Read Little Doors for Free Online Page B

though, before someone comes.”
    The spider ate her web and restrung it smaller. Then the rat clambered in.
    “Don’t step on that lump down there,” warned the spider. “It makes the house jump.”
    “Oh, really?” said the rat. He probed Billy’s miniscule brain with a claw.
    Billy stood up. The rat, growing nervous despite his bravado, retracted his claw. Billy remained standing. The rat lay down with his soft furry stomach across Billy’s brain. This caused no further response on Billy’s part.
    That evening Billy’s mother returned to find her son still standing. Although puzzled, she was not overalarmed, but rather proud, as if a new milestone had been reached.
    Billy’s father did not know what to make of the event either, when told. His reactions were rather similar to his wife’s.
    “Perhaps Billy is changing.”
    “Maybe so,” said his wife.
    Neither thought to check the inside of Billy’s head, having been conditioned by years of inactivity to expect no development there.
    Another week passed. The rat left on nocturnal forays, but always returned during the day. It was good that he was absent at night, for, with Billy supine, he would have rolled to the back of the skull and crushed the spider’s web.
    It was a warm summer’s day. Billy’s mother had left a screenless window open. The rat and the spider were sleeping inside Billy’s skull when they were awakened by a raucous voice.
    “Hello, folks! What’s up?”
    Perched on the rim of Billy’s skull was a smallish parrot. This parrot had escaped from a neighbors house, and had been flying rather aimlessly, yet happily about since.
    “What do you want?” the rat asked.
    “You look so comfy, I was wondering if I could join you,” replied the bird.
    “No,” said the rat. “Go away.”
    “Come now,” said the spider. “You’re not the original owner, you know. Why can’t the parrot join us?”
    “Birds are messy. He’ll leave droppings in here.”
    “I would not,” the parrot proudly said. “No more than you would.”
    “What can you offer us?” continued the rat.
    The parrot thought a moment. “I can speak human.”
    This seemed to intrigue the rat. “Say, that is a handy talent. Okay, you can move in.”
    “Great!” said the parrot.
    And so he did.
     
    * * *
     
    One morning Billy spoke.
    His mother was lifting a spoon of cereal to his lips when Billy said, “I can do that myself, thank you.”
    Billy’s mother dropped the spoon. After her heart stopped racing, she managed to say, “Why, Billy—you’ve learned to talk.”
    “That’s obvious, isn’t it, Mother?” said Billy.
    Billy’s mother was so mesmerized by the sight of his moving lips that she failed to notice that the squawky voice was emerging from the top of Billy’s head. Of course, it was the parrot speaking while the rat and the spider in concert caused Billy’s lips to move with expert probes into his primitive gray matter. The trio had been practicing for some days past while alone, and now had complete mastery over Billy’s body.
    Billy now picked up the fallen spoon from the tabletop and began to feed himself. Without visual feedback, the controlling trio made a mess. Still, to his mother the achievement was miraculous.
    After eating, Billy said, “I’d like to go out now, Mother, but I need a hat.”
    Billy’s mother found an old fedora of her husband’s and placed it on Billy’s head, without looking in.
    “Thank you. Have a good day at work, Mother.”
    Billy’s mother left the house in a stupefied way.
    When she was gone, the rat chewed two small holes in the hat so the parrot could look out to guide them.
    “Left, right, around the chair, grab the doorknob, now straight ahead down the walk!”
    The adventurers in their stolen puppet set out to explore the world.
    Downtown, the trio walked Billy up and down the commercial district. They found it vastly stimulating to masquerade as a human. They felt instantly superior to all their