Литагент HarperCollins - The Grinch - The Story of the Movie - Movie tie-in

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.

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.”