Post by Sadie on Oct 13, 2009 14:23:56 GMT -5
Just above the horizon, the sun was beginning to peek out and spread its warmth across the grid of the brightening sky. Almost cloudless, the view predicted a beautiful day, with only the slightest chill that would no doubt melt away by noon. The dew on the leaves set the whole city glistening, like a flashy casino that was tinted with gold.
It would have been a lovely day for baseball on the dusty field, with the wind barely stirring up the dirt. Or possibly for dodgeball, before the sun rose too high in the sky. In fact, it was the perfect setting to go swimming, and the beach seemed to call out when the tide pushed up onto the shore.
Any of these things would have been preferable, Wallabee Beetles realized again. The thought was only making him miserable, as he well knew, but considering his current condition, he felt it was acceptable to wallow in self-misery.
Sometimes I despise my parents, he groused inside his mind, where they couldn’t hear him and get offended, as parents do when their offspring mouth off. The vacancy of his mind was definitely a relief, for no one could hear his thoughts but Wally himself.
The situation wasn’t entirely unbearable for any regular teenager, but it was torture for the boy who was so near adulthood. His limbs, which had finally ceased growing, ached to be out on the field, straining to throw the ball beneath the blazing sun. He would have rather been on a losing team than on the long, blistering sidewalk that seemed to stretch far enough to reach the horizon.
It had been a bombshell, the way the news was dropped on him. He could picture his mother’s face, so cheerful as she announced to him over his bowl of cereal, “We agreed with the Watsons today that you would babysit their children, in return for their help with our unpacking last week.”
The clatter of his spoon into the bowl had only punctuated his disbelief.
Despite his best efforts to turn the situation to his favor, it had been to no avail, and here he was, trudging along the sidewalk to the cruddy house with the cruddy kids in hopes that maybe they would sleep all day. Not likely.
The house was grand, with white paint that didn’t appear to have any chips in it covering the outside walls. The lawn was neatly mowed, with various shrubs littered about that were clipped into strange forms. From the front walk, he could see the door, standing red and huge with a gold-colored knob. It seemed to be waiting for him, ready to devour him and keep him for the rest of eternity.
I could run now, he realized, a frown tugging downward on his lips. I could go call up Hoagie and we could do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day.
Heaving a sigh that moved his entire wire frame, he knocked on the door in three echoing sounds. The space inside seemed to consume the sound, and Wally was pondering the thought that they might not have heard when suddenly the door was yanked open by a beaming woman.
“Wallabee, hello!” She was entirely too cheery, and Wally couldn’t keep his eyes from the mass of curls that seemed to engulf her head. Her hair stylist definitely owed her a refund. “I’m glad you’re here, the children are so excited.”
Joy. From what his mother had said, they had two children. He could handle two children, right? It would be like Joey doubled.
Oh, wait. Then he was screwed.
He plastered his face with his best smile, the one that he usually reserved for adults that he needed to impress, and forced his voice to seem as pleasant. “It’s no problem.”
She led him inside, and his suspicions were confirmed. The house was huge, with a sweeping staircase that spiraled upward into the higher floors. As expected, the interior design was classic and attractive, and Wally wondered how much she had paid for it to look like this.
“They’re in the kitchen, eating,” she continued, walking as she spoke. Her voice was rapid and emotionless, as though she had repeated this routinely. “Don’t let them swim while we’re gone, and make sure they have something healthy to eat with their macaroni. They’re allowed to play upstairs, but not in the living room.”
He wished he had a paper to write this down. The information was coming so fast that he was having a hard time keeping up with her.
“We’ll be back in a few hours, and our numbers are by the phone if you need anything. We’ll call you if we need to stay any longer. Just make sure they behave, and you’ll be fine.”
“Right.” Wally nodded like he knew what was going on. He had mastered that over the years, and was now the expert at appearing like he was cool with a situation when, really, he had no idea what she was saying.
