The Riverbank Otter. Sarah Lean

      Willowgate House looked as raggedly grand as ever, with its tall chimney pots and the conservatory on the side that leaned slightly to the left. Tiger asked her dad to park the car at the end of the drive, so they could go quietly up to the house.

      The grass was even longer than the last time they visited and they had to lift their legs up high to get through.

      “I am going to surprise May Days straight away,” Tiger said.

      Tiger crept around to the back of the house. May Days was in the kitchen putting biscuits on a plate. Holly the cat was sitting on a chair staring at the open back door, her eyes wide like green glass marbles, as if she already knew her favourite friend was about to arrive.

      May Days saw Holly prick her ears, and turned round. “There’s a tiger in the house!” she said, before Tiger could creep up on her.

      Her first attempt at a surprise had not worked, but Tiger quickly decided she’d think of something bigger and better.

      “You need a lawnmower, Mum,” said Mr Days as he came in.

      Tiger knew that her dad and May Days would spend the next few hours catching up over gallons of tea at the kitchen table before Mr Days drove home, so she quickly asked a few important questions first.

      “Is the house still skewwhiff?” she said, hugging her grandmother while her dad waited for his turn. Willowgate House was very old and needed lots of repairs. They used the kitchen, but apart from that the house was not ready to live in.

      “It is,” said May Days.

      “Will we still be sleeping in the tent in the garden?”

      “Yes, we will.”

      “Are there any new animals to look after?”

      “Not this time,” May Days said. “And, before you ask, Tom’s already here with Grumps next door and, yes, the foxes have gone.”

      Earlier in the year, Tiger and Tom had loved seeing the fox cubs who had made their home under the garden shed. Now the cubs were grown, they had left their den to find new homes.

      Tiger put biscuits in her pocket, kissed her dad and said she’d see him in a couple of weeks.

      “Well, this is a surprise,” said Mr Days, who was used to Tiger clinging to him before he left. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”

      Tiger grinned. It was easy to surprise her dad. “Tom and I have been waiting and waiting to make our own den in the shed,” she said. “Come on, Holly.” The cat jumped down from the chair and followed Tiger into the garden.

      Tiger ran to the gap under the hedge between Willowgate and Tom’s grandfather’s house. Summer growth had made the hedge thicker than ever and Tiger had to scrabble through on her elbows and tummy, although the tunnel was about the right size for Holly.

      Tiger could hear Tom and Grumps in the kitchen and she gently pushed Holly ahead through the open door.

      “Hey, it’s Holly!” said Tom.

      Tiger jumped out from behind the door. “And me!” she said, pleased that she had made Tom jump when she sprang out.

      “How is our little wildlife expert?” said Grumps. “Any animals at Willowgate to keep you busy this holiday?”

      “Not today,” said Tiger and she told them the news that the foxes had gone from under the shed.

      “At last we can make our den!” said Tom.

      They wanted to start right away and together they scrambled back under the hedge and raced across Willowgate’s wild garden, fighting their way through the tangled grass, with Holly leaping closely behind.

      The shed was partly hidden by bushes and trees, and the windows were covered in dusty boards. Tiger and Tom had only been in the shed briefly once before, so they were excited to explore it properly.

      They smiled at each other and pushed on the large door that creaked as it swung open. Sunlight peeped through gaps between the planks of the walls.

      An enormous green mound, as big as a car, loomed in the middle of the floor. When they had first seen it, they’d convinced themselves it was a monster, but now they knew it had to be something else …

      “Maybe it’s a big pile of logs like in Grumps’s shed,” said Tom, “or a car.” He crouched to look underneath, but there was no sign of any wheels.

      “It would be good if it was a giant lawnmower,” said Tiger, thinking she could run back up to the house and tell her dad he could mow the long grass for May Days. Tiger hoped it wouldn’t be a nasty surprise and was determined not to be worried, whatever it was. It was about time they found out.

      Holding the corners of the green tarpaulin, Tiger and Tom tugged it away, blowing up a cloud of dust. They coughed and blinked, and their mouths fell open at what was underneath. There, left upside down many years before, was a wooden boat. Tiger bent over to read the upside-down name painted on the side.

       Spinaway

      

      Tiger and Tom asked May Days and Grumps to come down to the shed so they could show them what they’d found.

      The grandparents took down the boards from the windows to let in more light. Dust floated in the air as sunshine streamed in. They gathered around Spinaway, which was lying upside down off the floor on four long blocks of wood, while Holly sat on top of the boat.

      “We didn’t expect to find a ship in the shed,” said Tom.

      “Actually, this is not a ship. It’s a twelve-foot sailing dinghy with a clinker-built wooden hull,” said Grumps. “It’s fine to call it a boat, though,” he added.

      Tiger and Tom stared at Grumps with their mouths open.

      “How do you know all that?” asked Tom.

      “I sailed as a boy,” Grumps beamed. “And this is not a shed – it’s a boathouse.” He opened the big double doors at the other end and beckoned them over. Behind the boathouse, a concrete slope, called a slipway, led down to a wide river. As the garden was overgrown, with many parts still unexplored, the children hadn’t even known there was a river there. The water glinted in the sunlight. But, of all the things they could have discovered, water was one of Tiger’s least favourite. Despite her promise to herself, she began to worry.

      Once, Tiger had been in a blow-up rowing boat with her dad at the seaside. She remembered how wobbly she’d felt bumping over the waves, and how she had panicked when the boat tipped up and she fell in. Even though she was wearing armbands and could swim and the water wasn’t very deep, it wasn’t a nice memory at all.

      Tom had already found blue lifejackets in a box.