It would take at least half an hour to ride to Penguin Palace Bowling Club and they wanted him to put in a full hour of work before school. When he wheeled his bike inside the club gate, Davey shuddered at the sight that met his eyes. The green looked as if a herd of elephants had stampeded across it. He had a flashback to the sight of Max peeing in the hole. The horror! ‘You must be David!’ a tanned, grey-haired man wearing faded green overalls greeted him. ‘Everyone calls me Davey,’ Davey replied, ‘except Mr Mudge, of course.’ The man straightened up from weeding the flowerbed and smiled. ‘And what does Vernon, I mean Mr Mudge, call you?’ ‘WARRR-NER!’ Davey replied, giving his best impersonation of Mudge. The old man chuckled. ‘Nice to meet you, Davey. I’m Trevor and I’m the greenkeeper here.’ They shook hands. Trevor glanced at Davey’s backpack. ‘Is there a dog in your bag, by any chance?’ ‘Uh, no,’ Davey squirmed, ‘not this time, anyway.’ ‘Made quite a mess, he did.
