Henry Haynes and the Great Escape Read online

  Henry Haynes and the Great Escape

  Karen Inglis

  Contents

  1. The Chattering Book

  2. Falling In

  3. A Bumpy Landing

  4. Follow The Snake

  5. Lions On The Loose

  6. Gordon’s Escape Plan

  7. Deal, No Deal

  8. Henry’s Escape Plan

  9. Gorilla Charge!

  10. The End

  Reviews & freebies!

  Also by Karen Inglis

  About the Author

  Acknowledgments

  Dedication

  Copyright

  1

  The Chattering Book

  As Henry Haynes cocked his head sideways, trying to read the titles on the library book spines, he was sure he could hear a faint noise. Like distant voices. Murmuring. Chatter even. Not normal everyday chatter. This was definitely chatter of the most unusual kind – anything but normal as far as Henry was concerned. For a second he thought it was coming from the wall behind the bookshelves, but that was impossible as the wall backed onto the street and he was on the first floor.

  He swung round. No-one. Only old Mrs Glyn smiling at him from the checkout desk. ‘Three more minutes, dear,’ she called. Her voice echoed strangely through the gloom.

  Henry narrowed his eyes and glanced sideways, left then right, trying to work out where the voices had come from. Then he realised the chatter had stopped. He gave a puzzled frown, shook his head and turned back to the bookshelf where he was surprised to find a book sticking out at a sharp angle in front of him.

  Henry cocked his head sideways and read out loud: ‘Jeremy James and The Great Escape’. He grinned broadly, grabbed the book between his chubby fingers and made his way to the desk.

  As Henry laid the book down in front of Mrs Glyn, for a split second he thought he heard the murmuring again. And, for just the briefest of moments, he thought it was coming from the book! He darted a look up at the old lady. But she was busy typing at her computer. Click, click, click. The keys danced merrily beneath her fingers as she hummed a soft tune. Henry frowned. Was it possible Mrs Glyn had been muttering to herself just now?

  Mrs Glyn stopped, picked up the book and swiped it in front of the scanner. ‘Bleep!’

  ‘There you go, dear,’ she said, gently, twirling round on her chair. And now, as Mrs Glyn handed Henry his book, she gave him the strangest of smiles.

  At the same time (was Henry imagining this?) her eyes seemed to be twinkling. In fact (no, he definitely wasn’t imagining it), the twinkle in old Mrs Glyn’s eyes that afternoon was quite unlike anything Henry had ever seen before.

  ‘I think you’ll enjoy this one,’ she said, in a gentle, smiley kind of voice.

  ‘Thanks,’ said Henry, wide-eyed. And he stuffed the book into his rucksack and hurried towards the exit.

  ‘Supper, Henry!’ His mother was calling up the stairs.

  ‘Drat!’ said Henry. He’d only just got home and was eager to make a start on The Great Escape. He yanked the book from his rucksack and opened the first page. He pressed his right ear hard against it, and listened. Silence. He shrugged, then put the book on his bedside table and pulled his stopwatch from his shorts pocket. “Start!” At the press of the button Henry flung himself towards the door, switched off the light and thundered down the stairs.

  Precisely 12.68 seconds later (a new bedroom-to-kitchen-table record) Henry Haynes shovelled his first mouthful of warm mashed potato into his mouth. At precisely the same time, unknown to Henry, the crisp white pages of ‘Jeremy James and The Great Escape’ began glimmering, ever so slightly, in the darkness up in his room. Then – just as Henry’s fork pierced his first ‘Big Dan’ fishcake – it started. The words in the book began whispering, the letters on the pages began nudging one another playfully.

  Henry Haynes, who was soon downing ‘Big Dan’ fishcakes and warm mashed potato faster than an Olympic Eating Athlete, had no idea that things were suddenly happening inside his book. No indeed. Henry Haynes, whose tummy was fast filling up, hadn’t the faintest inkling.

  2

  Falling In

  Henry’s tea took him exactly three minutes and forty-two seconds to eat. (‘What! No pudding?’ said his mother in astonishment.)

