Rascal's Seaside Adventure (2 page)

Chapter Three

A Nightmare Jaurney

“Right! It's all in, just about. Come on, let's get going.” Dad was looking pleased with himself, and Ellie thought he deserved to be, after managing to squash that huge pile of stuff into the car.

“I hope Rascal's going to be OK,” she said to Mum, as she picked him up and went over to his pet carrier. “He's never been on a long car journey before.”

Mum tickled Rascal behind the ears.
“I'm sure he'll be fine. It's only an hour and a half, and he doesn't mind the car, now, does he? He's been fine when we've driven to the woods. He'll probably just go to sleep after a while.”

Ellie slipped Rascal into his pet carrier, which was surrounded by bags and boxes. He stood there looking rather confused. He didn't go in the car very often, and he'd certainly never seen it this full. Dad had made sure he could see out, but it had been tricky.

“It's OK,” Ellie told him. “It won't take that long to get there, and we're going to have the best time.”

But an hour later, Ellie felt like the journey was never going to end. It was all Max's fault for bringing an enormous bag of fizzy chews. Ellie was sure that they were all fizzing away in her stomach, and she felt awful. Wriggling herself round to keep checking on Rascal hadn't helped either.

“Are we nearly there?” she asked Dad, in a wobbly voice.

“About another half-hour.” Mum looked round at her. “Oh, Ellie, you're very pale. Are you all right?”

“I feel sick…” Ellie moaned.

“Don't be sick anywhere near me!”

Lila squeaked. “These are my new jeans!”

There was a funny little moaning noise from the boot behind them, and Max turned round to peer at Rascal. “Oh, dear. I don't think Rascal's feeling so good either,” he reported. “He's just lying there, and he looks miserable.”

Dad sighed. “Well, I would stop to let you all get some fresh air, but I think if we allowed Rascal out of his pet carrier, we might never get him back in again. We really won't be long. Can you hold on, Ellie?”

Ellie groaned, and Dad sped up a bit.

Twenty minutes later, Max yelled, “Look, I can see the sea! And there's a sign for Green Bay.”

“Hurry up, Dad!” Ellie wailed. “I really think I'm going to be sick!”

Rascal joined in with more sad moaning noises from the boot.

“We're just coming to Gran and Grandpa's road now,” Dad promised.

He pulled up in front of a pretty cottage. “OK! Everybody out!”

Ellie stumbled out of the car and leaned against the front fence, trying very hard not to throw up. “Never, ever give me those things again,” she told Max, who looked unfairly bouncy and not carsick at all.

Max grinned at her, and waved the bag under her nose.

“Ugh!” Ellie wailed. “You're so mean! Mum, is Rascal OK?”

Dad had just opened the boot to start unloading the bags, and Mum was undoing Rascal's pet carrier. “He doesn't look very happy…”

Ellie went over to help her. She was
starting to feel a tiny bit better now she wasn't in the car any more.

“Hey, Rascal…” Rascal lifted his head off his paws and gazed glumly up at Ellie. “Oh, you really do look sick. Come on, let's get you out. Look, there's Gran and Grandpa coming to see us!”

She lifted Rascal out of the car, clipped on his lead, and led him over to the front gate, where her grandparents were just heading down the path. She smiled happily at Gran and Grandpa – their house was so like them, old-fashioned and perfectly tidy. All the flowers in the front garden were in beautiful neat rows, and Grandpa had the shortest, most velvety lawn Ellie had ever seen.

“Hello, sweetheart!” Gran was just coming forward to give Ellie a hug, when Rascal stopped dead in the gateway, and was sick all over Gran's path.

“Oh!” Gran stared down at Rascal like he was some horrible sort of beetle, and Grandpa laughed. “Poor little chap. Did he not like the car, Ellie?”

Ellie shook her head, wishing she and Rascal could go and hide. “I'm really sorry!” she wailed. “He never usually does that!”

Gran smiled, but Ellie could tell she was making a real effort not to be grumpy. “Never mind. We'll put some sand over it and clean it up later. Come and have some tea, all of you!” She paused for a moment. “Bring the puppy too, Ellie…”

After the sick incident, Mum decided it would be best if Ellie got Rascal out of the way for a bit, so she sent her and Max down to the beach with Dad, while she and Lila stayed to unpack and help Gran clean the path.

