The Huvark Experiment

Chapter 2

The aardvarks stayed there for the next week. The tunnels expanded, they ventured towards me and the house more often and the termite population decreased.
The Wednesday after they arrived (and the week after they seemingly settled in my garden), I was staring out of my window, bored. I would have been outside but it was 6:30 pm so it was cold. I had named the mum aardvark Mrs Latin, and the baby George.
I picked up my phone to text my friend Steve, 2 doors away from me. Steve is 6 months older than me so he's 14. I am 13, so we're in the same year at school. None of my family are sure why they agreed to come to Africa with us yet. I think my family is here because of my dad's job. My dad is a banker and my mum is a bus driver. She likes putting adverts like "BUY WALKER'S CRISPS OR I'LL TURN YOU INTO A BAGUETTE, YOU POOEY EAR-LICKING SLUG!" on the side of her bus. People have seemed to stop buying Walker's recently. Odd, that.

We had been texting for 10 minutes or so when I noticed something move. In the garden. Wearing what looked like Tesco own-brand Everyday Value night-vision goggles.
Someone had broken in my garden, and they were now alone with Mrs Latin, George and an earwigging slug.

By now, I had become quite attached, thus defensive, of the aardvarks, and they could be being poached. RIGHT NOW.

As the poacher moved closer to the aardvarks, I made a decision to keep watching and see what happened. Looking back at it, that wasn't too intelligent...oh well. It's done now.

The time was now 7:10. Darkness had almost completely enveloped the garden by now.

Moving as little as possible, I reached for my phone and texted Steve. That wasted a precious 30 seconds or minute.

That minute I spent was much too long. When I looked back out of the window, both aardvarks were gone. The burrow was empty.

But I would have noticed if they had been killed because they would have squeaked...