Jack Pepper Read online

  Jack Pepper curled into the curve of Ruby’s arm, rested his chin on her. He looked up with nothing but joy. Ruby marvelled. How had the puppy decided about her so quickly?

  “He’s gorgeous,” she said, trying out the words. Surprised how easy it was to say, to feel. She’d heard someone say that just this morning. Not to her, of course.

  The puppy’s eyes closed. She thought of her baby brother at home. For some reason he was most unbearable to her while he was asleep.

  Ruby plonked the puppy in Sid’s lap and got up. The puppy woke, his tail curled under and he whistled softly at being disturbed.

  “That’s mean!” Sid snapped. He pulled the tired puppy to his chest. “He’s not your brother and he didn’t do anything to you either.”

  Ruby’s hair fell over her face; she rolled her ankles out and stared at the ground, feeling bad that being jealous made her unkind. She had peered through the crack of her baby brother’s bedroom door that morning, heard the sound of his sleepy breath. She’d crawled into the warm milky smell of his room. She stared through the bars of the cot at the smooth face and tiny perfect hands, closed like new flowers. She reached out to stroke his cheek, but then he woke and suddenly started screaming and screaming and wouldn’t stop. Mum and Dad rushed in, and they were cross and tired, and Ruby muttered under her breath that she wished the baby would just go away again.

  “I don’t want to keep the puppy,” Ruby said.

  “We’re not going to.” Sid sighed. “We need to find out where he came from. Please, let’s just keep playing the game.”

  It hurt Ruby to think what she was thinking now. She was the one most wild and fierce, like an untrained dragon. But she was also the one who felt something valuable had been stolen from her.

  “So now we have to take the dragon back to the training centre,” Sid said. “Ruby!”

  Ruby snapped out of her thoughts and nodded. I can be whoever I want. She held out her hands for the puppy. Sid wasn’t sure.

  “I will look after him,” Ruby said.

  “I know you will.” Sid smiled and handed him over. “Now we need a clue,” he said. “Like a big shed or something, where they keep the dragons.”

  Ruby carried the soft weight of Jack Pepper down the road next to the park, this time letting him sleep in her arms.

  Sid knocked on a few doors, but there was nobody in. Then a little girl answered the door of number 52, blackcurrant juice curved in the corner of her mouth, her plaited hair unravelling.

  “That’s Mrs O’Donnell’s puppy,” she said. She leaned forward and pointed down the street. “The house behind the droopy tree, with all the bins out front. She’s got a dog like that but bigger. She barks at the postman and she had five puppies.” The girl smiled at Jack Pepper and stroked his ears. He woke. His tail bounced. “We were allowed to go and see them when they were born. Their eyes were closed and they squeaked when we picked them up.”

  “How small were they?” Ruby asked.

  The little girl cupped her hands. “Like this.”

  “About the size of a big egg?” Ruby said, nodding as if she’d seen them herself. “They’re not puppies. They’re dragons in disguise.”

  The little girl tucked in her chin, twirled the end of her plait.

  “Hatched from eggs,” Ruby said.

  “No they’re not.” The girl clasped her hands.

  Ruby leaned in and whispered, “You know how you can tell?”

  The little girl shook her head.

  “Look in his eyes.”

  The little girl leaned closer to the puppy.

  “There’s no such thing as dragons,” she whispered, as if she wasn’t sure whether to tell Ruby this secret.

  “Are you sure?” Ruby said.

  “Ruby, let’s go,” Sid said. He thanked the little girl, who stared at Ruby now.

  Ruby sighed, pulled Jack Pepper to her chest. They headed for the house with the willow tree and the bins outside.

  Flip-flops smacked against the pavement, running after them.

  “I want to look again,” the little girl from number 52 said. She held the puppy’s face. “It could be true,” she murmured as she tried to look further.

  Ruby grinned. “You see it now?”

  The girl nodded.

  “All dragons have treasure in their eyes,” Ruby whispered.

  “Like you do,” the little girl said.

  Mrs O’Donnell’s house looked like just the kind of place where newly-hatched precious dragons might live. Tall and wide with vines and ivy worming towards the windows. A double garage at the side. Some roof tiles missing. Ruby and Sid looked at each other.

