Late at night, after the garden party…
Makin' up a song about Coraline!
She's a doll, she's a peach, she's a pal of mine!
She's cute as a button in the eyes of everyone who ever laid their eyes…
Coraline woke and screamed that silent scream, where the voice inside of you is just too scared to come out. Eyes, eyes, eyes. She was frantic, her sheets all askew, and in her blind tantrum she knocked the black cat to the floor. Buttons, eyes, don't sew them!
But she soon realized that she was in her own room, her own house, in her own real Ashland, Oregon. Of course, you had to be careful. There were other places that looked just like this.
The black cat meowed loudly and tried to jump back onto the bed, but only clawed at the blanket and slipped off once more.
"Sorry, Cheshire," Coraline apologized. Cheshire was what she had named him. It only seemed proper, but the black cat didn't take well to the title. So, he put his ears back in detest before hopping onto the mattress, successfully this time. Nuzzling Coraline's face, he stared into her eyes knowingly.
"Yeah," she told her pet. "It's gonna be hard to get rid of all that." Cheshire nodded ever so slightly and curled back on the girl's lap. In no time, after a few minutes of running her hands through the cat's fur, both were fast asleep.
The next morning…
"Coraline! It's late! Get out of bed, already!"
The girl grumbled and reached for her nightstand to steady herself as she rose from her bed. Looking around, she realized that it was late in the day. The sun was shining very brightly through her windows, the black cat was already clawing at the door, and when she looked at her clock, it read 11:23 AM.
For a twelve year-old, it was the latest she'd ever slept.
"Cheshire, please don't ruin the floor…"
The mangy cat looked back at her, cocked his head, and resumed scratching. Too tired to do much else, Coraline threw a small pillow at him.
"Cheshire, I know you can understand me! Stop scratching!"
In response, he gave her a bored look and stepped aside, allowing her to open the door once she'd put on slippers and her shawl. Together, they sluggishly trundled down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Mrs. Mel Jones sat reading a magazine with a cup of coffee in hand. While taking a sip, she looked up to examine her groggy daughter.
"It's about time," she joked. "I was afraid I would have to come and get you."
Through half-closed eyes, the disheveled girl moved silently to the kitchen table and sat down, laying her head in her arms. Cautiously, her mother poked her with a pencil.
"Hiiisssssssssssss." That was all Coraline got out, and it was all that was needed to revert Mel back to her editorials. When her daughter was satisfied by the silence, she was about to get up when…
"Hi ho, Jones family!" Coraline put her head back down again – Dad just entered the room.
"How you doin' sweetie?" he asked her, kissing her head. She stayed silent, still too sleepy to really move. Her mother replied for her instead.
"She woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."
"Ah, I know that feeling," Charlie nodded. "And I also know how to cure it! Lemme just and go and get something first."
He ran off into the dining room, and Coraline raised her eyes to watch him go. She expected him back within a minute, but what she failed at that morning was expecting him to come back the same way.
Soon, father and daughter were on the floor, laughing uncontrollably and writhing to get away from the tickle monster, as Dad called it. Uncle, uncle…
"Uncle, uncle, uncle!!" Coraline shouted, and only then did her father stop the torture. Both sat up laughing, and then stood up. Mr. Jones fixed a crick in his back while the twelve year-old kept stumbling from dizziness. Then, they both sat down.
Coraline noticed something wrong, and she asked "Mom, what are you doing with your face?"
Mel was trying to hide it. She didn't do it too much. But the laughter wouldn't stop until it was released, and when she let go, the whole family broke out giggling.
"Now," mom tried between laughs. "Who wants some breakfast?"
About midday the same day…
"So, whaddya wanna do today?"
"I dunno, whadda you wanna do today?"
"I dunno, whadda you wannado today?"
"Shut up."
The two small figures hiked up the hill, one with some mechanism trailing after him, the other in a bright yellow jacket and Wellington boots. Wybie had nothing better to do, and Coraline was bored.
"So, when do you go back to school?" the boy asked. Coraline groaned and replied in a distasteful way.
"September 6th. And I get to go to good 'ole John Muir Junior High!" She spat in front of her to emphasize the enmity.
"Aw man!" Wybie countered. "I go back August 25th, 'cause my school didn't make up a few snow days last year! You private school kids are so lucky."
Coraline nodded, then looked at him confused. "Wait. Tomorrow's the 25th!"
"Tell me about it."
She couldn't believe him. Wybie - the weirdest, laziest, most forgetful kid in Ashland. Strange that both schools were across the street from each other and one started before the other. She collected herself from her puzzlement.
"So, who'll I beat on for a week if the punching bag's not here?"
Wybie stopped and gave her look that said 'really?' Then he sat on his bike and looked down the hill, where the driveway led into a crop of forest.
"You haven't explored everywhere, ya know," he told her.
"Oh, really?" Coraline knew that there wasn't much around the Pink Palace she didn't know about. She'd gone from the edge of the apple orchard all the way to the Lovat's house, and even discovered an old tennis court in the woods. But she was curious, and listened to Wybie's response.
He pointed down the road. "Down that way is a pond, with a few houses around it. It's not far."
Coraline strained to see, but the sight of any shiny water eluded her. Little Wybourn continued.
