him.”

I froze. So did Anthony and Edward. We stared at Mum.

“Oh please, Mum. We can’t give Thunder away,” pleaded Edward.

“We have to look after him. We found him,” added Anthony.

“We rescued him, Mum. We can’t give him away now,” I begged.

Mum looked at us. “Small, cute puppies grow up very quickly into huge dogs. They need to be fed and watered and walked regularly. Are you three prepared to do that?”

“Yes, we are.”

“We promise.”

“We’ll walk him every day,” we said quickly.

“Pets aren’t for a week or a month, they’re for life. And they’re a lot of
responsibility,” said Mum, sternly.

“We’ve got a lot of responsibility,” said Anthony.

“Yes, tons of it,” Edward agreed.

“We’ll be responsible, Mum. We’ll take it in turns to feed Thunder and walk him and look after him – for ever and ever. We promise,” I begged.

Anthony and Edward nodded vigorously, agreeing with my promise.

“Please, Mum.
Please
 . . .”

“All right then,” Mum said at last.

“Yippee!”

“Hooray!”

“Not so fast,” said Mum. “I’m still phoning the RSPCA first thing in the morning. If Thunder really has been abandoned then you can keep him, but only if you all keep your promise.”

And we ran and danced and leaped and jumped about so much that by the time we’d finished our clothes were almost dry again!

“Thanks, Mum,” we said, grinning. We
all hugged her tight, tight, tight.

At last, we had a proper pet! A pet that could do a bit more than swim about and eat, which was all our goldfish Bugsy ever did! We had our very own dog called Thunder.

“Welcome to our family, Thunder,” I said.

“You’re going to love it here,” said Edward.

“And we’re going to take such good care of you,” said Anthony.

Thunder raised his head slowly and looked at us. And do you know – I’m sure he smiled!

So once again it was Girl Wonder and the Terrific Twins to the rescue. Isn’t it always!

Malorie Blackman
has written over sixty books and is acknowledged as one of today’s most imaginative and convincing writers for young readers. She has been awarded numerous prizes for her work, including the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Fantastic Fiction Award. Malorie has also been shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In 2005 she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her contribution to children’s books, and in 2008 she received an OBE for her services to children’s literature. She has been described by
The Times
as ‘a national treasure’. Malorie Blackman is the Children’s Laureate 2013–15.

Also by Malorie Blackman

The NOUGHTS & CROSSES sequence:

NOUGHTS & CROSSES

KNIFE EDGE

CHECKMATE

DOUBLE CROSS

NOBLE CONFLICT

BOYS DON’T CRY

HEART BREAK GIRL

THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES

TRUST ME

PIG-HEART BOY

HACKER

A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E.

THIEF!

DANGEROUS REALITY

THE DEADLY DARE MYSTERIES

DEAD GORGEOUS

UNHEARD VOICES

(A collection of short stories and poems, collected by Malorie Blackman)

For younger readers:

CLOUD BUSTING

OPERATION GADGETMAN!

WHIZZIWIG and WHIZZIWIG RETURNS

GIRL WONDER AND THE TERRIFIC TWINS

GIRL WONDER’S WINTER ADVENTURES

Coming soon:

BETSEY BIGGALOW IS HERE!

BETSEY BIGGALOW THE DETECTIVE

BETSEY’S BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

HURRICANE BETSEY

MAGIC BETSEY

For beginner readers:

JACK SWEETTOOTH

SNOW DOG

SPACE RACE

THE MONSTER CRISP-GUZZLER

GIRL WONDER TO THE RESCUE
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 19300 4

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company

First published by Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1994
Tamarind edition published 2014
This ebook edition published 2014

Copyright © Malorie Blackman, 1994, 2014

The right of Malorie Blackman to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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