CANDY JONES AND THE LOST ANCIENT DOUGHNUT
PART TWO
The white van (with the naughty giggling Harry Bow at the wheel) whooshed down the road with Candy Jones peddling her bike furiously behind. Would she be able to keep up? He had an engine, she only had her legs and they were beginning to feel very tired.
The van screeched to the right down a side alley and disappeared from view.
She had to get the Ancient Greek Doughnut back!
Candy jerked the bike to one side. She needed to overtake him somehow. Up ahead was an incline, a small ridge. If she could get to the top of that before the van passed underneath maybe she could do something! But what?
“I’m making this up as I go!” she shouted, pedaled towards the ridge and screeched to a halt at the top. Below she saw the van approaching. She had no idea what she was going to do. Then she felt in her bag and brought out a handful of gobstoppers! Of course - she’d just found these in an ancient site in India and was about to give them to the museum. Good job she still had them and she hurled them into the path of the oncoming van.
It skidded!
It screeched!
She could see the sneering face of Harry Bow inside and the van circled and circled like an ice-skater on the gobstoppers.
Suddenly the van tumbled onto the edge of the road, lurched over on its side and the engine hissed into silence.
Candy watched from her vantage point and waited.
Seconds later the door to the van flipped open and Harry Bow flopped out and wafted away the smoke coming from the engine. He was exactly as Candy had seen in the police photographs. Dark, black hair, clothes made from old sweetie wrappers and a very angry face.
He looked around bewildered and shocked and in his arms he clutched the Ancient Greek Doughnut.
What was he going to do?
He limped from the van and looked about him. His beady eye landed on Candy on the ridge.
“Thought you could beat me did you?” he snarled, “Well, you never will!”
Moments later a line of three police cars with flashing blue lights pulled up and surrounded the white van. By now Harry Bow had climbed onto the side and was waving the Ancient Greek Doughnut about and chanting, “You’ll never get it! You’ll never get it!”
The police cars emptied of officers and they quickly struck positions behind their cars facing the white van. One produced a megaphone and said, “We have you surrounded! You cannot escape! Give yourself up!”
Candy watched as all this unfolded below her. However was she going to get the doughnut back?
Harry Bow started dancing on the van and waving the doughnut.
“You’ll never get it! You’ll never get it!” he continued chanting.
“Why not?” asked the policeman with the megaphone.
“Because I’m going to eat it!” Harry Bow announced and snapped off a sprinkle.
By now people from all over town were watching what was going on and no one could believe Harry Bow would eat the doughnut - at least not all of it.
“I’m going to eat it all!” he announced and snapped off another sprinkle and swallowed them both.
The crowd, which had gathered, gasped in dismay and sprinkle by sprinkle Harry Bow started to eat the Ancient Greek Doughnut once nibbled by Alexander the Great.
Candy was wracking her brains what to do. The Ancient Greek Doughnut was the museum’s most prized exhibit and it was the one she had worked hardest to find. She couldn’t let Harry Bow eat it!
And then she remembered her harpoon.
Quickly she unlashed it from her back and grabbed it firmly. It had never let her down before and she had used it so many times.
She bounced it in her hand a couple of times then made her decision.
She weighed up the distance.
She tested the air speed.
She judged the trajectory.
She worked out her run up.
And then she knew it was time.
She took five paces back, gritted her teeth, ran forward and, with all her might, hurled the harpoon into the air.
It made a perfect arc through the air and everyone pointed and gasped again. The police looked up as the harpoon whooshed over their heads towards Harry Bow who stared at the incoming harpoon with a sneer of disgust which became a grimace of confusion which became a scowl of bewilderment which became a squint of regret. His mouth hung open as the harpoon zipped past his eyes and hit the doughnut slap-bang in the hole tearing it from his hand.
“Noooooooooo!” yelled Harry Bow.
“Yesssssssssssss!” yelled the crowd as the Ancient Greek Doughnut was carried by the zipping harpoon into the waiting hands of the police officer. They plucked the harpoon from the doughnut, checked it was all right, threw it in the boot of the police car and sat on the lid for extra security.
“My doughnut!” screamed Harry Bow, dropping to his knees in anguish.
“Not anymore!” corrected Candy Jones who had just free-wheeled down the ridge to be at his side, “We’ll get it back to the museum and when everyone had seen it we’ll return it to Greece.”
Harry Bow was mumbling to himself and stuffing comfort chocolate into his mouth with brown sticky fingers as the police led him away.
Marcus, the museum owner, emerged from the crowd and announced, “Three cheers for Candy!” They gave her three hearty cheers as she retrieved her harpoon and waved at the crowd.
And, as an extra treat, Marcus gave her a bag of mint balls. She sighed, smiled politely and put them in her bag.
