Major and Mynah Read online

  ‘Major and Mynah is a marvellous mystery with friendship, warmth, resilience and just a smidge of magic.’

  Mo O’Hara

  ‘A book to cheer, entertain and enable children, with or without hearing aids, everywhere!’

  E.M. Watson, reviewer

  ‘Karen Owen is a skilled storyteller!’

  Sarah Todd Taylor

  ‘Major and Mynah is engaging and fun, with beautiful and positive disability representation and a very sweet young heroine.’

  Liam James, bookwormhole.co.uk

  ‘Loved this fast-paced story about best mates, spies and a crime-fighting mynah bird!’

  Cathy Cassidy

  To ‘Polly’ Sue, my childhood BFF

  -KO

  For anyone who has ever felt different

  -LF

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1. The Mystery Begins

  2. Spiders and Slugs

  3. A Close Call

  4. Too Much NOISE

  5. Gran’s Birthday Card

  6. A Bird Called Bo

  7. The Spy in the Sky

  8. SPUD Crew in Action

  9. A Different Crime

  10. Worms

  11. Bo Breaks the Rules

  12. Operation Bo

  13. Detectives at Work

  14. The Flying Detective

  15. Emergency

  16. A New Start

  About the Authors

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright

  The Mystery Begins

  It all started with the mystery of two missing things.

  The first thing to vanish was a silver mountain bike belonging to our neighbour, Mrs Moore.

  ‘I only left it on the driveway for a minute or two,’ she yelled over the garden fence. ‘When I went back out it’d gone. Stolen!’

  Mum shook her head in sympathy and promised we would keep our eyes peeled.

  How do you peel eyes?

  Then Mum discovered Luke’s swimming trunks had disappeared from our washing line!

  ‘I hope this isn’t one of your jokes, Callie,’ she said, frowning at me.

  Maybe she was remembering the time I hid Luke’s school tie in the freezer because he scoffed all the chocolate ice cream. But it wasn’t me who took his trunks, and I think Dad was way too busy sawing wood in his workshop to have had time to play a joke.

  ‘Maybe it was a werewolf? Or a ghost?’ I suggested.

  Mum rolled her eyes at me.

  ‘Or they flew off?’

  ‘There’s no wind!’ said Mum.

  Which was true. I was eating breakfast in the garden because it was so hot.

  Mum huffed and puffed and said everyone was going to be late unless she found them IMMEDIATELY. Luke burst into tears because he’s five and that’s what he does when things go wrong. Also, he was desperate to go on his swimming playdate with Kieran.

  Straightaway I knew this would be an interesting case for SPUD to solve. SPUD is made up of me and Grace (my BFF) and it stands for Super Perceptive Undercover Detectives. We chose ‘perceptive’ because it’s one of our teacher’s favourite words. Mrs Manning says it describes someone who is good at seeing things. Detectives have to be very clever at spotting things other people don’t see.

  The SPUD crew already had a meeting planned for later today. We’re inventing a code using our torches so we can communicate from our bedroom windows. We need a code because we’re not allowed to use our mobile phones at home. They’re only for EXTREME EMERGENCIES, to keep us safe and for if we get lost (which would be difficult in our village because it’s so small and we know all the roads off by heart).

  My belly moaned and I felt a teeny bit sick as I looked at my cereal. I knew why. Before I could meet Grace, Mum and I had to drop off Luke and then go to the hospital.

  To collect the ear things.

  I really, really didn’t want to.

  I’d taken so long to eat my cereal it’d gone soggy. As I spooned it out of the milk, a bird swooped down and landed on the table next to me. I jumped up in fright because it wasn’t the sort of thing you expected to happen when you were eating your Rice Krispies. The bird was bigger than a robin but smaller than a crow, and it was black with yellow stripes on its head. It looked straight at me and chirped! How cute was that?

  ‘Hello.’ I felt a bit silly because I was talking to a wild bird that had no idea what I was saying. The bird was straggly and looked like it hadn’t eaten for ages. It stared at me with brown watery eyes, then stared at my bowl, and stared back at me again.