Her husband came downstairs at this point, and he nodded to Wally. Mr. Watson was more of the silent type, and Wally knew not to be offended by this lack of greeting. The two exchanged a few words, hastened to grab a few last minute items, and then were out the door.
“Oh,” Mrs. Watson paused at the door, turning back to him. “The cleaning lady is here, and she’s currently working on the living room. Make sure the children stay out of her way.”
“Yeah.”
The two left, pulling out their shiny red car into the street and then taking off with all of Wally’s hopes and dreams of enjoying the day shoved into the backseat of the smooth leather interior.
He felt like he was preparing for battle as he hesitantly shuffled into the kitchen. As he had hoped, they were eating calmly, which gave him time to examine them.
The girl was petite and seemed dainty, with a little pink dress and shoes to match. Her hair had obviously been braided by her mother, and fell in a honey-colored rope down her back. The boy was blessed with the same color locks, but his appearance was much rougher, and his collared shirt was somewhat rumpled.
When they became aware of his presence, two pairs of eyes swiveled to appraise him. He felt as though he was passing some kind of test as their lenses swept over his snug orange hoodie, his loosely patched-up jeans, and his white sneakers. The girl seemed satisfied, and she went back to eating with a little smile. The boy, however, looked away, his face passive and almost cold.
“Hello,” Wally mumbled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. “Er, I’m Wally.” He wanted to say more, but really, what else was there to say to them?
The girl had a voice like a little bird, high and trilling. If Wally was a female, he might have thought of it as cute. “My name is Janie,” she informed him with all the authority of a child. “And this is my brother, Nicholas. But he likes being called Nick.”
“It’s . . . nice to meet you. How old are you?” He had to know exactly what he was dealing with.
“We’re both seven,” Nick said with a chill in his voice, as though this should have been obvious from the beginning. “We’re twins.”
Oh. That explained why they looked so incredibly similar. Wally fumbled around for something else to say, and ended up with a tentative, “So. . . what do you like to do?”
Nick sighed, sending Jamie an expression that seemed to say oh-man-we’re-dealing-with-an-amateur. His little hand shoved away his bowl that had been neatly emptied, and he fixed Wally with an expecting look. “We like to have fun.”
Like that gave Wally any answers. Rotten kid. “Uhm. . . do you have fun. . . playing outside?”
“Yes,” Nick answered at the same time that Janie shook her head. Okay. That wasn’t going to work. Wally winced and tried another suggestion.
“Or. . . we could . . . play a game inside?”
“Okay.” The boy did not look convinced, although Janie was happy with the idea. She pushed away her plate and nodded excitedly, her little feet swinging. “The games are in the cupboard in the hall,” Nick told him, carrying his bowl over to the sink.
Wally nodded and went into the hall, finding the cupboard after a few minutes of searching the many rooms. He selected the first one that seemed appealing, not even caring what it was. As long as he could keep the children entertained. But when he made his way back into the kitchen, Nick was gone.
“Where is he?” Wally asked, feeling a drop of dread begin to spread through his bloodstream.
“I dunno!” Janie laughed brightly and continued her tedious task of very meticulously scrubbing her bowl in the sink, singing under her breath a little tune that went something like, “Cleaning the dishes like mommy does, sweeping the floors like mommy does, dusting the room like mommy does, and soon I’ll grow bigger like mommy does!”
Wally went into the next room before a thought struck him. If the boy had disappeared, he wouldn’t have gone to a room that he was allowed to be in.
No, if a boy was mysteriously missing, he would be exactly where he wasn’t supposed to be.
Whipping around, Wally turned and went into the living room, where his nightmare was realized. With a big red marker sitting snugly in his hand, the boy was gracing the walls with his masterpiece that looked like someone had splattered marker ink all over the wall. And all the while, his face had a tiny grin of amusement.
“Nick, your mother doesn’t want you to do that!” Running over, Wally scooped up the boy with ease, balancing him in his arms. “What’re you doing that for?!”
Instead of answering, Nick kicked him and startled Wally into dropping him. Then the boy raced out of site, down the hall. “Cruddy kid!” Wally said softly, rubbing the side of his head angrily.
