Oh My Gosh

Chapter 1

Amanda and Dotty were in strange moods one weekend, and decided to get the house organized before the holidays arrived, even though they had a few weeks until Thanksgiving anyway. Naturally, they enlisted Phillip and Jamie's help, which ruined plans the boys each had with friends!

So, while Amanda and Dotty were cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, they sent the boys up to do the hall bathroom and their own bedroom, meaning cleaning out their closet, and the bathroom scrubbing detail.

Taking the trash bag around to all the bedrooms, Jamie gulped when he emptied their grandmother's wastebasket in her bedroom, and seeing a strange box, yelled out, "Hey, Phillip! C'mere a second!"

Phillip yelled back, "I can't! I'm doing the tub right now! Whad'ya want?"

Jamie, quickly glancing down the stairs, making sure their mother or grandmother didn't come up, answered quickly, "Just c'mere for a second, would'ja?"

Phillip, with soapy gloves on, came out of the bathroom, and meeting Jamie in the hall near their grandmother's room, and huffed irritatedly, "I'm kinda busy at the moment! What's so dang important?"

Jamie pointed to the empty box in the trash basket, and asked, "What is that doing in there?"

Phillip, rolling his eyes at Jamie, stated with a gesture, "Don't be such a doofus! It's trash that you throw away! See, you turn the basket over, and you empty it! But make sure the trash bag is open before dumping stuff in there! Remember when you messed up the den floor one time?"

Jamie sighed and commented, "I know, Dweeb! But why would Grandma have something like that thing anyway? Isn't-Isn't she kinda old-"

Phillip , forgetting he had the gloves on, clamped Jamie's mouth shut, whispering, "Shut up, will ya? Do you want her coming up here?!"

Jamie, disgusted by the soapy mess on his mouth, pushed Phillip's hand away, spit it out and remarked testily, "Of course not! But do you know what that is?"

Phillip groaned answering, "Yes, Dummy! Now, look... Dad told us some stuff about the facts of life, and so did Mom, remember? But that doesn't mean we snoop on Grandma! If she wants us to know stuff, she'll tell us-"

Jamie responded with, "But Phillip-"

Phillip glared at his brother commenting, "Just hurry up and get the trash outta here while I finish the bathroom! Mom said something about cleaning the garage, and raking the leaves too, and you know how long that takes!"

Jamie sighed, and nodding, headed for their mother's room...

A few moments later, after emptying the waste basket by the nightstand, Jamie then approached their mother's bathroom, and going to empty the basket, saw a similar box, like the one in their grandmother's bedroom, in the basket!

Dropping the bag and basket, Jamie ran to get Phillip, who was just finishing the sink in the hall bathroom, and grabbing Phillip's arm, yanked him back to their mother's room to show him the trash item, similar to their grandmother's trash!

Jamie, going to close their mother's bedroom door, whispered, "It's the same box, Phillip! What's going on? Why do Mom and Grandma have that stuff?"

Phillip sighed and shook his head commenting uneasily, "O-Okay, it's weird, but it's their private stuff! If they wanted to tell us, they'd do it by now! Look, just clam up about it...C'mon! Finish up, and we'll go downstairs and act like nothing's wrong! Move it!"

So, when the boys came downstairs with the trash, Phillip asked, "Mom? Anything down here you want in the trash?"

Amanda smiling, shook her head answering, "No, thank you, Sweetheart, but thank you boys for cleaning up your room and bathroom. Just take that bag out to the garage, and then come back in and wash up so we can have lunch, alright?"

Phillip nodded slowly but answered as he went to the back door, "Uh, that's okay, Mom. I'll get started on the garage now..."

Dotty, noticing Jamie's strange expression as he looked at the cabinets, answered, "Honey? What is it?"

Jamie then noticing his grandmother's stare, quickly shrugged and replied quickly, "Oh, n-nothing, Grandma...That's neat wallpaper you have on the shelves, though."

Amanda and Dotty, glancing first at the cabinets and then at Jamie, smiled, with Dotty stating, "Thank you, Darling. It's called shelf paper liner, which keeps the dishes and glasses from getting too dirty...Which reminds me...I'll have to check the bathroom cabinet under the sink to see if that needs new lining as well..."

Jamie nodded, and then commented, "Great...Well, I'm gonna go help Phillip outside and we'll eat later, okay?"

As Jamie went out the back door, Dotty, perplexed, asked her daughter, "Didn't we just see Phillip take one bag of trash out? I hardly think he needed help with that."

Amanda shrugged as she went about putting the dishes back in the cabinet once more, remarking, "Maybe not, but they needed some fresh air in some way. We kept them cooped up all morning as it was."

Out in the garage, as the boys set about moving their bikes around to sweep out areas, Phillip queried, "You didn't say anything to Mom or Grandma, did you, Jamie?"

Jamie shook his head as he began sweeping out the area where the bikes belong, and responded, "No, but I still think maybe something's wrong, don't you?"

Phillip shrugged, commenting, "Maybe...I just don't know for sure...C'mon, let's hurry up and get this done so we can have lunch before we do the lawn stuff..."

The King boys continued the work with a lot on their minds...

TBC