KITCHEN - THE NEXT MORNING
It's POURING outside. Coraline looks out a window at the dead-looking garden, and places packets of seeds - pumpkins, squash, snap dragons, bleeding hearts - on the sill. She's developed a reddish rash - poison oak - on one hand.
The main floor kitchen, like most things in the Pink Palace, is barely maintained, and looks worn and faded. Coraline's mother, Mel Jones, bangs away at her laptop on the table, moving boxes stacked nearby. She's plain-looking and tired and wears a neck-brace.
"I almost fell down a well yesterday, Mom." Coraline said while getting her mother's attention.
"Uh huh." Mel replies while not listening. Again.
"I would have died."
"That's nice." Mel continues typing.
"Hmmm." An interesting response to a life/death situation Coraline scratches the rash on her hand, changes subject. "So can I go out? I think it's perfect weather for gardening."
"No, Coraline. Rain makes mud. Mud makes a mess." Mel said.
Coraline turns to her. "But Mom, I want stuff growing when my friends come to visit. Isn't that why we moved here?"
"Something like that. But then we had the accident." Mel pointed to her neckbrace.
"Wasn't my fault you hit that truck." Coraline muttered.
"I never said it was." Mel reminded her.
Coraline shakes her head. "I can't believe it - you and Dad get paid to write about plants and you hate dirt."
Mel stops typing finally losing her patience.
"Coraline, I don't have time for you right now. And you still have unpacking to do. Lots of unpacking." Mel emphasized.
"That sounds exciting." Coraline intoned sarcastically.
Mel remembers something. "Oh - some kid left this on the front porch."
Coraline walks over and is handed a newspaper-wrapped package. Attached note reads: Hey Jonesy, look what I found in Gramma's trunk. Look familiar? Wybie.
She rips open the package and finds the button-eyed, blue-haired, yellow raincoat-wearing doll - it's a little Coraline!
"Huh... a little me? That's weird." Coraline said to herself. She crumples the note, both annoyed and charmed.
"What's his name, anyway?" Mel asked anyway.
"Wybie. And I'm way too old for dolls." she said. Any odd uncaring response to something as odd as a old doll that looks like you. But Coraline takes it with her and leaves the room.
CHARLIE Jones, a goose-necked and gangly with thinning dark hair, hunt-and-pecks at his ancient computer, surrounded by boxes of gardening magazines and empty coffee cups. Coraline, with doll, opens the squeaky door. He doesn't turn around to busy for that.
"Hey Dad, how's the writing going?... Dad?" Coraline asked.
He ignores her reflection in his computer screen as he types away, green letters on black screen. She clears her throat.
"Hello, Coraline..." Charlie notices doll's reflection and turns around. "And... Coraline doll?... hmm."
"D'you know where the garden tools are?"
Her dad hears the rain outside."It's pouring out there, isn't it?"
"Humph, it's just raining." Coraline said.
"What'd the boss say?" he asked.
""DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING OUT, CORALINE JONES." "Coraline did a monstrous impression of her mother.
Her dad cracked a smile at how accurate it was. "Then you won't need the tools."
Coraline groans, stamps her feet. Charlie just taps harder on the keys. Pouting, she makes the door squeak, opening and shutting it till he can't take any more and spins around, with an idea.
"Uhhh, you know, this house is a hundred and fifty years old."
"So?"
"So explore it!" He grabs a pen and pad, holds it out.
"Go out and ... count all the doors and windows and write that down. List everything blue! Just let me work." he begged and turned back around to continue typing.
Coraline rolls her eyes, takes paper and pen and leaves.
In hallway near the stairs to the second floor Coraline, with doll, is jotting things down when she stops when her foot hit a bump in the rug. She steps on the bump which appears again, and again, and again until she jumps on bump in the middle of the carpet which splits and create two more bump on either side of her. Rising to the tips of her toes and rolling her eyes in exhaustion she gives up and moves on.
Singing in rain, living in fidelity, gently
Romancing down
She wipes off the misted glass so she and the doll can see out, then writes in her pad: 12 LEAKY WINDOWS. A drop of water lands on the pad, smearing the ink. She adds REALLY between 12 and leaky windows.
