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- Herausgeber: Knights Of
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
A funny and heart-warming story for readers aged 6-9 from award-winning author Nikesh Shukla Vinay, Musa, Inua and Nish are best friends. Nothing can separate them… until one day when Vinay's cousin comes to invade his bunk bed haven (i.e. share his room). When a prank war starts, can the friends remember what really matters? Filled with fun illustrations by Rochelle Falconer, The Council of Good Friends is full of both hilarious mayhem and caring moments of friendship.
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For Rohit and Kian.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
You can hear them before you see them, thundering through the courtyard at full gallop: Vinay leading the pack, giggling like a terrified chicken, Musa running fast and focused, and Inua, leaping as if he hopes each stride will bring him closer to take off (one day, he will learn to fly). They’re being chased by Nish, wielding two large canons, 2each one attached to a canister of coloured water: one purple, one orange.
He is screaming for them all to STAY CALM, stay calm and come back.
Every passer-by is in the firing line. Vinay bumps into someone, Musa startles the postal worker, who drops all their mail, and Inua has to leap over a pushchair, like he’s LeBron James.
Except, Nish knows what he is doing. He has cornered them all into a walled section of their estate’s playground. There’s no escaping.
Unless Inua can actually fly.
Vinay spins around so his back is against the wall. He holds out two peaceful hands, palms outstretched.
‘Woah, easy there, fella, let’s not do anything silly.’
Nish smiles as he takes aim. 3
‘I don’t make the rules,’ he says.
‘You literally do,’ Musa says.
‘It’s Holi,’ Nish replies. ‘The festival of colours. And so, I’m just doing what needs to be done.’
Musa sticks a hand up.
‘Yes, Musa,’ Nish gestures to him with one of the canons.
‘I’m going to get into so much trouble if I come home in purple clothes.’
Musa is wearing a gleaming white t-shirt that he takes extreme pride in. It is never dirty. Ever. Because they’ve all met his parents. They mean business. Also, as Musa once said, nothing fills him with confidence more than a crisp white t-shirt.
Nish ushers Musa over to him and hands him the orange canon.
‘WHAT…’ Inua shouts. ‘That’s not fair.’
‘Time to learn how to FLY,’ Nish shouts. 4
‘What about me?’ Vinay asks.
‘Who do you think filled up the canons? Your mum,’ Nish says. ‘I think that means…’
Nish and Musa spray their canons in Vinay’s direction, and he drops to his knees, like a fallen soldier in a war movie, his wrists to the sky like the heavens have forsaken him.
‘Nooooooo,’ he cries out, as coloured water splatters off him like slow motion ricochets of rainbow. 5
Inua tries to use this as his opportunity to escape and, as he runs away, Musa and Nish spray the water at him. Inua ducks into a forward roll, stacking his landing on the bumpy ground and tumbling with a crash, groaning as his back smacks against the ground. Nish and Musa stand over him, pointing their canons.
Inua bursts out laughing. ‘Okay, you got me, you got me!’
6Musa offers Inua a hand and pulls him to his feet. Vinay joins them and nudges Nish playfully.
‘Happy Holi, boys,’ he says, before snatching at Musa’s canon, catching him off-guard and running off with it.
He swivels to face his three best friends. Musa holds his hands up. Vinay smiles, the power coursing through his veins.
‘Listen,’ Musa says. ‘Think very carefully about what happens next.’
‘Vinay,’ they all hear shouted across the courtyard. Turning, Vinay sees his Papa ushering him over. ‘Time to say goodbye to your Ba and Bapuji.’
Musa lets out a huge sigh of relief … before Nish and Inua both point to three orange specks that 7pepper the chest of his once-gleaming-white t-shirt. He groans. Bad vibes.
Vinay stands between his mum and dad, Papa’s arm around him as he smiles at Ba and Bapuji. They’re going back to India for a while. They don’t like the weather here. Or the people. Bapuji once told Vinay that everyone on the bus looks so sad; he wants to live somewhere where, even if they’re not smiling, at least it’s hot. It’s better for Ba’s asthma. Vinay’s dad is about to drive them to the airport. Mum isn’t going, she is way too pregnant. She can barely walk, and she can barely sit. Nothing makes her comfortable. Vinay’s baby sister hasn’t even been born yet and yet she’s all anyone talks about.
Vinay says goodbye to Ba and Bapuji. He doesn’t feel too sad, for two reasons. The first is, he’s going to India at Christmas for a wedding, so he’ll see them soon. The second: Vinay is getting their room.
A room of his own.
Musa, Inua and Nish come over to say goodbye. It’s kisses and cuddles and a few tears from Ba (and from Bapuji too), and, as Papa drives them away to the airport and Vinay waves goodbye, everything in him is stopping him from running up the stairs and taking charge of his new domain.
‘Come on then,’ Inua says. ‘Show us your new room.’
