Mimi listened for a moment before continuing her babbling: “Alice is my helper. But listen now. As soon as the bathrobe said that, it went all floppy and didn’t say anything else. What do you think: can a bathrobe die?”
Mimi listened again and frowned, insulted.
“Alice is no imaginary friend. Alice is right here and can come to the phone this minute. And about monsters, you can—”
Koby snatched the phone from Mimi’s hand and shook his head furiously. Mimi sighed and padded off toward their bedroom, followed by Alice. Koby sighed and put the receiver to his own ear.
“Hullo, Koby here again. Yes, yes. The bathrobe and Alice and the monster. It’s probably quite normal, just a phase. It’s not a problem. Do you want to talk to Halley? She can tell you—” Koby began, but Halley, standing in front of their bedroom door, shook her head hard.
“Oh, Halley’s just gone to the bathroom and can’t talk,” Koby said, and Halley nodded.
“Of course, Dad,” Koby assured the phone. “We’ll take care of each other. We’re quite all right as long as I’m here.”
Halley huffed disdainfully.
“Bye-bye,” said Koby, and put the phone down. He looked at Halley. Halley looked at him.
“Invisible Voice isn’t coming today, either?” Halley confirmed.
“No, he’s not. The airport is closed because of the blizzard, and they don’t know when it will reopen,” Koby replied.
Halley wasn’t sure if this was bad or good news. Of course, it’s good if children have an adult at home. But sometimes, in certain situations, it’s good if the children have a little time to figure out the strange things that have crossed their path. Right now the Hellman children had such a situation.
“I think we need to plan what to do now,” Koby said. “Let’s go to our room.”
Halley nodded in agreement.
CHAPTER 12
Another Strange Creature
IT WAS DARK IN the children’s bedroom. The blinds were tightly shut and the lights off. Oscar, Minnie, Mimi, and Alice sat in a circle on the floor turning their heads this way and that, as if looking for something.
“Why are you sitting in the dark?” Koby asked.
“Let’s turn on the light,” Halley said.
“No!” called Mimi. “Something is flying around in here. We’re trying to see it.”
“You see better with the light on,” said Halley.
“No!” Mimi called again. “It’s got a light itself.”
“Yes, it has,” Minnie confirmed. “Like a firefly, but bigger. I almost saw it.”
“Almost, right,” Koby echoed, looking around. “Can’t see anything now.”
“I almost saw it too,” Oscar said. “It was like a frog or something.”
“A flying frog with a light,” Koby mused aloud, and looked at the ceiling. There was no sign anywhere of anything that was at all like a flying frog.
“Yes,” Mimi said. “What’s more, the bathrobe said that there are others on the move, apart from monsters. Best keep our eyes peeled.”
“Please, no more about that bathrobe,” Halley asked.
“I saw the bathrobe too,” Alice said excitedly. “It was cool!”
“What did you see?” Minnie asked, puzzled.
“Nothing,” Halley grumbled.
“The bathrobe. But now it’s dead,” Mimi went on glumly.
Halley suppressed a laugh.
“You mustn’t laugh,” Alice said with disapproval. “It may really have died.”
“What are you talking about—what bathrobe has died?” Oscar asked.
“Mimi’s imaginary friend. Or former friend. Since it’s dead now,” Halley said. “Pity it didn’t have time to say anything else before it died.”
“It did,” Mimi snapped, hurt. “It said that we had better leave here as soon as possible. Move out to the yard. And that if anybody can, I can work it all out, because I have the most wits about me.”
Halley glanced at Koby and grinned. Koby grinned back but felt a little unsure. He knew that the bathrobe could at least sit up and move its sleeves.
“There!” Minnie yelled suddenly. “There, above the bookcase.”
“I saw it too!” Halley shrieked, excited. “Or at least some kind of a light, but where did it go?”
“Where?” Koby asked. He was annoyed that he was never as quick as Halley.
“I didn’t see it,” Alice whispered, frightened.