A soft sigh sounded behind him. “I can get that off.”
Jumping, Wally turned to see a young woman standing in the room that he had not previously noticed. Oh, right, she would be the cleaning lady. It would explain the bucket in her hand. “Oh, er. . . the marker? You can?”
She only nodded, and then bent down to examine the wall. Something about her appearance seemed to prick at Wally’s memory, as though he had seen her before, but he was certain that he hadn’t. Her raven hair was tied up into a tidy bun that she had even finished off with chop-sticks. And her eyes were the brightest shade of violet that he had ever witnessed.
“What’s your name?” The question was out before Wally could stop it, floating into the empty air between them.
She seemed as startled by the inquiry as he was. “Kuki Sanban.” Her eyes did not leave the wall, as she selected various items to scrub the marker from it. But from his standing position, he could easily observe her expressions.
“Oh. I’m Wally Beetles.” She had to be around his age; in fact, she looked no older than he was. “You’re the cleaning lady?”
This question seemed to embarrass her, for a shade of pink flushed over her normally pale features. “Yes. I wanted to earn some money over the summer, and this seemed to be the best way of doing it.” He realized that her voice had an accent to it, one that was decidedly Asian, and this only sharpened the idea that she seemed familiar, somehow.
“That’s. . . that’s cool.” To his amazement, she leaned back from the wall, and he realized that the stain was completely absent. “You’re amazing!”
The compliment caused her cheeks to take on a darker shade of scarlet, and she ducked her head in humility. “Thank you. The Watsons like their house to be spotless, so I’ve learned how to take care of many stains.”
There was a shattering sound in the other room, one that sounded horrifically similar to breaking glass. Wally winced, and straightened, leaving her behind as he raced into the room where the noise had been sounded.
His suspicions proved correct, of course; the vase that had been perched on a chestnut desk was now scattered on the floor in terribly disfigured pieces. The culprit merely grinned at him with a toothy smile that suggested innocent. The little liar. “Oops.”
Yeah, oops. Wait until I rearrange his face. That’ll be an oops. Wally started for the little boy with rage pouring into his veins. Then he remembered that the kid’s death would not sit well with his parents, and the thought only heightened his anger.
Janie was behind him, her tiny features sculpted into an expression of horror. “That’s mommy’s favorite vase.” Wally felt more weight pressing on his shoulders, and knew that he was in for it, especially if this kept up for the next few hours.
“Come on,” a feminine voice said behind him. To his surprise, Kuki swept past him and scooped up Nick into her arms. “Let’s play that game you like, Nick. You, too, Janie, and the winner gets to have a piece of candy.”
As Janie’s little hand made its way into Kuki’s slender one, Wally could not believe what he was seeing. Nick’s face had smoothed out, and he was looking at the teenage girl with what could only be described as affection. Even Janie was beaming up at her with a girlish closeness.
“Wally will come play with us when he sweeps up the vase,” Kuki added, turning her eyes on Wally with a smile touching not just her mouth, but her eyes as well. “Please?”
Without hesitating, Wally returned a grin and nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Kuki let the kids run ahead of her with a few instructions for them on how to set up the game. When she was alone with Wally, her smile widened amusedly. “You seemed like you needed some help.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Wally bent down and began to sweep the pieces into a green dustpan that Kuki had brought with her. “How can I repay you?”
“Oh.” The girl’s lithe figure bent down as she laughed with genuine merriment. “You really don’t have to. A lot of their babysitters need some assistance, it’s not a big deal.”
“No, let me repay you.” The words came impulsively now, but they seemed right. Like maybe he was meant to babysit on this day and meet this girl who seemed to fit into his life like a missing puzzle piece. “With a movie on Friday night.”
The words obviously startled her, but after getting over her initial shock, she settled back into a smile. “. . . I’d like that.”
Me, too. Wally grinned. “We’d, er. . . . we’d better get in there and make sure that they’re not destroying anything else.”
