Chapter 6
A few minutes after the initial shock in the bathroom, the Bradys and Alice had gathered in the living room. Although their initial shock had worn off, they still kept turning their heads to look at each other and themselves with wide eyes. Cindy was the most relaxed of the family, but even she found the situation strange.
Mike crossed his arms and stared sternly at his kids. "I just can't help but think that this is some sort of prank. At least one of you had better confess, or you'll be in worse trouble," the architect warned. Carol nodded in agreement.
Most of the kids' mouths opened, and they started trembling as they tried to figure out who might have been responsible. At last, Greg, Marcia, Peter, and Jan stared at Bobby – annoyed glares forming on their faces. The room was so silent that everyone could hear the youngest boy gulp nervously.
"Bobby…?" Mike questioned. "Is there something that you'd like to tell us?"
"No!" the boy croaked in a high-pitched voice. Mike, Alice, and Marcia opened their eyes wider when he spoke. His voice sounded almost like someone else's. "I could never come up with something this elaborate!"
Cindy stared straight ahead at the kitchen. She debated whether or not to reveal that she had wished for her family to become black, but she knew that the adults – particularly her mother and father – didn't believe in the supernatural. Cindy thought that telling her parents about her wish would be pointless, but she didn't want to Bobby to get in trouble. She had to somehow convince everyone that this was not a prank.
"Dad?" Cindy asked. Her parents looked at the girl. "I don't think that this is a prank. I think that we really are black now. Bobby sounds a bit different, too, and I don't think that he would be capable of a prank like this."
"But this is absurd!" Mike cried. "There's no way that we could actually turn into black people overnight!"
"Dad, please take us to a doctor or hospital like you suggested earlier!" Cindy begged – feigning panic. "We'll have to go back to school looking like different people! What if there really is something wrong with us?"
Mike sighed and nodded. "Okay, okay. We'll go to the hospital…but only to rule out the possibility that we actually turned into black people!" Mike then gestured toward the stairs and said, "Let's get dressed, everyone."
About ten minutes later, the Bradys and Alice again met in the living room. Mike was wearing a white shirt and black pants, Carol was wearing a tan dress with a white collar and cuffs, and Alice was wearing her regular uniform. Greg was wearing jeans – as well as a dark blue shirt under a vest with light blue, brown, and white diamonds. Marcia was wearing a black sweater and pale yellow pants. Peter was wearing jeans and a white shirt with pink polka dots under a tan vest. Jan was wearing a dark green sweater and black pants. Cindy herself had dressed in a red blouse and tan pants, and she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when she saw Bobby's outfit: a green and white football jersey with "84" in white.
"Bob, why are you wearing that?" Mike asked – sounding somewhat annoyed.
"Dad, I just grabbed whatever was easiest to reach," Bobby said. "Besides, I don't think that we should worry about how we look."
Mike nodded. "I agree." He looked at the others. "Is everyone ready?" When the others indicated that they were, Mike led them through the sliding glass doors in the family room, and everyone got inside their brown station wagon. Mike then drove away from the neighborhood and to the nearest hospital.
A little more than ten minutes later, after parking the station wagon, the Bradys and Alice walked into the hospital and approached a desk. A middle-aged white woman with gray hair in a bun and glasses was talking on the phone. She glanced at the family members momentarily – frowning at them briefly before looking down and writing something and grumbling to someone about visiting hours on the phone. A few of the Bradys looked at each other nervously. Cindy wondered if the woman somehow knew that the members of her family had turned into black people. No, that was silly. It was unlikely that the woman even knew the Bradys.
At last, the woman hung up and stared icily at the Bradys and Alice. "Of course, there's got to be nine of you. What a surprise. It's so typical of you to multiply like rabbits. Anyway, what do you people want?" she barked.
Cindy raised an eyebrow. Did the woman really refer to them that way?
"Ma'am, I don't think that it's necessary to talk to us that way," Mike said.
Suddenly, the woman's eyes and mouth popped open upon hearing a white person's voice coming from a black person. "Wha-what in the world is wrong with you?" she cried.
"That is why we're here," Mike explained. "I suspect that we've been pranked, but if not, there could be something wrong with us. We're white people, but for some reason, we now look black."
The woman rolled her eyes, shook her head, and muttered, "There's definitely something wrong with you people…" The woman then turned her attention back to Mike. "Do you even have enough money to cover the cost of a hospital visit?"
Mike looked confused. "Yes, ma'am. I'm an architect."
The woman snorted as a smile spread across her face before she threw back her head and laughed. "You? An architect? That's a good one! You have to go to school for that!" The woman then shoved a clipboard in front of Mike. "Well, just fill out some paperwork, and maybe you'll be seen sometime today. It ain't my problem if you people can't pay the bill." The woman's eyes briefly locked with Cindy's. The woman's glare was frosty enough to send chills down Cindy's spine. Thankfully, she looked away a second later and went back to talking on the phone. As she walked to a waiting room, Cindy couldn't help but wonder why the woman treated her family so hatefully.
Cindy perked up when she heard a female voice call, "Brady!" She heard the shuffling of her family as she looked at the clock on the wall. Thanks to the six agonizing hours that had passed, Cindy now ached all over. Her family and she also received from a few of the others in the waiting room angry glares, which confused her. She was glad, at least, that the ordeal in the waiting room was over – and that maybe her parents would believe that they were not the victims of a prank. The youngest Brady followed her family and the nurse through some double doors and into a long corridor with a shiny floor, bright lights hanging from the ceiling, and numerous brown doors. The smacking of the family members' feet echoed as they followed the petite brunette in white. They finally stopped at a door on the right – where a gray-haired man wearing a black necktie, glasses, and pants was standing.
"Is this the Brady family?" questioned the doctor.
The nurse nodded and smirked while rolling her eyes briefly. "Yep. They're the ones that think that they turned into black people."
"Thank you," the doctor said as the nurse walked away through some nearby double doors. He turned his attention to the Bradys. "So…" he asked hesitantly. "Tell me exactly what brings you here."
"Well, doctor," Mike said, "I suspect that someone in our family pranked us because I simply can't believe that we turned into black people overnight. That doesn't even seem possible at all! Could you prove to us that we haven't turned into black people?"
The bewildered doctor's eyes were bulging, and his mouth was open before suppressing a laugh. He had never encountered anything like this before. The fact that Mike, with a straight face, was even saying this to him was hard to believe.
"You…you don't have any history of mental illness, do you?" the doctor asked before briefly looking at his clipboard.
Mike glared. "No, sir."
The doctor sighed. "You can't believe it, and I can't believe it. But you do look like you are actually black…but sound white. I-I'm not even sure that I know how to test for something like this. But…I am almost certain that this is not merely a juvenile prank."
"That's good to hear," Peter said.
"Good?" Jan scoffed. "We went under a drastic physical transformation overnight, and there could be something wrong with us!"
The doctor nodded. "You all should stay for a series of tests," he said. "We'll try to figure out just what happened to you – and whether or not there is anything wrong with you."