Meanwhile, back in London, everyone was busy getting ready for the trip.

  Mrs. Brown was packing her art materials. She found an old game of Travel Scrabble. That might come in useful, she thought. Smiling, she added it to the contents of her suitcase.

  Mr. Brown was hurrying along the aisles of his local pharmacy, sweeping giant cans of bug spray, medicines, and sunscreen into his basket. He suddenly noticed a pair of cool sunglasses. They were a bit like the ones Zayden wore . . .

  Maybe they will suit the new adventurous me, Mr. Brown thought. He abandoned his basketful of sensible shopping and just bought the sunglasses instead.

  Paddington was in the attic doing his own bit of packing. He unfolded two travel toothbrushes and inspected them curiously. Then he tested them both in his ears. Perfect! he thought as he folded them back up and put them in his suitcase.

  Judy was throwing some new notebooks and a camera into her bag. She found her old Dictaphone as well and pressed a button to see if it still worked. “Nice buns!” said a familiar voice.

  “Yup, still working.” Judy nodded approvingly.

  Jonathan was playing video games while his Snack Hack packed his bag for him. It picked up some boxer shorts and automatically sprayed them with Teenage Boy deodorant. Then it packed the deodorant too!

  Mrs. Bird opened her suitcase, put a toolbox inside, and then shut it. She didn’t seem to think she would need anything else!

  The Browns and Mrs. Bird all shut their suitcases one after the other.

  CLICK!

  CLICK!

  CLICK!

  CLICK!

  CLICK!

  Paddington’s suitcase was filled to the brim with jars of marmalade. He forced the lid shut by sitting on it . . . and then bumped down the stairs, riding on his suitcase.

  They were ready to go to Peru!

  Chapter Four

  A Strange Statue

  A short while later . . .

  Mr. Gruber and Paddington were sitting inside Gruber’s Antiques on the Portobello Road, enjoying a pot of tea together while the rain pelted against the windows. A storm was blowing outside, but inside the shop it was cosy and warm.

  “Paddington in Peru, eh?” said Mr. Gruber. “That sounds splendid. When are you off?”

  “First thing tomorrow!” Paddington replied. “Did you know there was such a thing as ‘six o’clock in the morning,’ Mr. Gruber?” He was rather overexcited. “I can’t wait to see Aunt Lucy—and try this out, of course.” Paddington pushed his shiny new passport over to Mr. Gruber.

  Mr. Gruber opened it. He looked rather surprised when he saw the photo of Paddington’s squished face and his funny expression.

  “I’m Officially British now, you know!” Paddington was saying. He held his teacup delicately, his little furry finger pointing out in an unusually refined manner. Then he promptly gulped the tea down, poured the milk into his mouth straight from the jug, and tossed in some sugar cubes!

  “And not before time,” said Mr. Gruber approvingly. “We are very lucky to have you, Mr. Brown!” He had a sudden thought. “Oh! I have something for Judy . . . for your trip.” Mr. Gruber disappeared into the back of his shop and called out over his shoulder, “Help yourself to a bun.”

  As Paddington ate his bun, he found himself drawn to a small wooden bear statue in the middle of a bookshelf. He approached the statue, staring at it, and the statue peered back at him. Paddington looked even more closely. Then, suddenly . . .

  KABOOM!

  A flash of lightning from the storm outside lit up the shop, and . . . the statue seemed to come alive for a moment and roared!

  “RORRRAGH!”

  Paddington gasped. He saw a flash of golden light, a splash of water, and for a split second he wasn’t in Mr. Gruber’s shop anymore. Instead, he was back in the deep, dense rainforest of his homeland.

  Mr. Gruber returned from his storeroom holding a vintage book. “A guidebook to Peru for Judy!” he said. His voice snapped Paddington out of his strange trance. “It is somewhat old, perhaps,” Mr. Gruber went on. “Ignore the chapter on ‘Zeppelin Travel’ . . .”

  Mr. Gruber looked up to see Paddington frozen in shock. “Mr. Brown?” Mr. Gruber asked. “Have you been seeing a ghost?”

  “Mr. Gruber . . . that statue . . .” Paddington stammered. “What is it?”

  “It is one of my South American bob-a-ma-things,” said Mr. Gruber, examining it. “Oh, it is coming from Peru, like you.”

