We Were Only Strawberry Picking (7 page)

She was just about to put the kettle on, when the door bell rang. She jumped with excitement as she thought it must be her little ones who had forgotten their keys. Well, who else would be ringing the door bell? She quickly turned the tap off and set the kettle to boil as she rushed to the front door.

‘Henratty, what have you done with your keys?’ she demanded but to her surprise it was neither Henratty nor Lyndi Lou at the door, but Mama Katie.

‘Have you heard from Henratty or Lyndi Lou by any chance?’ said Mama Katie anxiously.

‘No, I would have asked you the same question. All I know is that they were going strawberry picking with your Jack and Oscar. They’re not usually this late but I know Henratty would never do anything silly and just assumed they had gone back to yours.’

‘I’m afraid not,’ as Mama Katie entered the Mortimers’ house.

‘Papa Mortimer is going to be home in a minute, so when he arrives, we’ll decide what to do then. I’ve just put the kettle on – would you like a cup of tea?’ stated Mama Mortimer.

‘Thank you that would be nice. I have left a message with the receptionist for Papa Brian to call me straightaway as he was off site, but she could not get hold of him immediately and insisted she would keep trying. He may call here as I said it was an emergency and explained my concern,’ confided Mama Katie.

Suddenly, the telephone rang, as they looked at each other trying not to think the worse, but thinking the worse. It was Papa Brian, as Mama Mortimer passed the telephone to Mama Katie. She began to explain what had happened. Papa Brian advised that Papa Mortimer would be there soon and they were to meet him at the strawberry fields in an hour. Although worried he felt sure that their meerkats had probably just decided to stay out late and were probably on their way home having lost track of time.

* * *

Within an hour both parents were now outside the gates of Meerville Strawberry Fields. It was six o’clock! Noticeably, the gates were locked and there was no sign of the attendant.

‘Well, they can’t be here’, said Papa Brian. ‘There’s no way that the attendant would have locked them in. However, I think we should give him a call on the emergency number when we get home to see if he can remember seeing them leave.’ He took out his pen and paper and jotted down the telephone number and off they headed back home. As the Brians were the nearest they decided to go to their house first of all, but there was still no sign of their little meerkats.

‘I bet they’re at our house,’ insisted Papa Mortimer as they sped off down the road towards the Mortimers.

As Papa Mortimer, opened the door, he called out for Henratty, Lyndi Lou, Oscar and Jack, but there was complete silence. This time Papa Brian really was worried as he frowned at Mama Katie and then asked Papa Mortimer if he could use the telephone.

‘Is that you, Gladstone? It’s Papa Brian.’

‘Why hello and what can I do for you?’

‘Did you happen to see my Jack and Oscar with their friends, Henratty and Lyndi Lou, at the strawberry fields today? You know Jack, he’s slightly larger than the other meerkats and possibly would have been wearing his army jacket, also you can’t miss Henratty, as she would have been wearing a red beret and red cape.

‘Er – now you mention it, I do recall vaguely seeing someone of her description but I have to say we had quite a lot of visitors today and I can’t remember everyone.’

‘If you could please try to remember, this is very important. Did you see them leave?’

‘I’m not sure, as I don’t man the gate all the time, and earlier today, a group of meerkats got into a scuffle so I was distracted for a little while. The only thing I can be sure of is that I always announce when it’s time to lock up and I also check the area for any visitors who may have got carried away with picking strawberries and ignored my last reminder and I can tell you that
no one
was left in those fields before I locked up! I do recall the attendant that was on duty yesterday reminding me to ensure that I double checked the fields as he almost locked in some meerkats and he was a little alarmed as he did not see them when inspecting the fields, but they apologised and said they would take extra care next time.’

‘Okay, thanks very much but if you do hear anything could you let us know as it is very unusual for Jack and his friends to be out so late without telling us they were going to be back later than usual.’

‘Will do and I will try to speak to the attendant to see if he noticed anything suspicious the day before, but usually we record anything like that and as I’ve just mentioned it was only those two meerkats!’

As Papa Brian came off the telephone he looked at Mama Katie and the Mortimers and shook his head to indicate that it was not good news.

‘I am going to call the sheriff now to advise that our meerkats are missing. I think Papa Mortimer and I should then head into town to see if they have ended up there. We’ll need a couple of pictures,’ said Papa Brian, as Mama Katie fetched a few photos she had kept in her handbag luckily from Oscar’s birthday party, which included Henratty and Lyndi Lou too.

Whilst Nora, Jasper, Alfonso and Enoch were on their way back to the tram heading towards their visitors, the meerkats were still following the tram tracks and heading right for the base camp as Nora had predicted.

‘How much further do you think we have to go?’ Oscar requested.

‘Don’t ask such stupid questions,’ replied Jack. How am I supposed to know? Do I look like I’ve ever been in this tunnel before?’

‘It’s just that Lyndi Lou and I are tired – can’t we rest for five minutes?’

‘All right, just five minutes and then we are on our way, I don’t think I can stand another minute down here,’ moaned Henratty. As they huddled in the corner, Jack passed around his water tank once again and they ate a handful more strawberries.

‘I don’t think I can eat another strawberry,’ protested Lyndi Lou, ‘I’m sick of the sight of them.’ How ironic, as earlier she was only saying how much she loved strawberries!

