The Phantom Lollipop Man Page 6

  So that’s when I explained to him that people are never really PREPARED to see a PHANTOM and that it can be quite scary for them the first time they see someone who has passed away.

  The LOLLIPOP man’s eyes went

  when I said that.

  And then he said, “WHAT? I’M not DEAD!! Well, not YET anyway. But if everyone keeps on screaming it might not be long!”

  Maisie STARED at the LOLLIPOP man and then she took her finger and started poking his face a bit. And then we all did it until he said, “Enough!”

  The LOLLIPOP man asked us why on earth we thought he had passed away so we told him about the new LOLLIPOP lady and how the office ladies had said he had MOVED ON and that’s when he told us that MOVED ON doesn’t mean the same thing as PASSED AWAY. And that moved on just means you’ve stopped doing the thing you were doing and started doing something else.

  That’s when the LOLLIPOP man told us that he had RETIRED from his job. And he said that he HATED being retired and that even though he wasn’t really allowed to, he still put on his old uniform some days and snuck into school with his old LOLLIPOP stick and sometimes even helped people cross the road when Mabel had gone back inside.

  Then he said that he also sneaked into the library when Mrs Bottery wasn’t paying attention so he could sit in his chair and read the books.

  Zach asked the LOLLIPOP man why he didn’t like being retired and he said that there wasn’t really anything for him to do at home since his wife passed away. And then he went quiet for a bit.

  Then the LOLLIPOP man said, “I didn’t want to retire, you know. But the council sent me a letter saying I’m too old to keep working here.”

  I got REALLY annoyed when the LOLLIPOP man said that, because it isn’t very nice of the council people to send you a letter telling you that you are too old to do stuff.

  And then Jodi said that we should write a letter back to them about the LOLLIPOP man’s

  And we all agreed that we definitely should.

  That made the LOLLIPOP man do his ALMOST-SMILE and then he asked us if we had really thought that he was a phantom and we said yes and that made him smile a proper smile.

  Jodi told the LOLLIPOP man about the

  and the strange SMOKY SMELL behind the old bike shed. And the LOLLIPOP man said, “SHHHHHH! Don’t be letting people hear you say that! That’s where I smoke my pipe!”

  And we realised that the smoke we saw had been coming from the LOLLIPOP man’s pipe and that he must have hidden around the corner when he heard us coming. And Jodi said, “Well, if it wasn’t your ghost cloud that set off the fire alarm, what was it? You didn’t smoke your pipe INSIDE the school, did you?!”

  But the LOLLIPOP man said that he definitely DIDN’T and that he’d actually been NAPPING in his library chair when the fire alarm went off and that he’d had to DUCK DOWN when he was going past the windows and sneak out the front entrance so no one found out he’d been coming back into the school after he retired. And that made me giggle because it DEFINITELY explained the

  Then a voice said, “It was me.”

  And we turned around and saw Gary Petrie and he was eating a HUGE bit of cake (even though we hadn’t actually CUT any of the cakes yet!).

  I hadn’t even REALISED Gary Petrie was invited to the Phantom Party but then Maisie said that she’d invited him because he’d helped the investigation.

  That’s when Gary Petrie said that HE set the fire alarm off because he’d heard us say that we saw SMOKE and that that’s what you’re meant to do when you see smoke and suspect a FIRE.

  Then Gary said, “MAYBE if you’d told me ALL THE FACTS then I wouldn’t have set the fire alarm off. And I wouldn’t have had to follow you all the time and listen outside your DEN.”

  And we all GASPED when Gary said that because he knew about THE DEN!

  Then Jodi said, “YOU caused the BLACKOUT, didn’t you?”

  And even though Gary Petrie wouldn’t admit it we all KNEW that it had been him because he was trying not to laugh and also because we remembered that the light switch is on the outside of The Den.

  Maisie sent Gary away (because Jodi was looking REALLY MAD!) and he went because Maisie said he could have more cake.

  And that’s when we told the LOLLIPOP man about the

  and how we’d smelled a weird, orange-y smell next to his library chair and that phantoms have UNEXPLAINED SMELLS.

  And the LOLLIPOP man laughed and said, “Follow me.”

  So we did. And he took us over to his chair and pointed to the wall and that’s when we saw the AIR FRESHENER. Then he said, “It’s one of those ones that are set to spray every so often. Makes a really annoying whooshing sound. Drives me nuts. And my wife used to wonder why I came home smelling of perfume!”

  And when the LOLLIPOP man said that, it made me a bit sad because I knew that when he went home smelling of perfume now there wasn’t anyone there to smell it.

