Selby Shattered (7 page)

Billy placed the cake neatly on the table.

‘Good work, guys,’ Selby said. ‘It looks almost the same as it was before the girls got to it.’

‘Hey, where have they gone?’ Willy asked, unlocking the front door and stepping outside. ‘They went away.’

Selby was suddenly aware of three little innocent-looking figures coming in through the back door.

‘Weeee’re baaaaack,’ Cindy sang. ‘You silly boys. You forgot to lock the back door, didn’t you?’

‘Well! Will you have a look at this,’ Mindy said. ‘The boys have cleaned everything up and have got another surprise party ready.’

‘I think it’s time we gave them another surprise,’ Lindy said.

Each of the girls picked up a plate of food and was about to throw it when Willy screamed, ‘Nooooooooooooooo!’

And they still would have thrown the plates if they hadn’t seen the Trifles’ car pulling into the driveway.

‘Quickly, girls!’ Cindy whispered. ‘The Trifles are back! One, two, three,
throw!’

In that instant, before the girls could hurl their plates of food into the air, a jumble of letters tumbled around in Selby’s head like Scrabble squares in a cyclone as his mouth tried to make the right words. Then, in a split second, his lips moved and out came a cry that sounded like, ‘
Don’t you dare do that!’

The girls stopped and spun around.

‘That dog talked!’ Cindy cried.

‘Yeah, he did!’ Lindy cried.

‘I heard it too!’ Mindy cried.

Suddenly the door flew open and in came the Trifles followed by Melanie Mildew and the council workers.

‘What is this?!’ Mrs Trifle gasped. ‘My goodness! It’s a party — for me!’

‘Surprise! Surprise!’ Melanie yelled and everyone cheered and clapped.

‘Melanie!’ Mrs Trifle said, wagging her finger. ‘You’re a naughty girl. You tricked us. But what a lovely surprise.’

The three girls were still holding the plates they’d been about to throw. Cindy stepped forward and very politely said, ‘Anyone care for a sandwich?’

‘Or a sausage?’ Lindy said sweetly.

‘Or a biscuit?’ Mindy said even more sweetly.

‘Oh,
yes,’
Mrs Trifle said, taking some food from Cindy’s plate. ‘Thank you very much.’

‘And thanks for looking after things while we were out,’ Dr Trifle said.

‘You’re very welcome, Uncle,’ Cindy said, turning to her sisters. ‘What do we say, girls?’

The girls put a finger to the chins and chanted, ‘We’re neat. We’re sweet. And we’re as cute as cute can be,’ before bursting into giggles.

‘Oh that’s so cute!’ said Mrs Trifle.

‘Pardon me while I vomit,’ Selby thought.

‘And look at that beautiful cake,’ Dr Trifle said. ‘Hmmm, there’s only one thing wrong.’

‘Wrong?’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Someone’s left one of the Ns out of the word
anniversary!

Willy and Billy looked around at Selby.

‘Hey,’ Selby thought, and he gave the slightest of slight shrugs. ‘Nobody’s perfect. Not even me.’

‘I’ve come up with something to make people invisible,’ Dr Trifle said.

‘Invisible?’ thought Selby
, just waking up from his nap.

‘Invisible?’ Mrs Trifle asked. ‘Who would want to be invisible?’

‘Lots of people. Soldiers, for example. That way, the enemy couldn’t see them.’

‘But they already have that camel clothing thingy to make them invisible.’

‘I think you mean
camouflage
clothing.’

‘Yes, those shirts and pants with the blotches all over them.’

‘There’s a problem with them,’ Dr Trifle said. ‘They don’t get rid of the shadows. Which is how enemy aircraft find soldiers. They use cameras and computers to look for shadows. If they see a shadow where a shadow shouldn’t be then they know there’s a soldier there. But I think I know how to make the shadows disappear.’

‘Speaking of shadows,’ Mrs Trifle said, ‘that reminds me of Mr Sombra.’

‘Who’s Mr Sombra?’

‘He’s a puppeteer. He wants to do his Magic Shadow Show at the school. I’m having a look at it first to see if it’s good enough.’

‘What sort of a shadow show is it?’ Dr Trifle asked.

‘He makes shadows with his hands. He’s supposed to be very good at it. We’ll see because here he comes now,’ Mrs Trifle said, glancing out the window.

Selby jumped to his feet as an old van screeched to a stop outside the house. Out hopped a strange little man carrying a big suitcase.

‘Hello, Mrs Mayor and Mrs Mayor’s Husband,’ he said, bowing deeply as he came through the door. ‘I am Mr Sombra. I am so happy to present Mr Sombra’s Magic Shadow Show. Oh, look at the pretty dog,’ he added, bowing to Selby too.

‘I wish he’d said handsome,’ Selby thought, ‘but pretty will do.’

