The following Saturday was the big day. Tom and Sophie visited the reptile house at lunchtime to see how preparations were going. Tom had his best friend, Freddy, with him. Sophie had her best friend, Jemima, with her.
Freddy and Jemima were still dubious about snakes.
‘Can we see the hippos after?’ Jemima asked.
‘Yeah, and the gorillas,’ said Freddy.
‘Just give snakes a chance,’ said Sophie. ‘You’ll see how friendly they are.’
‘Look,’ said Jemima, ‘one of my rules is not to make friends with anything that wants to eat me. Call me crazy, but that’s just how it is.’
When they got to the reptile house, Daisy was standing by the entrance, talking anxiously to a woman with a long flowery dress and glasses.
‘We can still go ahead,’ said Daisy. ‘Who cares about a few posters?’
‘It’s not just posters,’ said the woman with the flowery dress. ‘It’s all of our publicity material. Oh, this is awful. We’ve told everyone that we’re having a grand opening. And now it will look like we’ve made no effort at all. I’m sorry, but we have to call it off.’
Tom and Sophie overheard what the woman with short hair had said. ‘What’s going on?’ Sophie asked.
‘Hi, kids,’ Daisy said. ‘This is Lucy, the zoo’s Head of Publicity. She was expecting all the materials for the event to arrive yesterday. But apparently they’re stuck in the post office in Camden.’
‘Why can’t you just go and pick them up?’ Tom asked.
‘It’s the Spirit of Camden parade today,’ Daisy said. ‘They’re not letting any cars through. The roads are blocked off.’
‘Can’t someone walk?’ Sophie asked.
‘I don’t think there’s time. And even if there was, I don’t think I could carry it all,’ Lucy said. She looked at her watch. ‘It needs to get here in an hour, or we won’t have time to put everything up.’
‘What is everything?’ Freddy asked.
‘A banner for the outside of the reptile house,’ said Lucy, ‘posters for inside. We’ve got snake badges and pencils to give out. And snake masks to sell in the shop. Plus leaflets full of snake facts.’
‘Sounds cool,’ Freddy said.
‘It would be, if they were here,’ said Lucy. ‘I’m sorry, everyone, but I’ve decided. It’s off. Cancelled. The snakes will have to meet the public another day.’
‘But – hang on,’ Tom stammered. ‘You can’t –’
‘Hundreds of people are coming,’ Sophie said.
‘It’s been in all the papers,’ Tom said, ‘and on telly. We told that reporter all about it.’
Sophie thought for a second and said quickly, ‘What if we fetched the materials? And got them here in an hour? Would you still cancel?’
Lucy looked surprised. ‘Of course not, but how are you going to do it? I’ve told you, the roads are closed. And there’s loads to carry.’
‘Just let us worry about that,’ said Sophie. ‘If you give us whatever papers we need, we’ll get everything for you. Trust us . . . we can do it.’
Lucy hesitated, then she seemed to make a decision. ‘All right then,’ she said, handing Sophie an official-looking card with delivery information on. ‘See you in back here in an hour.’
‘So you won’t tell anyone it’s cancelled, will you?’ said Tom, grabbing Freddy and following his sister out of the zoo.
‘Not if you’re sure you can do it,’ said Lucy.
‘We are!’ said Sophie. ‘See you soon!’
As they walked along the Outer Circle of Regent’s Park, Tom turned to his sister. ‘So what’s your plan then, Soph?’
‘Er, I haven’t massively got one,’ said Sophie.
‘What?!’ cried Tom. ‘But you just promised we’d get everything here in an hour!’
‘Yes, and if you keep quiet and let me think, we might just do it,’ Sophie said. She started walking more quickly. ‘OK, first we’ve got to get to the post office and pick everything up. But the streets are closed and full of people. So what’s the quickest way through?’
‘Military vehicle?’ suggested Jemima.
‘Being shot from a cannon?’ said Freddy.
‘No,’ replied Sophie. ‘Skateboards.’
‘Yes!’ exclaimed Tom. ‘Me and Freddy are world class.’
‘You’re going to have to be,’ said Sophie. ‘Plus you’ll need rucksacks to carry everything.’
‘But hang on,’ Freddy said, ‘Camden’s over that way. What about when we get to Gloucester Gate? You’re not allowed to skateboard in that part of the park. We’ll have to walk.’
‘That’s where me and Jemima come in,’ said Sophie. ‘We’re both really good at running. I usually win the hundred metres and Jemima wins the two hundred and four hundred.’
‘Which are way harder, I might add,’ said Jemima.
‘So we’ll be waiting by Gloucester Gate,’ said Sophie. ‘You hand the rucksacks over to us, and we’ll run through the park and get everything to the reptile house.’
‘OK,’ Tom said.
‘All right,’ said Freddy.
‘So what are you waiting for? Go and get your skateboards and the biggest rucksacks you can find,’ said Sophie, ‘then head for the post office and show them this.’
