Coraline

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. ‘It’s 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 didn’t come out the other side. Coraline went over to the tree and looked behind it. The cat was gone.
    She walked back towards the house. There was another polite noise from behind her. It was the cat.
    ‘By the by,’ it said. ‘It was sensible of you to bring protection. I’d hang on to it, if I were you.’
    ‘Protection?’
    ‘That’s what I said,’ said the cat. ‘And anyway – ’
    It paused, and stared intently at something that wasn’t there.
    Then it went down into a low crouch and moved slowly forward, two or three steps. It seemed to be stalking an invisible mouse. Abruptly, it turned tail and dashed for the woods.
    It vanished among the trees.
    Coraline wondered what the cat had meant.
    She also wondered whether cats could all talk where she came from and just chose not to, or whether they could only talk when they were here – wherever here was.
    She walked down the brick steps to the Misses Spink and Forcible’s front door. The blue and red lights flashed on and off.
    The door was open, just slightly. She knocked on it, but her first knock made the door swing open, and Coraline went in.
    She was in a dark room that smelled of dust and velvet. The door swung shut behind her, and the room was black. Coraline edged forward into a small anteroom. Her face brushed against something soft. It was cloth. She reached up her hand and pushed at the cloth. It parted.
    She stood blinking on the other side of the velvet curtains, in a poorly lit theatre. Far away, at the edge of the room, was a high wooden stage, empty and bare, a dim spotlight shining on to it from above.
    There were seats between Coraline and the stage. Rows and rows of seats. She heard a shuffling noise, and a light came towards her, swinging from side to side. When it was closer she saw the light was coming from a torch being carried in the mouth of a large black Scottie dog, its muzzle grey with age.
    ‘Hello,’ said Coraline.
    The dog put the torch down on the floor and looked up at her. ‘Right. Let’s see your ticket,’ it said gruffly.
    ‘Ticket?’
    ‘That’s what I said. Ticket. I haven’t got all day, you know. You can’t watch the show without a ticket.’
    Coraline sighed. ‘I don’t have a ticket,’ she admitted.
    ‘Another one,’ said the dog gloomily. ‘Come in here, bold as anything, “Where’s your ticket?” “Haven’t got one.” I don’t know  . . . ’ It shook its head, then shrugged. ‘Come on, then.’
    The dog picked up the torch in its mouth and trotted off into the dark. Coraline followed. When it got near to the front of the stage it stopped and shone the torch on to an empty seat. Coraline sat down and the dog wandered off.
    As her eyes got used to the darkness she realised that the other inhabitants of the seats were also dogs.
    There was a sudden hissing noise from behind the stage. Coraline decided it was the sound of a scratchy old record being put on to a record player. The hissing became the noise of trumpets, and Miss Spink and Miss Forcible came on to the stage.
    Miss Spink was riding a one-wheeled bicycle, and juggling balls. Miss Forcible skipped on behind her, holding a basket of flowers. She scattered the flower petals across the stage as she went. They reached the front of the stage, and Miss Spink leapt nimbly off the unicycle, and the two old women bowed low.
    All the dogs thumped their tails and barked enthusiastically. Coraline clapped politely.
    Then they unbuttoned their fluffy round coats and opened them. But their coats weren’t all that opened: their faces opened, too, like empty shells, and out of the old empty fluffy round bodies stepped two young women. They were thin, and pale, and quite pretty, and had black-button eyes.
    The new Miss Spink was wearing green tights and high brown boots that went most of the way up her legs. The new Miss Forcible wore a white dress and had flowers in her long yellow