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“Fine,” he said at last. “But I’m going to despise every second of it.”
Oh, the Grinch HATED Christmas! And he especially hated Who-ville at Christmas time. No one knew why, but the rumour was that his heart was two sizes too small.
As the wind howled and sleet blew, the Grinch and Max trudged through the twisted iron gates and headed down Mt. Crumpit into Who-ville. The Grinch’s long red-and-white-striped scarf flapped around his neck in the bracing breeze.
In Who-ville, it was a busy, bustling morning. The whole town was covered in Christmas decorations, making it look as though it had been built out of gingerbread. Every shop window, every street lamp and every bench was decked out with garlands and tinsel. The place positively glowed with good cheer and excitement.
A bus pulled up to a stop, and the driver leaned out to greet one of the waiting Whos. “Hey, Ted!” the driver called out in a friendly voice.
“Morning!” Ted said as he climbed aboard. Other passengers behind him said their cheerful good mornings as the doors closed and the bus pulled away from the snowy curb. VROOM!
Down the street, Donna Who saw the bus moving away. She was going to miss it! “Wait!” she shouted, beginning to run. “Wait, hold the bus!” She dodged other Whos on the pavement as she ran. “Excuse me. Sorry. Coming through!”
Sam, the driver, finally heard Donna yelling outside. “Oh!” he said when he saw her. He stopped the bus straight away and opened the doors.
“Oof!” Donna grunted as she tripped and fell in the snow beside the bus. She picked herself up and climbed the steps, brushing snow off her coat and trousers.
“Sorry, Donna,” the driver apologised.
“That’s okay, Sam,” she replied. “Thanks for stopping! Phew!”
Under her winter coat, Donna had on the medical scrubs she wore for her job as a nurse. She dug out coins and dropped them in the fare box. DING! DING! DING!
“They’ve still got you on night shifts, huh?” Sam asked.
“Sure do,” Donna answered, nodding.
“Oh, by the way,” Sam said, “Cindy-Lou forgot her hockey stick.”
“Of course she did,” Donna said, smiling. “That’s my girl.” Sometimes Donna thought her daughter would forget her own nose if it weren’t attached to her face. Especially in the days just before Christmas when all the excitement seemed to push everything else out of her head.
As he and Max reached the edge of town, the Grinch sang to himself gloomily, “Jingle bells, Christmas smells, make it go away! Dee dee da, dee dee dee da …”
Trying to avoid all the holiday cheer, he hurried past the decorated shops and the Whos in their colourful jumpers with his head down. But four Whos singing Christmas carols spotted the elusive Grinch and followed him through the town, determined to serenade him.
The Grinch screamed and ran!
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Breathing hard, the Grinch ducked into the town’s general store. DING! A cheerful bell rang as he pushed the door open. A friendly Who shop assistant smiled and greeted the Grinch warmly. “Oh, hello! Happy Christm—”
The Grinch held up a finger to stop him. “Nuh-uh,” he interrupted sharply, cutting off the assistant’s Christmas wishes.
Moving down the aisles of the shop the Grinch quickly scooped can after can of Who Hash into a little wagon Max was pulling. He was in a foul mood, surrounded by cheerful Whos buying their Christmas nonsense. Perhaps he’d try a little sabotage …
He turned the corner into a new aisle and passed a shopper who was staring at the shelves of food. While the Who wasn’t looking, the Grinch snatched a jar of spicy pickles out of her basket. He unscrewed the lid, pulled out a pickle and shoved the whole thing into his mouth. Then he made a disgusted face. “Blech!”
He spat the pickle back into the jar, screwed the lid back on, and dropped the jar into another Who’s basket!
He passed another shopper who was trying to reach a jar on a high shelf. She stood on her tiptoes, stretching her arms. The taller Grinch reached round her and plucked the jar off the shelf. “Eh, what’s this?” he sniffed, reading the label.
“Ooh!” the lady Who exclaimed. “Excuse me.” She tapped the Grinch on the shoulder and he turned to look at her. The lady pointed at the jar. “Are you getting that? I need it for my Christmas stuffing.”
“Hmm,” mused the Grinch, looking at her. “No.” Smiling, he put the jar back on the high shelf where she couldn’t possibly reach it. Then he walked away.
How rude! “Well!” said the lady, shocked. “That’s not very nice.”
Then before he reached the end of the aisle, the Grinch gave the shelf a sharp bump with his elbow. The jar tottered, tipped, fell and shattered on the floor. CRASH!
“Oh, sugarplum!” the lady Who wailed.
The Grinch chuckled. This day was looking up.
In her kitchen, Donna Who stood by the sink, trying to unclog it with a toy arrow. She held a telephone between her ear and her shoulder as she struggled.
“I just got off the night shift,” she told her friend on the other end of the line. “I have a list of errands a mile long, AND the babysitter left the kitchen sink clogged up.”
