Monster Mission Read Free

got her label and was sent out on jobs, the children she was given were unspeakable. She took a little boy on a trip down the river who spent the whole time stuffing himself with ice cream and popcorn and crisps and dropping the wrappers in the water. She was sent to take a small girl to have her teeth cleaned and saw her bite the dentist’s hand, and she sat with a whining brat called Tarquin Sterndale-Fish who had the measles.
    So by the time she met Minette on King’s Cross Station, Etta had begun to think that this kidnapping idea was pretty stupid. The world seemed to be full of Boo-Boos and Little Ones and it was better to become extinct, like the rainforests, than to bring such children to the Island.
    Her first sight of Minette did not make her feel hopeful. The child had a crumpled, pinched sort of look; she was small for her age and very thin and looked as though she had been born tired. A wet and feeble child would be quite useless for the work that had to be done. She was also very stupidly dressed with a load of fluffy pom-poms in her long brown hair and a T-shirt which said Pinch me and I’ll squeal – and a pink plastic handbag shaped like a heart dangled from her shoulder.
    And if Aunt Etta did not like the look of Minette, Minette was not in the least keen on Aunt Etta.
    For a while the two of them sat in silence. From time to time a drop of water fell from the canvas holdall that the aunt had put on the luggage rack on to her topknot of grey hair, but she did not seem to notice it.
    ‘Is something leaking?’ asked Minette.
    The aunt looked up and shook her head. ‘The canvas never seems to dry out properly. I use it to move seals about. Only pups of course; a full-grown seal would never fit inside.’
    Minette began to be interested; her face lost its pinched and troubled look. ‘Are you a vet, then?’
    ‘Not exactly. But that does sort of come into it.’
    There was another silence. Minette did not like to pry so she looked out of the window again. They were coming to the first of the dream houses which Minette had chosen to live in with her parents. It was an old station-master’s house with hanging baskets of flowers and a little gable. And as though she read her thoughts, the aunt said: ‘What a pleasant place to live in. There might be ghost trains going through at night with interesting spectres. That could liven things up.’
    Minette stared at her. ‘Do you believe in—’
    ‘Of course,’ said the aunt briskly. ‘Certainly. I believe in almost everything, don’t you?’
    ‘My father says we mustn’t believe anything we can’t see or prove,’ she said.
    ‘Really?’
    When they had been travelling for an hour, Minette opened her suitcase and became very busy. She had been wearing pink and orange socks with a border of Mickey Mice. Now she took them off and put on plain white ones. Then she removed the T-shirt which said Pinch me and I’ll squeal and put on a navy-blue one with long sleeves and no writing at all. And lastly she put the dangling handbag back in the suitcase and took out a practical leather purse.
    The aunt said nothing, watching as Minette changed from a trendy little dresser to a sensible old-fashioned schoolgirl.
    But Minette had not finished. She took out her brush and comb, propped a mirror on her knees, and began to plait her hair into two long, tight pigtails.
    ‘I always change here,’ she explained, ‘because there’s nothing interesting to look at out of the window. My father doesn’t like clothes with writing on. Or funny socks. He thinks they’re vulgar. And he hates untidy hair.’
    ‘And when you come back you change back again – put on the pom-poms and unplait your hair?’
    ‘Yes. My mother likes it loose.’
    ‘And you? Which do you like?’
    Minette sighed. ‘I’d like it cut short.’
    ‘Well I have some scissors here. Why don’t we cut it?’ She opened a very large handbag and took out a pair of scissors.
    ‘Oh no! I couldn’t.