gloves and glasses, dash over to the police officer and half drag him from the police car by his arm, whilst instructing him as to exactly what she required him to do!
The crowd strained to hear what was being said as the head keeper and the police officer engaged in frantic conversation. They spoke for a few minutes and then together, they turned to address the waiting crowd.
Emily stood up on tiptoe, to see...
Miss Yorktown held an enormous bright red megaphone which had “Wallington Zoo - Emergency Crowd Control” written on its side in thick white lettering. She raised the device to her lips and began to speak.
At first no sound came and everyone watched as Miss Yorktown fussed about with the controls. A piercing whistling noise screeched out of the megaphone and, at last, Miss Yorktown’s voice boomed loud and clear, amplified ten times louder than normal.
‘ONE-TWO! ONE-TWO! - TESTING-TESTING! – ONE-TWO!’
‘Dear zoo visitors and guests,’ began Miss Yorktown rather nasally, ‘as you may be aware, Wallington Zoo has suffered a slight technical malfunction leading to the unfortunate escape of the zoo’s most rare and endangered animals.
PC Barnes and I need your help to round up the animals and guide them safely back to their enclosures, in time for tea.’
The crowd shifted, uneasily.
‘I can’t lie to you - it will be dangerous work,’ continued Miss Yorktown.
At the edges of the crowd, nervous people started siding away. Slowly at first, but then, more and more, they were dashing off this way and that towards the car parks and railway station.
Miss Yorktown continued, ‘Whilst some of our animals are harmless, most do bite, swipe, sting, butt, kick, charge, trample, gouge and/or eat!’
With this, panic spread throughout the crowd like wildfire. Nervousness turned to sheer terror and, all at once, the crowd stampeded through the exit gates, desperate to get away from the mad looking woman and her crazy ideas!
PC Barnes tried to plea with the crowd for order but the die had been cast - Miss Yorktown was knocked aside as the panic-stricken mob ran away as fast as their legs could carry them. Before very long the place was quiet and empty, only the discarded remains of candyfloss sticks, burger wrappers and ice cream cones hinted at the crowds before.
The zoo was now empty of both animals and visitors.
Sitting on the ground, defeated and dejected, was a forlorn figure. Miss Yorktown covered her eyes with her hands and sobbed gently; the welder’s gloves and goggles, discarded at her side.
Emily went to the dejected figure and put her arm warmly around Miss Yorktown’s shoulders. ‘Please don’t cry Miss Yorktown,’ said Emily ‘we’re still here,’ and she nodded back towards Mr and Mrs Pilcher, who were still sitting on the ground discussing Rawlins.
‘Oh, but it’s all my fault, all my fault!’ cried Miss Yorktown, banging her forehead with her palm.
‘If only I had listened to the other zookeepers, before it was too late. They all said we shouldn’t rely on modern technology – they said that no good would come of a machine looking after the animals.’
‘But surely the machine helped you and the other keepers to look after the animals!’ said Emily
‘But that’s just it!’ said Miss Yorktown, looking up, tears filling her big blue eyes.
‘That was the original idea. The machine was supposed to help us with our day-to-day duties - but the machine was so successful, so good at looking after the animals; feeding them three times a day, cleaning out their enclosures morning and night. Eventually the managers realized the machine could do it all!’
Miss Yorktown sniffed, ‘The machine could do it all, and they could save a lot of money if they got rid of the zookeepers.’
‘Do you mean to say, they sacked all the other zookeepers!’ said Emily.
‘Yes, yes!’ wailed Miss Yorktown, ‘I’m the only one left and they only kept me because I was the only one who knew how to operate the machine… or at least I thought I did.’
Miss Yorktown looked a picture of despair as she burrowed her head into her arm, too ashamed to look at Emily.
‘Now the zoo is empty and I don’t know how I’m going to get the animals back. It will be feeding time again in three hours time and there’ll be carnage if I don’t get them back into their enclosures by then,’ sobbed Miss Yorktown.
‘We’ll help you, Miss Yorktown,’ said Emily.
‘You?’ sniffed Miss Yorktown; she looked again at the bright young girl as if seeing her for the first time.
‘And me too!’ said PC Barnes striding over, ‘come on everyone, up we get. We’ve got work to do! There are fewer of us now but the plan stays the same!’
