Puppy Pie (13 page)

‘There's chocolate cake,' Jake shouts.

‘Great,' Gull yells back.

Her cousins can hear her opening the old, screeching trunk and banging around. Then they hear her feet as she flies down the stairs. Gull heads for the lounge room carrying an armful of grubby, framed photos. Unceremoniously, she plonks everything onto the oversized, wooden coffee table and kneels down beside it. A cloud of thick, brown dust rises up from the ancient photos enveloping them all: they start coughing.

‘Gee, thanks Gull,' Tom splutters. ‘I haven't eaten dust for a whole hour. Was really missing it.'

‘Oops! Sorry,' she says between coughs.

‘Anyway, what do you want all those old photos for?' Tom asks.

‘Just curious,' she says, with a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. Gull starts sorting the various photos. Some photos show the Hepplewhites on horseback or standing with other people, always formal, always posed. She puts these on the floor beside her.

She keeps glancing at the one she's taken off the wall in the hall.

‘Yep,' Lucy says looking up casually from her comfortable lounge chair. ‘That's the Hepplewhites for you: not a hair out of place. How they always managed to look so spotless without a washing machine, I'll never know. Oh, and there's a similar one in that pile you've got.'

‘All very nice and boring,' Tom yawns. ‘But we've seen them before. Been around for centuries.'

‘And yes,' Jake nods, ‘we know there's a Gull in there, your special ancestor.'

‘This fair-haired one, the daughter,' Gull says excitedly, picking up the photo from the hall. ‘I was wondering if…'

‘Yep,' Lucy nods. ‘She's the original “Gull”, the one every fair-haired descendant is named after.'

‘She's the one who keeps staring at me,' Gull says. ‘I'm sure there's something she's trying to tell me.'

Simultaneously, her cousins break into laughter. ‘Not only a farm full of mysteries, now we have mysterious talking pictures,' Jake grins.

‘Go ahead and laugh,' Gull says, shaking her head, ‘but I really think there's more we need to find out.'

‘There's tonnes we need to find out,' Lucy sighs. ‘And I'd be more than glad if that photo really could talk and solve our mysteries.'

‘Anyway,' Gull says as she continues to sort through the photos, ‘I can't seem to find the other photo you said was here.'

Jake gets up off the floor and saunters over to the coffee table. ‘This one,' he says, flicking through a pile on the floor.

‘But it's not the same size,' Gull frowns, holding it by a corner of the frame. ‘It's about half the size. Er yuk! What's all this gunk splashed over the glass?'

‘Probably the insides of some big, squished insect,' Tom says helpfully.

‘Don't tell me that,' Gull says, ‘even if it is true.'

Lucy struggles out of her comfortable chair, groaning. ‘Same people though.'

Gull grabs some more newspaper and tries cleaning up the front of the photo. Exasperated, she runs into the kitchen, finds a rag under the sink and soaks it in water. Returning to the table, she picks up the small, framed photo and starts rubbing hard. ‘Can't get this sticky stuff off,' she says in exasperation.

‘Maybe this gunk is on the photo for a reason,' Tom suggests sauntering over.

‘Which would be?' Lucy asks kneeling, as she tries rubbing at the stubborn stain.

‘Well,' Tom continues standing over her, ‘maybe the “Hepplewhite ladies” were looking particularly untidy that day and didn't want anyone to see them.'

Lucy sighs and leans back, having made no difference at all.

‘Anyway,' Tom shrugs, reaching over and picking up the photo frame, ‘wouldn't it be easier just to do this?' In an instant, Tom has turned the small frame over, torn the flimsy backing off and lifted out the photo, lying it face up.

‘Wow! Why didn't we think of that?' Lucy asks astounded. ‘You are talented after all, Tom.'

‘That's me,' he says beaming. ‘Tom the Talented!'

‘Seeing you're so talented, could you go and find some chocolate cake?' Gull asks pathetically. ‘I'm starving.'

Letting out a melodramatic groan, Tom ambles out to the kitchen grumbling loudly, ‘Extraordinary talent is never appreciated in its own country, you know. Find the chocolate cake: as if that's all my great talent is good for.'

‘Now,' Lucy says ignoring Tom, ‘let's have a good look at this photo.'

‘We need a magnifying glass,' Gull says squinting at the photo. ‘Has anybody got one?'

