The Ghost of Lizard's Rock (2 page)

 
Now, I stood at the
top of the stairs about to show off my new look for the very first
time.  I felt frozen, as I could see my green eyes
reflecting back at me in the glass from a picture frame at the top
of the stairs. 

I could even see the
golden flecks that magically appeared with just the slightest touch
of eye shadow and mascara.  My hair hung straight and perfect
resting just below my shoulders.  The highlights that Grandma
Grace had insisted on made my mousy brown hair pop with reds and
golds. 

I was just about to turn
around and retreat to my room and my old look when my mom’s voice
cut through my thoughts.

 “
Kati, your breakfast
is getting cold.  Hurry up.  You don’t want to be late on
your first day of middle school.”

 
I was down the stairs
before I exhaled and my words came out in a hurried burst. 
“Hi mom,” I said as cheerily as I could.  I tried not to let
the look of absolute shock on her face distract me from my exit
plan.  “I’m not hungry and the bus is going to be here any
minute.  I should get going.” 

I was almost completely
out of the kitchen on my way to the front door before my mom
managed to find her voice again.

“Kati, wait, what, Kati,
how, Kati…” her voice drifted off as she realized that she hadn’t
been able to complete a thought. 

 
I stopped walking as
my stomach pitched. 

Mom looked so tired and
confused.  She had just worked a night shift and had come
straight home to have our annual ‘back to school’ breakfast. 
Every year it was the same thing - ridiculously fluffy peanut
butter and chocolate pancakes.  It was tradition and I
realized as I moved back towards the kitchen, it was very
important.

 “
Sorry mom,” I said
heading back to the table and self-consciously tucking my hair
behind my ear.   As I sat down, I realized how ravenously
hungry I was.  All the nervous energy that had kept me awake
all night had made me hungry too.  “It smells great. 
Thanks for making breakfast.”

 “
Geez Kati. 
What happened to you?” Eric managed to mumble through a mouthful of
pancakes.  “When did you grow up?”

 “
Eric!” said Mom. One
look from her told Eric to choose his next words wisely.

Mom turned to me. 
“Kati, you look so grown up and beautiful.  Grace mentioned
that she had taken you out for some back to school shopping but I
never imagined…” her voice trailed off and she smiled
softly.

 
I blushed and stuffed
my mouth full of pancakes so I didn’t have to respond.  I was
saved from having to come up with something to say when Eric looked
at the clock, grabbed another pancake for the road, and said, “We
gotta move Kati.  The bus will be here any minute.”

 
At that the table
became a flurry of activity as Eric and I grabbed our stuff and
made our way to the front door.  It was instinct when we both
paused and mom turned to look at us the way she always did when we
were about to head in different directions.

 “
I love you,” said
Mom, looking us both squarely in the eyes.

 
I responded, “I love
you too.”

 “
I love you
three,” said Eric with his usual soft smile crossing his
lips.

 
I continued, “I love
you four.” 

 “
I love you
more.”  Mom placed her arms around both of us at the same time
and squeezed us tightly. 

With a final squeeze both
Eric and I headed out the door to catch the bus.

Spiders n’
Snakes

Oliver Jackson is one of my best
friends. It’s hard to know just when our friendship first started,
but I’d guess it was around the second grade. I was really into
insects back then and had my own ant farm which I brought to school
for ‘show and tell’.

I took the ant farm out to the
playground at first recess and lay in the grass watching the ants
moving here and there through the tunnels. Suddenly, Oliver plopped
on the grass right beside me and began watching every move of the
ants with his bright blue eyes - giggling now and then in sheer
delight.

Oliver turned his head toward me,
“You’re the coolest girl in the entire class.”

I turned toward him with a puzzled
look on my face. “Uh… thanks.”

Oliver added, “You’re not afraid
of bugs!” He giggled and turned his head back to the ant farm.
“Look! There’s the queen!” He pointed his small finger at a tunnel
near the bottom of the ant farm.

Oliver and I took the ant farm
outside on the playground every recess that day and watched the
ants moving here and there through the maze of tunnels.

From that day on, Oliver and I
were best friends! He was my ‘bud’.

I eventually traded the ant farm
to Oliver a year later for some new interests, but despite our
differences, Oliver and I continued to be best ‘buds’ through the
remainder of our elementary years, even though his pets began to
get a little more creepy than just ants.

At any rate, Oliver’s morning for
the first day of middle school was quite different than
mine.

Oliver’s mother scurried back and
forth from one kid to the next in the living room making sure each
had their sack lunches and backpack.

Breakfast wasn’t the most
important event of the morning in the Jackson home – it was getting
all five of children out the door and to the bus on
time.

Oliver’s mother finally stopped in
the middle of the room and began to count the heads in front of
her. Her eyes widened as she realized one of her children was
missing. “Oliver! Where are you?”

“Michele,” said Oliver’s mother
impatiently, “go upstairs and find your little brother. It’s nearly
time for the bus.”

“Mom,” whined her daughter, “Do I
have to? Tami and Jill will be here any minute to get me. Besides,
he’s in the seventh grade and should be responsible enough to get
ready on his own.”

Oliver’s mother ignored the whines
of her oldest daughter and frustratingly nodded her head toward the
stairs.

Michele could tell by the look on
her mother’s face that this was not the right time to argue about
it. She slammed her things down on a wooden chair next to the
stairway and began to stomp her feet up the stairs.

“I’m seventeen and shouldn’t have
to baby sit that little…” Michele’s voice was cut off by her
mother’s voice behind her.