  Paddington said, “It just . . . ROARED! Like it was . . . speaking to me?”

  Mr. Gruber regarded the statue—it clearly was only a statue and could not have spoken. But he smiled at Paddington and said, “I understand, Mr. Brown. Things from my homeland speak to me all the time.”

  Paddington frowned. “It was very strange, Mr. Gruber.”

  Mr. Gruber looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he glanced again at Paddington’s passport. “Mr. Brown . . . you know, becoming a citizen of a new country, while a wonderful thing, can lead to . . . well, mixed feelings.”

  Paddington picked up his passport. He looked unsure. “Oh, not me, Mr. Gruber . . . my feelings are very much unmixed.”

  Mr. Gruber did not seem convinced.

  Paddington looked at the statue again. “You said it was from Peru. I think I’ll speak to Aunt Lucy about it—she’ll know what it means.” He turned to leave—but Mr. Gruber stopped him. “Paddington! Your umbrella!”

  “Oh, yes!” said Paddington. “Mustn’t leave my Windsorman Deluxe. After all, I am going to a rainforest . . .”

  Chapter Five

  Time for Takeoff!

  The Browns and Paddington were off to Peru!

  On the plane, Barry the flight attendant was leading them in the safety demonstration. “Make sure your tray table is securely stowed . . .” he was saying.

  Paddington obediently put up his table.

  “And your seatbelt securely fastened . . .” Barry continued.

  Paddington clipped his belt.

  Barry went on to demonstrate how the life jacket worked: “Pull the red cord to inflate your life jacket . . .”

  Paddington had somehow managed to put on his life jacket, even though he was still sitting in his seat. He thought he should obey Barry’s instruction, so he pulled the red cord and . . . WHOOMPH! The lifejacket instantly inflated.

  Barry looked shocked.

  “They didn’t mean now, Paddington!” said Mr. Brown.

  A few hours later, the plane landed in Lima. When Paddington showed his passport, the officer behind the glass partition frowned at the squished face in the photo, just as Mr. Gruber had done. Then he looked back at Paddington, confused. Paddington quickly pulled a silly face and squished his face up against the glass so that it matched his face in the photo. The officer nodded and seemed satisfied that it was indeed Paddington’s passport. He stamped it, then waved him through.

  The Brown family took a little yellow and white taxi-bus from Lima airport and went through the main square of the city, which was bustling with activity. People in colorful clothing were selling rainbow-striped fabrics, hats, bags, and musical instruments. There were mountainous piles of all kinds of fruit and vegetables and there was a lot of joyful shouting as the stallholders called out to passersby to tempt them to buy their wares. The Browns passed a band of musicians dressed in beautiful red jackets and little black hats. They were playing wonderful lively music.

  The Browns soon left the town and continued their journey along a desert road. Paddington opened the window to take in the sights. The breathtaking green Andes mountains rose up into a clear blue sky, their tops dusted with snow. The road wound alongside a crystal-blue river and lush green fields in which flocks of llamas were grazing. The road went up and up into the mountains, taking the taxi along a very narrow road on a cliff edge above an incredibly steep, rather scary drop.

  “Nice view, huh?” asked the taxi driver.

  Mr. Brown peered out of the window in terror and whispered to himself, “Embrace the risk . . . embrace the risk . . .” He flipped down his “cool” sunglasses and tried to remain calm, but he was terrified by how high they were going.

  Meanwhile Judy was talking into her Dictaphone, flicking through her vintage guidebook. “Peru Travelogue, day one,” she said. “To understand Peru, you must know its history . . . First came the Incas, who built Machu Picchu and other great cities in the jungle . . . Then came the Spanish Conquest, in which tall ships crossed the ocean with men seeking gold. The greediest of all of these was a man called Gonzalo Caboto, who was desperate to find a legendary place called El Dorado . . .”

  Jonathan leaned in and interrupted. “You mean that piri-piri chicken shop on Edgware Road?” he asked.

  Judy snapped off the Dictaphone impatiently. “This is for my uni application! It’s really competitive!”

  Jonathan rolled his eyes. “Sounds like effort.”

