Families and Floods

BANG! CLASH!  Brennon and I raced through the night, following the culprit through wreckages and alleys. We didn’t even care if we were making a huge racket at 3 in the morning, because we were right on the trail of the robber. 

2 Days Earlier

Bump, bump.  We were in my mom’s car, driving to my Auntie’s house. It was a foggy June day, with clouds blanketing the sun so it would make the world look miserable. The sky was a deep gray, looking like it might rain soon. My family lived near the coast, so it rained A LOT. We were driving to my Auntie’s house to celebrate her dog’s 1st birthday. Her dog was SO CUTE. She was a fluffy golden corgi, and her name was Cat. I don’t know why Auntie named her the animal he is not, but that’s fine with me. Auntie lived more inland, so we had to drive 2 hours west to get to her house. I thought it had been a bit much to drive 2 hours for a dog’s birthday party, but Auntie makes sure everyone will come to Cat’s birthday, or else. After staring out the misty window and sketching out outfits for Cat, we finally arrived. Me, Mom, Dad, and Brennon stepped out of the car, and were greeted by a bear hug. My Auntie let go. Today( more like night) she was wearing a bright red shirt with blue stripes that clashed terribly with her pale olive skin. I looked down to her almost neon white jeans, where Cat was sitting. She had grown the last time that I had seen her, but she was still adorable. Her shiny golden fur radiated with cuteness when I looked at her. That’s how cute she is. Auntie led everyone inside her mansion, and I gaped in awe in what I saw. The entrance hall(yes, she has an entrance hall) was smothered in glowing chandeliers, radiating light the same colour as Cats fur. I looked below, and a huge, round table made of glass filled up the space under the glowing lights. I stretched my mouth even further than I thought was humanly possible when I saw the food. On top of the glass table was a feast. Not the feast that your mom takes the whole day to cook for Thanksgiving. Not the big potluck your class has on Christmas Eve big enough to feed the entire school. This feast was, you could say, fit for a king. It was piled high with meat, salads, desserts. Smoked ham, Greek salad with Caesar dressing, cherry jubilees mounted with whipped cream. Me and my brother Brennon turned our heads to Auntie, who had a big smirk caked onto her face. “Mom, how did you cook this?” asked my Dad. Auntie looked at us, as if something was wrong. "Well, I did a lot of multi-tasking.” she answered. From then on, I knew my Auntie was a food god that had dropped from heaven. “But who cares about how the food was made? The important thing is, we get to eat it!” Auntie announced. “Dig in!” Brennon and I lunged toward the mountain of food to see who could eat the most cranberry tarts before throwing up.

Turns out Brennon could eat more cranberry tarts than I could. We were snarfing down tarts, when I couldn’t keep all the cranberry filling in anymore. Brennon was thrilled that he won the contest, but he threw up about 10 seconds after I did. After our hurling fest, me and Brennon played all the video games that Auntie had on her shelf, while the adults chatted. We played to the cacophony of the adults chatter late into the night, where Mom told us it was time for bed. Trudging up to one of the many guest rooms in Auntie’s mansion, I brushed my teeth and once my head touched the pillow, I dozed off into Dreamland.

I woke up dazed, and looked around the room. For a second I had no idea where I was, but then I remembered that I was in Auntie’s big mansion for Cat’s birthday. I grinned. That morning I thought everything would be great. Brennon and I scarfing down huge feasts, playing with Cat, everyone thought everything was fine and dandy. So everyone thought. 

After a day of playing more video games with Brennon, teaching Cat ew tricks, and exploring the world of Auntie’s mansion, it was finally time for Cat’s birthday dinner. The meal today looked a bit more like a normal house’s dinner; some braised chicken, a few salads, and a pile of Oreos to top it all off. Oreos were Cat’s favourite, she could eat them breakfast, lunch, dinner. Cat picked out her favourite Oreo, Auntie stuck a purple candle in the middle, and then we started singing Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday dear Caaaaaaat, Happy birthday to you!  “Ruff ruff!” Cat barked with happiness. She blew out her candle, and then almost inhaled her Oreo right after. We all clapped, and then dived into the feast on the table while Cat snarfed down some more Oreos. 

After a good amount of the food was gone, we sat back onto their chairs from how full we were. We were sitting, when the room began to shake. Everyone’s eyes went wide open, and scrambled out of their seats. Auntie shouted” Get out! I think a flood is coming!” When I heard Auntie say the word flood, I panicked. I raced toward the front door, trying to get out as soon as I could. The chandeliers had started to fall, so we had to dodge those when running all over the place. While in my state of panic, I grabbed Cat and sprinted out the door. I ran what it seemed like a mile from the house, and then stopped, panting like Cat when she played fetch. Thankfully, all my family got out and ran over to me. “Okay, is everyone fine?” asked Auntie. We gave her thumbs up between our heaving fit. Once everyone straightened out, I looked around. We were in a park, filled with semi-green grass. I turned to my left, when I saw a big wave of water heading straight towards us. “EVERYBODY RUN!” I screamed. We all tried to flee, but eventually the wave caught up to us. It towered over us, and then smashed down like a mallet playing Whac-a-Mole. I tasted salty water in my mouth, and then it all went dark.

