Free The Sleeping Baobab Tree by Paula Leyden Page B

pet cemetery. He has created it as far away as possible from Nokokulu’s small house at the back of their garden. It’s under the lemon tree that his mother planted, in the corner of the garden near the front gate. Fred says that it’s a nice-smelling part of the garden, so he knows they will all be happy there. It didn’t seem right to point out that they were all dead and had lost their sense of smell.
    We went to bed early as we had set our alarm for seven o’clock to make sure we’d be in the car before Nokokulu was up.
    “We’ve already packed the tent and things like that,” Fred said after he’d laid down.
    “The tent?” Madillo and I repeated at exactly the same time.
    “It’s just in case of emergencies. You know, if there is a flood or something and we can’t get back,” he said.
    “It’s only just the start of the rainy season. We’re not going to have floods now.”
    “Well, Nokokulu just said we should pack it. For if we break down or something like that. And some food…”
    “Fred, is there something you’ve forgotten to tell us?” I asked. I was starting to get a really bad feeling about this. “Are you sure we’re only going for one day?”
    “No – I mean, no, I haven’t forgotten to tell you anything. It’s just that you never know with Nokokulu. You have to be prepared for anything.”
    That didn’t make me feel any better.
    “But I think it’ll be OK. She’ll want to be back for church on Sunday, so she won’t stay longer.”
    “We only told Mum and Dad we were coming for one sleepover. We definitely can’t stay longer!” I exclaimed. “What if they come over here looking for us?”
    Fred and Madillo stared at me. “Stop panicking, Bul-Boo,” Madillo said. “Fred’s just imagining the worst, aren’t you, Fred.”
    He nodded.
    He was right to be imagining the worst with Nokokulu in charge.
    “I’m not panicking,” I said calmly. “I just want to be sure. I don’t want Mum and Dad to be worried, because they’ve enough to be thinking about, that’s all. And we have too. We need to be back here to carry on with the investigation.”
    “We will be,” Fred said, ignoring my reference to the disappearing patients. “Forget what I said about the tent.”
    As if.
    I waited until they were both asleep then wrote an entry in my notebook:
    APPROACHES TO SOLVING A PROBLEM:
    FRED
    Just forget the problem ever existed
    MADILLO
    Pretend the problem is not as big as it seems
    ME
    Accept the inevitable and go to sleep

FRED
Nokokulu Versus the World
    It was quiet in the house when we got up, as Mum and Dad sleep in on Saturdays. We were able to sneak out to the car without anyone seeing us. Luckily it was parked in the driveway, so our house was between the car and Nokokulu’s house. There was no way she could see us.
    I felt sorry for the twins having to get into the boot. It didn’t look particularly comfortable. They had to climb in behind the tent as well as a huge suitcase Nokokulu had put in. When I lifted it out of the way it felt empty. I don’t know what she was thinking bringing an empty suitcase.
    The good thing about it was that it would hide them from view if anyone opened the boot. They are quite small, the twins, and the back part of the yellow car is very large, so they fitted in OK. Bul-Boo says they’re only small because they had to share the space in their mum’s womb, which I suppose makes sense. Although I did tell them about a pair of really tall twins in
Guinness World Records
who grew to seven and a half feet tall. Bul-Boo just said, “I pity their mother,” and Madillo shrugged and added, “Well, they’re American.” As if that somehow explained everything.
    After I shut the boot I crept back into the house and back to bed so that Nokokulu wouldn’t get suspicious.
    At exactly eight o’clock she came and banged on my door. “We’re late, Chiti. Get out of bed now, you lazy boy, and we’ll go.” She must have woken everyone up