The Enormous tiny Adventure of Millie Rose

Sometimes when she was clumsy her mummy would call her ‘Silly Millie”. Sometimes when she was smart her daddy would call her a ‘clever sausage’. But her name wasn’t sausage and she had never met a clever sausage either. When she was naughty they would call her by her full name ‘Millie Rose’ and she would know she had done something wrong. However Millie always liked it best when her parents called her ‘monkey’ because that meant she was in their good books and just a tiny bit cheeky. Today, Millie’s mummy had called her ‘monkey’. Like everyday, if it was sunny, rainy, cloudy or snowy Millie always put on her favourite pink Wellington boots and matching hat. She sat at the kitchen table and watched her cat Button Nose drink his milk. Even though she knew she was not allowed to do so, she always followed her cat into the garden by climbing through his cat flap. Something very strange happened to Millie each time she climbed through the little hole in the door. She could never tell whether it was her cat and garden, which grew bigger, or if it was herself who grew smaller. Either way, when she stepped outside she roughly became the same size as her pet hamster. Out in the garden, Button Nose allowed tiny Millie to climb onto his back and ride around on him. Millie had a very big garden she liked very much. Her favourite place was next to a little stream and it was here Button Nose stopped and let her climb down. Before he left her to go and do whatever it is cats do, he kissed her on the cheek with a huge lick of his tongue. Millie never liked it very much because she was small and his tongue was not very nice to touch. She walked along the little path and stretched up onto her tippie-toes to pluck a petal from a daisy flower. Millie loved daisy flowers although at her current size they were far too big for her to take a full one. She neatly folded up the petal and placed it in her pocket. Just as she was thinking what a lovely sunny day it was, Millie’s boot got stuck to something slimy and sticky on the ground and she couldn’t move. Millie thought to herself this was very odd, as she had never seen anything like it before. She pulled her boot with all her might and luckily she managed to un-stick herself. Unfortunately, she had pulled her boot so hard she lost balance and fallen on her bottom. Silly Millie! Once she had brushed herself off, she went to have a closer look at the strange sticky stuff. It seemed as if it had leaked from something. It had left a trail right across the path in front of her and disappeared behind a bush. Suddenly the bush started to move and two little eyes poked out. “Don’t come any closer!” Came a voice from within the bush. “Why not?” she answered back. “Because I do not wish to be seen!” “Why?” “Just because!” the voice replied. “Well normally when I hide behind a bush, I don’t want to be seen either but that’s because I’m playing hide-and-seek. Are you playing hide-and-seek? Because if you are, you have to come out now… because I found you!” “I’m not playing hide and seek!” the voice said. “Well why are you hiding then?” Millie crouched down to see who was there but she couldn’t see anything because there were too many leaves. “Could you turn around please?” the voice demanded. Millie Rose didn’t understand why she had to turn around although she did so to be polite. Behind her, the bush started to rustle and then she heard the voice again, “You can turn back around now, if you like.” As she slowly turned around, she couldn’t believe what she saw. In front of her was a weird and wonderful little creature that looked like a slimy slug but a nice one all the same. He was holding a big leaf in front of himself as if he was standing there naked. “Why were you hiding?” Millie asked. “I was hiding because I’ve lost my house and was embarrassed to see you.” The creature’s cheeks turned red. “That’s very silly, there’s no reason to be embarrassed if you have lost your house, Mr. Slug.” Millie said. “But you do not understand,” the creature explained. “I’m not a slug at all. I’m a snail.” “Oh, I’m very sorry, Mr. Snail. But I couldn’t see your shell, so I thought you were a slug.” “Well, that’s exactly my problem… like I told you, I’ve lost my house.” “You mean your shell?” “Yes, my house.” The snail nodded. “Where did you leave it?” “I don’t know. I can’t remember.” The little snail looked confused. Millie started to look around, although she was too small to see over the grass and flowers. “Would you like me to help you find it Mr. Snail?” “That would be very kind of you,” he smiled. “What’s your name?” “My name is Millie Rose. What’s yours?” “My name is Victor the snail.