Down the Slide

Granny got a new pet. His name is Snuggles, or Snuggie for short. He’s a roborovski dwarf hamster and lives in the desert. He lives in a pink cage with fairy stickers on. Granny wanted a girl, but they only had boys at the pet shop in Beeston. He runs the equivalent of two human marathons a night and is very fast. The fastest of all hamsters in fact. What we got him as a present was a slide. A wooden one with a ramp, and three little holes he can poke his head out of. I put pumpkins seeds in a little trough on the side, to give him something to eat at night, when he’s finished all his sliding. My name’s Abby, and I am 7. I’m Granny’s granddaughter, I think that’s what you call it. Granny said she was allergic to dogs and cats, because she got asthma. Mum says it was because her heart didn’t work well so she couldn’t look after them. I know that wasn’t true though. Do you want to know how I know? Because I saw Granny slide down Snuggie’s slide. It's true. I’ll tell you all about it.

One afternoon in October, I know it was October because it had just been my birthday, Granny took me down

to Sainsbury’s with her walking stick. She was wearing her burgundy hat, the one that looks like fur and feels like velvet when you touch it, and her green-checked coat with the grey and yellow lines. We always went to Sainsbury’s on a Saturday. I was big enough to pull Granny’s shopping trolley now, it went bump, bump, bump over the cobbles on the road. Granny helped pull it and held my hand while I walked on the stone wall outside the terraced houses on Wollaton Road. Their curtains were usually shut but today I saw a man switching on a television. On top of the wall were brown stubs of metal. Granny said there used to be railings there but they cut them down during the war and made guns out of them for the soldiers.

Outside Sainbury’s I put 5p in the Guide Dogs for the Blind tin. They were saving up for a dog in case anyone went blind. My eyes get really dry, so my mummy and teachers put drops in them four times a day. It doesn’t hurt. It just feels like a drop of cold water going splash against my eyeball. Granny pulled a trolley out from next to the photo machine.

“Can we go to see the pet toys?” I asked.

“Fruit and veg first,” replied Granny.

Carrots are my favourite vegetables. Not the big smelly cabbages Granny was looking at. Some soily potatoes tumbled to the ground and I saw an old man in a hat holding an empty bag looking down at them. That’s when I first knew that Granny had special powers. The potatoes lifted gently from the ground and one by one floated to underneath the display. Granny was nowhere to be seen. When all the potatoes were underneath, Granny reappeared. “That’s them all tidy,” she said with a wink. Granny had shrunk and lifted the potatoes out of the way, one by one so no one tripped on them.

“Shall we go and see the pet toys,” she said.

It was a little box that the hamster slide was in. For a tiny hamster. Cox’s pet shop sold mice and I wanted to see if there would be a hamster small enough for the slide. Granny said if we saw one that small she would buy it. Every Saturday we went to Cox’s after Sainsbury’s. If Granny didn’t have too much frozen food to put in the freezer.

“Morning Mrs Owens, morning Abby,” said Mr Cox.

Mr Cox sold snakes. I didn’t like them. I didn’t like the funny lizards that stared at me either. They made me feel shivery inside. Now every time I have to walk past the reptiles I close my eyes in case I see one.

“We want a tiny hamster,” I said.

“Well you’re in luck today, Abby. I’ve got dwarves all the way from the desert.”

Snuggie was hanging from the top of a water bottle by his back feet. His legs were like strings of pink bubble gum when you pull it from your mouth. I didn’t know you could drink upside down. Granny leaned on her stick and peered into his cage. Snuggie stopped drinking and looked up at Granny. Granny winked at Snuggie and Snuggie winked back.

“Hello little fella,” she said. “He just winked at me.”

“Granny he’d fit on that slide,” I said.

“He costs ten pounds,” said Mr Cox. “Well I did want two girls,” said Granny. “But I think in this case, I’ll make an exception.”

We put his cage on the fold down table, the one Granny used when we all came to tea. I spread out the sawdust and Granny got his food. We gave him a carrot and he ran on his wheel. His legs were so fast they went blurry. I saw his whiskers spring in and out when he rubbed his front paws around his ears and over his nose. Granny said he was washing his face. She also said hamsters only came out at night, so we made up my bed in the attic room, so I could sneak down in the night and watch him play. Granny set the alarm for 2am and kissed me goodnight.

When the alarm went off I woke up straight away. The light was on in the hall so I could see my way downstairs. It felt like Christmas morning when I turned the knob on the back-room door. Tonight I was allowed to sneak in all by myself so I could see Snuggie play. The door pushed into the back room and the light from the hall lit up a path to the cage. I could hear a whirring sound as I tiptoed over. It was too dark to see his blurry legs but his white body stood out against the clear blue plastic of his wheel. It was as if he was moving in slow motion as the white fur ticked around the wheel like the hands of a speeded-up clock, never quite reaching twelve. Then he would glide down again and move backwards to three. Once he nearly got to one, and then the disc spun him off into the sawdust. He sat there, frozen for a minute, then jumped straight back on and ran some more.

I could hear a rustling on the other side of the cage so I opened the door a bit to let enough light shine in. Snuggie ran through his tube and up the ramp towards the slide. And do you know who was there waiting for him at the top? It was Granny. Only she didn’t have her stick or her sideways walk, just a big smile on her face and her frilly nightie with flowers on.

“Come on Snuggie,” she said, “I’ll show you how it’s done.” She let her hands go off the side and whooshed to the bottom of Snuggie's slide. Snuggie followed her down and they each gave a high five.

“Race you to the top,” said Granny again. She looked out of the cage and saw me peering in. “Our little secret,” she said, and blew me a kiss.

When I woke up the next morning, Mummy was sitting on my bed.

“We’re going to take Snuggie home with us today, sweetheart,” she said.

“Is he coming to live at our house?”

“Yes,” Mummy said. “Granny’s asked if you can take care of him for her.”

“Is she tired, Mummy?”

“She’s gone to sleep, sweetheart.”

“I know why she’s so tired Mummy.”

“You do?”

“Yes, but I can’t tell you.”

“That’s okay,” said Mummy, and she gave me a big hug.

“Will you set my alarm for 2am every Sunday morning?” I asked.

“Why’s that?” asked Mummy.

“So I can say to Snuggie every weekend ‘race you to the top’.”