The Libby Story

The Libby Story

(Story by Dogcrab, Illustration by Ratlion)

Bored. Bored bored bored bored bored bored bored. That’s how Libby felt.
Of course, she didn’t know that word, but she felt it all the same. And of course, being bored, she was also moody and cranky and exasperated. Actually, she didn’t know that last word either, to be perfectly honest.
In fact, Libby didn’t know rather a lot of words, but that was all right, because she was just four years old, and you can’t really expect four-year-olds to know so many big words, no matter how precocious.
Of course, she didn’t know what that word… well, you get the general idea.
But in fact, it was because she was precocious that she was this bored, and why she got this bored this easily, because precocious children need something to do, and Libby simply didn’t have anything to do.
Now, you may wonder why Libby didn’t have anything to do. It was, after all, a weekday, and she should have been at school. Or, since it was afternoon, she should have been back from school, and either sleepy after her lunch or out playing in the back-garden with her best friend, Max. He even lived next door, so it really shouldn’t have been a problem at all.
But you see, that actually was the problem. Max had caught a cold. He’d caught it from his brother Jackie, who’d caught it from Ellie, at school, who’d caught it from Gerry. And Libby parents didn’t want her to catch it as well, so she couldn’t go play with Max. Actually, they were worried she’d caught it already, which is why she hadn’t gone off to school that day. And sitting at home, with no one to play ball with her, she was, as you can imagine, looking for something to do.

And there was no one to play with at home either. Daddy was away at work, and Mommy was in her ‘special’ room, painting. Libby found that boring too, because she couldn’t paint with a brush, like Mommy did. Painting with her fingers was much more fun anyway, but if she did that, she couldn’t help Mommy. Once, when Libby had found Mommy’s painting, not fully ready, she had decided to help complete it. Mommy was away at the time, and Libby knew where to find the pots of paint. She’d selected her favourite colours, and a man whose face Mommy had been working on for two weeks ended up with one pink eye in addition to his two blue ones, and a purple splotch that looked like an octopus eating his nose.
When Mommy came back home, she’d rubbed her temples. Then, smiling, she’d told Libby that although she loved her very much, Libby would have to grow just a little older before she could help with these paintings again.

Mommy had then bought her a nice book to paint in, so she could colour bunnies green with her fingers if she so wanted (and she did, of course.) Libby would have loved to play with that book today, but she’d given it (being a big girl and all) to Max’s baby brother Paolo. Paolo, not knowing how important green bunnies were, had eaten the book.
Paolo was just a little baby, and Mommy had said Libby shouldn’t really mind, so she hadn’t, but this meant she couldn’t play with the picture book either.

And so, Libby, bored (and moody and cranky and exasperated and precocious) as she was, sat on her bed, looking at the dust floating in a sunbeam, and frowned. What could she do? Bob the Builder wasn’t on TV today, and she’d already seen Lilo and Stitch twice this week.

Copyright 2006 Ratlion

Ah! Lilo and Stitch! That gave her an idea. She hopped off the bed and - with some difficulty, since the doors weighed more than her – opened her cupboard. There! Inside, lying upside down, was Libby’s doll, Gaggelly-Ann, who looked just like the little doll Lilo had in the movie. Her name was supposed to be Raggedy-Ann, naturally, but these things happen. Especially with four-year olds.
Libby felt a bit bad because she’s forgotten Gaggelly-Ann for so long, but she was very happy too. Gurgling with delight, Libby jumped and scrabbled about the shelves till she managed to get Gaggelly-Ann by one limp arm and dragged her down.
Plop!
Something else had fallen out, along with Gaggelly-Ann. Two things. One was green and one was brown, and both were very hairy and had eight long legs each. Libby jumped in surprise, mouth opening wide in horror, then realised what they were. They were fake insects, made of rubber. Libby’s mouth opened in a big, big grin, shaped exactly like a slice of watermelon. This was something she could use.

Have you seen “The Grinch That Stole Christmas?” Well, if you haven’t, you should – it’s very funny. And if you have, you’ll know what that bad Grinch’s grin looks like. It’s big and wide and very wicked, and you know just by looking at it that he’s about to do something very naughty indeed.
And that’s just the sort of grin Libby had on her face when she took the fake insects and ran to Mommy’s special room.

