"Well I certainly hope you
don't take after your brother. He was never one to set a very
good example," said Mom.
"Serves him right for running around and not telling us where
he is. We're going to Rockhill Park to take advantage of this
beautiful day before the rains come. Go get the kite Billy,"
said Dad. Billy dashed out of the room.
"We should at least call for the boy dear, before we just
leave him," pleaded Mom.
"The boy knew our plans for today so if he'd rather spend
it running around with his friends then just let him," Dad
insisted. "Serves the boy right. He's gonna miss eating at
his favorite restaurant."
"Monkey Meal Emporium?" shouted Billy, running into the room with a
huge red
kite over his head.
"You guessed it. And today's All-You-Can-Eat Cheesecake
Day!" Dad gleefully announced.
Billy's face lit up. "Cheesecake!"
Mom stood on the porch and called out, "Peter!"
"Peter!"
Out in the yard Billy's older
brother could faintly hear his name being called. At first he
thought "Why are Mom and Dad
home so early?". Then,
realizing the sneaky fun of the situation, he smiled and waited
for her voice to fade. "She's
given up. Cool. This is a great hiding place. I'll have
to figure out a way to bury myself next time, then
it will be my perfect little get-away."
The ground was slowly warming up around Peter's body. It was so
comfortable he was having difficulty staying awake. He closed
his eyes and started to let his mind go exploring.
Three faint door slams could be heard, then the slight rumble
of an engine starting. A bug tickled Peter's ear. He felt an unscratchable
itch on the bottom of his foot, but it soon 'went away'. Peter
was wrapped in Mother Nature's womb. He was perfectly mummified.
He was comfortable. He was happy.
Mom sat on a blanket in the park.
Billy and Dad flew the beautiful red kite high into the air. It soared high above
the trees and even the birds. Billy wondered if the kite could
see his house from way up there. Maybe it could look down and
see the dirt mound in his backyard. "Oh
check the time!" thought Billy,
as he quickly glanced at the watch. The numbers still read all
zeros. Billy wondered if something was wrong with
the watch. "Why wasn't it ten
o'clock yet? Oh NO, if I broke Peter's watch he's gonna
kill me," worried Billy.
He knew how much Peter loved that watch.
Dad jerked the kite string from Billy's hand. "If you're
not gonna pay attention, you're gonna get the string tangled in
the trees. Here, let me show you how to fly it. I was really good
at this back in my day."
Hours passed. The beautiful sky
darkened
as the afternoon waned.
"Looks like it's gonna storm Honey, better get the
kite down. You're scaring me." Billy noticed that Mom always
seemed like the first one to call a stop to any fun the boys ever
had. Dad would usually let them play until they got hurt,
then he would yell at them for being stupid. "Well
Billy my boy, appears we've overstayed our welcome. Let's gather
up the stuff and head back to the car," suggested Dad. "The
sky's 'bout to bust wide open and we don't wanna be standing here
when it does."
Billy had been having so much fun he had forgotten about the time.
"Dad, what time is it?
"Oh it's about 4:30. You getting hungry?" asked
Dad.
"Um, yeh."
Billy was so relieved to hear it wasn't past ten o'clock yet.
"I was wondrin' if you could
look at my watch. I think something's wrong with it."
"Sure, lemme see here." Dad took the watch from Billy's
wrist.
"Isn't this your brother's watch?"
"Yeh, but he let me wear it
today," replied Billy. Dad fiddled
with it for a few moments.
It beeped a few times. "Seems to work fine. Let's get moving
if we're going to beat this rain."
Billy put the watch back on.
It now read 4:27. "Whew," he sighed, "still
have one, two, three, four, um, five, six more hours to go."
They all climbed into the car and buckled up.
"Are you ready for
(Mom made a drum roll sound)
Monkey
Meal Emporium?" said Mom, smiling into the visor mirror.
Billy shouted with delight.
"Then let's go get that cheesecake!" Dad ordered
with a thrust of his fist, and the car pulled away, as large water
droplets exploded like fireworks on the windshield.
Little Billy hadn't given pause
to consider how this thunderstorm might affect his subterranean
sibling.
Cheesecake demanded his full
attention.