Chapter 12

 

The Trickletown Valleys’ Games

 

Tacticus Meticulous was looking for his whistle!

 

“Bother me britches!” muttered Tacticus.  “What in the name of Trickletown has happened to my –”

 

CRASH! Another drawer full of ‘This & That’ spilled over the dining room table. 

 

“WHISTLE!” shouted Tacticus, rummaging around amongst an ever increasing mountain of ‘This & That’ which he knew did not contain his whistle – but he didn’t know where else to look for it.

“Bother me … bother me … bother …”

Soon there were no more drawers to be emptied, but still the bothersome whistle was nowhere to be found.

 

“Whatever are you up to, Tacticus? And may I suggest you take a look at your watch? If you are not very careful you will be late!”

Mrs Meticulous was rather concerned, but Tacticus was well aware of the time – this was the reason he was searching for his whistle.

“And if you are looking for your whistle I have put it on top of your lunch box,” added Mrs Meticulous.

 

PSSST – another of Mr and Mrs What’Notts’ ‘memory loss’, air fresheners squirted him, full in the face!  The speay appeared to be working, as Tacticus was forgeting where he had put things!  Tacticus growled, and after pausing for a moment to compose himself, raced back into the kitchen, grabbed hold of his lunch box and his whistle, and without saying a single word to his wife, darted out of the house, like a mouse out of a cheese box, in the direction of Orange Street Stadium.

To begin with Orange Street was empty.  There was hardly a sound to be heard, except for the whistling of the breeze around Tacticus’s large floppy ears and the rippling of the coat tails on his fine black moleskin suit, trimmed with gold.

 

“TACTICUS IS COMING ...“ “HERE COMES TACTICUS ...“ “MAKE WAY FOR TACTICUS ...”

Tacticus could hear the chanting of the crowds.  They had gathered to watch the spectacular opening to the Trickletown Valleys’ Games.  However, the games could not begin until Tacticus blew his whistle.

Tacticus was never usually late for anything.  “Tacticus is meticulous,” his friends always said, but this morning things were different.

His memory was beginning to fade, thanks to Mr and Mrs  What’Notts’ mysterious air freshener.  From the moment he got out of bed, things had gone wrong.  

To begin with, his alarm clock didn’t go off.  Then he went to put on his clothes, but he had forgotten where they were.  He had forgotten to polish his shoes and he forgot to finish his breakfast.  And as for his bothersome whistle! We can only guess at what had happened to that, before it finally found its place on top of his lunch box.

However, all that really mattered at that moment was that Tacticus was late, and that the Indigo Street Church Clock was striking ten o’clock.

 

Tacticus placed his whistle between his lips as he entered Orange Street Stadium.

“Get a move on Tacticus!” shouted the Mayor.  “And you had better make it snappy!”

 

The Mayor was laughing and so was everyone else, because a pair of crocodile slippers were busily snapping at Tacticus’s toes.

There was no more time to waste.  So, taking the longest, deepest breath he had ever taken, on the strike of ten o’clock, TACTICUS BLEW HIS WHISTLE ...

 

“Block up the pipes!” shouted the Mayor.  “Block up the pipes!” 

 

The crowds chanted his command and the giant coconut corks  were plunged into the tops of the ‘This & That’ pipes.  The Labyrinth’s exits were sealed and the pressures beneath the ground began to build.  It was not very long before the earth at the centre of The Gambit started to move.

 

Seven circular platforms rose one after the other, each one larger than the one before, until the centre of The Gambit resembled an enormous wedding cake.  It looked almost as high as the mountains and from the sluices on the top of its walls, the seven Trickletown Rivers cascaded over its edge.

B O O M!  Indigo Basin erupted.  The Trickletown Valleys’ Games had begun and teams from each coloured street began to race to the top of the ‘Wedding Cake’.

 

Tacticus collapsed on the steps of Orange Street Stadium.  He was completely ‘whistled out’ and, to add to his embarrassment, his favourite crocodile slippers had lost all their teeth.

 

“Glad you could make it Tacticus,” chuckled the Mayor.