Pip and Houdini Read online

  Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

  Had a very shiny nose

  And if you ever saw him

  You might even say it blows

  All of the other reindeers

  Called poor Rudolph naughty names

  And he was so embarrassed

  He really could have died of shame

  People stopped to stare and whisper. ‘That’s not right,’ said one little boy to his mother. ‘That’s wrong, Mummy.’

  Pip tried harder.

  Then one soggy Christmas Eve

  Santa came to pray

  Rudolph with your nose so bright

  Won’t you slay my elves tonight?

  A crowd had formed and people started laughing out loud. Someone threw a coin in the cap. Two dollars! Amazed, Pip sang louder.

  All of the other reindeers

  Shouted out and scratched their fleas

  Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

  You’ll go down—

  At that point, deciding she needed some help, Houdini began to sing along enthusiastically. Woowoo! Woowoo! Everyone clapped their hands over their ears, grinning, except for the little boy who started to scream. Others were laughing uncontrollably, and more coins poured into Pip’s cap.

  You’ll go down in history!

  Pip couldn’t remember any more verses. In fact, she was glad she’d struggled through as far as she had. But she couldn’t afford to walk away while the money flowed.

  She tried to sing the first verse again, but her voice dried up. Houdini, though, was just getting going. Woowoo. Woowoo. Woowoo-woo!

  Someone else called out, ‘It’s the best version I ever heard.’

  ‘You two should be on a talent show!’ yelled another.

  The crowd began to laugh even louder, and then suddenly there was the strumming of a guitar, and another voice – powerful and melodic – joined Houdini’s.

  As though she was royalty, the crowd parted for Frankie as she strolled to Pip and Houdini’s side, singing a song about Christmas that Pip had never heard. It wasn’t about reindeers, snow and elves, though. It was about a family gathering under a Christmas tree after an argument.

  The crowd was silent now; even Houdini had quietened. Everyone was listening to Frankie singing her song that was sad and happy at the same time.

  At the end, no one threw more coins in the cap; they threw notes – fives, tens, even a twenty. Pip noticed, but Frankie didn’t seem aware. She launched into the Jingle Bells song. People began to clap in time, and tap their feet.

  Pip joined in when Frankie sang the chorus for the second time, and everyone in the crowd followed.

  As Frankie started another song, Pip heard someone whisper to someone else, ‘I thought I recognised her! It’s the girl from that TV show – Star Seeker!’

  ‘Frankie someone, I remember!’ another in the audience said, loudly and excitedly. ‘Except she used to be blonde, remember? Everyone thought she was going to win, but she didn’t. After she lost, she went a bit wild and blew it all. It was a big story for a while.’

  ‘That’s right, Frankie J. She was offered a recording contract and everything, but it was torn up before she made a single record! I always wondered what happened to her.’

  As the comments grew louder, Pip glanced up anxiously but Frankie’s eyes were closed and she smiled as she sang on, something that Pip had never heard before. Other people had, and they were swaying in time and singing along.

  Christmas light, Christmas bright…

  ‘She looks like a down-and-out!’

  ‘But she’s still got that voice. Listen!’

  The talk petered out as everyone seemed to realise that they were witness to a very special performance. The crowd had grown and grown, and some people were filming on their phones, wanting to catch every moment.

  The implication of this hit home and Pip began to panic. People had recognised Frankie within minutes even without the wig; what if they figured out who Pip was?

  It was time to leave.

  ‘I have to go,’ she whispered under her breath when Frankie finished her next song. ‘But I’m glad I heard you sing, and so is everyone else. Listen to them.’

  ‘More! More! More!’ The crowd yelled their encouragement to Frankie.

  Holding on to Houdini’s lead, Pip tugged off her nose and his, and began to push through the crowd. Frankie stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. ‘Here. This is for you.’ She stuffed the cap with the money into Pip’s hand.

  Pip shook her head. ‘No, I was terrible. It’s for you.’

  ‘Take it! You deserve it. And this is yours.’ She handed the Barbie wallet back to Pip. ‘I shouldn’t have taken it. I’m sorry. I just needed money to call my family and you were still asleep. I went back to find you but you’d gone.’

  Pip was too stunned even to say goodbye and a moment later, the crowd had reformed a circle around Frankie, swallowing her up in their eagerness for the show to continue. Pip found herself on the outer.

  After buying some dog biscuits for Houdini at the market, she hurried towards the station. It wasn’t a moment too soon, either. As she emerged from the market crowd, a couple of police officers were making their way across the square towards the source of the music to see what all the fuss was about.

  Pip broke into a run, Houdini trotting beside her, feeling sad that they were going their separate way from Frankie but happy beyond words that Frankie had rediscovered her voice.

  FOUND AND LOST

  At the station, Pip bought a muffin for herself, and a train ticket to the very last station on the route map, the one closest to Byron Bay.

  Before buying a ticket, she took the precaution of hiding Houdini in her backpack, from which loud grumbles emerged every now and then.

  ‘Can I pay extra?’ she asked the man behind the counter.

  ‘What?’ His eyebrows shot up in surprise. ‘Why on earth would you want to do that?’

