Double Trouble : Farm Capers Read online

  Chapter 9

  Back at the lodge, I sat on the mattress of the bed. I was tired. I glanced at my watch. Three o’clock. I decided to pack out a few of my things. I opened my suitcase, and the closet door. I packed out my clothes and three pairs of my sneakers and some socks. “Jacqui!” I heard mom calling to me from downstairs. “Yes mom?” “Do you have dry clothes on yet?” she asked. “Uh, no, but my bath water is still running.” “OK, great” she replied. I went over to my own bathroom and felt the water. Just right. I closed the door. I got some clean clothes together, and climbed into the bath. After my bath, I washed and dried my hair. I went back to my room, and saw it was four o’clock because there was a big round clock hanging just above my bed. I decided to open up the room a little. I opened the curtains and the door to the balcony. “Wow!” I cried as I saw beautiful horses, running together in a big enclosure. I hope we get to ride one. I went back to my suitcase and took out my bedcovers and cushions. I covered the bed and saw a few Goosebumps books in my empty suitcase. ‘Night of the living dummy’, ‘Welcome to dead house’ and ‘Piano lessons can be murder.’ I put them on my bedside table. Then I heard a knock on the door. I walked over to the door and swung the door open. Luke, Shane and Danny stood there. Luke has his soccer ball with him. “Wanna play some ball?” Luke asked. I turned to my room, walked over to the balcony and closed the balcony door. “Okay” I replied.

  Chapter 10

  We found ourselves next to the swimming pool, throwing each other the ball. It was a very hot day. The sky was clear. Luke was standing with his back to the pool. I was standing right in front of him. Shane and Danny were sitting on the bench, waiting for one of us to miss the ball. If one of us missed the ball, it was Danny’s turn. And after that, Shane’s. I caught the ball and threw it back to Luke. He missed and the ball landed in the pool. “Luke” I blamed. “Look what you’ve done! And you think you can catch so well!” “It wasn’t my fault! You threw it too high!” “No I didn’t!” “Yes you did!” “Alright, I’ll just get it myself,” I said, walking over to the pool. I bent over, felt a hard push and landed in the pool! I was holding my breath under the water and came up immediately. “Who did this” I asked, knowing I won’t get an answer. “Nobody, Jacqui. You fell.” Luke said, trying hard not to laugh. But I knew he wanted to. “Yeah right. Like I’m gonna believe that!” Then I saw Luke was still standing where he was when were still playing ball, and Shane and Danny were still on the bench. “MOM!” I shouted “Somebody pushed me in the pool!” I walked up to my room and slammed the door shut. It was the second time today that I was all wet and soaky. I looked up at the clock. Six o’clock. I yanked the closet door open. I pulled out my Cape storm T-shirt, jeans, sneakers and a jumper. I threw my wet clothes on the floor, put the clothes on, and rushed down the stairs in time for dinner. On the table, I saw there was a big plate of turkey in the middle, a bowl of string beans sand a bowl of egg salad next to the string beans. I slumped into a chair next to Danny – I can smell the disgusting smell of the string beans. “Jacqui, here’s your food,” Mom handed me a plate. Oh no. Mom had put in a lot of string beans. A lot. Mom stood up, took more plates, and began putting more food in them. While mom was still putting more food in the plates, I imagined that all my string beans just disappeared. I wish. When I looked again, I saw that everyone had plates in front of them, ready to eat. Well, here we go. I picked up my knife and fork. I decided to begin with the egg salad. I took a bite. Okay. Better than string beans. When I was still deep in thought, I felt a hurtful “slap” on my arm. It came from Luke’s side. I turned around. Luke looked at me with an evil smile. I slapped him back. He slapped me again. When I wanted to slap him again, he yanked away, and I went further to get him. My elbow felt a hurtful “bang”. I felt something hard and squishy hit my arm. Luke shouted: “You tipped over my plate!” I looked, and saw food everywhere. On the table, on my arm, on Luke’s lap and on the floor. I looked up and saw Danny and Shane staring at me with their mouths open. Mom and Dad gazed at me angrily. “He did it!” I said, pointing to Luke. “Are you mad?” Luke shouted. “You started it, Luke. If you didn’t hit me in the first place, none of this would have happened” I said, my heart beating. “Jacqui, clean up!” Mom and dad both said at the same time. “Okay.” I took a napkin and went under the table. I wiped up the mess and threw away the napkin. Mom was putting some more food into Luke’s plate. I sat on the chair again and went back to wondering what I will do with the string beans. A few minutes later, while everyone was still enjoying their dinner, I put all my string beans in a napkin secretly, and put it in my pocket. I ate the rest of my dinner and went to my room. Suddenly I remembered something – the string beans in my pocket. Then I had an idea. Buster. He loved string beans. I walked to the door and called Buster. “Buster! Come here boy!” he came trotting up the stairs. He came into the room and I closed the door. I reached into my pocket to get the napkin. I took it out of my pocket and threw it on the floor for Buster to eat. I bent over to the floor and unfolded the napkin. He sniffled. He sniffled some more. He started licking it, and ate it up. I sent him outside my room, and threw the napkin away. I opened my closet door and took out my boxers and a T-shirt. I put on my pyjamas and slid into bed. I clicked on the light and opened my ‘Welcome to dead house’ book. I read a little. I decided to look at the clock. Quarter past nine. I put the book back on my bedside table and clicked off the light.

