--Alright, this is a story I wrote (with the help of my Aunt Carla), which tells a true and somewhat humorous story about my dad and uncle when they were 3 years old. If you have any questions/comments please feel free to share your thoughts!--
All for Nothing
Looking down on
her gullible little brothers, she quietly smirks. Upon calling them over to
her, they turn slowly and begin sauntering in her direction. As she holds up
the package they begin racing to her side. Upon reaching their sister, their
eyes are mesmerized by the roll of candy. She shakes it in her hand and sits on
the back steps. Both brothers plop themselves on either side of her, nudging up
against her tiny thighs. She begins tearing the wrapping away from the precious
candies, telling them how Daddy had bought only one package for the three of
them and they needed to split it up evenly.
Carla begins by
placing one Necco in her own lap, “one for me,” she explains. She turns to her
right and places a candy in her brother’s eagerly awaiting hands, “one for
you.” She places a second Necco in her own lap, “one for me”. Then turning to
her left, she sees Lee almost quivering he is so excited. She drops a Necco in
his outstretched hands, “one for you”. Herself again, “one for me”, her right,
“one for you”, “one for me”, “one for you”, and continues in this fashion until
the last Necco is placed in her own lap, “last one… for me”.
The little boys’
eyes were locked on the small pile of candies within their cupped hands. As
Carla picks through her slightly larger pile, she pulls out all of the purple
Neccos, being sure to remind her little brothers how good the purple ones are.
They each nod, knowingly. Ron pulls out two of his non-purple Neccos and trades
his two for one of Carla’s purples. She smiles greedily and turns to her other
brother. Lee waits with two of his treasures and places them delicately into
his loving sister’s hand, in return for her purple one.
Carla grabs her
stack of candy and goes back inside the house, leaving her brothers to enjoy
their pathetically sized piles. She closes the back door behind her, leaning
against it she sighs. It is such a great relief to have gotten rid of the nasty
licorice flavored Neccos.
Outside, Lee and
Ron pick at their piles smiling from ear to ear with every piece of candy they
throw into their tiny mouths. Ron hurriedly throws three or four candy pieces
into his mouth at once, leaving a sole Necco in the palm of his hand.
Meanwhile, Lee has chosen to savor the taste of each one, sucking slowly on
each as he places them in his mouth.
Although identical
in appearance, these three year olds were definitely unique in their mannerisms
and many other aspects of their personalities. Ron was usually more reserved
and calm, especially when he was by himself, whereas Lee was quite a
rambunctious little child always coming up with new ways to get into trouble.
When the two boys were together for long enough, trouble was unavoidable.
Ron holds that
last piece of candy in his sweaty little palm until he is sure Lee has devoured
all of his Neccos. He then tosses the candy into his mouth and chews
vigorously, having awaited the taste of that precious candy for the last two
entire minutes. Swallowing, he looks up, only to find that Lee has already run
off towards the playhouse Daddy had made. Ron wipes his palms on his old, dirty
cowboy jeans and gallops after his brother. Chasing him up the ladder to the
attic of their little house, just far enough behind to get ridiculed by Lee
once he finally reaches the top.
“Won, you slow
poke!” Lee teases, in his three-year-old speech.
“I’m not a slow
poke, you’we a slow poke!” Ron retaliates.
“Nah-uh!” Lee
defends.
“Uh-huh!”
“Nah-uh!” Lee’s
mind begins to wander, and suddenly he comes up with a brilliant idea. “Let’s
pway ‘Cowboys ‘n Injuns’, Won! Come on! I’m da Cowboy, you can be da Injun.”
Ron hates being
the Indian, but recognizing that the game really is pretty fun, he runs down
the ladder after Lee once again. Lee begins galloping about on his imaginary
horse, Lightning, as Ron runs frantically away from him, clapping his hand over
his mouth making supposed Indian chanting noises. They carry on with this
charade for an impressive amount of time, until Ron grows tired and collapses
on the weedy grass in the backyard. Lee ignores the presence of his valiant
steed Lightning and immediately falls down beside his brother. They lie there
silently staring up at the cloudy blue sky for quite some time. As their
panting mellows into a rhythmic breathing pattern, Lee turns his head towards
his brother.