Kuki nodded, and in a smooth motion her hand had slipped into his and she was pulling him down the hall. Wally was certain that his expression was somewhat comical, being caught between embarrassment and pleasure.
But strangely, he didn’t mind.
It would have been a lovely day for baseball on the dusty field, with the wind barely stirring up the dirt. Or possibly for dodgeball, before the sun rose too high in the sky. In fact, it was the perfect setting to go swimming, and the beach seemed to call out when the tide pushed up onto the shore.
Any of these things would have been preferable, Wallabee Beetles realized again. The thought was only making him miserable, as he well knew, but considering his current condition, he felt it was acceptable to wallow in self-misery.
Sometimes I despise my parents, he groused inside his mind, where they couldn’t hear him and get offended, as parents do when their offspring mouth off. The vacancy of his mind was definitely a relief, for no one could hear his thoughts but Wally himself.
The situation wasn’t entirely unbearable for any regular teenager, but it was torture for the boy who was so near adulthood. His limbs, which had finally ceased growing, ached to be out on the field, straining to throw the ball beneath the blazing sun. He would have rather been on a losing team than on the long, blistering sidewalk that seemed to stretch far enough to reach the horizon.
It had been a bombshell, the way the news was dropped on him. He could picture his mother’s face, so cheerful as she announced to him over his bowl of cereal, “We agreed with the Watsons today that you would babysit their children, in return for their help with our unpacking last week.”
The clatter of his spoon into the bowl had only punctuated his disbelief.
Despite his best efforts to turn the situation to his favor, it had been to no avail, and here he was, trudging along the sidewalk to the cruddy house with the cruddy kids in hopes that maybe they would sleep all day. Not likely.
The house was grand, with white paint that didn’t appear to have any chips in it covering the outside walls. The lawn was neatly mowed, with various shrubs littered about that were clipped into strange forms. From the front walk, he could see the door, standing red and huge with a gold-colored knob. It seemed to be waiting for him, ready to devour him and keep him for the rest of eternity.
I could run now, he realized, a frown tugging downward on his lips. I could go call up Hoagie and we could do whatever we wanted for the rest of the day.
Heaving a sigh that moved his entire wire frame, he knocked on the door in three echoing sounds. The space inside seemed to consume the sound, and Wally was pondering the thought that they might not have heard when suddenly the door was yanked open by a beaming woman.
“Wallabee, hello!” She was entirely too cheery, and Wally couldn’t keep his eyes from the mass of curls that seemed to engulf her head. Her hair stylist definitely owed her a refund. “I’m glad you’re here, the children are so excited.”
Joy. From what his mother had said, they had two children. He could handle two children, right? It would be like Joey doubled.
Oh, wait. Then he was screwed.
He plastered his face with his best smile, the one that he usually reserved for adults that he needed to impress, and forced his voice to seem as pleasant. “It’s no problem.”
She led him inside, and his suspicions were confirmed. The house was huge, with a sweeping staircase that spiraled upward into the higher floors. As expected, the interior design was classic and attractive, and Wally wondered how much she had paid for it to look like this.
“They’re in the kitchen, eating,” she continued, walking as she spoke. Her voice was rapid and emotionless, as though she had repeated this routinely. “Don’t let them swim while we’re gone, and make sure they have something healthy to eat with their macaroni. They’re allowed to play upstairs, but not in the living room.”
He wished he had a paper to write this down. The information was coming so fast that he was having a hard time keeping up with her.
“We’ll be back in a few hours, and our numbers are by the phone if you need anything. We’ll call you if we need to stay any longer. Just make sure they behave, and you’ll be fine.”
“Right.” Wally nodded like he knew what was going on. He had mastered that over the years, and was now the expert at appearing like he was cool with a situation when, really, he had no idea what she was saying.
Her husband came downstairs at this point, and he nodded to Wally. Mr. Watson was more of the silent type, and Wally knew not to be offended by this lack of greeting. The two exchanged a few words, hastened to grab a few last minute items, and then were out the door.
