Figaro and Rumba and the Crocodile Cafe (5 page)

Figaro began to cry.

‘I'm going to take you to Doctor Numbat,' said Rumba at last.

Doctor Numbat was very old. Mrs Foozy said he was so old that he knew everything about the earth and all the creatures living on it. ‘So he'll know just what to do about a dead paw,' Rumba told Figaro. But in his heart, Rumba wasn't so sure.

The first thing Doctor Numbat did was to listen to Figaro's chest. Then he felt his forehead and took his pulse. He shook his head.

‘What? What?' cried Figaro.

‘I don't suppose you have been lying down?' asked Doctor Numbat.

‘Yes, he has,' said Rumba quickly. ‘He's been asleep and he had a terrible dream.'

‘Aha!' said the doctor. ‘Can you show me how you were sleeping?'

‘He was sleeping like this,' said Rumba, and he arranged Figaro's head on his paw.

‘That's it!' said Doctor Numbat. The doctor took Figaro's head in his hands. He flopped it up and down a couple of times. ‘You have a very large head, Figaro. And it's very heavy.'

Figaro wrenched his head away. ‘That's because I have so many
brains
. And there's no need to make personal remarks. Did I mention how many wrinkles you have?'

The doctor patted Figaro's paw. ‘Sometimes when we sleep, a part of our body can press on another part and cause the blood to stop flowing for a while. So when you wake, your leg or arm can feel numb. It won't last long. Soon you'll have a tingly feeling in that paw.'

‘Oh yes, yes!' yelped Figaro suddenly. ‘Touch my paw again! Yes, ooh it hurts, it feels so funny!' And he leapt up from the couch, falling over his other three feet.

‘It will feel odd for a few more minutes, until everything is flowing normally again.'

When they got home, Figaro practised walking outside on the veranda. Then he went for a long run down to the river, up the hill, and around the cricket field. On the way back he passed Nate's treehouse. Nate and his cousin Nancy were sitting outside on a branch, catching the afternoon breeze. Nate had the stereo on very loud and his cousin was dancing.

‘Come up and have a drink!' called Nate.

‘Look at my new dance I invented!' yelled Nancy. ‘It's called the Dead Paw.'

‘No, thanks,' Figaro called back. ‘I want to keep moving, now that I can.'

That night, Figaro was very tired. But he was scared of having bad dreams again. ‘What if I sleep the wrong way?' he asked Rumba. ‘What if that thing kills my paw again?'

Rumba gave him
The Little
Ghost Cat
to read. Then Figaro tried humming and listening to his iPod. But nothing worked. He couldn't fall asleep.

‘Do you want me to tell you a story?' said Rumba.

‘Yes, please,' said Figaro.

‘Well, it's a story my uncle told me, and he says it's true. One day, he was going for a swim in the sea.'

‘Can't he be going for a walk in the country?'

‘No. This is the only story I know. So, as I was saying, it was a very hot day and Uncle swam out far. Soon he'd gone such a long way that he couldn't see the shore anymore. The sky grew dark and the wind came up. He tried to turn around and head back to land but the waves rose higher and higher, until they were big as houses. And then suddenly everything went terribly, dreadfully dark.'

‘Ooh, Rumba, hurry up and get to the good bit. Is there a good bit?'

‘Not yet. There was only black all around him and he thought there must be a storm overhead, or else he had died. But then he felt himself being whooshed along a tunnel, and running off the tunnel were all these different rooms. He was whooshed into one and thrown up against a wall.

‘“Hello,” said a voice. “Nice to meet you.”

‘“Who's that?” said Uncle.

‘In a minute his eyes got used to the dark and he saw that he was talking to a crab. Then he looked around and saw hundreds of strange little creatures – sea cucumbers and sea snails and jellyfish and things with eight legs or eyes on stalks.

‘“Where am I?” asked Uncle. “What happened?”

‘“You've been swallowed by a whale,” said the crab. “Gloomy, isn't it?”

‘“How do I get out of here?” asked my uncle.

‘“You can't,” said the crab.

“We've been here for years. This is the ballroom. We hold dances in here when we get bored.”'

‘“But I don't like the dark!” cried Uncle.

‘“Well, you'll just have to get used to it like we did. Soon Eric the electric eel will be along and he makes enough light for anyone. You can play cards instead if you like.”

‘My uncle thought he'd go mad. It was worse than any nightmare. He gave a long yowl of fear that echoed around the ballroom.

‘“Hey, listen to that!” said the thing with its eyes on stalks. “He can sing!” Stalk-Eyes crawled over to my uncle and said, “A prawn once told me that the only way to get out of the whale's stomach was to sing a very high note called Sea.”

‘“How would that help?” asked Uncle.

‘“Well, the prawn reckoned this note tickles the whale so badly that his insides shiver and he vomits up his entire stomach. I suppose that means us. Do you think you could do it? Frankly, I'm over this ballroom.'