  Back in his bedroom he leaned over and grabbed ‘Jeremy James and The Great Escape’ from his bedside table and held it briefly to his ear again. Still silence. He turned to the first page and read:

  ‘Jeremy James, who was ten years old, was badly in need of an adventure. He had been stuck in bed for three weeks with a very nasty dose of the flu.

  ‘Great news!’ his mum cried as she burst into the room after the doctor had gone. ‘Doctor says you are better. We can all go out – at last! Now, where would you like to go?’

  Jeremy thought for about two seconds then said, ‘The Zoo.’

  ‘The Zoo it shall be!’ replied his mum.

  One hour later Mr and Mrs James and their only child, Jeremy, drove off in their car to the Zoo.’

  ‘I hope there are some baddies in this story,’ murmured Henry with a frown. He cupped his chin in his hand and read on.

  ‘Poor Jeremy’s face dropped when he saw the zoo queue, which snaked one hundred yards down the road.

  ‘Don’t worry!’ said his dad with a chuckle. ‘We’ve got a Family Pass!’

  The James family passed quickly through the gates, trying hard not to look too smug. The long faces of everyone queuing gazed despairingly after them.

  Their first visit was to the gorilla cage.

  ‘Pooh he stinks!’ yelled Jeremy, clutching his nose and rolling his eyes. As everyone around him started to laugh, Jeremy cackled loudly then pointed and shouted ‘Stink Face!’ at the ape.

  At this the gorilla took one step forward and eyeballed Jeremy as it chewed on a piece of straw. Jeremy was then sure he heard it grunt, ‘Larf like that again, mate an’ I’ll ’ave yer fer lunch!’

  Immediately Jeremy’s face drained and he stopped laughing, but then he remembered that the gorilla was separated from him by a handy set of iron bars. ‘Let’s find the lions!’ he yelled, heading off. Lions were Jeremy’s favourite of all.’

  ‘Brilliant! Lions!’ breathed Henry, his brown eyes widening. He read on.

  ‘Jeremy and his parents were just walking towards the lions’ den and laughing about how smelly the gorilla was, when an announcement came over the loudspeakers:

  ‘This is an emergency announcement! Please walk quietly towards the exit gates. We regret to inform you that one of our boa constrictors has escaped and is at this very moment slithering about somewhere in the grounds.

  ‘Oh, yes, and ..er.. if you have a toy snake from the zoo shop, to be on the safe side, please place it carefully on the grass, walk slowly away from it backwards, and ..er.. avoid using the name ‘Brian’.

  ‘Now – no panicking please, ladies and gentlemen. There are lives at stake here!’

  ‘An escaped snake?’ said Henry rather loudly. ‘Why can’t it be an escaped lion?’ He snorted indignantly and continued.

  ‘Suddenly there was the most almighty scream from a lady sitting on the grass a few metres away from where the James family stood.

  ‘AAHH… it’s the snake!! It’s got my ankle!’

  Jeremy looked across and there, sure enough, was an enormous glistening boa beginning to coil its brown and black trunk-like body around the ankle of a meek-looking lady with dark curly hair.’

  Henry’s forehead crumpled into a frown.

  ‘Why didn’t they make it an escaped lion!’ he said crossly, thinking how much more bloodthirsty he could have made the story.

  W
ell that, I’m afraid, did it.

  You see, things were already afoot inside Henry Haynes’s library book.

  And at that moment, just as Henry uttered the word ‘lion’, a loud tearing noise rose up from the book and a black hole appeared across the middle of the page and began spreading up and outwards towards his pillow.

  Henry’s first thought was to run from the room. But curiosity quickly overtook his fear and as he now poked his nose down into the hole he could see a mass of letters whirling about in what looked like a deep dark cooking pot.

  His pillow, which should have been underneath the book, seemed to have vanished, and a soft chattering noise was rising up and out of the hole.

  Henry leaned farther over to get a better look. As he did so, he felt a force starting to pull him towards the hole.