“Let’s be really quiet,” Minnie suggested. “Perhaps it’ll show itself again.”
Six pairs of eyes peered around the room, from the ceiling to the floor, everywhere. They saw nothing special.
All of a sudden, Minnie sprang up, startled.
“What is it?” Halley whispered.
“S-something d-dropped on me,” Minnie stammered.
“Turn on the light,” Koby ordered.
The light clicked on, and the children rushed to surround Minnie.
“Are you OK?” Halley asked, worried.
“Can’t see anything,” Koby said, frowning. “What was it that dropped on you?”
“Who threw candy wrappers on the floor?” Mimi asked. “Trash should be put in the trash can, not on our bedroom floor! In any case, we have a rule that candy must be offered to everybody.”
The others eyed Mimi, puzzled.
“We have no candy,” Oscar said.
“So where did those come from?” Mimi pointed at the floor next to Minnie.
Indeed, on the floor was a pile of shiny candy wrappers. Oscar picked up one crumpled paper and unrolled it.
“From some place abroad,” he said. “Strange letters, can’t read it.”
Koby studied another one. “I’ve never seen such letters,” he said.
“Perhaps it’s that flying frog’s candy,” Alice said in a little voice.
Instantly Koby remembered where he had seen an identical wrapper before: this morning, when he had been reading the monster book. He had picked up a candy wrapper just like this off the floor to use as a bookmark.
“Alice could be right,” Koby said. “These candy wrappers don’t belong to any of us. The monster doesn’t eat candy. Perhaps the bathrobe was right and there are others here, apart from us.”
“Koby, please!” Halley exclaimed, but Koby continued:
“Let’s turn the light back off. We’ll wait. It’ll show itself.”
They turned out the light and sat back down on the floor to wait.
“Another candy wrapper dropped,” Minnie whispered, but not scared anymore.
“Perhaps it can fly in the dark, too,” Oscar suggested.
“Another one down,” Minnie whispered.
“Why are they only dropping on Minnie?” Halley asked.
“Good question,” Oscar said.
Koby raised his eyes to just above Minnie. In the semi-darkness, they could just make out the plastic bedroom light shaped like a Peter Pan ship.
“What if it’s Peter Pan?” Mimi whispered, enchanted.
“Peter Pan doesn’t look like a frog,” Halley said, smiling in the dark. “Or eat candy. Or exist.”
“How do you know?” Mimi asked. “Monsters didn’t used to exist either.”
Koby got up and crept to the light switch by the door.
“All of you, look at the ship. Now,” he whispered.
He clicked the light on. The pale blue plastic ship swayed slightly below the ceiling. There was not a single frog or Peter Pan in sight.
“I’ll get the step stool from the kitchen,” Koby said. “Keep an eye on the lamp.”
A moment later, Koby was back with the kitchen stool. He positioned it below the lamp and carefully climbed up.
“What do you see?” Oscar asked tensely.
“Is it Peter Pan?” Alice asked quietly. She was afraid of Peter Pan. She had always been afraid that one evening Peter Pan would knock on her window. That was why Alice never slept with the window open, not even on the hottest summ
er nights.
“Wow,” Koby whispered, and stared into the ship-shaped ceiling light. “It’s not Peter Pan or a frog. It’s—”
“What?” Halley asked, agitated.
“I don’t know,” Koby said. “Perhaps it’s some kind of a flying troll. Or a fairy. It has wings and . . .”
“A fairy!” Mimi repeated, delighted. “I want to see the fairy!”
“There’s loads of that candy in here,” Koby said. “Whatever it is seems to be afraid of the light. It’s holding its hands over its eyes, so I can’t see its face.”
“Bring it down,” Mimi asked.
“Hey, creature,” Koby whispered kindly. “Do you understand me? Can I get you out of there?”
“Ee, ee, ee.” The creature made squeaky noises. “Oo, oo, oo.”
Koby gently put his hand out. “Come here.” He spoke as if to a frightened kitten.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, demanding and loud. Ding dong! Everyone jumped, including the fairy in the ceiling lamp.
