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Julian was on his hands and knees
with his bottom pointing to the ceiling as he reached under the bed
to pull out his left blue sneaker. He was already wearing his other
shoe, having put it on his foot just after finding it in the
wardrobe.
“There you are!” he said in a
mock scolding tone as he addressed the shoe.
“And what did it have to say for
itself?” Tony asked as he suppressed a grin.
“Ha ha, very funny” Julian
groaned. “You know, you are quite the comedian...for someone who
hasn’t a single humorous bone in his body.” He started brushing the
dust off with his fingers.
“Ouch. That hurt!” Tony laid his
hand over his heart, pretending that he was fatally wounded from the
other man's comment. Julian just rolled his eyes at Tony’s bad
acting skills.
“You know, I don’t know how that
shoe got under the bed. I remember putting it in the wardrobe the
other day.” Julian manoeuvred himself around to sit on the floor
with his back leaning on the bed before slipping his foot into the
sneaker. The dust scattered with every movement as Julian began
pulling the white laces tight.
“Yes…sure you did,” Tony continued
in his teasing tone, “and I am sure it walked under the bed all by
itself.”
Julian continued tying his shoes
while wondering if he really was going crazy. Things seemed to go
missing a lot lately. A shoe or a belt would disappear, and almost
every single time, he found it under the bed covered in dust. One
time, he had been looking for a sock, and he found the dog’s leash
under the bed, covered completely in dust.
“Come on...let’s take Eddie for
his walk.”
Tony reached down and grabbed
Julian’s hand, hauling him onto his feet.
“Doggy walkies time” Tony sang
tunelessly, and Julian just rolled his eyes again. Maybe he wasn’t
the craziest person in the room after all.
* *
*
Annabelle waited until she heard
the front door close with a click before daring to make a sound.
“That was close,” she said to her
sister next to her.
“Yes. Too close,” Emma agreed.
“I thought he was gonna get mad
again.”
“I remember the last time he got
mad, he had that noisy machine that sucked up the whole of the
Springfield family and all of the Rowe kids.” Emma said, shaking
herself for added emphasis. “That was soooo scary.”
“And I hope that dog doesn’t come
in again, either.” Annabelle looked horror-struck as she remembered
the day that Eddie found her under the bed. “It isn’t fun being
sniffed up into a dog’s wet nose and sneezed out again!”
The other dust bunnies, who had
been sitting in the middle of the room after being unceremoniously
brushed from Julian’s shoe, hopped over to join their sisters.
“Are you okay, boys?” Carol,
their mother, asked her sons. She was still worried for her children
after seeing them being carelessly tossed around the room.
“Yay!!! That was fun!”
Annabelle’s little brother Joey cheered. “I hope we can do that
again soon.”
Carol shook her head and tried to
hide a smile. Nothing seemed to scare her boys.
She knew that her children loved
to play with the climbing things they found, and short of locking
them up, there was no stopping them. Her kids would explore the
house and drag home anything they thought was interesting and climb
all over it. It was their biggest joy in life, and who was she to
stop them?
“Mum, can we go exploring?” Joey
asked.
“Please, Mum, can we?” Emma
pleaded.
“Yes. But try to be careful,”
their mother sighed. “And if you hear any noises, come home
straight away!” she warned.
“Yes mother!” the young dust
bunnies chimed, before leaving in search of something else to drag
to their home under the bed.
It wasn’t long before they found a
shiny spoon to play with. Their mother agreed that it would be fun
to play slippery slides on the spoon, and she helped them drag it to
the centre-most part under the bed. And it was a good thing. The
front door had opened once again.
“Quick!” Carol called to her
children. “Hide!” And then in a whisper added, “and be quiet.”
The little dust bunnies obeyed
their mother and hid under the spoon that they
had only just brought in.
* *
*
There was some clatter and
laughter as Julian, Tony and Eddie arrived home. Julian headed
straight for the kitchen to fill the kettle and turn it on, while
Tony hung, Eddie’s leash on the hook on the back of the door before
dropping into the nearest chair.
“Hey Tony,” Julian asked, “would
you like a cup of coffee?”
“That would be lovely,” Tony
replied. “Just let me help you get the mugs from the lounge room
first.”
He climbed out of the chair and
headed for the coffee table. Earlier that morning, they had had
coffee and watched television and chattered about nothing in
particular before deciding to take Eddie out for some exercise.
“Thanks” Julian called from the
kitchen.
“Hey Julian,” Tony questioned,
“did you already collect the coffee mugs from earlier?”
“No.” Julian walked into the
lounge room to see what Tony was asking about.
“I thought you might have already
cleaned up and forgotten to collect the mugs when you collected one
of the spoons,” Tony teased. “I’m sure there were two spoons this
morning, and now one of them is missing.”
“Maybe it walked under the bed,
all by itself.” The laughter in Julian’s voice was obvious. “Along
with my blue sneaker.”
“Or maybe....” Tony paused long
enough for effect before continuing dramatically, “the dust bunnies
under your bed came and got it!”
“Dust bunny thieves!” Julian
raised his hand in triumph. And then he burst into laughter as he
turned to the kitchen.
* *
*
Good thing for Carol and her
family that neither man heard her gasp. However, Eddie, with his
sensitive ears, heard the sound and trotted down the hallway,
towards the bedroom. As usual, the dog was ignored as the men
continued with their friendly banter.
Eddie poked his head under the bed but couldn’t reach
the dust bunny children. They were safe once more and began to play
on their new slippery slide, totally ignoring the worried looks from
their mother.
I hope you enjoyed this story.
Feel free to leave a comment in my forum.
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