Коралина / Coraline

She went back into the kitchen and climbed onto a chair. She tried to put the bunch of keys back on top of the doorframe again. She tried four or five times before she was forced to accept that she just wasn't big enough, and she put them down on the counter next to the door.

Her mother still hadn't returned from her shopping expedition.

Coraline went to the freezer and took out the spare loaf of frozen bread in the bottom compartment. She made herself some toast, with jam and peanut butter. She drank a glass of water.

She waited for her parents to come back.

When it began to get dark, Coraline microwaved herself a frozen pizza.

Then Coraline watched television. She wondered why grown-ups gave themselves all the good programs, with all the shouting and running around in.

After a while she started yawning. Then she undressed, brushed her teeth, and put herself to bed.

In the morning she went into her parents' room, but their bed hadn't been slept in, and they weren't around. She ate canned spaghetti for breakfast.

For lunch she had a block of cooking chocolate and an apple. The apple was yellow and slightly shriveled, but it tasted sweet and good.

For tea she went down to see Misses Spink and Forcible. She had three digestive biscuits, a glass of limeade, and a cup of weak tea. The limeade was very interesting. It didn't taste anything like limes. It tasted bright green and vaguely chemical. Coraline liked it enormously. She wished they had it at home.

“How are your dear mother and father?” asked Miss Spink.

“Missing,” said Coraline. “I haven't seen either of them since yesterday. I'm on my own. I think I've probably become a single child family[8 - a single child family – семья из одного ребенка (игра слов: a single child family обычно обозначает семью с одним ребенком)].”

“Tell your mother that we found the Glasgow Empire press clippings we were telling her about.

“She's vanished under mysterious circumstances,” said Coraline, “and I believe my father has as well.”

“I'm afraid we'll be out all day tomorrow, Caroline, luvvy,” said Miss Forcible. “We'll be staying over with April's niece in Royal Tunbridge Wells.”

They showed Coraline a photographic album, with photographs of Miss Spink's niece in it, and then Coraline went home.