They all cheer and rush inside, pushing past Mum, who laughs at them all as they bound up three flights of stairs to Vinay’s flat.
CHAPTER 2
Vinay stands in the middle of the small box room. Without a bed, it still looks tiny, but it is his, all his, and he doesn’t care. He points around the room.
‘I’m putting a bunk bed there,’ he says, gesturing to one wall. ‘And maybe my Arsenal poster there…’ He points to the back of the door, as Musa and Nish, ardent Manchester United fans, let their displeasure show.
Inua, the basketball king, shrugs. He has no skin in this game.
Vinay talks them through where his stack of Marvel Annuals will go, and the 10incomplete sets of Lego they’d found in a charity shop and then argued over, as they tried to build the Death Star from a pile of mixed-up pieces. When all is said and done, he doesn’t have a lot of stuff, but that’s okay. As Vinay himself often says: ‘I’m a kid. I’ve got time to accumulate stuff. I love stuff.’
‘You going to sleep on the top bunk?’ Nish asks.
‘Of course,’ Vinay replies, rudely, as if there has never, in the history of questions, been one with a more obvious answer. ‘Why?’
‘You’re scared of heights,’ he replies, laughing.
‘It’s a bunk bed, not Mount Kenya …’
‘Don’t you hate how the British keep saying they discovered Mount Kenya?’ Inua says. ‘Like all the Kenyans who live nearby just ignored that massive mountain and then the British came and were like, oh look, 11a mountain.’ He shakes his head. ‘I bet it wasn’t even called Mount Kenya.’
‘Kirinyaga,’ Vinay says, and everyone looks at him like he’s a genius. ‘Dad’s Kenyan,’ he adds, to explain.
‘When does the bunk bed arrive, Vin?’ Nish asks.
‘Tuesday,’ Vinay replies, before stretching his arms around him and swirling around in a circle like he’s on a mountain singing about how free he is. ‘Mine,’ he yells. ‘All mineeee!’
He smacks his hand on something hard and the whole gang recoils from a tower of boxes and suitcases, filled with sarees and sherwanis and sheets and all sorts of nonsense, that do not belong in the bedroom of Vinay S.K. Patel Esquire.
‘Well, that’s all got to move,’ he says.
Inua and Musa roll their imaginary sleeves 12up and lift the top box off the teetering tower. It’s heavy.
13‘How are sarees so heavy?’ Nish asks, offering a steadying hand.
‘All those sequins, I guess,’ Vinay says.
Inua and Musa tumble the box to Inua, to Musa, to Inua and back to Musa, Nish wisely stepping backwards out of the way as they both drop the box. It slams down on the floorboards with enough of a thud to wake Godzilla. Inua and Musa stare at each other.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
‘Sorry,’ Nish says, as everyone tries to identify the noise. ‘Just hungry.’
‘Come on,’ Vinay says. ‘Let’s get all this nonsense out of my room.’
There’s a knock on the door and then Vinay’s mum enters, pregnant belly first, hands on hips, leaning backwards to try and keep her back straight. 14
‘What was that noise?’ she says. She sighs when she sees the fallen box of sarees.
They all point at each other, like they’re all Spider-Man, each boy blaming everyone else. Mum laughs and shakes her head.
‘Don’t worry, when the wardrobes arrive all these boxes will fit on top of them.’
Vinay looks at her with a disgusted face, like someone has done the most garlic-iest of burps ever.
‘On top?’ he asks, gulping.
‘Oh yes, definitely,’ Mum says. ‘We need two wardrobes now your cousin’s staying with us. You’ll be sharing a room with him. Isn’t that exciting?’
Vinay’s jaw drops. Inua pushes it back up with his hand.
‘My cousin’s what?’ 15Vinay repeats, like all the air in his lungs has leaked out and all that’s left is despair.
‘Snacks anyone?’ Mum says, disappearing out of the room, a chaotic mess in her wake.
‘I wonder if he’ll take the top bunk,’ Nish says, breaking the silence.
CHAPTER 3
Vinay is fuming. He had one whole day to enjoy the room on his own. One beautiful, brilliant day. And now he is spending it on the bus to the airport, sitting next to his mum; him reading silently, her reading out the voices of the different characters from his comic in a silly voice.
At first, he finds it annoying and pokes at Mum to stop until she giggles.
He doesn’t want her to know how mad he is. Not only has he lost the most important thing in his life, but also, now he’s spending the one day he had to enjoy it on the smelly bus, with all the people eating their smelly 17sandwiches on their way to work. It’s so hot and the bus stinks of egg mayo sandwiches.
Egg mayo sandwiches are the worst sandwiches. When the thing in the sandwich is softer than the bread around it, it’s no good. Also, who likes sandwiches really? Vinay hates Thursdays at school because they make him eat sandwiches. You know what’s better than sandwiches? Rice.