And if you're done feeling chances anyway
Coraline thumps the carpet bump again and pounds up the stairs. Bedroom door as it swings into the room, with Coraline hanging on it. She drops to the ground and, doll and pad in hand, decides to check out the bathroom. When she pulls aside the mildewed shower curtain she finds a hundred skittering silverfish bugs. Disgusted, she jumps into the tub and smashes as many as she can. She turns on the faucet to wash her hands, only to get soaked with rusty water from the shower head to the stopper being pulled up.
Open new lenses, make a mess of her
Open new lenses, make a mess of dreams
She shakes out her hair grabs her pad and doll and walks out catching the attention of Dante of was on his phone while drink coffee.
"Morning, Dante." she said.
"Morning, Coraline." he said.
When she left the hallway he stopped and looked back down the hallway. He thought saw something weird out of the corner of his eye. He walked down the hallway after her.
Coraline pounds down the stairs, spots the carpet bump again in the hallway and jumps on it. A closet door opens, a light on inside, and she goes to investigate. Dante watched her go inside from his place on the stairs.
In the water heater closet she takes note and jots down ONE RUSTY WATER HEATER under 12 DISGUSTING! BUGS in her pad. As she leaves, she flicks off the light switch
Lights flicker and then Charlie's computer dies. He hollers as if his career dies with it. "No, no, no, no, no; GAAAA-!"
Coraline reacts with guilty alarm, runs back to the closet and spots the DON'T PUSH note.
"-AAAAAAA!"
She flips the light switch back on closes the door and gets out of there in a nonchalant manner. Dante did the same and followed her.
Twee de da da
The room is faded and cold with bare windows looking out on rain and gray. The floor is strewn with moving boxes, a few pieces of furniture, Charlie's old Nordic Track. A few garden tools lean against one wall; a cardboard mattress box leans against a corner wall.
Suli au len
Le je le fanilé jencli
Amen zin don
Coraline enters, counting windows and doors to note in her pad. She sets the doll on a low table beside an open moving box and smiles. Dante puts his phone in his pocket and walks in as she unpacks.
"whatcha' doing?" he asked.
"Unpack and taking note of everything I can see." Coraline said.
Dante nods and looks over a Coraline's lookalike dolls on the table and looks back at her.
"Who's Mini-Me?" Dante asked with a confused smile.
"Huh … oh. That's from Wybie. His note said he found it in his gramma's trunk. But I have my doubts." she said.
"Is that so?" Dante said looking back at the doll.
The Coraline doll was lying on the table, looking at him with it button eyes. Dante felt a bit uneasy around it. When Coraline's back was turned Dante turned to the doll and gave it the finger made faces at it before walking on to see what Coraline was doing.
The box she opens is filled with her mom's collection of snowglobes. She takes out her favorite - the bear fountain at the Detroit Zoo - and shakes it. She studies the globe and sighs with homesickness. She sets it carefully on the fireplace mantel, then unwraps the rest of the snowglobes and places them beside it.
Antwo daltan (twee de da da …)
Felitice li mue
Wilo samwe (twee de da da …)
Melindaatje li mue.
Over the mantel hangs a painting of a Crying Boy in Blue - a scoop of ice cream melting on his shirt, his hand holding an empty cone. Coraline takes up pad and pen and adds to her list, muttering aloud.
"One boring blue boy in a painfully boring painting ... four incredibly boring windows ... and no... more... doors..."
We live somewhere, many doubt you anyway.
She turns to grab the doll off the table by the snow globe box. It's gone. "All right, little me, where are you hiding?"
Dante raised a brow and looked around the room … cautiously. Scanning the room, Coraline spots the doll looking out from behind the mattress box leaned against the corner wall. Perplexed, the two walks over and she kneels down to grab the doll when she notices something on the wall behind the box. She shoves the box aside, and discovers the outline of a small door that's been wallpapered over.
"Huh?"
Intensely curious, she calls to the kitchen.
"Hey Mom ..."
