“Whew,” the spider said wiping his forehead. Louie looked around him to get his bearings[SB1] . He was out of the People’s backyard. I must
now be in the neighbor’s backyard, the spider concluded.
Then Louie heard a low grumbling. It was not the car for it sat motionless
still gently purring. Louie looked over
his right shoulder to find a massive brown form sniffing at the back tire. The form moved cautiously around the side of
the car. Louie sat motionless, afraid of
attracting this great beast’s attention.
How do I get rid of
the mutt? Louie wondered. Instinct
took over. Louie allowed the red car
with yellow hood to slide forward an inch.
The brown dog jerked its head back.
Louie let the car slide another inch.
The dog cocked its head in curiosity and barked. Again Louie moved the car just an inch, this
time backward. The dog began hopping
from side to side barking at the moving object.
“Come on, come on,” Louie urged the dog.
The big brown dog took the bait and once again put its nose to the little
red car trying to make out what it was.
“POW!” Louie said.
The car, under Louie’s command, backfired in the big brown dog’s
face. Having sufficed its curiosity, the dog
tucked tail and ran back toward its house.[SB2] “Yes!”
Louie threw one spindly leg in the air in triumph. “Vroom, vroom,” Louie said, and once again he
was off in the little red car with yellow hood.
But no sooner had Louie left the dog’s yard than he came
across something much worse than a dog.
Rain. Rain falling from a long, green
snake[SB3] . Oh no,
thought Louie in despair. That rain will ruin my beautiful web. It seemed no matter which way Louie
steered, there was no way to avoid the downpour, for to the left was a house
and to the right a creek.
Then Louie saw Spats.
Spats was a pesky, neighborhood cat who believed any deck, porch or car
was his own. There were many a porch
left with bits of mice from Spats’ meals and many a car in the neighborhood
decorated with Spats’ paw prints.
Louie remembered the time Spats decided to make a bed in the
seat of Louie’s car. The vicious cat
camped there for two days and even took a swat at Louie, nearly ruining his
beautiful web, after Louie had asked Spats to go somewhere else.
A wheel in Louie’s mind began to turn and a grin formed on
his face. He turned the car toward the obnoxious[SB4]
beast who was sunning himself in the grass.
Louie zoomed the little red car forward.
“Almost there,” Louie chanted. “Almost
there.”
An awful screech was heard as Louie ran over Spats’ tail
with the car. “Meerroooowww!” wailed
Spats, and with eyes now wide as saucers, he dashed madly around. The lady holding the green watering snake
caught sight of Spats and turned the water on him. “I’ll teach you to stomp through my garden
and eat on my plants, you menace,” shouted the lady.
With the rain now pouring in a different direction, Louie
guided the little red car with yellow hood safely onto the road. After such a harrowing[SB5]
ride to the road, Louie relaxed a bit and studied his surroundings.
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