  ‘You see, I…didn’t have time to buy a ticket yesterday and I want to make up for it.’ She explained where she’d got on. ‘It was all a rush. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.’

  The ticket seller shook his head. ‘Well, that’s a first.’ He told her the additional cost and Pip handed over the money, hoping it made up a little for the fact she was about to illegally smuggle Houdini aboard – again!

  Feeling better, Pip clutched her ticket and the very heavy pack and went to wait for the train. From time to time, Frankie’s voice and guitar drifted across the street from the square, and the crowd would cheer loudly. The platform filled up as the minutes passed, and just slightly later than scheduled, the train chugged slowly into sight.

  Butterflies squirming in her stomach, Pip got aboard the train, let Houdini out of the pack and helped him settle under the seat. Because the train was so busy, she’d had to take a seat facing away from the direction the train was travelling in, but at least she had a view out the window.

  For the first time in days, she and Houdini had had a decent feed, she had money in her pocket, and in just a few hours they’d reach the last station on the line, just inland from Byron Bay. Excitement shivered through her at the thought that soon she’d actually be in a place that Cassandra had once lived in. Maybe her mother was still there, just at a different address.

  It was fascinating watching people get on and off. At one stop, half an hour from Pip’s destination, a lady with red hair got off just as another with blonde hair was getting off. They bumped into each other, started to apologise, and then realised they knew each other and there was lots of hugging and crying. Pip wondered what would happen if she and Cass bumped into each other at a station or on a street. What on earth would Pip say then? Or would they just hug and cry? Then she realised that, after all this time, they probably wouldn’t even recognise each other.

  At the next station, the train stopped to let people off, and then it didn’t start again. People began to stick their heads out of the doors, asking what the del
ay was. Eventually, after a long wait, an announcement was made. There was a problem on the line ahead that would take several hours to fix; the train was going no further today.

  Annoyed voices began to complain, and everyone got off.

  ‘We’re organising replacement buses to get you where you’re going,’ a guard said. ‘Just line up over here, show your ticket and we’ll sort you out. Sorry for the inconvenience, folks!’

  ‘Excuse me,’ Pip asked him. ‘When will the track be fixed?’

  ‘Hard to say, love. They’ll work on it tonight. Should be okay for the 8 a.m. train tomorrow. But the bus’ll get you on your way today, all right. Better late than never, eh?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘You go and find your folks and tell them to bring their tickets to me straight away or you’ll miss the bus and be stuck here overnight.’

  Oh no! Pip thought. This was going to make things difficult. She held out her ticket. ‘Here’s mine.’

  ‘But where are your…?’ His eyes narrowed and he looked at her more closely. ‘Do I know you?’

  ‘No.’ Scared that he might realise who she was, Pip shook her head and stuck her ticket back in her pocket. Annoying as it was, she decided it would be safer to wait until tomorrow when she could just get on a train with no questions asked.

  With Houdini at her side, she hurried off the platform, wondering where she was going to find somewhere safe for them to stay tonight in a strange town.

  Heads down, trying to look unobtrusive, they left the station and scuttled up the street. Outside an old stone building, Houdini paused to pee. Pip waited impatiently. She glanced up at the sign – a library!

  Since the shock of seeing her face on the TV news that morning, she had wondered whether the cops or welfare were in hot pursuit, or whether they were still looking for her in Sydney. Now she might be able to find out.

  Looping Houdini’s lead around the railing at the entrance, she peered inside. Yes! They had computers.

  ‘Back in a minute,’ she muttered to Houdini, and pushed open the door.

  The library was small and the librarian’s desk was empty. Only one other person was using a computer; three were available, but of course you had to be a library member to use them. Pip could have groaned in disappointment, but then she realised the last person to use one of the computers had not logged out.

  Quickly, she slipped into the chair and typed ‘missing Pip’ into the search bar. Immediately she got a whole list of hits. She chose the latest story from a Sydney news site and read it anxiously, but as it turned out, she didn’t need to worry too much.

  Apart from reporting that she’d disappeared in the middle of the night, leaving her foster family worried sick, it was mostly a rehash of her earlier adventures after Sully had his stroke. It did mention that a girl ‘matching her description’ had been spotted at the scene of a road accident north of Sydney, but there was no mention that she might be travelling to Byron Bay. Of course, that didn’t mean that the authorities wouldn’t be looking for her there. She would still need to be careful.

  The website was probably just exaggerating the Brownings’ concern – in some ways, Mrs Browning would surely be relieved Pip was gone – but just in case, once she was in Byron Bay, she would phone again and tell them she was still all right.

  At least the story didn’t mention that she and Frankie had been seen together, but when – to be certain – Pip googled Frankie’s name, she discovered that Frankie’s performance was already the talk of the internet. A star is reborn! Singing star lights up small town! Tears and laughter as Frankie J. sings again! There wasn’t much detail but it was clear that the unplanned performance had been a stunning success.

  Pip’s fingers slid from the keyboard as she stared at the computer. If Frankie could have a happy ending, maybe she could too. And as she looked at the screen, she had an idea, one she wondered why she hadn’t thought of before.