Mel, typing away, ignores her.
"Where does this door go?" Coraline asked.
"I'm really, really busy!" Mel says.
Coraline tries to open it but there's no handle. "I think it's locked."
Mel takes a sip of coffee from her I LOVE MULCH mug until-
"Pleeeeeeeeease!"
Mel really annoyed gives up a big sigh and gets up. She enters the living room and she walks over to Coraline, looks at the outline of the door in the ratty old wallpaper and back at her while drumming her fingers.
"Will you stop pestering me if I do this for you?" Mel bargains with her daughter.
Coraline gives her mom puppy eyes while holding clasping her hands together and wimping like a dog. Dante decides to add to it and nods his head quickly, panting like a dog.
"Fine." Mel relents and heads back to the kitchen.
Mel pulls open a drawer, pushes a bunch of loose brass and nickel keys aside to find a small, sharp black key and holds it up. This one is a skeleton key with black button in the key's eye.
Mel cuts the wallpaper around the door and sticks the key in the lock. Coraline looks on, giddy with anticipation, the doll at her side. Dante stands behind her, his eyes narrow as he reaches behind him and grasp the handle of his gun under his shirt, reading himself. Mel turns the key, unlocks the door, and pulls it open to reveal ... n unbroken brick wall, other than that NOTHING. Coraline is totally disappointed While Dante quietly sighs with relief and lets go of his gun and covering it back up with his shirt.
"Bricks? I don't get it."
Coraline scratches her wrist rash with annoyance for a moment.
Mel sighs "They must have closed this off when they divided up the house." she said. She gets up to leave.
"You're kidding? And why is the door so small?" Coraline asked.
Mel leaving room, turns back, and finally loses it. "We made a deal. ZIP IT!"
She exits. Coraline makes annoyed sound.
"You didn't lock it." Coraline pointed out.
"AaaaaH!" Mel exclaims while she heads back into the kitchen she throws the freaking key back in the draw and closes and gets back to work.
Coraline pushes the little door shut, her head lowered. Dante shrugs and walks out the room give one last glance at the Coraline doll.
Weird little thing
KITCHEN - THAT NIGHT
Charlie Mel and Coraline sat down for dinner while the rain is still pouring.
Charlie, using oven mitt to protect his hand, takes a burned-up casserole dish from the oven while mom closes up her laptop. Coraline sits at the table with her doll. Charlie wonderful idea and sings a song about Coraline, badly.
"Oh, my twitchy witchy girl, I think you are so nice, I give you bowls of porridge and I give you bowls of ice - cream"
Charlie sets the dish on the table and plops the seemly mutated mush to which Coraline pushes it away, disgusted.
"Why don't you ever cook, Mom?" Coraline asked.
"Coraline, we've been through this before: your Dad cooks, I clean, and you stay out of the way." Mel says.
Coraline huffs while putting her in her arms, in disappointment. "I swear I'll go food shopping soon as we finish the catalog." Mel indicates this by sliding Coraline's plate. "Try some of the chard, you need a vegetable."
"Looks more like slime to me." Coraline commented and dropped the fork which stuck into it straight up!
Charlie offered his daughter to options "Well, it's slime or bedtime fusspot - now what's it going to be?"
Coraline looks to her doll, cradles its head. "Think they're trying to poison me?"
She makes the doll's head nod "yes." Coraline rolls her eyes, looks up to the heavens, fall backwards in her chair and -
- falls back, washed and dressed for bed, on her pillow, looks like she will have to go to bed hungry. It is still raining out. Coraline puts the doll on the chair beside her, and then scratches at her wrist. Origami dragonflies are strung between the tall, thin bed posts; the turtle shell she found in the garden sits up on a box, her night lamp that projects stars and moons is warming up on the bedside table. And a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling is the only overhead light in her room. Despite her efforts at decorating, Coraline's new bedroom feels small, cold, cracked and faded.
Coraline reaches for a framed photo that rests on a toy praying mantis by her night lamp.
It's her two best friends from home, posing in the snow by her old school's marquee, its letters rearranged to spell "CORALINE, GOOD BYE!" She touches her friends' faces with her fingertips.