  They stopped for a break and Paddington posed while Judy took a photo of him with a small crowd of smiling Peruvian village children. Paddington politely raised his hat to a passing llama—and it promptly ate his marmalade sandwich! Then he and the Browns got back into the taxi-bus, and it took them down out of the mountains. The road was long and winding, and Paddington was soon fast asleep.

  He was stirred from his slumber sometime later by a familiar scent. He pushed his snout through the open window to take a bigger sniff and let out a low contented growl. He recognized the smell: It was the Amazon rainforest, which stretched endlessly into the distance.

  Mr. Brown was not looking out of the window. Instead, he was nose deep in a Risk Manual of Peru.

  “Why have you brought that?” Mrs. Brown asked. “I thought you were supposed to be ‘embracing risk’?”

  Mr. Brown looked embarrassed. “I am! I’m just . . . researching which risk to embrace first.” He went back to his book, which showed a huge spider called a purple-kneed tarantula. “Actual size,” he muttered to himself in horror.

  “I think we’re here!” Mrs. Brown cried as the taxi-bus slowed to a stop.

  Paddington pressed his face and paws against the window in excitement. He stared out at a low, cozy-looking building, peacefully nestled in the trees. It had a neat, thatched roof and steps leading up to a cool, shaded entrance where two nuns were standing smiling. They were dressed in long, dark-blue habits and white headdresses. Next to this house was a simple white church with a bell tower and a red-tiled roof. Nuns came and went from the church along a dusty path, smiling and chatting, and old bears rested on sun loungers under colorful parasols. There was a welcoming sign that read “Home for Retired Bears.”

  The door practically fell off its hinges as Paddington leaped out of the taxi-bus and ran up the steps.

  “Aunt Lucy, we’re here!” he cried.

  Mr. and Mrs. Brown stumbled out behind Paddington, rubbing their sore backs, with Judy, Jonathan, and Mrs. Bird following. The Reverend Mother approached them with a serious look on her face. But Paddington hurried past her toward the cabins, clutching his hat and calling out, “Aunt Lucy!” He rushed on past two nuns, raising his hat politely. “Hello, good afternoon!” he said. He didn’t notice them exchange a look of concern. Eventually Paddington found a cabin with Aunt Lucy’s name on it and ran up to the door, crying, “Aunt Lucy, it’s me!” as he burst inside.

  But . . . it was empty.

  Paddington was puzzled. “Aunt Lucy?” he said as he looked around her neat and tidy room. He quickly checked the wardrobe. He even checked under the bed. There was no sign of her.

  When he got back to his feet, he saw that the Browns had appeared at the door, accompanied by the Reverend Mother.

  “I . . . I’m afraid there’s some bad news,” she said, looking grave.

  Paddington glanced at Mrs. Brown, who looked worried. Then he saw that all the Browns had the same expression, and he began to feel more and more anxious by the minute.

  Chapter Six

  A Worrying Turn of Events

  Paddington and the Browns followed the Reverend Mother into her office. They sat down opposite her and her silent assistant, Rosita.

  “Missing?” Paddington repeated. “Whatever do you mean?”

  The Reverend Mother looked at Paddington, her hands clasped. “Just that,” she said. “She’s gone. And we have no idea where she is.”

  The Browns looked at one another, confused.

  “What do you mean ‘gone’?” asked Mr. Brown.

  “She seems to have set off on some kind of quest into the jungle,” explained the Reverend Mother.

  “Now?” said Paddington. “But she knew we were coming!”

  The Reverend Mother nodded. “That’s what’s so mysterious. She was very excited about seeing you and she was counting the days to your arrival.” She sighed thoughtfully, then went on. “But I’m afraid to say that, since I wrote to you, your aunt’s behavior has become even more worrying. She seemed to be researching something. Whatever it was, she was obsessed with it. She wouldn’t let me see what it was she was working on. She was very secretive about the whole thing. Then last night Rosita and I went to check on her—and she wasn’t there.”

  Paddington paced anxiously. “This isn’t like Aunt Lucy. Something’s wrong. We need to send out a search party!”

  The Reverend Mother produced a small cardboard box. “We already did, my dear,” she said sadly. “All they found were these, washed down the river.”

  Paddington was filled with dread as he pulled out Aunt Lucy’s bracelet—it was made of strands of colored string knotted together and had a talisman of a bear threaded on to it. The bracelet was covered in mud.

