It was a lovely sunny day in Poddington and Dump-pea was just sitting down to lunch, his favourite meal of the day - after breakfast and tea. He looked down at his strawberry milkshake and licked his lips. He was just about to drink it all down in one go, when he heard a terrible high-pitched wailing noise. The sound was enough to curdle Dump-pea's milkshake before his very eyes, and suddenly he didn't feel at all like eating. Dump-pea went over to the window and looked out. He didn't seem to be the only pea affected by the awful noise. Slop-pea was high up on a ladder cleaning his windows, but the wailing made him wobble and he almost fell off. Zip-pea was speeding past, but as soon as he heard the noise he stopped dead in his tracks. Over in the junk yard Scrap-pea was busy repairing his fence, banging in the nails with his hammer. As the sound reached him it gave him such a shock that he brought the hammer down on his thumb! On the other side of Poddington the sound had even woken up Sleep-pea. "What a nightmare!" he said to himself as he rolled over, put a pillow over his head and went back to sleep. By now the other peas had all met up in the middle of Poddington. "What's that awful noise?" said Hap-pea as he joined the others, but no one knew what the wailing could be. "I'm fed up with it." complained Grump-pea. "I can't get a moment's peace in this place." "Don't worry," said Snoop-pea, "I'm the greatest detective Poddington has ever seen. If I can't discover where the noise is coming from, then no one can." He set off in the direction of the awful wailing, and the other peas followed. As they got nearer, the noise got louder and louder until, with a particularly loud screech, it shattered the lens of Snoop-pea's magnifying glass! Just as Snoop-pea was wondering what to do next, Hap-pea suddenly pointed down the road and shouted "Look everybody! That's where all the noise is coming from!" They all looked, and there was Wee McPea marching through Poddington playing his bagpipes! He loved the sound of the bagpipes, and seemed in a world of his own, playing to his heart's content. Hiding behind a bush, Creep-pea and Black-Eyed Pea had also seen Wee McPea with his bagpipes, and they chuckled as they watched all the problems it caused the other peas. "You know," said Creep-pea to his friend, "just think of all the trouble we could cause if we had some bagpipes." "But where are we going to get our own bagpipes?" said Black-Eyed Pea. "We don't need to get our own, stupid." replied Creep-pea. "I've got a plan." Creep-pea and Black-Eyed Pea hid out of sight in the bushes, waiting for Wee McPea to pass by. The little pea was playing away happily as he approached Slop-pea, who was still busy cleaning his windows with a big bucket of soapy water, and doing his best to ignore the awful noise. Just as Wee McPea walked by, Creep-pea and Black-Eyed Pea leapt out of the bushes behind him and were just about to grab the bagpipes when Wee McPea played a very loud, high pitched note. It gave Slop-pea such a shock that he tossed his bucket of water into the air in fright. The water poured down into the pipes of the bagpipes, and the bucket landed on Black-Eyed Pea's head! Black-Eyed Pea tried to pull the bucket off his head, but it was stuck. While Black-Eyed Pea was pulling at the bucket, Wee McPea gave an extra big blow on the bagpipes, and water came shooting out all over Creep-pea! All the peas started laughing as Creep-pea, soaked with water, and Black-Eyed Pea, still with the bucket on his head, turned and ran as fast as they could back towards Creepy Castle. "That's probably the first bath Creep-pea's had all year!" said Sweet-pea, and all the peas laughed. "Maybe the bagpipes aren't such a bad thing after all." said Hap-pea, still chuckling to himself, as Wee McPea went marching on through Poddington, unaware of all the amusement he'd caused. From that day on, the peas no longer minded Wee McPea playing his bagpipes. They all went about their work as normal, but whenever they heard Wee McPea start to play, the peas could all be seen wearing big fluffy earmuffs, still smiling at the thought of Creep-pea, Black-Eyed Pea and the bagpipes. |
April 1992 - The Poddington Peas The Awful Noise by Phil Gardner |
©
Phil Gardner 2002/3. |
