Emu-mail

Merv Lambert

Description

When Billy Burton receives a birthday present from his Auntie Flo, it really is a surprise, as it is a computer generated emu. He and his sister Jilly decide to call it M. At first they do not realise that, except for Auntie Flo, they are the only people who can see it. Soon M not only takes on a life of his own, but also causes mayhem along the way, whilst protecting Billy and Jilly at school, at the supermarket, and even on holiday abroad.

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 22 octobre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849892094
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page

EMU-MAIL



By
Merv Lambert

Publisher Information

Emu-mail published in 2010 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

The characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary and bear no relation to any real person or actual happening.

Copyright © Merv Lambert

The right of Merv Lambert to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.




1

Emu-mail


Billy realised he was in trouble. It was all because of his birthday present from Auntie Flo. He really liked her, but she was often in such a hurry and what his twin-sister Jilly called ‘over the top’. His father said Flo was a bit of an actress, always calling everybody ‘Darling’. Billy thought she meant well but did ‘gush’ a bit. She was so enthusiastic about things, was always the centre of attention and hardly ever stopped talking. His dad said never mind a word, when Flo was talking you couldn’t even get a letter in edgeways. She had appeared that afternoon, had hugged all the family, had wished Billy ‘Happy Birthday’ and told him, “Your birthday present is on your computer, darling.” Then she had waved goodbye and dashed off again.
“Go with the Flo,” sighed Mr. Burton, Billy’s dad.
“Don’t you dare talk about my sister like that!” snapped Millie his wife.
“Well, with her everything’s done at top speed. It’s exhausting just being in the same room as her. You must admit she’s weird. Two hundred years ago people would have thought she was a witch.”
Suddenly Billy jumped up. “I’ll just go and find Auntie Flo’s present,” he said and ran quickly up the stairs to his bedroom. He looked at the computer, hoping to see a parcel wrapped in bright paper lying on the keyboard or on top of the monitor.
“Oh!” He was disappointed. There was nothing there.
Just then Jilly tapped on the door and poked her head round it. “What have you got?”
“Nothing. Auntie said it would be on the computer.”
“Well, turn it on.”
“What?”
“Turn on the computer.”
“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that,” said Billy.
Quickly Billy turned on his computer, brought up his user name and clicked on it. The screensaver usually showed a bear asleep in a hammock. Now it showed a long thin neck with a bird’s face on top of it. It had a tough beak and fierce eyes.
“It’s an emu,” said Jilly. “And look. It says, ‘Click here’.”
Without thinking Billy clicked the arrow on the words.
“Ooh!” shrieked Jilly.
“Aaargh!” shrieked Billy.
Suddenly the emu was no longer a picture on the screen. It was standing beside them in the room. It was staring at them expectantly.
“What do we do now?” asked Billy.
“Ask it a question,” said Jilly.
“O.K.” Billy turned towards the emu. “Are you Auntie Flo’s present? ..Er, are you my birthday present from Auntie Flo?”
The emu ducked its head once, as if nodding.
“What is your name?” asked Jilly.
The emu gently moved its head from side to side as if shaking it.
Jilly understood. “Oh, you don’t have a name,” she murmured.
“Well, we ought to call it something,” replied Billy, gazing entranced at the tall creature standing there in his bedroom.
“How about Emu?” suggested Jilly.
“No. It’s too obvious. I know. We’ll just call it M.” Once again turning towards the big bird, Billy said, “Is that O.K. with you?” Once again the emu seemed to nod its head.
“Are you hungry?” asked Billy. “What do you eat?”
Immediately the emu pecked enthusiatically at the curtains, tearing off a large chunk, chewed it once and swallowed it.
“Hey! Don’t do that!” shouted Billy alarmed. “You’ll get me into trouble!”
The emu came and rested its head on Billy’s shoulder.
“I think it’s saying it’s sorry,” said Jilly.
“But what am I going to tell Mum about the curtain? She won’t believe me if I say that an emu ate it!”
“Just tell her you tripped, grabbed the curtain and accidentally tore it. She’ll probably just laugh.”
“But it’s not true.”
“Yeah, but the truth, the emu, really would sound like a porky pie.”
“O.K.” said Billy. The emu was nodding wisely.
“How do you get back in the computer?” Billy asked.
The emu walked up to the monitor and pointed with its beak. There on the screen was a page of instructions - Emu Rules - including ‘There is no need to feed this bird, as this could make it misbehave,’ and at the bottom of the list ‘To return emu place beak here.’
The big bird looked at the children and then touched the screen with its beak. Suddenly it was no longer in the room. It was back on the screen next to the Emu Rules.
“We’d better print those rules,” said Jilly. Soon they had two copies, one for each of them. They agreed that for now M was to be their secret.
Billy looked at the curtain, hoping that he’d been dreaming, but there was still a chunk missing from it. The next morning, however, he was feeling very relieved. His mother had not minded when he told her the fib about the curtain. “It’s not often you break anything. I’m sure you didn’t do it on purpose,” she said. Billy was hoping she wouldn’t ask where the missing scrap of cloth was. She didn’t, but added,” They’re so old I was thinking of changing them anyway.”

After breakfast Billy dashed upstairs to his room. There was just time to say hello to his new friend the emu. He had the computer up and running, when he realised that M was not there on the screen. The bird was standing behind him, resting its beak on the top of his head.
“Yuk, M. You gave me a fright! How did you escape from the computer?” M wasn’t going to tell him. Billy checked to make sure no more chunks had been bitten out of the curtains.
“Well, I’m off now. I’ve got to go to school. You must get back in the computer.”
The emu looked steadily at him and then stepped out onto the landing. Oh no! It was going to follow him to school! It was too strong and too quick for him to shut it in the house. What would happen if his mother met it? He couldn’t leave it inside. Billy foresaw trouble ahead, especially from Mr. Blackshore, his rather fierce maths teacher.
Billy dashed downstairs, grabbed his school bag, and shouted “’Bye, Mum!” As the boy opened the front door, the emu slipped outside, ran down the front garden path and waited for him on the street. There were a lot of people walking to work and school along the main road, but no one seemed to notice a rather large bird strolling along with Billy. No cars crashed into each other because the drivers were startled by seeing M. It did not take long for Billy to realise that perhaps only he and Jilly could actually see the emu.
He had just passed through the main school gate, when a large hand grabbed him by the arm and he was dragged against a wall.