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

a bit different, sometimes.”
“I am Evangeline, Keeper of the Rainbows’ Story. Listen to me!” said the lady parrot.
Snapper jumped down from his creeper and the second parrot began her version of the Story. The first part of it was exactly the same as they had heard already; but when she came to: "The river is dangerous for monkeys,” she finished the sentence: “-they do not need to cross the river, or wade or swim in it. Monkeys who ignore these things,” she continued, “will be in trouble; but monkeys who listen to the Story and follow it will have their reward. One day the Golden Monkey will return.”
“It’s different!” exclaimed Jamie.
“Not really,” shrugged Snapper.
“Words a bit different,” said Tufts. “Mean the same though.”
“It doesn’t mean the same at all!” protested Jamie. “You didn’t listen carefully, like you’re supposed to. Could you repeat the last bit please?” he asked the parrot. “From the bit about the river being dangerous?”
The parrot did as she was asked.
“See” Jamie addressed the two monkeys “you don’t need to cross the river. That’s not the same as must not. It means you shouldn’t have to cross the river, but you can if you want to.”
“But if the Golden Monkey said we don’t need to cross the river,” objected Tufts, “then we don’t need to.”
It was Jamie’s turn to shrug. “Maybe you didn’t need to when she said it, but now you do,” he offered. He looked for more help from the parrot, but she had gone.
“Can’t cross the river anyway,” said Snapper. “Secrets live over there.”
Tufts nodded emphatically in agreement.
Jamie listened as they told him about the Secrets: the mysterious green monkeys who had a habit of hiding away.
"They're weird," complained Snapper. "We Rainbows never hide."
"And they don't change colour," continued Tufts, "so how on earth does anyone know how they're feeling?"
Jamie realised, of course, that he’d seen Secrets on the wallpaper: they were the difficult–to-spot monkeys on the side of his room where the bed was. They didn’t look frightening at all, to him.
“I’m not afraid of Secrets,” he told Snapper and Tufts, “and you shouldn’t be. They probably hide because they’re scaredy-cats. If you don’t cross the river to get more fruit, you’ll just go on hurting each other more and more, or you’ll starve. Probably both.”
"You go,” pleaded Snapper, very pale blue. “You go on your own, Jamie, and bring the fruit back for us.”
“No way!” said Jamie. “You need to come, and bring lots of other monkeys with you. It’d take me forever to climb all those trees and pick enough fruit on my own.”
Snapper turned red. “Another plan then!” he demanded. “Make another plan, Human!”
“I can’t!” snapped Jamie. “If you don’t like this one, I can’t help you, and I’m going home!” He began to look around for his mobile phone.
“No!” cried both monkeys together. “Don’t leave us, please!” They each grabbed one of Jamie’s legs and held on to him tightly.
“Then get some monkeys together, and find some fallen tree trunks, - not too long, but not broken in the middle. And cut me some creepers to tie them together-for the raft,” ordered Jamie.
Without another word Snapper and Tufts hurried away. They rounded up more monkeys quite easily, by telling them that Jamie wanted to cross the river and bring them all back lots of fruit. They conveniently left out what Jamie had said about taking monkeys with him; and so they soon came back with a gang of willing helpers.


5

Coconuts!