But wait a minute. What were these fake insects? And why did Libby have them? They weren’t hers, you see. They belonged to Max, who was nice, but was also a naughty boy sometimes. One day, Libby and Max had been playing in his garden, Libby sitting down and looking at Gaggelly-Ann on the grass, when Max had walked up – very quietly – behind her, and put something cold and wriggly and horrible down her neck.
Libby had jumped and squeaked in fright, and pushed Max away. Max, naughty boy that he was, jumped up and pulled poor Libby’s hair and made her cry. Sobbing, Libby ran back home and told her Daddy, who’d just grinned and told her Max was a silly boy. But he also gave her a hug, which was nice, and when he did that, he found the icky little creepy-crawlies that Max had put on her, and smiling to himself, had put them away in Libby’s cupboard.

And now she’d found them again, and she knew just what to do with them now.
This was going to be fun. Libby, still grinning, walked as softly as her little legs could carry along the carpet, and went very, very quietly into her Mommy’s special room. Mommy was looking at her painting, and didn’t see naughty little Libby as she tiptoed into the room, and went to the big table where Mommy kept all her pots of paint and the horrible-smelling thing that she cleaned her hands with.
As quiet as a mouse, Libby took the big brown fake insect and put it carefully on top of a big pot. Then, just as quietly, she ran and hid behind the thick curtains, and waited. Five minutes later, she was still waiting. And she was starting to get bored again – Mommy looked like she was just using red and green in her painting, and wasn’t looking at the other colours at all.

Libby was tired now. Sighing to herself, she was about to move away, when Mommy turned. Libby, grinning again, hid deeper behind the curtain. Mommy went straight to the big table, and picked up a small pot of paint, and started to walk back to her painting.
Libby gasped. She stamped her foot angrily. Mommy hadn’t seen the insect!
But then, Mommy turned again, and went back to her pots, and this time, she did see the insect. She gasped for a minute, then said “Ewwww!” very loudly, and brushed the horrible fake insect away.

Copyright 2006 Ratlion

Libby, standing and grinning behind the curtain, was very pleased. She put one plump hand to her mouth, trying to cover it before she could giggle aloud – but it was too late! She cackled happily, and Mommy turned. She saw Libby standing there, laughing and holding the other insect in her hand, and knew right away what our naughty little Libby had done. She burst out laughing, and chased Libby, saying “Where did you get that horrible thing, you little pest?”
Libby, laughing too, ran back into her room, flinging the insect away and picking Gaggelly-Ann as she did. Mommy followed her in and stooped down, saying “Caught you!” and almost picked Libby up. But Libby was quick. She dropped to her knees and crawled between Mommy’s legs, and ran back down the corridor and downstairs.
She was very careful as she went down the stairs, as all little children should be, and held on to the banister every step of the way. Still, she was very quick, and holding Gaggelly-Ann, she hopped into the guest bedroom.

This was a small room, smaller than the room Libby shared with Mommy and Daddy, but it was nice. It was all done in a bright yellow and had lots of little blue things all over, which Libby liked very much. But some of these blue things also cost a lot of money, and some of them could break very easily, and Mommy and Daddy had told Libby not to touch those things.
One of those things was a funny kind of blue pot, which Daddy had brought back from India. India was a big country, very far away, and Libby didn’t know where it was, but the pot was nice. It was made of glass, deep blue glass, and it was very pretty.
It was kept on a little table next to the bed, which was where Libby had decided to hide. But she was hurrying so much that she knocked her head against one of the table’s legs.

Ow. That hurt. Her head hurt, and everything went yellow and purple for a minute. Libby, tears in her eyes, was about to cry, but then something worse happened.
The pretty blue pot jiggled and wobbled on top of the table, and then, before Libby could do anything, it fell on the floor with a very loud crash and broke into lots of little pieces.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

This was not good.

Mommy would be very angry. Libby knew that. She’d get scolded again, just like when she’d drawn a clown on her bedroom wall. And sure enough, just as the pot broke, she heard Mommy yell from upstairs, “Libby! What happened?”
Libby was scared now. She looked around, and didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t fix that pot, that was for sure. Even Gaggelly-Ann looked scared.
She could hear Mommy coming down the stairs.
Very scared now, Libby looked for a place to hide. The bed! She could hide under the bed! Quickly, she crawled under it, dragging Gaggelly-Ann with her. It was dark and dusty under the bed but Mommy wouldn’t be able to find her. She heard Mommy running into the room.
“Libby! Are you all right? Where are you?” she said, as she came into the little bedroom. Libby said nothing, and just hugged Gaggelly-Ann very tight.
She could only see Mommy’s feet as she walked towards the bed, and held her breath as the feet came closer and closer, and then, she grew even more frightened when Mommy stopped beside the broken pot.

