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'Trouble in Trickletown'
Chapter 16
The Sack of Secrets
Listen to this one,” chuckled Willey. “Trim the Gardner says ,that rubbing soap on all the leaves keeps the rabbits off his cucumbers.”
Everyone laughed.
“And here’s another,” said Eddy, plucking another secret out of the air, as the friends drifted endlessly down into the seemingly bottomless Sack of Secrets.
“Rooter sucks his thumb when he’s sitting on the toilet.”
Everyone laughed so much they almost let go of the sail they were holding on to.
“Mr Got-a-Lott picks his nose at the bottom of the garden.”
“Trim the Gardener is secretly in love with Mrs Merry’Feathers.”
“Mrs Merry’Feathers can’t stop laughing when she tickles her own feet.”
“Ivor Sack’Full holds his letters up to the light to see what’s in them.”
“The Mayor of Trickletown’s favourite sweets are gooseberry toffees.”
Thump! Finally they had reached the bottom of Old Man Moon’s Sack of Secrets.
“Secrets to be kept to the left – secrets to be broken to the right – take the funny ones straight down the middle and give them to Dudley,” said a small brown elf, carrying a large pile of secrets. “And you had better be quick before any of the secrets get out.”
The elf disappeared into the distance, leaving Willey and his intrepid band of travellers to unravel themselves from the sail.
“Cock-a-Doodly-Doo,” said Brown Bottom, who was in need of another drink of the Talking Teapot’s water.
There appeared to be nothing else to do but follow the elf’s instructions; which they did. They each gathered up a large pile of secrets from the floor of the sack and followed the elf’s tiny footprints ...
The way ahead was lit by a beam of sunlight, shining in through a hole in the side of the sack. The floor was littered with paper.
They were passed by several more brown elves along the way and each one said the same thing:
“Secrets to be kept to the left – secrets to be broken to the right – take the funny ones straight down the middle and give them to Dudley. And you had better be quick before any of the secrets get out.”
Willey was now very keen to meet Dudley, whoever he was. He was sure Dudley would be able to tell them where the Hour Glass Key had been taken and what had happened to the missing Rainbow Fish.
Gradually the beam of sunlight led them to Dudley: an extremely large and overweight hamster. He had become so big that his feet no longer touched the ground and the only way he could move was to wriggle.
Dudley was the Keeper of Secrets. He had been at the bottom of the sack for longer than anyone could remember, but his job was a very important one; in fact there were two very important jobs he was here to do.
First, as Keeper of Secrets, he would read each one – and then to make sure none of the secrets got out, he would try to eat them all. This was why he had become so fat. However, Dudley had a very good memory, so if you needed to know a certain secret, you should first make friends with Dudley.
Besides being Keeper of Secrets, Dudley was in charge of the Tablet of Light, the most important rock in the universe, for the Tablet of Light could see everything!
“Welcome,” said Dudley, pausing to nibble his way through another pile of secrets. “So you need to know what happened to the Seven Rainbow Fish and the missing Hour Glass Key?”
Dudley already knew why everyone was here. The Orange Envelope had told him, even though Dudley had tried his best to eat it.
Dudley wriggled to one side to reveal the large grey rock he had been sitting on. “This is the Tablet of Light,” said Dudley. “It will show us everything you need to know.”
As the beam of sunlight lit the rock, the Tablet of Light changed colour and shape. Then, a moving picture appeared of what had really happened in Trickletown, on the night the Million Wiggle Fish Pond disappeared and the Fuddles began losing their memories.
Take a look inside the book
'Trouble in Trickletown'
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