Sherlock Gnomes Movie Novelization Read online

  Chapter 5

  A new day had begun, and Gnomeo and Juliet were determined to start making their London home as beautiful as could be. The moment the rooster weather vane turned toward the garden, signaling that Mr. Montague and Ms. Capulet had left for the day, they unfroze themselves and got to work.

  Juliet had spent the entire night drawing up plans for the garden. Now it was time to put them into action. She directed the red gnomes to weed a patch of ground next to the house. When they were done, Juliet showed the blue gnomes how to turn over the dirt, preparing it for planting. While they were digging, she planted a whole bed of roses in another patch of garden that had miraculously not been covered in weeds.

  After the dirt had been tilled, Gnomeo took up a shovel and started to lay down the fertilizer. Nearby, Juliet found a hose with a spray attached to it. She attached the hose to a water spigot at the back of the house, turned it on, and started to water the scraggly bushes that formed a hedge on one side of the garden.

  When she was done, she went to see how Gnomeo was doing. He looked up and gave her a cheeky wink.

  Juliet giggled. “You’ve got some dirt on your face,” she told him. “Here, here, let me just get that for you.”

  Gnomeo smiled and closed his eyes. He leaned in—and got blasted with the spray hose.

  “Did I get it?” Juliet asked innocently.

  Gnomeo wiped his face, laughing. “Oh, you’re definitely gonna get it.” He dropped his shovel and chased Juliet through the garden, past gnomes planting new flowers and clipping vines off tree trunks.

  Juliet was quick, but Gnomeo caught her at the foot of the ladder leading up to the top of the wall. He was just about to give her a kiss when Benny came running over, dancing with excitement.

  “Gnomeo! Check out what I found!” Benny proudly held up an old flip phone.

  “Where’d you get that?” Gnomeo asked.

  Benny pointed to a shed in the far corner of the garden. “The not-gnomes left a bunch of amazing electronics in there.” He brought the phone up and snapped a photo.

  “Take one of me and Juliet!” Gnomeo wrapped his arm around Juliet. The two gnomes grinned happily.

  Just as Benny was about to take the picture, Juliet spotted Lord Redbrick uprooting some flowers she had planted that morning. Her smile faded as she watched her father undo her hard work.

  Flash! The flip phone froze the moment—Gnomeo beaming into the camera, Juliet looking distractedly into the distance.

  Juliet left Gnomeo and hurried over to Lord Redbrick. “Dad, I just planted those.”

  “They were too close together,” huffed Lord Redbrick. Even though he had agreed with Lady Bluebury to give control of the garden over to Juliet and Gnomeo, he still wasn’t quite ready to give up the reins. He looked worriedly at his daughter. “Juliet, are you sure you’re up to this?”

  Lady Bluebury rushed over and pulled Lord Redbrick away. “You are supposed to be retired,” she told him sternly. Unlike Lord Redbrick, she trusted her son and Juliet to know what they were doing.

  “Maybe I should put off my retirement,” Lord Redbrick said. “Just until the garden is up and running.”

  “Dad, I can do this,” Juliet said. Her father had always been protective of her, and she cared deeply about him, but it had been a long time since she hadn’t been able to take care of things herself.

  “Juliet!” called Gnomeo. “Come on, we’ve got some unfinished business!” He held up the spray hose and glanced mischievously at her.

  Juliet grinned. She was about to join Gnomeo when Lord Redbrick stopped her. “Remember, a good leader always puts the garden first,” he told his daughter. Deep down, he knew that Juliet was a capable leader, but he was worried that her love for Gnomeo would lead her to neglect her responsibilities to the garden.

  “Always put the garden first,” Juliet repeated. “Got it.” She ran back to Gnomeo.

  “All right, Lady Juliet. You ready to make a garden?” Gnomeo asked.

  Juliet nodded. “I was manufactured ready.”

  • • •

  Over the next few days, the gnomes worked hard on the garden. But none worked harder than Juliet. She weeded and mowed, planted and watered. There wasn’t a moment she wasn’t thinking about the next thing to do.

  Juliet did not take Lord Redbrick’s words lightly. As the soon-to-be leader of the gnomes, she felt the huge responsibility of making sure the garden came first—even if it meant less time with Gnomeo. As she worked harder and harder, the times when she could just relax with Gnomeo became fewer and fewer.

