One day, in the neighborhood of Orangecrate Meadows, Elle and
her sister, Skyler, were jumping on the trampoline in their backyard. Each girl
had her own dog, and the two dogs were on the trampoline, too. They were having
a jumping dog contest.
“Twinkie!
Come here big girl!” Elle called to her fat Golden Retriever.
“Lucy, girl,
you have to jump to win a treat!” Skyler shouted to her Chocolate Lab.
The girls
were both holding dog treats and jumping, trying to get the dogs to jump. Just
then both dogs turned around, as if on cue. Lucy barked and Twinkie growled.
Then it thundered. Elle unzipped the zipper to the trampoline and Skyler got
out. Elle gave Lucy to Skyler, held on to Twinkie, got out of the trampoline
and zipped it up. The girls ran into their house, holding their precious dogs
for dear life.
Once they got inside, the girls’ dad
told them about a Halloween Block Party. Elle didn’t care if she went or not,
because she didn’t have her costume planned. Skyler was different. She wanted
to go so bad. First of all, she had
her costume planned, and it was a great one: A fancy ghost. It would have
makeup, earrings and everything! She also wanted to go because her best friend
lived in Orangecrate Meadows and was probably going to go, too. They all
decided to go to the party. It was in two days. Today was Saturday.
When the girls’ mom got home from
work, they had dinner. They had Ceaser Salad, corn on the cob, and fresh
pineapple. Elle told her mom about the Block Party, but she couldn’t go because
she had to work late on Monday.
After dinner, the girls went
upstairs to their room to get their pajamas on, but they didn’t have to go to
bed yet. Elle and Skyler shared a room and had a bunk bed. They had a plastic
chandelier hanging on the ceiling and a tall lamp in the far corner. The
spotless window looked out to their blue trampoline, the fence and some dog
toys. Three of the walls were painted bright orange, and on the last wall was a
painted picture of a sunset. Elle put on her favorite T-shirt with a monkey on
it, black leggings, and blue socks. Skyler put on a purple nightgown, softball
pants, and purple socks.
“I can’t
sleep on the top bunk tonight,” Elle said. “There is a ticking sound that makes
me sneeze.”
Most people
fight to be on the top bunk, but these girls always argue to be on the bottom.
“Terrible
excuse!” Skyler shouted, “Sounds can’t make you sneeze! I may be two years
younger than you, but I’m not gullible!”
“Who’s going
to sleep on the bottom bunk, then?”
“I don’t
know.” Skyler paused. “How about we let dad pick?”
The girls
agreed and went downstairs to ask their dad. He said he had planned a surprise,
but he wanted to tell them now. They were going to trade out the bunk bed for
two beds with Skyler’s best friend and her sister. The girls were happy. They
could have their own beds without switching! They would trade for the new beds
tomorrow, but for now, Skyler got to sleep on the bottom.
The next day, the girls and their
dad loaded their red pickup truck with the bunk beds and drove down the street.
Elle went up to the door and rang the doorbell. Skyler’s best friend, Emma,
answered the door. She looked excited. Emma’s mom had just had a baby, so Emma
and her sister were sharing a room and wanted a bunk bed. 9 year old Emma had a
seven year old sister and that sister came up to the door and said hi, but then
she called her dad. She ran back to inside where nobody outside could see her,
and Emma ran outside to talk to Skyler. Elle and her dad talked to Emma’s dad
for a bit, and then they got down to business. The girls carried the small
parts of the white bunk bed inside, where the two separate beds were in the
hallway. They carried them into Emma and her sister’s room. The walls were
painted light pink with lavender stripes. The girls put down the bed pieces and
went to get a snack. When they finished the snack, the dads had the whole
bottom bunk built. Then Emma’s dad said,
“All right,
I will finish the rest later. I’ll help you get the other beds into your
trunk.”
At that, he
started outside. They were carrying the beds. The single beds!