  Chapter 11

  I woke up in the morning with the smell of fried eggs and bacon shifting through the room. I lifted up the covers and jumped out of bed. There was a sunny dim light shining into the room. I walked over to the window and opened the curtains. The morning sun was really bright as I looked out of the window. I walked over to the door and stumbled over the clothes I wore yesterday night. I kicked them out of the way, sighing. I was too lazy to pick up the clothes and throw it in the washing! I opened the door and walked towards the stairs. I saw Luke and Shane’s door was closed, but Danny’s was open. Luke and Shane were probably sleeping late. Like always. Danny’s the early bird. I walked slowly down the stairs, very tired. When I finally walked to the table, my stomach felt a growl. I sat on a chair saying morning to mom, dad and Danny. Mom had a spatula in her hand. She walked to the kitchen and came back with a few plates. She put them on the table and went back into the kitchen. Shane and Luke came down the stairs, yawning. Shane sat down next to me and Luke sat next to dad, who was sitting next to an empty chair, probably mom’s. Mom came back with a plate of fried eggs, and a bowl of bacon in her hands, and put it in the middle of the table. She went into the kitchen and came back with toast and pancakes on a plate. She put it next to the fried eggs and bacon, and told us we could dish up. She sat down on the empty chair. I dished up as quickly as I could because I was very hungry. When all of us started to eat, dad asked us what we were going to do today. “Can we ride the horses please?” I asked excitedly. “Of course,” dad said, shoving a spoon full of eggs into his mouth. I took a bite out of my pancakes. I love it when mom bakes pancakes for breakfast. “Thanks dad.” “Just be careful,” he said. “Okay.” I said, gulping a big mouthful of orange juice. I vanished my breakfast, got dressed and bounced down the stairs, ready to have fun with the horses. “Dad?” I asked, hurrying into the kitchen. “Yes?” he replied. He was washing the dishes. “Can I go ride the horses now?” “Yep. Just take the boys with you.” “Okay.” I ran up the stairs and went to Danny’s room. He was reading one of the Goosebumps books. He was reading ‘The scarecrow walks at midnight.’ He’s the only boy in the whole school that I’ve seen with a book. “Hey, Danny” He looked up at me. “Want to go ride the horses?” I asked. Danny nodded and followed me.

