Roy was under his bed in the best camp he had ever made.
There were pillows around the edge like castle walls, so nobody could see in, but through a tiny spy hole he could see out to check for intruders. Then, on the inside of the camp, he’d used his bedsheets and duvet to make it warm. And there was a carton of orange juice, and a packet of biscuits. He could last in here for WEEKS if he needed to.
But although noBODY could get into Roy’s camp, there was one thing that could. The sound of the lawnmower from the back garden. Roy tried to plug every single little gap with his sheets, but the noise kept coming in. It was no use, Roy opened up the camp, climbed out, and made his way over to the window. Down in the garden below, mummy was mowing the grass with a big red mower. It was the noisiest mower in the whole town.
“Mummy!” said Roy, opening the back door and stepping into the garden. “It’s so LOUD.”
“Well, all done now, anyway,” said Mummy, shutting off the mower, wheeling it into the shed and shutting the door.
“Where were you playing, anyway, Roy?”
“Oh. Err. Nowhere.”
“Well why not play out here in the garden for a while? The grass is all freshly mown and soft.”
Mummy went indoors, and Roy looked about him at the small garden. And then, he heard the sound of someone crying. He looked around.
“Hello?”
He listened very carefully. The crying was coming from the garden shed that mummy had just closed. He walked over and very carefully - opened the door.
Inside, there was the big red mower that mummy had just finished with. It was ticking over and cooling down, but that was it. Roy concentrated. There was the crying again, coming right from the back.
Roy moved in, and found, right at the very back corner of the shed, an old rusty lawnmower. And it was very sad.
“What’s the matter?” asked Roy.
“No-one ever takes me outside, anymore. They don’t think I can mow anymore. All I do is sit in here and it’s lonely.”
“Would you like to go outside?” asked Roy.
The rusty lawnmower stopped crying and looked at him, hopefully. “How?”
It took a lot of effort, and a lot of clearing and tidying, but eventually Roy managed to pull the old lawnmower out, onto the grass, and into the sunlight.
It’s old wheels and old blades felt the soft grass beneath it. “Oh!” it said. “It’s been cut. There’s no use for me here.”
And the lawnmower started to cry again.
Roy didn’t quite know what to say. “What’s your name?” he asked.
“Lucy,” sniffed Lucy.
“Well I have an idea,” said Roy.
The gate at the side of Roy’s house opened and Roy pushed Lucy out onto the street.
She really was a very old mower. She didn’t even have an engine, as old lawn mowers didn’t. She just had a round cylinder of blades at the front which turned when you pushed her along, and a heavy roller at the back. But she still worked.
As Roy pushed Lucy down his street, her roller rattled along the pavement.
Mister Manhattan, asleep in his chair outside his house, woke up.
“What’s that? A lawnmower? Ooh, good proper one, too. How much to do my patch, Roy?”
Lucy took a deep intake of breath. Did that man want her to cut the grass?
“Free!” said Lucy, and before Roy could speak, she rattled over to Mister Manhattan’s garden and began going up and down in perfectly neat rows. Her blades were still very, very sharp and within ten minutes Roy and Mister Manhattan were looking at a perfectly cut lawn.
Lucy looked up at them nervously. Did they think she’d done a good job?
“You’ve not done a good job,” said Mister Manhattan. “You’ve done the best job I’ve ever seen! Why, my garden looks like it could win prizes! Thank you, Lucy!”
And it was true. When Lucy the lawnmower found a patch of grass, she didn’t just cut it, she transformed it into something wonderful.
Soon, Mister Manhattan’s neighbors had come out to see what was going on.
“Um, any chance you could do mine?” said Mister Santana.
“Well I live closer. So really I should be first,” said Mrs Wheels.
Lucy spent the whole afternoon doing what she loved most - cutting grass. Stuck in a shed for years and years with nobody to talk to, she didn’t care HOW MANY lawns there were - she’d do them all.
As the sun was setting, the sound of a tractor filled the street, and everyone turned to see Farmer Tangle driving from his farm into town. He looked hot and bothered.
“What’s the matter, Tangle?” said Mister Manhattan.
“Oh. My combine harvester’s broke. If I don’t get the corn in by tomorrow morning, I wont be able to take it to market. Anyone know how to fix a combine harvester?”
Now, a combine harvester is a huge machine that farmers use for harvesting huge fields of corn. They’re very special machines, and very complicated.
So everyone looked at each other. They had no idea how to fix a combine harvester.
“Um. I’ll cut your corn.”
Farmer Tangle looked around. Everyone else looked around.
“Who said that?”
And there was Lucy the lawnmower.
“I’ll cut your corn.”
Farmer Tangle laughed. “You? A little lawnmower? A combine harvester is the size of a house! What chance have you got?”
“What choice have you got?” said Lucy. “I thought you said if you don't get it cut by morning you won’t get it to market?”
Farmer Tangle scratched his ear. Well, she did have a point.
“But the sun’s going down!” said Roy.
“I’ll need everyone to bring their torches!” said Lucy.
And so everyone on the street went and got their torches, and walked with Roy and Lucy over to Gentleslope Farm at the foot of Lomberstack Mountain.
By now, it was getting very dark, but everyone aimed their torches at the field of corn. And then, to the amazement of everyone, Lucy got to work.
She had the strength of twenty combine harvesters! And by morning, there wasn’t one field of harvested corn harvested, but all five!
“I’ve never seen a lawnmower like it,” said Farmer Tangle.
“Lucy. I’d like to offer you a job right here on the farm. And I can promise you, with all the tractors and machines, and animals and Ribbon the dog, you’ll never be lonely - and you’ll never see a shed again!”
“And can Roy come to visit every day?” asked Lucy, looking up at Roy.
“Morning, noon and night if he wants!” laughed Farmer Tangle.
And so it was that Roy and Lucy became the best of fiends, and she began her new life on Gentleslope Farm, where every single day there was grass to cut, and machines and animals and Ribbon the dog to play with.
But one in a while she left the farm and trundled happily back into town. After all, Mister Manhattan still needed his lawn cut, didn’t he?