  He tried to resist, but couldn’t. The hole was now expanding rapidly – the wider it grew, the stronger the pull. Within seconds it had consumed the edges of his book and was eating into his pillow. And it was then, right out of the blue, that ‘Whoosh’ in he fell!

  Down into the hole.

  Down amongst the mass of chattering letters.

  That’s right! Henry Haynes, aged ten and three weeks, had tumbled inside his library book!

  3

  A Bumpy Landing

  As Henry felt himself falling, the chattering of the letters sang out all around. Soon it became so noisy he had to cover his ears with his hands. All around him he could see Bs, Fs, As, Zs, Es, Rs and dozens of other letters whizzing up down, left and right. Most strangely, when he looked up, he could still see his air-balloon lampshade hanging from his bedroom ceiling.

  Then, as he fell deeper in, and as his bedroom ceiling disappeared behind yet more letters, Henry began to smell fresh air. Suddenly he saw blue sky. Suddenly he smelled a familiar smell. What was it?

  The letters had stopped chattering and were now floating past him, one at a time, as if in space.

  After a considerable pause, the letter B went bobbing past against the blue-sky background. This was soon followed by an O. Next an A zigzagged up to him, humming casually, then dodged to his right.

  Immediately Henry began to tremble because he quickly worked out that ‘B’ ‘O’ ‘A’ spelled BOA.

  Henry was just starting to panic about what he would do if he actually met a boa constrictor when ‘THUD’, down he landed bottom-first on the green zoo grass. When he looked up he saw Brian the boa from his story, still busy coiling himself around the meek lady’s ankle.

  4

  Follow The Snake

  ‘Aaahh…SSSo glad you could make it!’ hissed Brian who immediately loosened his grip and squinted across at Henry through the sunlight. The snake quickly uncoiled from the lady’s leg and began slithering in Henry’s direction. The meek lady with the curly hair promptly fainted and was surrounded by the waiting crowd. No-one seemed to have noticed Henry’s arrival.

  Henry froze as the great snake moved in closer. He was just about to shut his eyes for what he thought must be the last time on the world when Brian, with his glaring yellow eyes fixed far in the distance, slithered right past him muttering ‘Follow me, boy!’

  ‘Where am I? Where are we going?’ said Henry, scrambling to his feet. He tried not to gulp.

  ‘You’ll sssee sssoon enough,’ hissed Brian as Henry hurried helplessly behind.

  The signs they passed read ‘To the Gorilla Cage’, and Henry immediately broke into a cold sweat, trying to decide which was worse; to be crushed to death by a boa or munched by a gorilla with an odour problem. In fact he needn’t have worried because ten seconds later they passed right by the ape without stopping.

  ‘Morning, Gordon,’ hissed Brian casually as they passed.

  As soon as the gorilla saw Henry, he jumped up and started rattling the side of his cage. ‘Ere, you, boy Jeremy!’ he snarled. ‘I’ll teach you to call me names!’ Henry thought he was going to be sick with the smell, never mind fright, and was glad he had a boa to keep up with. The gorilla obviously thought he was Jeremy from the library book story.

  The next sign they passed said: ‘To the Lions’.

  Henry could feel himself starting to sweat again. Why, oh why, hadn’t he kept his big mouth shut about escaping lions? Just look where his whining had landed him! A book with a hole, a gorilla who thought he was Jeremy, and certain death-by-lion.

  5

  Lions On The Loose

  As they rounded the next bend the snake suddenly stopped. ‘SSSee over there!’ he hissed dreamily. Henry followed Brian’s gaze towards a distant enclosure. Three lions were lounging in the sun on a rocky mound above a moat, swatting flies with their rope-like tails.

  ‘H-e-a-v-e-n on earth, t-h-a-t’sss where that isss!’ sighed Brian.

  ‘Have they had their lunch?’ Henry asked in a high voice that didn’t sound like his own. His knees had started to tremble.

  ‘Of coursse,’ hissed Brian with a smile.

  Henry heaved a sigh of relief.

  But then the snake turned, grinned and winked. ‘Ohhh, but they do ssso enjoy their dessert! Now, follow me, boy! Oh, er, and by the way, you can call me Brian you know!’

