In the Meadow

I’m cozy on the couch with my stuffies after quiet time, but my movie ends and I have to be done. Mom said no more TV before dinner, turn it off, please.

“Mom, what if you came to check on me after bed and Elsa was in my room?”

“That would be pretty surprising, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah but what if? What if it was real?”

“Well honey, Elsa is pretend from a movie. So she wouldn’t be in your room at night.”

“She was though. I swear. She was in my room last night.”

“Ok hon.”

Dad will be home soon. I wish he was home now. Sometimes Mom will cook and play and cook and play but usually she just cooks.

“Mom, can I take Nico out in the backyard?”

“Sure, just stay away from the pool. Stay where I can see you.”

I run into the backyard fast with Nico running fuzzy right by me. Nico is okay as a friend. Sometimes he jumps at me too much and tries to bite. Then I have to smack him, but I can’t let Mom see. She says I need to be gentle and kind. 

I check on my bug house - anyone living in it yet? I walk over the top of my green turtle sandbox even though Mom and Dad don’t like it when I stand up there. I like balancing.

Nico is barking and barking at something in the way back, the meadow. We call it the meadow, but it’s really our yard. I am supposed to stay where she can see me, but we don’t let him bark forever like that because it’s rude.

I open the gate around the pool and run to where he is. The people who lived here before us had dogs too, a lot of them, I guess, because there is a dog graveyard in the way, way back. There’s a little stone bench back there but a lot of mosquitos too. Mom lets me go for a bit but then she says come on you’re going to get eaten alive. I don’t want to be eaten alive.

I get closer to where he is standing, the sunlight can’t get through the big trees hanging over the yard. It’s dark. Something is back there. In where the graves are. Nico won’t go in. He stands and barks and barks. 

I step a little closer. It looks like a car or a plane. Something shiny, big and metal. It’s hissing. I take another little step. I use the blackberry bushes to hide my face. HISSSSSSSSSS, POP! Something opens, a door or a window. A big, white, skinny hand with round fingertips reaches out to grab the side.

I’m running. Running fast back through the gate into the house. Nico came too. He loves chase.

I shut the door hard. “Mom!”

Dad is home, I hear his voice. It’s okay. Dad is home. 

“Mom! Dad!”

“Honey hold your thought please. Daddy just got home and he’s telling me about his day.”

I run into the kitchen right to Dad and hug his leg. He is like a mountain. I wrap my arms tight around his leg and put the side of my face against his pocket. He puts his hand on my head and my back.

“I did a deal. Ben was out. Thanks for lunch, hon, it was good. Okay sweetheart thank you for being patient. How was your day?”

He’s down now, looking at me in my face. His eyes are blue like mine and we play smooth and rough on his cheek sometimes if he doesn’t shave.

“There’s something in the meadow.”

“Oh really? A deer?”

“No no no, not a deer. A car.”

They laugh. 

“There’s a car in the meadow? Wonder how that got there?”

“It’s really there, it really is, I promise.”

Dad looks out the big window in the dining room through the straggly yellow flowers to see if he can see.

“I believe you honey. Did you have a good day?”

“It’s in the way back. In the dog graveyard.”

Mom gives a look. “I can’t believe we have a dog graveyard and she knows about it. Here, Sadie, will you please help me set the table? Be a helper?”

“We have to go out there. Nico was barking. And something started to come out of the car.”

“Honey, it’s almost dinner. Help me set the table and we’ll eat and then we’ll go out there. We can see if there are any blackberries to pick.”

Dad goes upstairs to get changed. I stomp my foot and scream through my teeth. Why don’t they ever listen to me? 

“Do you need to take a break on the steps, Sadie?”

“No! There’s something out there! I’m really SERIOUS!”

“Okay, we believe you. We’ll go out right after dinner to see what you have to show us.” Mom goes back to banging around in the kitchen with plates and ice cubes and cups.

There’s a tapping knock at the back door. Nico starts barking like crazy again. I freeze and don’t breathe. It’s the thing from the car. It’s going to get into our house.

I peek around. I see the thing through the glass door. Tall and too skinny. Its skin is too white. It looks hungry, right into my eyes with big black circle eyes I’ve never seen before. I scream. 

Mom rushes over to see what I’m screaming at. She lets out a moan like she wants to cry. She pulls me behind her. 

“Oh my God,” she says. We don’t say God. We say gosh. She says it again. 

“Mike! Mike, come down here please. Now.”

“I’ll be right there hon I’m just gonna jump in the shower real quick before dinner.”

The things' slim fingers grasp at the door handle. It isn’t locked.

“MIKE!”

We hear the door to the bathroom shut upstairs.

I look up at Mom. “See? I told you I was serious.”