“I heard that,” said her mother
from the hallway. “Quit grumbling and get going.”

Michele continued to mutter to
herself as she reached the top of the stairs and stared at the
doorway directly in front of her. It was shut tight. She quietly
leaned her ear against the door. There was no sound on the other
side.

“If he went back to sleep…”
Michele reached out with her hand and slowly twisted the handle to
open the door. The door opened without a sound.

She couldn’t believe her eyes.
Oliver had gone back to sleep and pulled the covers up over the top
of his head so that his entire body was under the
covers.

Michele’s eyes narrowed as she
decided to give her little brother the scare of a lifetime;
he
so
deserved
it! She glanced for a moment at the ant farm next to his bed and
back at the covers over him.

“You’re mine,” thought Michele.
“This time I will get even for all the tricks you have played on me
this summer. You’re mine!”

Michele walked stealthily across
the room, being careful not to make a sound. It was going to be her
greatest moment of revenge. She placed both her hands gently on the
blankets and gripped them tight. In one movement, she yanked back
the covers and threw them behind her!

“Ah ha, you little…” her voice
suddenly stopped.

Michele’s eyes grew large and her
mouth gaped open as she stared in disbelief at what was in front of
her. Underneath the covers were three pillows stacked in a row to
look like her brother’s body. Oliver’s pet snake was stretched
across the tops of the pillows sound asleep.

To make matters worse, Michele was
deathly afraid of SNAKES! Her body seemed frozen in
fear.

Oliver’s mother stopped what she
was doing as she listened to Michele’s horrible scream from
upstairs! She shook her head back and forth, “Oliver.”

Michele jumped back, tripped on
the blanket behind her, and fell onto her other brother’s bed.
Michele’s neck turned bright red as the anger arose in
her.

Michele’s face looked like she was
ready to kill, and then she felt something crawling slowly up the
back of her neck. It was something big with lots of legs! Michele’s
eyes quickly glanced over to the large plastic cage where Oliver
kept his pet tarantula. It was empty!

Oliver’s mother shook her head
again as she listened to a second scream from upstairs.

The scream was suddenly
interrupted by Oliver’s voice. “Hey Mom,” Oliver walked out of the
kitchen eating an apple. “We’d better get going if we don’t want to
be late for the bus.”

His mom turned around quickly. She
wondered how he had gotten downstairs and into the kitchen without
anyone seeing him. Her eyes narrowed as she thought, “He climbed
out the window!” She did her best to muffle a giggle before giving
him that look that said, “You’d better not do that
again.”

Oliver looked upstairs for moment
and back at his mother. He wiggled his red eyebrows up and down a
few times, as he stood there in his typical blue jeans, red
t-shirt, multi-colored hat (which he always wore backwards), and
large red-rimmed sunglasses.

Oliver’s mom finally let out the
laugh that she was trying her hardest to hold in. She turned around
toward the other kids getting their things together with a big grin
on her face.

Oliver grabbed his backpack and
threw it over one shoulder, gave his mother a kiss on the cheek,
and then quickly exited out the front door before Michele had come
back down the stairs.

Oliver looked back at his youngest
brother, Jaime, before closing the door, “Are you
coming?”

Jaime had learned long ago not to
get involved in Michele and Oliver’s fights.

“You go on”, answered his little
brother. “I’ll be along with Susan in just a minute.” Jaime smiled
at his sister, who was just a year older than Oliver.

“Have it your way then,” answered
Oliver nonchalantly as he closed the door quietly.

Michele came thundering down the
stairs with fire in her eyes, “Where is that little…”

Everyone’s eyes looked toward the
front door at the same time.

Michele quickly grabbed her
things, hurriedly opened the door, and ran out without even closing
it. She stopped at the front porch in disbelief. Oliver was leaning
against Jill’s car and talking to both of them through the opened
car window.

“Enough is enough!” shouted
Michele as she stormed angrily down the porch steps and across the
yard toward the car and Oliver.

“Ladies,” said Oliver to Tami and
Jill, “You have a great day. Feel free to call on me at any time.”
He lowered his red-rimmed sunglasses to the point of his freckled
nose, winked at the girls with his mischievous blue eyes, and moved
his red eyebrows up and down three times.

Tami and Jill looked at each other
and broke out into instantaneous laughter.

Oliver backed up a step and bowed
to the girls. He placed the sunglasses back on his face and was
gone around the corner before Michele could catch up with
him.

Michele looked at her best friends
in the car still laughing. She opened the back door of the car and
slipped in. “Don’t say a word! Not even a word!”

Tami looked at Jill with a slight
grin on her face, “He’s kind of cute.”

“Oh yuk!” shouted Michele from the
back seat as the car started down the Jackson’s driveway. “That’s
my little brother.”

Oliver stepped out of the bushes
with a big grin on his face as Jill’s car passed by.

Michele’s angry look disappeared
as she stared out the window at Oliver. Her eyes began to sparkle
and a small smile formed on her lips. Despite everything, Oliver
was her little brother and she loved him dearly – but not his
‘creepy critters’!

Oliver waved his hand at the girls
and began walking toward the bus stop. He was soon joined by Jaime
and Susan.

Jaime looked at his older brother
as they walked to the bus stop, “Michele’s going to get even with
you one of these days!”

“In her dreams,” answered Oliver
confidently.

.

Princess Maddy

The bus pulled up right on
time. Eric and I didn’t even have to break stride as the door
opened - unleashing the classic smell of our bus.