A Cockroach with a Ladder

Once Olivia had found her way out of the woods, she saw a little white cottage with a red-shingled roof, a white brick chimney, blue window shutters, and a small blue front door. In front of the house was a gate that matched the window shutters and door, which was accompanied by a small white brick wall and a long white fence that surrounded the house.

"I wonder who lives here?" she said, as she walked over to the gate. She stood there as she then heard a familiar voice calling out from above an open window.

"Daisy Rose! Where is that girl? Where did she put them? Daisy Rose! Daisy Rose!"

"The humanoid dog!" Olivia exclaimed, her face lightening up as she saw Dijon from the window. Just as she opened the gate and headed toward the front porch, Dijon closed the window shutters and opened the front door a moment later.

"No use! Can't wait! I'm terribly late! Oh, me! Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, my!" he exclaimed, as he darted out of the house, holding a gold trumpet in his hand and wearing a white tunic that had a red heart printed on it and a pale blue court ruff over his regular outfit.

"Excuse me, Mr. Dog," Olivia said to Dijon, "I've been trying to—"

Dijon turned around and ran over to Olivia, though he had thought she was this "Daisy Rose" person he was calling out earlier.

"Why, Daisy Rose! What are you doing out here?" Dijon asked her, frowning at her.

"Daisy Rose?" Olivia repeated, a puzzled expression forming on her face.

"Don’t just stand there, do something! No, no! Go get my gloves! I'm late!" Dijon barked, hopping in front of Olivia and holding up his large pocket watch.

"But late for what?" Olivia asked him, "That's just—"

"My gloves," Dijon shouted, blaring his trumpet vociferously, forcing Olivia to go inside the cottage. "At once! Do you hear?"

"Goodness," Olivia said to herself, as she headed up the blue staircase. "I suppose I should be taking orders from Pooka next."

Once she made her way up the stairs to Dijon‘s bedroom, Olivia started her search for Dijon's missing gloves.

"If I were a humanoid dog," she said, looking through a white wooden dresser, "where would I keep my gloves?"

When she opened a porcelain vase-like jar that was on the dresser, there were cookies in various shapes and colored frostings, and each of them had messages, such as "TAKE ONE" and "TRY ME". These were the same cookies she saw back when she was struggling to get the key onto the table at only ten inches tall.

"Oh, thank you." Olivia said, as she picked out a pink flower-shaped cookie with the words "EAT ME" written in brown frosting and took a bite of it, "Don’t mind if I do." As she looked through a chest full of clothes while humming, however, Olivia started to grow at an alarming rate, and her head hit the ceiling. The cookie had caused her to grow again—just like last time!

"Oh! Oh, no, no! Not again!" she exclaimed.

Dijon tapped his foot rapidly and looked at his watch with an impatient frown on his face. He jolted in shock and rushed back inside the house, with a fear of being very, very tardy.

"Daisy Rose!" he called out.

Olivia was still growing very rapidly as her arms emerged from the windows, and her right foot was toppling over furniture in Dijon's room, just as Dijon had darted up the staircase to the door of his bedroom.

"Now, you see here, Daisy Rose!" Dijon started to say as he opened the door, only to see Olivia's colossal right foot struggling to get through. "HEEEELLLLP!"

The Arabic dog gasped in shock and tried to escape, but he was pushed down the stairs by her foot, which had finally found its way through the door, and blared his trumpet again. He then headed for the front door and opened it, only to be pushed through some of his broken possessions by Olivia's now fully huge foot. As he got out from underneath the destruction, the frenzied humanoid dog cried out in horror as he saw what was happening to his house. Olivia's arms had sprouted out of the windows, and her feet had emerged from the doorways.

"NOOOO! HELP! MONSTER!!" Dijon shouted in a panic, running away from his house and blaring his trumpet again, "Help! Assistance!!"

Olivia was struggling to get up, but it was no use. Dijon's house was too snug for her to break free, and therefore, she was completely stuck like a fly attached to flypaper.

"Oh, dear!" she complained, placing her left hand on the rooftop. Just then, she heard Dijon's voice, as he had come back with someone to help him.

"A monster! A monster, Br'er Rabbit! In my house, Br'er Rabbit!"

"Br'er Rabbit." Olivia repeated in an unamused tone of voice, as she recalled seeing him in the ocean and him ignoring her desperate call for help while rolling her eyes.

Dijon was hopping around Br'er Rabbit, who was walking with him down the dirt path back to his house.

"Settle down, old chap," Br'er Rabbit calmly said to Dijon, as he twirled his cane with his right hand. "Can't be as bad as all that, you know."

"My poor house..." Dijon said to Br'er Rabbit, still worried about his precious home. "Ohhh, my beautiful roof and rafters...all my walls, and—there it is!"

Br'er Rabbit stopped in front of the house as his eyes widened in shock, and he almost dropped his cane in the process.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows and his shocked expression changing into a smile, "Jolly well is."

Olivia's giant hands opened the shutters, and she peeked through the open window to see Dijon and Br'er Rabbit, her eyes blinking with curiosity.

"Well, do your thing, Br'er Rabbit!" Dijon exclaimed, pushing Br'er Rabbit through the open gate and hiding behind it.

