It was still raining. A dull, dreary gray rain, gray and unending.
I pressed my face to the window, leaving a foggy cloud imprinted on it. The
cars on the street below drove by, splashing up waves that sloshed into the gutter.
My Friday afternoon seemed to have a very dreary future. I turned from the window.
I better do my homework now before it piles up on Sunday.
My parents were out on some adult dinner with their friends, and my sister was on
a school orchestra trip- she wouldn't be back until next week. I was all alone in
the house except for my fluffy excuse of a bird who couldn't protect me if she tried.
I shuddered. I don't need protecting. This house is safe, all the doors are locked...this
is a safe neighborhood, I told myself firmly.
I returned to Mrs. Elroy's assignment and tried to form a response, but the words
didn't come. All I could think about was how I was alone in the house, and how the
scratching of my pencil seemed to sound rather loud in all this silence. The only sounds
that punctuated my studying were the woosh of cars driving by. I couldn't even hear my
dog downstairs.
I repeated the quote over and over in my mind, desperately trying to find a detail,
an example, a response.
"Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end..." I muttered. "Then stop..."
"Just what it says, my dear!" A high and chortling voice floated out of the air behind me.
I shrieked and dropped my pencil, spinning around in my chair.
A strange looking dog wearing a worn suit was sitting on my ceiling fan, laughing
down at me. "Just what it says! Don't read any more to the meaning, it's says what it
says and it means what it means!"
I gripped my chair and took a deep breath, steadying myself. "What do you want?" I
asked. My voice sounded bold, but inside my heart was pounding a million beats a
minute. "And get off my fan," I added. "It's going to break."
He leaped off the fan and flew at me, paws outstretched. I ducked and rolled to the
floor. The strange dog cackled and perched precariously on the top of my chair.
"Get off your fan, you say? You say what you said- did you mean what you meant?"
If this weren't real, this dog would just be a major irritation. But it was real, and
I was frightened. Who was he, and how did he get in? What did he want with me?
"What?" I whispered.
He laughed. The dog seemed jolly enough, but there was something in his amber eyes
that pinned mine, chilling and unstable.
This dog was crazy, I thought. I ignored the puzzling words he had said. "How
did you get in?"
"Cho, Cho, Cho!" He adjusted his polka dot bow tie and winked. "I know who you are.
Do you know who I am?"
He tipped his hat towards me and jerked open my window. Rain spattered my bed, the
wind tugging at my fur. "Mr. Maple, my dear!" He called. "The name is Mr. Maple!" He
leaped out my window, slamming my window shut behind him.
I ran to the window and looked down. There was nothing but clogged leaves in the street
gutter and cars rushing by. He was gone.
I love the story so far!
