Musty Digs Too Deep Page 5

  Rosetta awoke with a twitch, and realised it was nearly dark. At first she thought her mother must be calling, and it was that which had woken her, but then she remembered that her mother and Aimee, her sister, were probably still at the doctor's. Aimee, who was three, was different from other children her age. She could not yet speak and found it quite difficult to understand even the simplest things. Her enthusiasm and good nature more than made up for that in Rosetta's eyes, and she loved her sister fiercely. However, because the doctors had not yet worked out what was the matter with her, there were still lots of visits to hospital for tests. Her mother, who knew that Rosetta hated the endless trips to London, no longer insisted that everyone went.

  So what had woken her? Rosetta pushed up on her elbows to look around, but before she could complete the movement, a loud rustle made her freeze. It sounded like it came from the bottom of one of the hedges, and looking closely she thought she could see a slight movement in the prickly darkness, where the badger trail left the garden and disappeared into the undergrowth.

  A nose poked out, twitching. Then a bit more came and Rosetta saw a flash of white. Soon the face of a badger became clearly visible. Its nose wrinkled and it made as if to pull back, but then it was slid bodily forward as if it had been pushed from behind. There was a scrabble and then another face appeared alongside the first one, showing where the push had come from.

  Rosetta sat up slowly to get a good view, and as she did so she heard a gasp coming from over the top of the hedge - from the garden next door. Reluctantly taking her eyes off the emerging badgers - a third one was now following the first two - she looked over towards this second noise and saw a boy perched in the branches of an apple tree peering over the hedge at the animals. Excitement showed all over his face, and he had plainly not seen Rosetta, screened as she was by the branches of the plum tree.

  There were now five badgers moving hesitantly across the lawn, snuffling through the grass for fallen plums, and Rosetta turned her attention away from the boy to watch them. After a few minutes, when they had satisfied their first hunger, the animals started to play; snapping at each other and growling in a good humoured way.

  Except for one that is. A large badger - a male from its size Rosetta thought - took no part in the play and instead ran around in an agitated manner, every now and again stopping to rub its head against the base of the plum tree.

  Rosetta glanced back across at the boy. She could tell he was short, even though his position in the tree gave no proper sense of scale, and he had black hair, worn long for a boy his age. His face was pale and was starting to show the first sign of adolescent spots.

  He started to wave, having caught sight of her through the branches of the plum tree. Rosetta in turn glared back at him, and signalled that he should be still and quiet by lowering her hands as if she were closing an invisible window. Having got her message across, or so she thought, she turned back to watch the badgers who were still rolling around in the grass oblivious to all.

  The peace of the scene was disturbed when a small apple struck Rosetta on the shoulder and dropped with a loud thud onto the roof of the playhouse. At the noise the badgers froze, looked around, and then made a dash for the hole in the garden hedge from which they had come.

  Well not all of them, for one of the five - the large one who had behaved so oddly - seemed at the last minute reluctant to leave and hesitated by the hole in the hedge. Rosetta, who had jumped up into a crouch so she could catch one last look, found herself looking directly into the eyes of that last badger.

  As she did so a most peculiar sensation overcame her and she noticed that the eyes of the badger, which one would expect to be unfocussed and blank (badgers have very poor eyesight), were sharp and concentrated. And then, as she looked into those eyes, her heart leapt and she felt a bond form; a bond that she knew that badger also felt, because those eyes suddenly blinked as if in surprise. Then to her utter bewilderment, the badger stopped, pulled itself up onto on its hind legs, and clearly said;

  "Who are you humangirl? And what do you think you are looking at?"

  And with that it dropped to all fours and dashed through the hole in the hedge.