When Danny’s mom told him, “The Blobs are moving into the house next door,” he laughed.
“That’s a silly name,” he said.
But his mom didn’t find it so funny. “It’s not nice to laugh at people’s names,” she said, and she made him promise never to do it again, especially when the new neighbors were around.
Danny said, “I probably won’t even see them anyway,” but really, he was excited and did want to see them. Danny’s last neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Kurt, had been old, and while they were nice people who gave him lots of candy on Halloween, they were also stinky, and they asked him too many questions. So Danny thought that maybe these new neighbors would be more fun.
When the moving van pulled up, Danny ran to the window.
When Mr. and Mrs. Kurt moved out, a few people came to take their stuff, and later more people came to clean. They had a yard sale, where Danny got a new toy car that was actually very old. Then, after the sale most of the left over Kurt stuff stayed on the sidewalk in a big pile for days before a man in a red hat and a man in an orange vest took it away in a huge truck.
Now there was a new truck with the furniture of the new neighbors. There sure were a lot of movers! Danny sat backwards on the couch for a long time, watching the men go in and out of the house and the truck. The furniture was so weird! They had circle shaped couches and a chair that looked like a cup for a giant hardboiled egg.
Danny’s mom came into the room a few times. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“Watching the Blobs (Danny swallowed his giggle) move in.”
“Well, don’t stare,” his mom said. “Staring is rude.”
Danny wasn’t quite sure how to watch without staring.
First, Danny tried looking up at the ceiling every six seconds so he wouldn’t always look out the window. But after a few times, his head started to hurt.
Next, Danny looked with only one eye at a time, and switched whenever the open eye got tired.
When he was bored, Danny tried moving his head from side to side. But he got dizzy.
Finally, Danny decided that watching was not the same thing as staring, so he started watching the moving people again. He never saw the neighbors, but he sure saw a lot of weird furniture!
On Monday, Danny was riding down the sidewalk on his bicycle when he almost ran into a big purple rock. Danny didn’t think there were such things as purple rocks, but then he remembered when his mom said, “Danny, there’s a lot in this world you haven’t seen yet.” So Danny decided that this rock was just one of those things that he hadn’t seen yet.
Danny moved around the rock and continued down the street. When he got to the end, Danny stopped and turned around because he was still too little to cross streets all by himself. Streets are scary, and you can get run over if you aren’t big enough.
On the way back up the street, Danny almost ran into a wide purple lake. “That’s weird,” thought Danny. “I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a lake here before.”
But Danny was enjoying his biking, so he just went around the lake and kept riding up the street. When he got to the end of the block, Danny stopped, got off his bike, and turned it around. Then he got back on, and rode down the hill again.
Danny stopped so fast he almost fell off his bike! There was a big purple wall, right across the sidewalk where he was riding! There wasn’t even any room to go around. Danny got off his bike and walked up to the wall. First he looked at it. Next, he smelled it. Last, Danny poked the wall.
“Ouch!” said the wall.
“Ouch?” asked Danny. “I didn’t think walls could talk.”
“Well then, you don’t know very much,” said the wall.
“That’s what my mom told me,” said Danny.
“Then I think your mom is right.”
Danny didn’t think that was a very nice thing to say, at least coming from a wall he had only just met.
“What’s your name?” asked the wall, which was now starting to look less like a wall then it did before. Part wall, part rock, part lake, thought Danny. “My mom says I shouldn’t even talk to strangers.”
“But I’m not a stranger, you are!”
Danny didn’t think he was a stranger at all. “I’m Danny,” he said. “But you’re a big purple rock. Or a lake, or a wall.”
“But I’m only pretending to be a rock or a lake or a wall. Really I'm just Morgan Blob.”
“You’re a blob?” asked Danny. “Are you my new neighbor?”
“I guess so,” said Morgan.
Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about having a real live blob as a neighbor, especially a blob that could turn into a rock or a lake or a wall.
“What are you made of?” he asked.
“I’m just made of me,” said Morgan. “What are you made of?”
Danny had to admit that he was made of “me” as well. But Morgan was a different kind of me. Suddenly, Danny remembered that it was probably dinnertime, so he climbed onto his bicycle and rode home.
When Danny tried to tell his mom how weird the Blob was, his mom told him not to talk about other people behind their backs. When Danny pointed out that the Blob wasn’t a person, his mom said, “Don’t be ridiculous,” and walked away.
On Tuesday, Danny was about to go outside to make a sand castle, when he saw a tall purple pyramid on the sidewalk. He decided to stay inside and play with his trains instead.
On Wednesday, Danny was about to go play with his basketball in the driveway, when he saw a round purple ball rolling down the sidewalk. He decided to stay inside and read a book instead.
On Thursday, Danny was going to go outside to jump rope when he saw a long purple snake on the sidewalk. He decided to stay inside and build with Legos instead.
But Danny was having a hard time sitting still. He ran all around the house. His mom said, “Danny, stop bouncing off the walls! Go outside and burn off some energy.”
“But the blob is outside,” said Danny.
“So go make friends! There’s plenty of space for both of you.”
“But…” Danny couldn’t think of any good reason to stay in the house. In fact, he wanted to go outside very much, it was just that he didn’t want to talk to the blob.
“Go!” said his mom. She picked him up, and didn’t let go until she dropped him on the front porch.
Danny got up onto his feet and walked down the front steps until he came to a stop on the edge of the sidewalk. Danny looked at Morgan. Morgan looked at Danny.
“Why haven’t you been outside?” asked Morgan.
“I don’t know,” said Danny. The truth was, he didn’t know.
“Want to play?” asked Morgan.
“Sure,” Said Danny, looking at his shoes.
“Ok!”
Morgan rolled up into a ball and bounced onto Danny.
