“I don’t think they will miss this,” said Rosie pointing to the radio she had just dropped from her mouth. “They have TVs and Boxes with music blaring all over the house. Just in case they do miss it I think you should take this and run back to your den as fast as you can. It would not be very good if they came out and saw me giving you a loan of their radio.”
Little Bad Wolf did not have to be told twice. She bit the handle of the radio and ran as fast as she could to her den.
Chapter 7 The Noise-Box
Little Bad Wolf and her two aunts had been staring at the box for a whole hour.
“It does not seem to do anything,” said Aunt Matilda.
“It does something all right,” said Aunt Martha. “It takes up space and we have not got enough room for a big ugly box to sit there doing nothing.”
Little Bad Wolf ignored them. She knew this was a mistake because whenever she did this they would just talk more until she gave in and agreed with them. She was busy though. She could not figure out how to get this thing to make music and she knew that was possible. Rosie had told her the radio worked.
“Your idea is plain daft,” said Matilda. “How will you be able to learn to speak like a human from an ugly box that does not even work?”
“For once I agree with my sister,” said Martha. This was true. They always seemed to take exactly the opposite point of view on any subject. If Martha said something, Matilda would disagree, and if Matilda said the exact same thing the following day, Martha would disagree.
“It is ugly, it’s big and we should get rid of it,” said Matilda.
“I agree,” said Martha. Matilda had to look at her to see that it really was her sister who had agreed with her twice in a very short time.
Little Bad Wolf continued to ignore them. She was staring at the box. She knew that it worked and that somehow this box could teach her to speak like a person. She knew also that being able to speak and write in human was essential to getting her dad out of prison. She only had to figure out how it worked and this she could not do. There were knobs and buttons everywhere, but which knob, what button and what would happen if she pressed the wrong button?
"This thing is absolutely useless," said Aunt Matilda with Aunt Martha nodding in agreement. To prove her point she hit one of the buttons.
"You ain't nothing but a hound dog," blared the radio, giving the three wolves quite a shock. It had been a very peaceful day on the outskirts of the forest, and now loud rock and roll music had invaded. The three wolves looked at each other, were silent for a moment and then started to laugh. Soon they could not help themselves - they were dancing to Elvis Presley.
"Well, I guess it works," said Aunt Matilda still laughing at the strange device.
Little Bad Wolf was delighted they had figured out how work the radio. She was even more pleased that the first song from the radio was sung by Elvis Presley, her parents' favourite.
Chapter 8 Learning to Speak
Learning to understand the language of humans was easy. Little Bad Wolf already understood a lot before she acquired the radio, but this really helped. What was difficult was learning how to say the words, how to pronounce them in a way a human would understand. It was very, very difficult to learn to speak. She found it was best if she did not just listen to very simple pop songs. Rock music helped her language skills a lot. They often told stories in their songs, some of which were really wonderful. The stories were sometimes a problem as some were so good that Little Bad Wolf would forget she was supposed to be learning to speak and would just listen. At first she would avoid listening to the news and discussion programmes, but she found this was an even better way of learning how human actually talked.
To Little Bad Wolf it seemed like a very long time before she could even say one word which sounded like it was spoken like a human. It was actually only one month, but it was one month of very hard work. Sometimes she found it physically painful to try to say the words. Her mouth was not the right shape or so it seemed to her. Each day she would listen and practise every spare minute she had. Each day she would be frustrated at not being able to speak. She thought she was letting her father down. He was in prison, and as far as she could see, the only way he would ever get out would be for her to learn to speak and to go to school and be able to ask for his release in a way humans would understand.
Little Bad Wolf thought the discussion programmes were strange. They talked about anything. Sometimes they would be talking about what the President of Russia said to the President of the United States. Other times they would be talking about the local hairdresser who was retiring. She found it much more interesting and easier to understand when they were talking about something which was happening in the village.
One day she was listening to the radio. There was an interview with the new mayor, Mr Hurray-Bill and we talking about the plans he had for the village. He went on to talk about his wife Mrs Hurray-Bill and was telling everyone how wonderful she was. She had just become principal of the local school. At this point Little Bad Wolf listened even more intently. She thought that she might find out how to get into the school and that this lady might be able to help her get an education. It was at this point that the radio started to go silent and then make a buzzing noise followed by more silence and then briefly return to the interview. In the end she could not listen to it.
“I think it’s the batteries,” said Rosie when Little Bad Wolf explained her problem. For Little Bad Wolf, Rosie and ET were her experts on radios and she had gone to them seeking help with her problem.
“So what do I do?” asked Little Bad Wolf.
“You need new batteries,” said Rosie.
“Well how do I get them and when I do get them, what do I do with them?”
This problem had the three animals thinking for some time. A wolf could not just go into a shop and ask for batteries. Even if it was ok for her to go into the shop she had no money, and if she did get the batteries she would not be able to do anything with them. They eventually decided they would have to think about this for longer and went to sniff some trees and see who was walking about in the woods.