‘Well, that’s all we have so you better get used to it,’ Henratty asserted firmly, as Jack pulled out a small brown bag from his pocket. He then proudly said, ‘Would anyone like a bonbon?’

‘Yes please,’ beamed Lyndi Lou and Oscar.

‘There you go, take a few, as I have some more in the other pocket.’ This little gesture by Jack could not have come at a better moment, as it acted as a temporary distraction from the grave situation the meerkats were all in; their frustration was certainly starting to show outwardly. It was times like this that Jack not only showed his remarkable ability to defuse any situation but that he deeply cared despite him being thick-skinned most of the time, an action that had not gone unnoticed by Henratty, as she smiled to herself.

* * *

Nora had finally reached a good place in the tunnel where she felt visibility would be extremely limited and it was on a bend. She brought the tram to a halt.

‘Why are we stopping here, whined Enoch?’

‘Don’t you ever listen to anything I say? Must I repeat myself? This is where you three are going to ambush our little visitors whilst I distract them from above. I will wait until they get within reaching distance to me, and then alert them to my presence so that they start running away from me in the direction of the net that you will be holding on either side of the tunnel and then you can pin them down with it. Is that clear?’ asked Nora.

‘Absolutely,’ replied Enoch. ‘Alert, scare, then ambush, I’ve got it in three.’

‘Don’t you mean
one
, Enoch?’ He was confused as he just gazed at Nora, who said, ‘Don’t even answer that! Now please get ready … I’m going to wait a bit further up the tunnel. I will be hanging above them so they won’t see me, and you only have to listen for their screams to know that they are coming.’

‘Okay, Nora, we’ve got you loud and clear,’ affirmed Alfonso.

‘Main lights out,’ ordered Nora as she disappeared around the corner into the pitch black tunnel.’

‘I can’t wait to bite the little creatures, especially if they start to resist our ambush,’ Alfonso hissed.

‘I just hope for our sake they’re not bears as Nora seemed to think. Oh, the thought of being clawed by a bear is just unthinkable,’ as Enoch took a big gulp and held his tummy feeling sick just from the very thought.

‘Enoch, shut up and focus – be quiet,’ snapped Jasper. ‘We have work to do!’

* * *

Nora was in position above the tunnel some thirty yards away from the trap that Enoch, Alfonso and Jasper were laying. She was suspended and just wanted to go back to her meditation, but had no choice, as she knew these creatures must be found soon and interrogated about the diamonds. Her echolocation had picked them up again; they were on the move and steadily coming her way. Another ten minutes and they would be there, as she waited patiently and quietly, fully camouflaged in the darkness. Naturally, it helped being a bat!

Jack started to bang the torch as it shimmered on and then went off intermittently, each time he shook the torch even harder than the last time.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Henratty

‘The battery has died,’ said Jack glumly, as complete darkness fell upon them once more.

‘We’re just going to have to somehow follow the tracks and make use of our outstretched arms to feel our way through the tunnel and just hope this is enough to ensure we don’t bump into anything serious,’ recommended Henratty.

Further up the tunnel, Nora had just heard Jack shaking the torch.

At last, the little visitors had arrived, and Nora was more than ready for them. She just hoped both Alfonso and Jasper in particular, had understood her instructions to capture these creatures. Nora had told them to leave one small light on at the corner of the tunnel to steer the creatures the right way and hoped they had remembered!

‘Here they are,’ Nora murmured to herself.

They were only ten yards away from Nora, and Lyndi Lou was the first to notice the flickering light, but it was very dim and a little way in the distance.

‘Look!’ she whispered, ‘I think there’s some light further up – can you see it?’

‘Yes we can,’ they all replied quietly. Jack decided that he would test the torch once more as he took it out of his pocket. They were now standing underneath Nora, as the torch came back on.
Hooray,
they thought. Jack began to aim the torch down the tunnel when suddenly he heard a weird sound, like a flapping motion.

‘What was that?’

‘WHAT WAS WHAT?’ said Henratty.

‘I could swear I heard something moving. It sounded like wings!’ Jack responded.

Very astute, he could almost be a bat,
thought Nora, but she knew he was not.

Nora flapped her wings once more, as the meerkats gasped. They were all frozen solid, as if time had stopped, the tunnel felt ice cold but that’s because they were gripped with fear. Jack suddenly shone the torch in the direction he had heard the sound. Nora flapped her wings again but not so dramatically, she did it in a very slow but controlled motion. The meerkats jumped as this time there was no doubt that they had definitely heard something. The torch was shining brighter than ever, as the intense beam of light smacked Nora right between the eyes.

‘My eyes, my eyes,’ Nora shrieked. ‘Can you turn that torch off at once?’ But Jack was intrigued and wanted to know who was there. He had already calculated that if these inhabitants were going to harm them, they would have done so already, so he retaliated:

‘Who’s there – you don’t scare us?’

‘We have a brave one in our midst,’ whispered Nora, as she then flapped her wings frantically, which made the torch fall out of Jack’s hand, as it plunged to the ground
.

‘Now listen here, I warned you to turn that torch off. My eyes are very sensitive and I suffer from photophobia, and if you shine that torch once more that will be the last time you see anything for a long time,’ Nora barked infuriatingly.

‘Photo what?’
but before Jack knew it, the other meerkats were screaming and running towards the dimly lit tunnel in the distance. As Jack swivelled round, his eyes were met by a pair of menacing red eyes, wildly peering at him.