by Abby Hanlon
I wiggle out of Mrs. Gobble Gracker’s arms and run to pick up baby Cherry. I hold her up high so Mrs. Gobble Gracker can get a good look.
She stares at Cherry. And she stares at me. Then back to Cherry. Then back to me. I take a deep breath and try to look very grown up.
“Humph!” she says, grabbing Cherry from me. I open the door for her and just like that, Mrs. Gobble Gracker walks out the door with stupid old baby Cherry.
Then I hear screaming.
It’s my mom. She found my giant fort.
CHAPTER 6
Bouncy Ball
It takes a really long time to clean up the fort because I keep forgetting that I’m cleaning up.
“Rascal, bedtime!!!” calls my mom. “Brush your teeth!”
As I brush my teeth, I say good night to Mr. Nuggy. He has changed back into his regular clothes and is rushing home to see his wife.
That’s when Violet bursts into the bathroom, crying. “I can’t find Cherry anywhere!” she says. “And I’ve looked everywhere! She’s gone!”
UH-OH. WHERE IS THAT DOLL?
“I’ll be right back,” I say.
I tiptoe downstairs and into the dark living room. Oh! Where did I put Cherry? I gave her to Mrs. Gobble Gracker, of course. But what did I REALLY ACTUALLY do with her? Think, think, think, I tell myself. I check all the usual places . . . the fridge, the toilet, the dishwasher, the garbage, under the couch, in the couch, under the rug, upstairs . . .
In every drawer, under the beds, in the tub . . .
After looking everywhere, I found:
But no Cherry. I put the bouncy ball in my pocket.
I’m so tired! I give up. Cherry is definitely not in this house.
Well if she’s not in this house, where is she? Did someone take her? But who would take her besides Mrs. . . . OH NO . . . Uuuuuhhhhhh!!
If Cherry is really gone forever, does that mean Mrs. Gobble Gracker IS REAL??
My dad hears my scream and comes running. “Why are you screaming like a maniac? You’re going to wake up the whole neighborhood! Cut this out right now and go to bed!”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
He drags me by the arm. “We’re done with you for the day, Rascal. Everybody is done with you, got it?”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“Stop screaming!!” screams my dad.
“SHE WAS REAL!!!!” I scream.
“Okay, calm down, she was real, whatever you say,” says my dad, dragging me down the hallway to my room. “Just go to bed.”
Even my dad said she’s real!
“I have to be brave,” I say, clinging to him.
“No! You have to go to bed!” he says, dropping me on my bed.
“Stay. In. Bed!” he says, pointing his finger at me. Then he tucks me in tight. “Because it’s not safe for you to come out!” he says as he shuts my door, and I think I hear him laugh a tiny bit.
I fake sleep for a few minutes and then when I’m sure my dad is back downstairs, I sneak out of my room. I’m going to tell Violet the truth. That Cherry is gone forever and it’s all my fault. And even though I know she’ll want to kill me, she doesn’t have to even bother. Because Mrs. Gobble Gracker is probably coming back for me.
I have an idea. After I tell her the bad news, I’ll give Violet her old bouncy ball. That might make her feel a little better.
“Violet,” I say quietly, clutching the bouncy ball tightly behind my back.
“What?” she says.
“There is something I have to tell you . . . um . . . I . . .”
But then, I don’t believe what I see. My mouth drops open. Is that Cherry? Lying right there next to Violet? “How . . . how . . . how . . . did she get there?” I ask.
“Oh, Luke found her when he snuck outside to catch fireflies,” says Violet. “I must’ve left her on the front stoop, but I don’t know when.”
“Oh,” I say quietly. But inside my head, my thoughts are loud: OOOOOHHH!! The stoop!! Of course!! I threw her out the front door when Mrs. Gobble Gracker was leaving!
“What did you want to tell me?” Violet asks.
“Oh yeah, that . . . well . . . ” I say, climbing into her bed and tucking myself into her cozy warm covers.
“Well, Mrs. Gobble Gracker isn’t real after all,” I say.
“I know. I’m the one who made her up, stupid.”
“You did??? Oh yeah,” I say. “Thanks, Violet, that was a fun game. But it got a little scary at the end.”
I’m so happy that I get to stay home in this cozy little house with my family after all.
“Good night,” I say to Violet.
“Good night,” she says, giving me a little shove. “Now get into your own bed.”
Before I get out of her bed, I hide the rainbow bouncy ball under Violet’s pillow as a secret little gift.
The next morning is Saturday and our parents are still asleep. Luke and Violet are playing with the bouncy ball that Violet found under her pillow.
They are laughing as the ball hits the ceiling and flies off the walls, hitting them on their heads.
“Let’s bounce it on the stairs!” says Luke. On the stairs, they are laughing even harder.
Boy, do I wish I could play.
Suddenly it’s quiet. I run upstairs to go look.
The bouncy ball . . . bounced into the toilet.
Luke and Violet stand over the toilet staring down at the sunken ball.
“What should we do?” shrieks Violet.
“Are we in trouble?” asks Luke.
“We’ll have to get it out,” says Violet.
“How do we do that?” asks Luke.
And then they both turn around to find me behind them, watching. Smiling.
“Rascal will get it, right, Rascal?” says Violet, nodding her head yes.
Right away, I roll up my nightgown sleeve and I stick my arm deep into the bottom of the toilet.
Luke and Violet cringe and cover their eyes and make gagging noises.
“Here it is!” I say, holding up the bouncy ball, my arm dripping toilet water.
Violet squeezes practically the whole bottle of foamy soap on my arm and helps me wash my hands and the ball. “Thanks, Rascal,” says Violet. “You saved the bouncy ball!” I am so happy. I am beaming! We all agree that we don’t need to tell Mom and Dad.
All day, all I can think about is the bouncy ball. Every time I think about it, I feel so proud. “Remember when I saved the bouncy ball?” I ask Violet.
“Uh-huh,” she says.
After dinner Luke says, “Rascal, close your eyes and open your hand.”
My whole life I’ve always wanted someone to say this to me.
Before I even open my eyes, I know exactly what it is: It’s the rainbow bouncy ball.
“You can borrow it, Rascal,” Violet says. “It’s not to keep!”
“Really?” I say. “Really???”
“Since you saved it,” she says.
I hug Luke and Violet.
“Let’s play!” says Luke.
“Yeah!” says Violet. “Bounce it!”
I try and think of the best bouncy ball game I can think of. I hold the bouncy ball very tightly, close my eyes, and concentrate.
All these pictures come rushing into my brain at once.
“Okay, I got it! The ball is really a poison gum ball, and if it hits the ceiling, it explodes, and hot lava pours out of it, and we all melt. And when we melt, we turn back into cavemen, and Mrs. Gobble Gracker lives in the cave next door and she . . .”
“No! Not Mrs. Gobble Gracker again!” says Violet.
“Okay,” I say, “ but everything else?”
They agree. “Okay, everything
else,” they say.
My brother and my sister and I play bouncy ball. I run like a maniac to catch the ball, running into the walls, and screaming as it bonks me in the head. When the ball hits the ceiling we explode! I’m jumping up and down and making loud crashing sounds, the kind of sounds the earth makes when it blows up.
I leap onto Luke to protect myself from the hot lava. Hot lava is spilling all over the floor! It’s bubbling everywhere! We jump on the couch, and move the pillows around so that we have a secret cave.
Now we are cave people!
Violet is the cave mommy, of course, and Luke is the caveman daddy hunter, and guess who gets to be the cave baby? ME! And I’m the cutest little cave baby.