Cardboard Wings

 "Zombies!" I yell, taking off down the hallway and skidding in my socks on the polished hardwood floor. Leaping onto the couch next to my younger brother Marvin, where he bounced hidden under a blanket. I peek out between the slats in the window blinds, watching in horror as grotesque, deteriorating bodies shuffled up to the house. Rotted limbs falling off, and foam dripping from their hungry jaws. Marvin scooted up next to me, the four year old pulling a gun out from beneath his baby blanket. 

 "Don't worry I've got this!" he says, jumping up to grab the string that pulls up the blinds, and revealing us to the hordes of certain death.

 "Marvin!" my mom shouted entering the room and startling my little brother into falling back onto the couch and dropping his water pistol. Turning to me she said, "Kenny! You know what I said about opening windows. You're supposed to be keeping an eye on Marvin. I can't leave you guys for one second?"

 "Sorry mom" I mumble, "we weren't opening the window, just the blinds." sighing she turns back to the kitchen and goes back to cleaning the table.

 "Come on Marvin" I say, grabbing his hand and going to our room instead. As the oldest, at six, Mom says I'm in charge of watching him, I figure that means making the games we should play, so it's back to the drawing board. We had toys out earlier but as expected mom already cleaned them up, our room spotless as always. Taking his water pistol I put it back in its place so mom doesn't get upset. In turn I pull out a puzzle.

 "Wanna do a puzzle Marvin?" he stares at it a bit before responding with a no. He tends to zone out a lot and it's silly. I look around before getting out some foam swords.

 "On guard!" I say loudly before tossing him the other sword, which of course he misses and has to pick up. We run around the room laughing and trying to whack each other's ankles. As expected I hit him a little too hard and he begins tearing up.

 "Marvin, no crying, I don't wanna be in trouble"I say as sternly as I could muster. To this he sniffles and sets his sword down. Unexpectedly he points at the window.

 "I wanna go play outside Kenny" to which I can only say, as the responsible sibling, that we aren't allowed to leave the house. Even though I honestly wanted to go outside as well sometimes.

 "But Kenny" he continues, sniffling angrily and I could tell he's on the verge of a tantrum.

"Marvin I'll see what I can do alright? But no complaining. You're gonna give me headaches, remember?" grabbing his hand again we head down the hallway towards the kitchen. I peek around the door frame and watch as mom mopped the floor. She seemed preoccupied enough so, crawling on hands and knees, we sneak across the floor like ninjas. We go back to the living room and going quietly up to the couch I peek outside the blinds again except this time the zombie hordes are nowhere to be seen. Only a green lawn and driveway that was starting to get wet. The sky is a little darker than earlier as it begins to drizzle.

 "See Marvin? We couldn't go out anyway because it's raining now." hurrying to get away from the window before mom got mad again we go back to the bedroom. 

 "Let's read a story!" I decide, because I could tell Marvin was starting to get a little tired out as usual. Coughing to clear my throat I get up on the bottom bunk of our bed which is Marvin's. Flipping one of our favorite books open I read to him about some silly geese. The geese were silly like Marvin and daydream all the time. They were so distracted they didn't realize winter arrived and had to fly as fast as they could to get somewhere more fun and less cold.

 "I want wings like the geese" I say mostly to myself. Shaking Marvin who was dozing off. I tell him I'm going to ask mom something. Skipping out of the room I look around to find mom sitting in the living room on the phone. Looking up to see me she puts down whatever she was doing, raising a questioning eyebrow.

 "Hey mom could I make some wings? Like a bird's."

 "With what? paper? Cardboard?" she says with a smile. I nod, not knowing what I would need at all.

 "Alright I'll pick up some stuff at the store since I was gonna go get groceries" she replies. Finishing up on her phone she grabs her coat and purse from the hooks by the front door. Glancing at me once more she waves and heads out to the car. Air from outside wafts in as the door shuts and locks. It smells so strange. A very odd scent I've smelled a few times before.

 Later when mom got home we sat down in the living room after mom finished cleaning it. We drew on big pieces of white cardboard. She insisted on cutting them out and gluing them together for me but I didn't mind. They looked just like bird wings. I slipped on the strings that went on my arms and laughing ran around the living room till I got dizzy.

 I was a bird flying through a bright, blue sky. I shot through a cloud and dropped Like a stone. Plummeting to the ground before pulling up, flying in spirals and loops. Absolute freedom. Suddenly a net dropped over me! Oh no! I struggled profusely but my mysterious captors stuck me in a huge shiny, silver birdcage. My friend Robin and Raven saw me, soaring off to go get help from the only person that could save me. My brother eagle! Still dizzy from running around I bound into our bedroom to find Marvin sleeping where I had left him.

  "Marvin! Look I have bird wings now. Like the silly geese." I couldn't wait to show him my wings. He will be so jealous because they're mine I think smugly. He doesn't get up and I shake him again.

 "You can play my bird game with me. You get to be an eagle!" I say excitedly to get him up. Mumbling he looks at me dazed.

 "Kenny I don't feel good. I'm dizzy again." he whines.

 "Again? Fine I'll go get mom" I say stumping out of the room because my game has to be on hold.

 "Mom! Marvin is sick again!" I say, too lazy to want to search for her. I find her cleaning the bathroom and I start getting a headache as I sit waiting for her to finish.

 "What about Marvin?" she asks, capping the bleach bottle and pulling off her gloves. I repeat what I had said about him probably being sick. Going to the room she checks on Marvin. She seems a bit more worried than she did last time he was sick. Picking up her phone she dials a number and starts speaking adult talk and I don't want to try figuring it out. Going out to the living room I sit by the window and peek out to see the rain stopped, though the sun is partially hidden by fluffy clouds.

 I'm startled by a clack behind me and I see she has Marvin on her back as she pulls out her keys heading to the door. She tells me they are going to the clinic to check up on him and she would be right back. As I watch them drive off I can only think Marvin is lucky to get to leave the house. Even if outside air smells funny. I have a headache, I should have been able to go with I thought. I considered putting on cartoons while I waited but suddenly remembered. Did mom lock the front door? Usually everything was locked tight, but if she was distracted with Marvin…

 I creep to the door as if it would bite me, a thrill running through me as I grab the knob… It opens. Stepping outside I'm temporarily jolted when my homemade wing catches on the door frame, forgetting I had them on. The grass was still soaked and my bare feet were a bit shocked by the feeling of wet grass. The air smelled so different, it lacked something, and I couldn't get over how it felt nice to breathe somehow. I ran in a circle on the lawn and felt the wind.

 I was a bird flying through the sky. I flew in swooping circles and rode the wind to distant lands. I flew through storms fearlessly. Pelted by rain and cutting wind. In the distance I heard a roar of thunder.

 Mom's car pulled into the driveway and immediately leaped out of the car, Marvin peeking up over the backseat window in awe at me. She ran over and scooped me up carrying me back to the car to open the door and stuff for Marvin. She carried us back inside in stern silence and as we crossed the threshold the air suddenly became sharp and strange. The house air smelled like it had changed while I was gone. Has it always been like this?

 "How could you go outside Kenny?!" She said, setting us down and slamming the door, "look at your feet! That's germs Kenny! Bacteria." and lecturing about other big adult words I didn't want to figure out. huffing she got out her bottles and gloves. Scrubbing the floor sparkling clean. Then giving us each a long bath time. Later after getting dressed for bed I pulled out my wings.

 "Look what mom made me Marvin! We can play my game now. It's about birds. You can be an eagle" I said, soaking in the look of his amazement as I put my wings on.

 "Ok. What's it about?" he asked.

 "Well right now in the game I'm trapped in a cage you see…"