by David Barron
Molly and the adventures of the Fluffalump
By
David Barron
Copyright ©2011 David Barron
All rights reserved
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Table of Contents
Molly makes a friend
Molly goes to School
Molly goes go to the land of Fluffa
Molly has trouble with Roland
Molly finds a stowaway
Fluff helps Molly catch the thieves
Roland makes amends
Fluff has trouble with next doors cat
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Chapter One Molly makes a friend
It was a grey day and molly had asked her mum if she could play outside in the garden. Her mum had said it was raining so it was upstairs to play in her room. It had rained for three days and molly was very bored as she had so wanted to try the new swing that dad had put up in the summer. He had tied it to the branch of the big oak which stood in the bottom of the garden. Oh she so wished it would stop raining as she pushed her nose up against the window of her room and looked out onto the garden. Molly was nine and three quarters and was fair haired like her mum with long golden locks and big bright blue eyes. She didn’t have any friends of her age yet, as they had only just moved to the area, because of dad’s change of job. Mum was going to take her to the local school to get enrolled quite soon, and molly had driven past it a couple of times with her when they had been out getting the weekly shop. Molly thought the place looked rather bleak and wondered what the other kids would be like when she did finally go.
Then she was taken from her thoughts by something moving in a pile of leaves which had been swept into a corner of the garden, beside the old garden shed. She first thought that it was some small creature like a hedgehog or maybe a mole, or even next doors cat, but when the leaves moved for a second time she saw big green eyes looking right at her. This was like no animal she could think of, or at least not one she’d been aware of lived in people’s gardens. She could hear mum closing the washing machine door, and knew she’d be going out of the kitchen soon to the utility room at the back of the house, which held the tumble dryer. She often used the tumble dryer when the weather was bad. Molly crept down the stairs and peered around the kitchen door and saw her mum closing the door to the utility room behind her as she struggled with a big basket of freshly washed laundry. Taking her chance molly opened the door to the back yard and ran over to the large pile of leaves. Slowly and timidly she poked the toe of her shoe into the pile and moved the leaves around looking for the thing if it was indeed still there. Suddenly she jumped back as something grey with stripes and a long tale dashed past her and ran straight for the back door, and had then bolted straight inside. Molly stood for a second trying to take in what had just happened and realised she had let out a scream. Her mum had then appeared at the door and rushed out to where molly was and asked her what was the matter. Molly not wishing to get herself in trouble had not told her mum about the animal that had just invaded their house. Her mum grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the house whilst giving molly a piece of her mind for going into the garden in the rain and getting her new shoes all dirty with the mud. Molly was marched into the kitchen and told to get her wet clothes and those shoes off and to put on her housecoat and get straight up to her room and stay there until it was time for dinner and mum would shout her down.
Molly trudged dejectedly up the stairs very slowly , thinking it was still two hours till dinner time and what would she do, she’d done all the crossword puzzles, read all the books twice, and for the life of her couldn’t remember the games she used to play to keep herself amused when she had been younger. Molly sat on the bed and swung her legs back and forth, when she sensed that there was something else in the room with her. She pulled her legs up quick and rolled backwards onto the bed. Hearing a slight scuffling coming from underneath, molly chanced a quick look. There sat in the gloom was a very funny looking creature indeed and did not in fact look very scary at all, actually more comical really. The Fluffalump for that was what he was; sensing that molly meant no harm came out slowly towards molly who moved her position slightly but not enough to scare him away. As it came from below molly got a better look at this strange creature, which had run in from the garden. It was grey all over with orange bands of colour, and had big green eyes a round pink nose and very large lips of a pink colour or were they red or blue, there colour kept changing, so fast it was hard for her to keep up. It had a very long tail about three feet she thought which she soon realised he could run up and hold onto, so that he was nearly as high as she was. Molly sat gazing at the Fluffalump for a while, when much to her surprise he said, "Hello what’s your name young miss?" Molly nearly fell off the bed, and stammered, "Ehm my names Molly and did you just speak to me."
