was pouring from the direction of the toy shelf. Allie immediately remembered the curious cylinder. Then, slowly, she moved her eyes toward the strange voices. There, at Allie’s feet, on top of the blanket, Lemonade was lounging, leaning his head on his paw and squinting at the little blue star with a pensive if not sad expression. The scene looked so comical that Allie couldn’t help but giggle. At the sound, the cat jumped three feet high in the air, flopped back down and pressed himself into the blanket.
“Oh, Lemonade, you are such a coward! But, you might do well if you ever have to compete in high jumps.”
It was the large stuffed monkey talking – Allie’s favorite toy. She’d had it for as long as she could remember and never went to bed without it. According to the family legend, the monkey was given to Allie on her first birthday. The monkey’s name was short and funny – Lu.
Allie had no idea where the name had come from, and didn’t really care. She just knew that she liked it.
And now the toy stuffed monkey was sitting on the edge of Allie’s bed and dangling its feet, as if it were the most natural thing for a stuffed monkey to do. At the same time, it was apparently enjoying looking around, glancing in turns at the cat and at the girl. Allie was staring at her toy with amazement. She was overwhelmed by a whole flood of emotions, but the most intense feeling was, probably, joy that was close to elation.
“Wow!” that was all Allie could say, breathless, sitting up in her bed.
“Oh, it’s nothing much, really,” the monkey made a gesture similar to an actor taking a bow to the delighted public.
“Hey, why don’t you stop playing the sphinx,” she continued, addressing the cat who was still frozen pressed into the blanket, “and let’s try to explain everything to Allie. Everything we know, naturally. And you can listen and try not to be too overwhelmed.”
With these words Lu squeezed Allie’s hand encouragingly with her own soft plush paw.
The cat was still on his guard watching Allie. But, as soon as he saw that she was not laughing but regarding him in a serious and attentive manner, he cleared his throat and said in the now familiar voice:
“Well, what should we say first? In the first place, we need to state that we possess very little information on the matter, because the facts that have come to our knowledge so far do not yet allow us to, shall we say, comprehensively analyze the situation and come to the appropriate conclusions.”
The monkey, who had been fidgeting during this speech, burst out:
“Now, look here, you Stripey, it seems like you’ve spent your whole life studying at the library, not sleepingon top of an old coat in the closet, like you have. You remind me of our principal. Maybe you are him?”
Lemonade snorted indignantly:
“I have always been and always will be a cat. Intelligence runs in my family. Moreover, I have always paid close attention to mass media.”
“That’s true. You have always been good at falling asleep in front of the TV.”
“Lu, Lemonade, dearest, that’s enough. Please tell me everything you know,” Allie joined the conversation so naturally as if she’d been talking with cats and stuffed toys her entire life.
“OK,” said the monkey. “But I’ll be the one telling the story. It’s all because of this thing,” she pointed at the cylinder that was still glowing blue. “Its rays have caused this wonderful transformation that you can witness, both in me and Lemonade.”
“What about Mom and Dad? Did it make them ill, too?”
“In a way, but not really. It’s something different. Your parents… They…” the monkey stammered and glanced at the cat. He nodded. “They are under a spell,” she continued. “That’s what Lemonade and I think.”
Allie started.
“That’s impossible!” she exclaimed incredulously. “A magic spell? Magic doesn’t exist!”
“Well, look at us,” the monkey shrugged.
“But you said that this is different. The cylinder made you talk. It must be some kind of secret scientific gadget. That’s it. Nothing magical.”
The more Allie talked, the less confident she sounded. She wanted to hear the cat and the monkey say that she was right. But those two were silent, and all she could see in their eyes was sympathy.
Allie then fell silent too. She was close to tears, but she didn’t cry and only bit her lip.
“But who did it? And why?” she asked dejectedly.
“That’s the point,” the monkey said. “Lemonade and I have thought about that, and we believe that we know the answer. Do you remember where the cylinder was found?”
“In the fish’s belly.”
“That’s it. I guess you are not naive enough to think this was a mere coincidence?”
Allie only shrugged.
“All right, now think about how that monster appeared in your home. Who put up a fight at the market because your Mom bought the fish right in front of her? Who then paid you a visit and seemed greatly interested in the fish?”
At that moment, Allie vividly recalled her recent dream.
“It was Mean Jean,” she said thoughtfully.
“Correct! She was the one the cylinder was meant for. And the fish was… Well, it was like a mailing box, you understand?”
“Some package it was,” Lemonade muttered under his breath, evidently remembering the fish’s teeth on his tail.
“To make a long story short, it was Mean Jean who was supposed to receive the fish and its contents,” continued the monkey. “I don’t know what went wrong with their mailing system, but, as a result, you and your parents, as well as Lemonade and myself, are now part of this whole mess. And, it seems that your Mom and Dad have suffered the most.”
“It’s all because they ate the fish that was under a spell,” interjected Lemonade.
“Right. It was all Mean Jean’s doing too. She probably did it in order to get hold of the cylinder. It’s a good thing that you didn’t eat any fish. Otherwise you’d have turned into a sleeping beauty by now.”
It was quiet for some time. Everybody seemed to be thinking of what might have been if Allie had eaten a piece of fish. Allie shuddered at the thought. Lu broke the silence at last. She scratched her head with her little paw and, with a somewhat guilty look at Allie, said:
“You know, you can be mad at me, but I’m glad it all happened. Really, I’m the only one who’s had the best of the situation. If not for this whole story, I’d have remained a toy – motionless and dumb, like the rest of them.” She nodded towards the toy shelf with Allie’s dolls. Allie looked there and suddenly was shocked by an emerging idea.
“You mean to say that you are…” she started to say.
“Yes, that’s right.
