The Rainbows and the Secrets - Christine Cox (the snowy day read aloud TXT) 📗

shocking pink too, in surprise.)
Everyone stared as one of the new parrots opened its beak and began to speak. “I am Angelica,” it said. “And this is Francesco. We are Keepers of the Monkeys’ Story.”
“Which monkeys?” demanded someone.
“All monkeys,” replied Angelica. “All monkeys are Children of the Golden Monkey, and this is the Story she gave to her Children. We have never told the Monkeys’ Story before, because we live in the hills, and no monkey has ever come up here to find us.”
“But we will tell it now,” continued Francesco. “Please listen carefully.”
They all listened as Francesco spoke. The beginning of his Story was exactly the same as the beginning of the Rainbows’ and Secrets' versions. But the next part was as follows: "Monkeys are in charge of the Jungle and they can eat all the fruit in the Jungle. But Monkeys must look after the trees and the fruit and keep them safe, and not let them be wasted or harmed."
Then Angelica took over. “The river is dangerous for monkeys,” she said, “but they don’t need to cross it. They can come up to the hilltop and walk round it.” (“Yes!” shouted Ellie triumphantly, but everyone shushed her.) “Or perhaps one day, somebody will make them a bridge that will be safe for them to cross,” continued Angelica, looking at the children.
“Someday,” Francesco took up the Story again, “one kind of fruit may begin to run out. If this happens, it will be especially important for all the monkeys to share all the fruit. Monkeys who have plenty of fruit should give some to those who don’t have enough. And some of the fruit should be stored, especially the coconuts, because coconuts store better than mangoes.”
Angelica finished off the Monkeys’ Story. “Monkeys who ignore these things will be in trouble,” she said, “but monkeys who follow them will be rewarded with happiness. The Golden Monkey wants all her Children to be happy. One day the Golden Monkey will return and she will be happy because her Children are happy. This is the Story given to the Monkeys by the Golden Monkey, their mother.” Angelica stopped speaking.
“You see!” cried Ellie. “You see! You are all one big family of monkeys, and you are supposed to help each other and share everything!”
“Good Story!” said Snapper. “Like this Story best!”
“I like it too,” said Tufts.
“I like it too,” said Softpad. “It’s strange to think Rainbows and Secrets can be friends, but it must be what the Golden Monkey wants. So it must be what we need to do.”
“Then you can do it!” said Jamie. “We can help you build a coconut store, and a bridge without a hole in it.”
“And help you organise everything,” said Ellie, who thought the monkeys were sure to get in a muddle about how to share the fruit.
The monkeys cheered and clapped.
But then: “NO!” shouted a voice. “NO! We are Secrets. We’ve always had our own Story, and it isn’t right to change it! We won’t change our Story!”
It was Shadow. Everyone turned to stare at him, but no-one said a word.
Then: "Call yourself a leader, Softpad?" sneered the old monkey. "You shouldn't let this happen! If you were a proper Secrets' leader, you wouldn't listen to a human!" With a look of disgust he turned on his heel. "Let's go," he said to One-eye and Thrasher. "I've had enough of this. We've got things to talk about," he added under his breath. The three monkeys slunk away into the darkness.
"Never mind them!" said Softpad to the children. "We like the new story, and we want you to help us with the store and the bridge, don't we, monkeys?" He turned to the crowd. "Yes, we do!" shouted the monkeys, and cheered again. Then they all sat down, to talk excitedly about the building plans.
They were all very tired, and after a while, most of the parrots flew away and the monkeys settled down, one by one, to sleep. A sweet, gentle hum started up, like a lullaby: the Secrets' Tired but Happy Song. The children were just thinking that perhaps they should go home, when One-eye suddenly reappeared.
"Ellie," he said, "come with me, please. I want to show you something."
"Shall I come too?" asked Jamie.
"No," squeaked the small monkey, "just Ellie. It's...it's a nest of baby parrots, and...and I think one of them might be hurt. But it's very important to come one at a time, because ....otherwise you'll scare them, and they'll fall out of the nest. I'll show you afterwards, Jamie."
Ellie took the torch and followed One-eye. He led her to the edge of the cliff, and stopped. "It's down there," he said.
Ellie lay down on her front and peered over the edge of the cliff, shining her torch around. "I can't see anything," she said.
"The nest is on a ledge," said One-eye. "Can you see the ledge?" Ellie made out a narrow ledge that started slightly to her left. It ran along the cliff-face, sloping downwards as it went, in a diagonal line. Below it was a sheer drop, going down...how far? Probably thousands of metres. Ellie couldn't see the bottom.
"I can't go down there!" said Ellie. She was about to add: "It's much too steep and dangerous," when someone shoved a large stone into her mouth, and covered it with their hands.