Donna finished her phone call then called to her daughter, “Cindy-Lou, sweetheart, come and eat!”
“Coming!” Cindy-Lou answered.
The kettle started to whistle loudly from the stove. TWWEEEEE! “All right,” Donna said, turning from the sink to move it off the stove. As she opened a bag of bread, she noticed her son Buster teething on his twin brother, Bean’s, head. “Buster, we’ve talked about this,” she reminded him. “Your brother’s head is not breakfast.”
She tossed a couple of bread slices in the toaster, then set bowls of cereal in front of her twin boys. They turned up their noses at once. “Blech!” Buster said, sticking out his tongue.
Exhausted, Donna slumped over the sink for a moment. Just then, her daughter, Cindy-Lou popped through the door bundled up for the cold weather, her blonde hair braided into two long pigtails tied in bows. She had blue eyes, a big smile and almost everything she wore was pink. In her hand she clutched an envelope.
“Are you all right, Mum?” asked Cindy-Lou.
Donna forced a smile. “Yes! Never better!” She pointed to the sink. “What’d you put down here, anyway? A roller skate?”
“No,” Cindy-Lou replied. “Just batter. Me and Mrs Wilbur made cookies.”
“Oh, that explains it,” Donna said. “Come and have some eggs.”
“I can’t,” Cindy-Lou said, “I have to go and post something. But I made the beds and put away the twins’ toys.”
“Thanks, sweetheart,” Donna said, smiling. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Cindy-Lou shrugged. She liked helping her mum. “I don’t mind.” She sniffed the air. “Something’s burning.”
“Just a second, sweetie,” Donna said, turning her attention to the twins. “Bean, don’t feed your brother with your feet!”
“Mum, the toast!” Cindy-Lou cried as black smoke rose from the toaster.
“I’ve got it!” Donna said. She popped the singed slices out, and set them in front of the twins. The boys grabbed the toast and happily chomped away.
“I’ll be back soon, Mum!” Cindy-Lou said, turning to leave.
“Wait,” Donna said. “Where are you going, again?”
“I told you,” Cindy-Lou said, waving the envelope. “To post a letter.”
“Okay, but just come here first,” Donna said, stretching out her arms.
“Mum, I’ve got to go,” Cindy-Lou insisted. Then she relented. “All right,” she sighed. She went to her mum, who hugged her and kissed her forehead.
“Okay,” Donna said. “Now you can go.”
“Thanks, Mum!” said Cindy-Lou as she hurried out. “Bye, Buster! Bye, Bean!”
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Donna called after her.
“Roger that, Mum!” Cindy-Lou said as she went out of the door.
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Outside, Cindy-Lou jumped on her inflatable pink snow tube and zipped downhill. “Wooo!” she whooped as she picked up speed. “Here goes Cindy-Lou Who,” she said, putting on her best sports commentator voice, “as she dashes through the snow with a very important letter!”
Down at the base of the hill Cindy-Lou spotted the postman driving his dogsled towards the postbox.
“Oh no!” Cindy-Lou cried. “I’m going to miss the post!”
“Shortcut!” she said, making a quick decision. She leaned forward on her snow tube and made a sharp turn. “Go, go, go, go!”
Cindy-Lou blasted through the blowing snow, leaning as far forward as she dared. WHOOSH! She hit a small hill that launched her into the air. “Whoooaaah!” she yelled.
WHUMP! Cindy-Lou landed on the roof of a house, slid across it and bounced on to the roof of the next house. Spinning and twirling, she was going faster and faster. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” she shouted.
WHOMP! She hit the ground and slid right through the open front door of a house! “Uh oh,” she muttered. She passed through the dining room, where a family of Whos were finishing up their breakfast.
“Bon appétit!” she said cheerfully to the surprised Whos as she slid out of the back door and into the garden. She hit another small slope, which sent her flying back up into the air. “Woo-hoo!” she whooped.
Just then, a gust of wind snatched the envelope out of her hand. “Oh no!” she cried, watching it blow away. There was no way for her to turn around. In fact, she couldn’t even stop! Her snow tube didn’t have any brakes. She just kept zooming through Who-ville, picking up even more speed. “Whoooaah!” Cindy-Lou screamed. “Aaaaaaah!” She spotted the fluttering envelope as it was carried by the winter wind – it was heading in the same direction as she was. If only she could stop!
Near the postbox, the Grinch and Max crossed the street with the wagon full of shopping. Cindy-Lou’s eyes widened, as she realised she was going to run right into them! “Watch out!” she cried.
“Ahhh!” yelled the Grinch.
WHAM! Cindy-Lou crashed into the Grinch, knocking him into a snowbank.
“Ooof!” the Grinch grunted. “Gaah. Uggh!”
He raised his head and spat snow out of his mouth. “PTOOO!”
Cindy-Lou crawled around on all fours, frantically searching the snow for her missing envelope. “No!” she cried. “My letter!”
