An article about monsters

In her black Porsche, Dr Wagner was getting a little impatient. She was in a hurry to get to her

hotel in Inverness and have a bath and a rest, after driving overnight from London. But for the last

fifteen miles she had been stuck behind a bus that was driving very slowly in the middle of the road,

and it seemed impossible to get past. `Calm down, Mary, ' she said to herself. `You've got plenty of

time.'

She started thinking about the holiday that was just starting. Every year, she drove up to the

Scottish Highlands and spent two weeks looking for the Loch Ness Monster. Dr Wagner was a member

of the West London Society for the Investigation of Strange and Unexplained Phenomena, and she was

very interested in monsters, ghosts, flying saucers and things of that kind. She had never yet seen

anything in Loch Ness, but she always had a wonderful holiday and went back home feeling happy

and relaxed. She had a feeling about this year, though. This year was going to be special. Somehow,

she just knew.

A sudden noise brought her out of her dreams. She looked in the mirror. Behind her, the road was

full of police cars, with lights flashing and sirens howling. Dr Wagner frowned. She didn't like police

cars. `It's no use making all that noise, ' she said. `You'll never get past the bus.'

Down at the bottom of Loch Ness, things were very calm. The Monster scratched her ear with the

third leg on the right and decided that it was time to do something. She didn't usually go up to the

surface during the day because the light hurt her eyes, but she was getting bored out of her mind

sitting down at the bottom of the loch with nothing to do except talk to the fish. She scratched her ear

again, yawned, stretched, and started swimming slowly up towards the light.

Five minutes later, the Monster reached the surface, stuck her head and fifteen metres of neck out

of the water, and looked around. She closed her eyes and opened them again. It was a little difficult

to understand what was happening.

Scotland was generally a fairly quiet place, but today a lot of things seemed to be going on.

On the bank of the loch, two women were fighting. A man was trying to stop them; another man

was trying to learn to swim. The road was full of cars with pretty blue lights on top, coming from all

directions. A helicopter landed on the bank of the loch and some soldiers got out and lay down. There

was a bus driving along very slowly with the driver looking out of the window. The bus driver caught

sight of the Monster and drove into the loch. The two women stopped fighting and stood with their

mouths open. All the police cars crashed into each other. A sports car stopped and a woman got out

and started taking photographs.

It was all too much. The Monster closed her eyes and went back down to the bottom of the loch.

`Hello, Judy, ' said Dr Wagner. `What are you doing here? I thought you were in Rio.' `It's a long

story, ' said Judy. `I'll tell you later.' 'Did you see the Monster? ' said Dr Wagner. `Wasn't she just

w o n d e r f u l? I got hundreds of photos.'

`I'm sorry to interrupt, ' said Jasper, `but I think this is a very good time to go on holiday. Isabel, go

and get Sam out of the water and follow us up to the castle. Judy, come with me. I hope the ghost

remembered to fill the plane up with petrol.' `Ghost? ' said Dr Wagner. `You have a ghost in your castle?

A ghost? ' `Come along with us and you can meet him, ' said Judy. `But hurry.'

Twenty seconds later, they drove in through the front gate of the castle in Dr Wagner's Porsche, and a

minute or so after that Isabel ran up carrying Sam over her shoulder. The ghost closed the gate and led

the way to the back of the castle. There, standing on the grass, shining in the sun, was a powerfullooking

six-seater aeroplane. 'Get in, ' said Jasper. `We haven't got a moment to lose.' `Can I come too? '

asked Dr Wagner. `I must talk to that beautiful ghost.' `Of course, ' said Jasper, `but get in fast, or you'll

be talking to our wonderful police. Fasten seat-belts, everybody. Take-off in fifteen seconds.' `Where are

we going? ' asked Judy. `Rio, ' said Jasper. `That's where you wanted to go, isn't it? ' 'Sounds good to me, '

said Sam. `Jasper, ' said Judy, `I have been a blind, blind fool. I love you.,

As the plane flew peacefully south-west across the Atlantic, Judy put her head on Jasper's shoulder

and closed her eyes. `I'm so glad I'm in love with you instead of Sam, ' she said. 'It's much nicer. I'm

sure we're going to be very happy together. Do you think the others will be all right? ' `I think so, ' said

Jasper, and kissed her.

Judy listened to the fragments of conversation that came from the seats behind. `Isabel, you are my

favourite detective. Will you teach me to swim? ' 'Have some more champagne, ghost.' 'Yes, please.

Call me MacDonald.' `You've got beautiful eyes, Sam.' `Can ghosts get married? '

'Sounds all right, ' said Judy. `Tell me, are you really terribly rich? How did you get your money?

What do you do, actually? How did you get to know Sam? Why did you really hijack that plane? '

'I'll tell you later, ' said Jasper. 'It's a long story.'