I am faintly aware this story sounds like a steaming pile of crud.
ENJOY.
KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK We
have our own bedroom, with two comfy beds. A side table with a white
lamp. Two laptops. Two bathrooms. It's small and there's not that
much stuff, but we like it a lot.
I
think Agent 024 is our Auntie or something, but can't tell us
'cause she's a government person, or maybe she wants to surprise
us when we're older. She treats us nicely. She
gives us snacks like tasty cakes or chocolates whenever we want. But
Sister and I don't want her to hurt herself running back and forth
and back and forth to get us something ('cause she's wearing
sandals and all) so we ask for one snack after tai-chi practice and
one before we go to bed. Are cameras hated by Agent 001 or
something? 'Cause Agent 024 only takes pictures of us when no one
else is around. She smiles as she snaps us doing tai-chi or
stretching by holding hands and putting our feet together so our
bodies form a diamond-thingy or when we jump up and down on our beds.
She tells everybody she's making a port-fol-lee-something but as
she walks away they give her narrow-eyed looks.
And I think she's making
everybody angry 'cause they say things to her. They smile, but
Gemma sees that their teeth look like they're biting down hard on
something. "Is there something you would like to tells us,
Agent 024?", her bosses tell her. "Don't dig yourself
deeper into this rut. Get out while you're on the safe side",
Agent 013 hisses to her in a hallway. "I know what you're
doing, Agent 024. It's forbidden by the book", Agent 038
whispers, pushing his glasses nervously up his nose. "And our
superiors." She doesn't listen to them. Our
seventh birthday cake has chocolate in it. We blow our candles and
make our wishes. I know we're not supposed to tell what we
wished for, but both Sister and I tell her, "We wished that we
could go outside for a minute or two. Just a little minute. And that
you would come with us." Agent 024's eyes widen. I think
she's gonna cry. Maybe we shouldn't have blurted our
birthday wish. They tell us we shouldn't say what our wishes are
'cause they'll never come true and 'cause it's bad luck. 'Cause we don't believe
in bad luck. Agent
024 comes into our rooms, just before we go to bed. "Both
of you wished to go outside, right?", she asks me and Sister. We
nod. We go down a
hallway, and we're just about halfway there when something comes
out and stops us. It's Agent 038. He narrows his eyes at
Agent 024. "Where are you taking them, Agent 024?" And
then everything happens so fast. Tears begin to fill her eyes.
She's begging him not to tell Agent 001 and his men. But he shakes
his head. Guards come to get us. One of them jabs a
needle-thingy into Gemma's arm. I feel something sharp in my arm. Everything is fading…. …fading… ….fading
to…. …..black…. …… ………. I
shoot from my bed. Okay. Okay. It was all just a bad
dream. Sister is waking up, too. She stretches and yawns,
then hops out of bed, and heads straight for her bathroom. I get out of bed and walk next to her.
She's shaking uncontrollably. I am looking into the white eyes of Agent 038. His
face is purple-ish, and his tongue is hanging out. He is hanging from
a line of white cord that's around his neck. I pull his
legs hard. We
scream. KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK They
told us not to worry. They tell us Agent 038 was sleeping, hanging
from a cord, just the way he liked it. He fell asleep in Gemma's
bathroom 'cause he had accidentally fallen asleep in Alphabet
Soup's freezer, and found Sister's bathroom a nice place to sleep
'cause he couldn't find anywhere else to sleep. "Gem
pulled on his legs really hard. How come he didn't wake up?",
Sister asks him, and Agent 001 says 'cause he was enjoying his
sleep too much. I didn't know they put sleeping people in
black bags with zippers. Are those special Alphabet Soup sleeping
bags? Our room is flooded with Soup Agents. Some are looking
around the bathroom we saw Agent 038 sleeping in, some are talking to
Agent 013, some with red crosses stitched to their clothes are asking
Gemma questions and shining lights in her eyes and putting
circle-shaped things on her body and scribbling on clipboards. Some
Agents who are dressed the same way are doing the same stuff to me;
there's a lady, Agent 145, wrapping a gray cuff with a
circle-shaped thingy and a bulb and a heavy circle that looks like a
watch around my arm. Every Agent in the Soup seems to be
here. But when I look, it feels like something's missing. Agent
024 isn't here. "What about Agent 024? Where is she? How
come she's not here today?", I ask. Everybody in the room
gets all quiet. No one speaks. Then Agent 001 walks up to my
bed. "Listen to me, and listen carefully. Agents 024 and
038 are okay, but they won't be working here for a very long time.
Agent 038 plans to go on vacation because Agent 024 went on
vacation…." "But I thought Agent 024 tried to get us
outside 'cause we wished that for our birthday but Agent 038
stopped us and she cried to him not to tell you, but he did anyway
and the guards came and stuck needles in my arm and Gemma's arm too
and as I was falling asleep Agent 024 was screaming at Agent 038 to
let us go and stuff but---" The next thing I felt was so bad
it felt like somebody was shaking me really really hard while putting
hot hot liquid in my body with a needle-thingy. My teeth clattered in
my mouth and my hands twitched and everything was going crazy and I
saw blue volts and I think I was yelling and my body hurt so
And
then I fell sideways on my bed. The first thing I noticed was
that almost all the Agents in the room were gone (and the black bag
with Agent 038 in it). Agent 013 was there, and two guards were at
the door, and two guards were standing at Gemma's bed, and another
two were standing at my bed, and Agent 001 stood over me with a
handle that had spiral cords attached to a square that was poking in
my shoulder and it felt like little knives…. And Gemma had
her hands over her mouth. Her eyes were big and shiny with tears. "Do you understand, Gem? No more questions about Agent 024
and 038. Their welfare is none of your or your sister's concern." He grabbed the square in my shoulder, tilted it a bit, then
yanked it out. I felt warm liquid flowing from my shoulder as I
whimpered a bit. Everyone walked out, no one sparing us a second
glance. The door slammed shut, and I looked at Sister. I put my arms around her. "If
this is bad luck, I don't want another birthday", she told me. "That won't happen. We'll have to grow up some
day." "Then I don't want to grow up." …………Me
too, Sister. Me too. But do our wishes matter? We wanted to go
outside for only a minute. But that will never happen. Agent
024 isn't coming back. I don't know that for sure, but I can feel
it. No one cares about us
anymore.
She's
been doing this for a while.
But
Sister and I smile to each other.
"You'll get your wish; both of you. Follow me, and don't
say a word. Not until we're outside."
She
opens the door.
She looks up.
And doesn't move. Her head is
stuck, looking at air.
With a jittery finger, she points
to whatever she's looking at.
I look in the direction she's
pointing.
He falls on me.
And when I feel his body is cold,
like the door handles in the morning, I look at Gemma.
It hurt really bad, and my gray shirt turned red
a bit.
Some tears
ran down her face as she hopped off her bed, ran over and put her
arms around me.
"We can never
tell anybody ever again our birthday wishes, Gemma."
I know it stinks, thank you very much. I wrote the story this way because this is how children think; this is how they speak. Even in somber moments their speech is filled with energy.
The chapter name is not 'Veeeeee'. If you know how to read Roman numerals, it reads seven.
If you have NO idea what just happened in this story…yeah….come and speak with me, please.
You know who narrates this story, yes?
Please review.
Gracias.