The Rainbows and the Secrets, Christine Cox [first ebook reader .txt] 📗

Then they had to raise the bridge up so that it was above the water level. They decided to build a stack of stones on either side, to support the tree trunks, but they needed a support midway across as well. In the end they solved that problem by using the island where Jamie had left his pyjama top. It was rocky and stuck up out of the water, and did the job very well.
They wouldn't have been able to do any of this if they hadn't had help from the hippos. It was Jamie's idea to ask those animals for assistance, but no-one thought it would work. Why would hippos be interested in anything but mud and grass? The hippos, however, turned out to be most obliging creatures when spoken to nicely. They were extremely useful in breaking down tree trunks, moving them around, and carrying things (including children, and a few brave monkeys) out into the water.
But there was a snag. Hippos were all sweetness and light when in a good mood. In a bad mood, a hippo could be most destructive. And hippos could get into a bad mood very quickly. It was very easy to upset them.
One day, when the first half of the bridge was in place, some Rainbows were having a friendly mango fight to celebrate. A flying mango struck a hippo in the face, and split. Eyes stinging from the mango juice, and with bits of mango up his nose, the hippo was in a rage. He lowered his head. He was about to charge at the bridge and trample it, destroying all their work. Jamie saw it and knew he had to act fast.
He stood in front of the furious hippo (which was very brave, but rather dangerous), and said the first thing that came into his head. "Stupid monkeys! Don't let them get to you! They're so stupid they - they think it's good to put mango on their faces, so they thought you'd like it too! They think they look better with mango all over their mugs, and -well- monkeys are so ugly, it's probably true!" Jamie picked up the nearest Rainbow and squashed a mango into his face to demonstrate. "You like that, don't you?" he said, covering the victim's mouth when he tried to squeak :"No!"
It wasn't a very funny joke at all, but hippos have a simple sense of humour. Fortunately this one found the squealing, squirming, bright red, mango-faced monkey amusing. He gave a few deep, ground-shaking guffaws, and lumbered off to wash his face in the mud.
This was just one example: there were lots of times when Jamie had to calm the hippos down. He became good at it. There were many squabbles among the monkeys too. And on top of that, they all had to work in the teeming rain; yet somehow the bridge got built, and everyone was delighted with it.

The coconut stores should have been easier. They decided to build two, one on either side of the river, to make it fair. They started the one on the Rainbows' side first. They shaped it like a wigwam, with long thin tree trunks standing in a circle, coming together at the top, where they were firmly bound with creepers. Then they wove palm leaves in and out of the poles. At first it went well. The rain had stopped, and the monkeys worked happily, side by side, for a while, Secrets and Rainbows together.
But one morning disaster struck again. They had built most of the wigwam the day before, and when the sun rose, the monkeys started work, eager to finish it. All over the wigwam monkeys were weaving busily. A small group of Rainbows was working near the top, when suddenly one of them turned pale blue, then orange, then pale blue again. "Monkey!" he shouted. "Monkey in the river! Monkey drowning!"
Everyone turned to look, some scrambling up higher to see, others scrambling down to run to the river bank. The wigwam was awkward: it was too big, and they hadn’t stuck the poles in the ground firmly enough. The commotion unbalanced the wigwam, and it came toppling down, bringing the weavers with it.
No-one was badly hurt, but they were bruised, and shaken, and bitterly disappointed at the ruin of all their hard work. A lot of shouting broke out. "Stupid Rainbow!" yelled a Secret. "What did you have to say that for?"
"They always get over-excited," complained another Secret. "I knew we shouldn't work with them. Look at me! I'm covered in bruises, and I've banged my head. Ow!"
"It was one of yours," retorted the Rainbow who had raised the alarm. He was bruised himself, and didn't consider that any of this was his fault. "It was a Secret I saw drowning. I was just trying to help. He's probably drowned now."
"You're imagining things!" accused someone else. "Typical Rainbow!"
"I didn't imagine, I saw it. I saw a Secret float by, hanging onto a piece of wood."
"Maybe it was one of their Outlaws," suggested another Rainbow, "one of the Murderers." ("Outlaws" was one of the labels they had given to Shadow and his two followers. "Murderers" was the other.) "Good thing too, in that case."
The squabbling got worse:
"What if you did see it, you didn't have to knock the wigwam down, did you?"
"Me knock it down!"
"Stupid Rainbows! Useless at building! Ruined everything!"
"At least we aren't murderers!"
"Who are you calling murderers?"
"Shut up!" shouted Jamie. "We'll never get this thing built if you don't shut up and listen to each other!"
"Never get it built anyhow!"
"It's hopeless."
"I'm off."
"Same here."
Several of the monkeys had wandered off already, and others were leaving.
"Come back!" Jamie called after them, but they ignored him..
"Maybe it is hopeless," he said to Ellie. She had just come back from the riverbank, where she'd been looking for the "drowning monkey", but had seen no sign of it. If there had been one, it had gone now. "I've had enough of monkeys. Maybe we should just go home and forget all about them."
But Ellie was listening to something else. "What's that noise?" she said suddenly.