  One night Juliet returned back to Gnomeo, exhausted by the work she had done that day.

  “Hey, where have you been?” Gnomeo asked. He had been working in the garden too, but Juliet had promised him that they would have time to spend together that night.

  Juliet slumped into a chair. “Sorry, I got caught up in the garden.”

  Gnomeo pulled out the flip phone that Benny had found in the shed. “Well, Benny just showed me how to play movies on this thing. I got the scariest one I could find. Get ready for . . . The Constant Gardener!” He frowned. “Juliet?”

  Juliet had already closed her eyes. She was frozen in place.

  “And, you’re asleep,” Gnomeo said sadly. He turned off the movie. As he was about to close the phone, the photo Benny took of him and Juliet came up. Gnomeo looked at it—him, staring directly at the camera, and Juliet, looking completely distracted.

  Gnomeo sighed. It was as if the photo captured everything that he was feeling right then. He laid his head gently on Juliet’s and tried to fall asleep. But it was a long time before he did.

  Chapter 6

  Gnomeo woke bright and early the next morning, only to find that Juliet had already gone to the garden. He found her holding a goon by his ankles and thrusting his pointy hat into the dirt, making holes for seeds. “Hey, so, can we talk about the Seedling Ceremony for a second?” he asked. He had meant to bring it up the previous night, but Juliet had been asleep.

  Juliet didn’t even look up. “The Seedling Ceremony? Don’t we have more important things to do?”

  “Yeah, I know, but it’s fun to start thinking about. I thought maybe we could plant the Seedling over there—” Gnomeo pointed to the far corner of the garden, but Juliet wasn’t paying attention. She was too busy digging holes. “Juliet, can you stop for a second to look?” Gnomeo cried. He felt completely ignored.

  Juliet raised her head and scowled. “Fine. I’m looking.”

  Gnomeo dropped his hand. “You know what, forget it.”

  “I’m looking!” Juliet snapped.

  “I said, forget it,” Gnomeo snapped back.

  Juliet sighed. She loved Gnomeo, but she just didn’t have time to listen to him. Getting the garden into shape was more important. She folded her arms and walked away.

  Nanette hopped up to Gnomeo. “Ooh. That was painful to watch,” she said.

  “I don’t get it, Nanette,” said Gnomeo sadly. “Ever since we took over the garden, it’s like she drifts further away from me every day.” He knew that Juliet cared a lot about being a good leader, but it didn’t mean that she couldn’t have some fun while she was at it.

  Nanette hopped up and down. “You know what this calls for?” She brought the back of her hand to her forehead and pretended to swoon. “A grand romantic gesture! Something reckless and life-threatening. Something so dangerous that she questions your very sanity.”

  Gnomeo grimaced. Nanette’s idea sounded like it was going to be very painful.

  “I’ve got it!” gasped Nanette. She grabbed Gnomeo by the shoulders and gave him a deep, knowing look. “Go to the zoo and steal a lion. Then fight the lion in front of Juliet.”

  Gnomeo thought about it. As brave as he was, he didn’t stand a chance against razor-sharp teeth. “I’m not fighting a lion!” he protested.

  “It doesn’t have to be a lion,” Nanette said. “It could be a tiger, or an angry penguin. But you
must rekindle the spark. I remember the first time you met. She was gaga over you.” She sniffed. “Never saw the attraction myself.”

  “The first time we met!” Gnomeo snapped his fingers. “That’s it! I’ll get her our flower. If that doesn’t rekindle the spark, nothing will. Nanette, you’re a genius!”

  The night Gnomeo and Juliet had met, they were both trying to steal a rare flower, the Cupid’s Arrow orchid, from an abandoned greenhouse. Gnomeo could never forget how Juliet had glowed with beauty in the moonlight. Or how she had looked at him when the greenhouse glass had shattered beneath her feet and he had lunged out and saved her.

  Gnomeo gave Nanette a big smooch on the cheek. As Nanette wiped her face, Gnomeo went to find Benny. He found the little gnome kicking rocks into a mud puddle. “Hey, Benny, those gizmos you found—can they help me get an orchid?” Gnomeo asked. “The Cupid’s Arrow orchid?”

  Benny stopped kicking rocks and gave Gnomeo a big smile. “Step into my office,” he said.