  Chirp!

  I pushed my bowl of soggy cereal towards it. ‘Have some breakfast.’

  Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

  The bird jumped on to the edge of my bowl and dipped its orange beak into it. It slurped the milk and gobbled up the Rice Krispies.

  Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

  It was so excited it hopped onto the rim of the bowl but then it slipped and fell in. Milk splashed all over the table as the bird flapped wildly. At first I laughed because it looked so funny but then I realised it was scared so I fished it out. It shook itself and its feathers stuck out like a spooked cat’s fur.

  ‘You’re safe now,’ I said.

  Chirp!

  The bird pushed its head into my hand and let me stroke it. I’d never done that before! Its head was soft and warm.

  Luke whooshed into the garden pretending to be a space rocket. He was wearing his gruesome green I’m An Alien! pants. The bird took one look and flew away.

  ‘You scared the bird!’ I snapped, but Luke ignored me.

  ‘I’m going to wear my alien pants for swimming!’ he announced to the whole world.

  Then Mum shouted it was TIME TO GO, and my belly went into mad washing-machine tumbling all over again.

  Spiders and Slugs

  Mum and I sat in the hot waiting room. On the wall were loads of posters about hospital services and community support groups. I slouched on a chair with sponge sticking out from a split where so many people’s bottoms had squashed it. I pointed at the sign on the wall:

  ‘Enormous Naughty Tarantulas Department,’ I said.

  Mum rolled her eyes. Of course, I knew it really stood for Ear, Nose and Throat. I’d been here before to do a hearing test and it was a DISASTER. I had to sit in a metal box with mega-thick walls and wear huge headphones over my ears. Every time there was a beeping sound I pressed a button. Then they repeated the test but they played loads of whooshing sounds at the same time. The sounds were called white noise. I don’t know why they’re called white instead of yellow or purple. You try hearing tiny beeps when it sounds like a helicopter is taking off next to you.

  Anyway, the doctor said my hearing wasn’t good enough and that I needed hearing aids. I think I hear nearly everything but sometimes sounds get muddled up. It’s worse if people mumble, which they do a lot. So I just guess. If there are loads of different noises then I can only hear the loudest one and the rest become a messy blur.

  So, today we had to collect the hearing aids. I really didn’t want them because I think they look ugly and I just know people will make fun of me. And by ‘people’, I mean certain people at school.

  ‘Did you hear what I just said?’ asked Mum.

  ‘Err…’

  ‘I said this is very exciting because you’ll be able to hear. We won’t have to keep repeating ourselves or have another saucepan incident,’ said Mum.

  I sighed. They haven’t let me forget the time Dad stood at the bottom of the stairs and banged a saucepan with a wooden spoon because he was fed up with me not hearing him call that tea was ready.

  Mum was talking about Mrs Moore’s stolen bike and the mystery of Luke’s missing t
runks again. Of course, SPUD is top secret so I couldn’t tell Mum that Grace and I were going to examine the scene for clues and speak to witnesses.

  ‘Mrs Moore should have locked her bike so the thief couldn’t steal it,’ said Mum. ‘You must remember to lock yours. I know it’s boring but it’s very important.’

  ‘Yes, Mum, I know.’

  I was more interested in thinking about the tame bird from breakfast. Maybe it was somebody’s pet and had escaped through an open window while they weren’t looking?

  I wish I had a pet, one I could keep at home. I’ve got a donkey called Clarice, but I never get to see her because she lives a long way away in a rescue sanctuary. I used my Christmas money to sponsor her and I get sent photos and updates. I feed Harold – Mr and Mrs Moore’s cat – when they go on holiday, too.