"Well of course I did silly."
"All Fluffalump's can talk; have done since, well since a long time anyway ok."
"I was getting quite a good soaking out there don’t you know, and those leaves aren't any kind of a nice shelter."
"That shed of yours is usually open and I live in there part of the year, but some clot has gone and locked it." Molly told him that dad had fixed a swing in the summer to the big oak tree and had used the tools in the shed.
"Ahh" said the Fluffalump,
"So that’s why it’s closed up oh well do you think you could get him to perhaps open it for me otherwise I’ll have to move in here for the winter." Molly sat up straight in alarm, "You can’t stay in here my mum comes and cleans the room once a week, and she's bound to see you."
"Well then all the more reason to get me back in my shed I would think." Molly didn't like this at all, what she could say to dad, to get him to go into the garden in the rain and open the old shed. Molly sat and thought hard, the only thing that happened in there garden was the frequent visits from the black cat next door which sometimes lay on the shed roof. That’s it she had it; she would tell dad the cat had got trapped in the shed and he was bound to go investigate. A little while after she heard her mum shouting her down for dinner, she was about to tell him to hide when she noticed he already had and quite well too as she couldn't see him under the bed.
Molly ran down the stairs to the kitchen as she was quite peckish now it had been a peculiar sort of a day. Mum told her to sit at the table and molly took her usual place whilst mum dished up the potatoes from a dish. They were having chicken casserole, which molly loved. Her dad came in and sat down and was handed his plate. Just as he was about to stick the ladle into the dish of potatoes, molly seized her chance.
"Dad I thought I saw next doors cat at the shed window it was crying and scratching at the window."
"Oh hell," said her dad, "that blooming cat well he'll just have to wait till I’ve had my dinner, I’m starving." Molly’s mum gave her a funny look and proceeded to get the dish of broccoli over to the table. Molly was feeling rather pleased with her self and thought it wouldn't be long before the Fluffalump could go back to the nice warm shed before she got caught with him in her room. After dinner molly’s dad went down to the shed and opened the old rusty padlock to take a look for the cat. Looking everywhere he could and trying to make as much noise as possible molly’s dad tried to scare the cat out of the shed. He tried this for a bit and then decided that the cat wasn’t there or molly was seeing things. Turning his back on the shed and quite miffed molly’s dad came back to the house, quite forgetting as usual to lock the shed door.
Molly watched from the bedroom window as she had run straight up the stairs when she saw her dad go out the back door. She noticed that dad had forgotten to lock the she
d and told the Fluffalump he could soon go back to his home. The Fluffalump was quite happy, but was really rather fond of the space under molly’s bed, so wondered if perhaps she might let him stay a little bit longer. He decided not to broach the subject, at present since really he had just arrived and didn’t wish to make matters worse for Molly at the moment. Molly had sat on her bed watching a funny film of her dads, Laurel and Hardy, which she had laughed at very frequently, and he seemed to like them too as his lips were changing colour very fast when anything funny happened in the film. Soon molly's mum came in to tuck her in and see she was all right before saying good night. Molly snuggled down beneath the quilt, and said, "Good night mum."
She knew her dad would be in soon as well to give her a kiss on the forehead. The Fluffalump had fallen asleep; she knew this as she had risked a peek under the bed earlier, and had heard snoring, but still couldn’t see him. After ten minutes or so had passed molly’s dad came in and gave her, her usual kiss and wished her a good night. Molly fell asleep immediately dreaming of what tomorrow would bring now she had a Fluffalump for a friend. The very next day the Fluffalump decided that he liked under the bed much better than the old shed so asked if he could stay for a while, well just until winters icy blast had passed and spring come to the garden. Molly said it would be ok if he made a solemn promise not to cause any trouble, and not to get seen by her mum or her dad. He agreed and said that she would hardly know that he was there
