Read Online The Finding of Freddie Perkins by Liz Baddaley - Free Book Online Page B

are real? Not just a silly thing someone made up?’
    â€˜Well, I don’t know, Freddie. It seems implausible. But it’s the best explanation we have. How do you suppose we could find out?’
    Freddie shook his head. ‘I don’t know. But for now, let’s not tell Dad. I’m not saying I believe it, but he
definitely
won’t. So we should wait for some proper proof before we mention it to him.’
    â€˜Good idea, Freddie,’ said Granny P. ‘We mustn’t jump to conclusions without evidence to back them up. After all, that’s got us all into trouble recently, hasn’t it?’
    Granny P and Freddie sat in silence for some ten minutes, before Freddie had the idea. ‘I think we should put out some paper for it,’ he said, and he grinned at Granny P.
    Granny P smiled too. ‘Yes, that’s a good idea. We’ll put some paper out on the table in the attic and see if it disappears.’
    So that was what they did.
    At the end of that day’s work in the attic, they left some paper out on the table. Freddie worked especially hard to choose different types of paper, and to tear them up into tiny pieces that he imagined might be more manageable for a small creature.
    * * *
    But first thing the next morning, when they checked before breakfast, the paper was still there. Freddie found himself oddly disappointed, and glancing across at Granny P he could tell she was feeling the same.
    Then suddenly it hit him. ‘Granny P, Granny P!’ he shouted in excitement, jumping up and down. ‘Of course there’s no Fynd in the attic any more – it’s in the
house
!’
    There was a few seconds delay as Granny P caught up with that thought and put everything together…
    Things in the main part of the house had started showing up the day before yesterday – the day after Freddie had left the attic door open.
    â€˜Yes Freddie, of course! You’re right,’ she giggled excitedly. ‘When you left the attic door open, the Fynd must have got so excited at the chance to investigatethe rest of the house – maybe it had even found all the most valuable things up there, and knew there would be things we had lost that really mattered to us in the house. It must have come out of the attic, locked the door behind it, returned the key and then got to work. So the question is, where in the house should we try leaving the paper?’
    â€˜Where else?’ grinned Freddie. ‘The dining room!’
    Freddie and Granny P were so excited that they completely forgot their own breakfast, laying out a feast of paper scraps in place of their porridge, and then creeping out and closing the door behind them.
    â€˜How long should we leave it?’ asked Freddie.
    â€˜Well, I think it wants to be friends,’ said Granny P. ‘So it might be confident to come and eat what it wants quite quickly… let’s give it an hour.’
    Neither Freddie nor Granny P was much good at being patient with a mystery. First one, then the other crept up to the dining room to listen against the door with a glass from the drinks cabinet in the drawing room. But they couldn’t hear anything. And they certainly couldn’t get on with anything else meanwhile. It was just impossible.
    Freddie was getting so desperate after just twenty-five minutes that he was all for going outside, walking round the house, and peering in the dining room window, but Granny said they mustn’t. They must have resolve, and a spirit of endurance.
    And so, after what seemed like weeks, an hour had finally gone by and together they approached the door to the dining room. Having spent the last hour frantically wishing time forward, they were strangely hesitant at the threshold.
    Granny P took a deep breath and pushed open the door.
    There was just one piece of paper left on the table. A piece of newspaper carefully bitten around to leave just two words in print –