  Chapter 12

  “So we can’t ride horses today?” “No, sorry.” Brandon said. He was th
e horse minder. You know, the guy who stands in front of the enclosure to make sure the horses don’t jump over the gate or something. “One of them got sick with a disease. And now all of them have it. But it’s not so bad. They can’t get killed or anything. It just makes them tired, so that’s why you can’t ride one of them. They are too tired to run.” “Oh, okay. Thank you.” I said, walking away, very disappointed. “Come guys”. Luke, Shane and Danny jogged up towards me. “What are we going to do now?” Danny asked. “I’m not really in the mood for anything. Let’s just take a walk around the farm.” So we walked, and walked, and walked. We were walking past enclosures, lakes, stables and even ducks, when I heard when suddenly I heard a splat and felt that I had stepped in something. I looked down, and a horrifying thought ran through my mind. I lifted my foot and saw I had stepped in cow dung. Gross! I scraped my foot off on a tree log. So, back to the ducks: some were grey and some were white, some were sleeping and others were fighting, snapping their beaks at each another.We passed all that, not even thinking where we were going and how we got here. I heard footsteps behind me, and as I turned around, there stood a cow. “Oh no!” I said, “This cow must have gotten out of the enclosure. Let’s just walk away, otherwise they will think we did it!”We spun around and walked away. As we were walking, I tripped over a tree root. I fell on my face. Pain shot through my whole body. I stood up, wiped my face, and kept on walking. So embarrassing, I thought. But somehow, while we were walking I got over it. It wasn’t so bad, anyway. I was so tired of walking and keeping my eyes open, I just slumped against the nearest tree. The boys sat next to me. Sitting down felt so good. I don’t know how long we were walking. I looked at my watch and saw it was 11h00. It felt like hours. Suddenly, we all heard a big bang. We were all very curious to know what it was. For a few minutes, we all remained silent. Suddenly, Danny jumped up, and told me, Shane and Luke that he wants to go look and see what happened, and I said no. “Please?” he pleaded. “No. I’m too tired to walk any further,” I said. “But you don’t have to come. I just want to have some excitement. This day was really boring.” “Okay fine. But hurry back. We have to go back to the lodge.” “Okay. Thanks.” He started running towards the right side of the road. Oh no. The road. There wasn’t a road on the farm. Only bricks. “Hey, Luke?” I started. “Yeah?” “Did you see any roads while we were on the farm? You know, concrete roads?” “No.” We stared at each other in fright.

