Terry the Magic Tent

C. Noel N.

Description

Terry, the tent, grits his teeth (did you know tents have teeth?) and the children are in for an unusual day. Granny and Granddad are looking after their grandchildren for the day and Granny thinks it would be fun to put up their old tent in the garden. However, Terry has other ideas. But by the time the children's mum arrives home, everyone has had an unexpected, not to mention wonder-ifiral, megasaurus day.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 28 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528954105
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

Terry the Magic Tent
N. C. Noel
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-02-28
Terry the Magic Tent About The Author Dedication Copyright Information © Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12
About The Author
N. C. Noel started writing in response to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Having completed the Gold award many years ago, it was time to respond to the challenge when it was announced that a Diamond challenge was being launched to celebrate 60 years of the scheme. So what challenge did she choose: abseil down the Shard, run the London marathon, climb Everest? No, she chose to write a children’s book. And so her story started.
Dedication
I’d like to dedicate this book to Nicola and Christopher, my wonderful children.
Copyright Information ©
N. C. Noel (2020)
The right of N. C. Noel to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781788480062 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781788480079 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781528954105 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Sam, Isaac and Graham for lending me their names.
Chapter 1
‘Oh, oh. What’s happening? What’s she doing? Do you think she’s got grandchildren now? I’ve been living here happily for years. I thought I was going to live quietly in this attic with the bricks and the train set for ever and she’s getting me out, oh dear!’
Granny Betty certainly had got grandchildren and today she’d offered to look after them while their mum and dad were at work. It was the school holidays and Granny Betty thought it would be fun to put their old tent up in the garden. Terry the Magic Tent was not so happy.
‘Oh dear,’ said Terry. ‘I remember what it was like with her own boys. There was the time they went to the seaside and it rained all week. I was so soggy. The rain stayed on my roof and it got so heavy. Eventually, I couldn’t hold it anymore and the rain started to drip through. I remember it dripped into their ice creams so they got soggy and the ice creams dripped onto them. Oh dear. In the end, I couldn’t hold the rain any longer; it was so heavy the whole lot fell on them. They were soaked, and after that they packed up and went home.’
‘Oh please let her decide it was a bad idea to get me out again.’
Granny Betty struggled down from the attic with the old tent. Grandad Graham couldn’t help because he had just had a new hip and he was very slow at walking or doing anything, in fact.
‘What are you going to do with that old thing,’ said Grandad Graham.
‘I thought it would be fun to put it in the garden for the children to play in.’
‘Well good luck putting it up, Are you sure it hasn’t rotted away? It’s been up there for a long time.’
‘And I thought I was going to have to stay there for ever,’ thought Terry.
But memories were starting to flood back; memories that Terry wished he’d never had.
‘I remember, one day they decided to cook sausages in me. Can you imagine how dangerous that was, cooking sausages in me! They got a load of sticks and carefully piled them up in a heap. One of the boys ran round and round the sticks chanting silly words – hocus pocus, iggy, wiggy, oobbie, doobie and then they set fire to them. They smouldered gently for a while but then they put a pan of sausages on the fire. The sausages spat and splattered, flames flew out in all directions and the whole pan caught fire. The flames grew higher and higher and then I caught fire. I still have the mended hole in my roof. If it wasn’t for her quick action I’d have been burnt to nothing. It’s making me feel faint at the thought.’
Poor Terry Tent was feeling quite ill thinking about it. He had forgotten all these bad memories. What was he going to do?
Granny obviously wasn’t going to be prevented from getting him out. So Terry Tent decided that he had better come up with his own plan. ‘Hmm,’ he would need to think about this. Perhaps, he should have a word in Granny’s ear. Yes, he was sure Granny would help.’ Grannies are always sensible.’
They packed everything into the car and off they went to the children’s house. The children were so excited when Granny Betty and Grandad Graham arrived. They all helped to unload the car.
‘What’s all this?’ said Sam, waving the tent pegs in the air.
‘Please, don’t lose those,’ said Terry, ‘I can’t stand up without those.’
Strangely, no-one else except Granny could hear Terry Tent pleading with them to be careful with him and his bits and pieces.
‘This is heavy,’ groaned Isaac as he tried to drag Terry across the drive.

A picture containing grass Description automatically generated
‘Ouch, ouch, you’re wearing a hole in me.’
‘I’ll help you,’ said Charlotte and she grabbed the end of it. It was heavy even with the two of them carrying it, Isaac was five and a half and Charlotte was eight and three quarters. Between all of them; Mum, Granny Betty, Grandad Graham, Sam (who was nearly ten), Isaac and Charlotte, they managed to remove all the goodies from the car and loaded them into the house or the garden. They all waved goodbye to Mum and Grandad Graham headed to the kitchen to make a cup of tea. The children all ran into the garden followed breathlessly by Granny Betty. By the time she had got there each of the children had a piece of the tent.
‘How does this work?’ said Sam, throwing a tent pole on the ground.
’Ouch. ’ Terry was still feeling grazed from being dragged along the drive.
‘Now then,’ said sensible Granny, ‘I’ll be in charge and you hand me the pieces I ask for.’ The children recognised that Granny was older and wiser than they were especially with regard to strange old fashioned tents, although that didn’t apply to iPads and Xboxes. Eventually the tent was up and the children and Granny all went inside.
‘How do we close the door?’
‘Pull that tab on the zip,’ said Granny.
Sam, who was the oldest, yanked the tab and the metal zip firmly closed its jaws. They all sat down in the middle of the tent. ‘Now what shall we do?’
‘We could go hunting for twigs to make a bonfire,’ said Granny.
‘This is it, Granny’s cue,’ said Terry, ‘Time for action.’
Sam shot up to pull the zip tab up but it wouldn’t move. He pulled it and pulled it.
‘Ouch, ouch, you’ve grazed my fabric again.’
But Sam carried on pulling. ’Oh let me do it, said Charlotte. She pulled and pulled and wiggled it and twisted it but it wouldn’t move. The more they pulled, the more Terry gritted his teeth.
‘Oh, dear,’ said Granny, ‘Its teeth seem to be stuck.’
‘Teeth!’ said the children together.
‘Yes, zips have teeth; it’s the bit that closes up when you pull the tab along. These old tent always had metal teeth.’
‘I’m glad my teeth aren’t made from metal,’ said Charlotte and she tapped her own teeth just to make sure.
The more they pulled the zip, the more it locked together. Terry’s plan had started, he winked at Granny.
Chapter 2
‘We’ll have to get Grandad Graham to let us out; it’ll be easier from the outside.’
‘When I count 1, 2, 3 we’ll all shout GRANDAD.’ So Granny counted 1, 2, 3.
‘GRANDAD,’ all four of them shouted. But no-one came. They tried again. Silence.
‘Now what?’
‘Isaac, you are the smallest. Squeeze under the tent and go and get Grandad to open the zip.’ So they pushed him out and listened to his little footsteps disappearing into the distance.
‘What should I do?’ thought Terry.