Under Jamie’s direction, the monkeys bound several sturdy tree trunks firmly together with creepers. Jamie decided his ripped and filthy pyjamas weren’t worth saving. He took the top off and tied the end of one arm to the raft. This was his tow-rope.
He decided it was best to make a trial journey to the opposite bank alone, and take a look around before returning to fetch the monkeys.
“Can you find a spot where there's no soft mud?” he asked them, remembering how he'd got stuck the night before.
“That’s easy,” said Tufts. ”Look for no hippos. No hippos, no mud.”
She and Snapper led the way to a rocky bank, where large boulders lined the water’s edge and the ground between them was stony. Jamie took hold of the pyjama tow-rope and waded out into the water. It was fast moving but not cold and, for quite some way, didn’t come up higher than his knees. But small sharp flints on the riverbed cut Jamie’s feet and he stubbed his toes several times on larger stones. When he reached the middle, the water was still only up to his waist. (Though it would have drowned the monkeys, who were so much smaller, and couldn’t swim.)
He reached the half-way mark. This was a large rock on which a few plants grew, forming a small island. There were spits of this rock sticking out under the water, which Jamie didn't see. He was just thinking how easy it all was, when he tripped over one of them, and grazed both knees. At the same moment, a strong current caught the raft. The pyjama tow-rope snagged on a thorny shrub, and came away. Jamie struggled to his feet. He managed, just in time, to get a grip on the raft itself before it was swept away. He swung it round and continued on his way, pushing the raft in front of him.
On the far side of the river a shale bank sloped gently up out of the water, and it was easy to push the raft up onto the grey sand above it and beach it there. The warm, soft sand was comforting to Jamie’s cut feet as he padded up the beach towards the trees. “Perfect!” he exclaimed, looking up at them. They were just what he’d hoped they were: coconut palms, loaded with coconuts.
There was not a Secret in sight. Jamie picked up a few fallen coconuts, in good condition, to take back and show the monkeys. ‘That’ll get them shifting,’ he thought. ‘They won’t be able to get over here quick enough when they’ve seen these.’
He remembered to be careful of underwater rocks, and the journey back was easier.
“Coconuts!” he shouted triumphantly, as he carried them up the bank. He was immediately surrounded by a bright orange crowd of excitedly chattering monkeys.
But they looked puzzled and disappointed when they saw the brown, hairy things. One of the monkeys picked up a fruit and rolled it along a flat rock. Another sent it rolling back. A game was about to begin.
“Stop!” ordered Jamie sternly. “Leave it!” He picked up a big stone and smashed it against the coconut. After a couple of blows it made a jagged hole in the shell. Jamie picked it up and drank some coconut milk. Instantly the monkeys clamoured to do the same. There wasn’t enough for all of them, so Jamie let Snapper and Tufts sample some, then with another blow he opened the crack wider and pulled the shell apart with his hands. He handed half a shell to each of them. “Let them all have a taste,” he said. Snapper and Tufts scraped out the coconut flesh with their claws and teeth and distributed small pieces among the crowd of monkeys, while Jamie set to work on opening another shell.
The coconuts were gone in no time, and now Jamie had plenty of volunteers to go with him on his second trip. He had to struggle across the river with fifteen frightened but excited monkeys, flashing alternately pale blue and bright orange, crammed aboard the raft. He tried to make them keep quiet and still. He was very afraid they might sink the raft or push each other overboard with their squirming, or attract an army of Secrets with their noise. But they all arrived safely on the opposite shore.
Jamie ran up the beach shouting: "Secrets! Secrets! We’ve come to get coconuts! Keep away!”, hoping this would scare off any of the rival monkeys who might be around. His boldness reassured the Rainbows, who came scampering up the beach after him. They swarmed up the trees, and soon hundreds of coconuts cascaded onto the beach, to the sound of whooping and cheering monkeys.
Jamie saw that he needed to act quickly to stop them getting too hyped up and fooling around. He shouted at them to form a line across the beach, a monkey chain along which they could pass coconuts, one to another, onto the raft. This took shape, and they made good progress with the loading. Jamie was wondering if he would have to make a separate journey with the coconuts, and return to collect the monkeys, when a small pale blue monkey suddenly leapt onto his shoulder and whispered urgently in his ear.
“Secrets! Secrets!” it said. “Seen them! In the long grass there!”
Jamie looked, but could see nothing more than long grass blowing gently in the warm breeze. He climbed a small tree nearby, and from a branch near the top, thought he spotted a green tail waving amongst the grasses.
Then: "Look up! Look up!” shouted Snapper.
Jamie looked up. He saw a green face above him, and a coconut speeding towards him. Then everything went blurred, and he felt himself falling backwards, knocking his head on a branch as he did so. As he fell, Snapper rushed forward to catch him: but the boy was too big for the monkey, and Snapper was only able to cushion the blow as his friend’s head hit the ground.
Jamie lay there without moving, his eyes closed, Snapper still cradling his head. All the Rainbows gathered round. “Jamie, Jamie!” cried Snapper, desperately licking the boy’s face, trying to rouse him. It didn’t work.
“Dead!” cried Tufts mournfully, "Dead!”
Snapper laid Jamie’s head down gently and the two monkeys, deep purple, clung to each other, wailing loudly. The rest of the Rainbows, purple too, looked on in shocked silence.
After a few minutes, Snapper said: "Must go. Secrets'll get us!"
"We can't just leave the human here," objected Tufts. "His family won't know what happened to him. We must send him home to his own world."
They found Jamie's phone, and pressed the golden monkey button to open a window. Then several of the monkeys together pushed and shoved, till they managed to get Jamie's limp body through the hole. They posted the mobile phone after it.


6

Missing pyjama top.

Jamie wasn’t dead. He opened his eyes, and found himself staring up at a white surface. In the middle of it was an upside-down saucer-shape of the same colour, with a glass ball in the middle. It took Jamie several seconds to work out that this was his bedroom ceiling, with light bulb and light shade. He heard Vee’s voice, and she appeared in the doorway, starting in alarm when she saw Jamie.
“Oh my goodness, you hurted yourself! Did you fall from bunk? And why are your pyjamas so dirty? And where is top? You will be cold.”
Jamie tried to sit up, but the room span.
“No, no, you must lie still,” Vee told him. She covered him with the quilt and eased a pillow gently under his head. Then she looked carefully in his eyes to see if both pupils were the same size.
“Ellie! Ellie!” she called, “come here quickly! Jamie has fallen from bunk!”
Ellie had just got dressed and was looking for a jumper or cardigan to wear. She could only find the one she hated; the one knitted by Great Aunt Olga in Estonia, which had a