A new home for the Horrible Green Hairy Monsters

The next time Alex was taken to the park he ran over as usual towards the place where Hercules and his friends lived.

It had disappeared.

All the bushes had been dug up and thrown away. Now there was only a series of flower beds filled with pot plants. It looked very pretty and it smelled much nicer than the bushes had, but there was nowhere for the three little men Alex had befriended to hide.

As Alex ran back towards his mummy there was a man who worked in the park talking to her.

He was explaining that some boys had been chased out of the bushes by a large animal a week ago and the people at the park had decided to plant flower beds to make things safer for everybody.

“We’ve dug up and planted two areas so far, the third one has been dug up and we start digging the last one tomorrow. By the end of the week every corner of the park will have flowerbeds instead of bushes.”

Alex didn’t stop to listen to any more, he ran as fast as he could towards the last corner of the park where the bushes were still growing.

He heard a rustling noise and saw Hercules peeping through the bushes. The next moment he was surrounded by little men asking him what had happened.

“The boys we frightened the other day said that dangerous animals were living in our bushes. So now all the bushes in the corners of the park are going to be dug up and planted with flowers and you’ll have nowhere to hide.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” said Hercules and Hector and Lysander nodded vigorously in agreement, looking a little bit frightened.

“Crumbs,” said Hercules, “we really are dangerous animals after all.”

“Where ever can we all go?” asked the three little men beginning to sound as if they were all very close to tears.

Alex thought for a moment. “Mummy and daddy have a large garden with lots of bushes in it. If I can think of a way to get you all there, would you like to hide in our bushes and we then could have adventures when we wanted.

Just at that moment Mummy called to Alex, “Come along dear it’s time to push baby Rebecca home in her pram.”

That gave Alex just the idea he was looking for. “If I pretend to fall over do you think you could all hide under the pram and sit on the axles in between the wheels until we get home?”

The three little men agreed that it was their best chance of finding a new home. Hercules said he would sit at the back while Hector and Lysander could share the front axle furthest away from Alex’s mummy.

Alex fell over and pretended to cry and while mummy rushed over to comfort him and mop up his tears. The little men ran across to the pram and hopped up onto the axles.

Alex sat on the back of the pram home holding on to the pram handles.

“My goodness you have grown heavy,” said mummy as she pushed the pram home. Then she helped him indoors before going outside again to pick up baby Rebecca.

Alex had a quick look underneath the pram as she went out to fetch the baby but he could see no sign of the little men. ‘Oh good they must have found somewhere to hide already!’ he thought.

Everything went very well until the weekend when daddy didn’t have to go to work.

“Have you noticed how tidy the shrubbery is lately” daddy said with a smile, “I don’t suppose anybody’s been out there tidying up?”

Mummy and Alex both shook their heads. “It must be the way you prepared the ground last year,” said mummy, “and now all your hard work is paying off!”

Alex didn’t say anything but he had a feeling the little men had not only been making themselves comfortable, but had tidied up their part of the garden as well.