A Penguin Problem Read online

  She grinned as her eye fell on a large clock tower that Freddie was building right in the middle of the window. Of course. A big tower was the obvious target. Now she just had to set up a little surprise for anyone who tried to knock it over …

  As soon as her aunt took Freddie off to bed, Willow set to work. She nipped behind the shop counter and found the ball of string, which her aunt sometimes used for wrapping parcels. She hid the string at the base of the tall clock tower and stared thoughtfully above it. As luck would have it, there was a hook in the ceiling directly above the tower, where her aunt often hung puppets or costumes. ‘Perfect,’ she said under her breath.

  ‘What are you plotting?’ Toby asked curiously, seeing her gazing up at it.

  ‘I’m plotting to catch a croc,’ Willow said with a grin. ‘He’s in for a shock tonight all right!’

  * * *

  Willow was tired that evening but forced herself to stay awake until Auntie Suzy had gone to bed. Then she got up with Toby and crept into the utility room where the cleaning things were kept. There was just enough moonlight shining through the window for Willow to see the big red bucket that was stowed with the mop in the corner.

  Toby rubbed his eyes with his paws. ‘What do you need that for?’ he whispered as Willow carried him and the bucket downstairs to the shop.

  Willow explained her plan in a low voice. ‘We’re going to tie one end of the string to the bucket handle and hang it upside-down from the ceiling hook above the tower of blocks,’ she hissed. ‘Then I’ll wedge the rest of the string tightly inside the tower. As soon as the tower gets knocked over, the string will be released … and the bucket will fall down on Croc!’

  Toby held up his paw for a high-five. ‘Genius,’ he said, with a low rumbly laugh. ‘Utter genius.’

  Willow high-fived him with a grin. ‘Come on,’ she said, ‘let’s set up the trap. We’ll have to be quiet though, so we don’t wake the other Hoozles.’

  She gently pushed the shop door open then tiptoed through. It was dark in there, but she could just make out the shadowy figures of the sleeping Hoozles up on the shelf. Taking great care not to make a sound, Willow crept over to the building-block tower and lifted out the ball of string. Then she pulled out about two metres of it, and handed the end to Toby, who scrambled up the nearest shelf and, leaning out daringly, managed to throw it over the ceiling hook.

  Willow gave him the thumbs-up sign then quickly tied the end of the string to the bucket handle. She pulled the string so that the bucket was hoisted up into the air, then, by standing on a chair and keeping the string taut, managed to tip the bucket over so that it sat upside-down against the ceiling.

  Phew! Now she needed to wedge the ball of string back into the tower, and the trap was set. Very very carefully, hardly daring to breathe for fear of knocking over the bricks, she slid the ball of string inside the tower’s base and weighted it there with a heavy rectangular brick.

  She took her hand away, half-expecting the string to loosen and the bucket to fall but … nothing happened. The trap was set!

  ‘Nicely done,’ Toby whispered approvingly. Willow nodded, carrying him back out of the shop and sitting down with him on the stairs outside.

  ‘Now all we have to do,’ she said, ‘is wait.’

  This time, Willow was determined not to fall asleep. She and Toby played whispered games of I-Spy to keep them from dozing off, but all remained quiet in the shop for a long while … until, at last, they heard a loud crash – and then a surprised yelp.

  Willow felt instantly wide awake and jumped to her feet, grabbing Toby and rushing through to the shop. ‘What’s going on?’ she heard Wizard exclaim but she only had eyes for the bucket, which was now twitching in the middle of the display.

  Willow ran over and lifted the bucket. ‘Gotcha!’ she cried triumphantly.

  Then she stared. ‘Grouchy?’ she said, baffled, staring at the little penguin who had been trapped underneath the bucket. ‘What are you doing there?’

  ‘Was it you all along?’ Toby cried in disbelief. ‘We thought it was Croc!’

  Grouchy stared at his webbed feet. ‘It was me and Croc,’ he confessed.

