When his mother wasn¹t calling,
and when he listened really hard,
he could hear little sounds...
Sometimes they came
from the woodwork.
creeeeeak

Sometimes they came from
the traffic outside the house.
Brrrrrrr

Sometimes all he could hear was
the sound of his breathing in and out.
aah haa aah haa
aah haa ahh haa

It was dark, but not too dark.
He could see things clearly when
he looked past the wardrobe doors
into his sunny bedroom.

But he had to look for a long time at
the inside walls of his hiding place
before he began to see
all the things that were there.

There was a squiggly line
of ants...
marching...
right across one wall...

There were lots of fluffy bits of dust
everywhere.
It was just a little bit scary,
but not too scary.

He didn't know whether
he could hear his heart going...
b'dom b'dom b'dom b'dom b'dom b'dom b'dom b'dom
or whether he could feel it.

He did know that
the more his mother called,
the faster it went.
Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom.

He usually answered his mother
straight away.
But today he didn't want
to frighten the small grey spider
that now watched him as it hung
from the end of a long thin thread
just by his eye.

"So-me," his mother called again.
"I'm here," he answered,
making his voice echo his mother's.
The spider jumped with fright,
scurried up its thread,
and hid in a crack in the wall.

"Are you ready for school?"
called his mother.
"Yes, I¹m ready,"
So-me came out of his wardrobe.
He wriggled his shoulders
to fit his school-bag
snugly on his back.

He looked down at his clean shoes
then up at his mother's face.
"Goodbye, see you after school,"
she said.

And when So-me had gone
and all was quiet,
the small grey spider
climbed down its thread again.