Fleeced by Hazel Edwards

Stan?’ asked Zoe.
    â€˜The Mc Kinnon Pass was the highest point,’ said Stan.
    â€˜I don’t think that’s what she meant,’ said Mum quietly. ‘What did you like best?’
    â€˜Finishing the walk. And winning my bet with Bertha. She didn’t believe I could pretend to be a different personality for a whole four days. But I did. I wasn’t shy, was I? ‘ Stan appealed to them. ‘It was all because of the prize. I’d never had that much money before. On top of the air tickets , the rugby match and the Milford Track trip. You see it was a ‘lose the most weight’ competition. And I won the ‘Biggest Loser’. So I decided to become a new person. At home, I’m usually shy and quiet. I’ve always been fat. And since I was 18, I wore a beard. So I decided to lose weight, shave off the beard, buy new clothes and pretend for a week that I was the person I always wanted to be.’
    For the first time, Amy almost liked Stan. But who he was going to be next week? Would he be Stan- the- Funny Man or Stan-the-Shy? Would it be hard going back to what he was before?
    â€˜Why did you pretend not to know Bertha?’ asked Amy.
    â€˜Because we had a dare. She said she’d walk it all by herself. And stick to healthy food. But I cheated. I had my diet pills in the top of my walking stick,’ admitted Stan.
    â€˜Have you officially met my ... er ... girlfriend Brenda Tree?’
    â€˜Yes.’ The twins nodded.
    Ms Tree, the Freedom Walker, beamed. ‘It was worth my sore feet.’
    â€˜Have a chocolate,’ offered Amy.
    Ms Tree rubbed the rainbow coloured key dangling from a chain around her neck.
    â€˜No thanks.’
    â€˜Ms Tree. Ace name.’ said Amy. ‘Why did you rip the Milford map out of the In-flight magazine?’ Brian the other Loser had used the same map page.
    â€˜Just so I wouldn’t get lost,’ smiled Bertha.
    â€˜The airline magazine is a freebie,’ said Amy. ‘You could have taken the whole magazine.’
    â€˜But I didn’t want to carry the extra weight of a whole magazine,’ said Bertha.
    Perhaps Stan and Bertha were meant for each other. Amy wondered about the plane bomb-scare that wasn’t.
    Did that person forget other things too, apart from the radio which felt like bombs?
    â€˜Where’s Gertrude?’
    â€˜Flew out on an early plane. An emergency. The cloud’s down. No other planes can leave,’ said Zoe. Even
    Mitre Peak is blotted out by cloud.’
    â€˜Did she take her golf clubs?’
    â€˜Of course. In an extra seat.’
    â€˜Will airport security check them?’
    â€˜Why? Do you think Gertrude’s smuggling nuggets out from the Milford Track?’
    â€˜Probably.’ The twins asked Zoe for the kea watch. Christopher took the back off.
    â€˜Look!’ Inside were three gold nuggets.
    â€˜I don’t believe it! Gertrude was a smuggler!’ said Stan in amazement.
    â€˜Gertrude’s son, Brian Todd,’ said the twins.
    Apparently Zoe had suspicions too, especially about the son. “I’ll call ahead, but ... it’s probably too late.’
    â€˜We think she was going to smuggle nuggets out of the country in her golf-bag. But her son had planned for her to use the back of copy-watches, like he did. Todd had marked the nugget locations on the original map. Unfortunately it was left behind by accident. After he was arrested for credit-card fraud, his mother was sent to pick up the other nuggets. The cook at the hut was in the scam. The nuggets were to be placed in vegetarian sandwiches marked Gertrude.
    â€˜In every packet, every day?’ asked their disbelieving parents. ‘Hard on the teeth.’ added Dad.
    â€˜Of course not. Only from the cook-thief’s hut. The other vegetarian sandwiches were real peanut butter. Not nugget-filled sandwiches.’
    â€˜Very crunchy peanut butter.’ Dad