  “Do you think dragons live here?” Sid said.

  “I think they grew too big for the garage,” Ruby gulped.

  The curled metal gates woven with chicken wire were ajar. That’s how the puppy had escaped.

  Knock knock.

  Bark bark!

  They listened. A door closed inside the house. The children heard a woman’s voice say, “All right, all right, Honey. I’ll think of something to tell her.”

  Ruby stepped back. Did Mrs O’Donnell know she was here? And what was she going to tell her? Ruby looked at Sid. He shrugged. The door opened.

  “Oh! Thank goodness, you found the puppy just in time!” Mrs O’Donnell said and her faded freckles smudged in her smile wrinkles.

  “He was in the park,” Ruby said. “The girl at number 52 said he was yours.” She held Jack Pepper out, but not very far, suddenly unwilling to hand him over.

  “I was expecting his new owner to arrive just now,” Mrs O’Donnell said. She sunk her hand into the deep pocket of her long shirt and fed a treat to the puppy. “I thought you were her at the door, coming to collect him, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to tell her!”

  Ruby held the puppy tighter. Mrs O’Donnell watched.

  “He’s quite special that dog, knows far too much for one so little and only nine weeks old,” Mrs O’Donnell said. Ruby looked up at her. “But I think you might know that already.”

  Ruby wondered for a minute. She felt as if they’d come much further together than the short walk from the park.

  Mrs O’Donnell turned her back, left the door wide. “Why don’t you come in for a minute? I could do with a little help before his new owner gets here.”

  Ruby and Sid followed her in. Mrs O’Donnell waited for Sid to close the front door before she opened the second door inside.

  “Honey!” she called. The ginger and white mother was already waiting, her nose twitching with familiar and new smells. She went straight to Ruby, stood on her hind legs against Ruby’s legs. The puppy leaned down. They sniffed, wiggled and wagged. But what had they said to each other? Ruby thought. Nothing and everything all at once, just like her mum did to her baby brother. Just like her mum did to Ruby sometimes, for no reason at all.

  Honey jumped down and followed Ruby, still carrying the puppy, into the kitchen.

  “He’s the last one to go,” Mrs O’Donnell said. “Come on then, let’s see what we need to do.”

  Sid nudged Ruby. He was worried she hadn’t handed the puppy over yet. Worried she may have imagined too much.

  “It’s a game, remember?” he whispered. “We can’t keep him.”

  Ruby couldn’t see the baby dragon any more. Only the treasure she held.

  I can be whoever I want to be.

  “I know,” she whispered back. “I just want to hold him for a little bit longer.”

  “He needs a wash and a wipe,” Mrs O’Donnell said. “And there’s a blanket from their bed needs cutting up. They remember each other through their noses and it’ll comfort the pup when he’s in his new home.”

  Ruby pressed her nose to the top of the puppy’s head and breathed in the warm puppy smell. She felt it in her heart too, kind of sweet and familiar.

  Sid called Honey to him while Ruby took the scissors, sat on the kitchen floor and looked at the blanket, already with a cu
t edge. Mrs O’Donnell had cut some off and given a piece to each owner for the puppies as they left for their new homes. With Jack Pepper tucked in her lap, Ruby folded and cut the blanket until it was shared in two.

  Mrs O’Donnell gave Ruby a flannel, warm with water.

  “Wipe his eyes and ears, then his paws,” she said.

  “I think they’re clean already,” Ruby said. “I looked earlier.”

  “Wash him anyway,” Mrs O’Donnell said. “Some dirt you can’t see.”

  Ruby cleaned the invisible dirt.

  Knock knock.

  Bark bark!

  “There now,” Mrs O’Donnell said. “That’ll be the lady I was expecting, his new owner.”

  She closed the kitchen door behind her. The front door opened. Voices. Sid crouched next to Ruby, nudged his shoulder into hers. The game had to end now.

  “Dragon trainers was our best adventure,” Ruby said, as the puppy washed her too.

  Sid nodded. “And Jack Pepper’s a special dragon,” he said. “Well trained.”