‘Yup. Somewhere,' Lucy nods, getting up and going over to the desk, opening drawers and rummaging through. In the very last drawer, Lucy finds a long box, opens it and extracts the glass. Next, she smooths the small photo and grabs the magnifying glass. Then she bursts out laughing and points. ‘Tom's right,' she says. ‘The women are looking untidy, and grubby too, like us. So, why have they been photographed at all?' She glances over at the bigger photo from the hall and back again to the smaller one. Something is niggling her.
Same place, same people but all wrong,
she thinks.

Gull stares at both photos. Then she picks the smaller one up. ‘Hold on,' she says, ‘I think somebody's bent the photo over. Maybe there's more to it.' Very carefully, she straightens out the photo. She holds it up in front of the photo from the hall. ‘Now they're the same size,' Gull says triumphantly. She stares short-sightedly without her glasses at the mysterious photo. ‘See this one? Looks strange: everybody's looking really serious. See how strained they look?'

‘Yes, they are looking a bit odd,' Lucy agrees slowly. ‘Not at all like those women to look so scruffy,' she reminds Gull, pointing to several of the women whose hair is all but hanging down.

‘How's that chocolate cake coming along?' Jake calls out idly.

‘Alright, alright,' Tom says as he wanders through the door with both a plate and mouth full of chocolate cake. ‘Are you still staring at those old photos? Even you must be bored by now, Gull.'

She doesn't answer him but takes a piece of chocolate cake absent-mindedly.

‘Could be getting interesting,' Jake whispers to his twin as Tom sits down beside him on the couch, the emptying plate between them.

Gull and Lucy continue to look from one photo to another. Lucy says, ‘There are more people in this latest picture, the one we thought was small. There's this glum looking group on the right: another five people who were hidden from view. But why were they hidden away? Boy, if Tom hadn't done his magic trick, we would never have found them. Hey Tom, Jake, come and look at this.' Grudgingly, the boys stand up and flop down beside the coffee table.

The four of them stare at the complete photo: from one hundred and fifty years earlier, over a dozen people stare back. Standing slightly to the left of the veranda stairs are the Hepplewhites in their usual pose. And on the opposite side stand five men, two of them looking particularly sullen and unkempt.

‘Is that a rifle?' Gull asks suddenly. She picks up the magnifying glass to look.

‘And another one. Look,' Jake says pointing. ‘And another. Three guns being carried by those men in dark suits. But who are they?'

‘Oh my!' Lucy exclaims suddenly, her heart pounding.

Gull looks over at her questioningly. ‘You don't think …' Gull stammers.

‘Well, it could be,' Lucy answers.

‘Could be what?' the twins echo looking from Lucy to Gull and back again.

‘I think this is more than a photo,' Lucy says carefully.

‘How can this be more than a photo?' Tom asks scornfully.

‘When it's a record,' Lucy says slowly.

‘A record of what?' Jake asks confused.

‘A record of a robbery,' Lucy says at last.

‘What?' the twins yell together.

‘Yep,' Lucy nods to the dumbfounded twins. ‘It looks like two of the glum group on the right could be the robbers. See? Three policemen and the dogs that helped save the Folly surround them. Remember that story we told Gull about the Folly being threatened? And Useless' ancestors keeping the robbers at bay while one particular dog untied Fred Hepplewhite?'

‘Another rumour,' Tom shrugs.

‘I don't think so. Not any more,' Lucy says seriously.

While she's speaking, Gull idly turns over the latest photo. Grabbing the magnifying glass, she looks long and earnestly at the inscription on the back. Then, she reaches for the first photo and hands it to Tom. ‘Could you do your magic trick again?' she asks.

‘Huh?'

‘Tear off the back,' Gull says.

‘Why?'

‘If we're really lucky, there might be a date on the back,' she says. ‘We need to know what it is. Then we'll know for certain what we're looking at.'

Tom shrugs and proceeds to tear the back off the photo from the hallway.

‘Well?' she asks with her fingers crossed.

Tom hands it over to Jake who grabs the magnifying glass. After a few minutes, he says, ‘Looks like “Hepplewhite's farm. 16 February, 1858. Their goose is cooked!”

‘Goose? Doesn't make sense: not even Christmas,' Tom mumbles.

