Evie and the Animals Read online

  Mrs Baxter sighed. ‘If you must.’

  ‘Do you think it would be possible to build Kahlo, the rabbit, a new hutch?’

  ‘She has a hutch,’ snapped Mrs Baxter.

  ‘I mean, a bigger hutch. So she can hop about more. It seems sad for a rabbit not to be able to hop around. We could do it as a . . . as a . . . project.’

  ‘Kahlo is a rabbit. She will have the hutch she’s been given. There will be no bigger hutch. There will be no Five Star Rabbit Hotel. There will be no hutch with a swimming pool.’

  ‘I’m pretty sure rabbits don’t want swimming p—’

  Mrs Baxter flapped her hand, as if Evie was a fly at a picnic. ‘Now, Evie, we have the school inspectors coming next week and I have some very important paperwork to do. Goodbye.’

  So, Evie walked to the library.

  She handed in the Encyclopaedia of Endangered Species. She then found a book called Rabbit World. It was a book of photographs. All of rabbits. On page ninety-three there was a photo of a rabbit that looked so much like Kahlo it could actually have been Kahlo. And it was running around on a hillside full of holes, with loads of other rabbits. And even though it was a photograph, and you can’t read the thoughts inside a photograph, Evie felt very strongly that the rabbit in the picture was happy.

  And then the bell rang, so she put the book back on the shelf and walked out of the library.

  When she passed Kahlo, she felt her thoughts again. And this time she could really feel the sadness, as if it was her own. It made her whole body heavy. Evie felt she might start crying, right there in the school corridor. It was almost, for a moment, like she was the rabbit.

  ‘Oh no,’ whispered Evie to herself.

  Evie knew, in that moment, that she had no choice. She knew that if she was squashed inside the too-small hutch she would want someone to help her.

  She knew, in other words, that she was about to do something very stupid indeed.

  ‘Please,’ said Kahlo. ‘You have to help me. I have to get out of here.’

  So Evie waited for the young Year Twos to walk past her, then she went over to the hutch, unlocked its two latches and picked up Kahlo. She was heavier and warmer than Evie had imagined.

  Evie’s heart was beating fast. And so – she realised – was the rabbit’s. If she got caught, she would be in the biggest trouble of her life. She would get expelled. Or worse.

  Still carrying the rabbit, Evie ran out of school. She ran over the playground and placed Kahlo down on the grass. Kahlo, whiskers twitching, looked up at Evie.

  ‘Thank you. Thank you! You will be known as the Human Who Is Good! Thank you! Thank you . . .’

  ‘Go,’ Evie said. ‘Quick, before anyone sees.’

  And Kahlo was quick. Evie watched her hop away, towards the wooden fence at the edge of the playing field. Beyond were farm fields to the left, full of cows and bulls. To the right was Lofting Wood. The Forest of Holes, as Kahlo had put it.

  ‘Keep going,’ urged Evie, hoping the thought would reach the rabbit, who was now quite a distance from her, bouncing home towards her warren. ‘And don’t stop until you get there.’

  Evie headed back into school, hoping no one had seen what she had just done, she felt Kahlo’s fading rabbity thought hop into her mind:

  ‘If you ever need a favour, just ask.’

  How Evie Fell Out with Leonora

  vie was in Leonora’s ginormous living room.

  Leonora had texted her mum, who had texted Leonora’s dad, who had texted Evie’s dad, who had texted back to say it was okay.

  Evie hadn’t wanted to spend the evening with Leonora, but Leonora made things happen even if you didn’t want them to. Evie had been friends with Leonora all through primary school, but now they were in their final year before high school it was becoming clear that they didn’t have that much in common. They’d been the best friends in the world. They’d loved the same things and even had a special handshake and everything. But now they never did the handshake. And Leonora liked videos about make-up, and Evie liked videos about hippos and box jellyfish and how to buy less plastic. But perhaps, Evie imagined, it was good to be with Leonora, who spoke so fast and so often it was quite hard to have any kind of thoughts around her, even worried ones. And besides, Leonora had a new puppy.

  Puppies made everything better. That was science.

  But Evie was still worried. No one had noticed the rabbit was missing until afternoon break. And then Mrs Baxter had called an emergency assembly and the last hour of the school day had seen everyone in the school searching the field.