Once they moved the beds in to their
room, the girls and their dad went to the store to buy a new quilt for their
beds. Elle bought a yellow one with orange polka-dots, and Skyler bought and
orange one with yellow dots. There was also a sale where you buy any stuffed
animal and get another one free. Elle bought a moose and Skyler bought a swan.
When they got home, the dogs were eating their food and the girls’ mom was cooking
dinner. This was a surprise for the girls because their mom usually worked
late. They ate their chicken pot pie and went to bed early because they were
tired and it was a school night.
That night, the first night in their
new beds, they heard a howling sound. It turned out; it was just Lucy the
Chocolate Lab wanting to go outside. Skyler let her out. Then, they heard a
groaning sound. It wasn’t Elle. It wasn’t Skyler. It wasn’t one of the dogs.
Neither was it one of the parents.
“Weird,”
whispered Elle. “I wonder what that…”
The groaning
sound happened again. This time Skyler ran over and smacked Elle.
“Ow!” Elle
said, “What was that for?”
“Stop
groaning! You’re scaring me!”
“I’m not the
one groaning. You slapped me for no reason!”
Then there
was tapping from the inside of the closet. Skyler grabbed Elle’s hand and
brought her to the closet. She slowly opened it. A glowing blob flew out. Both
girls were screaming as it zoomed around the room. Only, since the blob was in
the room, their parents couldn’t hear their screams. To them it sounded like
silence. Elle finally opened the window and the Blob flew out. She slammed the
window shut and went to her bed. Both girls slept in Elle’s bed.
After school the next day, the girls
and their dad went to the block party. It was from 5:00-8:00pm. Skyler went as
the ghost she wanted to go as, and Elle went as a hobo, where she wore regular
clothes and didn’t exactly brush her hair. They had hotdogs for dinner and
there was a whole dessert buffet. Everyone ate desserts and talked and played
and talked some more. Then people started leaving. When the girls had to leave,
they were scared about the night time and kept whispering about what they would
do if the blob came back.
The next morning, the girls went
downstairs to breakfast.
“Did you see
the Blob last night?” Elle asked Skyler.
“No, did
you?”
“Um, no.”
“Are you
sure?”
“Yes I’m
sure.” Elle paused. “Are you sure you didn’t?”
“Yes I’m
sure.”
The tone of
Skyler’s voice made that answer final. There was silence until the girls’ mom
came down.
“Mom, the
night before the block party…” Skyler started, but her voice faded off.
“Did you say
something, Sky?”
“Ummm….”
“Well the
night, um, before the block party,” Elle substituted. “There was this, uh,
tapping at our closet.”
“Yes?”
“Well, we
opened it and…”Elle stopped.
“Elle, don’t
tell her…”
“This big
blob of light came out and I guess you couldn’t hear our screams…”Elle blurted
it out and couldn’t stop. “We opened the window and it flew straight out. We
were too scared to open another door, so we, um, didn’t come and get you.”
“Oh, it’s
all right hun,”
Elle ran
over to her mom and hugged her around the stomach.
“Mom…”
“It’s okay,
honey.”
“No it’s
not.”
“It may not
be now, but it will be.”
After school that day, Elle raced
home. She didn’t even wait for Skyler like she usually did. She ran into the
house and picked up Twinkie. She kept the door open until Skyler came in
staring at her confusingly.
“Elle,” she
said. “I know you never wait for me when you’re worried, what’s up?”
“Well,
today’s Tuesday.”
“Yeah,”
“Well, on
Tuesdays, as you know, neither dad or mom is here when we’re home.” Elle put
down Twinkie.
“So?”
“What if the
Blob thing is in the closet again?”
“Elle,
you’re eleven, and I’m…”
There was
knocking coming from the direction of the girls’ room. Elle started screaming
and crying, all mixed together, for she’d had tears packed in her eyes all day.
Skyler started screaming and followed when Elle ran past her out the door. Now the
girls weren’t screaming anymore, but Elle was still crying. She suddenly
stopped.
