Lauren Child - Ruby Redfort Pick Your Poison

LAUREN CHILD first introduced the character of Ruby Redfort in her three award-winning, best-selling CLARICE BEAN novels. Since then she has been inundated with letters from fans asking for the RUBY REDFORT books. Those letters worked, because this is number five in the series.

Lauren is also the creator of the CHARLIE AND LOLA books, as well as associate producer on the TV show of the same name. Her books have won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize (four times), the Kate Greenaway Medal, and the Red House Childrens Book Award.

The RUBY REDFORT series features codes and puzzles created with the help of super-geek consultant Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and all-around genius.

WAY OUT TO THE NORTHEAST OF THE CITY were the flatlands, acre upon acre of prairie grass that waved in the warm winds blowing in from the ocean.

The girl was taking the long road to her grandmothers ranch house. She imagined it would take her no more than an hour, so she would still be in good time; she had promised to be there by noon. The weather station had warned of an electrical storm, and dark clouds were already forming in the great skies above her.

The girl had tried to coax her dog, a young husky pup, to travel with her in her bicycle basket, but the dog had looked up at the sky and howled when she tried to carry him from the house, his fur standing on end.

It was as if he knew what was coming. There had been talk of a tornado looking to bear down, and she had a mind to see it begin to pick up before it whirled in. Timing, she knew, was everything when it came to tornadoes. They could whip up quick and vanish in minutes, the average for these parts being around twenty. You had to be careful you mistimed it and you might be snatched up inside that wind funnel, for you could not outrun a tornado, only sidestep it; this her nine-year-old self knew for a certainty.

She hadnt traveled more than halfway there when she realized she had left it too late. Turn back, keep going, it didnt matter she was never going to make it to the ranch before the storm struck. A lone tree grew out from the only raised piece of land in more than a hundred miles, a tree bent sideways by the relentless west wind and the only landmark on the whole horizon other than the marching telephone poles.

But it was a good landmark. She remembered how the tree grew out of rock, not a cave exactly but a pile of stones so heavy that they looked like they hadnt moved in more than ten thousand years. The girl saw at once that if she could make it to those rocks and climb between them, she would escape the tornados hold.

She let go of her bike and abandoned it right there, where it fell, on the asphalt road. She began to run across the open grassland, feeling the whipping wind as she fled. She ran, ran like the devil himself was chasing her, ran like all hell was biting at her ankles. The coarse grass was slurring her movement, wrapping around her legs, but she wouldnt let it pull her down. There were the rocks and the half cave. She threw herself in just as the whirling funnel picked up over her head, and through the crack in the stone she saw her little green bicycle hooked up by the finger of wind and pulled high into its center.

She didnt notice the hissing thing: the wind drowned out its sound. Nor did she notice it raise its head and open its jaws wide, exposing those perfectly sharp prongs of teeth. She felt it, though: a sharp pain followed by a sickening ache. A strange sensation.

She turned to look it in the eyes. Black eyes set in an arrow-shaped head, dark diamonds running down its brown back. She looked at it, unblinking, as it slowly wound itself back into the shadows.

Suddenly everything became hyperreal, the strange crag of the rocks, one jutting stone looking almost like a dogs head she thought of her husky and wished he were at her side. She tried to steady her breathing and reached for the notebook and pencil she had tucked inside her pocket. She drew the head shape and the markings, making a note of the colors, and once she was sure she had all the information, she removed the sneaker from her left foot, followed by her striped sock, cutting away the toe part with her penknife. Then she pushed her arm into the tube of knitted cotton and slipped it over the wound, not too tight but enough to support her deadening limb.

Slowly she began to move herself toward the road, keeping her arm down so that the bite wound was below her heart.

Looking behind her, she saw the tree was gone, carried away by the tornado.

The farmer who drove by in his truck an hour later was surprised to see this young girl stumbling down the road on her own.

The doctor on duty at the local hospital was astonished when upon arrival she produced a notebook containing a perfect drawing of a Western Diamondback.

Thats... what... bit me, she said, her arm badly swollen by now and her voice losing its strength.

Smart of you, noting everything down like that, he said as he injected the antivenom. Snake venom can kill in two hours.

Which was why from that day on, Ruby Redfort resolved to know every snake by the pattern of its skin such knowledge might just save your life.

WHEN RUBY WAS TEN , her father was due to take part in a tasting for the Olivarian Society, so called because in order to become a member of this esteemed club, one had to blind-taste twelve different types of olive, identifying the variety and the region in which they grew.

For reasons having to do with bad weather in Boston, Sabina Redfort had failed to make her Twinford flight and was stranded at the East Coast airport. Mrs. Digby, the housekeeper, was on her annual vacation. Brant Redfort refused to leave his daughter home alone, and his daughter refused to have a sitter. Therefore it was decided that Ruby would have to accompany her father to the club on Fuldecker Avenue, a grand old-fashioned building with plenty of carved wood and marble. It being highly irregular to bring a child to the club, Ruby was taken to the small club office, where she might read and wait out the two hours until her father was ready to go home.

Brant Redfort was blindfolded and led to a table on which twelve olive dishes were then placed. There were three olives that Brant Redfort found very difficult to place, but he filled in what he could, and, once finished, his completed papers along with the olives were returned to the club office.

Ruby, who was fond of olives, had been his home-study partner and now had a very keen palate and a wide appreciation for olives from all regions. She decided therefore to take the test herself and, finding her fathers answers to be good but not great (considering the time he had given to this pursuit, he should really have excelled), she amended his test sheet accordingly.