“It’s frightened—now it’s flying off!” Koby called.
The flying fairy-troll shot out of the ceiling lamp. Candy papers and candy rattled down to the floor. Now everybody saw the creature clearly. At least, as clearly as it is possible to see a creature that flies fast, zigzagging around the room.
“Oh!” Minnie yelled. “A flying troll!”
“A sparkling troll.” Mimi sighed. “Look at its tiny hands. What is it carrying?”
“Candy wrappers, of course,” Minnie replied.
The doorbell rang again, but nobody wanted to answer it now.
“Where did it fly?” Koby asked, turning his head fast from side to side.
“It vanished,” Mimi said. “Shall we turn out the light again?”
Whoever was ringing the bell was clearly getting irate. It rang again, more furiously: ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding dong!
“Who’s the crazy person at the door?” Halley shouted, and covered her ears. “You don’t ring the doorbell like that!”
The ringing was now constant.
“Can someone answer the door!” Mimi called, holding her ears. “Quick! Hurts my ears!”
“Look through the peephole to see who it is!” Koby yelled.
Oscar and Halley ran into the hall. Halley pushed a stool to the door and climbed up to look through the peephole.
“Two monsters,” Halley said, taken aback.
Oscar climbed up next to Halley and looked through the peephole.
Indeed, behind the door stood two huge black-gray monsters. They were similar to Grah yet looked quite different. One of them in particular looked scary and cross, and it was its fat finger that was pressed on the doorbell: ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong . . .
“Open it, quick!” Koby shouted from the bedroom door.
“Those are our monsters. Minnie’s monster is ringing the bell!” Oscar shouted to Koby over the din, and then looked at Halley, frightened. “How did they find us?”
“What did I tell you,” Koby muttered.
Halley looked at Koby, as if asking him what to do. The doorbell donging was ringing in her ears, and it wasn’t easy to think clearly.
“Open it! They’re not going anywhere. We have no choice but to open the door!” Koby yelled.
CHAPTER 13
The Fairy-Frog Attacks
HALLEY, KOBY, OSCAR, AND Minnie sat on the rustling trash bags covering the couch, browsing the contacts on their phones. Oscar had a notebook on his knees, in which he had written down some names.
“Who else?” Halley asked.
“Jemima?” Koby suggested. “Check, please, Oscar.”
Oscar ran his finger down the list of names.
“Sent already,” he said.
“Sophie?” Koby continued.
“Sent,” Oscar said.
“What about Maya and Jack?” Halley proposed.
“The names aren’t on the list,” Oscar confirmed.
“Let’s send it off, then,” said Halley. “Copy message—Just a minute—this is going to Maya’s number.”
Hi! If you, too, have a M in the closet (we have), come to the edge of the forest near the marina, by the soccer field goals, today at nine p.m. Check your floors for foreign candy wrappers or if anything lit-up is flying around. We’ll talk more then. Best wishes, Halley, Koby, Oscar, and Minnie
“There, the twentieth message,” Halley said, pleased. “What time is it?”
“Almost four,” Koby said. “They’ll come out soon to cook dinner.”
Koby turned to look toward the hall.
All three monsters had squashed themselves into the hall closet. First they had squeezed into the Hellmans’ hall, then the closet. It was too small even for one monster. For three monsters, it was quite definitely too tight. Three monsters simply could not fit in there. But it seemed to satisfy the monsters that even a part of their bodies fit inside the closet.
Grah was completely in the closet, squashed flat against the back wall like a hairy caterpillar. Perhaps it was Grah’s privilege, as it was its closet. Oscar and Alice’s monster had stuffed its right side, right leg, right arm, and whole head, which rested on Grah’s shoulder, into the closet. Minnie’s monster had squeezed the left side of its body in. Its head rested on Grah’s other shoulder.
