Winning a Giraffe Called Geoffrey. Hazel Edwards

spies wrote messages in secret ink. Others used code. But they all needed to ask questions.

      ‘Who would know about giraffes? And where can I keep Geoffrey?’ muttered Art as he walked down the street. If he talked to himself, the ideas seemed to stick in his head.

      Mario jumped out at him from the Bakery corner.

      ‘Yah! Got you Artie!’

      ‘No you haven’t!” Art backed off as the dogs attacked.

      ‘Talking to yourself again Artie. You ought to be careful. People will think you’re out of your tree.’

      Mario’s greyhounds jumped at Artie. Yip.Yip. Yip. Their muzzles gleamed. Their bony legs stretched.

      Artie backed away, even though his brain told his legs to stay.

      Mario was always frightening smaller kids. Art was as tall as Mario but he felt small when Mario shouted and waved his arms around. So Art put on his you-can’t-scare-me voice. ‘Get lost Mario.’

      Mario just laughed and yanked his dogs away.’ These dogs are better trained than you Artie. See you at school tomorrow. Just wait.’

      For what? As Art hurried home to check his house for giraffe space, he thought about Mario. He liked dogs but none that belonged to Mario. At school, Mario was always teasing him about ‘training’. Especially when Art tried to train for the cross country by puffing around the school oval. One day, he’d get into the school cross country team. Anyway, nest week, Mario’s greyhounds would look like ants beside HIS giraffe.