The Adventures of Poachy An Urban Squirrel

By Stephen Aleppo

Poachy the squirrel lives near the top of the tallest tree in Amelia Riley Gardens. A lush green space in the middle of a big city, surrounded by huge white Georgian houses, which make up Victoria Square. The park is big for an inner city square at about the size of two standard football fields laid end to end. A grand duck pond built on two levels dominates its centre. It has its own footbridge separating the small shallow part where frogs, tadpoles and newts live, from the deeper, much larger part, for bigger fish. According to local rumour it contains at least one giant carp, although no one has ever seen it, let alone caught it. A lot of mature trees surround the pond and many of the spaces between them are occupied by ancient wooden benches dedicated to long past residents of the square. A narrow grey path runs right around the outside edge, just inside the ancient black wrought iron fence. It takes joggers exactly five minutes to complete one circuit of the place and that is generally enough for most of the older residents.
There are four ornate gates, one on each side of the gardens. These are named after important English poets from a bygone age. Browning gate to the North, Hardy gate to the East, Tennyson gate to the South and Wordsworth gate to the West. The longest sides of the square to the West and the East are considered to be the most desirable places to live in the whole of the district. Not everyone can come into the park either. Oh no. Its use is for residents of the square only. They have to have their own key to get in and a yearly fee has to be paid to the residents committee for its upkeep. It is tended by a retired bank manager called Arthur and his friend Murray who live in a basement flat on the narrow North side. For now, Poachy is too young to venture outside of the gardens but there is plenty to be going on with for now within those wrought iron fences.
3 short stories for Spring - Book 1

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Aleppo
• Release date: Jan 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005936839

Stephen Aleppo

Franz Kafka Prize, European Union Prize for Literature, Goethe Prize, The Hans Christian Anderson Award, ...... these are just a few of the awards I'm never likely to win....... But I’m still doing something I love thanks to ebooks and ultimately that’s all that counts.Born Camberwell London UK 1959 (OMG!!)Grew up in Mitcham, Tooting and Clapham in London.Have been writing as a hobby since Primary school. English was about the only thing I ever excelled at and writing for me was always on the cards even if I was generally too lazy to sit down and do it. If the lesson wasn't English I generally gazed out of the nearest window and thought about the universe. I only recently started making a real effort to write in the last five years or so as the mindless grip of the book agent is finally at an end and we all have a second chance.My other serious Hobby is Photography.Enjoy writing for the younger Teen Market as I still tend to think like a fourteen year old. Shame I haven’t got the legs to go with the outlook anymore, but it comes to us all. Also have a strong interest in the paranormal, especially out of body experiences. I have been plagued by them since my childhood and am in the process of putting the finishing touches to my new book, A simple Guide to the Out of Body Experience.If I had the guts I’d like to be a stand up comic.One of the worst sins in life is to take yourself too seriously.

Book preview

The Adventures of

Poachy

An Urban Squirrel

Book 1 – Spring

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2021 Stephen Aleppo

This edition 2021

This book is dedicated to

Logan

Star and Rogue

XXX

Table of Contents

Poachy and the Strange Creature

Poachy and the Balloons

Poachy and the Hedgehogs

Poachy and the Strange Creature

Poachy the squirrel lived near the top of the tallest tree in Amelia Riley Gardens. A lush green space in the middle of a big city, surrounded by huge white Georgian houses, which made up Victoria Square. The park was big for an inner city square at about the size of two standard football fields laid end to end. A grand duck pond built on two levels dominated its centre. It had its own footbridge which separated the small shallow part where frogs, tadpoles and newts lived from the deeper, much larger part, for bigger fish. According to local rumour it contained at least one giant carp. Although no one had ever seen it, let alone caught it. A lot of mature trees surrounded it and many of the spaces between them were occupied by ancient wooden benches dedicated to long past residents of the square. A narrow grey path ran right around the outside edge, just inside a black wrought iron fence bordering the pavement outside. It took joggers exactly five minutes to complete one circuit of the place and that was generally enough for most of the older residents.

There were four ornate gates, one on each side, named after important English poets from a bygone age. Browning gate to the North, Hardy gate to the East, Tennyson gate to the south and Wordsworth gate to the West. The longest sides of the square to the West and the East were considered to be the most desirable places to live in the whole of the district. Not everyone could come into the park either. Oh no. Its use was for residents of the square only. They had to have their own key to get in and take responsibility for their behaviour once inside. A yearly fee had to be paid to the residents committee for the upkeep of the place and it was tended by a retired bank manager called Arthur and his friend Murray. They lived in a basement flat on the narrow North side.

Poachy opened a big black eye and yawned as he threw back his duvet made of dry brown leaves and hair threaded together with long tough grass. Now his brothers and sisters had moved on, life in the Dray was very dull with only his Mother and Father for company. He peered through the hole beside his bed which served as a window and watched the family of lively Robins, who had occupied the next tree in the row for a few months. Life around the youngsters was anything but dull as the three chicks seemed to fight constantly over just about anything. When they weren’t fighting amongst themselves they were arguing with the blue tits and the great tits and the Starlings. They even thought nothing of dive bombing the magpies and the crows whenever they strayed too close to their nest.

This was foolhardy in the extreme and it took all their parents efforts to stop them plunging from one disaster to another. It often led to a very noisy neighbourhood. But it was still early spring and the Robins would be on their way soon enough Poachy thought. He watched young Robbie, the proud but stressed Father of the little brood tearing after one of his chicks as it set off on another clumsy attempt at doing things its own way. They disappeared into trees to the North side of the park as fingers of golden light from the rising sun crept across the scrubby grass. Already, it was strong enough to evaporate the dew in the mown grass and he watched it steam away in little white clouds. It was going to be another Sunny day, unusually hot for April and it was clear from the birdsong all around him that life in the park would liven up soon.

His Mother and Father were still asleep and everything remained quiet as he inched his way head first down the family tree he had