THE GRAPE ROBBERS
by
Martin Hancox
Bad Bunch
COPYRIGHT MARTIN HANCOX 1990©
NO PART OF THIS ELECTRONIC BOOK SHOULD BE COPIED OR REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE AUTHOR.
Bad Bunch
Mrs Philpots had owned the corner fruit and vegetable shop for quite a number of years. She prided herself on selling the best vegetables and fruit for miles around, in the often sunny side of Dortashire.
Dortashire was a small village and was very clean, tidy and a safe place to live. Crime was at its lowest and nothing really happened, except people who lived there simply got on with there lives.
One day Mrs Philpots was working in her corner shop and she noticed that a small bunch of grapes displayed in the front window were going bad. Thinking that this would spoil her nearly perfect fruit display, she quickly pulled out the bad bunch of grapes and tossed them into the rubbish bin, in the shops rear yard. " I simply cant have those nasty grapes ruining my lovely display" she muttered to herself.
But in her haste to return to the shop she had forgoten to put the lid back onto the the rubbish bin.
As the day passed on it became time for Mrs Philpots to close the shop for the day and return home to Mr Philpots. Mr Philpots had retired the year before leaving his wife to run the shop on her own.
Locking up the shop for the night, Mrs Philpots returned home, without knowing that she had forgotten to put the lid back on the dust bin.
As the night set in and the moon came out a strange noise could be heard coming from the dust bin in the rear yard of the corner shop. "Oh, ouch!, Tosh what are you doing!" a voice cried, and then suddenly a head popped up over the top of the rubbish bin. It was Tosh one of the bad grapes
A strange and magical thing had occured. By some kind of magic of the moon light, the bad grapes had come to life.
"Come on!" said Tosh. "We have got to get out of this rubbish bin, otherwise we will become food for the foxes and rats. Come on quick all of you!". He shouted down into the bin to the others, who were lying amongst the shops rubbish. Then the bad grapes, one by one began to help each other and followed Tosh over the top and out of the rubish bin.
As the bad bunch landed softly onto a pile of rubbish next to the bin, they began to dust themselves down.
"Pip, Bob Harry, are you all ok?". Asked Tosh. "Yes "they all replied. "Why did Mrs Philpots throw us out?" asked Pip the smallest of the grapes. "I dont know" said Tosh.
"We wern't that bad were we !" said Harry. "Well we cant stay here for ever" said Bob. "We are going to have to work hard to survive". Said Tosh. "I want to go home" sobbed Pip. "Back to Grape Land, I dont like it here". "Now come on Pip" said Harry. "We will look after you until we can get back to Grape Land".
So the bad grapes set off, out of the back yard of the corner shop and in a direction unknown and never seen to them before. "This will be a new adventure," said Bob with excitement in his voice.
As they slipped under the back gate of the back yard of the shop, it suddenly became very cold and eary . "Im cold and hungry" cried Pip. "I know so am I" said Tosh "We will have to break into someones house and get some food and warm ourselves, I know its wrong but we have to do something to survive, until we can find our way home". So off they set in hunt for a place to rest and warm themselves.
It wasn't long before Tosh spotted a few tools lying on the floor by a garden gate. "Here", said Tosh we can use this hammer and screw driver to get into one of these houses". "Good idea" said Harry.
Climbing onto a garden wall Harry could see a window that would lead them into someones kitchen. "Look!" said Harry, "We can get in there, they might have some food for us". The grapes all headed along the wall and towards the window.
Bob lowered Pip from the wall and they all climbed down one by one and headed towards the window. "Do we really have to do this ?". Cried Pip. "Yes, we need food so that we have the strength to find our way back to Grape Land. We only need food and nothing else" said Harry.
The other grapes helped Harry up onto the window sill. With a swing of the the hammer the window broke with a gentle crack. Taking the broken piece of glass out of the window they could now get inside. "Come on!" wispered Harry to the others, who were waiting close by. "Lets get some food". One by one they helped each other up onto the window sill. Once they had climbed inside the house the grapes found thier way onto the floor and headed for the kitchen.
They found the fridge in the corner of the kitchen and Bob helped Harry to open the door. It was full of food. They filled their bellies with what they could from the fridge, before quicky making off back along the route they had just came from.
What they didnt realise was that they had now become, "THE GRAPE ROBBERS."
The grapes continued to break into peoples houses for food for the next few weeks to survive, whilst in search of the Land of Grapes.