‘Miss Yorktown, would you care to share with these good people your plan?’ said PC Barnes.
Mr and Mrs Pilcher joined Emily, helping Miss Yorktown to her feet.
‘The plan?’ said Miss Yorktown, scratching her head, ‘ah, yes… The plan!’
- The Plan -
‘North! East! South! and West!’
Miss Yorktown seemed to have recovered her spirits as she marched up and down, busily waving her arms around, continuing to outline the plan to the small group.
‘There are only four ways into or out of the town centre: The Great North Road, East Lane, South Street and the Western approach.’
‘Now you, Pilchard! - Do you have a car we can use?’ demanded Miss Yorktown.
‘The names err… Pilcher actually and uh, we do actually have a …’ Mr Pilcher was cut off abruptly…
‘Ooh! We have a big old vintage Morris, best truck in the business. She’ll load up twice as much as these modern trucks, and pull twice as hard too!’ blurted Mrs Pilcher excitedly.
‘Excellent!’ cried Miss Yorktown, clasping her hands together, ‘just what’s needed for a job like this!’ Mrs Pilcher blushed.
‘Now listen carefully everyone,’ said Miss Yorktown, ‘this is what we are going to do…’
‘You two Pilchards will drive your truck into town, approaching via East Lane. You must make as much racket as possible, so as to flush out any stray animals and chase them directly into the town centre. Understood?’
‘No problem there, we’ll flush them out all right!’ answered Mr Pilcher. ‘We’ll drive them right into the centre of town,’ added Mrs Pilcher.
‘Good, good,’ said Miss Yorktown.
Standing with her hands on her hips, Miss Yorktown then turned her attention to police officer Barnes.
‘PC Barnes! You will drive into town via the Western approach. Use your flashing blue lights and blaring siren to flush out any animals along the way, right into the centre of town. Is that understood?’
‘I’ll soon get them moving along, don’t you mind Miss Yorktown.’ answered PC Barnes.
‘Excellent! PC Barnes. In the meantime I shall be approaching from the north, driving the animals down into the town centre,’ continued Miss Yorktown. ‘Parked at the top of South Street, with its ramp facing back towards the town centre, will be the zoo’s transport truck. The ramp will be lowered to the ground, ready for the animals to be herded straight into the back.’
‘Is that clear?’ demanded Miss Yorktown.
Everyone nodded agreement and burst into excited chatter about coordinating the plan. It was decided that everything should be in place and that they would all start moving towards the town centre at precisely four o’clock that afternoon.
Above the noise and excited chatter, Emily was desperately trying to be heard; she tugged at Miss Yorktown’s green sleeve, finally gaining her attention.
‘Miss Yorktown, what about me? Please let me help, I won’t get in the way, I promise!’ pleaded Emily.
Miss Yorktown smiled at Emily.
‘Emily my dear girl, of course you are going to help!’ said Miss Yorktown
‘Did I not tell you before? I want you to wait in the cab of the zoo transport truck. When we have rounded up all of the animals and they are safely packed in the b
ack of the transport truck, full to bursting, you must pull on the ramp’s lever with all your strength to close it!’ instructed Miss Yorktown.
Emily beamed!
- Taking Off -
Emily sat high up in the cab of the zoo transport truck; the heater was on full and she felt cosy and warm as she snuggled into the comfy leather passenger’s seat. The engine idled lazily, sounding far away, as Emily started to feel a bit sleepy.
The entire town centre was deserted; the usually bustling town square, with its busy shoppers and commuters, buses, taxis and queues of traffic, was quiet. A pair of zebras drank thirstily from the town fountain adding to the odd looking scene.
Emily stretched and yawned, knowing that she had to remain alert. It was two minutes to four and things were about to get very busy…
At precisely four o’clock, Mr Pilcher turned the key in the ignition and started the old truck down the East Lane, towards the town. At exactly the same time, PC Barnes set his blue lights flashing and police siren wailing and proceeded towards town along the Western Approach Road. In the town square, all was very quiet.
Mr and Mrs Pilcher drove the old truck, honking and puffing towards town, parping the horn along the way. Mrs Pilcher had borrowed the zoo’s