It seems to be breathing. You stare at it. Yuck! Whatever is that? A mole? A weasel? You move back a few steps, then turn around to ask your mother, but when you see her, you start to scream, but no sound comes out of your mouth. Your mother looks something like a crustacean, with long teeth and antennae. You back away from her as she comes toward you, then turn around and run outside. But everyone on the street looks the same way. You start to scream when you feel something shaking you.
“You’ve been reading those drasted books again?!” you’re mom yells as you wake up. She has returned to normal and you realize you were dreaming. You are lying on a sofa in the den. Your mom bends and picks up the book you had been reading. “Return of the Wu Wus,” she says. “Reading this trash instead of studying. No wonder you have nightmares all the time.”
“It’s summer, Mom.” You say, sitting up.
“How will you get into medical school if you don’t study? Now go to Auntie Noor’s house. She has a dentist appointment and wants you to watch the kids.” Your mom throws the book on the sofa beside you, then leaves the room.
You get up angrily. Go to medical school! You think to yourself. You don’t want to go to medical school. You want to become a sci-fi/fantasy writer. Maybe become a software engineer while writing fiction as a hobby. But no matter how many times you tried explaining to your parents, they don’t seem to understand. Oh well, you think, there’s still two more years until you start college, so no need to worry about that now. So, grabbing the book, you leave to your uncle’s house.
“yeah, right she’s going to the dentist’s. More like she’ll be going to the movies,” you say as you approach their house. When you enter, you smile and in the most sugary voice, say “auntie noo noo, I’m here!”
“oh im so glad you could make it,” she says. You give her hug, then bend down to rub your cousins’ hair. “How are you guys,” you smile. Your seven-year-old cousin grins and you notice a glint in his eye while the two younger ones just stare up at you, the youngest chewing his thumb.
“I will only be gone a little over an hour.” Auntie noonoo says, as she rushes out of the door. “the kids shouldn’t be any trouble at all.”
You wait until the door closes then flop on the sofa, saying “if they couldn’t take care of their children, they shouldn’t have had them.”
“ah” your uncle says coming into the room, staring at you with a frown.
“Chachagee!” you cry out. “I didn’t know you were home.”
“I am going to drop your aunt at the dentist’s.” he says, but doesn’t seem happy about your remark.
You watch him go out the door, then after locking the door, sit down and take out the book. “You kids play while I read,” you smile at them. But you can’t concentrate. Your aunt and uncle’s irresponsibility amazes you. You are well aware of their movie addiction and you worry it might interfere with the children’s’ upbringing. Oh, well, not your problem. You open the book and start reading. Just then LouLou, the seven-year-old rather mischievous one, asks if he can play outside.
“not now,” you answer. “Play here. After lunch you can go out.” You return to your book but Dee Dee wants to go to the bathroom, so putting the book on the mantle you take Dee Dee to the bathroom. When you come back, Kakoo the youngest is all tired and wants to sleep. So you lay a mattress on the floor and put him there and wait until he falls asleep.
After some 15 minutes you finally settle on the sofa with your book while the two older kids are playing with blocks. Just as you start reading, you hear a swish as wind starts blowing through the open window, making the curtains fly. You can see that a storm is building up, so uou get up and close the windows. As you turn around, the doorbell rings.
Lou Lou turns to you and says, “uhoh the GooGoos are here.”
:nervous:
