Christine Cohen Park
The Second Story of.......
[Hint– Or if you want another story with pictures, scroll forward to No 5]
The Search and Rescue Brigade
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The next time Grandma visits, Jake wants to play again with the little pretend dogs that he has ready for her when she arrives. You remember Drummer and Munro? He can hardly wait for her to finish her cup of tea today because he has an idea . Drummer and Munro are going to be lost, not in Auntie Eve’s garden this time, but on Hampstead Heath, near to where Jake lives.
First the little dogs will have to be hidden?
‘Where shall we hide them, Grandma?’
‘In the hall, do you think or up the stairs?’
‘You stay here, Grandma, I’m going to do it.’
Jake comes back looking very pleased with himself. ‘They are all lost Grandma, this is terrible, how are we going to be able to find them?’ Jake has that twinkle in his eye.
‘Well we are going to have to call the Search and Rescue Brigade, aren’t we? You better do it on your phone?’
Jake picks up his pretend phone.
‘Tel them where you live and what has happened.’
Jake speaks into the phone.
‘Do they say they’ll help us find them, Jake?’
‘Wait a moment. Yes they do. They are coming right away, Grandma!’
‘I’m sure the Search and Rescue Brigade are very clever at finding dogs.’
‘I want us to be them.’
‘Then we better get in our car right away.’
‘Wait, I have to make a car, then. Jake gets four cushions and makes Grandma sit on one side of them while he sits on the other. Grandma drives but Jake needs to tell Grandma the way to the house of the people who have lost Drummer and Munro. ‘We’ll need a road map Jake to find the house, have you got one?’
Jake gets one of his picture books. He opens in (upside down and looks at it very hard.) ‘This is right Grandma, here we are. Park by that lamp-post over there.’ So Grandma stops the car. They get out. They ring the pretend bell. Grandma explains that they are the Search and Rescue brigade. They hear how the two dogs have got out of the house and have been last seen on Hampstead Heath.
This is very bad. But ‘Never mind,’ says Search and Rescue Grandma, ‘we will find them for you, won’t we Jake?’
Now Jake and his Grandma must think about what they will need to take to find the dogs. Grandma suggest they take cheese as dogs have a good sense of smell so maybe the smell of cheese will tempt them to come to them. ‘But if they do, we will have to catch them and put them in something to bring them back. What shall we take?’
Jake goes to a cupboard in the hall. He pulls out a small suitcase on wheels, lunch boxes, umbrellas, shopping bags, a feather duster on a stick, almost everything in the cupboard. Right at the bottom he finds two rucksacks, a small one for him and a large one for Grandma. He decides they should take the case on wheels, too.
‘Three things for two little dogs,’ Grandma protests, ‘two will surely do?’
But Jake thinks otherwise, and carries all three things into the sitting-room. Now what more should be put inside them? They add a few pieces of dried cat food from Moki the cat’s store, just in case the dogs don’t like cheese. Jake thinks it might get dark so they should bring a torch to see if they are hiding down a hole, also a screwdriver, a hammer, a drill from his tool box and a garlic press from the kitchen drawer, and two toy tractors. All of these go into the rucksacks, mostly into Grandma’s which is getting heavier and heavier! Jake puts one or two light things in his, including a snack of raisins. He wants Grandma to put on her rucksack. She protests that it is too heavy.
‘No it isn’t Grandma!’
They get back on the cushions. Jake holds his map to guide them to the Heath.
‘Do we turn right or left here, Jake?’
‘Right.’
‘And which way, now?
‘Left, no – right again.’
‘Now we are at a roundabout, round we go. Hold on tight. So can you tell me where are we heading for?’
Jake turns the pictures of his picture book, till he comes to one. He looks at it closely, even upside down. ‘We park where there are a lot of trees, Grandma.’
‘Right, Darling, I think this is it, don’t you? We'd better get out.’
They get out and start calling – ‘Drummer and Munro, where are you?’
Nothing happens. Grandma suggests Jake bring out the cheese to tempt the dogs.
But OOPS! Grandma has forgotten that Jake doesn’t like smelly, messy, or dirty things in his hands. The cheese is definitely smelly, and by now a bit soft and squidgy too, all the things he hates.
