After dinner: Mom's meatloaf, I retreated to the dusty attic and to my secret spot where Simon and I store all the collected evidence that proves Eerie is the center of weirdness.
I sat at the old writing desk and yanked out my new comic book. It was about a superhero, whose powers of X-Ray vision always caught the criminals by giving them cancer. 'Cancer Giver,' might deserve a place of his own in the secret spot.
It was an alright comic, but what really got my attention was the full page ad that was selling a 'Genuine Bigfoot Tracker.' The black and white, newspaper-type picture showed a calculator-like device covered in fur. For just $19.99, I had to get it because in a couple of nights Simon and I planned to resume our hunt for Eerie's abominable Sasquatch.
As Mom and Dad were still active down in the kitchen and living room, I knew my one chance of making a secret telephone call to order the Bigfoot tracker was to sneak into my sister's room. Syndi's lifelong love affair with the curled chord of the telephone prompted Mom and Dad to install one in her room- if my classmates talked about nothing, Syndi on the other hand talked about everything.
Fortunately tonight she was on work experience with the Eerie Examiner, tracking down inner city drug lords for an exclusive interview. Needless to say, I didn't expect her back anytime soon.
After closing her painted pink door, I entered her chirpy, poster covered room and sat on her beanbag full of stuffed animals and started dialing the Bigfoot Tracker number on her even pinker phone.
"Hello?" a girl's voice answered. It wasn't the customer friendly greeting from a corporation that I was expecting.
"Um. Is this, 555-0789?" I asked, slightly nervous.
"No," the teenage sounding girl answered. "This is 555-0788."
"Oh, I'm sorry." I was about to hang up when she spoke again.
"Oh no, don't be. I was so bored anyway, I'm glad you called. What's your name?"
"Marshall." I answered, cautiously. "What's yours?"
"Karen. Nice to meet you Marshall."
It was amazing; we hit it off straight away after I sheepishly explained I was actually trying to order something from a comic book, Karen liked comics too but not the adventures of 'Cancer Giver.' It was great to laugh with her, as she had the best contagious laugh.
That night, sitting cross legged along with toys in the beanbag, we spent two hours talking about the weather, an hour on the turbulent political climate- that I had learnt from the newspapers I delivered every Sunday, and half an hour on different genres of music. It was so refreshing to chat with a girl like Karen who didn't make my eyes roll over with stupidity.
When nine o'clock ticked around, so did the headlights of the Eerie Examiner's van in our driveway. Syndi was home.
"Karen, my sister's home and I'm kind of on her phone. I've gotta go." I quickly explained as I heard the front door open downstairs.
"Will you call again tomorrow night, Mars?" She asked.
Normally I would have been thrilled that a girl was still interested in talking, but I could hear my sister's footsteps plodding up the staircase.
"Sure, speak to you then, bye!" I rapidly said before hanging up the phone and jumping out of the beanbag. At that moment, the pink bedroom door began to open. I would have dived into the closet if I had more time but ended up rolling under the bed.
Syndi entered, kicking off her shoes and walking straight to the beanbag.
"Please don't sit in it, please don't sit in it," I said over and over in my mind, as it was no doubt still warm from my hours of use.
Thankfully she remained standing and I heard her dial a number, probably one of her friends'.
"Tiffany, you will not believe the super exciting night I've had!" Syndi said before sitting on her bed and squashing me in position.
As she lied down, further trapping me under her mattress, she continued boasting about her night in Indianapolis. "Well, we infiltrated the drug cartel by climbing down their laundry chute. I know! It was super cool. The big bosses were water boarding an F.B.I plant they had discovered. I don't know, lilac I think."
The boring conversation lasted all night and I ended up falling asleep under there.