  Chapter 13

  “We have to find Danny and search for the farm!” I said. The next thing I knew, we were running side-to-side in the direction Danny went. When we came to a stop, all we saw were houses. It looked like a neighbourhood. On the far left side, the road carried on. “There!” Shane shouted, pointing to the road. We all started running. When we got there we all saw a familiar sight. It said: ‘Car wash’. Behind the sign, there was a wood. Just trees and grass. “What if he’s in there?” Luke asked, pointing to the wood. “Why would he be in there?” I asked. I felt so tired. I just wish we could have ridden the horses. Then none of this would have happened. We ran in the direction of the car wash. “Maybe he went to the shop, you know, the farm grocery,” Shane said while we were running on the pavement. Then the car wash came into view. Ignoring what he said, I suggested: “Let’s go look there, just in case.” I felt a sharp pain in my side. But I didn’t care. I just had to find my little brother. We stopped right in front of the gas station. We searched everywhere around the gas station. Then we ran to the car wash on the left side of the station and saw the same guys we saw yesterday. “Excuse me, did you see a boy that looks just like him?” I asked hopefully, pointing at Luke. “UH no, sorry.” The guy with the long blond hair said. They were all sitting on chairs, looking very tired. “OK, thank you.” We all walked away sadly. “I wish Danny could just approach from the middle of nowhere and we could go back to the lodge and go get lunch,” Luke complained. “Yeah, me too.” Shane said. “Let’s just go to the lodge and tell mom and dad that Danny is missing”. Maybe he’ll be back at the lodge after all,” I suggested. “Yeah, but how do we find the lodge?” Luke asked. “Didn’t you see the sign? It said car wash. We’ve been here before. That means we just have to go the opposite way. Let’s go!” I shouted and started running. Luke and Shane tried to catch up with me. We ran as fast as we could and before we knew it, we were in front of the lodge. I was panting so loud even the boys could hear me. We walked into the lodge and called for mom and dad. They were sitting at the table eating lunch. It was twelve o’clock. “Hey mom! We can’t find Danny. We were walking and we heard this BANG and…” “WHOA, whoa, whoa… hold on now” Dad stood up and walked towards me. “Start at the beginning.”“Okay,” I told them the whole story. Mom suggested we eat before we keep on looking for Danny. “Danny is a smart child. He’ll come back” she said. I could tell she was scared, I could see she had fear in her eyes. “Just eat something. I made toasted ham and cheese sandwiches.” “I’m not hungry. I want to go look for Danny.” “Okay” mum said. “But take Buster with you. The leash is in the kitchen. We’ll drive around and look for him.” “Okay.” I jogged up to the kitchen and grabbed the leash. “Buster! Here boy!” Buster came trotting down the stairs and ran up to me. I put the leash on him and called for Luke and Shane. Luke was arguing with mom, as usual. I couldn’t hear what he was saying but now I didn’t care. All I cared about was finding Danny. Shane and Luke came stomping to me, looking very disappointed. “Come, let’s look for Danny,” Shane said, and walked towards the door. “Wait!” we’ve already looked everywhere. We have to think of a place where we haven’t looked,” I said. “The woods!” Luke shouted. We all started running. We ran out of the door and in the direction in which we had walked out of the farm. We stopped at the tree where we rested before. We were all panting so loudly. We were tired but as tired as I was, I would never give up looking for my little brother. Poor Buster was probably just as tired as the rest of us! “Come, let’s go!” I said, “We can’t sit here and wait for the day to go by. We gotta go find Danny.” We all stood up and jogged the way we went to find the woods. When we got there, we walked slowly into the woods. “What if there are snakes? I can’t afford to be bitten by a snake,” Luke complained. “Well, if there are snakes, live with it,” I said. Shane just ignored me. Actually, I felt sorry for him. I can’t believe I was so mean. I’m just really stressed. If we don’t find Danny, I’ll be the one to blame. If only the horses weren’t sick. If we could have just ridden the horses, we wouldn’t have been in this mess. I was so deep in thought that I felt a sudden “tug” on the leash. When I looked again I saw that the leash had slipped out of my hand and Buster was running towards the trees. “Oh no! Not now!” Shane said, and started running. Luke and I started running as well. I can’t believe myself. First I lose Danny. Now I lost Buster. I was panting so hard and I was so tired. I felt like I could just fall asleep. We ran and ran. We came to a stop at a large boulder. I looked around. I saw trees, bushes, plants: imagine what it would be like to live here. “Okay. Let’s all split up and look for Buster. And if possible, try not to get lost,” I directed. I went to the right side of the woods. Luke went to the left side. Shane just kept on going forward. As I was walking, I saw some rabbits. White rabbits. It looked like a family. A big fat rabbit and a slightly smaller one, with a few babies. While I was still deep in my thoughts, I heard a bark. “Buster!” I heard Luke’s voice. “I found you!” I turned around, and ran in the direction where I heard Luke’s voice. When Buster, Luke and Shane came into my sight I saw something unusual.

