There are many little streets in the Old Town of Horsmarlonerpool, some of them are quite busy with shoppers and people going about their business, and others are quieter and peaceful. Some are quite wide, like Pepperpot Street and Candlesmoke Lane, whilst others are thin and twisty with barely enough room for people to pass.
On the corner where one of the smaller streets - Tinker’s Lane - meets one of the larger streets - Cherrypie Street - is a very old red phone box that doesn’t look like it’s been used for years.
When Charlotte and Alex were busy exploring the old town one Tuesday evening, they spotted it for what must have been the first time.
“Look at that old thing,” said Charlotte.
“I bet you a sprogham piece that it doesn’t work any more,” laughed Alex. “Look at the state of it.”
It was true that the phone box did look past its best. It was rusty and dirty, and some of the little panes of glass in the door had smashed without anyone bothering to repair it.
And Horsmarlonerpool was generally such a neat and tidy town that this phone box looked quite out of place.
“I bet it does work,” said Charlotte. “What’s the use of a phone box that doesn’t work? Come on!”
They both pulled the door open and stepped inside. It was very cramped, with barely enough room for the both of them.
The telephone itself must have been thirty or forty years old, and when Charlotte lifted the receiver and put it to her ear, it made a strange sort of beeping tone.
“I’m going to try and see if it works,” said Charlotte, and put in a single sprogham piece and dialed Sreya’s number. But nothing happened. There wasn’t a ringing tone. There was nothing.
“I told you,” said Alex. “Come on.”
“I don’t understand it,” said Charlotte.
“I do,” answered Alex. “It’s a useless load of old junk.” And reluctantly Charlotte replaced the handset.
They both left the rusty old telephone box and the door swung back shut as they walked away. But Charlotte looked back over her shoulder before they turned the corner - there was something about that phone box. She was SURE it worked somehow.
Five minutes later, at Sreya’s house, the phone rang. She picked it up and said “Hello?” But nobody said “Hello” back.
Sreya listened. She could hear two people talking on the other end of the line. She recognised those voices - it was her friends Charlotte and Alex.
“I told you,” Sreya heard Alex say.
“I don’t understand it,” Sreya heard Charlotte say.
“I do. It’s a useless load of old junk,” she heard Alex say.
And then Sreya heard them hang up the phone.
Well - that was mysterious, she thought. And it was mysterious, because the phone box was calling her with a recording of what had happened five minutes ago.
Sreya got on her bike and peddled into town. There were Alex and Charlotte, walking towards the Bridge of Spires. Sreya stopped next to them.
“Thanks for the phone call earlier,” said Sreya. “But you could have spoken to me instead of just speaking to each other.”
Charlotte and Alex looked at each other. “But we didn’t get through to you.”
“You did,” said Sreya. “About ten minutes ago.”
“But we rang you about fifteen minutes ago,” said Alex. “It didn’t work.”
“I knew there was something funny about that phone box,” said Charlotte. “Come on, let’s go back.”
It was a really tight squeeze for all three of the friends to fit inside the phone box, but they just about made it.
“Okay, said Charlotte. Sreya, do you have your walkie-talkie?”
“Yes,” said Sreya, straining to reach down and reach it from her pocket.
“Great,” said Charlotte. “Tell Arturo that we’re calling his phone now so to wait by it.”
Sreya lifted the walkie-talkie.
“Arturo, over?” she said.
“Hello,” said Arturo.
“We’re about to call your phone. Stand by it, over.”
“Why, over?” said Arturo. “We’re already speaking, over.”
“Just hold on, over” said Sreya impatiently as Charlotte dialed Arturo’s number. But nothing happened.
“Oh! This thing is useless,” said Alex.
“Arturo,” said Charlotte into the old phone. “Call us on the walkie-talkie when you get this message.”
Sreya, Charlotte and Alex left the phone box and went and sat on a step.
“Let’s just see if anything happens to Arturo’s phone in the next few minutes,” said Charlotte.
Five minutes later, Arturo’s phone rang and he picked it up to hear Alex say “Oh, this thing is useless!” and then Charlotte say “Arturo. Call us on the walkie-talkie when you get this message.”
Just then, Sreya’s walkie-talkie crackled. It was Arturo. “The phone rang, over. I got your message to call you, Charlotte. Over.”
Well this proved it! Whoever they tried to ring, there was a delay of five minutes. But why? What could the use of that be?
Suddenly, Alex grabbed Charlotte’s arm. “Look!” he said. “Pebbles and Crater!”
Pebbles and Crater, the only two really naughty and nasty people in town, approached the old phone box and went inside. They looked to be making a call, but then left again, smiling.
“I knew those two must have something to do with it,” said Charlotte. “Let’s follow them.”
They carefully followed Pebbles and Crater all the way back to their dark little cottage on the edge of town and watched them go inside. Then, the three friends crept up to the window.
They saw a phone on an old wooden table. And then they saw it ring. Pebbles clasped her hands together and answered it, putting it on speaker mode. It was Pebbles calling, detailing all the nasty ideas they’d had in town.
Pebbles and Crater both howled in delight at their own awful ideas.
“They use the phone box to call THEMSELVES,” said Alex. “Just to hear themselves suggest terrible things to do!”
“Well I know how to fix THAT,” said Sreya. “Come on.”
Soon, they were back at the old rusty telephone box. Sreya was amazing at electronics and soon she had taken the main box off the telephone unit and was fiddling with the wires.
“There,” she said. Now, whenever Pebbles and Crater use this phone to record one of their terrible ideas, it’ll go straight through to Sergeant Handle instead!”
The next day, Charlotte, Alex, Sreya and Arturo sat in the police station with Sergeant Handle, waiting for her phone to ring. And soon, the bells of the green phone on her desk DID began to ding. Sergeant Handle picked it up and listened. It was Pebbles.
“There are some lovely vegetables in the garden on 61 Duckfeather St. Let’s go round tonight and help ourselves.”
Sergeant Handle made a note on her pad and smiled to herself.
Then her phone rang again. This time it was Crater.
“Let’s take the wires out of Mr Dennis’ ice cream machine in his cafe in Peacock Park tonight. Then it will be all melted by morning!”
Before long, her phone rang for a third time.
“Let’s chop down the tree over by Earnose Drive. It’ll fall right into the castle gardens!”
Well that night, when Pebbles and Crater began to sneak into the gardens of 61 Duckfeather St, Sergeant Handle turned on her torch and said “Good evening, you two. What are you doing here?”
And when they tried to undo the wires to Mr Dennis’ ice cream freezer Sergeant Handle was there again, turning on her torch and saying “And how can I help you two?”
And when they were found by the big tree on Earnose Drive with a saw she turned on her torch and said “Looking to do some gardening, are we?”
Well Pebbles and Crater couldn’t understand why all their plans were being thwarted.
“If you ask me, we best never use that silly old phone box again”
And they never did.
Instead, Charlotte, Alex, Sreya and Arturo got permission from Mayor Dubbin to clean it up and paint it properly so it looked as good as new and anyone could use it to make proper phone calls.
But Sreya, being so good at electronics, made one little adjustment to the phone. If any of their friends typed in a special code (which was 5.7.7.1) then they could use the phone box to speak to EVERYONE’S walkie talkies at once.
It was their special transmitter - and was never used for planning crimes. Only for planning adventures.