  Evie kept wishing she hadn’t said anything to Mrs Baxter about the hutch. Because surely, that night, Mrs Baxter would realise. And then tomorrow she’d be called into the office. And then her dad would be crosser than he’d ever been.

  And . . . and . . . and . . .

  Evie tried to shake all the worries and ands out of her head as she sat on the spin chair between the electric piano and the 75-inch TV. Leonora’s mum was upstairs doing yoga and her dad was out, and Leonora had told Evie to film her putting clothes on Bibi.

  Indeed Bibi, the fluffy white terrier puppy, was currently being squeezed into a tiny ballet outfit. She was already in the black leotard and next was the tutu. The puppy didn’t like this, Evie knew. Even though Bibi wasn’t putting up much of a struggle, the small soft puppy thoughts were entering Evie’s mind: ‘I hate it, I hate it, make it stop!’

  ‘I don’t think she likes this.’

  ‘Evie, shut up, we’re filming. She looks funny!’

  ‘I just don’t think she finds it funny.’

  ‘How do you know? Dogs can’t laugh. She might be laughing inside.’

  ‘She’s not laughing inside. She doesn’t like it.’

  And then Leonora grabbed the phone from her. The puppy ran away. ‘What’s the matter with you, Evie?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Well, you’re not being very fun. You are being the exact opposite of fun. You are being a BIG WORLD-RECORD BORE. Mummy says I should only have positive people in my life. That’s why she unfollowed four hundred people on Instagram. And you are not very positive. You are unpositive.’

  Then she screwed up her nose and said, ‘I can’t help it if you never knew your mum and all that.’

  Evie felt tears burn behind her eyes. It had been a very long day. ‘What has my mum got to do with anything?’

  ‘I just think maybe we shouldn’t be friends any more.’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘Fine.’

  And then Leonora said Evie should call her dad to come and pick her up. So she did. And Leonora said that the doorbell wasn’t working properly at the moment, so maybe it was best if Evie waited outside on the bench in front of the house.

  So Evie left the house and sat and waited for her dad to pick her up, feeling alone and friendless and worried that she was going to get caught for freeing Kahlo the rabbit.

  Two boys from the high school walked by, passing a football between them.

  Don’t cry, Evie thought to herself. She looked to the sky and saw three distant birds, flying high above. Maybe one was Beak. The thought of Beak, having fun in the sky, made her feel a bit happier.

  Evie looked down to her side and saw a dog.

  The dog was the scruffiest-looking thing Evie had seen in her life. It was quite a tall dog, far taller than a Maltese terrier, and a bit taller than a Labrador, but with slightly longer, shaggier hair. It wasn’t any breed Evie recognised. It was probably a mix of about three hundred breeds. The dog was dust brown with mucky off-white patches. It was scrawny, and dirty, and bits of leaves and other rubbish were hanging off it.

  ‘I am hurt,’ thought the dog.

  The easiest animals in the world to understand were dogs. Way easier than Beak. Way easier than rabbits. Dogs were so easy to mind-read and mind-chat with that Evie found it bizarre that more people couldn’t do it. In fact, dogs were too easy to unde
rstand. Evie just had to walk past a house that contained a dog and the thoughts of that creature would enter her mind.

  But if Evie walked past a dog in the street, then its thoughts would be especially clear. A fast list of smells normally. ‘Salty – sour – new wee – old wee – cat wee.’ It could be quite exhausting, especially if Evie was trying to have a conversation with someone.

  This particular scruffy dog was hobbling. Its front right paw didn’t touch the ground as the dog walked.

  ‘Hey, dog,’ said Evie out loud. ‘I can help you. Let’s look at your paw. Please. I won’t hurt you. Give me your paw.’

  Then she said the same thing, but silently. Pressing the thought into the dog’s mind.

  The dog did as Evie said. She raised his paw. Evie had a look and saw there was something sticking out of it. A little black triangle of a thorn.

  ‘I’m hurt,’ said the dog.

  ‘I know,’ thought Evie, staring at the dog. ‘What I am about to do might hurt a little, but you will feel better afterwards.’

