DANIEL'S
LITTLE MONSTER
By Amanda J Rees.
Daniel
was tucked up in bed with his dad reading him a bed time story, about
a group of monsters. One monster in particular was much smaller that
the others, he wasnÕt frightening, he was just naughty. As Daniel's
dad was reading, Daniel was imagining the little monster in his bedroom
running around. His dad was getting to the end of the book, but as
he turned the page to find out what happened, the last page had been
torn out! His dad could not finish the story! The little monster was
still in Daniel's bedroom and he was looking worried. "YouÕve got
to finish the story" Daniel pleaded to his dad. "I canÕt son", he
said, "the page is missing!" His dad put the book down,
tucked him in and turned off the light. Daniel led quietly for a moment
hoping the little monster had gone back into the book, he slowly sat
up in bed and put on the light. There, sat on the end of the bed was
the little monster. "DonÕt look at me like that!" the little monster
said shrugging his shoulders. "You were the one who imagined me here!"
Daniel shut his eyes and whispered, "monster go back into the book,
monster go back into the book", he opened his eyes just to see if
the magic chant had worked. The little monster was still there; he
was sitting at DanielÕs desk fiddling with the computer. "Don't touch
that!" Daniel demanded. "I was only looking at it," the monster said
in a moody way. "What am I going to do? What if my mum and dad see
you?" Daniel said worriedly. "Oh donÕt worry about that, only you
can see me. I came out of your imagination and no one elseÕs". Daniel
knew if he didnÕt find somewhere for this monster to sleep he would
have him up all night fiddling with his things! He made a very comfortable
bed in his sock drawer. The monster climbed in and soon fell asleep.
Next
day Daniel was woken up by a loud crash. All of Daniel's books were
in a heap on the floor. The little monster was sat with his legs dangling
over the edge of the shelf, "good morning!" the monster said, "I was
board, and you sleep too much". "What are you doing?" Daniel said
angrily. He got out of bed and got dressed for school. You will have
to come with me today, if I leave you home you will wreck my bedroom!"
The little monster climbed into DanielÕs bag. As Daniel was walking
to school it dawned on him that the only way to put this monster back
into storyland, was that he would have to write the last page of the
book himself. As he got to school the bell rang, so Daniel went straight
to class. Miss Goodly was teaching science that morning, she was a
nervous person most of the time. As soon as Daniel saw her he knew
it was going to be an interesting lesson! Daniel sat down, the little
monster hopped out of the bag and ran up to the front, he climbed
onto miss GoodlyÕs desk and started to swap the labels around on the
chemicals.
Daniel desperately tried to catch the little monsters attention, but
all he managed to do was to catch the eye of Miss Goodly! "What's
wrong Daniel, have you got ants in your pants!" "No miss", Daniel
answered, "are those chemicals dangerous?" he asked, worried that
the school might explode if they were mixed wrongly. "No, they are
quite safe" miss Goodly replied, and then added, "well, we could get
a little bang, especially if I put a certain two chemicals together,
but that wonÕt happen, as I am going to keep those apart". Daniel
sunk down behind his desk and put his fingers in his ears. BOOM !!!
Daniel looked up to see Miss Goodly with a hairstyle like an opened
daisy. 
There
were children screaming, crying and generally running around. The
smoke from the small explosion set off the fire alarms. The head master
stormed into the room. "STOP", he bellowed, everyone immediately stood
still. There was a hush in the classroom; the only sound was Miss
Goodly sobbing in the corner. All the children were sent out onto
the football field with the rest of the school. The fire brigade turned
up. After removing the chemicals and a badly damaged desk, they left.
Daniel saw Miss Goodly being led away by some other teachers. Everyone
returned to their classes. Daniel hoped that the little monster had
also gone up in a puff of smoke, but from out of his school bag a
little voice said " I didnÕt like science much anyway!" Obviously
the monster had climbed back into the bag during the confusion. "You
could of killed us all" Daniel said crossly, "I donÕt expect to hear
or see you again until we get home tonight!"
During
lunch Daniel sat with his friends chatting about the science lesson.
Sausages, chips and peas were on the menu; Daniel and his friends
started to eat. The little monster was getting board, he decided to
have some fun; he crept under the table, reached up and started flicking
peas across the table from Daniel's plate. "Stop it!" his friends
told him, "it's not me!" he replied. Next DanielÕs drink went flying
across the table landing in a little girls plate, completely flooding
her chips, "Daniel, stop being a little monster" she shouted. "it's
not me!" Daniel replied, knowing that no one was going to believe
him. The rest of the day was much the same. Daniel was in constant
trouble with the teachers and his friends. As he walked home the little
monster climbed out of the bag and sat on Daniel's shoulder, "wasn't
that a fun day" the monster said. "Not exactly" Daniel replied, "you
have turned my friends against me and the teachers now think IÕm naughty".
As soon as he got home he shut the monster in the sock drawer and
started to write the last page of the story, putting in how the monster
went home to all his other monster friends. 
That
night Daniel pleaded with his dad to read the story all over again
adding in the new last page. Daniel knew it had to be his dad to read
the story, as it would not work if anyone else read it! As Daniel
lay in his bed listening to his dad read the last page, he hoped it
was going to work. After his dad had left the bedroom, Daniel got
out of bed, walked over to the sock drawer and opened it, slowly he
looked inside, he had gone! His plan had worked, Daniel returned to
his bed. In a funny sort of way he was going to miss the little monster,
but glad he was back where he belonged.
Next
time your friends start acting like little monsters, just ask them
if the last page in their book was missing!!!
| all illustrations by Max Buckland |