Br'er Rabbit approached the gigantic Olivia and examined her carefully, before replying as he tapped her shoe with his cane: "Yes, indeed. An extraordinary situation, but..."

"But-but-but-but what?!" Dijon exclaimed, finally coming out from behind the gate.

Br'er Rabbit blew his nose on his light blue handkerchief and put it away before placing a hand on Olivia's foot and crossed his right leg over his left.

"But I have a very simple solution!" he said, delighting the giant Olivia.

"Thank goodness!" Olivia said in response to Br'er Rabbit's announcement.

"W-W-W-What is it?" stuttered Dijon.

"Simply pull it out the chimney."

"Yes! G-G-Go on, go on! Pull it out!" Dijon exclaimed, running over and trying to push Br'er Rabbit, who was simply immovable.

"Who, me?" Br'er Rabbit questioned him, "Don’t be ridiculous! What we need is a...Er...Hmmm..."

A whistling noise was heard once Br'er Rabbit started thinking, and he turned to see a brown cockroach with big yellow eyes, wearing a white shirt, matching opera gloves, a blue vest, an orange bowtie, green pants, a black English cap, and matching shoes with white spats over them. He was also holding a broom in his right hand and a long ladder in his left as he was walking by Dijon's house.

"A cockroach with a ladder!" Br'er Rabbit exclaimed.

"Hmmm? Oh, Digit!" Dijon called out to the cockroach, grabbing his attention, "Digit!"

Digit lifted his cap up as a part of greeting the two, but he then felt himself being pulled through the gate by Dijon.

"We need a lackroach with a codder...a codder..." the humanoid dog said to Digit, "Can you help us?"

"At your service, governor!" Digit replied kindly to the humanoid dog, saluting to him. He suddenly dropped his broom when he felt Br'er Rabbit's hand on his shoulder.

“Digit, my lad," Br'er Rabbit said to him. "Have you ever been down a chimney?"

"Why, governor," Digit said. "I've been down more chimneys!"

"Excellent, excellent!" Br'er Rabbit said with a smile, "You just pop down the chimney and haul that monster out of there."

Olivia was confused by Br'er Rabbit's choice to have Digit pull her out of the chimney, for she was simply too big to fit right through it. *Why would they have a small cockroach pull me out of such a tiny chimney?* she wondered, *I don’t think this will help me out at all...*

"Right-o, governor!" Digit said, climbing past by Olivia. Just then, he moved back down to see Olivia through the window and cried out in alarm, "Monster?!"

He let out a frightened scream and scurried down the ladder, only to be pulled on the vest by Dijon and Br'er Rabbit. The two were trying to calm him down and get him back up the ladder so he would do his job, but Digit was too frightened by the horrific vision of the gigantic Olivia to do so. Digit scurried back down the ladder again, only to be carried up by Br'er Rabbit.

"Settle down now. That's better," Br'er Rabbit said to the frightened cockroach in an enthusiastic voice. "Digit, lad. You're passing up a golden opportunity."

"I am?" Digit repeated, a smile of delight lightening up on his face.

"You can be famous," Br'er Rabbit added, as he was still taking Digit up the ladder. That added the fuel to Digit's budding excitement.

"I can?"

"Of course!" Br'er Rabbit chirped. Once they reached to the top of the roof, Br'er Rabbit placed Digit into the chimney.

"There's a brave lad! In you go now," he continued to say to Digit. "Nothing to it, ol' boy. Simply tie your arms around the monster's neck and drag it out."

"Bu-But-But, governor!" Digit started to reply, only to be shoved down the chimney by Br'er Rabbit.

"Good luck, Digit."

Just as Digit was completely pushed down the chimney, smoke came out from the fireplace, shrouded the room, flew up in the air, and tickled Olivia's nose. She felt her head lifting itself up. The poor, giant Scottish-British girl mouse was about to sneeze!

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Br'er Rabbit wobbled on the roof once he felt Olivia's head bouncing him around, and he jumped onto the ladder as fast as he could.

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ahh...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Dijon took refuge behind Olivia's giant foot as the smoke emerged from the open window.

Suddenly, Olivia sneezed loudly.

"Ah-ah-ah...AH-AH-AHH-CHOO!"

Digit swiftly flew out of the chimney and into the sky like a rocket launching into outer space. It was quite a surprise to Dijon and Br'er Rabbit as they watched him flying into the clouds above them and disappearing out of the view.

“Well, there goes Digit!" said Br'er Rabbit, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Poor Digit!" Olivia said as her eyes gazed from the open window, and her hand was in front of the window.

Now that Digit was no use for the monstrous problem, Br'er Rabbit had something else in mind. So he took out a match and used it to light up a pipe that had been in his mouth the whole time he was present. "Uhh...perhaps we should try a more energetic remedy!"

"Yes!" Dijon replied to Br'er Rabbit, pointing to his pocket watch, "Anything! Anything, but hurry!"

"I propose that we, uh..."

"Yes! Go on! Yes!"

"I propose that we...YOW!!!" Br'er Rabbit cried, as he had felt the flame of the lit match burn his fingers.

