Tao's Magic Tricks, Page 2

  Whenever there was a test she managed to sit next to one of the clever girls. When the teacher wasn’t looking Lucy would force the clever girl to show her the answers. The other girl was scared to refuse in case Lucy and two of her friends caught her in the playground. And Lucy always managed to get someone to do her homework for her. Everyone was afraid to report the nasty girl. Tao was one of those who got good marks and one day during a maths test she saw the ginger girl was sitting at a desk next to her.

  “Now girls this is an important test and I hope you all do well because these marks will count in the year end finals. So please settle down, and do your best,” said Miss Bloomer their class teacher. “I want no talking.”

  Tao was concentrating on her work when she felt someone nudging her arm. It was the nasty girl trying to get her to show her the answers. Tao moved farther away and went on writing. Soon afterwards she felt another nudge and she turned angrily and whispered, “Please leave me alone.”

  The ginger girl glared at her and made threatening signs, which Tao ignored. The next thing Tao knew was that the other girl had put up her hand to call the teacher, who came across, annoyed at the interruption.

  “Please, miss, I can’t get on with my work because Tao is pestering me. I think she is trying to ask me for answers.”

  Everyone stopped writing and stared. “Is this true Tao?” Miss Bloomer demanded. “This is a serious accusation. What have you to say for yourself?”

  “It’s not true at all,” said Tao. “I’ve been busy writing all the time.”

  “Well I don’t know which of you two to believe. But one of you must be lying,” the teacher said severely. “However we can’t interrupt the test. I want both of you to bring your books and papers and sit at my table where I can watch you. We can get to the bottom of this later. All you other girls get on with your work.”

  Miss Bloomer made both of them stay behind after the bell rang for the lunch break. But she couldn’t decide who to believe. She let them off with a stern warning that they both would be carefully watched in future.

  “Hey, skinny girl, you are going to pay for this,” the ginger girl hissed as they left the classroom. “You’ll be sorry!”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Amber to the rescue

  During lunch break next day Tao was sitting on a bench at the side of the playing field eating a sandwich and talking to one of her friends when Lucy and two other girls who always hung around with the ginger girl, walked up.

  “Oh, so this is where you have been hiding, Skinny,” said Lucy in an unpleasant tone. “We have been looking for you.”

  “I always sit here at lunch break,” Tao replied and went on eating her sandwich.

  “Yummy, look she’s got strawberry sandwiches,” said one of the girls called Belinda. “I love strawberry jam. I’m sure you won’t mind if I have one,” and she snatched the lunch box and helped herself.

  “Lucy wouldn’t you like one too?”

  Tao stood up and tried to retrieve the box, but Belinda passed it to the other girl called Gloria, who threw it to Lucy. They started tossing the box from one to another, jeering and laughing. They got tired after a while and Lucy said, “Shame you can have your lunch Skinny,” and handed the box back. But the box fell to the ground. “Whoops, sorry,” the nasty girl exclaimed, and she tramped on it, squashing the sandwiches into the grass.

  Then they formed a circle round Tao and started pushing her from one girl to another. Some other girls who were playing nearby saw what was happening and crowded round but none tried to help.

  Meanwhile Tao’s sister Amber who was playing with hockey sticks saw what the bully girls were doing and she raced across the field waving her hockey stick. Before anyone realised what was happening she swung her stick and hit Belinda hard on the shin. The girl fell down on the grass yelling with pain.

  Without pausing Amber whacked the next one on the ankle and then swung the stick and bashed Lucy on the knee. The terrified ginger girl screamed and tried to get away, hopping like a kangaroo with Amber chasing after whacking her all the more.

  One of the teachers heard the commotion and gave the alarm. Five staff members hurried across the field and the hockey stick was confiscated.

  The three injured girls were carried off to the sick bay to have their sore legs bandaged, and they were allowed to go home early.

  Tao and Amber were sent to the Headmistress’s office to explain what had happened. “We can’t allow this sort of thing to go on, no matter what reason there is for it,” Mrs Baggybroek said severely. “You might have permanently injured those girls. And how am I to explain this to the girls’ parents.”