“I wanna have some
mo’ Neccos. ‘Dere sooo good,” sounding more like a three-year-old than ever.
His eyes twinkle as his memory reminds him of the treat they enjoyed so much just
a little earlier.
“Cawla said Daddy
only gave ‘er one woll,” Ron reminds his brother.
“Oh yeah, well
wha’ we gonna do? I wan’ some,” he complains.
“Well, when Daddy
gets home we could ask ‘im for anotha woll.”
“I can’t wait fo’
so long,” Lee whines. Pausing to let his mind focus on the severe problem at
hand, his eyes light up as he comes to the solution, “I know, we could go to da
gwocewie sto’ now, and gwab a woll.”
Ron instantly sits
up in his place. His little forehead scrunches up followed by his eyebrows that
do all of the questioning for him. Lee instantly begins to explain the logic in
this wonderful plan. Their trusty tricycles are behind the playhouse,
underneath the carport. They could jump on the tricycles and go to the store
just a few blocks away. It won’t take very long and then they can enjoy more of
their precious Neccos. Lee convinces Ron that he knows the way to the grocery
store perfectly. It was fool-proof. Ron is hesitant at first but thinking of
all the Neccos they could eat once they got there, his stomach takes over, and
he is definitely in. Lee lets out a celebratory cry and begins running to the tricycles.
He stops midway to make sure Ron is coming, and just as he pauses, Ron comes
flying past him on his way to the trikes. As Ron reaches them he hops on the
blue one, and begins pedaling away from his brother who has just reached the
red tricycle.
“You slow poke!”
Ron yells from the front of the carport. His face is lit up with a huge grin. He
begins pedaling faster as he sees his brother rapidly approaching from the
other side of the car.
The two
three-year-old boys ride off towards the local grocery store, with only Neccos
on their mind.
The
boys’ mother Velora leans over the stove and ignites the back burner. Placing
the lid over the pot of water, she turns towards the refrigerator. Carla comes
in from the living room and pokes her head over the open refrigerator door.
Velora, now partially immersed in the chill of the fridge, looks up slightly
confused, “What do you need Honey?”
“Nothing.
I’m just bored. Leave it to Beaver just ended.” Carla has a look on her face
that Velora clearly recognizes as one of wanting motherly sympathy and
companionship. But she has lunch to prepare and doesn’t have time right now to
entertain her six-year-old. Nonetheless, she puts on a loving face and
continues to listen to Carla pry. “Whatcha’ doin’ Ma?”
“I’m
trying to get your lunch together for you guys to eat. Why don’t you go play
with the boys?” Velora was hoping to get her daughter to do something else for
a while.
“They
are so boring, you know that Ma. All they do is play these dumb games and run
around chasing each other. No thanks,” Carla states indignantly.
“Don’t
say ‘dumb’ Carla.”
“Sorry
Ma. I’m going to go get something from my room. I’ll be right back.”
Carla
leaves the kitchen and races towards her room. Velora continues getting lunch
together as she places the eggs into the bowl of water. She can hear Carla
rustling around in her room above the kitchen. As the ceiling becomes silent,
it appears as though she may have found something to do up there. A slight sigh
of relief.
After
whipping up the egg salad and making two sandwiches, she calls for Carla. She
slices one of the sandwiches in half, and places each half on a separate plate.
Then, takes the third sandwich and the third plate, and sets all the food on
the kitchen table next to the back door. She can hear Carla rushing down the
stairs and around the hallway towards the kitchen. She is pouring three glasses
of milk when Carla skids into the kitchen.
“Would
you mind getting the boys? It’s time for lunch,” Velora requests.
“Fine,”
Carla mutters. She opens the back door and calls as loudly as possible, “Boys!
