THE WOLVES IN THE WALLS

by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean

Narrator:  Lucy walked around the house.  Inside the house, everything was quiet.  Her mother was putting homemade jam into pots.  Her father was out at his job, playing the tuba.  Her brother was in the living room, playing video games.  
Lucy heard noises.  The noises were coming from inside the walls.

They were hustling noise and bustling noises. They were crinkling and crackling noises.  They were sneaking, creeping, CRUMPLING noises. 
Lucy knew what kinds of things make noises like that in the walls of big old houses.

Lucy:  (to her mother, matter-of-fact)  There are wolves in the walls.  I can hear them.

Mother:  (distracted by her jam)  No…there are no wolves in the walls.  (thinks)  You must be hearing mice, I suppose.

Lucy:  (firmly)  Wolves.

Mother:  I’m sure it’s not wolves…for you know what they say… “If the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all over!”

Lucy:  (with interest)  WHAT’s all over?

Mother:  It.  Everybody knows that.

Lucy:  (to pig puppet)  I don’t think it sounds like mice.

 

Narrator:  In the middle of the night when everything was still, she heard clawing and gnawing  nibbling and squabbling.  She could hear the wolves in the walls, plotting their wolfish plots, hatching their wolfish schemes.

The next day, she went to her father.

Lucy:  (to her father, matter-of-fact)  There are wolves in the walls.

Father:  I don’t think there are, poppet.  (smiles)  You have an overactive imagination.  (thinks)  Perhaps the noises you heard come from rats.  Sometimes you get rats in big old houses like this.

Lucy:  It’s wolves.  I can feel them in my tummy.

Pig puppet:  (whispers in her ear)  It’s wolves!

Lucy:  (to Father)  And pig-puppet thinks it’s wolves as well.

Father:  Well, you can tell pig-puppet…wait.  Why am I asking you to tell her anything?  She’s just a puppet.  Anyway, you know what they say about wolves… “If the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over.”

Lucy:  (with interest)  WHO says that?

Father:  People.  Everybody.  You know.

Wolves:   scrambling, rambling, rustling in the walls

Lucy:  (to her brother, matter-of-fact)  There are wolves in the walls.

Brother:  (listens)  Bats.

Lucy:  You think it’s bats?

Brother:  No…I think YOU are!!!  (laughs and laughs at his lame joke)

Lucy:  I am NOT bats!  I am telling you, there are WOLVES in the walls!

Brother:  (calms down, states logically):  Firstly, there are no wolves in this part of the world.  Secondly, wolves don’t live in walls, only mice and rats and bats and things.  Thirdly, “if the wolves come out of the walls, it’s all over!”

Lucy:  (clearly frustrated)  WHO SAYS?!!!

Brother:  Mister Wilson at my school.  He teaches us about wolves and things.

Lucy:  And how does HE know?

Brother:   EVERYONE knows.  (enter mom with jam, dad with instrument)
 

Mother:  We have to do something about those mice!

Father:  Oh, those pesky rats!  I’ll call someone up about them in the morning!

Brother; It's bats! I know it is!

 

Narrator:  But Lucy did not think it was mice, or rats, or bats.  She shook her head at this sad display of ignorance.  Then she brushed her teeth, and she kissed her mother and father , the she took herself off to bed.  The old house made no noises that night.  Lucy didn’t like it.  She thought it was just TOO quiet.  But soon enough she closed her eyes and she was fast asleep.    In the middle of the night there was a howling and a yowling and a bumping and a thumping AND THEN…

...THE WOLVES CAME OUT OF THE WALLS!!!!

 

Mother:   Oh NO!

Father:   The wolves are coming out of the walls!

Brother:    It’s all over!!!