"Don't forget about me, guys. Okay?" Coraline said to the picture. She wondered if her friends could talk to her in the picture, she wonder what would they say.
She puts back the photo, hits the light switch over her bed, place her pale teddy bear next to her on the right side and, looking over at the doll, sighs.
"Good-night...little me."
Her breathing slows and, with the doll watching her, she starts to fall asleep.
But shadows are everywhere, and where they are so are those who operate in the shadows, both benevolent and malevolent.
Dante's necklace glowed crimson color when danger is near, his sense could feel a shift in the reality in a small way. Eyes shot opened and he sat up with both Ebony & Ivory in his hands. He looked about the room and get out of his bed.
"It's on again." Dante said.
Dante put on his pants, boots sit and jacket he twirls his put them inside his jacket. He opened his room door and peeked out into the hallway.
A surreal mist swirls out her window. Moons and stars slowly move across the walls. Something in the room goes t-t-t-t-t-t. Coraline sits up, awake. Something chitters under her bed. She leans over her bedside, head first, peering underneath when a ghost-pale kangaroo mouse jumps out and bounds out the door.
She gives chase, down the upper hall, down the stairs, snaps on the lower hall light, and sees it hop into the living room. Dante noticed the noises and follow them until he saw her in the living
Coraline enters. The mouse edges out from beneath the sofa, and then hops frantically toward the small door behind the wallpaper! Coraline runs and dives, but the door is open a crack, and the mouse escapes. Coraline grabs the door's edge and pulls it open. Instead of a brick wall, there is a dark, colorful, expanding tunnel, with the hopping mouse heading towards a bluish light at the far end.
"Whoa..." She catches her breath, pulls the door wider and crawls through the mysterious funhouse tunnel towards the light ahead.
Dante walks over to the tunnel and leans down to peek inside at all the pretty colors.
"Well, this certainly reminds me of the scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture when they journeyed through V'Ger's cloud." Dante whispered to himself.
Coraline steps out through the same little door, into what looks like the exact same living room she just left, only something is different - it feels deeper, more dimensional. This was very confusing.
She looks around, notices the painting over the fireplace: the crying blue boy is now SMILING, his shirt clean and his ice cream back on his cone. But before in the living room she came out of it had fallen over.
So, is this what the blue boy was before the ice cream fell … or did he just get another? I really don't get it.
Then, the smell of delicious food wafts towards her nose. "MMMMM, something smells good." she turns around sees from across the hall, warm light comes from the kitchen.
Coraline enters to see her mother cooking at the stove, wearing an apron and rooster-head oven mitts. The light and colors are much warmer and the details more perfect in this kitchen. Her mother is facing away from Coraline as she works.
"Mom?! What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Coraline asked.
Her "mother" turns from the stove to greet her and Coraline is dumbstruck: she's got friggin' BUTTONS for eyes! She beams with happiness at Coraline's arrival. "You're just in time for supper, dear!" she said.
Dante appeared nearby and listen but careful stayed out of sight from the both of them.
"You're not my mother." Coraline stated outright. Coraline points to her own eye. "My mother doesn't have b-b-buh..."
"B-b-b-buttons? Do you like them?" She taps one with her nail. "I'm your Other Mother, silly. Now go tell your Other Father that supper's ready."
"… Ooookay." Dante rolled his eyes.
She opens the oven door and the intoxicating perfume of great cooking fills the air. Coraline (and Dante from where he is) breathes it in, suddenly very hungry.
"Well, go on. He's in his study." The Other Mother says.
Coraline goes down the 'other' hall and opens the study door. She sees the back of a man like her father, only with more hair. Instead of tapping away at his computer, though, he's picking notes on a baby grand piano.
"Hello?" Coraline said.
He turns around. He, too, has shiny button eyes. He seems happier and a little more handsome than real Dad, and wears an iridescent robe over polka dot pajamas, with orange monkey slippers on his feet. He smiles broadly as he sees Coraline in the doorway.