Let’s go! It’s time for lunch!” She doesn’t wait for a response, instead
immediately turns around and comes back into the kitchen.
Velora
glances out the kitchen window to check for a reaction. There are no little
boys running towards the kitchen. She walks towards the back door and steps
onto the porch. “Boys! I’ve got egg-salad sandwiches on the table for you!”
There is still no response. She walks over towards the playhouse her husband
had made and stands next to it. Her eyes glare into the square-shaped hole in
the wall that is the window for the little attic. No little boys. She walks
around to the front of the mini-house and peeks through the door. Still no
three-year-olds. Her stomach begins to rise up in her body as she calls out,
“Ron? Lee! You’re scaring Mommy.” Panic begins to fill up her body along with
her still rising stomach. She walks around the backyard in a fury searching
every nook and cranny.
By
this time Carla has left the kitchen. She now stands on the back porch with her
half eaten egg-salad sandwich squeezed in her little hands, bits of egg
dropping onto the wooden floor beneath her. With a mouthful of sandwich she
mumbles, “Where did they go Ma?”
Velora
ignores her daughter and runs to the side of the house, and opens the gate. She
scans the front yard but there is no sign of her boys. They wouldn’t have been
able to open the gate anyways; her husband had purposely put the latch too high
for any of the kids to reach. She returns to the back of the house, approaching
hysteria. As she runs towards the carport she notices the red and blue
tricycles are missing. She can feel her heart beating outside of her body. Running
into the alley behind their house she stares in both directions, but her sons
are nowhere to be found.
Velora rushes back
into the house, flying past her daughter who still stands on the back porch. With
trembling hands she reaches for the phone. She is trying to push all of the
horrible thoughts out of her head, ignore the wretched possibilities. As she
places her index finger inside of the circle that reads ‘9’ she twirls it
rapidly counter-clockwise until it begins clicking back towards its initial
position. She then shoves her finger inside of the ‘1’ spinning quickly and
then spins once again. The operator picks up, “What’s your emergency?”
---
Lee
and Ron round the corner coming out of the alley behind their house. As they
turn onto Elm Street Ron glances back towards their house slightly afraid. Then
the vision of Neccos dancing in his head turns his attention to the treacherous
journey ahead of him and his brother.
Lee pedals as fast
as he can, remaining just far enough ahead of his brother to be in first place;
literally a couple of inches. As they pedal quickly down the sidewalk, an older
woman sitting on her porch stares at the three-year-olds zooming by her front
lawn. Confused, she gets out of her chair and walks off of her porch onto the
front walk. Watching the little boys pedal on at full speed she grins, never
having seen such a sight before.
Lee and Ron turn
one more corner and the local supermarket comes into sight not too far in the
distance. As the boys realize that they have successfully made their way, they
both slow their pace, so as to conserve some energy for the ride home. Chatting
it up, they talk of all the fun they are going to have when Carla sees the roll
of Neccos that they have gotten for her; by this point they have decided they
are going to get three rolls, so each of them can have one. Maybe this way they
can even get more purple prizes from Carla. Three more blocks to go.
---
Carla
sits in the living room quietly watching TV as her mother has sternly instructed
her. Velora paces back in forth in the kitchen fidgeting with the dish towel,
unaware of what to do with herself. She wanted to get in her car and go looking
for her boys but the operator told her to stay put and wait for the policeman
to come to her home. Carla leans over on the couch to peek around the corner
into the kitchen, watching as her mother appears and then disappears repeatedly
behind the wall. Suddenly, a loud knock at the front door startles her onto the
floor. Velora comes running into the front room and the two of them race to the
door.
After
answering a bunch of questions about her sons, Velora is reassured that they
will be fine, and the policeman will find them soon. However, her heart is
still pounding in her chest, and her fingers remain quivering. How could she
have lost her sons? Why did she let them out of her sight for even a second?
The questions and accusations she directs at herself are bombarding her now.
She is no longer able to ignore the possibilities, allowing her body to
collapse onto the couch.