  It was decided to give Amber a black mark. “A black mark is very serious and could affect your whole future,” Amber was told. “If you get three black marks you could even be expelled.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Trouble in the school bus

  The three bully girls were off sick for several days and when they came back they avoided Tao and Amber. Miss Bloomer meanwhile marked the test papers, and was surprised to find that Tao had done well, but Lucy had failed.

  She called Lucy to her table. “I find it odd that you have done so badly when you usually do quite well. Have you any explanation?” Lucy was flustered. “I think it was because Tao upset me Miss.”

  “It’s very strange that Tao has excelled yet you have failed,” said Miss Bloomer. “I see no reason why Tao should have asked you for answers, since she already knew them. In future I shall watch you very carefully, and if you continue to do poorly I shall report to the Headmistress.” Lucy went back to her desk, glaring at Tao, who pretended not to notice.

  Tao and Amber usually caught the yellow bus to and from school. The driver was a bad tempered man called Aristotle, who had a hooked nose and thick black eyebrows. If anyone spoke loudly he would growl, “Hey youse shutupa, otherwise youse can get offa my bus.” He was always smoking while he drove, even though it was not allowed, but no one dared report him.

  On the way home the two girls sat next to each other, and made a start with their homework. Someone prodded Tao in the back and when she turned around she saw it was the ginger girl, who didn’t normally catch that bus.

  “Hey, surprise, surprise Skinny girl. Bet you didn’t expect to see me here did you.” She spoke softly in case the driver heard. Then Tao noticed that Gloria, another bully girl was also on the bus sitting on the other side of the aisle. Lucy poked her again with a sharp pencil. “Ow, that hurt,” said Tao. Aristotle looked round suspiciously but carried on driving. “That’s for telling on me in class,” Lucy hissed. “And here’s one for you too little Stick.”

  Tao got up. “Come Amber let’s go sit at the back.” They changed seats and Tao hid her face behind an exercise book. Then the sharp pencil somehow flew out of Lucy’s hand and stuck into her ear. The startled girl looked ridiculous with a pencil sticking out from her ear-hole, and the girls nearby giggled loudly.

  Another pencil amazingly flew across and stuck up her nostril, then another one stuck into her other nostril and another into her other ear hole. Lucy stood up with pencils sticking out and wobbling from

  her ears and nose. She tried to pull them out but they stuck fast. The other girls in the bus all shrieked with laughter.

  Gloria was wearing a new white school hat, which her mother had just bought for her. For some reason her hat came off and fell into the aisle. Horrified that her new hat might be trampled on, Gloria tried to pick it up but the hat slid farther along towards the driver. Gloria crawled after it on hands and knees. Each time she grabbed at it the hat slid away. Then finally a sudden draught of air lifted it onto the bus driver’s head.

  Aristotle jammed on brakes and brought the bus to a stop. He stood up wearing the girl’s wide brimmed school hat firmly on his head. The girls screamed with laughter at the ridiculous sight.

  “Wat is thees? Whosa hat is thees? Wat is all thees
noise een my busa?” He tried to rip the hat off his head but it seemed to be stuck. He danced about wildly tearing at the hat. Then the cigarette he was smoking came loose and stuck in his nostril.

  A loud rapping sounded at the door, which was opened by a fat policeman. “What’s going on here?” he demanded, astounded at the sight of a bus driver dancing about wearing a girl’s hat and with a cigarette stuck up his nose.

  Aristotle was arrested and another driver took over. Lucy was taken to a doctor to have the pencils removed. Gloria’s hat was ruined and she got into serious trouble with her mother.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Butterflies and bulls

  Tao always enjoyed school holiday visits by her cousin Erica, a tall thin girl of sixteen, with a freckled face and glasses, who loved dashing about catching butterflies. Tao often went with her searching for rare species. Erica would race frantically about with her butterfly net.