  Mostly, I’d like a Chilean Rose tarantula. It’s got a fiery-red back, hairy legs, eight eyes and two fangs. It’s so beautiful. When I grow up I want to be a spiderologist. If I had a pet spider then I’d be able to study it, but Mum and Dad have said

  This is because Mum is allergic to cats…

  Dad said he hasn’t got time to walk a dog…

  There’s no space for a fish tank…

  And DEFINITELY NO SPIDERS!

  …I wonder how they’d feel about a bird?

  A smiley doctor came into the waiting room and called my name. My tummy tumbled madly again. If I was a giant house spider then I could have been out of there before anyone blinked. They can run up to half a metre PER SECOND. But I’m not a giant house spider, so I followed the smiley doctor.

  Her office was very quiet. I sat down by her desk, which had a computer and lots of wires and medical-looking things that made my tummy whirl again.

  ‘I’m very passionate about ears,’ she said excitedly.

  Or she might have said she was very passionate about chairs. I wasn’t entirely sure because at that exact moment she put the new hearing aids in my ears!

  Then she switched them on. Everything was SO loud. And squeaky. And…

  ‘ARGHHH! Wasp!’ I jumped out of my seat and flapped wildly.

  The doctor ducked out of my way. ‘It’s not a wasp! It’s the air-conditioning unit you can hear.’

  Well, it sounded like a wasp to me.

  Computers whirred.

  Bracelets jangled.

  Chairs squeaked.

  ‘It’ll take a little while, but you’ll soon get used to the noise,’ said the doctor. She showed me how to switch them on and use the different settings.

  But the noise was even worse when we went outside to the car park.

  Cars REVVED.

  Brakes SQUEALED.

  Horns BEEPED.

  By the time we got home, I had the worst headache ever. It felt like a tyrannosaurus rex was breakdancing inside my head.

  I hate the hearing aids. From now on I’m going to call them THE SLUGS because it feels like slugs have crawled into my ears and got stuck. I don’t care what the doctor said about getting used to them. I’m never ever wearing them again!

  A Close Call

  Grace came round on her bike as soon as I got home from hospital. She chained it to the drainpipe even though her bike was in our back garden because crime prevention is very important. Mum gave us raspberries and ice cream and we went up to my bedroom.

  Grace and I have been best friends since we played with the cookery set together at nursery – and now we’re nearly ten! Grace is amazing with numbers and inventing codes, so she is the best person to sit next to in numeracy. Also, she’s really kind because she knows how much I want a pet, so she lets me hold Fred (her white rabbit) and help to clean his hutch.

  I pulled my box of secret things from its hiding place under my bed and unlocked it. Inside was our SPUD logbook.

  ‘Ready to investigate our next case?’ I asked.

  But Grace wanted to see the Slugs first, so I took them out of their box and showed her.

  ‘I think they look cool. They’ll be great when you’re being a spy!’ Grace grinned.

  I put the Slugs in so I could do a secret spy impression. Straight away, everything was so much louder. I heard Grace chewing raspberries and the laptop whirring and…

  ‘BOO!’

  ‘Boo what?’ I asked Grace.

  She looked at me like I was mad.

  ‘You said “boo!”’

  Grace laughed. ‘No, I didn’t!’

  AARGGGHHHHHH!!! So now I was hearing imaginary sounds, too.

  I took the Slugs out. I’d had enough of them for one day.

  Grace gasped and pointed at the windowsill. My windows were wide open because of the heatwave, and the friendly bird from this morning was poking its head in. In the sunlight, its plumage shimmered green like jade.

  ‘Hello again,’ I said.

  And the bird hopped inside!

  Chirp!

  Then it flew over to my desk where I’d left my raspberries and ice cream, which was starting to melt.

  Chirp!

  ‘You’re hungry again?’ I laughed.

  Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

  Grace was confused so I told her about the soggy cereal and how the bird had slurped it all up. I held out my last raspberry and the bird jumped on to my hand. It nibbled and pecked until there was squashed raspberry everywhere.

  ‘It’s so cute,’ said Grace.

  ‘Mum will go mad if she sees it in here. You know how she feels about pets,’ I said.

