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

flower pattern, a pointy hood and lots of tassels, and which Great Aunt Olga was looking forward to seeing on her great-niece when she came to visit next spring. Ellie wondered if her mother had hidden all her other warm tops on purpose, to force her into wearing Auntie Olga's cardigan. Reluctantly she went to Jamie’s room.
“Mum, I can’t find my fleece top or my sweat tops and I’m cold,” she complained.
“Wear Aunt Olga’s cardigan,” said her mother impatiently. “Jamie is hurt and he must go to hospital. You must help me.”
“I don’t want to go to hospital,” protested Jamie.
“Don’t worry,” said Vee. “You must not get excited. Of course you have to go to hospital, but it will be all right, I am sure.”
“But I have to – have to get back to the monkeys -” He struggled to remember what had happened. “The Secret!” he exclaimed suddenly. “It attacked me with a coconut!”
“Oh no, he is delirious!” said Vee.. “Look after him Ellie, while I phone. Find his pyjama top please.”
Ellie looked down at Jamie. “You seem OK to me," she said disdainfully. “What on earth were you doing to fall out of a bunk?”
Jamie ignored her. He was trying desperately to think what he could do to help the Rainbows, who were now stranded on the Secrets’ side of the river. He feared there would be a terrible battle, and it would all be his fault.
“Where’s Dad?” he asked, hoping that perhaps his father wouldn’t agree that he needed to go to hospital.
“At work of course,” said Ellie. “It’s Saturday." Jamie's father always started work early on Saturdays.
Jamie sat up again, very slowly this time, to counteract the dizziness, and examined the wall behind his bed: the Secrets’ side of the jungle. He couldn’t see any monkeys at all.
Then Ellie, who was rummaging crossly through her stepbrother’s things, searching for his pyjama top, suddenly gasped. “Who painted that?” she exclaimed. She was staring at the short wall behind Jamie. He turned his body carefully, not daring to move his head on its own, and followed her gaze. There, on this usually plain white wall, was the raft that Jamie and the monkeys had built, half-loaded with coconuts. It wasn’t on the beach where he’d left it, though. It was on the water. The raft was adrift.
“You’ve got to help me Ellie,” said Jamie. “I need something to draw with – felt pens or something. I need to draw a bridge.” He reckoned that since the raft he’d made had appeared on the wall, a bridge he drew on the wall might appear in the jungle.
“I always said you were crazy,” said Ellie. “Did you paint that stuff on the wall?”
“You know I can’t paint as well as that,” replied Jamie.
“Lie down Jamie!” ordered Vee, coming back into the room. “Ambulance will be here soon.”
“His pyjama top isn’t anywhere,” said Ellie.
“That is very strange,” said Vee. “He must wear his other pyjamas, then.”
“I haven’t got another pair,” said Jamie. “I grew out of them and you gave them to the charity shop.”
Vee had forgotten this. “You must put clothes on then,” she told Jamie. ”I will help you.”
“No,” said Jamie quickly, “I can put my own clothes on if – if Ellie finds them for me.” Seeing Vee hesitate, he added: “I’ll get dressed lying down. I won’t stand up. Promise.”
“All right,” agreed Vee. “I must phone your father, anyway.”
“My pyjama top is there,” whispered Jamie to Ellie when Vee had left the room.
“Where?”
Jamie pointed to the halfway island, that could be seen on the wall upstream from the raft.
Ellie peered at the wall. Of course, things looked much smaller on the wallpaper than they actually were, but Ellie could make out a mottled brown, blue and dirty white rag caught on a thorn bush.
“It looks brown,” she objected. “Your pyjamas are blue and white.”
“But they're very muddy,” pointed out Jamie. “Not all the mud washed off in the river. I used the top as a tow-rope.” Then he poured out the whole story, including how he'd got in and out of the monkey world using his mobile phone. Ellie was interested enough to listen without interrupting.
Just as he finished, they heard a ring at the doorbell.
“So now you know why I need to draw a bridge – a drawbridge, so the Rainbows can escape over it and then pull it up to stop the Secrets following. You’ve got to help me!” Jamie pleaded desperately.
Before Ellie could answer, her mother came back with the ambulance people. Jamie still wasn’t dressed, so they wrapped him in a blanket before strapping him into a chair.
While they were doing this, Vee put his clothes and washing things in her bag and said to Ellie: “I must go with him. You had better come too.”
“I don’t want to,” said Ellie. “I’ll stay here. I’ll be all right. I’ve got to get my stuff ready for the swimming gala.”
“Oh my goodness,” said her mother, and Ellie could see from her face she had forgotten all about the gala. “Mum!” she said desperately. ”I must go to the gala! I’m the best in the swimming club team! And I’ve got to get there early! Ian was going to come back from work and take me in the van. But I’m never going to get there now am I?” she added bitterly.
"I am sorry Ellie, there is no way I can take you to the swimming gala," said her mother. "I will come back when Ian gets to the hospital, but then I have customers coming for fittings. You can stay here I suppose. On my way out I will ask Mrs. Wakefield to keep an eye on you."
"But Mum - " Ellie started to protest again.
Her mother wasn't listening. She was hurrying down the stairs ahead of the paramedics, who followed behind, carrying Jamie in the chair.
“Ellie!” shouted Jamie as they bore him away. “Draw the bridge yourself! It’s the only way!”
Ellie heard the door shut behind them all. Then she heard Mrs Wakefield, the old lady who lived in the flat below, calling up the stairs to her: "Ellie! Come here a minute, dear!"
Ellie went downstairs. "I'm just having some breakfast," said Mrs. Wakefield. "Would you like to have some with me?"
"No, thank you," said Ellie. "I've had cornflakes."
"All right, then, Ellie," said Mrs. Wakefield. "I won't come upstairs with you because my hip's playing up today. And there's a DVD I want to finish watching, because my friend's coming to collect it this morning. But give me a shout if you need anything, or if you're worried, won't you dear?"
Ellie said she would, and hurried back upstairs. She stomped into Jamie’s room. “Stupid, stupid boy!” she said out loud, stamping all over his duvet, which was still on the floor, wishing her feet were as muddy as Jamie’s pyjamas.
The pyjamas! What if Jamie hadn’t fallen out of bed doing something silly? What if he had really got his injury helping monkeys? A small part of Ellie began wondering if Jamie was quite so bad after all. The rest of her told that small part to shut up.
“OK,” she decided," if he wants a bridge, he can have one.” She would paint a bridge in bright, bold strokes on the wallpaper, and when their parents wanted to know who had done it, she would say it was Jamie. It would be true, in a way, she told herself, because he was the one who wanted it.
Ellie fetched art materials from her own room. But then she looked at her paint pots and brushes and decided they were too small for the job. So she went to the kitchen and fetched Ian’s brushes and a can of black gloss paint and another of red from the cupboard under the sink. Taking the biggest brush, she coated it thoroughly in black and painted a thick line from one side of the white wall right across to the other.
Ellie stepped back to look at her work and grinned. She had never in her life been this naughty before, and it was fun. She sloshed more black and red paint on, giving the bridge a floor and sides, with pillars to hold it up at each end, and even steps to get up and down. By the time she had finished, she was giggling.
She realised she had paint on Great Aunt Olga’s Cardigan and gasped. “Poor Auntie Olga,” she said aloud in a very sad voice – and collapsed into helpless giggles again.
Then she remembered the bridge was supposed to be a drawbridge. She went to find her book about castles to see how drawbridges were designed. There was a diagram in the book, showing hinges, chains and pulleys. Ellie did her best to copy it, but it was very complicated and hard to get right. She needed to try it out to see if it worked. How? Jamie's mobile wasn't there. He must have taken it with him.
Ellie looked around the room for ideas, and down in the corner near the end of the bunk, she noticed something. The window that the Rainbows had pushed Jamie through was still open. Ellie took a deep breath and put her head through.


