Читать книгу The Gargoyle in My Yard - Philippa Dowding - Страница 6

The Sign of

the Broken Dwarf

That night when Katherine was brushing her teeth, she remembered to ask her dad something.

“Hey Dad, when did we get that new gargoyle?” she yelled down the hall, through foamy toothbrush spit. She spat it out.

“Gargoyle? What gargoyle?” he asked, sounding puzzled as he walked into the bathroom. Her dad was really tall and skinny, with frizzy white hair that made him look kind of like a clown, especially when he was wearing his pajamas as he was now. Her dad was a high school science teacher, and his students liked to call him “Einstein” because he looked a little like that famous scientist.

“Don’t tell me your mother bought another garden statue?” he moaned. “What is it this time?”

“A gargoyle. He’s really cute, too. For a gargoyle, I mean. And he’s real-looking. You know? I mean, you can tell the faun, and the cherub and the dwarves aren’t real. And the unicorn is really pretty fake-looking. But the gargoyle has this look on his face, like he’s thinking about something really hard. Or maybe he’s a little sad. And he’s got a pouch bulging with something, but you can’t see inside.”

Katherine got quiet. “Yeah. He really does look sad about something.”

Her dad laughed. “You must have been looking at him pretty hard. I hope he doesn’t get into any fights with the dwarves! Gargoyles and dwarves are sworn enemies, you know. They’ll fight over nothing and hold grudges for ever. Or almost for ever.”

He smiled, leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head.

“G’night, honey. Sleep tight, sweet dreams, don’t let the gargoyles bite!” he teased.

“G’night Dad.” Katherine yawned as she headed down the hall.

Katherine’s bedroom was at the back of the house, closest to the backyard. The tree branches outside her window played a slow game of tag with each other in the gentle night breeze. Katherine sighed and snuggled deep under her covers, glad to be cozy in her own bed, drowsy and happy, ready for sleep.

But she didn’t sleep well that night at all. Katherine had fitful dreams of something, or someone, screaming and fighting outside her window. At one point it was as though a lost night creature was banging the tops of the garbage cans together and yowling at the moon.

A few times she dug her head deeper into her pillow and fell back to sleep. Once she rolled over and mumbled “stupid raccoons” before jamming her favourite stuffed bear over her ear to block out the noise.

Milly spent all night sitting in Katherine’s bedroom window, looking out into the backyard and growling gently to herself. Once in a while her tail twitched slightly, but otherwise she looked still as a statue. She was watching something very intently.

The next morning, Katherine woke up late for school, tired from a bad night’s sleep. When she ran downstairs to grab some breakfast before dashing out the door to school, she didn’t even think twice when her mom asked her, “Do you know how the garbage can lids got all over the backyard? Or how one of the dwarves got his nose broken off?”

“Stupid raccoons, they were fighting all night long. Bye!” And Katherine was gone.