LITMIR.BIZ

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at her? Everything was quiet now. Even the neighbour’s dog stopped barking.

      “What the heck? What’s going on in there?” Katherine, who was a brave twelve-year-old, didn’t think twice about going into the bushes to check out the noise. She crept up to the bushes and quickly pulled them apart.

      Her face broke into a smile. The gargoyle was sitting there.

      “What are you doing in there?” she asked, surprised. “You shouldn’t be in the bushes. I wonder why Mom put you in there?”

      She reached in and picked up the little gargoyle, heaving him high. She was expecting him to be much heavier than he was and was surprised when he weighed only a little more than Milly. Sometimes she helped her mom move the dwarves around, and they were much heavier than the gargoyle, although they were about his size.

      Katherine noticed something else, too. The gargoyle was oddly warm. She wondered if he was made of something other than clay or stone.

      “What are you made of, little gargoyle? Plastic or something?”

      She placed him back on his pedestal beside the swing. Milly watched from a distance with disgust on her cat face, growling softly and twitching her tail.

      “What is it, Mil? Don’t you like Mr. Gargoyle? Hmmm?”

      Katherine tried to catch Milly and take her over to see the gargoyle, but the cat was too quick for her and darted up the garden toward the house, spitting all the way.

      Katherine laughed, patted the gargoyle’s head and walked toward the house.

      Milly never took her big cat eyes off the gargoyle, which is why she was the only one to see him stick his tongue out at Katherine’s back as she walked away.

      Cats are very wise, aren’t they?

      Chapter Four

      Moonlight Dance

      That night the backyard was much quieter. There were no raccoons fighting or banging garbage cans, no broken dwarves. It was just a still, cold night.

      In fact, it was a little too cold. Suddenly the weather had turned chilly. It was definitely autumn.

      The cold woke Katherine up on and off, but she didn’t really mind. She liked dozing under her big blanket, toasty and warm while her nose got cold. It felt a little like sleeping outside in the tent when she and her parents went camping. They went to Algonquin Park every August, and sometimes the nights were really chilly that far north.

      Around three a.m., Katherine woke to see Milly in her window, growling and twitching her tail again.

      “Milly,” she whispered, “shhhhh. I’m trying to sleep. Come here, kitty, come sleep under the warm covers.” She lifted the covers invitingly.

      Milly usually slept with her, but not tonight. She stayed put, all her attention trained on the backyard. She ignored Katherine.

      “C’mere, Mil!” Katherine demanded, a little louder. She was annoyed at being woken up now and wanted to get back to sleep. But Milly-the-statue-cat wouldn’t budge.

      Katherine sighed and got out of bed. She had to go to the bathroom anyway. She padded off down the hall, as quietly as she could so she wouldn’t wake her parents.

      On her way back, she stopped to scratch Milly’s ear and casually looked outside.

      “What’s so interest...” Katherine stopped mid-word and stifled a small scream.

      There, dancing among the statues in the cold moonlight, was the gargoyle!

      Katherine was so dumbfounded that she slumped to the floor, her hand covering her mouth in shock. She shook her head back and forth in disbelief, barely breathing.

      “No, it can’t be,” she said. “No way is there a gargoyle dancing around in my backyard. It’s just a trick of the light or something.” She looked around her familiar room for a moment to make sure she wasn’t seeing things in there, too. Everything seemed pretty normal, no dancing teddy bears or walking furniture. She decided she wasn’t completely losing her grip on reality.

      She breathed deeply, drew up all her courage, and as quietly and bravely as she could, peeked over the bottom of the window into the backyard.

      The gargoyle wasn’t dancing any more. In fact, he was standing perfectly still. “That’s better,” she thought, “see, you were imagining it.”

      But she knew in her heart she hadn’t imagined it. It made sense. It explained why he was so light and warm when she picked him up. It explained the chuckle she’d heard: he was laughing at her. It explained the “raccoon fight” the night before, and the dwarf’s broken nose, and why Milly didn’t like him.

      It explained a lot of things.

      As Katherine was putting the pieces in place, she didn’t notice that the gargoyle had turned and was looking up at her window. He was looking directly at her.

      BANG! She jumped as something hit the window right beside her head. The gargoyle had thrown a stone at her to get her attention.

      “Hey!” she shouted and came back to her senses. She was looking straight into the backyard, straight into his glittering, dark eyes.

      Chapter Five

      Ballerinas and Daisies

      At this point, most twelve-year-olds would have gone for help. Or at the very least gone shrieking down the hall and jumped under the covers of their parents’ bed.

      Katherine did neither of these things. Instead, she stared the gargoyle right in the eye and tried to look fierce. Milly growled encouragement. Katherine gulped. She inched her window open a crack, and as quietly as she could, whisper-shouted down to the gargoyle.

      “Hey! What the heck are you doing? You can’t throw stones at my window!”

      The gargoyle didn’t miss a beat. He squared his little shoulders, stuck his tongue out at her, then smiled. His tiny lips pulled apart to show a very sharp row of glittering points. It was a sneering smile, not a cheerful, welcoming, happy smile.

      She was a little offended and surprised at his rudeness. “You’re really rude!” she yelled quietly. “Don’t just smile at me. Explain yourself!” Katherine knew this last command was a rather weak one, copied from unimaginative adults trying to “get to the bottom of things”, but it was all she could come up with at the moment.

      Then she heard a low chuckle, the same chuckle she’d heard the night before in the bushes, and he stuck his tongue out at her once more, turning his back on her.

      “How rude! He really is rude, Milly.” Katherine was getting annoyed with him now. Who did he think he was? This was her house, her backyard, after all.

      She and Milly could only watch helplessly as he walked casually over to the back door and bent down to pick something up. He knew he was being watched, but he didn’t seem to care.

      Have you ever seen a gargoyle walk? It isn’t very pretty or graceful. It’s really more of a waddle, since they have very thick legs, wide sharp-toed feet, and their arms drag along the ground. They tend to look somewhat off balance, since their leathery wings are very heavy and throw them backwards. It makes them look slightly “off-kilter”, as Katherine’s grandmother would say.

      Katherine was wondering what he was picking up? He seemed very interested in his squat little feet and was doing something to them.

      Suddenly, it came to her. Her shoes! She had left her new red shoes with the white stripes beside the back door!

      “Oh, no!” she groaned. As he waddled back into full view, she realized to her dismay that she was right. The gargoyle had taken her shoes and stuffed them onto his own ugly feet!

      Katherine was too astonished to do anything. She could only watch aghast at what happened

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