The Scarecrows of
Hod-me-dod-lee
by
D.J.Birkin
This work is entirely fictional.
All rights reserved.
Text, plot and characters copyright © D.J.Birkin 2014
This book is dedicated to my cat Spud in appreciation for his patience in waiting for his dinner when I was busy writing.
Love you Spud x x x
Disclaimer.
There are no illustrations in this edition because I can't draw...well, only matchstick men but they're rubbish.
Chapter
1.
It was September 1939 and Britain and Germany were on the verge of war.
Seven year old Jenny Ruddock had just been told she being sent to live with a family in the countryside. Her teacher said it was called being evacuated. Charlie, who sat next to Jenny in class, said there was 'NO WAY anyone was gonna vacuum him!' And the whole class had burst out laughing, even the teacher.
'No, no.' she giggled. 'Evacuated. You're not a carpet Charlie. It means having to move away. Hundreds of other children will be going too. It will be much safer for you all - just in case the German's do come and drop bombs on the town. It's just like going on holiday for a while.'
Most of the children in Jenny's class started getting upset at the thought of leaving their parents and some even started crying, but not Jenny. Up until then she had lived all of her short life in a children’s home, which wasn't a very happy place, so Jenny didn't mind being evacuated at all. In fact she was really excited about it.
'The countryside is full of animals.' she told Charlie, 'You’ll see, it'll be fun. Much nicer than dirty old London town. We'll have a wonderful time.'
I suppose I'd better describe Jenny straight away, just so you can get an instant picture in your head as I wouldn’t want you to think she was green, ten feet tall with hair sprouting out of her ears. Believe me with I say, and I'm not being unkind here, Jenny was just as plain and ordinary as any little girl could be. You couldn't put your finger on a single outstanding or unusual thing about her.
She was average height for her age, had dark grey eyes, a pleasant smile and liked her mousey brown hair cut to a short bob… see, not green at all.
She didn’t even have any interesting scars. No birthmarks shaped like funny vegetables and certainly no boils, spots or tattoos. No humm..that’s an interesting limp kind of limp, no stut stut stutter, no ‘OH you made me jump’ kind of a twitch, no missing teeth and no lispy lisp.
In fact she didn't even have any annoying habits to irritate the heck out of you, such as biting her nails or clicking her teeth or cracking her knuckles or picking her nose and eating it. No, she was just plain ordinary Jenny – but in my experience it's always the most ordinary of children that end up living the most extra-ordinary lives.
When Jenny arrived in the countryside she was instantly whisked off to a tiny out of the way hamlet called Much Nuffin.
The hamlet was aptly named as nothing much had ever happened there in the past and I suspect nothing else happened there after Jenny left - but while she was there, Jenny was to live with a single lady by the name of Miss Boot and not a big happy family as Jenny had hoped.
Miss Boot was huge. Massive. As big as a farmer with ruddy red cheeks and enormous nostrils that always showed like a pig's snout.
It was obvious to all who saw her that she really liked looking ugly because she deliberately topped off her image with shocking red dyed hair that she tied back so tight that some people meeting her for the first time though she was actually Chinese.
As the billeting officer for the county in charge of finding homes for evacuated kids, Miss Boot felt it was her duty to set an example and take in one of the evacuees herself. Unfortunately, especially for Jenny, Miss Boot couldn't stand children in any shape or form and lived all alone in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There was no school, no church and no shops in Much Nuffin, not even a postoffice - and sadly no other children for Jenny to play with either.
From the minute Jenny arrived Miss Boot laid down her rules.
'You will call me Miss Boot or just Miss but never Mrs. I am a very important person with a very important job and I am extremely busy so you will stay out of my way at all times. I hope that’s clear?'
Oh yes, it was perfectly clear. Miss Boot was a great big horrible pig woman and Jenny didn't like her. Miss Boot lived for only one thing in life, bossing people about. She bossed the people about in Much Nuffin and in the village next to it and in all the towns for miles around. Naturally everyone called her old bossy boots…or just the old boot…but of course it was always behind her back and never to her face because as I said before, she was massive.
Over the next few days the horrible pig woman was so busy being bossy and organising things, flying in and out of the house and tearing off in her car, she completely forgot that Jenny was even there at all.
