Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
Coraline discovered the door a little while after they moved into the
house.
It was a very old house -- it had an attic under the roof and a cellar
under the ground and an overgrown garden with huge old trees in it.
Coraline's family didn't own all of the house, it was too big for that.
Instead they owned part of it.
There were other people who lived in the old house.
Miss Spink and Miss Forcible lived in the flat below Coraline's, on
the ground floor. They were both old and round, and they lived in
their flat with a number of aging highland terriers who had names
like Hamish and Andrew and Jock. Once upon a time Miss Spink
and Miss Forcible had been actresses, as Miss Spink told Coraline
the first time she met her.
"You see, Caroline," Miss Spink said, getting Coraline's name
wrong, "Both myself and Miss Forcible were famous actresses, in
our time. We trod the boards, luvvy. Oh, don't let Hamish eat the
fruit cake, or he'll be up all night with his tummy."
"It's Coraline. Not Caroline. Coraline," said Coraline.
In the flat above Coraline's, under the roof, was a crazy old man
with a big mustache. He told Coraline that he was training a mouse
circus. He wouldn't let anyone see it.
"One day, little Caroline, when they are all ready, everyone in the
whole world will see the wonders of my mouse circus. You ask me
why you cannot see it now. Is that what you asked me?"