~The Girl, the Plants, and the Zombies~
Chapter One: Going Absolutely Nuts
It was the summer holidays. Every student had burst out of school with renewed energy at the thought of the glorious days ahead, including Maria-Elena. But now, she was not so sure.
The best part of summer holiday? There was simply nothing to do.
The worst part of summer holiday? There was simply nothing to do.
Maria-Elena's parents weren't at home, and she was an only child. She got so bored that she finally found herself wandering aimlessly in the garden bringing a book with her. Maybe she would try to read in the garden and relax. Relaxing isn't the same as doing nothing, no?
She finally came to the end of the garden, where there were a few orange rocks bordering the flower bed. She decided to sit down on one of the rocks. She sat.
And the next second she heard a piercing shriek!
The voice that shrieked was not like any voice she had ever heard. It was rather squeaky as if it belonged to a small kid, and it was also rather muffled.
Maria-Elena gasped and sprang up again, her heart pounding like a drum.
"What in Mexico City was that?" she wondered, looking around. A flowerbed of marigolds and rosemaries, and the small patch of herb plants blooming in the corner.
She turned in a full circle.
None! She saw no one who could have screamed. Then whose voice was that?
"Oi, you!"
Maria-Elena jumped. There was another voice! It was different this time, it was deep as if it belonged to a grown-up. She looked around but again, saw no one. "I must be hearing things," she thought.
She wasn't, for he heard that voice again.
"Yeah, I'm talking to you, big girl!" the voice snapped in an angry tone.
"Who... Who's that?" Maria-Elena cried out, backing away. "Where are you? I can hear you but I can't see you! Why don't you come out and show yourself?!"
The voice snorted. "Show yourself, you say?" Another snort. "We have showed ourselves, you big girl. You just didn't look carefully enough. Pffft! We were here the entire time."
Maria-Elena didn't understand. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Snort! "Down here," said the voice.
Maria-Elena looked down, although she wasn't sure why she was following the voice's orders. She wasn't even sure the voice was real. Maybe she really had imagined all that?
"Sí, this is nuts now," she said aloud. "Now I'm talking to the rock I've been sitting on."
"EXACTLY!" the voice suddenly thundered, making Maria-Elena jump a mile. "But you got one thing wrong, you big girlie, the thing you were sitting on was not a rock. It was a nut. He is a he also happened to be my son."
Maria-Elena's eyes were still roving for whoever or whatever could have spoken that she took no attention to what it was saying. It couldn't have been the rock who had said that.
Could it?
Her vision landed on the orangey-brown rock he had been sitting on, and...
WAIT a minute.
It can't be!
"¡Ay caramba!" she cried. "The thing I was sitting on has eyes and a mouth...?!"
Indeed, the rock had eyes and a sad, down turned mouth, and it was wobbling as tears slid down its rocky skin.
"No, this can't be right. I must be seeing things. Maybe I'm dreaming. Maybe I've fainted. This just can't be right," she repeated over and over.
"HELLO!?"
Maria-Elena jumped when the voice shrieked, and that was when she saw a taller rock, standing beside the smaller rock on which she had sat.
It also had a face.
It was more rugged and rocky (literally) and it was wearing a scowl on his face. Maria-Elena's eyes widened. Did it have a mustache?!
The rock glared. "You could have looked before you sat," it snapped. "That was my son you were sitting on, simpleton." He looked at the smaller roc- nut - which was still crying.
Maria-Elena didn't know what to say. It wasn't her fault - you wouldn't know what to say either if a gigantic nut suddenly blamed you for sitting on its son.
"Um... Sorry?" she said, hoping that this was the response the father nut was expecting.
It was.
"Ooohh, are you OK, my son?" the rock cooed to its son as if he had lost interest in Maria-Elena. "Don't worry - the big girlie didn't mean to sit on you. She was just being a pathetic, scatterbrained, silly, air-headed, nose-in-the-clouds simpleton for sitting on you."
The small nut's crying subsided to a few pathetic sniffs and wheezes. "Are you sure, Dad?" it asked.
"Of course, my son. Of course," the father said, and the small one finally stopped crying completely. It grinned instead. Maria-Elena was surprised at how fast its expression changed.
If Maria-Elena was irritated at having been called a pathetic, scatterbrained, silly, air-headed, nose-in-the-clouds simpleton, she didn't show it. She still didn't understand what was going on, why were there talking nuts in her garden, to care about that.
"Nuts aren't supposed to be able to talk," she said.
The father glared at her again. "And you think we are just ordinary nuts?"
Maria-Elena stared at the nut duo. They certainly didn't look like normal nuts.
"We're not ordinary nuts," the tall nut said slowly, as if he was talking to a five-year-old. "Uno, we don't look like ordinary nuts. Dos, we don't sound like ordinary nuts. Tres, we ARE NOT ORDINARY NUTS!"
Maria-Elena jumped back in surprise. "¡Sí, sí! Sheesh. You didn't have to shout, either," she grumbled.
The tall nut paid no attention. "We are a special species of talking nuts," he went on. "We are zombie-fighting nuts! We are the best picks for steel-clad defense." Now its eyes were practically shining. It didn't look quite as fierce as when Maria-Elena had first seen him.
Maria-Elena frowned. "Zombie-fighting nuts? Steel-clad defense? What exactly are you talking about? You sound like someone who goes to war."
The nut's expression changed again to that of exasperation.
"We DO go to war! Against the zombies!"
"What zombies?"
The nut sighed. "Oh, big girl, don't you know that zombies have been to Mexico City?"