Read an Excerpt
Outside the Window
By JULIE ROYS
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Julie Roys
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-3092-6
Chapter One
A dark sleepless night
Outside the window there's a strange noise. Do I look or hide my head under the blankets where I'm safe and warm? No I think I will creep so slowly and just take a peep.
Oh, to my surprise I see a small shape but can't quite make out what it is. I think I will get the torch as its dark outside. I'm excited and scared at the same time because the sound I can hear is almost human ... I think. I open the window and point the torch and we both jump and scream! There outside my window is a small troll looking thing scratching in the garden under my window.
"Do you speak?" I say and the troll said "Of course, do you think I'm silly?" "No but what are you doing scaring me half to death like that? What is your name?" The troll said "My name is Ockleberry, because I like Ockleberries and I can usually find them right here in this garden. I always come here at night and I have seen you all snuggled up in your bed. I have wandered what your name is, are you human?" "Yes I'm human and my name is Nelly. I'm a girl and this is my house and my garden. What is an Ockleberry? I have never heard of such a thing or a person.... You are a person aren't you?" "Silly girl, I am a Wigglemot!" Ockleberry said, standing as tall as he could be. That was only as tall as from my foot to my knee. "I live down there!" He pointed to the big bush at the end of the garden. "I live with my Uncle and Aunt and we like to eat berries. I particularly like Ockleberries they are my favourite." "I've never heard of an Ockleberry." I said and looked at him quite confused. "Well," said Ockleberry "If you prove to be a good friend who I can rely on and not tell anyone you have seen me, I will show you my home down there under the bush and show you an Ockleberry, the tastiest thing you will ever eat. Do you promise to keep me a secret?" I answered, "Yes, I would love a secret friend." "Well then let's say goodnight and meet up in the morning at 9 o'clock." Ockleberry slipped quietly back down to the end of the garden and I slipped quietly back into bed and pulled the covers up close to my chin. I think I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
Chapter Two
Was it a dream?
The next morning, I woke up and wondered if Ockleberry had been a dream. I looked at the big clock in the hall which was ticking very loudly and it said seven o'clock (I've just learnt to tell the time you know). So I had my breakfast and told my mum I couldn't be disturbed as I had secret things to do in my room. It seemed ages before the small hand was on the nine and the big hand ticked its way to the twelve. But it finally came and I snuck out of the house and down in the garden to the big bush. The bush looked scraggly I thought, nothing special enough that anyone would want to live there. Oh, how wrong I was to be.
Ockleberry appeared from behind the foliage and said "Good morning Nelly!" How excited I was that Ockleberry was not a dream, he was real. I had to crouch down low as Ockleberry pushed away some foliage and there was a small door. Behind the door was the most wonderful nest like house with a roof made of branches and leaves of every different kind and colour and oh so warm and snuggly. The walls had branches where things were placed on like tiny pots and pans and wonderful knick knacks like I have seen in a doll house. "They are so cute and very small!" I exclaimed. At the far end of the nest there were 3 beds with blankets made from bits of stuff I remembered seeing from my house. Ockleberry said as he saw me looking, "My Aunt found lots of things your family threw out and she made our blankets and pillows and that curtain." He pointed to the small window behind the beds. "My Aunt is very clever you know." Ockleberry proudly said. Ockleberry said his Uncle and Aunt had gone berry picking and wouldn't be back till there baskets were full and that wouldn't be for some time yet. The house smelt sweet and kind of earthy like the garden does after the rain. "I'm just cleaning up after breakfast." said Ockleberry. "What did you eat?" I asked. "Berries of course, yellow and blue ones. I was hoping for Ockleberries but last night I met you and went home forgetting to collect them." "Why were you called after a berry?" I asked. "Because," said Ockleberry "My head is shaped like an Ockleberry. It's lucky I love Ockleberries. How come you've got a name like Nelly?" "Because my grandmother was called Nelly, and that's special. We should have an adventure!" I exclaimed. Ockleberry agreed. We made a secret pact to keep our special meeting of knowing each other from everyone we know, and meet up together and have our own amazing adventures.
