The Puppy Present (Red Storybook)

The Puppy Present (Red Storybook) Read Online Free PDF

Book: The Puppy Present (Red Storybook) Read Online Free PDF
Author: Jean Ure
went hurtling through space. The truck drove on. The driver, sitting high up in his cab, had no idea that he had almost run over a small ginger puppy.

    After a while, the breath came back into Ginger’s body. Slowly and painfully, he picked himself up and went limping off into the shadows, dragging one leg behind him. He was cold, he was wet, he was exhausted. He was also very, very frightened.
    Poor Ginger! He hadn’t known that such terrors existed. He thought of Maisie, who had called him her very own Christmas puppy. Where was Maisie now? Why didn’t she come and help him?
    Maisie couldn’t. She was miles away, at hernan’s. She had no idea that her Christmas puppy had escaped into the big wide world and almost been killed. In any case, she was enjoying herself! She had forgotten all about her Christmas pup.
    Whimpering, Ginger dragged his poor battered body under a hedge and curled himself into a ball. What else could he do? Even if he had known how to find his way home, his people weren’t there. They had gone away and left him.
    Ginger could be dead for all they cared.

James Colin was running away from home. He had made up his mind. Nobody loved him any more. All they cared about was the baby. Dad had said to him at breakfast, “I’m warning you, my boy! I’m not going to tolerate much more of this sort of behaviour.”
    James had said, “
What
sort of behaviour?” and brought his spoon down with a satisfying
plap
into his cereal bowl so that a great shower of milk and Rice Krispies had gone splatting across the table. Some had landed on the baby. Hah!

    Dad had roared, “
That
sort of behaviour!” and leant over to give James a sharp smack on the hand.
    Mum hadn’t stuck up for him. She hadn’t told Dad that it was an accident and that you shouldn’t ever punish your children by hitting them. All she had said was, “Oh, James,
really
! Now look what you’ve done!” And she had gone jumping up to see to the baby.
    Fuss fuss fuss! Just because a tiny weeny little drop of milk had landed on it.
    “Your manners are getting worse and worse,” scolded Mum.
    “Manners?” said Dad. “What manners? He hasn’t got any manners! He’s becoming a thoroughly rude and unpleasant little boy and I’m not sure that I like him any more.”
    “Neither do I, when he behaves like that,” said Mum; and she wiped the baby’s face, very tenderly, with a piece of kitchen towel and went, “There, there! All nice and clean again.”
    As if the baby cared! It was always messingitself up. The baby
liked
being dirty.
    Now it was nine o’clock and Dad was in the shop, serving customers. Mum was in the storeroom, sorting boxes. It was then that James decided: he was going to run away. He would run as far and as fast as he could and they would never see him again. Then they would be sorry!
    He took a plastic carrier bag from one of the kitchen cupboards and began filling it with food. He put in an apple and an orange and a banana. He put in a packet of biscuits and a packet of crisps and a bottle of Coca-Cola in case he got thirsty. He reckoned that should be enough to keep him going.
    Then he opened the kitchen door and crept out, very quietly, so that Mum wouldn’t hear him and come running to fetch him back. He had a sort of feeling that probably, in the end, he
would
come back, but not until they had appeared on television and begged him.
    In his imagination he saw his mum, with tears streaming down her face, and his dad, very pale, standing beside her.
    “Please, James! Wherever you are… come back to us! We want you, we love you! We didn’t mean to be unkind to you!”
    But that wouldn’t happen until he had been gone for about… six hours. At the very least! They had to have enough time to start getting worried and to be sorry for the way they had treated him. If Mum caught him now she would just get mad at him for helping himself to food. And for going into the road, which he wasn’t meant to do.
    James
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