  And the dog’s eyes seemed to sparkle at being understood.

  The dog stayed still, and he didn’t even flinch as Evie pulled out the thorn.

  She let go of the dog’s scruffy paw and it lowered to the ground.

  ‘Thank you,’ the dog said. ‘I will be able to run again. Running is my favourite.’

  Evie remembered that Beak had said the same thing about flying.

  And Kahlo had seemed to think the same thing about hopping.

  Maybe all animals had their own kinds of freedom.

  Evie wondered what it would be for humans.

  She looked at the shaggy dog and asked, ‘Have you got an owner? A home? A name?’

  ‘Scruff,’ he said. ‘That’s what the woman says. The woman who feeds me the meat the humans don’t want. At the place where they come and eat.’

  ‘A restaurant?’

  ‘I don’t know. But that’s what she calls me. I like it. Scruff.’

  ‘Cool. Well, I’m Evie.’ She said it aloud, as well as thinking it. Which made her feel a bit mad.

  A ginger tabby cat was prowling along the street. It hissed at Scruff.

  ‘Come on, Marmalade,’ Scruff told the cat. ‘We’ve been through this. I’m not going to hurt you.’

  ‘I know that,’ said Marmalade. ‘I just don’t like you. You trouble me. All dogs trouble me.’

  ‘That’s prejudice,’ said Scruff. ‘Plain and simple.’

  The cat slipped under a parked car to watch Scruff from a distance.

  Evie asked a thought-question: ‘Why do dogs and cats hate each other if they understand each other?’

  Scruff sighed a panted sigh. ‘Understand each other? Cats and dogs? We do and we don’t. A bit like humans and humans.’

  A man walked past, carrying shopping from the supermarket. He glanced at Evie but didn’t think anything weird was going on. It just looked like an eleven-year-old girl silently stroking a dog.

  Then Evie saw her dad’s car heading towards her.

  ‘Where do you live, Scruff?’ wondered Evie.

  ‘Everywhere. And nowhere.’

  ‘You don’t have an owner?’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve got dignity. I’m a free agent.’

  Scruff sniffed the ground. And did a wee against the bench.

  ‘House dogs leave their scent everywhere. It’s like they own the place. I have to keep on top of it. Let them know who really runs these streets. It’s getting ridiculous.’

  Evie’s dad’s small, battered, old green car pulled up at the kerb. ‘That’s my dad. I’d better go. But I’ll see you around, Scruff.’

  Evie stood up. Then the dog sniffed her. ‘You smell of house dog. And rabbit. And fear.’

  Evie sighed. ‘Yeah. It’s been a weird day.’

  ‘And goodness. You’ve got goodness in you. You are good, Evie. Don’t let that fade away. It sometimes does, you know, with humans.’

  Evie walked to the car and looked up towards Leonora’s bedroom.

  ‘Yeah. It does. Bye, Scruff.’

  ‘Okay. Sniff you later. Life is good.’

  Life is good.

  Evie wished she could feel the same. But right then, that’s all life seemed to be: one wish after another. She wished she could remember her mum better. She wished best friends could stay being best friends. She wished her dad talked to her more. She wished she didn’t have the knot of worry in her stomach about freeing Kahlo. But she was pleased that Scruff was no longer hurting.

  The dog trotted happily away, enjoying his newly painless paw, and although she might have lost one friend that day, Evie felt she had also made a new one.

  As she got into the car she was pleased to see her grandma, Granny Flora, sitting in the front seat. It was Wednesday. Of course. Granny Flora always came around for dinner on Wednesdays.

  Granny Flora was the best granny in the world, but there was one thing Evie didn’t know about her.

  And she was about to find out.

  Granny Flora’s Big Secret

  ranny Flora was eighty-one years old.

  She always had a twinkle in her eye and a bag of liquorice sweets in her cardigan pocket. She had a kind face, shaped like an egg, and as lined as a map. She smelled of lavender and wore tweed skirts and had a deep chuckly laugh that made you feel happy. And she liked to wink at you, just to let you know she was on your side.

  She also had a pet bearded dragon called Plato. Evie had tried many times to read the thoughts of Plato but had never been able to.

  Anyway, Plato went everywhere with Granny Flora.

