Once upon a Nursery Rhyme

Little Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep
Has lost her sheep
And doesn't know where to find them
Leave them alone
And they'll come home
Wagging their tails behind them

Connie had been feeling a little off colour over the weekend so to cheer her up I bought her a stuffed fluffy lamb as she had been so taken with Psycho. She adored it and named it 'Pet Lamb'  and insisted upon taking it to school just like Mary and Psycho.

I was hoping to meet up with Mary again as we hit it off together really well, I wanted to see Mary Mary again too as I had an idea to help Mother Hugebert but I would need their help to pull it off.

Connie was full of Pet Lamb on the way home, it was Pet Lamb did this or Pet Lamb that, the teacher had them all singing the nursery rhyme, I smiled to myself, it was looking  like I would meet Mary again, I could guess what or should I say who Co niece was going to dream about.

Well this was a surprise, we appeared initially to be in an empty field, where I had expected to see Mary and Psycho  we saw no one.  I thought it strange, Connie was clutching Pet Lamb and was also looking around her, as my eyes adjusted to the sunshine I saw there was a woman sitting in the shade of a large oak tree.

I wondered where Mary was, as we walked towards the woman, as we got a bit closer I saw she was drawing in a large sketch pad,  closer still and I recognised her from the Pet show.

She was the girl with the rat, it was sitting on her shoulder nose twitching as it watched our approach,  the girl herself was unaware of us or anything around her, her full concentration was on her drawing, she was humming merrily to herself, I coughed.

She jumped startled, pencils scattering around her

"Hello, sorry for startling you " I said

She relaxed as soon as she saw Connie and myself

"For a moment there I thought you were pops, he doesn't like me drawing, he thinks I should have better things to do with my time -you were at the Pet Show, weren't you one of the judges?''

I laughed, " for my sins yes, actually,  I think know I just made the numbers up, Jack Horner did the judging, wouldn't listen to me. It was all the Jack Horner show" she laughed

"What a bore......right? , I'm just so amazing, all the girls adore me.....ha....not, oh and I really must tell you this mind numbingly, amazingly dull story about trains" she mimicked Jack perfectly, it was hilarious

"Tell me about it, if he thought you weren't listening properly he would repeat himself, my brain fell asleep half way round.....My name's Charlie by the way and this is Connie"

"I'm Bodicea,  but all my friends call me Bo,"

" Really!  That's an unusual name"

"Yeah, pops wanted an action figure and got me! Second time lucky with my brother he's called Tiberious, " she laughed

" going back to our friend Jack for a minute he is pretty harmless really, but he is so over the top with all the girls, I feel sorry for him really, I think he wants to be liked by them, he tries to bribe them by giving them gifts or prizes" she put her hand up to Napoleon

"For a minute there I thought I would win, but he doesn't like rats"

" he doesn't like rats, birds , fish , dogs or cats , you wonder why he judges a pet show, surely the clue is in the title "

" Mary blew my chances of winning, when she showed up I knew it was all over for me" she grinned.

"Mary is great, isn't she.... we are best pals, I saw you talking to her after the show"

"With Psycho, I told her it was an unusual name for a lamb, talking of which.....I don't think know I have ever met a rat called Napoleon "

"It's a great name isn't it? I thought it went well with my name, Napoleon was also a great leader wasn't he"

"Bodicea,  poor pops, he wanted a forceful dominate figure, I think  I mentioned the action figure part,  he also wanted a shepherd, or a shepherdess in my case, what did  he get? A dreamy dewy eyed girl who wants to be an artist. I don't think he will ever get over it. What do you think? " she turned the sketch pad around, she had a very good eye for detail, the picture was the view in exact detail, I was stunned and told her so.

"I prefer doing portraits,  I have drawn most of the residents "

Something struck me, I looked around, I was right the field was empty

"Um, aren't shepherdesses supposed to shepherd um sheep?"

"Oh no, not again" she scrambled to her feet.

"Pops will feed me to the wolves if I have lost them again" I looked both confused and worried, Bo saw my face and laughed

"Don't worry, no wolves in this part of town, haven't been wolves here in  like forever, and pops is a big softie really, he is a farmer and as his daughter my responsibility is to watch the sheep, but it's not for me, I lose interest real quick then something will catch my eye and out comes my sketch pad and off go the sheep, I look up and pow, they are gone, no sheep ..... not even a straggler. I'm sure they are waiting for me to turn my back on them then they are off, and where do the little darlings go?"

I shook my head

" Boy 'I'm so wonderful' Blue, you will have seen him at the show with his pedigree dog, my pops would love him for a son, he gives me lots of, not so subtle hints, seriously! I'd rather marry Jack Horner,  Boy wonder is a lazy tyke, who wakes up delivers my sheep back to my father and receives the glory, smarmy little upstart"

I agreed and told her about my first meeting with him

"Sounds about right " she said

"Come on, we will help you find your sheep, before Boy wonder gets up to his tricks, Connie look for sheep"

"Baa baa black Sheep? Pet lamb" queried Connie, 'that's right ' I told her

It is astonishing the places sheep get to, we followed their tracks into town, some had wandered into Mr Porgie's yard, as we chased them out I told them

"You won't t want to stay here long" it reminded me of my plan to help Mother Hugebert,  I told Bo about it and she was willing to help too.

We chased several more out of gardens, some we caught up with being chased with brooms, 'keep you sheep away from  my prize cabbages' Bo was told more than once, we retraced our steps with our ever growing flock , we detoured into the cornfield, I was pleased to see the cows had gone.

Boy Blue was snoring his head off under the haystack, it seemed to be his favourite place

" Lazy toe rag" muttered Bo " how his sheep stay in one place is beyond me, my disappear if I so much as blink"

I felt naughty and unlatched the gate letting his sheep out and carefully closing it behind them

"This will give him a taste of his own medicine" and we chuckled like naughty schoolgirls,

The old woman Maggie, Bert the electrician and various children helped us round up the last few, and we made our way back to the field where I had first met Bo.

Mother Hugebert had seen our arrival and came hobbling out of her house with 3 glasses of homemade lemonade,

"I thought you might be thirsty after trapsing all around town" she said and she started to chuckle, she winked at me and said

" that Boy Blue will wonder what has happened to his sheep, serves him right "

Did I  mention I really like Mother Hugebert? Bo produced a scroll from her bag

"Here is your Portrait as promised" she said as she unrolled it, it was so lifelike, it felt like there were two Mother Hugeberts in the room

"You are a world class artist" I told Bo and she blushed

Just then my feet started to tingle,

"Time to go Connie, say goodbye like a big girl"

"Bye" she shouted as we faded "Bye bye"