Oh yes, I remembered that.

She was chattering on.

“Well, he’s got big plans for knitting the village together for Christmas. Won’t that be fun?”

I don’t know what to say to that because she hugged me again and my mouth was in her muffler.

When we got back to Dandelion Cottage the twins’ present turned out to be some bits of feather stuck into a potato.

Max said, “Fevver man for ooo.”

Lovely.

Also there was a postcard addressed to me care of the Dobbinses. It was from Honey! It just said:

Dear Tallulah,

Something WEALLY exciting has happened!!!! See you when I get there on Wednesday and tell you all about it!!!

Honey xxx

It didn’t really say “weally” on the postcard, but I could hear her voice in my head.

I wonder what she means?

Maybe she’s got five boyfriends now?!

I took my luggage (and “Fevver man”) up into my room while Dibdobs went to make some tea.

So here I am back in my old squirrel room. Sitting on my wooden bed with the squirrel carved into the bedhead. With my feather potato. I’ve brought back my squirrel slippers, the ones that Dibdobs gave me when I first came. She said they were to make me feel at home.

Which they would have done, had my home been in an oak tree.

I put the squirrel slippers into the bed for company. Well, one looks like a squirrel and the other one looks like a hamster. My brother, Connor, set fire to one of the tail bits so it’s just a stump.

I looked around at the familiar carved wooden wardrobe (acorn theme) and the wooden dressing table (with the carved squirrel legs) and the wooden, well, everything really. You name it, if it was in the room, it was wooden.

But wood was OK. Everything was OK.

I put my case on the bed and started to unpack. Georgia and her Ace Gang helped me choose cool things to suit my shape. Like dark tights and bright little skirts. And hats. The Ace Gang said I needed to de-emphasize my bad bits (nobbly knees) and emphasize my good bits (catty eyes and nice swishy black hair). Georgia said to distract boys from my knee area I should swish my hair almost constantly. (Although not to fiddle with my fringe, because she personally thought that was a killing offense.)

I hung all my stuff in the wooden wardrobe.

I even have a special underwear drawer. With bras in it. Oh yes!

Yes, I now officially wear corker holders.

And what’s more, I have corkers to put in them!!

I’ve got the tiniest corker appliances you can get (30A), but I have high hopes for a growth spurt when I start tap-dancing my way to the top of the showbiz ladder. Not that I can tap-dance, but I could do something on the ladder, I’m sure. It’s just a question of finding it and not falling off the ladder in the meantime. Even though you can’t see the ladder.