19

The return of the outlaw

There was a sound of heavy feet squelching through the mud at the water's edge. The children looked up and were astonished to see a hippo coming towards them, with something on its back. The hippo stopped in front of them, and deposited the "something" on the ground at their feet. It was green, wet, and hairy; and apparently alive, because it was shivering. Except for the shivers, it lay motionless where the hippo had dropped it.
Two Secrets, still squatting nearby, came forward and rolled the 'thing' over onto its back. "One-eye!" they cried, recognising the Outlaw. "We don't want him here!" they told the hippo. "He's a Murderer. Take him back where you found him - or drop him in the river. It's what he deserves."
"I've just pulled him out of the river," objected the hippo.
"Please," gasped One-eye, "I didn't murder anyone! It was Shadow - and it was an accident."
"You kidnapped Ellie, you and your friends," said Jamie. "You took her down a dangerous cliff. You were going to keep her prisoner. Shadow attacked Softpad, and made him fall. Snapper fell trying to save him. It's your fault they're dead, yours and the other Outlaws'. You deserve to be called murderers."
"Sorry," gasped One-eye, "very, very sorry. Didn't mean to kill anyone. Didn't want to take Ellie onto the ledge. Tried to stop Shadow." One-eye turned over again and curled up in a sobbing, shivering heap.
"But you told me lies about a baby parrot that was hurt," said Ellie. "You were part of the plan."
"I'm sorry," said One-eye again. "I know it was very bad, what I did. But Shadow just told me to go and get you. He didn't say why. He said: 'Make up a reason, otherwise she might not come, because she's probably angry with us.' I didn't know he meant to kidnap you."
"You tied me up," Ellie reminded him.
The small monkey was still hiding his face in shame. He said in a very quiet voice: "I was - I was scared of Shadow. And I wanted him to like me. He was the only friend I had. But I didn't put the creeper round your mouth. He wanted me to, but I wouldn't. I didn't want to hurt you. I said we shouldn't take you on the ledge."
"But you went onto the ledge with the others," objected Jamie.
"I know," mumbled One-eye. "I thought I had to do what Shadow said. It was wrong, and I'm very, very sorry. I'm so sorry those two monkeys are dead." Then he suddenly lifted his head and shoulders and turned to look at Ellie. "But I tried to save you, Ellie," he continued. "I tried to save you by sending a message with the Secret music, honestly, I did! I sent the Warning Music to Softpad - that's why he came and found us!"
Jamie and Ellie looked at each other. They didn't know if One-eye was telling the truth.
`Jamie changed the subject. "Where did you find One-eye?" he asked the hippo.
"At the grazing ground. He climbed onto my back - trying to get coconuts out of the river or something - as if there'd be any down that end! There was another monkey with him. Bigger than this one. Stupid-looking. And ignorant. No manners at all," said the hippo.
"Thrasher!" cried the two Secrets together.
"They both fell in," continued the hippo. "Big stupid one floated off downstream, hanging onto a tree branch. Probably gone over the rapids by now."
"I told you!" interrupted the Rainbow who had raised the "drowning monkey" alarm. "I told you a Secret floated by with some wood!"
"That must have been him," said Ellie. "It must have been Thrasher."
"This one was half-drowned too," said the hippo, nodding towards One-eye. "I fished him out, nearly dead. He asked me to bring him to you."
"Where's Shadow?" demanded Jamie, of the blubbering heap that was One-eye. "Stop that noise, and sit up, and tell us what Shadow's up to."
Slowly, One-eye turned over and sat up. "Could I -" he begged in a whisper, "could I just have a tiny bit to eat? I feel so weak."
Ellie hesitated, then handed him a half-coconut that someone had left nearby. He nibbled a little of the flesh, then said: "Shadow's dead."
"Dead!" exclaimed Jamie.
"Dead!" the murmur went round the little crowd of monkeys, which was growing bigger again..
"Then you're the only one left of the Murderers," said Jamie.
"Not a murderer," muttered One-eye. "But sorry. So sorry I didn't stop them. I want to make up for it. Came back to say to say sorry. Came back to make up for it."
"You can't make up for it," Ellie said. "You can't bring those dead monkeys back."
"Get on with the story," said Jamie. "Tell us how Shadow died."
One-eye explained how Shadow had collapsed from hunger and exhaustion on their way to the jungle. He told them how he, One-eye, had asked the hippo to help him get the coconuts he thought he saw in the river, and had fallen in when Thrasher annoyed the hippo. "I sank deeper and deeper," he said, "and I couldn't breathe. But then suddenly - I must have had a dream while I was down there, because suddenly - all the cold water and darkness had gone, and I was in a warm, dry place and comfortable, and not even