What he needs is a holder for it. He pushes one of the bits of cheese right down into a drill bit. Then he can’t get it out. He tries the garlic press but this is even more messy. Then, using a drill bit, he discovers he can poke and push the cheese into compartments without touching it.
His tool box, it now turns out, has many tiny compartments for hiding things like cheese when you start to really look at it. Also his cars and engines.
‘Darling, wouldn’t you like to find Drummer and Munro before it gets dark on the Heath?’ Urges his Grandma, who still has the supper to get ready.
‘Later, Grandma, see, this is what you can do –’ and Jake shows her yet one more way that a drill can be made to hold and then release a piece of cheese.
‘Umm...very clever,’ she mutters, a little less convincingly each time he calls her to see.
The hall clock strikes 5.30. Jake is engrossed in his new game. Grandma goes to the kitchen to make their supper. Drummer and Munro are still waiting to be rescued. After all, what is the point of hiding if no-one comes looking for you? The dogs get so bored with waiting, they yawn big yawns like this ** hoping to attract Jake’s attention.
But Jake doesn’t notice.
They creep out of hiding and tickle his toes.
STILL Jake doesn’t notice.
But luckily for them, very soon the Shepherd’s Pie cooking in the oven sends a message. Do you know how it does this? Smell. Yes, it sends a delicious potato, and mince, and gravy smell wafting through the kitchen and the sitting room and out into the hall. While Jake’s hands fiddle with his inventions his nose starts to twitch and his tummy tells him that it is near to suppertime and he is getting quite hungry.
‘Grandma,’ he calls out sternly as if it was she who’d forgotten! ‘We haven’t found Drummer and Munro yet. WE HAVE TO HURRY.’
‘Ah, you are ready now, are you? Well I think there is just, just time while the vegetables steam.’
So they take the cheese in Jake’s latest contraption, and the torch, for it is quite dark on the Heath now, and two doggy heads peer out of their hiding place at the smell of the cheese. Jake puts toy dogs in the case on wheels. Everything else goes in Grandma’s rucksack. Then they get back on into the cushion car, with Jake holding tight to the case with the dogs in it, trailing behind him on the floor.
‘Grandma, the Search and Rescue did a very good job, didn’t they?’
‘Absolutely, they did!’
When they arrive home everything from the rucksacks and case gets emptied out onto the sitting-room carpet. Grandma suggests that they put all the things back where they’ve come from before supper. But Jake isn’t quite ready to finish the game. He’s thinking…
‘They were really very naughty dogs running away like that,’ decides Jake, seeing his hammer. ‘They deserve a smack.’ He picks it up, with a twinkle in his eye. This is great fun!
‘You are very naughty dogs, after all, and you mustn’t do it again.’
‘Oh dear, don’t use the hammer on the poor things!’ remonstrates Grandma. She passes him the feather duster on the stick instead. ‘Use this, and just tap them softly on their bottoms not on their heads...’
So Jake smacks them gently, though perhaps not quite as gently as Grandma would like, the twinkle still in his eye. (Poor Grandma, she has forgotten that they are not REAL!) Then puts them away amongst his toys.
Later, when they are eating the Shepherd’s Pie, he notices that Moki has found two of the cat food pellets by the sofa. She looks as if she is wondering how they come to be so far from her dish.
He watches her gobble up this extra treat, then takes another spoonful of his own supper.
Tips from Jake for More Things To Do To S-t-r-e-t-c-h Your Mind
You can look up Hampstead Heath in London on your roadmap or on Google Maps
You can see how large it is. You can choose where you think Drummer and Munro hid.
You can also see if you can spot the three ponds on the Heath where people swim.
You can find out all about real-life Search and Rescue in the UK. Rescue at sea. Rescue from the mountains. Rescue using helicopters.
You will notice that there were no pictures yet for this second story. Maybe you would like to send me a picture you draw of Jake making his cheese contraption, or Grandma in her heavy rucksack, or Drummer and Munro hiding? Or send me a picture your Mummy or Daddy or uncle or Grandma draws? Then I might use it for when other children read these stories.
Remember in real life never hit a pet. Even if your dog has been a bit naughty, just tell it so. By your voice it will know you are not pleased. That will usually be enough. If not, Mummy or Daddy will be able to work out what to do next. But remember, too, … dogs and children both like to be a bit mischievous – where would the fun be otherwise.