The next day, Shaggy, Scooby, Courage and Coraline stared out the window as Mel was working on her laptop. Coraline had a huge rash from the dowsing rock which turned out to be poison oak. She scratched at her rash, and Shaggy told her to leave it alone. Coraline then tried to make conversation with her mom.
"I almost fell down a well yesterday, Mom," Coraline announced, leaning a seed packet labeled 'Green Peppers,' against the window.
"Uh-huh," Mel said distractedly, typing at a somewhat alarming rate of speed on her laptop at the kitchen table.
Shaggy, Scooby and Courage all noticed this, and they rolled their eyes.
"I would have DIED," Coraline continued, she put two more packets up, one of Bleeding Hearts and one of Pumpkin, and waited for a reaction.
"That's nice," Mel said annoying Coraline even more.
"Wow, and I thought MURIEL was oblivious," Courage mumbled to his best friends.
"Reah, you think she would be concern for her daughter," Scooby replied.
Coraline put a final packet up, this one for Squash. "Hmf. So..." she turned around, "Can we go out? I think it's perfect weather for gardening."
"Reah, please?" Scooby begged
"No, kids," Mel replied, looking up for a moment and shaking her head. "Rain makes mud. Mud makes a mess."
Scooby's ears went back and give a pitiful look, "Rawww!" One of his favorite hobbies was playing in the rain and he was disappointed he couldn't do that here.
"But Mom, I want stuff GROWING when me friends come to visit," Coraline complained, slamming her hands on the table, "Isn't that why we moved here?"
"Like, what are we chopped liver?" Shaggy stated, while Scooby and Courage shared a confused look.
"Something like that," Mel said tiredly, "But then, we had the ACCIDENT," she looked up at Coraline and pointed at the soft neck brace she still wore.
"It wasn't MY fault you hit that truck," Coraline exclaimed angrily.
"I never said it was," Mel said.
Coraline scratch her poison oak put her hands on her hips and glared at her mother, "I can't believe this. You and Dad get PAID to write about plants, and you hate dirt."
"Coraline, I don't have time for you right now," Mel glared right back, "And you still have unpacking to do. LOTSof unpacking."
"That sounds EXCITING," Coraline said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
Shaggy, Scooby and Courage looked at one another with uncomfortable glances, they hated seeing them arguing.
There was a brief silence. Mel broke it.
"Oh, some kid left this on the front porch," she reached down and handed Coraline a long, thin, flexible package with a newspaper wrapping.
Coraline pulled the first layer of newspaper aside and found a note. On the rolled up newspaper piece, there was a note:
Hey Jonesy,
Look what I found in Grandma's trunk.
Look familiar?
Wybie
Coraline groaned and rolled her eyes, she unrolled the newspaper to find…a doll that looked exactly like her. Shaggy, Scooby and Courage looked at the doll, and their eyes became wide with shock.
"Huh, a little me?" Coraline said, "That's weird."
Shaggy, Scooby and Courage all eyed at that doll, they got a creepy feeling right away as dread rose up inside them. Everything about the doll look-alike screamed: DON'T TRUST IT!
"Roy I'll say," Scooby replied nervously.
Mel looked up with interest for a moment, then returned to typing, "What did you say his name was, again?"
"Wybie," Coraline repeated, putting the paper on the table, "And I'm WAY too old for dolls."
The kids and dogswent down the hall and stopped at a doorway. Coraline pushed it open and looking in, the kids and dogs saw Charlie Jones working at an old computer, surrounded by stacks and stacks of boxes that towered high above him.
The computer was so old that it had bright green letters on a black screen, and he was typing rapidly using only one finger on each hand. He wore faded blue jeans and a faded green "Michigan State" sweatshirt, as well as half-glasses pushed far down his nose.
"Hey, Dad," Coraline said, "How's the writing going?"
He didn't respond, Shaggy, Scooby and Courage all rolled their eyes. Coraline's parents were worse than Muriel and Eustace, and they didn't notice what's happening around them!
"Dad!" Coraline finally exclaimed, snapping her fingers.
Charlie flinched and looked at their reflections on the computer screen. They showed up well against the black.
"Hello Coraline, Shaggy, Scooby Courage and Coraline…doll," he said in a bored tone.
"Do you know where the gardening tools are?" Coraline asked.
Charlie resumed typing. "It's, ah...it's pouring out there, isn't it?"
Not wanting to hear this, Coraline tried to defend her reason to go out, "It's just raining," she said.