  “Aunt Lucy’s bracelet!” said Paddington. “She’d never take this off, unless—” He stopped himself. Then he noticed something else in the box. He fished out Aunt Lucy’s broken glasses. The others gasped.

  “Oh dear,” said Mr. Brown.

  The Browns exchanged a hurried glance. Things did not look good.

  “Oh no, Paddington!” said Mrs. Brown.

  “I don’t know what’s happened to her, Mrs. Brown,” said Paddington, “but she’s out there. She may be hurt, or in trouble. She can’t see without her glasses and I . . . I have to find her.” He sounded so worried.

  Mr. Brown glanced over at a large wall map of the Amazon. He put a comforting hand on Paddington’s shoulder. “Look, Paddington,” he said, “I hate to say this, but the Amazon is quite . . .”

  Rosita interrupted him by turning a little handle next to the map. A pair of wooden panels slowly slid apart, revealing even more of the map.

  Paddington looked at it in awe.

  “. . . large,” finished Mr. Brown, hopelessly.

  Rosita started turning the handle again and the panels pulled back farther to reveal even more of the map. The Reverend Mother gave a discreet shake of her head to make it clear to Rosita that she was not helping. Seeing how big the Amazon really was made Paddington even more anxious.

  He turned to face the others, his big brown eyes wet with tears. “We have to try,” he insisted. “She would never give up on me.”

  “Paddington,” Mrs. Brown said gently, “the answer to one bear getting lost is not another bear getting even more lost.”

  The Reverend Mother agreed. “Alas, there’s nothing any of us can do tonight. And you must be tired after your journey. Our path will be clearer in the morning. The nuns will show you to your rooms.”

  Paddington nodded miserably.

  The Browns shuffled out, with Paddington behind them. The Reverend Mother put her hand on his arm.

  “All it takes to light the darkness is one candle of faith,” she said. “Something will turn up.”

  Paddington smiled weakly. “Thank you, Reverend Mother,” he said. Then he left, gently closing the door behind him.

  “So sad,” said the Reverend Mother, picking up her guitar and strumming a mournful chord.

  Back in Aunt Lucy’s cabin, Paddington struck a match in the darkness. It lit up his worried expression.

  “Where are you, Aunt Lucy?” he asked. He looked at Aunt Lucy’s bracelet, which he was now wearing himself. Then he went to light a candle on Aunt Lucy’s desk. “What were you looking for?” he continued. “If only you had left me some sort of clue . . .”

  The candle cast a shaft of light across the room, which landed directly on a framed picture on the wall of Aunt Lucy with a younger Paddington. There was a document tucked in behind the picture!

  “Oh, my goodness!” he cried. “This must be it!” But Paddington had not seen the document. Instead he was fiddling with a floorboard. “This floorboard’s loose!” he said. “Perhaps there’s a secret compartment or . . .” He stamped on the floorboard to loosen it, but it catapulted up and hit him straight in the face!

  He tumbled across the room, banging into the wall. This caused the document to come free from behind the picture and it landed in his lap. He unfolded it carefully, his eyes widening . . .

  Chapter Seven

  The Hunt Begins

  The next morning, Mr. Brown went to the reception of the Home for Retired Bears to make a phone call.

  “I’d like to report a missing bear, please . . . Umm, about five foot two, brown eyes, brown fur . . . in fact, just brown . . . in the jungle . . . Yes, we’ve lost a jungle bear in the jungle.” He frowned. “I’m not sure I like your tone!” he added.

  The rest of the Brown family was glumly picking at their breakfast as Mr. Brown came back into the room.

  “Any luck with the police?” Mrs. Brown asked.

  Mr. Brown looked fed up. “Apparently, they are ‘too busy looking for lost fish in the river,’” he said with heavy sarcasm.

  Mrs. Bird was by the breakfast bar. She started bobbing up and down, bending her knees.

  “Everything all right, Mrs. Bird?” asked Judy.

  “I’ve got that twinge in my knees,” Mrs. Bird explained. “There’s something odd about Aunt Lucy leaving like that with no explanation.” She looked uncertainly at Rosita and the other nuns at the breakfast bar.

 

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