Copyright 2006 Ratlion

“Oh no Libby, how did you do this? Where are you? Come out now, you silly girl. Libby!” That last ‘Libby’ was very loud, and scared the poor little girl even more. She held on even more tightly to her doll, and hoped Mommy wouldn’t look under the bed.
Mommy stood there for a minute, then sighed and started to pick up the pieces of the broken pot. Libby shrank back into the darkness under the bed, and then something else happened.
Her nose started to tickle. It felt funny, but it was very annoying. Libby rubbed her nose but the tickling didn’t stop. She even buried her face in Gaggelly-Ann, but that just made it worse. She could feel a sneeze building up now. Oh no, here it came…

“Atchoo!”
The feet stopped. And turned.
Terrified now, Libby watched as the feet came quickly back to the bed. Then she saw knees, and then Mommy’s face down by the floor.
“Libby! There you are, you little monster,” said Mommy. She reached out. Libby had no choice. She crawled out from under the bed, shaking dust bunnies from her hair. She felt herself being picked up, and then, she was looking straight into Mommy’s face.

Mommy was looking stern.

Really, really scared now, Libby trembled, and said “Sorry, Mommy, I didn’t mean to break that pot.” Mommy said nothing, and just brushed some of the dust off Libby’s hair.
Libby burst into tears. “Don’t yell at me, Mommy, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she wailed, and sneezed again.
“Hey, no one’s yelling at you, sweetie,” said Mommy, gently. “It’s all right, it’s all right. I’m not angry at you.”
Libby hiccupped, and looked cautiously at Mommy. She really didn’t look angry. “Sorry,” she whispered, again, and Mommy gave her a hug, patting her on the back. “Don’t worry darling, it’s all right.” Then she pulled Libby upright again. Libby gave her a watery smile, and rubbed her nose, which was already going red.
“Oh. Do you have a cold?” asked Mommy. “Or is it just dust?”
Libby sneezed again, and there was no doubt. She had a cold.
“Poor baby,” said Mommy.

You know what a cold feels like. You get all sniffly and sneezy and your nose gets drippy. And sometimes, you get a fever, which doesn’t feel good at all. Even grown-ups feel very sad when they have a cold, but when you’re as little as Libby, it’s even worse. You feel terrible. But Mommy knew just what Libby needed.
She took Libby to the bathroom, and picked up a handful of paper towels – just in time! Having a drippy nose is awful, isn’t it? Then, it was off to the kitchen with a fluffy jumper on her tall chair while Mommy whipped up some chicken soup. That was nice - Libby hadn’t realised that having a cold and being bored could make you very hungry indeed. Then, just as Libby was starting to feel nice and full, Mommy went up, and in a minute, Libby heard the gurgle and splash of water as her bath was made ready.

Oh no. This didn’t sound good. Libby didn’t like baths. She was feeling more cranky than ever, especially because her nose tickled and her head hurt. She was starting to feel strange and warm too, and a bath didn’t feel like what she wanted to do at all. She struggled as Mommy took her up the stairs, but it was no use. She was going to have to take a bath whether she liked it or not.
And in fact, she quite liked it. It was warm and wet and comforting, and she loved the strawberry smell of her bubble bath. And then, to be dried off with a fluffy towel and put into her favourite night suit – blue with stars on it! – felt wonderful. And she was sleepy, so so sleepy.
Libby wanted to hug Gaggelly-Ann, but Mommy said Gaggelly-Ann was dusty after having stayed in the cupboard for so long, and would make her sneeze. She brought Libby her teddy bear instead, which did just as well. Actually, Ralph the teddy bear (he was called Ralph because he looked just like Ralph, at school) was even softer and cuddlier, and felt just right, just when her head started to nod.

Copyright 2006 Ratlion

And that was that, for quite a long day, really. Libby didn’t know words like ‘reflection,’ but if she did, she’d have reflected upon the fact that for all her boredom, her day had been extremely eventful.

And if you don’t know that word, you should really have a long talk with your parents about the way they’re bringing you up. If you’re older than four, that is.

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Copyright 2006 Ratlion & Dogcrab

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