From this point on Little Bad Wolf used the radio far less. She thought it would make the batteries last longer if she only used it occasionally. Every day for about 10 minutes she would listen to something. That Friday she was listening to it and heard a song followed by radio adverts. She was about to turn the radio off when the announcer said that today they have the manager from the company who are going to develop the land beside the forest.
“So where is the land you are going to build the new shopping centre,” asked the announcer.
The manager had started to talk but Little Bad Wolf could not hear it as the battery started having problems. The radio was either silent or crackled. It started working again for a few minutes and she heard “… so that’s the land beside the forest?” she could not hear whether the answer was yes or no, but she was clear that they were talking about her home.
She found the idea that they might be building a shopping centre on her home startling, but then the announcer asked, “What are you going to do with all the wolves that live there?”
“Well, I know they are a protected species, but we have got special permission.”
There was then silence.
“Anyone can join. A rare opportunity to kill yourself a wolf. And we will pay for the bullets. What could be more exciting?”
This time Little Bad Wolf did not notice the silence as she came to the only conclusion possible. They were planning to clear this land and send some farmers to shoot the wolves first.
Chapter 9 Trouble with a Capital T
Aunt Matilda wanted to go to the leader of the pack immediately and tell him what Little Bad Wolf had heard. Aunt Martha thought that Little Bad Wolf was mistaken and they could not possibly be planning to build shops in the forest. However, she must have not b
een so convinced by her arguments, as her sister quickly persuaded her to go with them to the pack leader.
"That can't possibly be true," he said. "Our families have lived in this part of the forest for generations. I am sure you heard wrong. They have lots of supermarkets in the village. They have all sorts of shops selling all sorts of things. Why would they want another one here?"
Little Bad Wolf told him that she was certain of what she heard but she had not heard enough to know if they were building a supermarket here, though she thought they were. The pack leader was very worried. He did not know what to do, but more worryingly he did not know how fast he needed to do it.
They didn't have to wait long. The first farmer with a gun was spotted the next day. Thankfully this was Farmer McGoo who was known to all the local animals he hunted for his bad eyesight. He could have shot the family of wolves who were sleeping almost in his path but he walked right past, waking them up with his heavy footstep. Confirmation of a farmer with a shotgun changed the pack leader's opinion.
New rules were immediately implemented about what you could and could not do. The Pack Leader introduced a system where two wolves guarded the wolves’ area, and everyone knew the drill and how they should raise the alarm when a farmer with a gun was spotted. All wolves had to be in pairs or groups of three when they were walking around the land. The Pack Leader said that there should be no lone wolves or groups bigger than three on the land
The Pack Leader called a meeting of all the wolf packs near the area where the supermarket was planned. This was something which never happened before. They did all get together on special occasions. When Madame had died every wolf in the forest had turned up to pay respect, but never before had a meeting being called when they were under such a threat.
The meeting had been planned for the night after the farmer was spotted.
“What will happen?” Little Bad Wolf asked her aunts.
“We don’t know yet,” said Aunt Matilda. She had the sort of voice which suggested that she had a pretty good idea and it was not going to be good.
“In one way it’s simple,” said Aunt Martha. “If the humans want to build a supermarket, we will have to move. If we do not move they will catch us and maybe shoot some of us.”
Little Bad Wolf had also guessed that this might happen. She had hoped that she would be able to go to school in the village and be able to learn enough to get her father out of prison, but if they were now planning to destroy their homes to make way for some new supermarket, it was very likely that they will never let her go to the school. She was beginning to be able to speak the language of the humans, but what use would it be if they had to move further away? How was she going to go to school? How was she going to get her dad out of jail?
Chapter 10 Caught
Little Bad Wolf was starting to feel good about her progress learning to speak the humans’ language. She had discovered something recently which she thought would cause her endless problems but turned out to be no trouble at all.
"You mean to say they speak a completely different language from one country to another?" she asked.
"Yes," said Rosie. "This is exactly what they do."
"Our folks brought us to Italy once," said ET. "We travelled through three different countries and they all spoke different languages. They also smelt differently from one country to another."
The three animals thought that humans smelling differently between one country and another made perfect sense, but humans having more than one language was the silliest thing ever.
"How will I learn more than one language?" said Little Bad Wolf. "Speaking one is nearly impossible."
"You will have no problem," said Rosie. "You are much brighter than a human and some of them can even speak three languages."
This had ET and Little Bad Wolf laughing.
"I think most humans get by with just learning one language," said ET.
"Yes," answered Rosie. "Unlike me who can speak Dog, Wolf and Human languages."
She then started howling her ‘hello' and again had the other two animals laughing. Rosie then added, “I can also communicate to any creature that I am thinking about biting them in their bottom without even speaking.”
