Kitabı oku: «Коралина / Coraline», sayfa 9

Her other parents stood in the kitchen doorway as she walked down the corridor, smiling identical smiles, and waving slowly. “Have a nice time outside,” said her other mother.

“Weʼll just wait here for you to come back,” said her other father.

When Coraline got to the front door, she turned back and looked at them. They were still watching her, and waving, and smiling.

Coraline walked outside, and down the steps.

IV

The house looked exactly the same from the outside. Or almost exactly the same: around Miss Spink and Miss Forcibleʼs door were blue and red lightbulbs that flashed on and off spelling out words, the lights chasing each other around the door. On and off, around and around.Astounding! was followed by a theatrical and then triumph!!!

It was a sunny, cold day, exactly like the one sheʼd left.

There was a polite noise from behind her.

She turned around. Standing on the wall next to her was a large black cat, identical to the large black cat sheʼd seen in the grounds at home.

“Good afternoon,” said the cat.

Its voice sounded like the voice at the back of Coralineʼs head, the voice she thought words in, but a manʼs voice, not a girlʼs.

“Hello,” said Coraline. “I saw a cat like you in the garden at home. You must be the other cat.”

The cat shook its head. “No,” it said. “Iʼm not the other anything. Iʼm me.” It tipped its head to one side; green eyes glinted. “You people are spread all over the place. Cats, on the other hand, keep ourselves together. If you see what I mean.”

“I suppose. But if youʼre the same cat I saw at home, how can you talk?”

Cats donʼt have shoulders, not like people do. But the cat shrugged, in one smooth movement that started at the tip of its tail and ended in a raised movement of its whiskers. “I can talk.”

“Cats donʼt talk at home.”

“No?” said the cat.

“No,” said Coraline.

The cat leaped smoothly from the wall to the grass near Coralineʼs feet. It stared up at her.

“Well, youʼre the expert on these things,” said the cat dryly. “After all, what would I know? Iʼm only a cat.”

It began to walk away, head and tail held high and proud.

“Come back,” said Coraline. “Please. Iʼm sorry. I really am.”

The cat stopped walking, sat down, and began to wash itself thoughtfully, apparently unaware of Coralineʼs existence.

“We . . . we could be friends, you know,” said Coraline.

“Wecouldbe rare specimens of an exotic breed of African dancing elephants,” said the cat. “But weʼre not. At least,” it added cattily, after darting a brief look at Coraline, “Iʼmnot.”

Coraline sighed.

“Please. Whatʼs your name?” Coraline asked the cat. “Look, Iʼm Coraline. Okay?”

The cat yawned slowly, carefully, revealing a mouth and tongue of astounding pinkness. “Cats donʼt have names,” it said.

“No?” said Coraline.

“No,” said the cat. “Now,youpeople have names. Thatʼs because you donʼt know who you are. We know who we are, so we donʼt need names.”

There was something irritatingly self-centered about the cat, Coraline decided. As if it were, in its opinion, the only thing in any world or place that could possibly be of any importance.

Half of her wanted to be very rude to it; the other half of her wanted to be polite and deferential. The polite half won.

“Please, what is this place?”

The cat glanced around briefly. “Itʼs here,” said the cat.

“I can see that. Well, how did you get here?”

“Like you did. I walked,” said the cat. “Like this.”

Coraline watched as the cat walked slowly across the lawn. It walked behind a tree, but didnʼt come out the other side. Coraline went over to the tree and looked behind it. The cat was gone.

She walked back toward the house. There was another polite noise from behind her. It was the cat.

“By the by⁷,” it said. “It was sensible of you to bring protection. Iʼd hang on to it, if I were you.”