"Hello, Coraline. Want to hear my new song?" The Other Father said.
Dante crept till he was next to the doorframe on the other side.
"My father can't play piano." Coraline pointed out.
"No need to ... this piano plays ME!" the Other Father said.
Dr. Seuss gloves connected with rods and pulleys pop out of the piano's front and onto his hands. His hands rise up then drop down to play pounding stride piano as Other Father sings out as he and the piano start to spin around in the rug.
Making up a song about Coraline.
She's a peach, she's a doll, she's a pal of mine.
She's as cute as a button in the eyes of
Everyone who ever laid their eyes on Cor-a-line.
Coraline is amazed as his hands fly. Dante peeked from the side with an eyebrow raised as the Other Father takes out of the gloves to sing further while the gloves continue to play. Now he's just freestyling.
When she comes around exploring
Mom and I will never ever make it boring
Our eyes will be on Coraline.
He slips his hand back in the glove in the last second to hit the final note. Anxious, she taps his shoulder to stop him. The Other Father turns around to listen to her, something her father didn't do.
"I, am sorry, but she said to tell you the food's ready." Coraline informed him with a smile.
"Mmmmm! Who's starving? Raise your hand." He sticks his hand up, still in a glove, and his other gloved hand slaps his face. She laughs, and then covers her mouth. The Other Father was growing on her, and even Dante noticed that.
In the Other Dining Room the Other Mother sets down a huge, roasted chicken near Coraline on a table spread with candles, fine china and silver and a pineapple centerpiece. Figure eight model train tracks circle twin Lazy Susan's covered in dishes of potatoes, sweet peas, rolls, and corn. Dante watches the scene from the window outside. The other father seals this Norman Rockwell moment by making prayer hands and a solemn face.
"We give our thanks and ask to bless, Our Mother's golden … chicken breast!" The Other Father innuendo joke really made it a bit light considering Coraline's real mother frown on innuendo made by Coraline's real father. Regardless they all laugh with glee before a starting bell rings and it's time to eat. Other Father really digs in while Coraline tries some chicken.
"Mmmm, this chicken is good." Coraline commented.
Dante himself became hungry while watching them eat at huge chicken.
"Hungry, aren't you." The Other Mother said.
Coraline nods with a mouth full. "D'you have any gravy?" she asked.
"Well, here comes the gravy train! Choo-choo!" The Other Mother giggles as a model train circles round the track, pulling a gravy boat car and blowing its whistle. The train goes in one side of the centerpiece and comes out the other, slowing till the gravy boat lines up with Coraline's plate, where it pours gravy on her potatoes.
"Another roll, sweet peas? Corn on the cob?" Other Mother looks on approvingly, not touching any food herself.
"I'm real thirsty." Coraline says with a mouth full of food.
"Of course! Any requests?" The Other Mother asked as a beautiful chandelier drink dispenser descends.
"Mango milk shake?" Coraline suggested.
The dispenser spins, stops and she fills her glass and drinks it while the Other Mother takes away her dinner plate and presents dessert: a cake with candles that pop up and light themselves while the words "WELCOME HOME!" write themselves in icing. Coraline is taken aback. Dante is still shocked at the chandelier drink dispenser but eventual snaps out of it.
"Home?"
Her Other Parents squeeze each other's hands warmly.
"We've been waiting for you, Coraline." The other Mother said.
"For me?" Coraline said with confusion.
"Yep. Wasn't the same here without you, kiddo." The Other Father added.
Coraline remains a little unsure, as one ought to be given the circumstances of the strange environment.
"I didn't know I had an Other Mother." Coraline admitted.
"Of course you do. Everyone does." She smiles at Coraline, her button eyes gleaming.
"Really?" Coraline said.
"Is that so?" Dante whispered to himself.
"Uh huh, and soon as you're through eating, I thought we'd play a game." The Other Mother taps her fingers a little too excitedly on the table.
"You mean like, hide and seek?" Coraline guessed.
"Perfect! Hide and seek in the rain." The Other Mother agrees happily.
"What rain?" Coraline asked.
