When I woke up our English bulldog, Lucky, was lying right next to my feet. His tongue was sticking partially out while he soundly slept.
I sat up wiping sleep from my eyes. I looked over at Lucky who was snoring up a storm. "I'm surprised Nat can sleep with that," I thought, but couldn't help from suppressing a laugh.
Lucky let out a yawn and wagged his tail looking towards me. "Sorry, boy," I said giving him a pat on the head, "I didn't mean to wake you." "Nat must've given him a bath," I thought stroking my fingers through his unusually soft white fur.
It has been one of our chores to feed, walk, and play with Lucky since we got him last year from an animal shelter. At that time our Dad was dating this lady called Betty, whom was and probably still is the laziest maid in the world. Nat and I wanted them to brake up so bad because we almost couldn't get a dog, she was allergic, but Dad only chose Lucky because he's hypoallergenic. Anyways, when Dad and Betty broke up it took 4 whole months for him to get over it. He did everything that Betty hated to get over her and it helped, a lot.
"You want to go see where Nat is?" I asked Lucky in a playful voice which he replied yes by licking his sloppy wet tongue all over my face. "Alright," I said as I walked towards the door, opened it, and waited for him to come.
As I walked down the stairs to our living room I could hear Lucky's dog tag rattling against his collar as he bounded down the steps at my heels every step of the way.
I stopped on the fourth step from the floor and looked down at the bottom floor. I didn't see the living room floor anymore with the purple couch across the room or Lucky's old toy which he had forgotten under it. Instead I saw a whole new setting altogether. A setting in which looked as if it came out of an old adventure comic.
Below me the Nile River raged. Its powerful currents tore at everything in its path and swept it away without any effort. The lashing of the waves were so enraged it seemed at any moment the fragile ridge that kept Prince Lucky and I away from the beast would collapse.
I turned away towards Prince Lucky when I heard him whimper in fear. "It's okay." I told him as I knelt down and gave him a soft pet on the head trying to encourage him. The truth was I was totally scared to. This was a leap of faith that I purely did not want to go through with, but by the fact that it was for my only brother made me more and more determined.
Suddenly my thoughts were corrupted by a thunderous sound followed by a crack. I could instantly feel my blood run cold as the ridge that was keeping us up gave way and we began to drop dead aim towards the unforgiving torrent.
"OUCH!" I yelped out in pain as every last breath was knocked out of me.
"Alex, what are you doing," Nat asked. He was sitting on the couch in his pajamas reading a magazine that I couldn't quite make out the title of. "What are you doing," he repeated after I didn't reply.
I sat up on the floor; looking down I saw my Mom's unique colorful border from India wrapped around my feet in a bound. "Nothing," I managed to say through gasps of breaths. Lucky's paws pounded against the hardwood floor as he bounded over to me knocking me over once again. "Lucky, quit it!" I gasped crawling over to the sofa and collapsing onto it. My chest throbbed in pain from the two hard blows and fortunately for Lucky because if it wasn't I would be wrestling with him again. And this time I would have won.
"Alex, you okay?" Nat asked raising an eyebrow. "Fine," I replied; my chest finally settling. Nat let out and unsure grunt and continued. "We have practice today." I gave him a frustrated look, "I know, I remembered." "Oh. Right, so where were you this morning?" he asked finally closing his magazine and I got a better look at it.
I could feel bile rise in my throat instantly after his question was asked. I hated it when he did this. I gave him a simple answer earlier, 'Nothing, no where', but he still asks me again. Well, at least I gave him a three-word answer that sounded convincing. When I would ask him a question containing the name of, um I don't know, 'Rosalina' the answer would almost always be the same, 'Alex!' "Why can't I just give him a simple answer for once and we just drop it." "Alex?" Nat's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. His face was unreadable as it usually is when he suspects something or he's in trouble.
Okay, usually I could tell my brother anything, but lately I haven't had anyone to turn to when I'm in trouble or just wanted to talk to someone. Even through I knew my brother well enough to know he could keep secrets locked away hidden in the depths of his mind; I haven't been able to trust him lately. Well, only a few short weeks ago I had come home from school without Nat, he had detention, and Dad wasn't home so I got one of my bright ideas and started skateboarding inside the house. Bad idea, bad idea; I knocked over one of my Mom's favorite vases and was so scared at what Dad might do to me I blamed it all on Nat. He got grounded for 2 weeks in which he wouldn't even talk to me and constantly locked me out of OUR room. But last weekend when Nat's grounding was officially over he decided to bury the hatchet and forgave me.
"AAALLLLEEEEXX," Nat waved his hand in front of my face to bring me back to reality. I let out a short sigh as I said, "What?" "Where were you this morning?" Nat's voice was becoming somewhat urgent with irritation. "Juanita's," I mumbled the answer in a voice so small mice wouldn't be able to hear it. Nat gave me a disfigured look in confusion, "what?" I was just about to snap. Why did he want to know so badly? "Juanita, I was at Juanita's!" My yelling echoed through the house louder than my drumming could ever reach.
"Whoa, calm down, Alex; you're gonna wake up the whole neighborhood. I let out a scoff of irritants and went to the kitchen as I heard Dad's footsteps coming downstairs. I couldn't help, but be suspicious of him. He usually would never forgive me for something like that even if I did say sorry. Even through Nat's face expression and temperament seemed calm and cool, as I turned back to look at him I knew somewhere deep down his mind was in a storm as powerful as a lion's glare that only had one thing on his mind: find my weakness and attack.