Squishy Taylor and the Mess-Makers (8 page)

I’m breathing hard. My hands are bleeding and my T-shirt is torn. But Baby is safe and Carmeline Clancy just said, ‘
Nice climbing.
’ To
me
. Vee nudges me with her elbow. Jessie winks.

‘We saw a couple of moves out the window,’ Carmeline says, nodding up towards her room. ‘Cute Baby,’ she adds and comes over to say hi.

‘Carmeline!’ a voice calls. It’s the scary Nanny, coming out of the hotel. ‘What are you doing out of your room?’

Carmeline turns to her. ‘I had to save the puppy,’ she says.

Messy still thinks the Nanny is his best friend. He
lollops
over to her and tries to
kiss
her knees. The Nanny actually smiles and suddenly looks a lot less scary.

Carmeline laughs. ‘Messy! Stop it. Bad dog.’

The Nanny looks up at Carmeline. I can see her face change as she connects the dots. ‘Messy?’ she asks. ‘
Messy?
You’ve been hiding a dog in your hotel room? That’s what this whole mess thing has been about?’

Carmeline looks embarrassed. ‘They were going to put him down. I didn’t know what to do.’

The Nanny explodes. ‘
You could have told me!
Then
I
could have done something! How can I look after you if you don’t explain what’s going on?’

I glare at the Nanny. I can’t stop myself from speaking. ‘Well, you should be less scary,’ I say. ‘Then she might tell you things.’

The Nanny looks stunned.

One of the Fancy Men steps forward. ‘I’m sorry, miss, but you cannot keep a puppy in the hotel. I’m afraid I will have to call the pound.’

There’s a silence. I’m thinking fast. The puppy needs a home right now.

‘It’s OK,’ I say. ‘We’ll take him.’

Jessie and Vee both look at me like I’m a bit crazy. Maybe I am, but I don’t care. I pat my knee. ‘Come on, boy.’

Messy
frisks
towards me with his big brown eyes and
tongue-lolling grin
. I reach down to scratch the soft fur behind his ears and feel a big heartbeat of love.

But then I look up. Carmeline Clancy seems sad and a bit lonely. I feel guilty, even though I just saved her dog. I don’t know what to say.

‘Do you want to come to our place for dinner in an hour?’ Jessie asks her. ‘Tom’s making pizza.’

When we come home, with the mozzarella and Messy, Dad and Alice look as though we just brought an
ogre
into the house.

‘
What is that?
’ Dad asks, as if he can’t tell it’s a puppy.

‘It’s a puppy,’ I say, then add, ‘we’re keeping him.’

‘No, you are not,’ Dad and Alice say at the same time.

Messy starts
frolicking
around the lounge room. He discovers a
couch-cushion enemy
and attacks. He growls and bites, shaking it so his ears flop from side to side. White stuffing starts to fly everywhere.

I remember the pictures of Carmeline Clancy’s destroyed hotel room. It makes a lot of sense.

I grab Messy and pull him onto my knee, scratching his tummy and making him wriggle and wag his tail. He turns around and starts to lick my face.

Dad and Alice are talking about the lost dogs’ home.

Jessie, as if she was an actual grown-up, turns on the TV news. There’s something bad happening on the other side of the world. And then, there’s Carmeline Clancy.

‘
I’m so pleased the film is going ahead,
’ she says. ‘
I said sorry to the hotel and they agreed to let me stay
.’

‘
Is it true
,’ the reporter asks, ‘
that you still refuse to reveal how your room was destroyed?
’

‘
Well, I revealed it to the film director and the hotel owner and they were OK with it. All you need to know is that I was
protecting someone
,’ Carmeline Clancy says, smiling.
‘It was a matter of life or death.’

Messy squirms out of my arms and leaps towards the TV, almost knocking it over.

Carmeline Clancy is sitting next to me, eating pizza.
I’m so happy I can’t breathe.
I’m feeding salami to Messy, who’s under the table. Carmeline is putting bits of crust in front of Baby, who thinks she’s the best thing ever. I agree with him.

Dad and Alice are talking quietly with the Nanny.

‘I can’t believe she let it happen,’ the Nanny says.

Carmeline turns around. ‘They were going to kill him,’ she says. Dad and Alice have their best
understanding-faces
on.

Carmeline keeps talking. ‘The first morning I got here, the pound came but I hid him. I tried to stop him wrecking my room, but I couldn’t stay awake all night.’

Dad and Alice smile, but the Nanny is serious. ‘Well, Carmeline, this family can’t keep him.’

I look at Dad and Alice, who are shaking their heads. I’m suddenly desperate. ‘But Dad,’ I say. ‘Alice,
please
.’

‘I guess we’ll need to go with Plan B, then,’ Carmeline says, turning to me. ‘I found a puppy school where he can stay while I’m filming. Afterwards I’ll take him home to Colorado.’

I nod, feeling a bit empty. But Carmeline is still talking, smiling at Vee and Jessie too. ‘I’m wondering if you guys can help me,’ she says. ‘I need someone to bring Messy to visit me every day while I’m filming. Could you guys do that?’

She wants us to visit her every day while she’s filming?

I pretty much scream. Vee cheers so loudly it scares Messy. He starts barking under the table and Baby cries. Then he stops crying and starts laughing.

‘
Messy’s licking his toes!
’ Carmeline says. We all duck our heads under the table to watch.

Baby’s little pink toes are curling and kicking, and Carmeline Clancy is laughing right beside me.

THE END

Ailsa Wild
is an acrobat, whip cracker and teaching artist who ran away from the circus to become a writer. She taught Squishy all her best bunk-bed tricks.

Ben Wood
started drawing when he was Baby’s age, and happily drew all over his mum and dad’s walls! Since then, he has never stopped drawing. He has an identical twin and they used to play all kinds of pranks on their younger brother.