The gorgeous, tangy sea air soon blew away Ellie's carsickness, and it seemed to have cheered up Rascal, too. Gran's house was just at the end of the road from the beach, and he stood at the top of the cliff path staring down at the sea, his tail a waggy blur of excitement. They rushed down the steep steps, and suddenly Ellie almost didn't care that Rascal had thrown
up right in front of Gran, it was just so exciting to see the sea!

The summer holidays had only just begun so there weren't very many people on the beach. It was a long stretch of biscuity-looking golden-brown sand, with sweeps of pebbles here and there. Ellie looked around thoughtfully, and unclipped Rascal's lead.

“Do you want to explore? Off you go!” she suggested, and Rascal dashed off at once, his nose to the sand, sniffing eagerly at all the interesting smells.

Ellie followed him, laughing to herself at how excited he was. He tracked across the sand towards the sea, and then pulled up short, staring at the strange greenish-grey water … that was coming towards him!

“It's OK.” Ellie crouched down next to him. “It's just the sea. It does that.” She slipped off her flip-flops, and paddled in the seawater, wincing a little at the cold.

Rascal watched her curiously, and poked one paw towards the sea. It looked like water… It smelled a little strange, but he was very, very thirsty. As the tide crept in towards his paws, he leaned down and lapped at it, and then spat it out disgustedly.

He backed away, looking horrified. What was that stuff? It didn't taste like
water. He barked sharply to tell Ellie not to drink any. He wasn't sure about this at all.

“Come on. It's fun, look,” said Ellie, splashing about in the waves. But Rascal stayed safely on the sand where he was.

Chapter Four

Cat-astrophe!

“I think it's lunchtime,” Dad said, looking at his watch. “Shall we go back home?”

Ellie looked anxious. She hoped Gran wasn't still cross with Rascal. And she'd been planning to impress her with how beautifully trained he was, too!

But Gran seemed to have recovered – she even patted Rascal and said how sweet he was, and Grandpa thought he was great. Ellie demonstrated how well Rascal
would stay, sometimes even with a biscuit between his paws, and Grandpa was very impressed. Ellie was pretty sure she saw him feeding Rascal a sandwich crust under the table when Gran wasn't looking, too.

After lunch, Grandpa took them outside to show off his garden. Ellie loved it. It wasn't very big, but it was full of secret corners and surprises. Ellie always liked the family of stone frogs – Grandpa moved them around the garden, and when she was little, she was sure they'd moved by themselves when she wasn't looking.

Rascal loved it too, and he pottered around investigating the earthy garden smells. Then all at once he noticed a new smell – a cat smell! His tail started to
wag excitedly. He hadn't met that many cats, but there was something about them that simply made him want to give chase. There it was! A huge ginger tom cat was sitting on the stone bench on the other side of the little lawn, washing its paws.

Rascal sprang across the grass, barking so loudly that Ellie put her hands over her ears. Then she spotted the cat too. “Oh, Rascal, no!” she gasped.

“It's that dratted cat from two doors down,” Grandpa said. “Nasty fat thing, it's always pouncing on the birds on our feeders.”

But Ellie wasn't listening. She was chasing Rascal, who was chasing the cat – down off the bench, round behind the rose bushes, across the patio, and up on to the little wall that ran along the edge of the paving.

At least, the cat went up on to the wall… Rascal scrabbled desperately with his front paws, and barked and barked, but it was no good, he couldn't follow it up there. The cat gave him an insolent stare and jumped from the wall to the fence, and down into next-door's garden.

“Whatever is going on?” Gran came out of the kitchen door. “I could hear the barking all the way upstairs!”

Just then, there was a big crash. Rascal had knocked over a pretty pot of flowers! Gran gasped, and Ellie put her hands over her mouth in horror. Grandpa's beautiful flowers! Now he would be furious with Rascal too!

“Oh, you bad dog!” Gran scolded.

“No, no, it wasn't the little pup's fault,” Grandpa said, patting Rascal, who was standing with his tail between his legs. “It was that dratted ginger cat. Rascal was just doing what dogs do…”

“Hmph,” Gran muttered. And Ellie was almost sure that as she turned away to go back into the house, she added, “I just wish he wasn't doing it here!”

“Never mind, Ellie.” Grandpa gave her a hug. “I was getting bored with those petunias anyway. I'll nip down to the garden centre later and buy some new flowers.”

Ellie managed a small smile, but inside she felt miserable. Gran was never going to like Rascal now!