  ‘So you were letting him in, were you?’ Willow asked, trying to work it out. ‘No wonder you were so tired every day if you’d been running around at night. But … I don’t understand why you would do this in the first place?’

  ‘Yes, why would you?’ said Lovely, who had cantered down from the shelves and was now looking reproachfully through her mane at Grouchy. ‘How could you? We’ve all seen how hard Suzy, Willow and Freddie have worked every evening, putting the beautiful displays together.’

  Grouchy hung his head. ‘I hate Wacky Windows Week,’ he said miserably. ‘I always get stuck in the middle of the Hoozle display, and I hate being stared at.’ A tear plopped from his eye. ‘Nobody’s ever wanted me for their toy and it just makes me feel worse, all those children looking at me but none of them wanting to buy me. And Croc said … Croc said …’

  ‘What did Croc say?’ Willow asked gently.

  Grouchy’s velvety shoulders were shaking. ‘He said that nobody would ever love me,’ he got out. ‘And he said that if I messed up Wacky Windows Week, I wouldn’t have to sit in the window and be stared at.’ A tear rolled down his beak. ‘I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have done it but …’

  Willow hugged Grouchy close. ‘Everybody loves you!’ she told him. ‘All the Hoozles, me and Freddie, and Auntie Suzy!’

  ‘Just because you don’t have a child doesn’t mean you’re not loved,’ Wizard put in.

  ‘Not at all!’ Lovely agreed.

  Grouchy tried to smile but Willow could tell he still didn’t feel happy. She quickly put the tower back up, wished the Hoozles all good night, then went back to bed. She had to think of a way to convince poor Grouchy that he was loved – but how?

  * * *

  ‘Hi Willow – oh, is that the penguin Hoozle you’ve got there?’ the lady from the bakery asked with a smile the next day. ‘He is so cute, isn’t he?’

  Willow smiled back. ‘He’s a sweetheart,’ she agreed. Over breakfast, she’d remembered the girl’s comment from the day before about Grouchy being adorable, and she’d decided to take Grouchy out and about, in the hope that he’d realise just how popular he was. So far her plan was working wonderfully – people kept commenting on the little penguin, and telling Willow that he was their favourite Hoozle in Suzy’s toy shop.

  ‘There,’ Willow said to Grouchy as they reached the seafront, having stopped for another two people to fuss over him along the way. ‘Don’t you see? Everyone loves you, Grouchy!’

  Grouchy looked rather embarrassed but pleased, too. ‘Thank you, Willow,’ he said gruffly. ‘I don’t feel so sad about not belonging to a child any more. Now I know I belong to the whole town.’ He smiled. ‘And I belong with the Hoozles. I see that now.’

  ‘Good for you,’ Toby said from where he was tucked into Willow’s backpack.

  ‘It’s great to see you happy again,’ Willow said. ‘In fact,’ she went on, realising that they were right outside a café, ‘I think this calls for an ice cream. Come on!’

  Inside the café, Willow struggled to get her money out of her purse with Grouchy still in her arms so she popped him down on a nearby table while she asked for achocolate cone. She’d only turned away for a few minutes but when she turned back to get Grouchy, she was shocked to see the table empty. He’d gone!

  ‘Down there,’ Toby hissed from the backpack. ‘I can see an orange tail under the table.’

  Willow looked down. The fluffy orange tail belonged to Croc … and there was Grouchy under the table with him. What was going on now?

  ‘You’ve done a great job messing up those windows,’ Croc was saying, patting Grouchy on the back. ‘Shame that stupid girl keeps fixing them again. We make a good team, you and me. And you know, if you wanted to join me, you’d be free from Wacky Windows Week for the rest of your life.’r />
  Willow held her breath, hoping that Grouchy wouldn’t want anything to do with naughty Croc again. Thankfully Grouchy was shaking his head. ‘I want to stay where I am,’ he said stoutly. ‘I know now that lots of people do like me. I feel really bad about spoiling the window displays, and I’m not going to let any more be wrecked.’