Chapter Three
Berry Picking
The very next day (Saturday), my most favorite day of the week we, Ockleberry and I decided to go berry picking at a place he knew just outside my garden. The trip would have taken Ockleberry an hour to get there but safe inside my back pack it took no time at all. I looked all around to see no one was there to see us and then I carefully took Ockleberry out of my back pack and placed him on the ground. The adventure had already begun. How exciting to be outside alone with my new best friend. I watched as Ockleberry scratched around in the dirt and pull up the weirdest berries I had ever seen. They were bright orange, as big as my thumb nail and oh so juicy. As we were eating the juicy orange berries we were startled by a creature the same size as my friend but very ugly and mean looking, not at all nice and friendly. The creature (who had obviously never seen a human up close before), kept poking me with his stick. "Stop it!" I said "Why are you poking me?" The creature, who introduced himself as a Nongbat who went by the name of Pigglewit, looked like a funny looking cat with wings. He was upset because we were taking "his" berries. Ockleberry and Pigglewit knew each other but were not particularly friends. "Why have I never seen you before?" I asked. Both Ockleberry and Pigglewit said they weren't fond of humans because they were too big and they were told never to be seen by a human, but Ockleberry told Pigglewit I was nice and would never hurt any creature. So we three decided to be friends and hunt for berries together. I helped my friends across puddles and long grass and we laughed all the way. This adventure was about finding new friends, discovering new creatures and finding new scrummy things to eat. After we filled my back pack full of Ockleberries we thought we had better go back to our homes so the big people and creatures would not worry. I dropped Pigglewit outside his tree where he lived in a carefully dug out hole that had a staircase. The staircase led up to the tree top and took Ockleberry back to the bush down the bottom of my garden.
Chapter Four
Our Night Adventure
I was so excited because Ockleberry and I had decided to go out that night just after dark to visit Pigglewit in his tree house. Pigglewits parents would be out for hours collecting food and Pigglewit would have supposed to have been tucked in bed asleep.
So after my dinner, I bathed, brushed my teeth, got dressed for bed and waited quietly for my mum to come in and read me a bed time story so I could say goodnight and then let another adventure begin with my new secret friends Ockleberry and Pigglewit.
Finally it was time ... Ockleberry was scratching under my window. I grabbed my dressing gown, gumboots and torch. I picked up Ockleberry, put him very carefully in my back pack and we were away down the back of the garden. We were soon at the tree were Pigglewit lived. I stopped took off my back pack, placed Ockleberry on the ground and leaned on the big old oak tree. "Oh it's warm! The tree is warm." I cried. "Of course it is silly," laughed Ockleberry "Do you think Nongbats like to be cold? They are just like anyone else. We all like to keep warm on cold nights." Before Ockleberry could finish laughing, a door opened at the bottom of the tree and there stood Pigglewit. "Shhhh! Do you want all the creatures to hear you? Come inside." Ockleberry walked straight in but I had to crouch down as low as I could and squeeze through the small door. Inside I could stand up straight. "Oh," I cried "How lovely, it's warm and spacious." Looking around I soaked up the sights of this amazing house. I could live here quite happily I thought. There was a staircase that circled round the tree right up to the top. There were hammocks for beds hanging across the inside walls of the tree, I counted 4. There was a kitchen at the bottom with a small fire in the middle and the heat flowed right up to the top of the tree. Pigglewit said "My mum does all the cooking on the fire and if you look up there," pointing to a wee hole in the top of the tree "The smoke goes out there and big people like you just think its fog." We all laughed. "Do you want some walnut stew?" Pigglewit asked. "Yes please!" said Ockleberry. "I've never tried walnut stew." I confessed, but very politely said yes please. After our walnut stew supper and Ockleberries for desert, Pigglewit said his family would be home soon so we had better go. I crawled back through the door, picked up Ockleberry who was rubbing his tummy with a delighted look on his face. We said goodnight to Pigglewit and thanked him for the yummy supper and we went back to our homes.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Outside the Window by JULIE ROYS Copyright © 2012 by Julie Roys. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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