*BOOM* Thunder, lightning (That like clawed a hand for a moment during the brief flash), then rain appears outside the window. It was so sudden that it startled Dante and he fell all the way to the ground, on his back.
"Uhhh, frigging … ow!" Dante turned on his side as the rain poured on him.
Back inside Coraline was surprised by the sudden change in the weather. "Huh, what about the mud?"
"We love mud here!" The Other Father exclaims.
Other Mother rises, walks towards Coraline. "Mud facials, mud baths, mud pies - it's great for poison oak."
She takes Coraline's rashy hand, but Coraline pulls it away. "How'd you know I-" she then Coraline adjusts her suspicious tone to a calmer one. "-I, I'd love to play, but ... I better get home to my other mother."
"But I'm your other mother." said the Other Mother.
Coraline befuddled for a moment, clarifies what she means. "I mean my other, other mother. Mom number one?"
Coraline turns to leaves but bumps into the Other Father, who gives her a friendly wave.
"I think I should get to bed." Coraline said, having enough for one night.
"Of course, sweetheart, it's all made up." The Other Mother said.
Coraline shakes her head. "But ..."
Other Father steps in beside her. "Come along, sleepyhead." Giving her a gently push to follow the Other Mother.
They lead her from the table towards the stairs to her bedroom. Once they were out of sight Dante peeks out and walks over to the table and begins to sample everything. The chicken, the potato & gravy, corn-on-the-cob, the cake and even the chandelier drink dispenser. Then he spot and walks over to a wall with three side profile silhouette pictures of children, who judging how they appeared, look like they came from the different time periods. Then he heard where the Other Parents and Coraline were and headed upstairs via out the window to the jump onto the second floor. He looked through the windows until all the windows until he came to the obvious one - Coraline's room. In this world, Coraline's other bedroom is a dream come true: it is filled with rich color and light; there's a fire in the fireplace, a sheer, lacy canopy over her now beautiful bed. And her favorite toys are alive! Dante stayed out of side as they came in.
"Wow." Coraline said in utter amazement.
Her origami dragonflies flutter towards her. "Hello Coraline, hello, hello!" they greeted.
Her blue squid greets her with a wave of its tentacle and a shake of its waist. "What's shakin', baby?"
"Hello." Coraline said.
The turtle shell she'd found yesterday circles her feet on clothes pin legs, making panting sounds. She laughs, then hears two voices from beside her bed coming from the photo.
"Hey, how zit goin', yuper!" said the first teen
"Where's your swampers and tuke?" said the second teen.
Corlaine jumps onto the bed, grabs the photo of her best friends from home, now alive in the photo. "Kripes a-mighty, how are my best trolls? I can't wait till summer. You're both comin', right?"
"We're already here, Coraline –"
"- gone to Or-e-gine!"
Dante was surprised she had friends where she moved from. for her to react to their voices mean they were quietly possibly genuine.
Coraline grins hugely, then turns to see the Other Mother, in the bedside chair, takes her hand and applies some soothing black mud to Coraline's poison oak rash.
"Oh, the mud..."once applied Coraline then, exhausted, she yawns, stretching out her arms.
The Other Mother gently tucks her in then she and the Other Father smile at Coraline as she drifts off to sleep. "See you soon . . ."
Dante narrows his eyes as he moves away from the window. The Other Mother and Father turn to the window to see only the rain outside.
"Do you think he's was around." The Other Father asked.
"He's illusive, like his brother." The Other mother said.
They both exit the room and turned off the light and closed the door.
Back the real world Dante laid in bed, eyes awake, troubled at what he say just saw. Coraline has got a taste of that Other World and the all the delights it could offer. He became worry about Coraline and her well being. But he'll deal with that tomorrow; right now he was going to get some sleep.
"Let see if I can have some lucid dreams … with , Master Tigress, and me … naked in a hot tub."
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Well, this was something to do, but it's done. Though I should have upon loaded last week but was too busy so … Eh. Anyway stay tune for to my profile page for any new stories or new chapters to old.
Hoped everyone had a spooky fun Halloween. Until then, stick around and stay classy. ;3