The new monsters had pretty fat bellies, and their stomachs were tightly pressed together. It actually looked as if they had gotten stuck in the doorway by their bellies. In spite of everything, the monsters looked peaceful and happy. All had their eyes closed and were breathing evenly.
“They’re unlikely to be asleep,” Koby had explained to Oscar and Minnie. “Could be that they’ve just been trained to go in the closet to wait, whenever they’re not taking care of the housework or us.”
Then Koby told Minnie and Oscar a few important facts from Runar’s book. Mimi told them once more what the bathrobe had told her. Oscar and Minnie described how the monsters had come to their homes (in the same way as to the Hellmans’), how their parents had left, just like their mom, winning a trip to Lapland in a lottery.
“Every ticket was a winner,” Halley said.
“But why?” Koby wondered aloud. “Why would someone send our parents on vacation in Lapland and send monsters as nannies?”
“It did say in the letter that this is an experiment,” Halley said.
“A monster experiment,” Oscar said.
“And a human experiment at the same time,” Koby added.
“Perhaps we should also do a few experiments,” Halley said.
And that was how they came to be sitting on the rustling sofa, sending text messages to all the people they knew. Because the first matter to be investigated was this: Were there more monsters than these three?
They had concluded that if there were more monsters, it was best to gather someplace with more room. The Hellman apartment couldn’t take any more monsters. And they didn’t need to invite the monsters personally, as they followed the children in their charge.
Koby and Halley had drafted the message. It had been tricky. The message had to be at the same time mysterious (in case the recipient knew nothing about monsters) and easily understood (in case the recipient was not very quick-witted).
“Wonder what Mimi and Alice are up to?” Koby asked, eyes toward their bedroom.
“I’m sure they’re OK,” Halley said coolly.
“At least they have the lights on now,” Koby went on.
Mimi and Alice had been upset that their names had been left out of the text message. Halley had wanted to save characters. She didn’t want the message to be too long; there were so many names already. And Mimi and Alice were little kids nobody even knew! Children their age didn’t have their own phones. It made sense that their names should be left off the message.
So Mimi and Alice had stormed out of the living room and gone into the bedroom, slamming the door. After sitting there for a while, Mimi decided that they could show up
the bigger kids by trapping the flying creature.
The girls had turned out the light and were sitting in the dim room. When Koby came to the door to make peace, Mimi yelled: “Go away! We’re studying the flying troll!”
Of course, Koby had gone away. He had better things to do than worry about his little sister.
Halley’s phone bleeped.
“Here we go!” Minnie exclaimed. “Who’s sending the first reply?”
Halley stared at her phone screen, frowning.
What M? Have you gone mad, Halley? I don’t know anyone called Oscar. Bye, Erica
“Erica doesn’t have a monster,” Halley said.
“I got a message too!” Oscar said.
“And I think I got a second—no, third one,” Halley said.
Messages arrived, the phones bleeping like a chorus of baby birds.
“Let’s read them aloud,” Koby ordered. “Oscar, write the answers on the list.”
Oscar nodded. Halley, Koby, and Minnie started reading the messages.
Minka: This text was sent to the wrong number? Wanna go swimming tomorrow?
Jemima: We have a M. I’ll be there.
Aron: Yeah we do.
Joel: Whaat???????
Olly: Er, too many detective books? I don’t get it . . .
Alba: Yeah. Me and Jenna are coming.
Leo: Yep. I have a M.
The children’s bedroom door opened abruptly. Mimi stood at the door in her blue bathrobe, smiling triumphantly. Alice was grinning behind her. Mimi was holding a brown paper bag that was moving. It looked as if there were a battery-operated rubber ball inside it.
“What’s that?” Halley asked.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Mimi answered, and patted the bag gently.
“That’s why I asked, dumbhead,” Halley muttered, rolling her eyes.
“Did you catch the flying troll?” Koby asked with interest.
Mimi and Alice glanced at each other.
“We did!” Alice yelled, and couldn’t hold back a gleeful giggle any longer. “We caught the fairy-troll, and it’s in this bag.”
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