"Mm, what'd the boss say?"
"DON'T EVEN THIN ABOUT GOING OUT CORALINE JONES!" Coraline mockingly shouted as she grabbed Shaggy and shook him by his shoulders therefore dropping the doll.
"Uh, like dude, that's just an exaggeration," Shaggy said a bit getting airsick, but Coraline ignored it.
Scooby giggled at the sight, making Shaggy frowned at the puppy-Great Dane. Courage rolled his eyes with a smile, even in a dull moment those two goofballs always to seem to like a room.
Charlie was unaffected by Coraline's dramatic and exaggerated paraphrase of Mel. "Mm, then you won't need the tools."
"Ughhh," Coraline pushed the study door and it creaked loudly and she began to swing back and forth. The door squealed gratingly each time she moved, and this time it was Charlie who groaned.
"Ohhhh..." he grabbed a small notebook and a pen off the desk and spun in his chair to face the kids and puppies, "You know, this house is a hundred and fifty years old."
Scooby's eyes widened, "Rhat's really old," he said.
"So?" Coraline asked.
"So explore it. Go out and count all the doors and windows and write that down on...list everything that's blue," Charlie thrust the items at his daughter. "Just...LET ME WORK!"
Coraline sighed and took them. "C'mon, guys. Let's go,"
They walked away, Coraline swinging her doll, frowning, she pulled her coat off and threw it on the floor with a low growl.
Shaggy, Scooby, Courage and Coraline walked up to a large window, subdivided into many smaller panes. Shaggy swiped a hole on the misty glass so she and Coraline could see through, and a smaller one at about waist height so the doll could see through. The kids and puppies peered out and sighed as they watched the rain fall.
"Drat it all, I wish we were out there," Coraline said grumpily.
"And play," Shaggy complained.
"Re too, it seems to be raining forever," Scooby added.
"Instead we're stuck in here all day," Courage replied. So much for a fun time at Coraline's…
Coraline wrote something down on the notebook her Dad gave her.
Twelve leaky windows.
The kids and puppies walked into what would become their parents' bedroom. There wasn't much in it: a bed with a red-and-pale-yellow striped blanket, a rickety old chair, Mel's ironing board and iron, and a nightstand with an alarm clock and picture frame on it.
"They've got a bathroom? Let's check it out," Coraline said.
They all walked in to see the bathroom.
"Rhat kind of shower is this?" Scooby pulled aside the plastic curtain.
Scooby let out a loud scream, "RUGS!" he jumped into Shaggy's arms in fear.
"EWWWW!" Shaggy, Courage and Coraline yelped.
There were centipedes swarming over the wall.
"Rhe bugs…" Scooby said in a terrified voice as he hugged Shabby tightly, "Rhier legs are made of nightmares!" Scooby has really bad fear of bugs since he was really small.
Coraline jumped in and began swatting them while Shaggy, Scooby and Courage stared in awe. When Coraline was done, she shuddered at her hands and went to turn the faucet on.
"Coraline, wait—" Courage tried to warn her, but it was too late. The piston of the faucet was up, and instead of water coming out of the tap, it poured down on Coraline's head from the shower head.
She flailed wildly. Courage reached in and hit the piston, getting wet himself. Both of them shook their heads, flinging water out of their hair and fur.
"How 'bout we go downstairs now?" Coraline said, gritting her teeth.
Shaggy, Scooby Courage snd Coraline jumped down the stairs two at a time, like rabbits, all feet together. When they were almost to the bottom, they saw the double wrinkle that had annoyed Coraline earlier.
Coraline looked at Shaggy, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Oh, like, absolutely. One, two—"
On 'three' they both jumped the last few stairs and each landed on a wrinkle. The wrinkles settled out and disappeared.
"Awesome!" Shaggy cheered.
"Hey, guys, look," Coraline pointed at a door under the staircase, "I think it opened when we landed."
They walked into the little room and were confronted by an old water heater with a brownish-red color cast. On it was taped a sign that said: 'HOT. LOOKOUT.'
"Huh, nothing interesting after all," Coraline said with disappointment as she tucked her doll back under her arm and wrote down "one rusty old water heater" under "20 disgusting! bugs". As they went out, she pushed the light button off before Courage could stop her.
"Don't you read?! It says don't push," Courage said as they heard Charlie cry out, for the power was flickering, and his computer was shutting down.
"Ruh-oh!" Scooby darted back to the little room. He discovered that above the light switch was a paper label, one end of which had fallen down.
