Matilda thought for a moment what she should do.  She held her breath and removed her slippers and tip-toed bare feet up to the hedges. 

     “Got you!!”  She suddenly turned on the hosepipe to jet speed and fired it into the hedges.

     “Hey! Turn that darn thing off, before I drown!” 

      “Peter Robinson Devlon, I should have known it was you.” She turned off the hosepipe and placed it down.  Peter was Matida’s next door neighbour to the left side.  He enjoyed playing pranks on Matilda. 

     “When will you grow up, for heavens sake?”   He shrugged and cut his way into her garden through the hedges and pulled a small booklet from out of his backside trouser pocket, to his left side and handed it to Matilda.  

     “The pocket book of bird songs”  She said out aloud.  “Oh, you really shouldn’t have.”

     “I er…borrowed it from the local library and thought well, maybe you might find something interesting in there.  I know you’re a big big, in fact a huge fan of robins.”  Matilda’s eyes filled with tears of joy.”

     “Weeeee!!!”  She gave him a hug and jumped into the air and then skipped back indoors and Peter began to follow in her footsteps.

     “Hey, Matilda, you forgot your slippers!”  He lifted them up and proceeded to follow her when suddenly, there was a click.  She had locked the door, a signal for Peter to go back home and not to disturb her.  Peter caught a glimpse of her, lying on the sofa in her conservatory, flicking through the book.  He gave a sigh and turned back to his own home next door. 

     “One of these days, I’m going to dress up a robin myself to catch Matilda’s attention, I swear.”  He stopped in his tracks and his face lit up.  He snapped his fingers of his right hand with an enlightened look on his face.

      “Idea!!!” 

End of Chapter 2.