Marble, My Pet Monster

• Elliena Escott, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2013

Hi, my name is Alex and my life changed in just one morning. I was woken up when the doorbell went off. I walked to the door curiously and opened it. I saw a little box and on it was a note.
Dear Alex, please look after this little fellow. I hope you take great care of him. You can name him, feed him and don't worry, he is trained to go to the toilet outside.
From Uncle Seb.
I picked up the box and walked inside. I slowly opened it and there sat a little wide-eyed, fuzzy green creature and a second note saying, Feed with candy.
I loved it at first sight! I thought long and hard whether I should tell my parents. I decided not to then ran with the box into my room. That night, my parents were going out to buy dinner and asked me to look after Jack, my irritating little brother. I mostly spent all my time in my bedroom playing with the creature. "I'm going to call you...Marble. Marble, my pet monster!"
Suddenly I heard a loud crash! I ran out of my room forgetting to close my door just in time to see Jack on the dinning table in a cape and undies preparing to jump. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Marble wobbling around in the hallway and he exclaimed pointing at my new pet, "Wow, what's that?" Then in his excitement, he jumped off the table and ran to Marble. Luckily, I was fast enough to catch him.
"Hey! Let me go!" he yelled. He finally wriggled free from my grip and said, "Do you know what that thing is?"
"Yeah it's a little monster that Uncle Seb sent to me and it's not for you!" I blurted out. "Oh no I've said too much; promise you won't ever tell anyone!" I continued.
"Will you let me help look after him?" asked Jack.
"Yes, if you promise not to tell," I replied.
"Okay I promise!" said Jack.
From that day on, each week we would pass the box over to each other with Marble inside. We would then spend the week taking care of him and feeding him with candy. Sometimes our mother would catch a glimpse of us passing the box to one another and I'm sure she wondered what was inside it. However, until this very day, my brother kept his promise and neither he nor I ever told Mum or Dad about Marble, our pet monster.