15

A terrible accident

The hands over Ellie's mouth were monkey hands, but unusually big for a monkey. It was Thrasher. He and Shadow were sitting on Ellie.
"Tie her up, One-eye," ordered Shadow. "Clever of me to bring those creepers with me, wasn't it? I knew they'd be useful. Don't worry Ellie," he continued. "We'll help you onto the ledge, won't we, boys?"
"Oh, we'll do that all right," said Thrasher with a menacing laugh.
One-eye bound her round tightly with creeper. "Don't forget her mouth," Shadow told him. "Put the creeper round that, to keep the stone in. We don't want her shouting for help."
"But-" began One-eye. "But-won't that hurt her?"
"Don't 'but' me! Do what you're told!" growled Shadow.
One-eye still hesitated, till Shadow roughly pushed him out of the way, and bound Ellie's mouth himself.
"I - I -I don't think -" stammered One-eye. "I mean, you know best, Shadow, of course, but - maybe we shouldn't take her onto the ledge...b-b-because -"
"Whose side are you on, One-eye?" Shadow glared at him.
"Yours, of course, Shadow," said One-eye.
"You know what the plan is then, don't you?" continued Shadow, through clenched teeth. "We take her along the ledge till we find a cave. We leave her there, tied up. We fetch the other human. Then we get Softpad too, and maybe Snapper-one at a time. Once they're all in the cave, we roll some big stones down to block the mouth of it."
"So they'll never get out again!" exclaimed Thrasher.
"When they can't get out, the humans will be forced to go back to their world, and leave us alone," said Shadow.
"What about the monkeys?" asked One-eye.
"Who cares?" growled Shadow. "That's their problem. And when they're all safely out of our way-"
"We'll be leaders!" cried Thrasher.
"I'll be leader," Shadow corrected him. "I'll stop all that nonsense about changing our Story and sharing the coconuts. I'll be in charge of the jungle. I'll decide who gets the coconuts. Secrets who do what I want will get them. The ones who don't obey me can starve. We certainly won't waste any on Rainbows. Now," he said to One-eye. "You take the torch and lead the way along the ledge. We'll bring the human."
One-eye obediently picked up Ellie's torch and set off along the ledge. Shadow and Thrasher followed, dragging the helpless Ellie awkwardly between them. She was really too heavy for the monkeys, and so they bumped her along in a very uncomfortable fashion. The only good thing about it, thought Ellie, was that they had to go very slowly. She was very frightened. The ledge was no more than half a metre wide and it sloped downwards steeply. On one side Ellie could see the cliff wall, on the other, nothing but dark, empty space. She shut her eyes. She tried to shout for help, but it came out as no more than a muffled squeak.
Back on the hilltop, Jamie was talking to Snapper and Softpad. "I wonder where Ellie's got to?" he said. "We really ought to go home."
"Shush!" said Softpad, pricking up his ears. He could just hear Ellie's squeaks, and he heard something else, too, much more clearly. It was the special Secret music, the sounds they didn't need ears for, that no-one else could hear. It was the Warning Music. Another Secret was sending him a message, from somewhere near the cliff edge, telling him something was wrong.
"Danger!" shouted Softpad suddenly. "Secrets, wake up! Follow me!"
Softpad ran to the cliff edge, followed by Snapper and Jamie. Most of the Secrets woke quickly and joined them, because they'd felt the Warning Music inside them too, even before Softpad had shouted. The Rainbows were sleepier and took longer to come.
Softpad got to the cliff edge first. He looked down and saw the three monkeys with Ellie. One-eye was walking ahead, with the torch. Shadow followed, pulling Ellie by the feet, and then came Thrasher, holding her under the arms. Softpad half-scrambled, half slid down the cliff-face onto the ledge. He landed right in front of Shadow, barring the way.
"Take her back to the top!" demanded Softpad.
"You can't make me!" sneered Shadow. "Now, get out of my way!"
But Softpad stood his ground. Seeing that the other monkey wasn't going to move, Shadow was overcome with rage. Suddenly, he dropped Ellie's feet, and, snarling, made a grab for Softpad's throat. Softpad moved aside, forgetting, for a second, that he was on a ledge. A moment later, he remembered. It was too late.
Watching from above, Snapper saw that dangerous side-step. In an instant, he
leapt onto the ledge and grabbed Softpad round the middle. But Softpad was already falling, and Snapper couldn't keep his footing. Together the two monkey leaders plunged into the darkness below.
Jamie screamed as he saw them fall. After that, there was a stunned silence on the hilltop. And then, the monkeys began to howl mournfully.
It was a terrible, heart-rending noise, and Jamie couldn’t bear it. He looked round for help and saw Francesco the parrot. “Where will they be?” he asked him desperately. “What’s down there?”
Francesco shook his pink-feathered head. “It’s a very deep chasm,” he told Jamie, “with rocks at the bottom.”
“Can we go down and look for them?” asked Jamie.
“That would be far too dangerous for you,” replied the parrot. “Not even monkeys could climb all the way down there safely. Some of us parrots will fly down and look for them at dawn. Now,” he reminded Jamie, “you need to rescue Ellie."
Ellie was still lying, tied up and gagged, on the ledge, alone. Her captors had vanished. Several monkeys climbed down, and helped to bring her carefully back to the safety of the cliff-top. They gnawed through her bonds with their teeth.
"Francesco," said Ellie, as soon as the stone was removed from her mouth. "Do you think - I mean, how will we find out if - ?"
But Francesco shook his head again. “They won’t be alive,” he said. “No-one could fall down there and survive.”


16

Bad news and good

Usually Ellie was up early on school days, and ready to go at half past eight, clean