  Erica had a large collection at her home in the city, mounted in a glass cabinet. There weren’t many butterflies where she lived but there were thousands in farmers’ fields near Tao’s house. Tao and her cousin set out one morning soon after breakfast, Tao wearing a knapsack full of bottles to hold the ones they caught, books with names and pictures of butterflies, Erica’s notebooks, lunch boxes and cool drinks.

  Most of the fields were fenced, with notices warning people to keep out. Some of them said “Beware dangerous animals. Enter at your peril.” Tao had already been warned to keep away by a burly farmer, with hairy arms and a red face, called Ronnie Hogsworthy, who chased her away when she was collecting nettles to feed her rabbits.

  They were walking along the road chatting, when Erica froze. She grabbed Tao’s arm and silently pointed.

  “What?” said Tao. “I can’t see anything.”

  “There, on the grass, on the other side of the fence. That blue butterfly. Oh, my gosh I think it’s a Blue Swallowtail. I’ve got to have it for my collection. Here, hold my jersey,” she said shaking with excitement. “I’m going after it.

  “Tao clutched the bright crimson jersey and watched Erica climb the fence and with her net on its long handle at the ready creep towards the butterfly, which was sunning itself on a blade of grass. Just as Erica was about to swoop on it the blue swallowtail flitted away, Erica running desperately after it. The butterfly took fright and refused to settle; It zig-zagged across the field, Erica panting behind.

  There were some trees at the far end of the field with cattle grazing. One of them, a large black bull with a ring through its nose, started to take an interest in the strange two-legged creature running across its territory carrying a long stick.

  It came out of the shadows and snorted loudly, pawing the ground. Erica, busy keeping her eyes on the swallowtail, didn’t notice the enraged animal, until Tao yelled a warning. Then she dropped her butterfly net and ran for her life, the snorting bull almost on her heels.

  She managed to clamber over the concrete fence in time and the bull bellowed loudly and stood pawing the ground with lowered horns. There was a furious shout and a red-faced farmer came running across the field. “Hey you two, I’ll have you arrested for trespass.” He didn’t seem scared of the bull and came puffing and panting up to the fence. Mysteriously, possibly through a sudden breeze, the bright red jersey Tao was holding floated over the fence and wrapped itself around the farmer’s neck.

  He struggled to get rid of it, then he noticed the bull was taking a strong interest in the red jersey. He dashed away with the bull chasing him. It almost caught him but he managed to dodge back and forth until he reached a gate and they disappeared from sight.

  During the chase the jersey had fallen. “Don’t worry I’m a fast runner,” said Tao. She climbed over the fence, sprinted to the jersey and on the way back also retrieved Erica’s butterfly net.

  Erica wanted to go back to find the Blue Swallowtail, but in any case it had flown away. Grabbing their things they hastily left, in case the farmer came back. Erica was puzzled though. “I wonder how my jersey got tangled up with that farmer. Well anyway, just as well it did or we might have been in trouble.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Trouble with an angry farmer

  After lunch Tao noticed a battered pick-up bakkie stop at their gate and the red-faced farmer painfully climbed out. He had one arm in a sling, a bandaged knee and a black eye.

  “Wow,” gasped Erica, “It’s that farmer. Quick, where can we hide?”

  There was a tool shed at the back and the two girls hid inside. Meanwhile the farmer limped to the front door and knocked loudly.

  “Oh, Mr Hogsworthy,” said Tao’s mother, wondering what the trouble was. “Have you had an accident?”

  “Yis, madam, I think you could say that,” the farmer said angrily. “I’m looking for two girls what was near my farm this morning. Do you have any suchlike here?”

  “Well, I have two daughters,” Tao’s mother replied, looking puzzled. “One of them is upstairs reading. I’m not sure where the other is.”

  “I would like to take a look at ’em. Just to make sure they’s not the two what I’m looking for.”

  Their mother called Amber and she came down, cross at being disturbed. “No that’s not ’er,” said Mr Hogsworthy. “Them what I’m after is quite a bit older and there was two of ’em.”

  “Well I don’t think you will find them here,” said their mother doubtfully.

  “They was both thin and one had glasses,” the farmer persisted.

