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.
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’!”
“Oh!” the Grinch exclaimed, snatching the hair dye out of Bricklebaum’s hand.
“Hey, I’m sorry if I made you uncomfy,” Bricklebaum said. “We all have to keep the grey away. I myself use ‘Chocolate Explosion’…”
“You know what?” the Grinch interrupted as he buried the hair dye at the bottom of the wagon. “If you want to apologise, apologise for THAT!” He pointed