Extraordinary Ernie & Marvellous Maud (5 page)

Ernie put his feet back on the ground, and he and the trolley skidded to a halt.

‘Maud, are you okay?’ he panted, rushing over to his trembling sidekick.

‘Oh Ernie,’ she whispered. ‘I thought …’

‘Everything’s all right now,’ said Ernie in a firm voice. ‘Did you see the way that dog took off?’

‘Did I!’ said Maud, some of the old spirit creeping into her voice. ‘You sure scared him.’

Ernie stood up, and Maud shook herself.

‘You came at him like a rocket!’ she said, pausing to give her cape a tug with her teeth. ‘And he took off like one,’ she continued.

Ernie listened to his friend praising his speed, daring and ingenuity as they rounded the corner onto High Street. Ernie Eggers was starting to feel just a tiny bit super.

By lunchtime the rush of shoppers had slowed to a trickle. Maud escorted an old man across the road, and Ernie helped a tired mother carry her shopping to the car, but they saw no mischief, havoc or chaos needing heroic intervention.

Finally Ernie suggested they stop for lunch. They bought salad sandwiches (Maud explained that she was a strict vegetarian), and took them to the park, where they found a cool spot in the shade of a large tree.

When they were done, Ernie gathered up their rubbish and took it over to the bin on the far side of the park. He was on his way back to Maud when he heard some familiar voices.

‘Look! It’s a celery stick!’

‘Nah, celery doesn’t have ears like that.’

Ernie could feel those ears beginning to turn red. It was Lenny Pascal and his two followers, Wilbur and Gilbert. Wilbur and Gilbert weren’t so bad on their own, but when they were with Lenny some of his nastiness seemed to rub off on them. Privately, Ernie thought of the trio as Pascal’s Rascals.

‘Hey, look at this!’ Lenny grabbed Ernie by the cape and used it to spin him around in dizzying circles.

Then he let go suddenly and Ernie stumbled. Wilbur and Gilbert laughed, and when a shove of Lenny’s knee sent Ernie sprawling on the ground they laughed harder. They were still laughing as they ran off across the park.

Ernie burned with shame. He felt small and useless and not at all like a superhero. If he really were a superhero, he would have been able to stand up to those bullies. No, he said to himself, if he really were a superhero, the bullies never would have come near him in the first place.

It was a wilted bit of celery that was lying in the dirt when Maud came galloping over.

‘Ernie, what happened?’ she asked breathlessly.

Ernie sat up. ‘Pascal’s Rascals,’ he said glumly. ‘They live on my street and they’re always pushing me around, calling me names … I wish they’d just leave me alone,’ he finished angrily.

‘Never mind,’ Maud said, attempting to dust him off with her hoof. ‘As we always say in the flock, names can never hurt …’

‘Hey, listen, that’s Emma’s voice,’ said Ernie, looking up.

At the other end of the park, Pascal’s Rascals had spotted Emma sitting on a bench by the pond reading a book.

As Ernie watched, Lenny grabbed the book and tossed it to Wilbur. Emma ran towards Wilbur, but he threw the book over her head to Gilbert.

‘Stop it!’ she was crying. ‘Give it back!’

‘Those scoundrels!’ said Ernie. ‘Come on, Maud. Let’s go!’

‘Yes! What’s the plan?’ said Maud excitedly as Ernie leapt to his feet.

‘I don’t know yet,’ said Ernie as he took off like a shot. ‘We’ll decide when we get there.’

‘I know!’ said Maud, cantering smartly behind him. ‘You chase him as far as that tree there,
then I’ll leap out from behind that rubbish bin and give him a karate kick to the knee, then …’

‘Maud,’ said Ernie, ‘you don’t know karate. I was making that up.’

‘Oh yeah,’ said Maud. ‘I forgot.’

‘Ernie!’ said Emma as she caught sight of the trainee superheroes. ‘Help me!’

Lenny turned to see. ‘Ha! Look who’s come to the rescue!’ he crowed. ‘It’s Super Salad—and look: Ernie has a little lamb!’

Wilbur and Gilbert chortled.

‘Lay off, Lenny!’ said Ernie.

‘Who’s gonna make me?’ sneered Lenny. ‘Hey, over here!’ he called to Gilbert, waving his hands in the air.

Gilbert flung the book towards him, and just as the book touched Lenny’s outstretched hand, Ernie gave him a sudden shove.

‘Hey!’ Lenny shouted.

Lenny stumbled backwards, right into Maud, who rammed all her woolly bulk hard into the back of the bully’s knees.

‘Wha …?!’ Emma’s book flew from his grasp, and his mouth gaped as he teetered backwards then tumbled into the pond with a loud splash.

A family of ducks immediately circled him, quacking their complaints loudly.

Wilbur lunged for the airborne book, but Ernie was too quick for him. He stuck out his
foot and the lunging Wilbur fell heavily, the book landing in the dirt beside him.

Ernie spun around to deal with the remaining bully, but Maud was already on the case. Eyes narrowed, her gaze fixed on Gilbert, she was pawing the ground like a bull. With a low, gruff bleat she lowered her head and charged, hitting the boy squarely in the stomach.

‘Oooph!’ he groaned as he fell, the wind knocked out of him.

Lenny, with the angry ducks still squawking at him noisily, dragged himself dripping from the pond and took off across the park. Wilbur and Gilbert, groaning, lumbered after him.

Hands on hips, Ernie gave a satisfied nod, then bent and plucked Emma’s book from the dirt. He carefully wiped it clean on his cape, and presented it to its owner.

‘Thank you, Ernie,’ she said. ‘And you too, Fang. You were both fantastic.’

Ernie and Maud grinned at each other.

Then Ernie cleared his throat. ‘Actually, Emma, Maud’s name is Maud—not Fang. I just made that up so she’d seem cooler.’ He flushed with embarrassment, then corrected himself. ‘That’s not quite true either,’ he confessed. ‘I was trying to make
myself
seem cooler. Maud doesn’t need any help. She’s already the coolest person—I mean sheep—I ever met.’

Emma tilted her head to one side and looked at Ernie thoughtfully. ‘Do you know what, Ernie? I don’t think you need any help either. You’re pretty cool too.’ Then she hugged her book to her chest and ran off across the park.

Ernie and Maud followed slowly.

‘She’s right, you know,’ Maud told Ernie. ‘You
are
cool. Why, on your very first day as a superhero you saved my life
and
defeated three bullies.’

‘We defeated those bullies,’ Ernie said. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you, partner.’

‘Thanks, partner!’ said Maud. She clicked her hooves together happily and began to skip across the park towards High Street.

Checking first to see that no one was looking, Ernie gave a little skip himself before jogging after her.