welcome to cattlesburg: mookie vs. the spider
so it's friday night- im in the kitchen, looking through the pantry for food. popcorn, chips, skittles, and spegatti. hm what a snack. my mom is upstairs getting ready to go to this party on the walk that is held annually for all the people who own shops on the boardwalk. emily is upstairs locked away in her bathroom, getting ready for some "hot date". she has been in there for two and a half hours! poor guy. i guess he is her pick of the week. that girl goes through more boys than ma goes through roses on valentine's day. james is already out. his football chums came by like an hour ago. i heard one, mark, yell "ARRIBA!" as they drove off in his dusty obnoxiously yellow jeep. looks like yet another trip to ol mexico.

i hear a hard yet nervous knock on the front door. oh joy- em's date is here. thump thump thump, here she comes running down the stairs, her hands on her head, to keep her hair from messing up. it would have been quite hilarious if at that moment she tripped down the stairs. of course i would help her up...i would just laugh like a hyena as i did. ma came down the stairs as em came strolling towards us with her date. he had spiky bleached blonde hair and was prep-erly dressed. i felt a bad vibe come in when emily opened the door, maybe i should consult mookie's parents about this. "mother, this is corey," she smiled. grinning a smile that i found to be quite fake. "uh...nice...to uh..meet..ya..ms.roberts...i will have her back....by....10." he nervously said. my mom's eyebrow furrowed and i knew what was coming next... "9:30" my mom firmly said in her "im the mom and the boss of you" voice. corey muttered an "ok" under his breath then they were gone.

"i didnt like that kid" my ma said to me. she let out a sigh and walked into the kitchen. i followed to get all of my junk food together. "so what time is mookie and charley coming over" she asked me as she fidgeted with her hair. i opened the fridge and got out some orange soda, "well mookie should be over any minute and charley should be over in a bit. i feel so bad for the girl, she's babysitting the devils that the layne's call their kids." she picked up her keys off the hook, "ok, have fun. dont get into trouble." as she was heading towards the door mookie knocked and came in through the kitchen door, "hey mrs. roberts, whats up!". she smiled "not much, just heading out." the door slammed and i asked, "yo mook, what did ya bring tonight". "let's see alfred hitchcocks' psycho and birds. what's on the menu tonight" i looked at the counter, "um, popcorn, chips, skittles and spegatti." he started pulling stuff out of his backpack, "yum, i brought twizzlers and 'mother earth chips.' honestly, i need to start doing the grocery shopping at my casa." i nodded 'yes' while i laughed,” let’s go!" we both picked up some food and started heading towards the living room.

mookie did an evil laugh "mwuhahahaha, let the scare fest beg---AH!" he froze while he shrieked. no. wait, wait, wait. he froze while he shrieked...like a girl. i busted out laughing, between hysterically laughing and gasping for air i managed to ask, "mookie, what is the problem?!?!" mookie, still frozen like a sculpture, pointed to a huge, hairy tarantula that was walking across the foyer. at that moment i froze too "well get rid of it mook!", i said. panicky he replied, "WHAT?!? ME?!!? WHY DO I HAVE TO DO IT?!?!" i thought for a minute, "you're a boy! isn't this in your blood or something?!? boys like catching creepy things!" he started getting a little nervous, i could tell by the tone of his voice, "ok, lizards and other things. yeah, i can deal with those. JUST not spiders! i hate spiders! i know my ma says 'we are all living creatures together' but spiders just scare the bejesus outta me!" i chuckled, "hahah mook, ya do a great impression of your mom. how are we gonna get rid of it?" he thought for a moment, "um we can leave it alone and maybe it will just crawl out of the house. that way neither of us will have to touch it!" i gave him a funny look, "yeah mook that's a great idea. what if it doesnt leave and comes back?" mookie quickly replied. “NO! ok we have to think of another plan." so mookie, and i, still standing frozen in the kitchen, thought of what we were going to do as we watched that tarantula.

"I GOT IT!!!!", i yelled. making mookie and the spider jump. i jetted out the kitchen door. ran past the pool. up the spiral stairs that leads to my balcony. i hopped through my room over the numerous piles of clothes and what not. i stopped in front of the bathroom door and caught my breath. i bolted in and threw the closet open. i snatched up two hairdryers and flew down the stairs to the kitchen. "mookie, go out the kitchen door and come to the front door." i yelled to him. he quickly did what i said and i told him the plan.

he left the front door open, we both plugged in our hairdryers . we cranked them on and aimed for the hairy beast. the spider started slowly moving across the floor like a hockey puck on ice. after about 5 minutes the little monster was out the door. we both turned off our hairdryers, i blew the top of mine off like in the old westerns after a shoot out and one dude blows the smoke off the gun he just fired and high fived. mookie let out a sigh of relief. he started singing the theme song to ghostbusters, ".........taratulabusters!" i started unplugging our weapons, the hairdryers while i laughed at mookie's rendition of the song. "i gotta hand it to you, that was a pretty good idea. a leaf blower would have worked faster though. i'm starting to miss little godfrey," he said with a sad sigh on the end. i gave him a quizzical look, "you named the spider?!?!?" he looked down at his old, worn out converse sneakers. "well....yeah. i had to do SOMETHING while you ran upstairs so i just named him godfrey." i laughed, "i'm sorry you miss your little friend. he is on the front steps. i can blow him back in with the hairdryer if you want." his eyes bulged out of their sockets, "NO!" then after a moment he calmly said, "why don't we get the movies started?"

so we put "psycho" in and started chowing down on our buffet of junk food. 25 minutes into the movie i heard a knock on the front door. slowly i got up and shuffled to the front door, "who is it? we dont want any more girl scout cookies!" a familiar voice yelled from outside, "it's charley!" "sooo charley, ya say? password?", i said while gettin on my tip-toes to look through the peek hole. it was quiet for a moment outside. then charley went, "um....i have slurpees." i opened the door laughing and said "hey welcome!" "yo charley!", mookie yelled down the hall, his voice reverberating off the walls.

charley and i made it into the dark living room. charley going, "mookster!" as she patted him on the head while she walked behind him. after shoving a handful of a mixture of popcorn and skittles into my mouth, as we all sat on the couch, our eyes super-glued to the tv, i asked, "how'd babysitting the layne's kids go? she laughed, eyes still glued to the tv screen, "those...those are not ordinary kids. they...are more like...the spawn of satan. one chucked a carton of orange juice at my head!" i envisioned that happening and started to laugh. mookie took a big sip of his slurpee, grabbed his forehead, exclaimed, "yikes! brain freeze!" then asked charley, "what movie did you bring tonight?" charley reached into her duffle bag, "i brought poltergeist and arachnophobia."

5 | glimpsed a bat with butterfly wings