  • • •

  Benny led Gnomeo past rows of newly planted tulip bulbs and freshly turned beds and over to an old creaky shed in a forgotten corner of the garden. He pulled open the door and beckoned for Gnomeo to enter.

  It was warm and dusty inside the shed. Gnomeo squinted as Benny shut the door, trying to make out his surroundings in the sudden dark. He saw Benny jump onto a low shelf and pull back an old potato sack like a curtain. Behind the sack was a dingy laptop, two old cell phones, and a webcam. Benny had set up the shelf like a gnome surveillance van.

  “Ta-da!” Benny said proudly. He pried open the laptop. As the monitor came to life, a photo of Benny and Nannette floated across the screen.

  “Um, that was on the computer when I found it,” Benny said hurriedly, tapping on the laptop keys to get rid of his screen saver.

  “Yeah, mate. Yeah, sure it was,” Gnomeo teased.

  Benny dropped his head. “Right, image search,” he muttered, trying to cover his embarrassment.

  “Type in ‘Cupid’s Arrow orchid,’ ” Gnomeo instructed.

  Benny slowly started to type. Four minutes later, he had tapped out the first four letters of “Cupid’s Arrow orchid.”

  Gnomeo was beginning to lose his patience. “You have to hit it, just click it, just click the thing, you don’t have to type the whole sentence,” he groaned.

  “Tell me when you see it. Tell me when you see it,” said Benny. He continued to type very, very slowly.

  Gnomeo scanned the list results. “There!” he shouted, jabbing his finger at the screen. “That’s the one. The first time we met we were trying to get one of those.” He took over from Benny, and started clicking until he landed on a website of a flower shop. There, in a glass display case, was the Cupid’s Arrow orchid!

  “So we just need to find that flower shop,” Benny said. He clicked on the directions. “Zero point eight miles. And looks like there’s a massive blue line on the ground you can follow. Isn’t that handy?”

  “Let’s do this!” cried Gnomeo. He was ready for his grand romantic gesture for Juliet.

  Together, Gnomeo and Benny made a plan. Benny took one of the cell phones off the shelf and taped it to Gnomeo’s back. He took up the second cell phone and dialed a number. Gnomeo’s cell phone began to ring. Gnomeo reached behind his back and answered the call, connecting his cell phone with Benny’s.

  Next, Benny took his webcam and fastened it to Gnomeo’s hat. He checked the audio and visual outputs on his laptop. “I’ll have eyes and ears on you at all times. You need something, say the word,” he told his best buddy. He finished securing the surveillance equipment to Gnomeo with an extra roll of tape, then stood back, admiring his work. “All right, mate,” he told Gnomeo. “Let’s go liberate a flower.”

  Chapter 7

  That night, Gnomeo waited until the other gnomes had gone to bed before he snuck out of the garden. Holding his breath, he peeked around the corner and into the street. There were no humans in sight.

  Following Benny’s directions, he scampered down eight blocks, hung a right, took three lefts, backtracked twice, and finally came to the flower shop he had seen on Benny’s laptop. As he ducked into some shrubs, a voice crackled over the cell phone.

  “Tiny Dancer. Come in, Tiny Dancer. This is Benny one-oh-one dash brackets, the Benlord, closed brackets, exclamation mark, smiley face emoji, dollar sign, dollar sign.”

  “You have got to pick another code name,” Gnomeo moaned.

  “There’s no time,” Benny said. He hit a few keys on his laptop. “Okay, Tiny Dancer, I’ve got eyes and ears on you and I’m definitely following you and not any of these seven other windows I have open.”

  Gnomeo waited for the foot traffic to subside outside the flower shop. When the coast was clear, he sprinted across the street and into the alley next to the shop. “Benny, can you . . .”

  “Benny one-oh-one dash brackets, the Benlord, closed brackets, exclamation mark, smiley face emoji, dollar sign, dollar sign, yes?” came the voice on the other end of the line.

  Gnomeo rolled his eyes. “Can you pull up the shop’s blueprints and show me the best entry point?”

  Back in the shed, Benny had an audience. Several gnomes had poked their heads into the open shed door and invited themselves up onto the surveillance shelf. They had gathered in front of the open laptop where Benny was typing away. “Yes, I can . . . no, I can’t. Over,” he said. Up on the screen, instead of looking for entry points, he had banged out “sdfoijsods1146356f” into a Word document.

