Katya and the Crocodile [antikvár]

1 Katya Pastushkova was walking along the boulevard, bouncing a ball. She barely kept her eye on the ball but it bounced between her hand and the ground as if it were attached to an invisible rubber band. And each time it hit the sunny spots and never hit the shade. You try to do that, and especially when the leaves and the sunny spots are forever moving! She was an expert at this game called "ball school." "Three-hundred'n five, three-hundred'n six, three-hundred'n seven," Katya whispered as she bounced. This number showed how good she was at counting, how well she could bounce, and how far she had come. None of her girl-friends could beat Katya at the game, neither those who lived in her yard nor those in the street. Katya had beaten them all, and now wanted to try another street where no one knew her. She stopped at a tree. "Over your shoulder!" she commanded, but in a voice loud enough to carry to the baby nurses sitting on the benches near by; she then caught the ball seven times over her shoulder as it bounced off the tree, spinning around each time as she caught it. She was obviously the centre of attraction: the caretaker watering the paths, the old lady on the bench and the children playing in the sand all looked at her with awe. She continued on her way, bouncing the ball first with her left hand and then with her right. Katya was wearing her new blue dress, school was over for the summer, and she had two caramels in her pocket; she walked down the boulevard proud of her skill and her dress. Suddenly, a strange boy (and what had she done to him?) ran over to her and kicked the ball. The ball flew up and across the street, it tore into a flock of sparrows, hit against the side of the house and rolled towards a post. "Just you wait!" Katya shouted as she went after the boy, but he hid behind his grandmother and shook his fist at her. "Sissy!" Katya cried. "Sissy, sissy!" and she went to get her ball. She bent to pick it up and gasped. A snow-white rabbit was looking straight at her. His pink eyes looked into hers, while his mouth kept moving, as if the rabbit were whispering something to her. A second rabbit sat behind the first, his long ears lying flat along his back. The cage with the rabbits stood on the bottom step of a stoop. There was another cage on the second step. A black bird with white spots hopped about inside, turning its head this way and that as it peered at Katya. A glum-looking boy sat on the top step, staring straight ahead. There was a lavender shoe box on his lap, with a hole punched in the top next to the words of the trade mark