Toy Dance Party by Emily Jenkins Read Free Book Online Page B

me?”
    There is a very quiet squeaking.
    “Alive!” cries Rocky.
    “We’re here to help you!” calls Lumphy. “Can you see the hole at the back? Climb up to it.”
    The squeaking becomes muffled. As if Bonkers has his mouth full of dust.
    “Can you move yourself at all?”
    There is a slight wiggle in a bottom corner of the bag.
    “He should never have been under the toy box during vacuuming,” says Brownie to her fellow mice. “He should have hid in the bookcase with the rest of us.”
    “Is he climbing out?” wonders Millie. “Can he do it?”
    “He’s got dirt on top of him,” says Lumphy. “I don’t think he can get to the opening.”
    “Let me shake it.” StingRay holds out a flipper. “Maybe he’ll fall out.”
    Lumphy isn’t sure. “Won’t we get dust all over the hall? How will we clean it up?”
    StingRay gives him a serious look. “If we don’t get Bonkers out, you know where he’s gonna end up, don’t you?”
    No.
    “In the dump, that’s where!” cries StingRay. “He’ll be tossed in a pile of old sour-milk cartons
    and no one will love him anymore
    and it will smell like throw-up.”
    Lumphy hands StingRay the vacuum cleaner bag. She turns it so the hole is pointing at the floor and shakes as hard as she can.
    Nothing comes out.
    StingRay rears onto her tail and jumps up and down.
    More nothing comes out.
    “You’re doing some good bouncing,” says Plastic, kindly.
    “But he’s still in there,” says Lumphy.
    “I know.” StingRay drops the bag, dispirited.
    There is a silence. Then DaisySparkle announces, “I’m gonna try.”
    “You?” StingRay shakes her head.
    “Yeah, me,” says DaisySparkle. She hurls herself onto the vacuum cleaner bag. Grunk! Gru-GRUNK!
    She chews the part of the bag where they can see Bonkers wiggling.
    Grunk! Gru-GRUNK!
    She spits out dust and baby powder.
    Grunk! Gru-GRUNK!
    She chews some more.
    Spits.
    And now there is a nice-sized hole for Bonkers. “Show yourself, mousie!” calls the shark.

    First pink dusty nose, then plump, dirty white mouse, then long softy tail emerges from the vacuum bag. Bonkers shakes himself, scattering dust—and smiles. “The Chewing Society of North America!” he yells, jubilant, hugging the shark as best he can without any visible arms or legs. “The Chewing Society of North America performed a heroic rescue!”
    DaisySparkle pats him with a fin.
    Bonkers shakes himself again and runs over to Millie, Brownie, and Rocky. “Hey, did you guys know I was chewing from the inside, too?” he tells them, thrilled. “I was! I chewed the inside and the shark chewed the outside and together we did teamwork!”
    “Hooray!” yell the mice.
    “You guys should try it,” says Bonkers. “I bet you could chew as well as me if you practiced. I chewed myself out of that bag, almost. I really almost did!”
    StingRay and Lumphy try to pick up clumps of dirt and chewed vacuum cleaner bag off the hall floor, but it is impossible. “Thanks a lot for the
mess,
” StingRay huffs at DaisySparkle.
    Eventually, Lumphy trots down to the kitchen and brings up the whisk broom and a dustpan. They clean as best they can, then shove the vacuum bag back into the machine and hope the people don’t notice the hole.
    . . . . .
    In the morning, when Honey and her family are getting ready for school and work, the mother calls down the stairs, “You know what? I think we’ve got a mouse living in the hall closet!”
    “Really?” Honey and her dad come to see.
    The mom is holding the chewed-up vacuum cleaner bag. “There are shreds of it all over,” she says.
    “Hm,” says the dad. “Well, if we see any more evidence, we’ll have to trap it and put it outside.”
    “It chewed a big hole,” says Honey. “That was a hungry mouse.”
    As soon as the people are gone for the day, Bonkers runs to the center of the bedroom and wiggles all around. “Did you hear, did you hear?” he cries. “They said it was a
mouse
that