Free Nanny Piggins and the Accidental Blast-off by R. A. Spratt

vehicle to a halt. Then Nanny Piggins walked around to the cab window and rapped on it.
    ‘Oh, what’s she going to do?’ worried Samantha.
    ‘I bet she commandeers his vehicle,’ said Michael. He did not want his nanny to have to go on the run from the law, but if you are going to go on the run from the law, an eighteen-wheeler full of cake is the vehicle to do it in.
    The driver rolled down his window. ‘What do you want?’ he asked morosely.
    ‘I’d like some cake please,’ said Nanny Piggins respectfully. (While she did not have respect for most forms of authority, she did have a great deal of respect for cake. And to her mind a man who drovea cake truck was the highest form of authority there could possibly be. Much more important than headmasters, presidents, prime ministers or members of any royal family.)
    The children held their breath waiting for the truck driver to rudely tell Nanny Piggins to go away, but instead he did the most surprising thing. He burst into tears. And watching a fully grown man, with big muscles and tattoos on those muscles, wracking with sobs, is a heartbreaking sight. Nanny Piggins soon had him out of the cab and sitting on the side of the road, while she patted him on the back and fed him reassuring pieces of cake.
    ‘There there, it’s all right,’ she told him. ‘We are great fans of your cake. Whatever your problem is, we promise to help you.’
    ‘It’s so dreadful,’ sobbed the truck driver. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
    ‘But how can anything be dreadful when you work for the most wonderful institution in the world?’ asked Nanny Piggins. ‘Your cake factory brings joy to cake lovers everywhere.’
    ‘But that’s just it,’ explained the truck driver, wiping his nose. ‘Everything is changing at the factory …’ He choked up and couldn’t continue speaking.
    ‘You can tell us,’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘There’s a new owner, and she stopped giving the employees free samples,’ said the truck driver, starting to sob again.
    ‘She’s done what?’ asked Nanny Piggins, utterly astounded.
    ‘We used to get free cakes every week as part of our salary,’ explained the truck driver, ‘and she’s put a stop to it.’
    Now Nanny Piggins started to cry too, for it was such a desperately sad story.
    ‘And she’s changing what the factory makes. She’s converting all the machines so they manufacture health bars,’ he continued.
    Nanny Piggins gasped. ‘But can’t you have her locked up? She must be criminally insane. Health bars are disgusting.’
    ‘I know.’ The truck driver was really blubbering now. ‘She made us all eat one.’
    Nanny Piggins clutched the truck driver to her chest. ‘You poor, poor fellow. Man’s inhumanity to cake knows no bounds. Your species can be so cruel sometimes. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.’
    ‘But what can you do?’ worried Samantha.
    ‘I’ve got a stop sign and an iridescent jacket – what can’t I do?’ said Nanny Piggins boldly. ‘As acouncil-employed lollipop lady it is my job to stop wrongs wherever they are committed.’
    ‘I’m pretty sure that’s what superheroes do, not lollipop ladies,’ said Derrick.
    ‘Lollipop ladies are better than superheroes,’ said Nanny Piggins dismissively. ‘Every day lollipop ladies stop hundreds of children being run over by cars, whereas superheroes only save one or two grown adults at a time.’
    And so Nanny Piggins and the children got in the truck with the truck driver and drove back to the factory. When they got there they left the truck driver to weep quietly in his cab while Nanny Piggins set out to fight for truth, justice and cake. She marched right onto the factory floor, went up to the first employee she saw and demanded, ‘Take me to your leader!’
    She then had to repeat the demand, because the employee had earplugs in. But Nanny Piggins was soon taken to see the shop foreman. He was a burly, grouchy-looking man in his early