Incredible shrinking bogey bear, MI S [essential reading TXT] 📗

The Incredible Shrinking Bogey Bear

The first rays of sunshine poked their bright little fingers around the curtains

in Morgan‟s bedroom. She yawned once and snuffled before she opened her eyes.

Morgan looked at the clock on her bedside table. The time was eight- fifteen. Morgan

opened her eyes wide. She was going to be late for school.

Morgan sat bolt upright in the bed and yanked the duvet back. She could feel

her heart racing in her chest. Then, as suddenly as the panic had struck, Morganrealised that it was      

Saturday, which, of course, meant no school. She sank back onto

the bed and rested her head on the pillow. It was far too early to be awake, she told

herself, and she closed her eyes again.

There was a slight movement underneath the duvet, right next to where

Morgan was laying down. If she really listened hard she could hear a faint whine like

a robot in a science fiction film. A shape started to crawl up the bed, the alien lump

under the bed covers moving ever closer to Morgan‟s head. From underneath the

duvet she could hear the odd grunt. Morgan rolled over onto her side and sleepily

lifted the duvet cover.

“Good morning, Bogey”, she mumbled, and she reached down and picked up

a bright green teddy bear. Morgan hugged the bear, snuggling him into the soft skin

and hair at her neck. Amazingly, the teddy bear nuzzled down into Morgan‟s warm

pyjamas without anyone‟s help. Morgan smiled contentedly to herself as she listened

to the sound of tiny electric motors whirring as the little green bear moved about the

bed.

The sound of spoons rattling in cereal bowls drifted up the stairs. Water

splashed from a tap. A chair scraped across a wooden floor. Morgan could hea r

footsteps at the bottom of the stairs.

“Morgan, love, are you awake?”

It was mum. It took Morgan a couple of seconds to focus on her mother‟s

voice. „Of course‟, thought Morgan, „she‟s going to work‟.

“Wakey, wakey, Morgie, I‟m off now.”

Still holding Bogey Bear tight, Morgan jumped out of bed, ran out of her

bedroom and stood at the top of the stairs.

“There you are”, said her mum. “Don‟t forget to ask your Dad for breakfast.

He‟s in the shed…again!”

Morgan wiped some sleepy dust from her eyes, smiled and waved from the

top of the stairs as her mother put on her coat. She worked in an Estate Agent‟s office

in town and every other Saturday she had to show people around houses.

As Morgan‟s Mum walked out of the front door she called out one more time.

“Be good, love. See you later”.

The front door slammed shut.

“Bye, Mum”, Morgan called out, “Have a good day. Love you.”

From under Morgan‟s chin Bogey Bear lifted a furry green paw and waved

bye-bye too.

Dressed in a pair of old and frayed blue jeans, a baggy pink tee-shirt and red

socks with a hole where the big toe should be, Dad poured milk onto Morgan‟s

cornflakes and yawned. He had been hard at work in the shed since seven o‟clock and

he needed a nice cup of tea.

“Feeling alright?” he asked as he filled the kettle.

Bogey Bear nodded. He was sitting on the kitchen work top next to the

toaster, where he was plugged into an old mobile phone charger. His little black eyes,

which were made from old camera lenses, flashed on and off with bright yellow pin

pricks of light as his batteries recharged.

“What about my favourite little girl?” Dad asked as he opened the fridge to

get the milk, “How are you this fine and sunny morning?”

Morgan slurped the milk off her spoon before she answered. “I‟m okay, Dad.

It‟s a lovely day out there.”

The switch on the kettle flicked up and Dad poured hot water into his mug.

“Mmmm”, he said, “it is, but it‟s still a bit chilly out in the shed. Make sure you wrap

up if you come outside.”

For a man with a brain the size of a small planet Dad could be incredibly

stupid. He wasn‟t really paying attention and he overfilled his mug. The boiling water

spilled all over the kitchen work top and some of it splashed onto his foot and, of

course, straight onto his big toe, which was sticking out of the hole in his sock. Dad

clattered the kettle back onto its base and hopped up and down, rubbing his toe and

yelling, “Ouch!” Morgan and Bogey Bear both burst out laughing. In their own

special ways they both loved Dad to bits but he was a bit of a plonker!

Eventually Dad calmed down and wrapped his throbbing toe in a tea towel.

He was leaning against the fridge sipping his hot tea. He looked like one of those old

Victorian gentlemen with a bad case of gout from one of Morgan‟s history books.

“So, what are you two going to do today?” he asked.

There was never any doubt that Morgan and Bogey Bear would be together.

Ever since Dad had cobbled together the bits, ever since he had wired and soldered

and invented her favourite little green ball of fun, Morgan and Bogey Bear had been

inseparable.

“I don‟t know yet”, replied Morgan. “Maybe we‟ll watch a bit of telly this

morning or play a game.”

What Morgan really wanted to do was spend the morning in the shed with her

Dad. She was fascinated by his machines and tools. Morgan knew that her Dad was

an engineer and he worked for a computer company, but that was during the week

and terribly boring. The stuff that she really loved was in the Shed. Dad was an

inventor, a mad professor, and that was cool.

“Can I come to the shed?” she asked.

Dad shook his head slowly. “Too dangerous today, darling. Remember I told

you about the miniaturiser thingy? Well, I‟m going to be testing it this morning and

that means I‟ve got to be very, very careful. It‟s not a place for a lit tle girl, I‟m afraid.

Imagine what Mum would say if I made you six inches tall. It‟d be like that silly

film.”

Morgan pulled a long, glum face.