When he pushed it back on, the paper read, 'DON'T PUSH!' Scooby yelped, and hit the 'on' button as fast as he could. The lights came back on steady.
Scooby slammed the door closed and leaned against it. Then he and his friends walked away, nervously glancing behind them.
Getting into another room, this time the parlor. It was still fairly empty. It had a couch, a chair, a table, a wardrobe on one side, a circular rug in the middle, and a fireplace with its requisite implements. There was a large packing box against the left wall, and on the table was a box labeled 'Mom's snow globes—living room.'
"Sweet," Coraline whispered as she and her friends walked over to the table, "I love these."
"Roh pretty," Scooby said, and the four ferried several snow globes to the mantel.
"Ooh, I want to shake this one," Shaggy said, picking up a snow globe from the Detroit Zoo.
"It's Mom's favorite," Coraline explained.
Shaggy shook it and put it back gently, and the kids and puppies looked up.
Over the fireplace was a painting. In it there was a blond boy, with an old-fashioned haircut and old-fashioned blue and white clothes, holding an empty ice cream cone. He was looking down sadly at the ground, where the ice cream from his cone had fallen.
"Hm," Coraline said, pulling out the notebook, "One boring blue boy, in a painfully boring painting. Four incredibly boring windows. And no more doors," she added as she, Shaggy, Scooby and Courage counted.
They walked back to the table and Coraline reached for her doll.
"Huh?" It wasn't there. Coraline put the notebook and pen on the table. "Alright, little me. Where are you hiding?" he scoured the floor all around, but the doll wasn't there.
"RI thought you were too old for dolls," Scooby teased.
"Oh shut up and help me look," Coraline scowled.
"There it is," Courage said pointing toward the doll laying on the floor behind a piece of cardboard.
The doll was lying on its side, several feet away, sticking halfway out from behind the big box by the wall. Coraline walked over and knelt down to pick it up. "Huh?"
"Like, what's wrong, Coral?" Shaggy asked, confused.
Shaggy, Scooby and Courage jumped out of the way as the doll came skittering backwards across the floor. Coraline shoved the box aside and knelt in front of...a door? No, it couldn't be a REAL door, there was wallpaper over it. Why would anyone cover up a real door?
"A door?" Courage asked with confusion.
"Hey Mom!" Coraline yelled, "Where does this door go?"
"I'm really, REALLY busy!"
The kids and puppies could hear the faint sound of typing coming from the kitchen, like the raindrops falling on the roof, the same gentle pitter-patter.
Coraline traced the keyhole with a finger. "I think it's locked! PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAAASE!"
Mel Jones stomped angrily into the room, planted her hands on her hips, and looked at the section of wallpaper. She then looked at the kids and puppies, crossed her arms, and drummed her fingers on her arm. "Will you kids STOP pestering me if I do this for you?" she asked crossly, gesturing at the door.
Coraline begged like a puppy, hands folded, mouth turned down, head tilted to one side—and she WHIMPERED.
Shaggy, Scooby and Courage politely nodded and said in unison "Yes Ma'am./Res Ma'am."
"Fine," Mel stalked back to the kitchen.
They could hear Mel rummaging through keys. When she came back she had an old-fashioned black key whose handle looked like a button. Courage caught the sight of a black key with a button shape on the end of it.
She pierced the wallpaper with it and then dragged it along the cracks, slitting the paper apart. Shaggy, Scooby and Coraline watched in anticipation, while Courage looked back to the doll's eyes, which looked at the door, then back to the key, it send a chill down his spine.
Something's strange is going on. Courage thought to himself, as his stomach was churning.
Mel inserted the key into the lock, twisted it, and pulled the door open to reveal...
"Bricks?" Coraline said disappointed, "I don't get it."
Mel sighed, "They must have closed this off when they divided up the house," she stood up.
"You're kidding. And why is the door so small?" Coraline asked.
Mel turned in the doorway and retorted angrily, "We made a deal, ZIP IT!" she hurried back to the kitchen.
Coraline, Shaggy and Courage stared for a few moments.
Scooby then decide it would be a little funny if he teased Mel just a bit more, "Rou didn't lock it!" he called out causing Mel to groan in frustration.
"Oh, well," Shaggy sighed, "So much for that." he shut the door.
But Courage who still felt alarmed by the look the creepy doll gave the door, couldn't shake off the bad feeling that made his stomach churn and goosebumps rise on the back of his neck.
Something bad was about to happen.
Well that's all for now, this is Vakarns signing off.