  Croc gave a sneer. ‘Ha! The Hoozles window will be ruined, and you can’t stop me!’ he said. And before Willow could grab hold of him, he’d run off.

  Willow picked up Grouchy and cuddled him. ‘I heard all of that,’ she told him, ‘and I’m really glad you chose to stay with the Hoozles. But what will Croc do to the window this time, do you think?’

  Grouchy was quivering. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Something horrible, I’m sure.’

  ‘Let’s go back to the shop,’ Willow decided. ‘If Croc’s in the mood to cause trouble, anything could happen.’

  She hurried back up from the seafront, just in time to see her aunt pulling down the shop blinds and flipping the sign on the door to ‘closed’. ‘Just popping to the grocer’s with Freddie,’ Auntie Suzy said. ‘I’ll be back soon.’

  ‘OK,’ said Willow. Then, as the door shut behind them, Grouchy jumped out of Willow’s hands and made his way back up to the other Hoozles. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said to them. ‘I’ve realised today just how lucky I am to have you two. I’m glad you’re my friends.’

  ‘Oh, we’re glad too!’ Lovely whinnied, nuzzling against Grouchy.

  Wizard hugged him. ‘Good to have you

  that was his plan – he was hoping that by soaping the window, nobody would be able to see the display on the other side of it. ‘Hey!’ Willow shouted, grabbing Croc and taking him back inside the shop. ‘You’ve got some explaining to do, Mister Croc.’

  ‘Yes, Croc,’ Wizard said, looking down his beak at the cross little crocodile who was wriggling furiously in Willow’s arms. ‘Why on earth have you been trying to spoil Suzy’s window displays?’

  Croc looked sullen. ‘I wanted everyone to think her windows looked rubbish,’ he muttered. ‘I didn’t want anyone to enjoy stupid Wacky Windows Week!’

  ‘Well, everyone loves Wacky Windows Week,’ Willow told him. ‘So you might as well stop trying to wreck the displays because your stupid plan won’t work. Oh, and you can jolly well clean the soap off this window too.’

  Croc blew a raspberry at her and tried to leap out of her arms, but Willow held tightly on to him. ‘Oh no, you don’t!’ she said, taking him up to the utility room. ‘I’ve not finished with you yet.’

  She filled a bucket of water and got a sponge, then watched over Croc as he grumpily cleaned the soap marks from the window. Once he’d washed them all off, the glass looked wonderfully sparkly. ‘People will be able to see the window display even better now it’s so spotless,’ Willow told him with a wink as she finally let him go. He slouched away, looking defeated, and Willow felt quite sure that he wouldn’t be back to bother them for a while.

  ‘Goodness,’ Auntie Suzy said, coming back at that moment, ‘doesn’t that look clean? Well done, Willow. Our last display of the week will look even more special now!’

  Willow grinned. ‘With the Hoozles starring in the display, I think it’s going to be the best one yet,’ she said, stroking Toby’s head.

  That night, Willow, Freddie and their aunt set up the final window display of the week. It was a Hoozle party scene, with lots of colourful balloons and paper streamers, and the Hoozles themselves, of course, wearing party hats. Toby and Wobbly, Freddie’s lion Hoozle, were special guests, and, as Willow went to bed that night, she was sure she could hear the faint sounds of the Hoozles all having a lovely time together, celebrating and playing in the toy shop window.

  It was the perfect ending to a very exciting few days, Willow thought, and she went to sleep with a big smile on her face.

  Copyright

  Special thanks to Sue Mongredien

  First published in 2010

  by Faber and Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  This ebook edition first published in 2010

  All rights reserved

  Text © Working Partners Limited, 2010

  Illustrations © Penny Dann, 2010

  Hoozles is a registered trademark of Working Partners Limited

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–25862–8