Tom took the document that Sophie was holding and then ran down the towpath towards The Ark, with Freddy following close behind.
‘Right,’ Sophie said, turning to Jemima, ‘we’ll need to get into our running gear. And start warming up.’
‘You seriously think those two chumps can do this?’ said Jemima. ‘They’re about five years old.’
‘They’re nine,’ said Sophie. ‘And if anyone can cut through a thousand people marching, it’s two small boys on skateboards . . .’
Within five minutes, Tom and Freddy were on their skateboards, whizzing down Parkway and into Camden. They were both wearing red rucksacks that were almost as big as they were.
The road was closed off and the parade hadn’t started yet, so the street was empty, the pavements were clear, and the boys were able to go at top speed.
As they turned left into Camden High Street, people were starting to gather, carrying banners and dressed in brightly coloured outfits. Tom and Freddy had to slow down.
‘Remember that time when we were in the park, skateboarding like snakes?’ Tom said. ‘Well, that’s what we have to do here. Move in an S-shape. Weave around people. It’s called a serpentine movement.’
‘OK, cool,’ said Freddy.
Tom started to move his skateboard in an S-shape, winding past groups of people and zigzagging between boxes of costumes. Freddy copied him. Soon they were going at a good speed again.
Tom looked at his watch. ‘It’s taken us five minutes so far. Record time.’
A minute later, and they had arrived at the post office. They went up to the counter and showed the woman there the document from the zoo. The woman looked at the document and looked at Tom and Freddy and looked at the document again. Then she sniffed and started piling up boxes and bags on her side of the counter before sliding up a pane of glass next to her. She pushed everything through it to Tom and Freddy’s side.
Tom and Freddy looked at the boxes and bags and then looked at each other.
‘We’ll never be able to carry all that,’ said Freddy.
Then the woman behind the counter started piling up more boxes and bags on her side of the counter. She slid up the glass again and said, ‘Make some space over there, lads.’
Tom and Freddy lifted a couple of the boxes on to the floor. One had snake key rings in; one had snake badges.
‘OK, we’ll have to do this in two lots,’ said Tom.
‘But we haven’t got time,’ said Freddy. ‘That Lucy said an hour.’
‘So we’ll have to go twice as fast,’ Tom said, ‘Let’s start by putting these two boxes of posters into my rucksack. You put that banner in yours. It should fit.’
Tom explained to the woman behind the counter that they’d be collecting the rest in fifteen minutes.
‘Haven’t you got a grown-up to help you, lads?’ she asked.
Tom decided it was easiest to lie. ‘Yes, my dad’s outside. And my mum. And my Uncle Sylvester.’
‘And my Auntie Mavis,’ added Freddy.
‘Good job too,’ the woman said.
Outside, the parade had started. People were banging drums and singing.
Tom and Freddy got back on their skateboards, but at first they found it hard to adjust to the weight on their backs. They had to move their feet further apart and lean further forward. Each of them fell off the first time they tried to change direction.
‘This is useless, Tom,’ said Freddy, ‘and dangerous.’
‘We’ll be fine,’ said Tom. ‘Imagine we’re snakes that have just eaten a massive meal!’
‘But they just crawl under a hedge and sleep it off,’ said Freddy.
‘OK, so imagine a tiger’s coming,’ said Tom, ‘and we have to move. Come on, serpentine motion. The S-shape.’
‘I can’t do it,’ protested Freddy. He crouched lower and moved his feet even further apart. He jolted down from the pavement on to the street without falling off.
‘I can do it,’ he said with a smile.
As the crowds moved further down the street, Tom and Freddy had to move in even tighter loops, turning more often, twisting more sharply. This, plus the weight on their back, meant that they were moving constantly on their boards, squatting down, standing up, leaning left, diving right.
Sweat was pouring off their brows.
‘Keep going,’ Tom said, looking at his watch.
Up ahead, Tom and Freddy saw that the road had been completely cordoned off, with a police officer blocking the way.
‘Down here,’ Tom said, pointing at an alley with a set of steps that led down to the Outer Circle of the park.
‘I’ve only ever done a couple of steps before,’ said Freddy.
‘We’re going to be sidewinders,’ said Tom. ‘Have you ever seen the way they move? They leap down sand dunes, chucking themselves in the air, landing on their sides for a split second, then jumping again.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Come on, imagine you’re a sidewinder,’ said Tom.
Tom pictured a long, sandy-coloured sidewinder in his head, then swivelled his skateboard sideways and started to leap down the steps.
Freddy looked at Tom and then closed his eyes. ‘Sidewinder. Sidewinder . . .’ he whispered.
He followed Tom down the steps, lifting his feet and his board with them, jumping again and again.
Down at the bottom, they grinned at each other.
‘Now, we have to move recti— er . . . rectilinear, I think,’ said Tom.
‘Rectangular?’
‘Rectilinear. It means a straight line,’ said Tom. ‘Snakes can move straight forward like caterpillars too, but fast. Come on – last one to Gloucester Gate is a mongoose.’