Dad walked over and put his hand on her shoulder. “I‟m sorry, love, I just

think it‟s best. I‟m sure you and Bogey can get up to more than enough mischief.”

“When he‟s recharged” said Morgan grumpily.

“Well, it won‟t take long”, replied Dad, “and anyway you‟ve got to get

dressed yet. I bet by the time you get back down here Bogey will be running on full

steam.”

“S‟pose so”, grumbled Morgan as she finished her last spoonful of cornflakes.

She wiped her pyjama sleeve across her mouth and pushed her chair away from the

table.

Dad squatted down so that he was at Morgan‟s eye level. “You know I don‟t

like it when you act all spoiled. It makes you look like a troll. So, spit-spot up those

stairs, wash away the grumps and come back down like the happy little star I know

you really are.”

Morgan felt hot and bothered. She knew that Dad was right but she didn‟t

want to admit it. He continued to squat down in front of her, smiling his big, silly

smile, and Morgan‟s heart melted just a little bit. She couldn‟t stop herself smiling

back.

“Alright” she said, pretending to sound even grumpier despite her grin.

Morgan broke free from her Dad‟s light embrace, skipped up the stairs and

skidded to a halt by the wash basin in the bathroom.

Morgan washed, dressed and brushed her hair. By the time that she skidded to

another sliding halt on the kitchen floor, Bogey Bear‟s eyes were perfect circles of

blackness. The flashing yellow lights had stopped, which meant that his battery was

fully charged.

Morgan unplugged her cuddly companion, lifted him down from the kitchen

worktop and carried him by the paw into the front room. She had decided, while

brushing her teeth that they were going to play Splat the Rat and Bogey would need a

new download.

When Dad had first built Bogey nearly a year ago when Morgan was nine, the

two foot tall green furry bear had just been fitted with motors and simple eyes made

out of camera lenses so that he could walk about the house without bumping into

things. It was great for a while, but eventually even Morgan got a bit bored.

During the summer holidays Dad had taken a week off from work to help look

after Morgan. During that sunny week in August he had taken the computer stuff out

of a personal music player, added in a few other chips and some extra memory and

created a weird seeing, hearing and thinking brain for Bogey. It wasn‟t like a real

brain, like a human brain, but it did mean that you could download different programs

onto Bogey‟s memory chip and then he could do different things.

At the moment he was running his „Cuddly Night Time‟ program. Dad had

written a load of other programs for him as well. One of these computer programs

was the „Game Player‟ program, which meant that Bogey could understand the rules

of Snakes and Ladders, Draughts, Dominoes and Splat the Rat.

Morgan was always asking for new games to be added and Dad tried his best,

but they didn‟t always work. The Monopoly program had, unfortunately, been a bit of

a mess. For some reason Bogey always started throwing the dice under the sofa,

which made the game impossible to play.

Morgan carried Bogey into the front room and climbed onto her father‟s

computer seat. She pressed the space bar on the keyboard on the desk and typed in

her password. It was, of course, B-O-G-E-Y. The computer whirred into life and

Morgan selected an icon named „Bogey Brain‟. A cartoon picture of Bogey Bear

flashed up on the big screen on the desk. Around the cartoon picture of Morgan‟s

special friend she could see lots of little brains all with different names. There was the

one called „Cuddly Night Time‟, another called „Hide n Seek‟ and there, by his left

paw, was a brain called „Game Player‟.

Morgan plugged a USB cable into another socket right next to the connector

that recharged Bogey‟s battery. Then she clicked on the „Game Player‟ brain and

watched a light bulb above the screen bear‟s head fill up with bright yellow light. As

soon as the light bulb was full the real Bogey Bear‟s eyes flashed once and he sat up.

“Ready to splat the rat?” Morgan asked.

Bogey nodded vigorously, jumped to his feet and launched himself off the

desk and into Morgan‟s waiting arms.

Morgan loved playing Splat the Rat. Her Dad had tied a length of drainpipe to

an old blackboard easel. At the top of the easel there was a bucket full of home made

furry sock rats. Bogey stood in the bucket and dropped each ratty sock into the top of

the tube and Morgan tried to bash them with a pink foam rounders bat before they hit

the ground. A special mathematical part of Bogey‟s computer brain kept the score.

Morgan got a point for every bashed rat and Bogey got a point each time Morgan

missed. By lunch time the score was pretty even at thirty-two points for Morgan and

thirty-seven for Bogey. If you‟ve ever played Splat the Rat at a school fete, you‟ll

understand just how good Morgan was at smashing vermin on the bonce!

Just as Bogey started to slide the next rat into the top of the tube Morgan

heard a high pitched voice call out from the direction of the kitchen.

“Only me”.

Morgan recognised the unmistakeable sound of Mrs. McGonagall. It must be

lunch time already. Morgan slung her pink foam bat on to the living room carpet,

reached up to grab Bogey, and then ran at full pelt into the kitchen. As she slid to a

halt on the kitchen tiles Morgan tangled herself into the folds of Mrs. McGonagall‟s

long and flowing paisley patterned skirt.

“Yippee” yelled Morgan from under all that material. She loved Mrs.

McGonagall. The old lady was like a favourite aunt. Mrs. McGonagall lived next

door but two and ever since Mum had started to work full- time, especially with Dad

being so absent-mindedly busy, Mrs. McGonagall had volunteered to look after

Morgan whenever she was needed. Sometimes when both Mum and Dad had to work

after Morgan finished school Mrs. McGonagall could always be relied on to meet

Morgan at the school gates and take her home for