“Oh,” Mrs. Watson paused at the door, turning back to him. “The cleaning lady is here, and she’s currently working on the living room. Make sure the children stay out of her way.”
“Yeah.”
The two left, pulling out their shiny red car into the street and then taking off with all of Wally’s hopes and dreams of enjoying the day shoved into the backseat of the smooth leather interior.
He felt like he was preparing for battle as he hesitantly shuffled into the kitchen. As he had hoped, they were eating calmly, which gave him time to examine them.
The girl was petite and seemed dainty, with a little pink dress and shoes to match. Her hair had obviously been braided by her mother, and fell in a honey-colored rope down her back. The boy was blessed with the same color locks, but his appearance was much rougher, and his collared shirt was somewhat rumpled.
When they became aware of his presence, two pairs of eyes swiveled to appraise him. He felt as though he was passing some kind of test as their lenses swept over his snug orange hoodie, his loosely patched-up jeans, and his white sneakers. The girl seemed satisfied, and she went back to eating with a little smile. The boy, however, looked away, his face passive and almost cold.
“Hello,” Wally mumbled awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. “Er, I’m Wally.” He wanted to say more, but really, what else was there to say to them?
The girl had a voice like a little bird, high and trilling. If Wally was a female, he might have thought of it as cute. “My name is Janie,” she informed him with all the authority of a child. “And this is my brother, Nicholas. But he likes being called Nick.”
“It’s . . . nice to meet you. How old are you?” He had to know exactly what he was dealing with.
“We’re both seven,” Nick said with a chill in his voice, as though this should have been obvious from the beginning. “We’re twins.”
Oh. That explained why they looked so incredibly similar. Wally fumbled around for something else to say, and ended up with a tentative, “So. . . what do you like to do?”
Nick sighed, sending Jamie an expression that seemed to say oh-man-we’re-dealing-with-an-amateur. His little hand shoved away his bowl that had been neatly emptied, and he fixed Wally with an expecting look. “We like to have fun.”
Like that gave Wally any answers. Rotten kid. “Uhm. . . do you have fun. . . playing outside?”
“Yes,” Nick answered at the same time that Janie shook her head. Okay. That wasn’t going to work. Wally winced and tried another suggestion.
“Or. . . we could . . . play a game inside?”
“Okay.” The boy did not look convinced, although Janie was happy with the idea. She pushed away her plate and nodded excitedly, her little feet swinging. “The games are in the cupboard in the hall,” Nick told him, carrying his bowl over to the sink.
Wally nodded and went into the hall, finding the cupboard after a few minutes of searching the many rooms. He selected the first one that seemed appealing, not even caring what it was. As long as he could keep the children entertained. But when he made his way back into the kitchen, Nick was gone.
“Where is he?” Wally asked, feeling a drop of dread begin to spread through his bloodstream.
“I dunno!” Janie laughed brightly and continued her tedious task of very meticulously scrubbing her bowl in the sink, singing under her breath a little tune that went something like, “Cleaning the dishes like mommy does, sweeping the floors like mommy does, dusting the room like mommy does, and soon I’ll grow bigger like mommy does!”
Wally went into the next room before a thought struck him. If the boy had disappeared, he wouldn’t have gone to a room that he was allowed to be in.
No, if a boy was mysteriously missing, he would be exactly where he wasn’t supposed to be.
Whipping around, Wally turned and went into the living room, where his nightmare was realized. With a big red marker sitting snugly in his hand, the boy was gracing the walls with his masterpiece that looked like someone had splattered marker ink all over the wall. And all the while, his face had a tiny grin of amusement.
“Nick, your mother doesn’t want you to do that!” Running over, Wally scooped up the boy with ease, balancing him in his arms. “What’re you doing that for?!”
Instead of answering, Nick kicked him and startled Wally into dropping him. Then the boy raced out of site, down the hall. “Cruddy kid!” Wally said softly, rubbing the side of his head angrily.
A soft sigh sounded behind him. “I can get that off.”