She forgot to sort out Jenny's schooling. Forgot to cook her any meals. And sometimes even forgot to come home at night... and she always, always, forgot what Jenny's name was.
'You'll just have to manage on your own...umm...child.' Miss Boot would say. 'There is a war on you know!' And off she'd rush again in her little black Austin car to go and boss another committee about, leaving Jenny all alone to fend for herself. Jenny was now lonelier than she had ever been before in her life. Every night she slept with her bedroom curtains open just to have the moon for company. One night, Jenny opened her bedroom window and stared sadly at the big white moon. Just then a tiny blue star raced across its face. Jenny quickly called out to it.
'Star light, star bright, first star I've seen tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight.'
Then she closed her eyes and made her wish to the shooting star.
'I wish I had someone to talk too and play with and I wish I had a great big family. Oh and if I can have an extra wish please, then I wish somebody would love me.'
People have always made wishes on stars and Jenny had done so many times before, but never before had she wished as hard as she did that night. She wished until she thought her little heart would burst. She watched the little shooting star until it disappeared behind the clouds and then she sighed. She glanced down at the dusky garden below her. Something moved on the roof of the shed. It looked like a rat. Jenny stared harder. No, it was a kitten, a tiny kitten as black as coal dust. Jenny quickly called out to it.
'Here Ooty Ooty.' (Which rhymes with here Sooty Sooty.) 'Come to me little Ooty, I won't hurt you.'
The little kitten looked nervous but it didn't run away, it just sat on the shed roof watching Jenny with its pretty blue eyes twinkling like fairylights. Jenny decided it was so hansom it just had to be a little boy cat. The kitten stayed for a few more minutes then disappeared back into the darkness.
The next night Jenny watched for the kitten for ages, and eventually it returned again, and the next night, and the next, becoming a little braver each time until finally he accepted the food that Jenny offered him in a saucer on her window sill. Soon Ooty had moved in permanently and was sleeping in Jenny's bed with her every night. He purred and licked Jenny's nose with his tiny pink tongue to make her giggle, then rolled on his back so Jenny could tickle his tummy in return. Now with Ooty for company Jenny felt slightly happier and settled in to her new life at Miss Boot's.
As the horrible Miss pig face Boot was never at home, Jenny learned to manage perfectly fine without the need for any adult supervision. At the children's home everything had been done for her so even the simplest of things had to be learned from scratch. She started by washing her own clothes as best she could in the ki
tchen sink and drying them on a chair in front of the open fire - which of course she had to teach herself to light with sticks and logs from the wood shed. Then she taught herself to sew and mend things and found she really enjoyed trying to cook hot meals, like tinned soup and, Ooty’s favourite, sardines on toast, or sometimes soup on toast as some of the tins didn't have any labels. Once, she ended up with tinned peaches on toast, which was really interesting but peas on toast wasn't so nice and Ooty didn’t go much on that either.
Jenny no longer felt lonely, she now had Ooty to play with and, better still, to cuddle up to at night. They were growing very attached to each other. Ooty turned out to be an extremely quick learner. He soon knew how to play with a cotton reel. How to chase a paper mouse and how to kiss Jenny on the nose as a thank you when she gave him his dinner. His favourite food was the tinned sardines, which was fortunate as Miss Boot had crates of them in the pantry and very little of anything else.
On the rare occasion Miss Boot did come home, Ooty would make himself scarce until bedtime then quietly slip into bed with Jenny and hide under the covers.
When it was Jenny's eighth birthday, Ooty sang to her and gave her the birthday card that Jenny had made for herself. Then he enjoyed himself shredding it to bits.
When Christmas came and Miss Boot didn't, Jenny and Ooty lit a candle and sang carols together. Ooty had a rather good singing voice, a touch loud at times, but always in tune. His version of ‘Oh, come all ye faithful’ made Jenny’s eyes water. As for gifts, well, Jenny's to Ooty was a white paper cat angel with wings. Ooty gave Jenny a dead bumble bee he had found in the garden shed with only one wing, but it was still a pretty bee.
As the weeks rolled slowly on Ooty was no longer just a cat in Jenny’s eyes, he was a person, her brother and her best friend. The only person she loved in the whole world and the only person who had ever loved her.
Ooty and Jenny made a pact to never be parted so long as they lived.