  The police had already done an internet search for Cassandra; Pip knew that. But that didn’t mean Pip shouldn’t do her own, just in case they’d missed something. She tried searching Facebook for people or called Cass and Cassandra. After twenty-five minutes, she gave up. There were so many people with those names, many with blurry photos or none at all, that it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

  Despondent, she was about to leave when a man in a brown uniform walked into the library. Instinctively, Pip ducked beneath the computer desk. She didn’t think he was a cop but it was better to be safe than sorry where the authorities were concerned. He spent a couple of minutes speaking to the librarian and the grown-ups in the library, although she couldn’t hear what he was saying. Then she saw his legs walking out again.

  Relieved, she was just about to crawl out again when she spotted a piece of paper under the desk that looked as if it had come loose from the noticeboard on the wall. It was advertising a speech pathologist. She knew that was a person who helped kids with speaking and learning because Brittani Burt from Spring Hill Public saw one every second week.

  She stood up, about to pin it back on the wall, when the picture on the notice caught her eye.

  At first she wasn’t sure; the woman looked a bit like the girl in Pip’s old photo. Maybe. There was just something about the eyes. Then she read the words underneath, inviting people who needed a speech pathologist for their kids to email Cassandra Farrow.

  Pip felt hot and cold and a bit light-headed as she read and reread the name, wondering if she was imagining the words. But there they were and there they stayed.

  The few other people in the library were being rounded up by the librarian and herded towards the door. As they left, she turned and spotted Pip.

  ‘I thought you’d already gone, dear,’ she whispered. ‘Closing in five minutes.’

  ‘Okay, thank you,’ Pip replied, just as Houdini began to bark outside. He would have to wait. She had five minutes. It would have to be enough time.

  Four minutes and thirty-two seconds later, she sat back, thrilled, having discovered far more than she’d ever expected.

  ‘Coming, Houdini,’ she murmured as the barking from outside became more furious.

  She headed for the exit, the beaming smile on her face growing so wide the muscles hurt. This was the best day in a long time, perhaps in her entire life!

  And definitely the luckiest.

  Racing against time, she’d launched another computer search, this time with Cassandra’s full name.

  The picture on the Facebook page was not much clearer than the one on the library notice and the woman had shorter hair, but the eyes were almost identical to the ones that Pip saw when she looked in the mirror.

  Cassandra Farrow had to be the woman Pip was looking for, didn’t she?

  The Facebook page was private so all Pip knew was the small town she lived in, not far from Byron Bay – in fact, it was the very last stop on the train route. But in the Facebook photo, Cassandra Farrow was standing in front of a bright red door. All Pip had to do was find the door and she would find the woman. Then she’d know for sure if Cassandra Farrow was her Cass.

  In a daze, Pip walked out of the library. The door shut behind her; the lights in the library dimmed.

  Now, standing on the library steps as the sun went down, Pip looked up as a door slammed and Houdini’s barking was suddenly muffled. She glanced towards the spot where she’d left him, but he wasn’t there, just his lead left dangling from the rail.

  A light-coloured van was taking off from the kerb. It had writing on the side that Pip couldn’t make out. Houdini’s howl came from inside as it picked up speed down the quiet road.

  Pip sprang into action. ‘Hey! You’ve got my dog! Houdini! Come back!’ she yelled, tearing after it down the street. Her feet pounded the asphalt, her backpack bounced against her spine. Fear tore at her insides. She couldn’t lose Houdini, not now. Not when he’d come so far with her, just when she’d made the breakthrough of all breakthroughs.


  Up ahead the van turned a corner. The barking stopped, or perhaps it was just too far away for her to hear. Her side hurting from the exertion, she reached the corner, just as the van disappeared from sight around a bend in the road. It was gone, and with it Houdini.

  TO THE RESCUE

  It was only when Pip went to unclip his lead that she saw the sticker attached to it.

  THIS DOG HAS BEEN SEIZED BY COUNCIL RANGERS ON SUSPICION OF ABANDONMENT

  In a flash, she realised that the man in the uniform hadn’t been looking for a runaway kid. He’d been looking for Houdini’s owner!

  There was a phone number but when Pip flew back to the public phone at the train station and called it, there was just a recorded messaging telling her to phone back between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.

  Anxiety rising and knowing Houdini wouldn’t understand what was happening, Pip stood uncertainly by the phone until she spotted the station guard walking towards her, a frown on his face.

  Before he had the chance to interrogate her, she bolted back out to the street. On the tower above the town hall across the street, the clock struck seven. It was getting dark. The streets were empty and she was alone.

  The only thing she knew was that the place where Houdini was being held was called The Hound Pound, as it had been mentioned on the recorded message. Somehow, she had to find it and get them both back to the station for the morning train.

  But how did you find your way to a place in a strange town at night? Maybe she should have asked the station guard. He’d been friendly enough this afternoon, but she knew from past experience that grown-up help often achieved exactly the opposite!

  Librarians might be different, though. They didn’t wear uniforms for a start. Pip ran back to the library on tired legs and knocked on the door, but no one answered. She was too late. It looked as though she was going to have to take her chances with the station guard. At this hour, she couldn’t think of anyone else, apart from the cops, who she could ask.