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| 3. Goose in Pieces |
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The great doorbell rang bright and early at Stepminder Castle. My niece Edna rushed down to greet her best friend, Doctor Chloe Grant.
Chloe had driven 97.23 kilometres up from the Molly Malone Hospital in Edna's yellow Beetle...the almost new car Edna was no longer allowed to drive herself, because of her epilepsy.
Chloe was keen to find out how the professor had been keeping.
'You've been taking your tablets as instructed?' she asked. 'In the right order and at the right times?'
'Of course,' my niece replied. 'I am still a doctor, and don't you forget it! And I haven't had any seizures in ages.'
Over a nice cup of cranberry and raspberry-flavoured tea, the two ladies pooh-poohed new hospital boss Sir Alan Sweetstuff and discussed Edna's plans for the future and the castle she now owned.
She was going to turn it into a medical museum which she'd use to teach children lifesaving first aid skills...an idea she got from Maud Pinkerton yesterday.
And talking of Maud, there was a boat to be picked up from Pinkerton Farm... Chloe could drive them both down there straight away to collect it. They might get a little fishing done before Chloe left to get the train back down to the Molly Malone.
*
If secret agent Ben Madigan hadn't run out of petrol on his way to the golf course, he'd have witnessed a strange scene indeed: the Scottish Fire Fighters finally beating the Scottish Police team after ten years of trying.
Unfortunately it took Ben over an hour to walk the four miles to the nearest filling station; even longer to walk back to the trike with his can of petrol.
And by the time he got there, he was in more need of a good feed in his own belly tank than a long drive north to watch golf.
A familiar car pulled up alongside him. Rachel McGinty was on her way to work at the roadside cafe, after feeding the one-eared dog and leaving him free to roam her front garden.
She knew Ben well. She also knew he was diabetic and was able to help him check his sugar level with the tiniest drop of blood onto his pocket-sized gadget.
The glucometer showed a result of 2.3 - not nearly good enough to be driving anywhere. He'd had his insulin injection earlier as usual, followed by a good breakfast, but hadn't bargained on breaking down or two long walks in the warm sunshine.
Rachel gave him a lift to the cafe and a healthy lunch before letting him have a lie-down in a back room for a little doze...but only after the glucometer showed a new result of 5.1 - much better!
*
The Scottish Police golfers had left the course in rather a hurry. They were furious at losing to the Fire Fighters of course, but more importantly, they'd been beaten twice the previous day as well, by the Scottish Train Drivers and the Scottish Window Cleaners.
They were on a run of bad form which needed to be fixed before this evening's matches against the Scottish Teachers and the Scottish Librarians. Tomorrow they were off to Ireland after an even bigger prize:
THE INTERNATIONAL POLICE GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP.
The Fire Fighters, meanwhile, were too busy counting their own trophies and singing karaoke in the clubhouse to realise something was missing: a certain rubber goose was...
NOW IN POLICE CUSTODY - KIDNAPPED YET AGAIN!
...and on his way to a course in the far north-west of Scotland.
Ben Madigan would never reach there today, even with a full belly and a full petrol tank.
Besides, he was still fast asleep in the back room at the roadside cafe.
*
In the front garden of Rachel McGinty's flat, the one-eared dog was becoming restless. He'd spent all day just watching the ships going in and out of the nearby harbour. Other than that, nothing much had happened.
He preferred a little excitement; burglars and heart attacks were more his scene.
The biggest boat of all was now making its way slowly up the lough. The name on the front said 'Mourne Maiden'.
He figured that must be something to do with the Morne Mountains in Northern Ireland, and for a second he felt a little sick...a sort of HOMEsick...though he couldnt think why.
The ship's horn sounded and startled him. His one good ear shot up and he spun round quickly. Only then did he spot the sign on the wall of the flats:
NO DOGS ALLOWED
By order of the Council
Well, he knew where he wasn't wanted, and off he bolted through a small gap in the fence, racing the Mourne Maiden to harbour.
Running at high speed though, in a cloud of smoke from a ships funnel, isn't such a good idea...especially for a one-eared dog ...with ASTHMA!
*
Nor was it such a good idea to jump from a plane at two hundred feet without a parachute. But that's exactly what a certain little goose with glasses did above the rocks of the Giants Causeway, in the far north of Ireland.
You see, thanks to him, the Scottish Police Golf Team had just won their matches against the Teachers and the Librarians, and now they'd been flying him across the Irish Sea as team mascot for the BIG INTERNATIONAL prize.
So as Professor Edna Dunlambert and Doctor Chloe Grant launched the little fishing boat into the sea beside Stepminder Castle, Ben Madigan was launching one leg over his trusty trike, finally on the road again and heading off in search of a catch of his own.
But for some strange reason, his tracking device wasn't receiving a signal from the microchip in the goose's knee.
And as the little goose lay IN PIECES on strangely shaped Irish rocks, the one-eared dog lay gasping for breath on the Scottish shore.
Watch out for the next blog - coming soon |
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