The following day Little Bad Wolf was in the forest with Aunt Matilda. Her aunt was silent at first. Something was clearly on her mind. She was worried that Little Bad Wolf had impossible dreams which were never going to happen. They were never going to let a wolf go to school or let Big Bad Wolf out of prison.
Eventually she started talking. “You know that no wolf has ever been allowed to go to a school with human. It will be a very difficult. Even then you might not get what you want.”
"Are you saying I should study more?" said Little Bad Wolf.
"Well no. Not exactly."
"I am saying it may not matter how much you study." Aunt Matilda had a very serious, I have to break bad news look. "I am saying that no matter how much you study, they still might not accept you. Even if they let you, they will not all be happy with this and will make things very difficult. They also will not allow a wolf to show they were wrong to put your father in prison."
Little Bad Wolf felt very sad. She knew her aunt was right. Why would humans accept a wolf into their school? However, she wanted to answer her and win the argument by saying something clever to her aunt. They had come to a corner of the field and were facing two large walls. Both wolves realised they would have to turn around and go back the way they had come in. They had been so busy thinking about their discussion that neither wolf had paid much attention to where they were going.
There was something else they had not noticed. The first time the two wolves saw the farmers was when they turned around and found themselves face to face with two men pointing guns at them.
"The boss will be pleased," said the smaller of the two men. Despite being fat as well as small, he and his tall thin companion had managed to sneak up on the two wolves.
"Let's shoot them and get home."
"Ple-ase don't sho-ot," said Little Bad Wolf. It was more of a stutter than talking but for the first time in her life she had managed to say something to a human. Little Bad Wolf was not particularly happy as the look of the men and the fact they had guns made her think it might be the last thing she ever said.
"Did you hear what I heard?" said the taller man.
"Did you speak wolf?" said the smaller man.
"Do not hurr-it us," said Little Bad Wolf.
"Well isn't this amazing? A talking wolf! Can you get the van and bring it near here." With that, the smaller man threw the keys at the taller man. When the taller man was out of hearing distance he took his phone out of his pocket.
"You are not going to believe this," he said into the phone and then told the person that he had a captured a talking wolf.
"For one thousand I will bring her into your TV studio."
There was then some discussion between the man and the person he was talking to before he said, "OK, seven hundred and fifty. See you soon."
They were not waiting much longer before they heard the sound of a car and the saw the taller man get out.
"I have some good news," said the smaller man. "You know my brother who works in the TV station. He will give us each fifty quid if we bring this wolf in and it talks to him."
"Wow," said the taller man. "Fifty quid."
"Right," said the smaller man. "I've done the hard work, negotiating the deal. So you have to look after getting the wolves into the back of the van.
"Will they bite?"
"I don't know but if you ask the wolf maybe it will answer you."
"Good point," said the taller man. "Excuse me, wolf." He coughed when he said this so as to make sure the wolves knew that he would like to talk to them.
"Yes," said Little Bad Wolf.
"Do you mind me asking you? Do you bite?"
The two wolves talked to each other. The men did not underst
and what was going on but the smaller man thought the two wolves were laughing.
"My aunt say-is you would not be tay-sty"
"Just put them in the van," said the smaller man. He was looking very pleased with himself.
Chapter 11 Little Bad Wolf - TV Star
It was not just the case that Little Bad Wolf had never been in a television studio; she had never been in a building of any type. Neither had her aunt, and both wolves were very frightened as they were brought into the lobby of the building by the two odd-sized farmers. The taller of the two insisted on keeping his shotgun pointed at them, but the smaller one told him to put it away.
Another small man came into the room and discreetly handed something to the smaller man, who quickly headed out of door. He had to come back to tell the taller man they were going. Soon after that the two wolves heard the van they came in leave. Another man, a very well dressed and handsome man, came into the room.
“Perfect, just perfect,” he said. “They look great. Do they both talk?”
“I don’t know,” said the small man.
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Who does?”
“My brother found them but he did not say whether they both talked or not.”
“He wanted a thousand quid. For that I expect them both to talk.”
“Seven fifee-tea,” said Little Bad Wolf.
“Who said that?” said the tall man. Then grinned broadly as he realized it was one of the wolves who had spoken. He didn’t seem to notice the implications of her comments that the farmers who brought them here had not got one thousand. He then turned and was about to address the small man, when he found he had already gone.
“Oh well,” he said and looked at the two wolves. The man had obviously done some thinking and decided that the best way would be to talk to the wolves as if they were children or a foreigner who did not know the language. He spoke very slowly and loudly and pronounced each word as if it was a sentence in itself.
“My name is Tom. I will be interviewing you.” Tom took almost two minutes to say this single sentence.
“OK,” said Little Bad Wolf.
“Have you any questions?” he asked. This time he did not speak as loudly but he was still speaking like he would to a foreigner.