The Finding of Freddie Perkins Read Online Free PDF Page A

passage.
    It was fun being so close to getting it, but it was no good, he couldn’t quite reach it…
    He was beginning to edge back the way he’d come, when Granny P’s voice again interrupted him.
    â€˜Try this, Freddie. I used to play for the school, you know.’ And she slid a lacrosse stick gently into the space next to him.
    Freddie grasped the lacrosse stick, and edged forward once more, being careful not to bang his head on the top of the crate. He slid it out in front of him, breathless and hot by this point, and hooked it into the corner and around whatever it was that was trapped there.
    â€˜I’ve got it! I’ve got it!’ he cried, hugging it to him excitedly, and jerkily crawling back out of the cave-likespace with his treasure – the lacrosse stick left behind and forgotten.
    Freddie flopped into one of the chairs and started to unwrap layer after layer of fabric, the object feeling harder and spikier in his hands as he did so, until with a flourish he uncovered it, and Granny P gasped.
    â€˜Oh Freddie, it’s beautiful!’
    The teapot in his hands was heavy and ornate, and covered with a raised thistle design. On its spout were trailing leaves which they couldn’t quite identify, and a small but stately bird which Granny P said was a miniature golden eagle was perched on its handle. Freddie could see from just the first glance that it must be valuable, and when Granny P showed him how to check the bottom for a hallmark, they discovered it was solid silver.
    â€˜Wow, Granny P!’ said Freddie. ‘This is amazing. It’s like a genie lamp!’
    â€˜Oh, you’re right, Freddie. You’d better polish it carefully in case something magical happens.’
    Of course nothing did happen when Freddie polished it, but it was fun to pretend it might, and as he sat and rubbed it clean with the silver cloth, he took to imagining what three wishes he would chooseto make, but it was so hard to choose. Well, all except one, of course.
    * * *
    Granny P disappeared into a dream world of her own when she found some old photographs of their family. She wanted to point out everyone she could make out to Freddie. By then, though, he was too distracted by a locked, battered chest he had found in a corner when he was looking for somewhere to temporarily display the genie teapot. But even when he finally managed to prise Granny P away from the faded brown pictures, and her colourful memories of the people in them, they couldn’t get the heavy wooden lid to open. There was no key anywhere obvious, and neither of them was strong enough to force it open.
    Granny P said they would ask Dad to force open the chest – that she didn’t mind if it got a bit more battered in the process. They simply
had
to know what was in it.
    In fact, both of them were so distracted by the mystery of the locked chest that they couldn’t concentrate much more after that. They did manage to move enough stuff out of the way to clear andbring forward a large dining table, which Granny P said would make the sorting so much easier when it was fully folded out. Tomorrow they would be all set, as they could put boxes and bags on it, and then organise things into piles in front of them.
    Freddie then spotted a couple of chairs that matched the old table behind a wardrobe, and so with one final effort, they managed to squeeze them round it. With the chairs now in front of the table, they had created a proper sorting station to continue their work tomorrow.
    Exhausted, they descended for supper, Granny P with the photos to pore over by the fire, and Freddie with the genie teapot tucked under his arm to put on his bedside table on the way downstairs. Granny P had said he ought to keep rubbing it every now and then just in case, and although Freddie knew that the glint in her eye was just for his benefit, he decided to go along with it. After all, it meant he could keep the teapot in his