The Milkchurn and the Moo

Each Ten Word Tale is written using ten words chosen by children. The Milkchurn and the Moo is inspired by ten words chosen by Learn to Love to Read volunteer Elisa and two of the children she has supported with their reading, Amie from Heathmere Primary School and William from Smallwood Primary School.

Spot the ten words - friends, catnap, actually, minecraft, wicked, huge, promised, lamp, strawberry milkshake, wind turbine - and enjoy the story!

Chapter 1

Strawberry Milkshake Jones walked in from the farmyard and stood in her kitchen doorway, her three friends looking over her shoulder at the mess.

Strawberry Milkshake’s mum claimed she had looked pink and delicious when she was born so her name was a perfect fit. To her friends she was simply Milly.

Milly’s mum, Mary, ran the farm café, The Milkchurn, and her dad, Mick, ran the farm itself and made the award-winning Apple Blossom Farm Ice Cream. Their ice cream had become famous when the pop-star Tyler Swallow had written about it on Twitter and The Milkchurn’s strawberry milkshakes were once mentioned by Merry Barry, the famous cook. Milly helped her parents with the money, because she was the best at Maths in the family.

Milly had asked her friends over because she needed their help with something but the kitchen needed urgent attention. Her mum had obviously left in a rush. There were pans and tins everywhere, sticky spoons on surfaces, open jars of jam and ginger, oranges and lemons rolling out of their bowls, sultanas tipped out of their packets. A haze of icing sugar hung suspended in the sunshine coming in through the window. Twenty-four sponge halves, and six fruit cakes were lying neatly in the midst of this chaos, heat rising from their perfect surfaces into the sugary air. Milly knew that the sponges had to be iced for the café tomorrow.

Milly’s friends were always amazingly kind, that’s why she loved them. They insisted on helping and swooped into action. Samira began to tidy. Karl and Per made the filling for the cakes. Milly iced. When the cakes were ready and the friends were sitting down with hot chocolate, Samira said, “Now, tell us what’s wrong. Is it the Moo?”

The Moo was a café that had recently opened, run by Tessa and Tina from neighbouring Thistledrip Farm. Her friends knew Milly felt that when The Moo had opened, things had begun to go wrong for the Milkchurn.

“I told you about the horrible reviews,” said Milly, dropping marshmallows into her chocolate. “Now we’ve got dry cows.”

Chapter 2

Milly explained how for the past week the cows came into the shed in the mornings with almost no milk.

“I can’t solve the dry-cow mystery,” said Per, “but I could track down who sent the reviews.”

Per was a whiz at computers. The others waited while his fingers flickered over the computer keys. “Yup. Here we are,” he said. “New entries. ‘I went to The Milk Churn and was thoroughly churned up for three days afterwards, says Mary from Middleton. I did not leave the bathroom for a week after the aptly-named Chocolate Surprise Sundae: Charlie from Chorley. I found mould floating on the milkshake: Hungry of Hathersage.’

“All posted last night at 23.23,” said Per. “And … from the same server.… I’m afraid it’s Thistledrip. No question.”

The kitchen door burst open and Mary came in, carrying a huge tortoiseshell cat under her arm.

“You’ve done the cakes!” she cried, looking relieved.

“Where have you been and what are you doing with Catnip?” asked Milly.

“Catnip has saved us,” said Mary, as the cat jumped out of her arms and leapt across the sofa to her favourite place on Mick’s armchair.

Milly made her mum some tea while Mary explained. “Hannah was closing up the café: she rang to tell me she’d just seen a mouse. I grabbed Catnip because she’s perfect in a mouse-emergency. She caught the mouse pretty quickly and alive. I let him free outside. We were deep-cleaning all the surface when the Inspector arrived. Someone had reported a mouse in The Milkchurn! We told her everything. She inspected every corner and recorded the Churn as officially cleared-and-checked so we’re fine to open tomorrow.”