No one in the village of Dortashire had ever know anything like it. The local police quickly put up notices around the village asking for information which would lead them to the Robbers. The Robbers that no one had ever seen.
News soon spread in the grocery shop amongst the fruit, that the bad grapes had been thrown out and were reponsible for the theft of the food from peoples houses.
This information soon filtered it's way back to the Grape King in Grape Land, situated in a far, far away place.
Displeased by the action of the bad grapes, he rounded up his PG's, otherwise know as Police Grapes.
The king instructed his troops of the Grape Constablary to go off and find the bad grapes. "Do not return until they have been found and bring them back to me!' he said in an angry voice. The GP's gathered their equipment and set off on the long journey to Dortashire.
Many day's passed, eventually the GP's arrived in Dortashire, a town that used to be a safe and quiet, but now the peolple who lived there, lived in fear.
They hid until it was night time, as this would be the safest time to search for the bad grapes. The first port of call was Mrs Philpots, shop. This was the place they could begin to follow the tracks of the bad grapes.
Ned being the senior GP took the lead and to began scan the area for any evidence or any track that would lead him to capture the Grape Robbers.
"There seems to be some signs that the bad grapes had escaped from the rubbish bin and landed onto this rubbish pile before making off out off out of the rear yard". Said Ned
Ned had found a stalk belonging to one of the grapes next to the rubbish bin in the rear yard of the shop. " We must remember that we do not want the humans to see us. So we must be careful as day light arrives." He said to the other GP's.
Ned and the other GP's set off in search of the bad grapes. It was dark and cold. Suddenly it began to rain. so much so that the pavements were becoming flooded. "Lets find some shelter!", ordered Ned. They soon found a Bush next to the road side in the village and climbed into it and shelterd from the rain, by hiding under the leaves on the branches of the bush. "We should be safe in here, until the rain stops." Said Ned.
The rain tumbled down faster and faster, harder and harder than they had ever seen it before.
The Grape Robbers had just left, after having broken into another house and had filled their bellies to breaking point. "I feel sick" said Pip "Well you shouldn't of ate all the cheese, I did tell you " said Tosh. "But I was still hungry after the sausage rolls" replied Pip. "Stop being a big baby!" shouted Harry, as they walked along the pavement in the pouring rain.
As the rain tumbled down and began to flow faster, the pavement suddenly turned into a river. As the Grape Robbers were so small and so light they sundenly found themselves being washed off the
ir feet.
Down into the gutter they went. "Help!" they all shouted. But there was no one to listen to their cries. One by one they were washed along the gutter and into the storm drain.
Suddenly it became fun. "WHEE! shouted Tosh as he was the first to be swepted down the drain and along the under ground pipes.
Once inside the under ground pipes. The bad grapes were pushed by the flow of rain, water up and down the net work of pipes, just like being on a big water slide. Suddenly the force of the flow of rain water began to lower. "OUCH" cried Tosh, Pip Bob and Harry , as they all landed on their bottom's on the hard surface of the sewer floor as the rain water ran dry.
The bad grapes stood up and suddenly began to shiver. It was now very dark and very cold. The loneliness began to set in. "I don't like it here!" said Harry. "Neither do I" said Pip and Bob. "Dont worry" said Tosh. "We have each other. We will get out of here if we just follow the tunnel to the end, Im sure," he encouraged them.
As they began to walk along the tunnel to escape the cold and darkness, a strange noise could be heard. It was a rustling. A patter of feet, that began to get louder, closer. Suddenly Bob could see a large ugly looking creature coming towards them. It had a long nose and sharp looking teeth that stuck out of the creatures mouth.
Bob was so close he could smell the bad breath of the creature. Then he recognised it. "IT'S A RAT!" he shouted to the others. "QUICK HIDE!" and they all turned and scambled away as fast as they could.
Bob was right it was a Big, Fat, Ugly Rat and it was after them.
Quickly, one by one they followed Harry in between a crack he had found in the
sewer wall.
Bob was the last to squeeze into the gap.
He only just made it, as the rat almost took a chunk out of his bottom.
They slowly made there way out of the crack on the other side of the wall.
This led them into another large tunnel.
But this time they could see light at the end of it.
Together they walked slowly towards the light.
Harry put his arm around Pip as they headed into the light and said.
"That was scary, I do hope we find home soon".
THE END
More adventures to follow in
Close Call
Dogs Free
Help Is At Hand
A Ride On The Cat
Neds Around The Corner
The Spider
A Hungry Bird
and more........to follow !
Copyright Martin Hancox © 1990 The Pen Friends Associates