The Mysteries of Brambly Hollow

she called. When he didn’t appear, Meli lowered her head and glanced beneath the bench. Quassi was snoring lightly, his eyes closed, the picture of blissful sleep. “Quassi,” Meli was beginning to think that he was either deaf or just plain stupid. Sliding off her stool, she crouched down and gave his ear a tug. Sleepy brown eyes opened and regarded her, and he even managed to find the strength to give the tip of his tail a feeble twitch. What a hard life. With a click of her fingers, Meli gestured towards the door. Obediently he rose, and having stretched out every muscle and joint in his entire body, including his jaw in a vast juddering yawn, he ambled along behind her. At least he seemed to understand hand signals.
    Popping into the house, she collected her keys and leaving Quassi standing on a chair, his feet propped on the windowsill as he stared out the window at her, she left to pick up the kids. Thirty minutes later she was pulling down the lane. To her total amazement there was a rusty old trailer half way down, abandoned on the grassy verge, tightly wedged against the bushy hedgerow. They all stared at it in stunned silence as Meli squeezed the car between the rusting carcass and the stone wall, trying not to scrape the paintwork.
    “Mum, what’s that doing there?” David shot the question.
    “Is it staying?” queried George, with a worryingly enthusiastic edge to his voice.
    As if she would know! “I haven’t the foggiest idea,” she gasped, twisting in her seat to stare out the back window as if by some miracle it might have disappeared, or there’d be a sign saying ‘this is the property of …’, whoever it was the property of. It was still there, and there was no helpful sign. “But I certainly hope it isn’t staying.” Not only was it an eyesore but it was in the way.
    Cal was none too pleased either. He had only just managed to scrape his Fortura through. “Who’s responsibly for that wreck outside? Elsa will be furious when she sees it. I hope she doesn’t blame us.”
    He sounded pretty furious himself, Meli thought, so it was interesting that he made more of Elsa’s feelings.
    When Elsa passed Meli the next day, the old woman made no comment. It suddenly dawned on Meli that possibly Else knew all about it.

    The boys, with their usual selective power of recall, had not forgotten Cal’s involuntary promise to help them build an obstacle course, and so, each evening for two nights they had him out in the garden between eating dinner and washing it down with a couple of pints in the Smugglers Arms. Cal seemed to have resigned himself to the task, and assisted with good spirit, although he, of all people possibly felt there was a benefit to overseeing the project, if only to ensure that there was no repetition of the near fatal accidental garrotting. He still had bad dreams about it.
    Having been banned from the garden by the twins, who seemed convinced that the women might hinder the project under construction, Meli and Cass had to wait until the third evening for the grand re-opening. Standing beside her daughter, Meli listened attentively as the twins tried to out-do each other in their enthusiastic demo of the apparatus they’d created under Cal’s supervision Staring at the network of posts and ropes and platforms, her only emotion was one of relief that the new version looked like it might almost meet health and safety regulations, as the original contraption had been dismantled from the centre of the lawn, stripped of all flesh tearing, rusty nails and spear sized splinters, and was now far to the back, out of harms way, but still visible from the lodge.
    Meli did the motherly thing, and expressed her excitement at the completed project, whilst crossing her fingers and hoping for three things. She hoped that the squirrel would be a) highly athletic, b) hungry, which would be a necessary incentive for it to undertake the challenge at all, and c) a poser. Cassie, true to form, did the sisterly thing and having yawned in a bored manner disappeared back indoors. She showed about as much interest and emotion as something you’d find lying dead at the bottom of a parrot cage. Meli had come to the conclusion that her daughter had swapped all social niceties for a walkman and computer. She was becoming a recluse in her bedroom. And when she wasn’t in her bedroom, she’d take the bus into town and spend time wandering around the shops on her own.
    “I’m worried about