They powered forward with their skateboards, straight along the pavement, thrusting themselves onward with their right feet, then using both feet on the skateboard to push and tilt and pivot, depending on the shape and smoothness and angle of the paving stones.
In their heads, both of them were snakes now. They might have looked like boys, but they were actually anacondas whipping through the water, boas sliding through the jungle ferns, banded flying snakes gliding through the air.
They reached Gloucester Gate in two minutes. Sophie and Jemima were waiting in their running gear.
‘Wow, that was seriously fast,’ said Sophie. ‘We’re going to make it!’
‘I know, but . . . but . . . this is only half . . . of it. We’ve got to go back for ev— everything else,’ Tom said, trying to get his breath.
‘Blimey, Tom,’ said Sophie, ‘we’ll never do it. We’ve only got half an hour left or Lucy will cancel.’
‘We can do it,’ said Tom. ‘Take the rucksacks to the zoo and bring them back to us empty. We’ll be waiting. Then we’ll go and get the rest.’
‘We’re sna . . . snakes,’ said Freddy, still panting. ‘Snakes can do anything.’
‘OK,’ said Sophie. ‘It has to be worth a try.’
Sophie and Jemima strapped the rucksacks to their backs and started to run.
They sprinted across the grass, focusing on the outline of the zoo in the distance.
After about a hundred metres, Jemima started to flag.
‘It’s this rucksack,’ she said. ‘It weighs a ton.’
‘Just imagine a snake is chasing you,’ Sophie said, breathing heavily. ‘A black mamba. They can go up to fourteen miles per hour.’ She started to run faster.
Jemima frowned and sped up too. ‘That black mamba ain’t going to catch this gazelle.’
‘Come on,’ said Sophie, ‘it’s quicker to squeeze through here.’ She pointed at a hedgerow with a small hole in the middle and slipped through. Jemima followed, but halfway through the hood of her sweatshirt snagged on a branch. She tugged it but it got even more tangled up.
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Time to shed my skin.’
She wriggled out of her sweatshirt and left it in the bush.
‘I’ll come back for it later,’ she said.
She started to run again in her T-shirt.
Within two minutes the two girls were standing in front of the reptile house. Daisy was standing by the entrance, looking stunned, as Sophie took the boxes out of her rucksack. Jemima took the banner and a bag of snake paperweights out of hers.
‘I think Lucy is phoning the press to cancel now,’ said Daisy. ‘I’ll run over and find her. Hopefully I can stop her.’
‘We’d better get the rest,’ said Sophie. ‘Come on, Jemima.’
They ran back to where Tom and Freddy were waiting. They were slower this time even though the bags were empty; they both got a stitch and their legs started to feel wobbly, but they kept running.
They handed the rucksacks to Tom and Freddy. ‘Quick as you can,’ said Sophie.
Tom and Freddy sped off on their skateboards.
This time when they reached the High Street, the two boys stopped. The parade was in full swing and there was no way they could fight through the crowds. Then they saw a group of people in a Chinese dragon costume emerging from a restaurant. Twenty pairs of legs stuck out of the bottom of a long red shaggy tube. The people in the costume started to wriggle like a snake through the crowd.
‘Let’s tuck in behind them,’ said Tom.
So they followed directly behind the Chinese dragon, twisting and turning on their skateboards whenever the dragon twisted and turned.
‘There’s the post office!’ said Freddy.
Tom and Freddy leapt on to the pavement and into the post office. It was deserted now. Everyone was either watching or taking part in the parade. Quickly they loaded up their rucksacks with the remaining boxes and bags before dashing back into the street.
‘There’s the tail end of the parade,’ said Tom. ‘Come on.’
They sped along the pavement and around the back of the parade. There was a ramp back on to the opposite pavement.
Tom whizzed up the ramp as fast as he could, lifting his skateboard up to his backside as he flew through the air, pushing it back down again as he landed in front of a shop doorway.
Freddy whooped and did the same.
‘Bonus points for a mid-air trick!’ he exclaimed.
Two minutes later they were handing the rucksacks over to Sophie and Jemima.
The two girls sprinted across the park even faster than before and wriggled through the hole in the hedge.
‘I’ll need to hibernate after all this,’ said Jemima, panting.
When they reached the reptile house, Lucy and Daisy were waiting for them.
‘Thank you, thank you, thank you,’ said Lucy. ‘I can’t believe you did it.’
Sophie and Jemima, exhausted, swung their rucksacks on to the floor.
‘How did you manage it, girls?’ Daisy asked, ‘I’m proud of you.’
‘Well, we sort of . . . kind of . . .’ Sophie stammered.
‘We pretended snakes were chasing us,’ Jemima said. ‘Black mambas, to be precise.’
At that moment, Tom and Freddy arrived with their skateboards under their arms.
‘Did we make it?’ Tom asked.
‘You made it,’ said Lucy, ‘and you made my day as well!’