  Chapter 14

  “I wanna call him Spike.” “I wanna call him Blacky.” “You guys,” I put a stop to the fight. “Let’s think of it this way. Why do you wanna call him Spike, Luke?” “Because it’s a cool name for a black Labrador puppy.” Yep. Y
ou got it. While Buster was missing, he picked up a little stray puppy. “We don’t even know if we are allowed to adopt the puppy. Shane, why do you want to call him Blacky?” “Because he’s black.” “That name stinks!” Luke snapped rudely. “It doesn’t. The name Spike stinks!” “You guys. Stop arguing. We don’t even know if we can keep the puppy. I say we take him home, ask mom and dad if we can keep him, and then think of a name.” “Aren’t you forgetting something? Luke asked. “What about Danny? We still got to find him.” “We will. Let’s just take this puppy home, then we’ll find him,” I insisted. We started to walk out of the woods and back to the farm. I was carrying the puppy, Luke was holding Buster’s leash, and Shane was just walking along, still arguing with Luke. “You’re not even in our family. You can’t decide what the puppy’s name is gonna be.” Luke snapped at Shane. “Oh yes I can! I was just helpin’ out!” “Oh yeah sure!” Luke shouted. While they were still arguing, I looked at the puppy. Even if we’re not gonna keep him, we could still take care of him for a while. I’m gonna bath him, brush him, and feed him. He looks kind of hungry. I looked up and saw we were coming to a stop at the big electronic gate that leads to the lodge. The gate opened and we walked up to our apartment. The door was closed. Mom and dad probably weren’t back yet. “Mom! Dad!” Luke shouted, pounding on the door. “Give it up, Luke. They aren’t home. We’ll just wait outside. We were all startled as the door suddenly opened. “Danny!” Luke shouted. “You’re back! Where were you?” “I was at the farm shop. When I went to see what happened, I was getting thirsty, and decided to go to the farm shop to buy myself something to drink. When I was at the till, I saw mom and dad walk into the shop. As soon as they saw me, they took me home.” “Danny! I’m so glad you’re back!” I said, feeling very relieved. “Look who we found while we were looking for you.” I said. I showed him the puppy. “Aw! He’s so cute! Are we gonna keep him?” “We don’t know yet. We still have to show mom and dad.” I replied. “Okay. Let’s go show them,” Danny said. We all followed as he ran in the house. I tried to walk fast because I didn’t want to run with the puppy in my hands. We saw mom in the kitchen. “Mom, mom, mom!” Danny shouted. Jacqui Luke and Shane picked up a puppy while they went to look for me in the woods!” “Uh-uh” Mom mumbled. She was very busy chopping the tomatoes for the salad. She finally stopped and threw the tomatoes in the bowl. “What did you say, honey?” Mom looked up. “We found a puppy!” Shane said. I showed mom the puppy. “Can we keep him? Please?” Luke pleaded. “We’ll see about that. I first have to discuss it with your father. But until then, we can take care of him for a little while.” “Yes! Thank you so much mom!” Danny said giving mom a hug. “Okay, first I’ll discuss this with your father. In the meantime, you feed and bath the puppy. Mother left the kitchen and went up the stairs. “Luke, get me Buster’s bowl, please?” I asked, looking in the fridge for some chunky puppy food. I took out the Petley’s tin. Luke gave me the bowl and I put in some food. “Here you go, puppy,” I said while putting the bowl on the floor. While the puppy was eating, Buster licked the puppy’s ear. “Aw, that’s so cute!” Shane exclaimed. Deep in thought, I was startled as mom came down the stairs, saying: “Sorry, you guys. Your dad said no.” “Why? There’s got to be a reason.” Danny said. “He said it will be too difficult for Buster and the puppy to get along,” mom replied. “Mom, look at this” I said pointing to Buster, still licking the puppy’s ear. Mom ran back up the stairs, calling dad. Dad came rushing down the stairs with mom behind him. “What is so important that I just had to drop everything I was doing?” dad sounded pretty angry. As soon as dad saw Buster licking the puppy’s ear, I said: “Now do you think they’ll get along?” “Please can we keep him dad, please please please? Danny pleaded. “We’ll see.” Dad said. “Take care of him for a while, and then I’ll decide if you can keep him.” “Yaay! Thanks Dad!” Luke shouted. When the puppy was finished with his food, I asked Luke to get a bucket and shampoo. Luke brought me the bucket and I filled it up with a little bit of water. I put the puppy in the water, and washed him with the shampoo. When the puppy was dry, I put on some flea powder so that the fleas won’t bite him. After that, I took some of Buster’s toys and played with the puppy. I was so hungry. Mom called us and said we have to have lunch. Mom asked if she could hold him while we ate. I gobbled up my salad and toasted cheese sandwiches. When I was done, I took the puppy up to my room and put him on my bed. I sat next to him and picked up one of my Goosebumps books.