1 Rats

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1. RATS In her cottage on Seaview Terrace, Mrs. Bumble sat in bed, cup and saucer in hand. She gazed at the sunlight streaming through the window and sipped her tea. She considered herself very lucky to have such a splendid sea view and liked to spend a few minutes every morning watching the waves crash on the shore. Mrs. Bumble was always very busy being a busybody, and she enjoyed these moments of peace and calm before the start of another busy day.

But this morning her peace and calm was disturbed by a scratching noise. It was a loud scratching noise, and it seemed to be coming from beneath her floorboards. It was joined by another— this one behind her head, behind her plump pillows, behind her floral wallpaper, and deep within her bedroom wall. And there were more scratching noises coming from beneath her open window, where something was scratchily scampering up the climbing rose that clung to her cottage. A black claw scrabbled along the window ledge, searching for grip, before hoisting up a great dark lump of fur.

Two red eyes stared at Mrs. Bumble as the lump's nose and whiskers twitched. "RATS!" screamed Mrs. Bumble.

screamed Arthur Poppycock, rudely awakened by an enormous black rat that was noisily munching on the remnants of his double-chocolate muffin. Arthur peered out the window and saw a seagull flapping seaward, escaping the rats that covered the harbor office, the yachts, the fishing boats, and the docks.

screamed Sheila Wobley, Mrs. Bumble's neighbor on Seaview Terrace. She had opened the door to her spare bedroom and found rats devouring her washing. The wash basket did smell faintly of fish and chips, so perhaps the rats thought it was food. Dull-on-Sea was infested with rats. They were everywhere— not only in every house on Seaview Terrace but all through town.