  .”Oh,” said their mother, “I do have a niece staying here, but surely it can’t . . .”

  “P’raps she’s one of ’em,” the farmer interrupted. He peered into the room and spotted the red jersey Erica had left on a chair. “Hey, I seen that there jersey before,” he exclaimed. “One of them was wearing it.”

  Neither of the girls could be found but the farmer was determined. “They must be hereabouts,” he said. “Look I got my dog Sally here; she’ll soon sniff them out.”

  Tao and Erica were hauled out from their hiding place.

  “Lucky I wasn’t finished off by that there bull,” said Mr Hogsworthy. “As it is I dunno how I’m going to get through me work on the farm with all these here injuries.”

  “Well you girls, I don’t know what to say,” said the bewildered mother.

  “We just wanted to catch a butterfly,” said Tao. “We didn’t know about that bull. We don’t know why it should have chased Mr Hogsworthy.”

  “It went for me because of that there red jersey. But I reckon it all come through trespassing. And trespassing is serious. We can’t ’av it. It’s agin the law.”

  “I’m truly sorry, aunt,” said a dejected Erica. “It was my fault, not Tao’s. I can get my Dad to pay for any damage.”

  The farmer shook his head. “Money can’t help milk the cows, feed the chickens an’ make me butter. If you want to put things right you must give a hand on the farm. Hard work will be punishment enough.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Trouble with cows

  Next morning Tao and Erica were woken early by the sound of Mr Hogsworthy’s truck, and then a knock on the door. “Oh, no,” groaned Erica. “It’s that farmer come to fetch us, just when I want to go butterfly hunting.”

  “No time for breakfast,” said the farmer, as Tao went half asleep to answer the knocking. “Them cows is waiting to be milked.”

  They said goodbye to Tao’s surprised mother and were bundled into the rickety truck and went bumping and bouncing along the road to the farm. They drew up to the farmhouse, an old building that needed painting, and were greeted by the farmer’s wife and two children, Charlie an untidy boy of about fifteen dressed in a blue overall and his sister Connie, about a year younger wearing jeans and heavy black boots. “I’m glad you’ve come to help. We need more hands to get through all the work here,” said Mrs Hogsworthy.

  “They can start with the milking,” grunted the farmer
as he limped into the house to have coffee. Connie led them to the milking parlour, a dilapidated shed nearby. “You know how to milk cows, don’t you?” she said. When they said no, the girl groaned. “Fat lot of help you’re going to be. Reckon I’d be better off on my own. Well come on, s’pose I’ll have to teach you.”

  They changed into overalls that were much too big, disinfected their hands with strong soap and followed Connie into the milking section. The cows were in an enclosure nearby. In the milking shed were pens with bars, and Connie herded one of the cows into the first pen and sat down on a stool. “Okay stand there and watch how I do it,” she said impatiently. “Haven’t much time to show you so you’ll have to learn quick.”

  It looked easy enough but when Tao came to try she found it was messy and difficult. Erica was also battling. “Yuck, this isn’t fun at all,” Erica said, squirting frothing milk into a pail, and spilling a lot of it. Tao’s cow was a difficult one and kept kicking. She had filled half a pail when the cow kicked it over. Connie jumped up and cuffed Tao on the head. “What’s the matter with you? Look you’ve wasted half the bucket,” she shouted.

  “Hey” said Erica. “You mustn’t do that to my cousin. It wasn’t her fault.”

  “Want to make something of it, city girl,” sneered Connie, and she shoved Erica against a railing. At that moment Tao’s cow kicked the pail, which landed upside down over the farm girl’s head, milk splashing over her clothes. She looked like a robot with a tin head.

  Connie stumbled blindly round the parlour her arms flailing as she barged into objects, muffled yells coming from inside the bucket. The cows took fright, knocked down their gates and bolted through the door. All the other cows waiting outside panicked and the herd stampeded into the fields.

  Mr Hogsworthy came out the house, hopping on one leg. “What’s going on ‘ere?” he roared. “Connie, you stop that caper. This is no time for fun and games.”