  We didn’t even know what type of bird it was, so we looked on the laptop to find out. After studying lots of pictures, we discovered it was a breed called a mynah.

  ‘It’s me,’ Mum announced, knocking on my door and coming in AT THE SAME TIME. What’s the point of knocking if she doesn’t wait for me to say come in?

  Quick as a flash I scooped the mynah bird up in my hands and held it behind my back. Its beak nipped at my finger which tickled and I had to try really hard not to laugh.

  ‘I’ve brought you some orange squash,’ said Mum.

  ‘Thank you,’ Grace and I said at the same time.

  Mum looked at us suspiciously. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘I was showing Grace the Slugs,’ I said, which was technically true.

  Mum frowned. ‘Your curtain is caught on the open window. It’s going to tear.’

  ‘I’ll sort it,’ I promised.

  But I couldn’t do it straight away for OBVIOUS REASONS … and Mum was on a mission to rescue the curtain.

  I gulped as I felt the bird’s body vibrate while it mimicked a ringtone.

  Mum looked surprised. ‘Is that the phone?’

  ‘Sounds like it,’ I said. Which it sort of did, from really far away.

  ‘It is the phone!’ Mum rushed out to answer it.

  As soon as Mum left the room, Grace let go of the huge breath she had been holding. ‘That was close!’

  ‘Too close!’ I brought the bird out from behind me.

  Too Much NOISE

  The next day there was a new missing-thing mystery. This time it was at our school.

  I didn’t want to go to school at first because I’d had a huge row with Mum and Dad about the Slugs.

  ‘I’m not wearing them,’ I announced.

  ‘You’ve got to,’ said Dad. ‘Otherwise you won’t hear and then you won’t learn.’

  Grace and I always walk to school with our mums and Luke. They let us walk together a little bit in front of them which is great because it means we can have private conversations without them hearing. We walked down Merton Way and along the road leading to our school.

  ‘I can’t believe how noisy it is today!’ I told Grace.

  Mr Carter’s dog barked as loud as a lion.

  A letterbox snapped shut like the jaws of a crocodile.

  A lorry growled like a hungry dragon.

  Then a police car whizzed past with its sirens and blue flashing lights and stopped right outside our school!

  ‘Look!’ I said to
Grace. ‘There’s a huge hole in the fence around the school field.’

  We rushed to the scene to investigate.

  ‘What’s happened?’ I asked a police officer standing by the fence.

  ‘A thief has stolen your school mower,’ she said.

  The lawnmower was like a mini tractor and the caretaker rode it around our large playing field to cut the grass.

  ‘That mower is huge, so the thief needed to make a huge hole,’ I said to Grace, who was busy taking notes. ‘I wonder if it’s the same thief who stole the bike and the swimming trunks?’

  ‘We need a meeting of the SPUD after school,’ Grace decided.

  Which was all VERY EXCITING.

  It was nearly time for school to start so the playground was really busy.

  Jack and Finn’s football thumped like a stomping giant.

  Tamsin laughed like a squealing whistle.

  Then the bell rang loudly and made me jump. It was time to line up with our class. We stood in front of Tamsin and Amber. Tamsin poked me in my back.

  ‘What have you got stuck in your ears?’ she said.

  I covered my ears with my hands so she couldn’t see the Slugs.

  SQUEAK!

  The high-pitched noise hurt my ears. Then I remembered the doctor had said that would happen if the microphones on the Slugs were covered up.

  ‘You sound like an alien!’ Tamsin did a rubbish impression and loads of my class laughed.

  I turned my back on her. Grace squeezed my hand.

  ‘I wish my hair was longer,’ I whispered to her. I’d spent ages in front of the mirror last night, trying to tug my hair over my ears. Then I’d looked up how long it takes for hair to grow. It grows an average of 1.25cm a month which is a TINY amount. That means it’ll take until Christmas for my hair to cover up my ears and that’s far too long to wait. I could wear a wig but the only one I’ve got is a clown’s wig.