Neville shot out of the toilet and rolled on to the bath mat with a bump. He lay there for a minute, panting, then hauled himself up and crept silently into the hall.
‘Hello?’ he whispered. ‘Hello?’
With a sigh of relief, Neville realized his mum and dad were asleep in bed. The whole weekend had passed, but they probably hadn’t even noticed he’d been gone at all.
He ran along the hall on tiptoes, opened his bedroom door and slipped inside.
‘Well, that was different,’ he mumbled to himself as he looked about the room. It was good to see his toys and books again.
Tiptoeing across the room, he pulled off his backpack and dumped it on the bed.
‘CHIK-CHI-CHI-CHIK-CHIK-CHIK!’
Neville froze. The backpack jiggled, then went very still.
‘Please, no … no … no,’ he whispered.
Creeping closer, Neville very slowly unzipped the bag and opened the top pocket.
‘CHIK-CHI-CHIK!’
A pair of long green ears poked out, followed by a little hand and a smiling green face.
Neville looked down at Grimble …
‘Oh, pook!’ he said … then before he could stop himself … Neville grinned a big jiggish type of grin.