Jumping, Wally turned to see a young woman standing in the room that he had not previously noticed. Oh, right, she would be the cleaning lady. It would explain the bucket in her hand. “Oh, er. . . the marker? You can?”
She only nodded, and then bent down to examine the wall. Something about her appearance seemed to prick at Wally’s memory, as though he had seen her before, but he was certain that he hadn’t. Her raven hair was tied up into a tidy bun that she had even finished off with chop-sticks. And her eyes were the brightest shade of violet that he had ever witnessed.
“What’s your name?” The question was out before Wally could stop it, floating into the empty air between them.
She seemed as startled by the inquiry as he was. “Kuki Sanban.” Her eyes did not leave the wall, as she selected various items to scrub the marker from it. But from his standing position, he could easily observe her expressions.
“Oh. I’m Wally Beetles.” She had to be around his age; in fact, she looked no older than he was. “You’re the cleaning lady?”
This question seemed to embarrass her, for a shade of pink flushed over her normally pale features. “Yes. I wanted to earn some money over the summer, and this seemed to be the best way of doing it.” He realized that her voice had an accent to it, one that was decidedly Asian, and this only sharpened the idea that she seemed familiar, somehow.
“That’s. . . that’s cool.” To his amazement, she leaned back from the wall, and he realized that the stain was completely absent. “You’re amazing!”
The compliment caused her cheeks to take on a darker shade of scarlet, and she ducked her head in humility. “Thank you. The Watsons like their house to be spotless, so I’ve learned how to take care of many stains.”
There was a shattering sound in the other room, one that sounded horrifically similar to breaking glass. Wally winced, and straightened, leaving her behind as he raced into the room where the noise had been sounded.
His suspicions proved correct, of course; the vase that had been perched on a chestnut desk was now scattered on the floor in terribly disfigured pieces. The culprit merely grinned at him with a toothy smile that suggested innocent. The little liar. “Oops.”
Yeah, oops. Wait until I rearrange his face. That’ll be an oops. Wally started for the little boy with rage pouring into his veins. Then he remembered that the kid’s death would not sit well with his parents, and the thought only heightened his anger.
Janie was behind him, her tiny features sculpted into an expression of horror. “That’s mommy’s favorite vase.” Wally felt more weight pressing on his shoulders, and knew that he was in for it, especially if this kept up for the next few hours.
“Come on,” a feminine voice said behind him. To his surprise, Kuki swept past him and scooped up Nick into her arms. “Let’s play that game you like, Nick. You, too, Janie, and the winner gets to have a piece of candy.”
As Janie’s little hand made its way into Kuki’s slender one, Wally could not believe what he was seeing. Nick’s face had smoothed out, and he was looking at the teenage girl with what could only be described as affection. Even Janie was beaming up at her with a girlish closeness.
“Wally will come play with us when he sweeps up the vase,” Kuki added, turning her eyes on Wally with a smile touching not just her mouth, but her eyes as well. “Please?”
Without hesitating, Wally returned a grin and nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
Kuki let the kids run ahead of her with a few instructions for them on how to set up the game. When she was alone with Wally, her smile widened amusedly. “You seemed like you needed some help.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Wally bent down and began to sweep the pieces into a green dustpan that Kuki had brought with her. “How can I repay you?”
“Oh.” The girl’s lithe figure bent down as she laughed with genuine merriment. “You really don’t have to. A lot of their babysitters need some assistance, it’s not a big deal.”
“No, let me repay you.” The words came impulsively now, but they seemed right. Like maybe he was meant to babysit on this day and meet this girl who seemed to fit into his life like a missing puzzle piece. “With a movie on Friday night.”
The words obviously startled her, but after getting over her initial shock, she settled back into a smile. “. . . I’d like that.”
Me, too. Wally grinned. “We’d, er. . . . we’d better get in there and make sure that they’re not destroying anything else.”
Kuki nodded, and in a smooth motion her hand had slipped into his and she was pulling him down the hall. Wally was certain that his expression was somewhat comical, being caught between embarrassment and pleasure.
But strangely, he didn’t mind.