‘A moment, please, Mrs Mayor and Mrs Mayor’s Husband and Mrs Mayor’s Doggy. I get myself ready very soon now.’

Selby and the Trifles watched as Mr Sombra set up a white screen with a spotlight behind it.

‘Now you watch Magic Shadow Show,’ he said, ducking behind the screen. ‘This story called
Mooka-Mooka, Very Smart Bird and Big Bad Monster.
‘

Suddenly the shadow of a bird with a long beak appeared on the screen. The bird was sitting on a branch. Mr Sombra made chirping and tweeting sounds.

‘This guy’s good,’ Selby thought. ‘It looks and sounds just like a real bird.’

The bird’s wings started flapping and soon it was flying through the air.

‘Long ago’
Mr Sombra said, ‘
there was very smart bird named Mooka-Mooka. He is flying flying flying. He look down on little town of … Bogusville
.’

‘Oh, that’s nice,’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘The kids will love that.’

‘
But Mooka-Mooka see all the animals in Bogusville is very sad
,’ Mr Sombra said. ‘
The rabbits is sad …
’

A shadow of a rabbit appeared in the middle of the screen. It hopped and hopped, getting bigger and bigger till it filled the screen.

‘ The kangaroos is sad …‘

The rabbit disappeared and two kangaroos hopped towards each other from either side of the screen.

‘This guy is brilliant!’ Selby thought. ‘One hand for each kangaroo — and they look so real!’

The kangaroos hugged each other and Mr Sombra made sobbing sounds.

Mrs Trifle giggled.

‘No laughing, please!’ Mr Sombra said sharply. ‘This not funny! Very sad.’

‘I’m terribly sorry,’ Mrs Trifle said.

‘
The cows is sad. And the horses is sad. Even the cheeps is sad’

Selby watched in amazement as the cows turned into horses and then sheep.

‘And the pipples is sad too
,’ Mr Sombra said.

The sheep turned into people.

‘
The pipples is sad because they is scared of … the monster
! The monster is eating up all the animals. First he eat the bunny rabbits …’

‘That’s horrible!’ Mrs Trifle said.

‘You wait,’ Mr Sombra said. ‘It get more horrible now.
Then the monster eat one cow. Then he eat kangaroo. Then more kangaroo. Then he eat all the cheeps. ‘

One by one, the shadow monster ate the animals, burping after each one.

‘Sheesh!’ thought Selby. ‘This story is giving me the creeps.’

‘
He is very hungry monster. End of story,
’ Mr Sombra said. ‘You like?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘Don’t the people kill the monster in the end?’

‘Oh, I forget,’ Mr Sombra said.
‘Then monster eat the lady and he eat the man too. He eat all the
pipples up and eat up Mooka-Mooka very smart bird. Munch munch munch. Very nice.’

‘Goodness me!’ Mrs Trifle exclaimed. ‘Shouldn’t there be a happy ending?’

‘Happy endings is always boring,’ Mr Sombra said. ‘My show different.’

‘Do you have any other stories you could tell?’ Mrs Trifle asked.

‘Okay, I have story called
Nice Boy and Terrible Little Girl.
In the end, she chop his head off. Ha ha! Very funny one. And I have
Old Lady Who Work Very Hard Then Die.
A train run over her. I do very good train.
Choo choo choo choo. Woo Woo!’

‘Mr Sombra,’ Mrs Trifle said, ‘your shadows are very good but I really don’t think your show is right for the children of Bogusville.’

‘Is stupid!’ Mr Sombra said, packing up his things. ‘I don’t like happy story. I don’t like this Bogusville!’

‘I’m terribly sorry,’ Mrs Trifle said.

‘I curse this town!’ Mr Sombra said, tripping over Selby as he headed for the door. ‘Out of my way, stupid dog! I put a curse on you, too!’

And, within a minute, Mr Sombra’s van had sped off down the street.

‘That man is not a happy man,’ Dr Trifle said.

‘I’m glad I saw the show first,’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘I think those stories would really have upset the kids.’

‘You know, I don’t think Bogusville has ever had a curse put on it before,’ Dr Trifle said.

‘No, I don’t think it has,’ Mrs Trifle agreed. ‘Do you think curses work?’

‘Of course not,’ Dr Trifle said.

‘I hope you’re right,’ Mrs Trifle said. ‘Poor old Selby. He’s got a curse on him now, as well.’

‘Curse schmurse,’ Selby thought. ‘I don’t believe in curses. I laugh at curses. Ha ha ha! That Mr Sombra doesn’t worry me a bit.’

That night, Selby had a nightmare about Mr Sombra.

‘No! Don’t put a curse on me, please!’ he screamed in his dream. ‘I’ll do anything you say!’

After a terrible night’s sleep, he woke up to see the Trifles staring down at him.

‘Do you think it worked?’ Mrs Trifle asked.

‘Hard to tell,’ said Dr Trifle. ‘I think we’ll just have to wait and see.’

‘Wait? Wait for what?’ Selby thought. ‘What are they talking about? What are they looking at me like that for? Surely they don’t think there’s a curse on me.’

Selby munched a Dry-Mouth Dog Biscuit as the Trifles watched.

‘Something about him does look … different,’ Mrs Trifle said.

‘Yes, maybe it is working, after all.’

‘Cut it out, you guys,’ Selby thought. (He didn’t say it, he only thought it.) ‘You’re making me nervous. I’m getting out of here.’

Selby set out for a long walk.

‘The flies are terrible,’ he said to himself as he shook dozens of them off his back. ‘They’re never this bad. Hey, and look! The floral clock
has stopped. And it stopped exactly at midnight! Spooky dooky.’

Selby walked on as dark clouds gathered above the town. The wind picked up and a willywilly swirled along the street, gathering up dust and pieces of paper. Selby clung to a lamp-post as the willy-willy passed by.

‘That was a close one!’ he thought. ‘It could have picked me right up and carried me off! This is getting scary. I’m going home where I’ll be safe with the Trifles.’

Selby could feel the sweat running down his face as he headed for home.

‘Hey! There’s a big crowd at the sportsground,’ he said, breaking into a run. ‘There must be a cricket match on. I wonder who’s playing. I can see the scoreboard now. Poshfield 174. Bogusville 2. We must have just gone in to bat. Poshfield is pathetic. We can beat 174 easily. Whoa,’ he said, as he got closer. ‘They’re not playing cricket — they’re playing soccer! One hundred and seventy-four is the highest soccer score ever! Mr Sombra’s curse must be working!’

As the crowd started to leave the stadium, the sun came out. Selby saw a startled look on a little girl’s face.

‘Mummy, look!’ she cried. ‘That dog doesn’t have a shadow!’

‘What a strange thing to say,’ the woman said. ‘Good grief! You’re right! He doesn’t have a shadow!’

‘What are they on about?’ Selby thought. ‘Is this a trick? Maybe the kid has worked out that the Selby in the books is me. Maybe she’s trying to trick me into looking down at my shadow. Then, if I do, she’ll know that I can understand people-talk. She’ll know it’s me, Selby, the only talking dog in Australia and, perhaps, the world. Well, I’m not going to look down.’

Selby walked faster, keeping his head held high. The girl and her mother were following him now.

‘How does she know it’s me?’ Selby thought. ‘Did I give away too many clues in my stories?’

‘Look! Everyone look!’ the little girl yelled. ‘The doggy doesn’t have a shadow!’

Everyone looked at Selby.

‘Oh, no!’ Selby thought. ‘Get me out of here!’

Selby switched from a walk to a trot as people tried to catch up.

‘The little girl is right!’ a man cried. ‘It’s a shadowless dog!’

‘He’s some kind of devil dog!’ a woman yelled. ‘Look, everyone!’

Selby switched from a trot to a run and, as he did, he peeped over his nose towards the ground.

‘My shadow! It’s gone! The sun is out and they’ve all got shadows but I don’t!’ he thought. ‘The curse is working!’

‘Catch him!’ someone yelled. ‘I want a photo! Don’t let him get away!’

‘If they catch me, they’ll send me off to a science laboratory to be studied!’ Selby thought. ‘My life will never be the same! And it’s all because of that stupid Mr Sombra and his curse!’

Selby was running as fast as he could with the crowd gaining on him. Then, hearing the sound of a roaring car behind him, he shot off the road and through the trees.

‘Hey! Bogusville Creek’s up ahead!’ he thought. ‘I’ll just dive in and swim across. That’ll lose them.’

But, as he got to the creek, he suddenly remembered something.

‘What am I thinking? I don’t know how to swim! I’ve got to find another way across.’

Selby tore along the riverbank with the little girl close behind.

‘Mummy! Mummy! He’s slowing down. I’m going to catch him!’

‘We’ll see about that,’ Selby thought as he ran along a branch that lay across the river. ‘There are some things a dog can do that a little girl can’t.’

Unfortunately, running across branches that stretch across fast-flowing creeks wasn’t one of them. Not with a sure-footed little girl pounding along behind him.

‘I’m (gasp) almost (gasp) there but she’s (gasp) making the branch bounce,’ Selby thought. ‘This isn’t a tree branch — it’s a trampoline!’

And, in that instant, Selby bounced up into the air, then did a half flip, three turns and a forward roll into the raging creek.

‘Help!’ he cried out in plain English — knowing that he was giving away his secret forever. ‘I can’t swim! Somebody save me!’