Lucy bursts out laughing. ‘I think he means the bank robbers' goose is cooked, dopey,' Lucy says affectionately. ‘Or, if you like, their number's up.'

‘Anything else?' Gull asks curiously.

Tom peers over his brother's shoulder. ‘Looks like a list of names. No, wait, two lists of names.'

Jake reads carefully, ‘Hepplewhites: Frederick and Sarah; Thomas, John, Peter; Maude, Gull, Sarah, Bonnie and Flo. That's one list. And the other list on the right says…'

‘Yes?' Lucy and Gull cut in.

‘Not much. Just says “Whitton police with apprehended felons,”' Jake continues.

Gull grabs the photo and magnifying glass back, frowning intently.

‘Let me,' Lucy says as Gull passes it across. ‘Nope,' she says disgustedly, ‘I can't make it out.'

Gull takes back the photo and looks at the front again. ‘Let's see the first one again,' she says. Lucy hands it over to her. ‘Ah, this one's clearer. It just says, ‘Hepplewhite's Farm, 13 February, 1858 with family.' The girls stare at each other.

Lucy is the first one to speak. ‘Our family threatened three days after this photo was taken. So, another was taken to commemorate the event. Wow!'

‘Useless' family too,' Jake adds. ‘Hey look! That big one at the front looks a lot like Useless.'

‘That makes sense,' Lucy says. ‘Remember? It was the dogs who attacked the robbers and saved the day.'

‘And it was the smartest one who untied the ropes with her teeth,' Gull grins.

‘Mmm, she does look like Useless,' Lucy says amazed. ‘So he did have smart ancestors after all.'

‘Wow! What a find!' Tom crows. ‘And all because of me: Tom the Terrifically Talented!'

‘Come on you lot,' Helen says walking into the lounge room. ‘Time to tidy up. Ooh! Where did this mess spring from?'

‘But a good mess,' Gull says excitedly. Without drawing breath, the gang starts explaining, and shows Helen what they've discovered.

‘Well, well, well,' Helen muses shaking her head as she pores over the photographs. ‘This is fascinating. And Harry will be very interested. A mystery we didn't even know we had has been solved. So, it wasn't a rumour after all. Old Fred, his family and the Folly really were threatened. Clever you,' she says looking at each of the gang.

‘Tom was the one who really solved the case,' Gull says quickly. ‘He took the back off the picture and there was the information.'

‘Clever you,' Helen says, ruffling Tom's hair. Tom beams as pleased as punch.

Then Helen looks at her watch. ‘Now, off to bed the lot of you: it's way past clever people's bedtime: you must all be exhausted. And you've got another big day tomorrow, remember. Oh, I've got to ring my brothers back and tell them not to come here. They can go straight to the small farms at the other end of town. And escape Norah Sprogg's “blight”,' she adds with narrowed eyes.

‘Have I got time to put this latest photo in a frame that fits, now that it's unfolded?' Gull asks. ‘I'd like to hang it next to the original one,' she adds as she rummages around trying to find a frame to fit.

‘Don't be too long,' Helen calls out as she picks up the phone in the kitchen to ring her brothers.

Finding a hook in the right place, Gull hangs the two photos side by side in the hallway. Proudly, she stands back and looks at the two pictures. ‘Only three days apart and so much happened to you,' she says. With a quick wave goodnight to her ancestors, Gull hurries back into the lounge room and puts the remaining photos in the drawer of the coffee table. Her cousins are waiting on the stairs for her, having watched her put the pictures on the wall.

As they troop up the stairs, Lucy says, ‘If only we could solve some of our other mysteries like Mum's sleeping sickness and the crop falling over. Instead, we find proof of an old story passed down from our ancestors. And our ancestors don't seem to be helping us at all. We're still completely in the dark. All these strange things are happening and we haven't got a clue.'

‘I'm so mad at that Norah Sprogg, I don't think I'll sleep a wink all night,' Tom fumes. The others agree.

However, as soon as their heads hit the pillow, Gull's cousins are out like lights.

* * *

‘Wake up, Harry,' Helen says loudly. ‘I know it's still dark outside but Ted'll be here in twenty minutes. Come on, your breakfast's on the table,' she adds trying to tempt him. Blearily, Harry opens his eyes. ‘Go and have a shower. That'll wake you up.'

‘Doubt it,' he says stumbling towards the bathroom.