Коралина / Coraline

Both of her parents worked, doing things on computers, which meant that they were home a lot of the time. Each of them had their own study.

“Hello Coraline,” he said when she came in, without turning round.

“Mmph,” said Coraline. “Itʼs raining.”

“Yup,” said her father. “Itʼs bucketing down[4 - Itʼs bucketing down. – Льет, как из ведра].”

“No,” said Coraline. “Itʼs just raining. Can I go outside?”

“What does your mother say?”

“She says youʼre not going out in weather like that, Coraline Jones.

“Then, no.”

“But I want to carry on exploring.”

“Then explore the flat,” suggested her father. “Look—hereʼs a piece of paper and a pen. Count all the doors and windows. List everything blue. Mount an expedition to discover the hot water tank. And leave me alone to work.”

“Can I go into the drawing room?” The drawing room was where the Joneses kept the expensive (and uncomfortable) furniture Coralineʼs grandmother had left them when she died.

“If you donʼt make a mess. And you donʼt touch anything.”

Coraline considered this carefully, then she took the paper and pen and went off to explore the inside of the flat.

She discovered the hot water tank (it was in a cupboard in the kitchen).

She counted everything blue (153).

She counted the windows (21).

She counted the doors (14).

Of the doors that she found, thirteen opened and closed. The other—the big, carved, brown wooden door at the far corner of the drawing room—was locked.

She said to her mother, “Where does that door go?”

“Nowhere, dear.”

“It has to go somewhere.”

Her mother shook her head. “Look,” she told Coraline.

She reached up and took a string of keys from the top of the kitchen doorframe. She sorted through them carefully, and selected the oldest, biggest, blackest, rustiest key.

The door swung open.

Her mother was right. The door didnКјt go anywhere. It opened onto a brick wall.

“When this place was just one house,” said Coralineʼs mother, “that door went somewhere. When they turned the house into flats, they simply bricked it up. The other side is the empty flat on the other side of the house, the one thatʼs still for sale.