Milly stood up. “Mum, it’s The Moo. They probably brought in a mouse deliberately!”

“Well, I did see Tessa in the queue as I left which was odd.”

“Per has proof that they’re sending the reviews.”

Mary looked sadly at her daughter. “Milly, it isn’t possible for everything to be their fault. They can’t have dried up the cows. The reviews were probably some kind of joke. Tessa and Tina have come up from London to look after their granny. They must be kind and that’s the most important thing.”

Mary would not let Milly say more about it. Samira, Karl and Per went home. Mick came in and tipped Catnip, enjoying a catnap after her mousehunting adventure, off his chair and sat down. They told him everything. He looked troubled. “I definitely feel something bad’s going on,” he said. Catnip leapt back onto his knee and settled down, purring as if trying comfort him.

Chapter 3

Milly and her friends decided to investigate the enemy more closely. Next morning, Karl went to The Moo. Per went to The Churn. Samira and Milly set off to Thisteldrip Farm, walking across the fields. Apple Blossom Farm had a wind turbine which whirred like a slow-winged bird above their heads as they walked under it and past the field of cows. They were discussing Tina and Tessa’s granny.

“Thora’s nearly ninety and she’s lovely. If granddaughters are horrible, I don’t think Thora knows,” Milly said.

“But as your mum said, if they are horrible, how come they’re kind enough to look after her?”

They were puzzling over this as they arrived at Thistledrip Farm.

They passed the grey metal barn and peered inside. It was completely empty apart from a shelf of tools and three brown glass bottles full of a clear liquid.

“Poison?” Samira wondered in a whisper.

At that moment a voice said angrily, “What are you doing in my barn?”

It was Thora. She looked frail, leaning on her walking stick, but her blue eyes were fiercely bright.

“Milly? Is that you?” Thora’s voice softened.

Milly came forward, dragging Samira.

“Come into the kitchen,” said Thora. “Explanations are better with a cup of tea.”

Soon the girls were drinking tea and eating chocolate and raspberry brownies. Somehow Thora had persuaded them to tell her everything and she was pondering.

“I can’t believe Tina and Tessa would do anything really wicked. They’ve been so kind, coming to look after me. I’m very awkward.”

Milly and Samira said they were sure she wasn’t. Thora waved their compliments away with a wrinkly hand.

“I’m awkward because there’s no money to put me in some nice Home unless we sell the farm and that would break my heart. The girls opened The Moo to make money so I could stay here. Those reviews sound nasty but surely they would not do anything worse. Promise something?” She fixed both girls with her blue eyes and they nodded immediately. “If there is something worse going on, come to me first? I don’t want my girls in trouble with the police.”

Samira and Milly promised faithfully that they would tell Thora if Tina and Tessa did anything more criminal.

“She was sweet,” said Milly as they strode off home. “Now I’m confused.”

They met the boys.

“I’ve proof about the mouse,” said Karl, grinning. “I saw it.”

Chapter 4

Karl had ordered a cappuccino and was sitting playing games on his phone in The Churn when Tessa came in and joined the queue. He watched her through his phone camera. Tessa took a tissue from her bag, dropped it deliberately under a table and a mouse ran out. Karl filmed it all, then dived to catch the mouse, scooping it into a paper cup and taking it outside before anyone saw it.

Taking his favourite Minecraft book for inspiration about defeating enemy strategies, Per settled down with a muffin in The Moo. Tessa came in looking anxious. She and Tina talked in whispers. Per could not hear whole sentences but he definitely heard mouse, milk, keep going, and tonight.”

Now they were all worried. What was going to happen tonight? A break-in at The Milkchurn? Tessa and Tina poisoning the cakes or poisoning the cows? “We need grown ups,” said Milly. “They’ll listen now.”

She was right. It did not take long to persuade Mick and Mary that something was wrong when Karl’s recording of Tessa dropping the mouse was added to evidence about the reviews. By 9.30 that night, everyone had gathered ready to stand guard, when the phone rang. It was Thora.