  That’s when Maisie grabbed the LOLLIPOP man and gave him a great big hug and started jumping up and down, yelling,

  Then everyone started coming up to the LOLLIPOP man and giving him really long hugs and loads of people were crying and the LOLLIPOP man looked really surprised about all the hugs and stuff and we knew that it was because he thought he had practically been INVISIBLE to everyone for fifty years.

  Then Jodi took the LOLLIPOP man over to see his poster and Maisie showed him his cake and I got up on one of the chairs and read out the poem we wrote for Jack when we thought he had passed away.

  Everyone said that I did a GREAT job and I think I did because it is not easy to take out words like PHANTOM and DEAD and FUNERAL and put other words in instead when you only have two minutes to fix it.

  The LOLLIPOP man cut his cake and everyone cheered and thanked him for working at our school and shook his hand and wished him a happy retirement.

  And when Maisie showed him the wall plaque the LOLLIPOP man nodded and pretended he was just rubbing his eye but we all knew he was crying a bit with happiness. Then Mrs Bottery said that we should put it up in the library, above Jack’s Chair (which is what she calls it now), and that made the LOLLIPOP man smile.

  Once the party was finished, we walked the LOLLIPOP man out and that’s when he said, “Thank you, by the way, for all that in there. You’re a good bunch, you are.”

  And we all said that he was welcome and Maisie made us stand and watch the LOLLIPOP man walking away until we couldn’t see him any more.

  And then I said, “Let’s go. We’ve got work to do!”

  A few weeks later, we all got a BIG SURPRISE because when we were leaving school the LOLLIPOP man was waiting for us at the school gates and he had a DOG with him!

  We all ran over and Maisie gave him a hug and we asked loads of questions about the dog.

  That’s when the LOLLIPOP man said, “This is Ziggy. I thought you might like to meet him. It was a bit too quiet in the house so I thought I’d get someone to keep me company.”

  And then the LOLLIPOP man looked at Ziggy and said, “It’s not quiet at ALL any more, is it? You’ve a fair set of lungs on you, haven’t you?”

  Ziggy looked up at the LOLLIPOP man and barked and we all laughed and petted Ziggy for ages.

  Then Zach lay on the ground and Ziggy walked all over him and licked his face and it was HILARIOUS.

  Then the LOLLIPOP man said, “I also thought you lot might have something to do with this here. Would that be right?”

  Then he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper and gave it to us. And it was a letter from THE COUNCIL and along the top it said:

  VOLUNTEER LIBRARY ASSISTANT – ST VINCENT’S PRIMARY SCHOOL

  We were all MEGA HAPPY because we knew that the letter Mrs Bottery had helped us write and send to the council had WORKED!!

  Maisie said, “Are you going to take the job? Are you coming back?!”

  And the LOLLIPOP man said that he WAS. But only for an hour or two in the mornings so he could get ba
ck to give Ziggy his lunch and take him for his afternoon walk.

  Then he said, “Someone’s got to make sure that gold plaque gets polished every day, haven’t they?”

  That’s when we all started jumping up and down and yelling,

  And Ziggy started howling along with us and he wouldn’t stop until we stopped.

  And as soon as we started cheering again Ziggy started howling again too!

  And the LOLLIPOP man just shook his head at us and did his almost-smile.

  I’d like to say a huge thank you to all

  the amazing school support staff who

  contribute so much to their schools

  and the experiences of the pupils.

  Schools just wouldn’t work without you.

  Thanks also to Thomas for the

  brilliant illustrations – I love them!

  And a huge thanks to my superhero editor,

  Kirsty. The Izzy books wouldn’t be the

  same without you. (Please never leave me!!)

  And, as always, love and thanks to Andy

  for all your support (and take-aways).

  Copyright

  First published in the UK in 2018 by Nosy Crow Ltd

  The Crow’s Nest, 14 Baden Place, Crosby Row,

  London, SE1 1YW, UK

  Nosy Crow and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Nosy Crow Ltd

  Text copyright © Pamela Butchart, 2018

  Cover and illustrations copyright © Thomas Flintham, 2018

  The right of Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham to be identified as the author and illustrator respectively of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book will be available from the British Library.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of Nosy Crow Ltd.

  Printed and bound in the UK by Clays Ltd, St. Ives Plc

  Papers used by Nosy Crow are made from wood grown in sustainable forests.

  ISBN: 978 1 78800 048 2

  eISBN: 978 1 78800 049 9

  www.nosycrow.com