My Secret Unicorn by Linda Chapman Page B

pleaded.
    â€˜No,’ Sidra replied. ‘It is just like being a Unicorn Friend. You must discover things for yourself. Although…’ she paused, ‘I will say that maybe trying to clean something in that chest would be a good idea. Twilight, you might want to help too.’
    â€˜I’ve got to clean something?’ Lauren said in astonishment.
    Sidra smiled. ‘Yes.’ She stepped forward and touched Lauren’s hair with her muzzle. ‘I am going to leave you now but I will be watching from Arcadia to see how you get on. Follow your heart. Goodbye – andgood luck!’ She soared into the air.
    â€˜Goodbye!’ Lauren and Twilight called.
    They watched her until Sidra had disappeared from sight, then Lauren looked at Twilight. ‘I wonder what she meant about cleaning something?’

    â€˜Let’s have another look through the chest,’ Twilight suggested.
    Lauren crouched down. She took out the little glass bottles first. They were all made of different coloured glass and had liquid inside them. ‘I wonder what’s in these?’
    She tried giving them a polish but nothing happened.
    Twilight nudged the scroll in the chest. ‘What’s that? Is there something written on it.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Lauren said, taking it out of the box. ‘It seems to be names and dates. I had a look just after Mrs Fontana died.’ She untied the ribbon and unrolled the scroll. There was a long list of names,most of them written in midnight-blue ink, but some at the end were written in purple. Next to each name there was another name, an address and then a date. Lauren started to read the list: ‘
Ellen Bradshaw, Silverdust, Fox Farm, Texington 1957; Margot Anderson, Cloud Star, 119 Paul Avenue, Silver Creek 1958
…’ She frowned. ‘It’s a list of people, addresses, unicorns and dates.’
    â€˜Maybe the dates are when they turned their ponies into unicorns for the first time?’ suggested Twilight.
    Lauren nodded, her eyes scanning the list. In the section near the bottom where the names were written in purple she found her own name and Twilight’s.‘Look, Twilight! It’s us! And then after us, there’s Michael and Moonshine’s names, then Grace and Currant. I wonder why we’re all written in purple ink?’
    Twilight looked thoughtful. ‘Perhaps the names in the purple ink are people who have unicorns now,’ he said slowly. ‘And the ones in the blue ink are people whose unicorns have gone back to Arcadia.’
    â€˜Yes!’ Lauren gasped, sure he was right. When a unicorn had done a lot of good then he or she left the human world and returned to the magic land of Arcadia.
    She looked at the purple writing. There were the names of at least ten more people, and then a couple of muchfainter names that she couldn’t quite read. She pointed. ‘I wonder if these faint names are people who
might
become Unicorn Friends or unicorns who haven’t found a special friend yet?’
    Twilight nodded and looked over her shoulder. ‘It’s weird to think that there are people living near us – people we don’t know – with unicorns.’
    â€˜Maybe this book will tell us more about them,’ said Lauren, taking out the purple book. It was old and the cover was very soft. Lauren began to turn the pages. There was entry after entry, all dated and written in Mrs Fontana’s handwriting. Lauren read a few of them but they were hard to understand becauseMrs Fontana had written in note form, using abbreviations.
Met GS in woods today,
Lauren read.
C is learning new magic all the time. Can now use RQ, UB and fly with US. Success breeds success but they must be careful – pride comes before a fall.
    Lauren read another few entries. They didn’t make much more sense. ‘I wish Mrs Fontana had written clearer notes. I can’t understand most of the things she’s