  “Hmm.” Gnomeo was beginning to doubt whether Benny was actually going to help him. He scanned the side the building. “I see a ventilation shaft a few feet up. Will that get me inside?”

  “I have no idea,” said Benny. “It might. Over.”

  Gnomeo sighed. He hunted along the alley until he found what he needed—an old, dirty penny half hidden under a trash bag. He picked up the coin, sprinted down the alley, and leaped onto a garbage can. He grabbed on to the grille of the ventilation shaft and removed its screws using the penny. The grille clattered the ground.

  Gnomeo glanced around to see if anyone had heard. The alley remained deserted. He turned and heaved himself into the ventilation shaft. He wiggled down the shaft until he came to another grille. With a swift kick, the grille fell to the ground. Gnomeo jumped through and landed as quietly as he could. “All right, I’m in,” he whispered.

  “Nice work, Tiny Dancer!” Benny cheered. He closed three browsers on his screen and brought the webcam view onto the laptop. He could see flower bouquets and garden plants arranged on three-tiered stands and inside glass display cases. He could also see red sensor beams moving over every surface. “Okay, those red beams must be the burglar alarm,” said Benny. “What’s your plan, Tiny D?”

  Gnomeo shrugged his shoulders. “Oh, just the usual, totally gonna wing it, risk life and limb, escape by the skin of my teeth. I call it, ‘pulling a Gnomeo.’ ” He paused. “And don’t call me Tiny D.”

  Gathering up his energy, he vaulted across the shop, barely missing the motion detector beams. He hurried over to the display case where the Cupid’s Arrow orchid was. He shook the door. “The case—it’s locked!” he said.

  “Do you have a rocket-powered grenade launcher, Tiny Dancer?” Benny asked.

  Gnomeo groaned. “Seriously?”

  “Oh. Well then just find a paper clip, jam it in the lock, and wiggle it around a bit.”

  “All right,” said Gnomeo doubtfully. He looked carefully around him. Up on the counter next to the cash register, he could see a dish full of thumbtacks, rubber bands—and paper clips!

  Dodging and weaving past the motion sensor beams, Gnomeo made it to the counter. He hopped up onto a chair and sprang up once more, landing on the counter. He plucked a paper clip up from the dish and returned to the display case. He unbent the paper clip until it was a long thin wire then jammed it into the lock. After a few jimmies, the lock popped open. Gnomeo had done it
!

  Back in the shed, Benny and the gnomes were glued to the laptop. “Huh, I can’t believe that worked!” Benny said.

  “Hey, Benny,” called a voice.

  Benny whirled around. It was Juliet!

  “Have you seen Gnomeo?” she asked.

  “No . . . well . . . maybe.” Benny winced.

  Juliet glanced at the laptop and saw Gnomeo delicately lifting the Cupid’s Arrow orchid out of its vase. “Is that Gnomeo?” she gasped. “Where is he? What is he doing?”

  Gnomeo heard Juliet’s voice over the cell phone. He swung around and the webcam on his hat hit the vase, knocking it off the shelf.

  “No!” Gnomeo cried. He reached out and barely managed to grab the vase before it plummeted to the ground. He wiped his forehead and heaved a sigh of relief.

  Behind him, the plinth holding the vase began to topple.

  Gnomeo turned just in time to see the plinth tip off the display case. With a horrendous crack, it hit the floor and broke into a thousand pieces.

  The burglar alarm began to wail.

  “Oh, fertilizer.” Holding the Cupid’s Arrow orchid, Gnomeo leaped down from the display case. He skirted past the shattered plinth, making a beeline for the ventilation shaft. When he reached it, he jumped up—but the shaft opening was too high!

  Outside the shop, sirens blared, and blue and white lights flashed as a police car pulled up. Gnomeo saw the silhouettes of two officers heading toward the front door. “Next time, remember to have an escape plan,” he told himself. “If there is a next time.” He took a deep breath, gathered up his strength, and made a second jump to reach the shaft.

  Gnomeo bonked against the wall and tumbled back down. It was no use. He wasn’t going to make it. He turned toward the entrance of the flower shop. He could see the policemen rattling at the lock.

  Gnomeo froze. In seconds, he would be discovered and his quest for the Cupid’s Arrow orchid would come to a horrible end.

  Suddenly, a familiar face popped out of the ventilation shaft.