As if in answer to some dreadful, heathen summons, an insidious scraping noise began in the corner of the room. A familiar, blue and yellow object, like a plastic demon, was making its way across the hospital floor with gruesome resolve. George went sick as he noticed that there were little speckles of gore on its tip. With movements something like a zombie and something like a sucker-fish, it conveyed itself up the bedpost, across the sheets, and into George's hand.
"Yes George - it will keep on following you. It always returns to its owner. Sometimes, you get more than you bargained for. Take me, for instance - anybody would take me for a coy, docile lady nurse, when in reality, I am neither a lady nor a nurse, and though marvelous, certainly not coy or docile!"
Nurse Velma, who apparently turned out not to be Nurse Velma at all, rose the chair and pulled off his wig to reveal a head that was nearly bald, with erratic tufts of white hair sprouting the top like a scraggy, un-mowed lawn.
"Who are you?" asked George.
"My name is not important." said the strange man. "The only thing you need to know is that I am--” he made a grand flourish” -- absolutely Marvelous. And I have made a marvelous (albeit deadly) invention, which you now hold in your hands. Know this, young George: the police may catch you, and lock in an icebox with bats and keep you on broccoli and water for the next 10 years. Yes, they may force you to volunteer in their sadistic police-dog training practices, and call it "community service". They will, admittedly, be likely to hang you by your thumbs and leave your feet exposed to the legendary, flesh-eating prison rats. But George - the Boomerang will kill you."
"I just won't use it anymore!" said George, "I'll - I'll take it home and put it in my sock drawer, in the very back corner! I'll lock it up where it can't hurt anyone!"
"George, George, George, George, George. Don't you see, you dear little imbecile, that that really won't do? Already, the Amazing Boomerang is securing its hold on you - a bond that began from the moment you pulled it out of the box, when it was so brand-new and eager to channel your rage, your thirst for vengeance. You see, it feeds on you, George - feeds on every memory that knocks around in that round, unshapely head of yours, of the injustices you have known. Your stolen lunch-money - your long, sad history of swirlies - every taunt, every insult, every day that you've been called 'bug-eyes', 'weenie-wimp', or 'soy-boy'. Haven't you felt the madness take you, George? It's only the beginning. But the Amazing Boomerang knows the Golden Rule: 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth ... ' "
"That's not the Golden Rule!"
"Never mind that now! The point of it is: Revenge, that sweetest of forbidden fruits, is not without a cost."
"But what can I do?" asked poor George.
So, we've been reading, and the kids are riveted. They can't wait for the next installment. The first time they heard it, I didn't tell them who wrote it. Haley guessed it was you though because it, "sounded like Aunt Rachel", and the small detail that she said you told her you were going to do a storytime. Ha!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you guys like it! I had funsies writing it.
ReplyDeleteYes, it's written like a perfessional.
ReplyDelete