Chapter 2- A New Being
My name is Dedrick Hearth. My family and I are Innies—meaning we live indoors. We come from a long line of fireplace dwellers. Yes, that sounds dangerous but we are more adventurous than most Innies. Father, Harold, comes from a family of Innie-Outies—these are Borrowers who were formally Outies who had to take refuge indoors during World War 2 to stay alive and ended up liking the comforts of home so much they stayed inside except on holiday. My mother, Priscilla, was an Outie from Sherwood and my father met her on a very long holiday one summer in the 70's. I am one of three of their children. My eldest brother, Grantville—Grant for short—is a 27 year-old, self proclaimed Outie who lives in the back garden on his own. He is very adventurous and a little rebellious at times. Then last and very dear to me is my twin sister, Henrietta. She is my best friend in the whole world. We are identical except she has long hair and is a girl. We do everything together. I would be devastated if anything ever happened to her. But right now she is safe at home, I am the one trapped under a bed with a Being standing in the way of my only exit—the door.
"This is just great!" I thought aloud. "Humans in our house!" I was not happy. My parents would not be pleased either. We had been living in this quiet house for almost 4 years now. The previous Being—as we called the humans—had passed away and left the place abandoned. Now, though, the lawyers had found the will and had contacted the next of kin and they had moved in. "What are we to do now?" First I decided I needed to find a way out from under this bed. I was pacing and thinking very hard when the next worst possible thing occurred. The Being plopped on to his bed.
"Now what am I to do? He is not going to go anywhere anytime soon, and I can't very well run for the door he will see me!" How did I manage to get myself into this predicament? We have not had to deal with Beings since we moved in and there I was trapped under a bed with no out on my first real encounter with one. My parents were going to be so worried. I was just out to find a bobby pin for my mother to use to fix our clothesline, and my first thought was to check an upstairs bedroom. Lucky me, I chose the one where the new arrival would be sleeping. Oh joy! "I guess my best bet is to wait until night fall and make sure he is asleep." I said quietly to myself. "Otherwise, if I leave now he might think I'm a mouse or a rat, and then he will ask his parents to call an exterminator which is almost a worse scenario." So I sat down on the floorboard and tried to think pleasant thoughts while not thinking about food because I knew I would be missing dinner—and I never miss a meal.
"Mum is going to be in a tizzy when I finally do get home." I sighed. Tonight was one of the few nights during the summer that Grant was to be home for supper. Since he became an Outie we hardly ever see him, so it is a very big ordeal when he does come inside for dinner with us. "The whole family is going to be so disappointed in me tonight—again." My pleasant thoughts were quickly being drowned out by depressing things.
I am a young Borrower, only 18. I have a lot to learn still, and I am not very good at it yet. I have been seen by multiple animals, father has had to save me over 20 times while I have been borrowing with or without supervision, and tonight I swore to my mother I would only be gone for 2 hours and I would return home way before dinner. I was failing at life today.
With those thoughts, I collapsed on the floor and stared up at the box springs above my head. "This has been the worst day ever." I said, exasperated with myself. I turned on my side and could see the far western window. "Thank goodness the sun is setting, hopefully he will either leave the room or be sleeping with in the next hour." With that final thought, I slowly started to calm down.
…Chapter 2 is done and I have edited Chapter 1 for some clarity. I am still having a hard time coming up for a name for the Beings…but my Borrowing family is perfect in my head. And yes this story is going to be told by two voices…the being and Dedrick. If you like this idea or don't let me know…comments have been great!