I slowly opened my eyes, and peered at my surroundings. I was surrounded by water. Water, pieces of buildings, mirrors, chunks of cement that were floating around in the water. I looked around some more, and I saw Brennon floating a few meters from me. “Brennon! I’m over here!” I shouted, while trying to swim over to him. “Get on over here! There’s no water on this side!” he shouted to me. We both trudged out of the water and looked around once more. Brennan said,” We were 2 hours inland, so how did the flood get to Auntie’s mansion?” “I don’t know,” I told him. We started rummaging around the water if we could find anything interesting, when an announcement came through multiple speakers on top of houses. “A big flood has damaged lots of the city’s property, and it will take quite a lot of money and time to put the city back to where it was before. The city’s secret money safe with all the money we were planning to use to fix the city has been robbed. Please donate some money to help restore the city if you are able. We will be putting up posters of the robber that was seen last night. The reward for finding him is $10 000. Come to the city bank to retrieve your prize money. Have a good day.” Brennon and I looked each other in the eye. We were going to find that robber.

 We raced beside each other, looking in all the possible hiding spots that a grown person could fit in. We looked in the Laundromat, between the cupboards, even in the dumpsters. After a day (and partially night) of looking for someone we have never seen, Brennon and I were about to give up, since it was 3 in the morning and we haven’t slept at all. We were so tired but then we heard something. Rustle. Me and Brennon glanced at each other with wide eyes, got up, and went toward the sound. We followed the sound until we saw someone in front of us. 

There was a long black figure, with the shape of a top hat near the top. A big black cloak billowed around its legs, like a soft spring breeze. It was muttering something to itself while dragging something heavy beside it. I squinted at the shape. It was a felt texture, and on the side, there was a flaky green dollar sign. I whispered to Brennon,” That’s the burglar!” He nodded and we kept on creeping up behind the black shape. We followed it until it stopped moving, starting to look through the contents of the bag. Brennan looked at me, and then we both nodded. I held up three fingers. Then two. Then one. 

We pounced onto the figure like a cheetah with its prey. It scrambled around, grunting and muttering, and we did that until we were on top of him, we now knew. “Who are you?” Brennan asked, practically yelling in the robber’s face. He responded in a deep, raspy voice,” I’ll only tell you if you don’t turn me into the police.” “Well, of course we’re going to turn you in, the city needs money to fix all the flood damage” I said. The burglar turned his head to me. “If you don’t, I could give you as much money as you want” “We don’t care about money” Brennan said. The burglar's head switched between Brennon’s and my face, unsure about what to do. I said, ”If you give us the money, we won’t report you.” Brennan looked at me incredulously and said, ”What use would that be? He still robbed the bank.” “But it would save me from several years in prison” the robber murmured loudly. “Exactly,” I said. I looked at Brennon, who sent me an annoyed look. The burglar responded,” You have the money, I don’t go to jail.” We nodded. The burglar handed us the giant bag of money, and he got up. “Won’t you thank us for not reporting you?” Brennan asked. “Of course not,” the robber responded. “Criminals don’t say Thank you” Then he ran off into the city. 

Brennon crossed his arms, an upset look plastered on his face. “Don’t take that personally, Brennon.” I said. Brennon's face didn’t change. “When we get back, we could have another tart-eating contest?” Brennon couldn’t help as a smile appeared on his face. I realized that the mansion was partly destroyed from the flood, but I didn’t want to point that out to him. We walked out to the main road, where no cars rushed about. Brennon and I trudged up to the city bank and went up to the mayor. He said,” Oh my! You two found the lost money! How did you do it?” I looked at Brennon when Brennon looked at his feet. “We heard noise when we were sitting down, so we just followed the noise until we caught the burglar.” Brennon said shyly. When the Mayor heard Brennon say the word burglar, his eyes lit up. “What did the burglar look like?” the Mayor asked with great interest. I said, ”He was wearing black everything; black hat, black cloak, black shades, everything” The Mayor’s face morphed into a concerned look. “That was the Great Ant,” he murmured. “The greatest bank robber of all time.” Brennon started to ask about who this Great Ant person was, but the Mayor said, ”Nothing for you children to worry about,” finishing off with a horrible fake grin. “Go off to your families, please now.” Me and Brennon turned and walked out of the city bank doors. 

Glancing at the road, I said, ”We did it, Brennon. We did it.” “We did.” Brennon repeated. We stared at the ground, not saying anything until we got over to where the rest of our family was waiting. Mom ran up to us, hugging and whispering, ”I thought the bandit had taken you guys. Thank god you’re safe.” Auntie came up to us once Mom released us from her bear hug. “You guys found the money!” she exclaimed. Dad looked down at Auntie’s phone and his eyes widened. “It looks like they did!” Dad said in surprise. Brennan stood a little taller. ”How do you know about that already? We just came back from the city bank!” I said, confused. “The Mayor posted online that no one will have to donate anymore because you guys found the money!” Auntie said, smiling at her phone, but her smile suddenly vanished. “My mansion got ruined in the flood,” she said with a frown. Mom put a hand on her shoulder. ”Well, I guess you’ll have to come and live with us.” While Auntie’s face exploded in worry, me and Brennon grinned widely. “But...my food, my piano, my chandeliers…” Auntie said. “It’s about time you learn how to live in a NORMAL household,” said Mom. Auntie slumped her shoulders, looking defeated. “Oh, alright,” she said reluctantly. Dad tried to cheer her up. ”We can show you around everywhere, and we’ll have a great time!” Dad said cheerfully. Auntie nodded, still disappointed. 

We all piled into our car, and started the two hour drive back home. The scene was the exact same, as if the flood did not change the weather at all. It took a bit longer than two hours to get home, since we had to drive around all the flood damage, but that was fine. 

Once we finally came to a stop, my family and I walked out of the car. Dad went with Auntie to show her around, and Brennon went to help Mom unload the stuff we managed to collect from the flood out of the trunk. I looked at what the flood had done to my town, and thought to myself, We have some cleaning up to do. But at least I’m with my family. I went to help Brennon and Mom. Everything was going to be great. 

(and this time we were right)