  Ruby smiled. But that wasn’t what she imagined.

  “You know what, Sid? I think you’re right about there always being treasure around dragons and I think it’s easier to train a dragon if you’re a bit like a dragon yourself. That way you know how to find the treasure.”

  Sid watched the smile fall from Ruby’s face like a cloud shading the sun.

  “I don’t hate my brother,” Ruby said. “I don’t hate him at all.”

  Sid bit his lip. But he knew that already, because he knew Ruby.

  “Babies and puppies can’t do much by themselves and they need their mums to help them with everything.” She thought about the big sister she’d like to be, someone who protects and keeps the baby safe, like she had with the puppy. “I’m not jealous either,” Ruby said. She thought of her brother in her mother’s arms. “Well, maybe a bit.”

  Sid smiled. “I was four when my sister was born and I had to share lots of my toys and she was always crying. But after a while you get to teach them to do things, like play football.” He grinned. “She’s actually quite good. And when someone was mean to her at school I said ‘just tell me if they do it again’ and that felt really good. But I think I should have much more pocket money than she gets. I am the eldest!”

  Ruby held the puppy’s face.

  “Everyone says he’s so… perfect,” she said, thinking how scared she was that she wasn’t like him.

  Jack Pepper looked up at Ruby and she could tell he liked her just the way she was.

  The kitchen door opened.

  “Hello,” the young woman said. “I’m Lucy Allen.” She held out her arms, but lowered them when Ruby didn’t offer the puppy to her. “I hear you rescued my new puppy.”

  Ruby’s eyes sparkled.

  “From Cruella De Vil,” Ruby said. Lucy and Mrs O’Donnell looked at each other. Sid blinked; Ruby nudged him. Another game! “She had about ten men with her, sticks and nets, and they meant business, didn’t they, Sid?”

  “She was going to turn him and loads of other puppies into a white coat with ginger spots,” Sid said.

  “And they didn’t want witnesses. And they would have caught us. But he… he barked and growled and scared them off, and you might think he’s small, but inside he’s as big as a dragon.”

  Lucy tilted her head.

  “Didn’t I say when I first saw him, Mrs O’Donnell? There’s something really special about that dog. Something in his eyes, something much bigger, hidden behind that mask.”

  “We saw it too,” Sid said.

  “And the little girl at number 52,” Ruby said.

  Lucy held out her hands again. Ruby closed her eyes. Remembered her baby brother in his cot. So perfect he’d made her feel flawed.

  Lucy stepped closer.

  “We should go,” Sid said to Ruby. She had to hand the puppy over now. “More dragons to train, Ruby,” he whispered.

  “I’m really grateful that you rescued him,” Lucy said. “I can see he means a lot to you, even though you’ve only known him for just a short while. He means a lot to me too.”

  Ruby nodded.

  “I know it sounds funny,” Lucy said, “but when I first saw him, when he was even tinier and rounder than he is now, I looked into his eyes and I thought somehow I’ll be all right with you around. And you know what? He makes me feel braver.” She laughed. “Does that sound daft?”

  Ruby held the puppy in front of her face. She shook her head as Jack Pepper looked back. It was real what Ruby felt right then. Like Lucy. That she was going to be all right with her new brother around. I am who I want to be.

  “You’ll need this blanket,” Ruby said. “It’s been shared out so all the puppies have a piece, so each one’s got everything, all the warmth and softness and smells, to remind them of one another.”

  “Thank you,” Lucy said.

  “We gave him a name,” Ruby said, handing him over. “Jack Pepper. But you don’t have to keep it.”

  Lucy smiled. “I like that name a lot.” She kissed the puppy. “Hello, Jack Pepper,” she said.

  Like Ruby Pepper’s little brother, Jack. Small and smooth and perfect.

  “Why did you call him that name?” Lucy said.

  “Oh, don’t you know?” Ruby said. “He’s a very famous dragon trainer.”

  Ruby’s eyes were wide as she looked at the poster of the dog, now three years older and grown. But the joy at seeing him again was soon squashed by the message – Please help us find Jack Pepper – that he was lost.