  She was even there now, by Granny Flora’s ankles, eating some raw cabbage from a saucer in the middle of Evie’s living room.

  Evie’s dad was also there. Scratching his beard. Staring at his phone. ‘Sorry, but I’m going to have to repair a sofa in the garage. The people want to pick it up tomorrow.’

  Granny Flora looked at him sharply. ‘I am starting to think if we want to spend time with you we should maybe turn ourselves into a broken piece of furniture!’

  ‘Not funny,’ said Evie’s dad, with a slight smile.

  ‘Sofas don’t ever ask you how you are feeling,’ said Granny Flora. ‘I suppose that’s why you like them.’

  ‘Maybe that’s it.’

  Granny Flora winked at Evie. ‘Don’t mind us,’ she said. ‘Me and Evie will find something to talk about, I’m sure.’

  And then as soon as Evie’s dad had shuffled out of the room, Granny Flora gave Evie a liquorice and leaned back in her chair and smiled a strange smile.

  ‘It’s getting stronger, isn’t it?’ she said.

  Evie was confused. ‘What is?’

  ‘The Talent.’

  ‘What talent?’

  Granny Flora chuckled. ‘That’s what it’s called, buttercup. The Talent. You know, the ability you have. The ability to communicate with animals. Telepathically. Most animals have it instinctively. They are connected to the natural world. But very few humans have it. Not these days. Only the special ones. Like you. Like your mother. And like me.’

  Evie gasped. The words clogged her brain.

  This was TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

  She didn’t know what to say. She had never admitted to any human, apart from her dad, what she could do. She had felt like a complete weirdo. Why hadn’t her dad told her about her mum and Granny Flora?

  She knew her mum had loved animals. That’s why she had gone on a trip to the Amazon rainforest for a month. To try to protect the rainforest and the endangered animals that lived there and the WHOLE PLANET from the people who were destroying it. And that’s where she had died. She had been bitten on the ankle by a Brazilian wandering spider, the world’s deadliest spider. The one and only type of animal that Evie found hard to love.

  Evie had a million questions. But all she found herself asking was: ‘How did you know about me?’

  Granny Flora stared down at the brown-green reptile at
her feet.

  ‘Plato told me . . . He knows everything. You won’t be able to understand him yet, because these are complicated creatures. But they know a lot about the world. They see everything. Past, present, sometimes even future. And bearded dragons are the wisest of the wise . . . Oh, and someone else hinted too.’

  ‘Dad?’ Evie wondered.

  ‘No. A little birdy.’

  ‘Beak!’

  Granny Flora laughed softly. ‘Yes. He’ll tell you anything for a handful of crumbs, won’t he?’

  ‘Wow,’ said Evie, thinking aloud. ‘I’m not a freak! I’m like you! And Mum was like this too . . .’

  Granny Flora’s face grew serious, like a sky filling with clouds. ‘You must know that the Talent is not a blessing. It is a curse. It took over my life. It took over your mother’s life.’

  ‘But Mum did great things.’

  ‘Yes. And in her, the Talent grew very strong. She could communicate with every animal. Every fish, every bird, every reptile. And animals loved her. But it led her too far. She should never have gone to the rainforest.’

  Evie was confused. ‘I don’t understand something. If she was so good at talking to animals, why was she killed by one?’

  Granny Flora looked around her suddenly. As if someone might be listening in. ‘You are just like your mother. Asking questions about things that you wouldn’t want to know the answer to.’

  ‘But—’

  Granny Flora pressed a finger to her own lips. ‘Please, Evie. Listen. I know about what happened today. With the rabbit.’

  ‘How?’

  And Evie noticed Plato was staring straight at her with his small, round eyes. Evie felt a strange weak feeling as she looked at the lizard. She couldn’t hear the lizard’s mind, but she could sense his power. And it was quite scary.

  ‘As I said,’ said Granny Flora, popping a liquorice into her mouth. ‘Plato knows everything.’

  ‘Please don’t tell Dad.’

  ‘I won’t. But he is going to find out.’

  Evie felt fear chill her skin.

  ‘And that would only be the start of the trouble. Please, you must try to keep the Talent under control. You must never act on it.’