“Sky! What
about Twinkie and Lucy?”
“What do you
mean?”
“I mean,
they are in the house with the BLOB!”
Skyler
screamed and ran back to the house and came back with both dogs and their
leashes. She handed Elle the purple leash connected to Twinkie. She kept the
baby blue leash which held on to Lucy. The girls walked up the hill and were
about to knock on Emma’s door when a car stopped in front of the house. There
was nobody in the driver’s seat. They stared and stared when finally they saw.
In the driver’s seat was the Blob.
Elle started crying again and froze, while Skyler rang the doorbell over and
over until Emma’s dad came to the door. Skyler explained everything about the
Blob, Elle crying, the car, and everything. Emma’s dad brought the girls inside
and they say down in the living room. Lucky for the girls, Emma’s sister had
dance class, but Emma was still there. Emma heard Skyler’s rushed, freaked out
voice and immediately followed it.
“Dad,” Emma
said, “Can I bring the girls into my room to talk for a little bit? I might be
able to explain it better to you because I’m, you know, more their age.”
The first thing Emma did was put Twinkie and Lucy outside
with her dog, Amy. Then she led the girls to her room. She told Skyler to lay
on the bottom bunk of the bed while she privately talked to Elle. She brought
Elle into the bathroom and said,
“It’s the
Blob, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
After Emma was done talking to Elle,
she called in Skyler. She said the same thing.
“It’s the
Blob, isn’t it?”
“Yes. How
did you know?”
“The Blob
comes to my house, too.”
“Oh.” Skyler
paused. “Really?”
“Sky, have
you ever been to Disney World?”
“No… I’ve
been to Disney Land, though.”
“Yep, that
explains a lot.”
“What- How?”
“That
explains that you’ve never been to Disney World.”
“Quit trying
to be funny, Em.”
“Okay, okay,
I’ll stop. How about we go back to my room and include Elle in this
conversation?”
“Sure.”
Emma and
Skyler went back into Emma’s room and found Elle sitting on the top bunk,
staring at the closet.
“Okay, guys,
there is no need to be afraid of the Blob.”
“Really? We
all believe you.” Elle said, sarcastically.
“No, guys, really!”
Then there
was a knocking on the closet. Skyler hurried up the ladder and sat in arm’s
reach of her sister, while Elle opened the closet casually, like nothing was in
there. The Blob flew out, but neither girl screamed. The Blob behaved
differently at Emma’s house. It behaved like it lived there. It flew across the
room, cleaning up the floor and putting everything in its proper spot.
“And that’s
just one of things I’ve taught it to do!” Emma said.
“Taught?”
Elle and Skyler said at the same time.
“You see,
the Blob never complains and is happy to do anything. He especially loves being
trained!”
“Cool!” Elle
said.
Then the
Blob landed on a clothes hanger on the closet.
“I taught
him to do that to tell me, ‘I am all done, Emma! Is there anything else you
want me to do? If not, I can leave now!’”
She told the
Blob he could leave and it flew off into nowhere.
“Wow. Ours
behaves so differently!” Skyler said with jealousy in her voice.
“You can
train it. I got a book from the library called “How to Train a Blob.”
“Okay,
C’mon, Elle we have to go to the library. Bye, Em!”
“Bye!” Emma
said like a teacher at dismissal time.
The girls
told Emma’s dad that everything was solved, and it was. They took their dogs
and marched home. Their mom was cooking dinner and their dad was reading his
book on the couch.
“Hi, girls!”
Their mom said. “Emma’s dad called and told me you were at their house.”
“We were!
Can we go to the library after dinner?” Skyler asked.
“Not today,
but maybe tomorrow, Sky.”
“Thanks
mom!”
The girls
rushed through their dinners and went to bed early on purpose. They couldn’t
wait for the Blob to come. They weren’t scared. They weren’t in need of
protection. There was one thing they were. They were ready.