  Ruby’s dad left the car engine running and got out to see what the children were staring at.

  “Ruby, it’s freezing out here. What’s so imp—”

  He saw the name on the poster, a name so familiar.

  “We found this little dog at the park once, just after Jack was born,” Ruby said.

  “We rescued him,” said Sid.

  “He rescued me actually,” Ruby said. “He made me see I could be a good sister. I named him after Jack.”

  “Jack Pepper,” her dad said, his voice full of pride for his precious girl as he realised the weight of what that had meant to Ruby. How hard it must have been for her to suddenly have a brother when she’d had her mum and dad all to herself for ten years.

  Ruby was still mesmerised by the poster on the street light.

  “That must be Lucy’s phone number,” she said. “Remember her, Sid? She’ll be lost without Jack Pepper. I know I would be.”

  Ruby looked back at the car. At her little brother, now three, strapped into his car seat, craning his neck to see out of the open door.

  “Ruby!” Jack called. “I want to see too!”

  Ruby went back to the car. She unclicked the belt, scooped her brother out and cradled him on her hip.

  “Dad, I need to find out if Jack’s OK. And Lucy.”

  Ruby’s brother held her face and turned it towards him.

  “I’m here,” he said. “Look!”

  Ruby kissed his pudgy hand. “There’s another Jack Pepper. And he’s just like you.”

  Ruby’s dad had already tapped the phone number into his mobile and pressed call. He handed it to Ruby.

  “Find out,” he said and Ruby passed him Jack to hold.

  But it wasn’t Lucy who answered. It was a young boy called Leo.

  “Hello?” Ruby said. “I’m phoning about the lost dog. I knew a little dog called Jack Pepper three years ago. His owner was called Lucy Allen.”

  Sid and Jack and Ruby’s dad watched as Ruby listened to the voice on the end of the phone.

  “It is him!” she mouthed.

  They waited. The boy talked for ages as Ruby listened. She paced, looked at Sid. Her eyes wrinkled, her eyebrows drew together. Then she suddenly gasped, before saying goodbye.

  “Well?” Sid and her dad said at once.

  “Ruby!” Sid pressed. “What did they say?”

  Ruby smiled at her brother. “Dragons always know how
to find treasure.”

  “Tell us, for goodness’ sake!” her dad said. “Have they found Jack Pepper?”

  Ruby opened her mouth, but her little brother was waiting for his turn to speak.

  “I’m here!” he said. “Have I gone invisible?”

  “They found him.” Ruby smiled. “But you won’t believe what happened to him this time… ”

  Read an extract from HERO

  Find out what happened to Jack Pepper in…

  Turn the page to read an extract.

  I can fit a whole Roman amphitheatre in my imagination, and still have loads of room. It’s big in there. Much bigger than you think. I can build a dream, a brilliant dream of anything, and be any hero I want…

  For most awesome heroic imagined gladiator battles ever, once again the school is proud to present the daydreaming trophy to… Leo Biggs!

  That’s also imaginary. You have to pass your trumpet exam to get a certificate (like my big sister Kirsty), or be able to read really fast and remember tons of facts to get an A at school (like my best mate George), before anyone tells you that they’re proud of you. Your family don’t even get you a new bike for your birthday for being a daydreamer, even if you really wanted one.

  Daydreaming is the only thing I’m good at and, right here in Clarendon Road, I am a gladiator. The best kind of hero there is.

  “Don’t you need your helmet?” George called.

  “Oh, yeah, I forgot,” I said, cycling back on my old bike to collect it. “Now stand back so you’re in the audience. Stamp your feet a bit and do the thumbs up thing at the end when I win.”

  George sat on Mrs Pardoe’s wall, kicking against the bricks, reading his book on space.

  “It says in here that meteors don’t normally hit the earth,” George said, “they break up in the atmosphere. So there aren’t going to be any explosions or anything when it comes. Shame.”

  “Concentrate, George. You have to pretend you’re in the amphitheatre, they didn’t have books in Roman times… did they?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so. They might have had meteors though. People think you can wish on meteors, but it’s not scientific or anything.”