Free The Finding of Freddie Perkins by Liz Baddaley

‘thank’ and ‘you’.
    And next to it, as if to underline its sentiment, was another key.
    Granny P and Freddie looked at each other, wide-eyed and amazed.
    Here it was. On the table in front of them. Proof. They had a Fynd
in their house
!
    It was too wonderful to be real, but somehow it must be.
    For a few moments they just kept looking at eachother, and then Granny P started to gently shake her head and say ‘No, it can’t be.’
    But of course it
was
.
    And as the truth settled into their minds it pushed out any remaining doubts that such a thing was not possible, and first Freddie, and then Granny P, began to giggle and clap, and laugh and dance. Well, Freddie danced; Granny P sort of bobbed and smiled, but her whole body seemed lit up with delight and excitement nevertheless.
    When they had got past the initial burst of excitement, they both flopped down onto the dining room chairs and marvelled again at the note, and passed the key backwards and forwards between them, imagining what it might be for. Because of course, neither of them knew. They decided to keep it safe because it looked very old, and they wondered whether perhaps it was for another chest or trunk in the attic which the Fynd wanted to make sure they could get into.

11
Scientific observations

    Most of the rest of that warm July day was taken up with the wonder of what or who had been discovered at Willow Beck.
    Freddie and Granny P read the Fynd’s entry in Grandpa P’s book so many times that Freddie began to remember whole sentences from it in his head.And just before lunch he decided it would be a good idea to make a sort of booklet of the most important points so that Granny P and he could remember them, and keep them easily to hand in one of the sideboard drawers.
    Freddie was very scientific in his approach.
    Now he was convinced the Fynd was real, he wanted to study it and learn as much about its habits and nature as possible. He was also secretly hoping that if he found out a lot about the Fynd, he would be able to care for it very well… and it might become friends with him, and perhaps even let him catch a glimpse of it.
    Then he, Freddie Perkins – the latest in a long line of explorers – would be the first person to ever see the Fynd properly.
    * * *
    His first efforts were focused on studying its food.
    At lunch, he considered that the Fynd, who had eaten its breakfast a little while after theirs, might be hungry again by mid-afternoon, and so that would be a good time to conduct a study on which types of paper it would choose to eat.
    Granny P and he speculated about possible paper delicacies over their own lunch of egg sandwiches and tomato soup.
    â€˜I imagine it would like soft paper, like tissues. Less effort to chew and better quality… rather like cake,’ said Granny P with a wink.
    â€˜But wouldn’t that be a bit stringy for it?’ questioned Freddie. ‘Perhaps it would prefer crunching through cardboard as if it were munching crisps?’
    â€˜Well, Freddie, as you say, the only way to find out is to conduct a proper, controlled experiment.’
    And so they did.
    When the lunch things had been cleared, they laid out as many different types of paper as possible. There was standard wrapping paper, foil wrapping paper, glitter paper, white cardboard, corrugated cardboard, cereal packet, newspaper, magazine paper, tissue paper, hand-made paper, posh watercolour paper, toilet roll, kitchen towel, and even some crepe paper which Freddie had found upstairs.
    Granny P managed to find a piece of Indian silk paper which she was kindly going to add. But Freddie saw her face was a little sad and realised just in time that it might be special to her. He didn’t want to leton to Granny P that he’d realised she might mind, so instead, he said he was a bit worried that silk, as it was a different fibre, would be poisonous for the Fynd, or simply too difficult to