»Part One: Two Visitors «
I could hardly believe it. Was this for real? Was Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist, really standing in my doorway? I shook my head just to make sure I wasn't losing it.
"And I'm Alphonse Elric," said the suit of armor, making an effort to bend down and be at my eye-level. "We're--"
"I know who you are," I declared.
"You do?" Ed asked, rather confused.
"But how..." Al stood behind him, equally confused. "We've never seen you before!"
I sighed. This was going to be pretty hard to explain. Uh, you're both fictional comic book characters who don't even exist, I don't know how you got here or what to do about it! Yeah, that'll work! Not. I thought to myself in a stupid tone of... er... thought, wondering what I was really going to say. I looked around the confined space of our hallway, searching for something that might help along the situation.
"Okay, well, um..." Nothing. I couldn't think of anything to say. Here were my two favorite comic book characters, standing on my doorstep, and I couldn't think of anything to ask them. My dog picked up the barking again. "Tisdale, quiet down!" I turned around and took a step towards the gate at the end of the hall.
"Uh..." I heard from behind me. Ed and Al were still standing in the doorway! Where the heck was I going? "Miss...?"
"Oh, sorry. It's 'Oli'" How could I be so stupid as to forget about telling them my name? Maybe it was the pressure. I swiveled back around and faced Ed.
"Nice name," He smiled. Yeah, I was probably blushing at this point; good thing I was wearing all of that—MAKEUP!
I snapped my head and stared at the ground. Was I still wearing that mascara? What about the eye-liner, was it gone? I poked a finger just above my eye, my face still turned towards the floor. Being careful not to smudge my makeup—if it was still visible—I stroked the area below my eyebrow. Then I looked at my finger—nothing. Thank God. I had taken off the makeup before answering the door. I sighed. A little too obviously.
"You okay?" Out of the corner of my eye, through my thick hair, I caught Ed trying to see what I was doing. My head shot back up.
"Nothing! I-I mean, yes, I'm okay." I waved my hands in front of myself nervously, and laughed nervously, too. Brushing away a stray lock of hair with my hand, I glanced at him to see if he was still watching. He wasn't.
"That's good," Ed smiled and closed his eyes.
"Yeah," I said, still sounding nervous. Then I realized how rude I was being by making them stand outside. "Oh, wanna... come in?"
Ed opened his eyes. "I was hoping you'd say that. C'mon, Al."
"Okay," Al advanced, but there was another difficulty—the doorway was to small.
"Oops... uh..." What to do, what to do! I panicked. I couldn't leave Al outside while his brother came in, that would be super-rude! ...did I just say super? Focus! "Um..."
"That's okay," Ed assured me, "You got anything wider?"
"Well..." I thought for a second. "I do have a shed in the backyard with a bigger doorway, but I don't know if you'd--"
"Nah, don't worry about it. We've had worse," Ed said calmly. Al nodded, and Ed spoke again, "Where to?"
"It's out back," I told them, pointing behind me, "I can show you now, if you like..."
Ed just smiled and stepped aside. "Lead the way!"
I felt kind of bad, even though it wasn't really my fault at all. I walked outside and went around back; luckily, the gate was big enough to fit Al through. I stopped when we got to the shed.
"There," I pointed to a huge, above-ground chamber that was underneath the garage. Actually, they were attached; but whatever. "You sure this is okay?"
They looked at each other, then back at me and nodded. "Yes,"
I gave a nervous smile, still feeling guilty. Just then I heard a car pull up. "Mom!"
They looked at me, confused. "Mom?"
I started to panic again. What do I tell my family? Yeah, you remember Ed, right? That guy from the books. Yeah, I know he's not real, but hey! That's not my problem! I wished it weren't my problem. I really did. "Hurry, you guys!" I was frantic, and I made a motion for Al to hide. "Al get in that shed! Oh, how do I explain THIS to my family...? Sure, they won't see anything wrong with—ED!"
Ed looked at me as if to say, 'were you talking to me?'
"Ed! What do I do... what do I do...?" I heard the car door slam—this was it.