"By Jove, that's it!" exclaimed the rabbit, "We'll burn the house down!"

"Yes!" Dijon replied, chuckling and nodding in response to his suggestion, "Burn the house—WHAT?!" But his eyes widened in shock because he knew that would mean he would lose his house to the burning flames if they would choose to go with it.

"Oh, no!" Olivia said, also alarmed by Br'er Rabbit's new plan.

Br'er Rabbit started gathering any of Dijon's valuables that would be used as firewood as he started to sing a joyous tune of his. The first item he picked out was a chair, much to the poor humanoid dog's worries.

Br'er Rabbit: (spoken, laughing) Ho, ho, ho!
(singing) *Oh, we'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll put the beast to rout*
*Some kindling, just a stick or two*
*This bit of rubbish ought to do*

Br'er Rabbit picked up a pale pink-colored grandfather clock with disinclined help from Dijon. The clock was tossed into the wall and smashed into thousands of pieces, shocking Dijon. "Oh, dear!" he said fearfully, as Br'er Rabbit gathered more items with a pink wheelbarrow that belonged to the humanoid dog.

Br'er Rabbit: *We'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Olivia was watching the entire scene with her bright brown eyes as Dijon scurried over toward Br'er Rabbit.

"No, no, no! Not my beautiful birdhouse!" he exclaimed, but it was already too late for the anxious humanoid dog to stop him. Br'er Rabbit had already taken a white birdhouse and split it in half, scaring a small group of bluebirds away. He then tossed it into the pile of the destroyed furniture as Dijon bonked his head onto the broken gate.

Br'er Rabbit: *Oh, we'll roast the blighter's toes*
*We'll toast the bounder's nose*
*Just fetch that gate*
*We'll make it clear that monsters aren't welcome here*

"Oh, me, oh, my!" Dijon said with a nervous look on his face, as he carried the gate over to the pile and placed it there. Then Br'er Rabbit placed a hand out in front of him, indicating that he needed something from him.

"Match," he said to him.

"Match?" Dijon repeated, as he handed a matchstick to Br'er Rabbit. Then Br'er Rabbit used Dijon to light up the match and placed it on the stack of roof shingles and the obliterated furniture.

Br'er Rabbit: *Without a single doubt*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Then Dijon sang along, as well.

Dijon: *We'll smoke the monster out*

"Nooo! No! My poor house and furniture!" he exclaimed, as his worries had only heightened due to Br'er Rabbit's recent action.

White smoke started to rise up from the pile of the furniture, making Olivia feel sorry for the poor humanoid dog.

"Oh, dear! This is serious," she said. "I simply must—"

Olivia suddenly let out a short gasp of shock, and her eyes focused on a small garden of carrots located on the left side of the house.

"A garden!" she gasped, as she reached her gigantic hand for a carrot, not noticing Dijon running over to the carrot and grabbing hold of it.

"Perhaps if I eat something, it would make me grow small." Olivia strained.

It was a brief struggle, but soon, Olivia lifted the carrot and Dijon from the garden and up toward her face. Dijon was struggling to break free from her grip as he swung around in a panic.

"NO!!! Let go! HELP!!!" he cried fearfully, thinking that he would be eaten by her.

"I'm sorry, but I must eat something." Olivia said to Dijon.

"Not me, you...you...you barbarian!" Dijon shouted, aiming the carrot at Olivia as if it were a sword. Olivia took a big bite of the carrot and the tip fell off, surprising Dijon. His left hand was hidden inside his white shirt sleeve as it then popped out of there, and Dijon fell off, free from the female's grip.

"Ahh! Monster!" Dijon yelled.

Olivia was shrinking at a very rapid pace, thanks to the carrot she found in Dijon's garden. Br'er Rabbit was still blowing the smoke in an attempt to make a fire, whereas Dijon was scurrying away from Olivia and tripped over her shrinking foot.

Olivia had shrunken down to the size of a small figure again, just like when she drank the bottle of the multi-flavored liquid.

"Ahh! I’m late!" Dijon exclaimed, as he had taken yet another look at his pocket watch. "Oh, dear! I'm here! I should be there! I'm late! I'm late!"

"I say, do you have a match?" Br'er Rabbit asked Dijon. However, he was given a rapid handshake by the humanoid dog instead.

"Must go! Goodbye! Hello! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" Dijon exclaimed, as he then hurried off on the dirt path and disappeared once again.

Olivia had made her way from underneath the front door, yet she still had to go after Dijon.

"Wait! Please wait!" she exclaimed, running over to the front porch and jumping up and down.

"Ahh, young lady," Br'er Rabbit said to the miniature Scottish-British girl mouse. "Do you have a match?"

"I'm sorry, but...Mr. Dog!" was all Olivia had to say to Br'er Rabbit before hurrying off.

Br'er Rabbit shook his head and raised an eyebrow as his hands were placed on his hips. "No cooperation," he said of Olivia and Dijon. "No cooperation at all. Well, can't have monsters about. Very well have to carry on by myself."

Then Br'er Rabbit took the broken legs of Dijon's furniture and used them to make a fire, and he blew some smoke once a small flame formed inside the hole of the broken piece.