  ‘Brian,’ squeaked Henry in a whisper.

  As Henry and the snake drew closer to the lions’ den Henry gathered his senses.

  ‘Now look here, Brian,’ he blurted out in his best put-on deep voice, ‘you’ve got the wrong person here! I’m not Jeremy. I’m not in this story. I don’t get eaten by lions! Please, let me go back home!’

  The snake stopped abruptly and peered down its nose.

  ‘Get eaten?’ he hissed. ‘What are you sssaying, dear boy?

  ‘You, my boy, are here to help usss – not to get eaten! It’sss Revolution Day today!’

  He sniffed deeply then lurched forward.

  ‘Now do let’sss get a move on, pleassse.’

  ‘Revolution?’ quizzed Henry, panting as he ran to keep up. ‘What are you talking about?’

  ‘Revolution! Re-houssing! A new dawn!’ sang Brian.

  ‘Re-housing?’

  Henry still hadn’t the faintest idea what Brian was talking about, but at least felt grateful he wasn’t going to end up in a lion’s lunch box.

  Soon they reached the solid iron gate that marked the entrance to the lions’ den.

  Nearby, the crowds pressed their noses on the glass looking in, seemingly unaware of Henry and the snake.

  ‘Now, boy, ssstand back!’ hissed Brian.

  Henry stepped back just as Brian began to snake his body up into the air. At about three metres high, and almost fully uncoiled, he began humming, then gyrating like a belly dancer while making extremely rude gulping sounds between the hums.

  After a few seconds Henry spotted a large round lump travelling up inside Brian’s body towards his head.

  Brian continued humming and gyrating until the lump had almost reached his mouth. Then he let out the most almighty burp and jettisoned an enormous bunch of keys onto the ground – right in front of Henry!

  ‘Oooh! That’sss better!’ hissed Brian with a wide-mouthed grin. ‘I’ve been wantin’ to do that for agesss!’

  Henry stared at the saliva-covered keys in horror then slowly looked up at Brian.

  Brian raised his eyebrows knowingly then bounced a glance from the keys, to Henry, to the gate-lock.

  ‘No way!’ shouted Henry, jumping back a pace. ‘If you think I’m going to let those lions out you’ve got another think coming! They’ll attack people!’

  ‘Tut-tut,’ said Brian shaking his head. ‘But of courssse you’re going to let them out, dear boy! You see, it’sss all part of the plan!’ He grinned again like a wide-mouthed frog.

  ‘But they’ll kill people!’ cried Henry. ‘They’ll eat us all for lunch!’

  Brian slithered backwards, then squinted down his nose.

  ‘Don’t be ssso ssstupid!’ he hissed wearily. ‘Why would the finest pride of lions in London waste their appetites on human
ss when they can have the bessst sssirloin sssteak thisss side of Hampssstead from their own keepers?!’

  The snake’s glaring yellow eyes were now level with Henry’s, his ghastly slithering tongue tickling Henry’s right cheek.

  ‘Now then, boy, LET ’EM OUT! Cos you ain’t going home ’til you do!’

  Henry had no choice. With wobbling knees and a quivering hand he picked up the warm saliva-covered keys and slowly placed the one marked ‘L’ in the lock. As he turned the key to the left he felt a sudden jolt. Then, with a groan and a creak, the great iron doors began to swing open.

  The crowds screamed and scattered.

  The lions jumped up.

  And Henry tiptoed behind the gates.

  6

  Gordon’s Escape Plan

  ‘Long live The Revolution!’ roared the first lion as it lumbered out through the great iron gates. (The zoo visitors were fleeing in all directions.)

  ‘Thanks, Brian! It’s all yours,’ came a second growl from the lion behind.

  After about a minute, when the screams of the crowds had died away, Henry stepped from behind the vast iron gate to see three yellow lions’ tails bobbing up and down in a distant cloud of dust, heading towards the zoo exit. The crowds were still scattering, and Brian the boa was nowhere to be seen.