Carla
chases the policeman down the front walk. As he climbs into the car, she stands
at the passenger door, nosed pressed against the window, awed by the multitude
of gadgets inside. He waves her away from the car with a smile on his face. As
Carla stands away from the car, the trees and houses nearby begin flashing blue.
The policeman waves behind him to the little six-year-old hopping on the
sidewalk.
He
drives slowly to make sure he doesn’t miss the little boys. Turning onto Elm Street he sees
an older woman sitting on her front porch. He pulls the car to the side of the
road and climbs out, leaving the engine running. The woman stands up out of her
chair. “Have you seen two twin boys, about three years old, riding past here?”
The woman nods and points in the direction they headed. “Thank you.” Climbing
back into his car, he prepares to drive away, when he hears a knock on the
passenger side window. Startled, he accidentally honks the horn. The woman at
the window jumps. Confused, he begins to roll down the window.
“They
turned left onto Cherry Street,
that’s a couple of blocks up. That was about ten minutes ago, and they were
riding pretty fast,” she clarifies.
“Thank
you ma’am.”
“Anything
I can do to help, Officer.”
The
policeman quickens his pace as he continues on the path of the three year olds.
Rapidly turning the corner he sees two tiny figures about five blocks ahead, on
the right side of the road. He moves his hand to turn on the siren, but decides
against it, afraid that he may frighten the little boys. As he approaches the
two tricycles he pulls the car to the side of the road, noticing the innocent
little faces staring up at him.
---
One
more block. Five houses until they reach the parking lot of the supermarket.
Lee commands Ron to quicken his pace. They’re almost there. Suddenly Ron
notices the supermarket flashing blue. Confused, he spins his head around to
all sides. Noticing the police car on the road, he calls to Lee, “Lee! Guess
wha’? ‘Dere’s a cop on a powice chase behind us! Wook!”
Lee’s
head spins around and his eyes light up. His smile reflects the flashing blue
lights. Ron smiles, “See!”
Lee
yells back, “Wonder where he’s goin’.”
“Maybe
a money wobber!” Ron suggests.
As
the police car pulls up along side the boys, they look up at the policeman with
admiration. As the car stops the huge smiles fade from their faces. The first
thought going through Lee’s head, is the fact that they might not get their
Neccos after all this work. The policeman explains the trouble to Lee and Ron
as he throws their tricycles in the trunk of his car. Lee is tempted to ask him
if they can grab some Neccos before they head back home, but he holds himself
back as the cop opens the passenger door and motions for Lee to climb in. Disappointed
and slightly frightened he cautiously climbs into the front seat. The policeman
buckles him in, and shuts the door behind him. Looking comfortingly into Ron’s
eyes he then opens the back door of the police car. Ron’s face drops. No Neccos
and the prisoner’s seat. The
policeman motions him in, and Ron hesitantly saunters over to the door and
slowly gets in. Looking miserably into the policeman’s eyes, his vision goes
slightly blurry as he gets buckled in. A tear drops on his cheek.
“Don’t
worry kiddo, everything’s gonna be alright,” confirms the policeman.
Ron
looks through the bars separating the front seat from the back. He lifts
himself slightly from the seat to admire the cool gadgets in the front. Just as
he lines himself up for a perfect view of the gun, Lee’s head pops in the way.
His face is smeared with a gigantic grin as he motions towards all of the
gadgets next to him. Ron’s face goes numb. As the policeman climbs in, Ron
struggles to watch him through the metal bars that separate them. As the car
turns around and they drive slowly away from the supermarket, Ron watches as it
fades into nothing. He reaches his tiny little hand towards the back window in
a final attempt at receiving some Neccos. The drive home is wretched for Ron,
and a dream come true for Lee who has apparently forgotten all about the Neccos
at this point and sits in the front seat chatting away with the policeman. As
they pull up to their house on Ankeny
Street, the boys see their mother and sister come
running out of the front door. Mommy looks so unhappy…
