Toad Away - Morris Gleitzman [11]
The truck thundered past.
When the dust cleared, Limpy couldn't look.
He didn't have to.
“Aunty Pru,” wailed Charm, and collapsed into sobs.
So did Goliath.
Limpy and the others carried Aunty Pru home. They laid her gently down on the big leaves in the kitchen. The whole family gathered round her poor flat body.
Limpy's warts ached with sadness.
He was sad for Charm too. He'd never seen her so upset. He watched her stroke the tire tracks on Aunty Pru's face and kidneys and saw she was wearing the necklace Aunty Pru had given her, the one woven from spiderwebs with dried mouse eyes threaded on it.
“Aunty Pru was so clever and wise,” sobbed Charm.“How could she have let a human drive over her?”
Mum and Dad came over and stroked Charm's warts.
“If I told Pru once I told her a million times,” said Dad quietly. “Have as many big philosophical thoughts as you like, I told her, but when you're on the highway, don't eat with your eyes closed.”
“Poor old Pru,” said Mum. “I'll miss her, and that's saying something, because I've still got several hundred sisters left.”
Goliath gave a loud sniff. “We could have saved her,” he mumbled miserably. “We could have bashed that truck with big sticks and made it swerve off the highway and explode before it reached Aunty Pru.”
Limpy nodded. He didn't agree with the exploding truck stuff, but he agreed with Goliath's basic point.
They could have saved Aunty Pru.
If we'd managed to make friends with humans, thought Limpy, Aunty Pru needn't have died. If the truck driver had been our friend, he wouldn't have swerved at the last second and purposely flattened her.
Thinking about it made Limpy's head hurt, so he concentrated on trying to make Charm feel better.
He gave his sister a hug, careful not to squash Aunty Pru's necklace.
“Aunty Pru was very special,” said Limpy. “She deserves to be laid to rest in a very special place. At the top of the pile.”
“You'll be lucky,” said Mum. “You'd need a crowbar to get another dead relative into that room of yours.”
“Thanks, Limpy,” said Charm in a trembling voice.“But if it's OK, I'd like Aunty Pru in my room.”
“Oh, no,” sighed Mum to Dad. “Now she's starting.”
Charm gazed at Aunty Pru again.
“She taught me so many wonderful things,” said Charm. “She taught me about the stars and the seasons and nature and everything.”
“And humans,” said Goliath. “She taught me not to try and eat them.”
“And she taught us something else,” said Limpy.“She taught us never to give up, even when a problem seems so huge you just want to crawl into the swamp and put your head under the mud.”
“I always want to do that,” said Goliath.
“If Aunty Pru was still alive,” said Limpy, “she wouldn't want us to stop trying to be friends with humans.”
“Or trying to kill them,” said Goliath.
Limpy realized Charm was staring at him, her eyes gleaming brighter than the mouse eyes on her necklace.
“You're right, Limpy,” said Charm. “Aunty Pru was the wisest aunty in the whole swamp. In fact, I reckon she was the wisest aunty in the whole world, with the possible exception of some of our rellies in the Amazon. They must be very wise if they've survived there since time began.”
Limpy stared back at Charm.
What he'd said in the human flower bed was right.
Charm was a genius.
Here she was, pale with shock and grief, and she'd still managed to give him the idea that was going to save them all.
“Excuse me,” said Limpy to the birds pecking in the mud at the far end of the swamp.“Are you migratory?”
The largest bird stared at Limpy.
“Who wants to know?” it said.
Limpy tried not to look desperate. It wasn't easy. He'd been searching everywhere for the birds Charm had told him about in the supermarket. The ones from a long way away who migrated to the swamp each year. So far he hadn't been able to find a single one.
“Me,” said Limpy. “I want to know.”
He tried to keep his throat sac tucked neatly under his chin so he'd