The dog picked up the torch in its mouth and trotted off into the dark. Coraline followed. When it got near to the front of the stage it stopped and shone the torch on to an empty seat. Coraline sat down and the dog wandered off.
As her eyes got used to the darkness she realised that the other inhabitants of the seats were also dogs.
There was a sudden hissing noise from behind the stage. Coraline decided it was the sound of a scratchy old record being put on to a record player. The hissing became the noise of trumpets, and Miss Spink and Miss Forcible came on to the stage.
Miss Spink was riding a one-wheeled bicycle, and juggling balls. Miss Forcible skipped on behind her, holding a basket of flowers. She scattered the flower petals across the stage as she went. They reached the front of the stage, and Miss Spink leapt nimbly off the unicycle, and the two old women bowed low.
All the dogs thumped their tails and barked enthusiastically. Coraline clapped politely.
Then they unbuttoned their fluffy round coats and opened them. But their coats weren’t all that opened: their faces opened, too, like empty shells, and out of the old empty fluffy round bodies stepped two young women. They were thin, and pale, and quite pretty, and had black-button eyes.
The new Miss Spink was wearing green tights and high brown boots that went most of the way up her legs. The new Miss Forcible wore a white dress and had flowers in her long yellow hair.
Coraline pressed back against her seat.
Miss Spink left the stage, and the noise of trumpets squealed as the gramophone needle dug its way across the record and was pulled off.
‘This is my favourite bit,’ whispered the little dog in the seat next to her.
The other Miss Forcible picked a knife out of a box on the corner of the stage. ‘Is this a dagger that I see before me?’ she asked.
‘Yes!’ shouted all the little dogs. ‘It is!’ Miss Forcible curtseyed, and all the dogs applauded again. Coraline didn’t bother clapping this time.
Miss Spink came back on. She slapped her thigh, and all the little dogs woofed.
‘And now,’ Miss Spink said, ‘Miriam and I proudly present a new and exciting addendum to our theatrical exposition. Do I see a volunteer?’
The little dog next to Coraline nudged her with its front paw. ‘That’s you,’ it hissed.
Coraline stood up, and walked up the wooden steps to the stage.
‘Can I have a big round of applause for the young volunteer?’ asked Miss Spink. The dogs woofed and squealed and thumped their tails on the velvet seats.
‘Now, Coraline,’ said Miss Spink. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Coraline,’ said Coraline.
‘And we don’t know each other, do we?’
Coraline looked at the thin young woman with black-button eyes and shook her head, slowly.
‘Now,’ said the other Miss Spink, ‘stand over here.’ She led Coraline over to a board by the side of the stage, and put a balloon on top of Coraline’s head.
Miss Spink walked over to Miss Forcible. She blindfolded Miss Forcible’s button eyes with a black scarf and put the knife into her hands. Then she turned her round three or four times and pointed her at Coraline. Coraline held her breath and squeezed her fingers into two tight fists.
Miss Forcible threw the knife at the balloon. It popped loudly, and the knife stuck into the board just above Coraline’s head and twanged there. Coraline breathed out.
The dogs went wild.
Miss Spink gave Coraline a very small box of chocolates and thanked her for being such a good sport. Coraline went back to her seat.
‘You were very good,’ said the little dog.
‘Thank you,’ said Coraline.
Misses Forcible and Spink began juggling with huge wooden clubs. Coraline opened the box of chocolates. The little dog looked at them longingly.
‘Would you like one?’ she asked it.
‘Yes, please,’ whispered the dog. ‘Only not toffee ones. They make me drool.’
‘I thought chocolates weren’t very good for dogs,’ she said, remembering something Miss Forcible had once told her.
‘Maybe where you come from,’ whispered the little dog. ‘Here, it’s all we eat.’
Coraline couldn’t see what the chocolates were, in the dark. She took an experimental bite of one which turned out to be coconut. Coraline didn’t like coconut. She gave it to the dog.
‘Thank you,’ said the dog.
‘You’re welcome,’ said Coraline.
Miss Forcible and Miss Spink were doing some acting. Miss Forcible was sitting on a stepladder, and Miss Spink was standing at the bottom.
‘What’s in a name?’ asked Miss Forcible. ‘That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’
‘Have you got any more chocolates?’ said the dog.
Coraline gave the dog another chocolate.
‘I know not how to tell thee who I am,’ said Miss Spink to Miss Forcible.
‘This bit finishes soon,’ whispered the dog. ‘Then they start folk dancing.’
‘How long does this go on for?’ asked Coraline. ‘The theatre?’
‘All the time,’ said the dog. ‘For ever and always.’
‘Here,’ said Coraline. ‘Keep the chocolates.’
‘Thank you,’ said the dog. Coraline stood up.
‘See you soon,’ said the dog.
‘Bye,’ said Coraline. She walked out of the theatre and back into the garden. She had to blink her eyes at the daylight.
Her other parents were waiting for her in the garden, standing side by side. They were smiling.
‘Did you have a nice time?’ asked her other mother.
‘It was interesting,’ said Coraline.
The three of them walked back up to Coraline’s other house together. Coraline’s other mother stroked Coraline’s hair with her long white fingers. Coraline shook her head.
‘Don’t do that,’ said Coraline.
Her other mother took her hand away.
‘So,’ said her other father. ‘Do you like it here?’
‘I suppose,’ said Coraline. ‘It’s much more interesting than at home.’
They went inside.
‘I’m glad you like it,’ said Coraline’s other mother. ‘Because we’d like to think that this is your home. You can stay here for ever and always. If you want to.’
‘Hmm,’ said Coraline. She put her hands in her pockets and thought about it. Her fingertips touched the stone that the real Misses Spink and Forcible had given her the day before, the stone with the hole in it.
‘If you want to stay,’ said her other father. ‘There’s only one little thing we’ll have to do, so you can stay here for ever and always.’
They went into the kitchen. On a china plate on the kitchen table were a spool of black cotton and a long silver needle and, beside them, two large black buttons.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Coraline.
‘Oh, but we want you to,’ said her other mother. ‘We want you to stay. And it’s just a little thing.’
‘It won’t hurt,’ said her other father.
Coraline knew that when grown-ups told you something wouldn’t hurt it almost always did. She shook her head.
Her other mother smiled brightly and the hair on her head drifted like plants under the sea. ‘We only want what’s best for you,’ she said.