"The Gaimans and the Lenards are nice, and they both have kids. Then there are a couple of other houses I don't know much about."
Coraline was still focused on looking for the water. She turned her head right, left, up, down, and even twisted it to see through the trees. Wybie shook his head and pushed her away from him.
"You can't see it from here!" he revealed. "You have to go down the river a little bit 'til you reach the pond."
"But I thought the river led down to that lake?"
"It does… eventually. But first, it hits the pond."
"I don't remember seeing a pond on the way up here. Never."
"That's because you weren't looking for it."
Coraline gave her "friend" (emphasis on the quotation marks) a sour look. Wybie had been getting a lot of those lately… from everyone. He took out his turret helmet and hopped on his bike.
"I'll show you, if you want."
The girl glowered even more. "You want me to ride with you?"
"No," he replied plainly. "Just run behind."
And with that he zoomed off down the hill, almost crashed twice, and disappeared into the woods. Without a second thought, Coraline followed.
A few moments later…
Huffing and puffing, trying to keep up with Wybie without exploding, Coraline slowed to a stop at the bottom of the hill. The ground evened out nicely, and the area was surrounded by the familiar trees with the little river babbling between them all. Wybie stood near the dirt road, covered in mud and still sporting his turret helmet. As Coraline approached him, he flipped it up, and pointed in a general direction.
"Those houses over there," he announced, "belong to the Gaimans and the Lenards. You can see the pond in the back."
He pointed farther down the road.
"That one is the Fords." Then he grinned mischieviously at the out-of-breath girl in front of him.
"And now, you have to run back up."
"What?!" Coraline yelled, but Wybie had already pedaled a couple hundred yards away. Cursing to herself, Miss Jones stumbled after him, up the driveway. As she exhausted herself further, a warm summer rain began to fall.
About the time that some people have tea…
Slamming the door open and scowling at no one in particular, Coraline stamped into the house, completely drenched. Her father was in the living room at the time, and looked over to see what the commotion was.
"Good gosh, Coraline!" he exclaimed. "You're soaked to the bone!"
Without a word, his daughter tore off her coat, removed her boots, and carefully placed her hat and gloves on the noisy old radiator to dry. Then she ran up the stairs to her room so she could find some new clothes.
Once she'd put on a mismatched outfit of sweatpants and a zebra sweater, she trundled downstairs and sat with her dad on the sofa. In an instant, he procured a mug of hot chocolate from the table next to him.
"I know it's really not the season, but you looked like you needed it." He smiled at the shivering girl, who gratefully accepted it and took a long gulp to warm herself up. Once she'd gotten comfortable, she thanked him and asked about the other houses.
"Did you ever go to meet the families down the street?" Her father pondered this for a second.
"Ya know, I don't believe we ever said hello." He wasn't really interested, so he kept watching CNN while Coraline stared off into space. Then, out of the blue:
"Could I go meet them tomorrow?"
"You could. Tomorrow's Monday, though, and both your mother and I have to work."
"I just wanna introduce myself."
"I'm all for it."
The next morning…
"You're listening to Kiss 107 FM… wake up Oregon! It's seven o'clock! Time to go to work, school, or back to bed – I don't judge. Here's a little something to get you out from that slumber…"
Just as The Plain White T's started to play, a hand burst from beneath the blankets and slammed the radio off. Already awake, Coraline Jones lifted the covers, sat up, and immediately went to the bathroom.
Once she was actually awake, she listened for signs of life around the house – the tap tap tap of Dad's computer, or the usual discontented sigh of her mother. When she heard nothing, she snuck to their bedroom door and peered in, only to find them both still asleep.
Satisfied that she was all to herself, Coraline bounded down the stairs, dropped a pastry into the toaster, and switched on the TV. Happily munching on a Pop Tart and watching Spongebob, she pulled out yesterday's crossword puzzle, which her dad had failed to finish.
12-letter word for an element of danger.
"Perilousness."
7-letter word for a comfortable feeling.
"Leisure."
16-letter world for not being understood.
"Incomprehensible"
Coraline giggled at the thought of her dad managing this stuff. She got it from mom, instead.
The twelve year-old spent about a half an hour doing this. When she couldn't figure any more crosswords out, she dropped the paper on the sofa, cleaned up her breakfast, and switched off the tube. About ten minutes from then, her mother would come down, make a cup of coffee, and turn it right back on again.
Looking out the window, Coraline saw that yesterday's rain had brought on a following of sunshine. The water clung onto the flowers and trees outside, and a wet spider web made a lovely sculpture in the morning light. Rushing back upstairs to put clothes on, the black cat entered the room through the slightly opened window. Coraline had opened it because the sound of rain actually helped her to fall asleep.
"Meow," Cheshire greeted. Coraline rubbed his back as she passed him and he immediately started to purr loudly. She grabbed from her dresser a pair of jeans and a green T-shirt, then put her denim jacket over it. Back in the kitchen, her Wellingtons were soon on her feet, the gloves hat off of the radiator, and she was ready to go. Quietly opening the utility drawer, she pulled out a notepad and a pen to scribble a message.
GONE EXPLORING
Back for breakfast
She left it next to the coffee machine, where one of her parents would surely find it, and skipped out the door with the black cat trailing behind.