“Something’s going on.” Mary put her on loud speaker and her voice sounded quavery. “I went to bed early but was woken by whispering on the landing and then the sound of the front door. They’ve gone somewhere. I don’t know where.”

Mary promised they’d find out what was going on.

They separated to take up their positions: Karl and Per patrolling The Milkchurn, Mick and Mary guarding the house and farmyard, Milly and Samira guarding the sheds and barns. The farm’s floodlights were on which made them feel safe and weirdly excited. Suddenly Milly gave a little whispery cry, “ The cows!” In the summer the cows stayed in the fields at night. They had quite forgotten them in their plans.

She left Samira with Mary and found her dad. Together they ran across the fields and had almost reached the cows when several things happened at once. Their torch beams shone on a red figure squatting by Milly’s favourite cow, Maisie. The figure gave cry, jumped up and started to run. Mick set off in pursuit. Then, over at the farm every single floodlight went out. The farm was plunged into blackness. Milly followed her dad with her torch: he had grabbed the red coat and pulled the figure to the ground. It was Tessa.

“I’ll bring her,” shouted Mick. “Go and see what’s happened.”

Guided by the flicker of other torches, a little starlight and the sound of shouting, Milly found everyone in the farmyard. In the middle, looking ridiculously proud, were Karl and Per, holding wire cutters and someone wrapped tightly in what Milly recognised as a tablecloth from the café. The boys released the struggling figure. Tina. Mick appeared with Tessa. He almost tossed her to her sister. They stood there looking utterly miserable and desperate. Tessa looked at Mick and Mary. “We know you have to tell the police but please, please, don’t tell Granny.”

Chapter 5

At that moment headlights appeared on the farmtrack and a small car bumped into the yard. A little figure emerged, wearing a dressing gown and carrying a walking stick.

“Granny!”

Thora seemed to take everything in in a moment. She did not speak to her granddaughters but to Mary.

“Mary dear, could we go inside in the warm? I always find explanations are better with a cup of tea.”

There was no light in the farmhouse: Mary found a lamp and some candles. Tina told Mick exactly where she had cut the supply lines between the turbine and the farm. Mick went to fix it and save hundred of litres of ice cream. A few minutes later, the house lights came on, the fridge began to hum and Mary started making tea and hot chocolate. Everyone squeezed into spaces to sit down. When Mick returned, Thora waved her stick at her granddaughters, like a conjuror. “Begin!” she commanded.

Tessa confessed that they’d not just sent the reviews but milked Mick’s cows at night, and tried to get The Milkchurn closed for having mice. “The Moo could never make money when The Milkchurn was so good. We needed the money for Granny and the farm.”

Thora said bitterly she would have to sell the farm now anyway and live in a Home somewhere near the prison where the girls would be sent for writing lying reviews, stealing milk and leaving mice. Tina and Tessa looked deeply ashamed.

Mick and Mary looked at each other, “Actually there’s no need for police,” said Mick at last. “We won’t take this further than just us.”

Thora patted Mick’s hand. “This is amazingly kind forgiveness. Thank you. Thank you.” She looked at her granddaughters, tears were streaming down their faces. “Haven’t I always told you that kindness can change everything?”

Mary helped Thora to her feet. “I’m always telling Milly the same: kindness is more important than anything. We know that your girls meant to be kind to you when they were being, well, mean to us. That makes me forgive them.”

Many promises and thank yous were exchanged as the girls packed Thora safely into the car and took her home. Milly and her friends went up to bed, for a sleepover had been arranged.

Downstairs, Mick and Mary discussed ways to buy The Moo, using their ice cream profits, to help Thora, making it an ice cream parlour where Tessa and Tina could work and perhaps they could invite Tyler Swallow to open it, grandly.

Upstairs the children lay awake, talking. “Who knew the world of cafés was so wild and dangerous?” said Per. They laughed.

“Who knew kindness was the most important thing of all?” said Samira.