“What is wrong with you?!” demanded the Grinch as he slowly got back to his feet. “Didn’t you see me?” He pulled at the pink snow tube that had somehow become wrapped round him in the collision. “I mean, if this thing were a sledge, I’d … I’d … well, I’d be a goner!”
“I’m very sorry for bumping into you, truly I am, but this is really important,” said Cindy-Lou, looking at the Grinch as he freed himself from her snow tube. “Have you seen my letter? It’s in an envelope. And it would have come falling down out of the sky. After I dropped it.”
She resumed searching the snowy ground around them. Looking disgusted, the Grinch turned to Max and said, “And that right there is the true nature of the Who child. Always going straight back to ‘me, me, me, my letter, me, me, me’.”
Cindy-Lou shook her head. “No,” she insisted, “you don’t understand. This isn’t just a letter. This is the letter!”
Her explanation failed to impress the Grinch.
“Oh, really,” he said sarcastically. “Let me guess.” He looked Cindy-Lou up and down, as if he were searching for clues. “Small child. On the twentieth December. Rabidly searching for a ‘really important’ lost letter.” He stroked his chin and looked up to the sky, pretending to think. “Might this letter contain your list of greedy demands to Santa?”
Cindy-Lou stood up, offended. She pulled herself up to her full height and looked the Grinch in the eye. “First of all,” she said, “I’m not that small. And second of all, they’re not demands. It’s more like a wish, and what I’m wishing for is really, really important!”
The Grinch raised his eyebrows. “Well, then why send a letter?” he asked sarcastically. “I mean, if it’s really that important you should just ask Santa face to face!” He pretended to remember something. “Oh, but that’s right – no one’s ever seen him. My bad.” He turned to his dog. “Come on, Max. Let’s get out of here.”
As the Grinch and Max walked off, Cindy-Lou watched them go. “Bye, doggy,” she said to Max, who wagged his tail.
The letter floated out of the sky and landed at Cindy-Lou’s feet. She stared down at it, her thoughts full of what the Grinch had said.
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As they headed back to Mt. Crumpit, the Grinch and Max passed the home of a bushy-bearded Who wearing a green hat and a red jumper with green Christmas trees on it. The Who was busy decorating his house, and, as he worked, he sang random words to different Christmas carols, “Hum-de-dum-dum Christmas … dah-de-dah-dah … mistletoe … It’s de dum dum dum dum dum …”
“Whoa!” the Grinch said when he spotted the Who. “There he is, Max!” he said in a low voice. “The happiest Who alive, the unbearable Bricklebaum!” Out of the side of his mouth, he told Max, “He thinks we’re friends.”
The Grinch ducked out of sight. He peered round a tree, watching Bricklebaum putting up what seemed to be miles of Christmas lights. The Grinch found the whole gaudy spectacle disgusting.
“Have a la-la-la-la Christmas,” Bricklebaum kept singing loudly. “It’s de dum dum dum dum dum …”
“He’s not looking,” the Grinch said to Max. “Quick, let’s make a run for it!”
Looking for an opening, the Grinch watched as Bricklebaum climbed a ladder to the roof of his house. The roof was crammed full of lights, candy canes and a giant Santa’s sleigh complete with eight plastic reindeer. There were even MORE lights along the gutters. All the electrical cords for these creations ran to a master switch. Cords also led to inflatable Christmas characters down in the garden: a penguin, a Santa Claus, giant presents and a teddy bear.
The Grinch pressed up against the tree that he and Max were hiding behind. “Go, go, go, go, go!” he hissed to Max.
“What?” Bricklebaum said, looking around. “What was that?” But he didn’t see anyone. He turned back to his work, resuming his singing, “… say hello and mistletoe and ho ho ho ho ho!”
The Grinch and Max made a mad dash for it … just as Bricklebaum hit the master switch to turn on the decorations. The huge Christmas characters began to inflate, and the Grinch wove between them with Max following with the wagon full of shopping. They were almost clear when—
WHAP! An inflatable snowman rose up as it filled with air. Its arm sprang out and smacked the Grinch in the face, knocking him right into the wagon. He ended up sprawled face-down in the snow. “Augh! Oof!”
“Oh, my goodness, Mr Grinch!” Bricklebaum cried. “I’m coming!” He scrambled down his ladder.
The Grinch lifted his head dizzily and shook snow off his face. He got up and started gathering the scattered shopping as fast as he could, hoping to escape before the friendly Who arrived to help.
“Leave Mr Grinch alone!” Bricklebaum told the inflatable snowman as he rushed past. When he reached the Grinch, Bricklebaum said, “That’s one tough balloon that you’re fighting there. Here, come on. Let me help you.”
“I do not want or need your help,” the Grinch protested.
But Bricklebaum started picking up the shopping and putting it back on the overloaded little wagon. He paused, looking at one item. “Hair dye?” he said, laughing as he read the label. “‘Gorgeous Green Goddess’!”
