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There are
perks to living in the desert southwest, where rain rarely falls and the
ground gets so hot you could fry an egg on the pavement. Back then my
parents didn't have the worries that parents have now a day's. My sister
and I could run free through the red rocks, yucca and cactus without
having to worry about strangers and my mom knew that all the neighbors
kept their eyes open.
Just
after sunrise the sky exploded from pink to a bright azure. I called it
Smurf blue. My sister, Jana, and I set off on one of our amazing
adventures. We headed for the old abandoned farmhouse on the other side of
town. All the children in the town knew the house was haunted. Everybody
talked about going inside to see the ghosts, but no one ever found the
courage, not even on a dare. Jana and I decide we were going to be the
first do it. The night before we had gathered the supplies we needed to
fight off any ghosts that we might encounter. We put a flashlight, a cross
made out of toothpicks in case there were vampires in our backpacks. Jana
threw in some garlic just to be safe. We rode our bicycles. Jana, being
older than I, volunteered to carry our ghost and vampire hunting
kit. We passed several neighbor kids as we made our way across town.
When we told them where we were going, they gasped and told us we were
crazy. I chuckled when I noticed several kids following us on their bikes.
When we
arrived at the house there were six of us. We stood gaping at the house,
losing our nerves and were hesitant about continuing our quest, but Jana
and I wanted to prove to everyone that the Wilson sisters were not
cowards.
We
climbed the creaking steps and peered in the dirty windows. I turned to
Jana “Do you see anything?”
Jana
shook her head “No, lets go in.”
Just to
be safe I pulled the cross out of my backpack and Jana put the garlic in
her pocket. We started for the door.
One of
the other kids gasped. “Did you hear that?”
We
stopped and listened. KLUMP.
Everyone
froze where they stood. Jana's hand was on the doorknob. “I heard it.”
“Me too!”
I put my ear to the door and heard a scratching noise coming from inside
the house.
The other
kids took off running, but Jana and I stayed. We were not going to run
away scared.
Jana
grabbed my hand and opened the door. Meow! It turned out that our vampires
and ghosts were nothing but a house full of kittens! Jana smiled, dropped
the cross and picked up one them. “How cute!”
I picked
one up. “How do you think they got here? There's no mother cat around.”
“I don't
know. I guess the mama cat either died or just abandoned them.” Jana
grabbed the others. “We'd better take them home. They look awful thirsty.”
Our mom
wasn't too happy when we showed up with five kittens, but soon warmed to
them and helped us fix a bowl of milk and cat food. We had a fun time
picking out names for them. Jana giggled. “Hello, Fluffy, Cinders, Ginger,
Rusty, and Patches. This is your new home.”
We went
to bed with our new friends surrounding us, dreaming of what our next
adventure would be. |
