But I want to carry on exploring.
Coraline had been at school for a whole week. But to Coraline it felt as if an entire lifetime had passed; time stretching on and on forever in that dim, grey place. There was nothing terrifying about her school, anymore, but there was also nothing exciting about it either. After rescuing ones parents from death and defeating the other mother, a day spent reciting times tables and periodic tables was hardly exciting. And to top it off she was the only girl in her class to not have a pair of day-glo green gloves, something she had specifically asked her mother to buy her when they had been shopping.
And there was always the waiting. She had been sat on the bench, waiting for one of her parents to come and collect her, for over half an hour. That was half an hour of daylight she had lost to explore the deeper reaches of the garden or half an hour to spend with Mister Bobo and his mouse circus or even half an hour to listen to the theatrical stories of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Really, it wasn’t as if she didn’t have better things to do than wait. And if she wasn’t waiting for them to pick her up, then she was waiting for them to take her to school- she even had to make her own lunch, her father was still making recipes rather than real food.
Buttoning the blue duffel coat up right the way to the top, Coraline gathered her belongings and made a great fuss of acting relieved. Standing up with great determination she walked straight past the playground monitor, politely saying Goodbye, and out of the school grounds. She could walk the distance home in the same time it would take her parents to realise they had forgotten her, again.
Coraline walked past the chip shop, her stomach rumbling in dissatisfaction and she stopped for a moment to check her pocket money. Asking for a cone of chips from the owner, she imagined the man adopting her and raising her with loving care to be the foremost expert in battered fish in the country. Smiling politely at the man, she handed over the money and continued walking home. Beneath the dark bridge covered in graffiti, she imagined that it was a troll’s bridge where she’d have to pay the toll in a fierce battle to the death and when, sadly, that did not happen she continued to imagine the great plights that occurred on her journey home.
Pulling her hood up Coraline walked onwards through the darkening woods. The lampposts flickered, a surge of electricity or maybe a put-outer, made her stare upwards for a moment at the lightening sky. “That’s not possible,” Coraline told herself as she continued with an increasing awareness of the changing and different landscape. Coraline walked quickly out of the woods and out onto a sandy beach, not the bottom of Oakwood Drive as expected.
The first thing Coraline did, on her realisation that she had ended up somewhere else was to make a mark in the sand. In this case a rather large x marked out by broken branches. The second thing she did was set off in the direction she had come, in case she had mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up in Narnia or somewhere like that. The third thing Coraline did was to accept her situation and work out how much danger she was in.
It all seemed very realistic; the waves crashing, the rising sun and warm uncomfortable heat. The beach seemed to go on for such an awful long time, so it probably wasn’t the work of the other mother as she didn’t have the imagination to make such a long and boring beach. Walking towards the sunrise Coraline continued to eat her chips, wondering if it was safe to eat the food here in this new world. Either way this was much more exciting than mathematics or science. Yuck.
And there was always the waiting. She had been sat on the bench, waiting for one of her parents to come and collect her, for over half an hour. That was half an hour of daylight she had lost to explore the deeper reaches of the garden or half an hour to spend with Mister Bobo and his mouse circus or even half an hour to listen to the theatrical stories of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. Really, it wasn’t as if she didn’t have better things to do than wait. And if she wasn’t waiting for them to pick her up, then she was waiting for them to take her to school- she even had to make her own lunch, her father was still making recipes rather than real food.
Buttoning the blue duffel coat up right the way to the top, Coraline gathered her belongings and made a great fuss of acting relieved. Standing up with great determination she walked straight past the playground monitor, politely saying Goodbye, and out of the school grounds. She could walk the distance home in the same time it would take her parents to realise they had forgotten her, again.
Coraline walked past the chip shop, her stomach rumbling in dissatisfaction and she stopped for a moment to check her pocket money. Asking for a cone of chips from the owner, she imagined the man adopting her and raising her with loving care to be the foremost expert in battered fish in the country. Smiling politely at the man, she handed over the money and continued walking home. Beneath the dark bridge covered in graffiti, she imagined that it was a troll’s bridge where she’d have to pay the toll in a fierce battle to the death and when, sadly, that did not happen she continued to imagine the great plights that occurred on her journey home.
Pulling her hood up Coraline walked onwards through the darkening woods. The lampposts flickered, a surge of electricity or maybe a put-outer, made her stare upwards for a moment at the lightening sky. “That’s not possible,” Coraline told herself as she continued with an increasing awareness of the changing and different landscape. Coraline walked quickly out of the woods and out onto a sandy beach, not the bottom of Oakwood Drive as expected.
The first thing Coraline did, on her realisation that she had ended up somewhere else was to make a mark in the sand. In this case a rather large x marked out by broken branches. The second thing she did was set off in the direction she had come, in case she had mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up in Narnia or somewhere like that. The third thing Coraline did was to accept her situation and work out how much danger she was in.
It all seemed very realistic; the waves crashing, the rising sun and warm uncomfortable heat. The beach seemed to go on for such an awful long time, so it probably wasn’t the work of the other mother as she didn’t have the imagination to make such a long and boring beach. Walking towards the sunrise Coraline continued to eat her chips, wondering if it was safe to eat the food here in this new world. Either way this was much more exciting than mathematics or science. Yuck.