Читать книгу The Gargoyle in My Yard - Philippa Dowding - Страница 8

Moonlight Dance

That night the backyard was much quieter. There were no raccoons fighting or banging garbage cans, no broken dwarves. It was just a still, cold night.

In fact, it was a little too cold. Suddenly the weather had turned chilly. It was definitely autumn.

The cold woke Katherine up on and off, but she didn’t really mind. She liked dozing under her big blanket, toasty and warm while her nose got cold. It felt a little like sleeping outside in the tent when she and her parents went camping. They went to Algonquin Park every August, and sometimes the nights were really chilly that far north.

Around three a.m., Katherine woke to see Milly in her window, growling and twitching her tail again.

“Milly,” she whispered, “shhhhh. I’m trying to sleep. Come here, kitty, come sleep under the warm covers.” She lifted the covers invitingly.

Milly usually slept with her, but not tonight. She stayed put, all her attention trained on the backyard. She ignored Katherine.

“C’mere, Mil!” Katherine demanded, a little louder. She was annoyed at being woken up now and wanted to get back to sleep. But Milly-the-statue-cat wouldn’t budge.

Katherine sighed and got out of bed. She had to go to the bathroom anyway. She padded off down the hall, as quietly as she could so she wouldn’t wake her parents.

On her way back, she stopped to scratch Milly’s ear and casually looked outside.

“What’s so interest...” Katherine stopped mid-word and stifled a small scream.

There, dancing among the statues in the cold moonlight, was the gargoyle!

Katherine was so dumbfounded that she slumped to the floor, her hand covering her mouth in shock. She shook her head back and forth in disbelief, barely breathing.

“No, it can’t be,” she said. “No way is there a gargoyle dancing around in my backyard. It’s just a trick of the light or something.” She looked around her familiar room for a moment to make sure she wasn’t seeing things in there, too. Everything seemed pretty normal, no dancing teddy bears or walking furniture. She decided she wasn’t completely losing her grip on reality.

She breathed deeply, drew up all her courage, and as quietly and bravely as she could, peeked over the bottom of the window into the backyard.

The gargoyle wasn’t dancing any more. In fact, he was standing perfectly still. “That’s better,” she thought, “see, you were imagining it.”

But she knew in her heart she hadn’t imagined it. It made sense. It explained why he was so light and warm when she picked him up. It explained the chuckle she’d heard: he was laughing at her. It explained the “raccoon fight” the night before, and the dwarf’s broken nose, and why Milly didn’t like him.

It explained a lot of things.

As Katherine was putting the pieces in place, she didn’t notice that the gargoyle had turned and was looking up at her window. He was looking directly at her.

BANG! She jumped as something hit the window right beside her head. The gargoyle had thrown a stone at her to get her attention.

“Hey!” she shouted and came back to her senses. She was looking straight into the backyard, straight into his glittering, dark eyes.