I blush and bite my lip. Guilty, embarrassed, worried all at once.

‘Err, no … no, not since this morning.’

Lamont covers the phone with his hand and speaks urgently to Beaky. ‘You haven’t seen Charlie today, have you?’ She shakes her head, wide-eyed.

‘No, Beaky hasn’t either. So … um … what happened … ?’

There’s a long pause then. Lamont does a lot of nodding while he listens to my dad. I bury my face in my knees and press my back hard into the knobbly tree bark, willing Gabriel’s Oak to just swallow me up.

‘OK,’ says Lamont finally. ‘Well, we’re in the forest now, sure. We can look for Charlie in all our usual places if you like … No … no problem at all. We’d like to help.’

I peep down at them. Beaky nods wildly, her hand holding on to Nero’s collar so tightly I see her white knuckle bones.

‘OK then … OK. I will … thanks … bye.’

Lamont hangs up and puts his phone back in his pocket. ‘Charlie’s run away,’ he says.

‘What?’ says Beaky. ‘Why?’

I cover my ears but I can still hear them talking.

‘I don’t really get it. I think Charlie had a total meltdown and went off in a strop by the sounds of things.’

I jerk my hands from my ears. A strop! Suddenly my shame and embarrassment bends into fury. A strop! How dare he? I grit my teeth. Lamont doesn’t have a clue how I feel.

‘But why would Charlie do that?’ whispers Beaky. Nero starts whining.

‘It’s the baby.’ Lamont sounds deadly serious. My anger melts as I listen. ‘There’s something wrong with the baby’s heart. He needs an operation.’

‘Oh no!’ breathes Beaky, clapping her hand over her mouth. ‘Poor baby. When?’

‘Today. Soon. That’s why we need to find Charlie ASAP … because …’ Lamont’s voice fades away to nothing.

In the pit of my stomach an ice-cold ball of sadness and worry swells and grows until my eyes cloud with tears and a tiny little gulpy whimpery noise comes out of my mouth. I clap my hand over my lips but it’s too late.

Nero’s ears prick. He looks straight up at me.

‘So … where is Charlie?’

Nero’s barking at me now, wagging his tail.

‘Your guess is as good as mine, Beaky. Shall we try the Spirit Stone?’

Nero starts going bananas.

‘Nero? Stop it! What?’

Nero breaks out of Beaky’s hold and jumps up on the trunk of Gabriel’s Oak, still barking like crazy.

Lamont and Beaky look straight up at me. Then at each other.

‘Hi,’ I say sheepishly, my voice all croaky. I feel their eyes on me as I climb back down and land with a thud on the hard ground.

‘What were you doing up there, Charlie?’ says Beaky. ‘Why were you hiding in that tree?’

I shrug. Nothing I say will make any sense to them. My mood is zigzagging about so fast I don’t even make sense to me at the moment.