Rocky (3 page)

JANE TOOK KITTY
to her room. She found a cardboard box and cut a doorway in it so Kitty could squeeze in and out. She put in an old jumper and an old cuddly monkey. Kitty went straight inside
and rolled on her back and tussled with the monkey. When the monkey was dead she ran in and out chasing her tail.

Ruby watched, thinking, Huh! She found a shoe box still lined with tissue paper and put in a scrap of blanket. “This will make a lovely bed,” she told her rock. She had lots of cuddly toys on her bed, but none she could spare.

“I hope you won't be lonely, Rocky,” she said as she took the box down to the playroom.

Then she remembered the pebbles in her pocket. “These'll keep you company.” She slipped the pebbles into the box – three smooth and two knobbly – and laid the rock on top.

“There,” she whispered. “That's cosy, isn't it?”

Jane came in. Kitty was snuggled under her chin, purring. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Making a bed for my pet.”

“Silly, you know it's not a real pet. Look, if it was alive and a real pet,” said Jane, “it would move, like Kitty.”

Ruby stroked her rock. It was cold and hard and it didn't move. “Things are different on Planet Droppablock. It moves so, so, so slowly, you can't see it,” she said. “Like a very, very, very slow snail.”

Jane's mouth fell open. She didn't know what to say.

Ruby liked it when Jane was lost for words. She smiled. And the rock went on smiling too.

Jane sat down and Kitty leaped around the room, bouncing over the chairs and fluffing up her tail like a brush.

“Shame your pet is so slow,” Jane said, throwing a sponge ball for Kitty. “I mean, you can't have much fun with such a slow pet, can you?”

“Huh,” said Ruby.

Kitty jumped and cartwheeled around the room after the ball, leaping on invisible mice and chewing her cuddly monkey.

Then Ruby noticed something: the kitten had made a puddle on the floor.

“Mum! Mum!” she called.

“What is it?”

Ruby pointed. “That naughty Kitty's made a puddle,” she said quietly.

“Oh dear, never mind,” said Mum. “That's what kittens do. Jane must clear it up.”

Jane made a face. “Yuck! It's smelly. I don't want to.”

Ruby sat beside her rock and
stroked it. “I'm glad you don't do things like that, Rocky,” she said. “What a good, well-trained pet you are.”

Jane scowled.

That night, when Jane went up to bed, she took Kitty with her. The kitten curled up on the bed and purred and went to sleep.

Ruby put Rocky on her bed. The rock was finding it hard to settle down, so Ruby sang it a lullaby.

“What's all that noise? Why are you singing?” asked Jane, peering into Ruby's room. “It's not real,” she added, eyeing the rock on Ruby's bed. You know it's not. You're just pretending.”

Ruby smiled a big, secretive smile. She shrugged. “Goodnight, Jane, and shut the door please – I don't want Rocky to get out in the night.”

“It's not alive, Ruby, it really isn't!” cried Jane. “Look, if you say it's not alive and not a real pet, you can give Kitty her breakfast in the morning.”