7

Ellie in the jungle

The Rainbows couldn’t stay long to mourn Jamie when they thought he was dead. Just as they had finished pushing him through the window, a sudden barrage of coconuts came flying at them from the Secrets, and they took to their heels.
Secrets would have scattered and hidden in the jungle; but the Rainbows didn’t even think of this. In trouble or danger, they always kept together and did something. So they ran to the raft, where it lay beached, half-loaded with coconuts, and all together tried to push it home.
This was a good example of doing things first and thinking later, because none of the monkeys could swim. They might have ended up being carried helplessly down river, and over the rapids, and never seen or heard of again. But luckily, when the water was up to their chests, they got frightened and abandoned the raft.
Not used to wading they splish-sploshed clumsily back towards the shore. There, a gang of Secrets lined the bank and barred their way. The Rainbows were obliged to stay in the water, with the uncomfortable feeling of it sloshing round their knees. For about half an hour they tried to dodge the Secrets, and the Secrets blocked their way. Then, the Secret on the end of the row suddenly whispered something to the next, who passed it along the line, and they all ran off. At last the Rainbows could get back onto dry land.
The words that had been whispered were: "Human! Another human! Let’s get her!” because the Secret had caught sight of Ellie hanging onto a chain, trying to see if her drawbridge worked. It didn’t: but maybe that was just as well, because Ellie had drawn it on the wrong side of the river – the Secrets’ side! She had just realised this, when she felt several small but strong hands close around her arms and legs, and she was whisked away into the jungle by green monkeys.
They pulled and pushed her through a tunnel in the undergrowth, and finally laid her down, on her back, on something soft. She couldn’t get up, because six or seven monkeys were sitting on her legs and arms.
“What shall we do with her, Softpad?” one of them asked another.