“Wow, it’s not looking good, brother. Close your eyes and go toward the light.”
I fell back against the car. The light. I did see a bright light. Oh, no. Was I dying? I am way too young to die! Had the mosquito injected me with a poison that left me with only minutes to live? My chest heaved up and down in panic. I couldn’t die yet. I had only gotten to level ten in Minecraft.
“Mickey, stop messing with your brother,” my mother said.
I was about to walk toward the light when I saw my sister giggle.
“Wait, so I’m not dying?”
“No, son,” my dad said, shaking his head at Mickey. “Come on, I’ll put a little Neosporin on that bite and you’ll be fine.”
I stood up, and glared at my twin. “You make me sicker than a dog with rabies!” I said.
“I told you two, that’s not nice and I don’t like you talking like that,” my mom said.
“But she –”
“But nothing,” my mother snapped.
“Ugh,” I said, stomping away. I reached in the back seat and grabbed my iPad. I was just gonna go find me a tree to go sit under and play my games.
Aunt Nola reappeared with a big green spray can. “Come here, Chile. Let me spray you down before that mosquito go tell his friends how good that city blood is.”
“Ugh!” I said, squirming as she sprayed the insect repellent on me.
When she was done, Aunt Nola motioned for Mickey. “You, too. Come on so I can spray you down.”
My sister didn’t move. “Umm, I have on a new dress so no thanks,” she said.
Aunt Nola didn’t bother trying to reason with her, instead she sprayed her so fast, Mickey didn’t see it coming. Her eyes filled with tears. That’s what she gets.
“Miss Nola,” I said.
“Aunt Nola, baby. I’m your mama’s sister, so that makes me your aunt.”
“Aunt Nola,” I corrected. “What’s your Wi-Fi password? I want to get on my iPad.”
There went that laugh again. “Oh, dear boy, hush up. I’ve been living out here since I was yo size and the last thing we got out here is Wi-Fi. You can’t even get a signal out here. Ain’t no service around. The nearest cell tower is about 20 miles away.”
It was my turn to stand frozen. Did this lady just say no service? No Wi-Fi? Oh, heck no. Then, that meant no Max because no way was I about to spend a Wi-Fi free summer.
Chapter 3
Mickey
I know I had to be hearing things. I know this lady that called herself my aunt did not just tell my brother that they didn’t have Wi-Fi here.
Who lived without Wi-Fi in 2015???? Have they been living under a rock?
Twin powers activate because me and Max were definitely on the same page. I could tell by the look on his face he was thinking the same thing as me – no way were we staying in this ancient town.
But before we could tell our parents that, a herd – and that’s exactly what they looked like, that herd of cows we’d studied in science last year – of kids came racing toward us from up the street. In all, it looked like it was about 15 children of all ages.
“They’re here! They’re here!” a little boy in the front of the crowd yelled. They all came to a stop about 20 feet away from us.
“Calm down, Miles,” said a girl who looked no older than me.
“Max and Mickey this is Big Junior, Little Junior, Junior, Junky, June Bug, Johnny, Jasmine, Laqueesha, Millie Sue, Stinker, Red, and Mouse,” Aunt Nola said, like we would remember all of that. “These here are yo cousins.”
The smallest of the kids, the one they called Miles, stepped toward me. He had curly hair, he looked too short to fit in a photo, and as skinny as a tooth pick.
“What’s that?” he said, reaching for my iPad. I immediately pulled it out of his reach.
“It’s my iPad!” I snapped. “And don’t touch it!”
“Mickey!” my mom said.
Another girl, who looked to be about twelve stepped toward me. She was round like the pillow on my bed, with two ponytails braided and hanging on her shoulders. “Don’t be mean to my brother or I’ll punch you in the eye.”
Did this girl just threaten me? I looked to Max, he was my twin, surely he would come to my side but that dweeb ducked behind my dad like he was scared of her.
“Laqueesha, step back, girl. You ain’t gon’ punch nobody.” Aunt Nola shook her head. “Ever since that girl turned nine last month, she’s been out of control,” she told my mom.
My mouth dropped open. No way was this girl nine. Maybe nineteen!
The Amazon growled at me and I moved on the side of Max.
“I wanna see that,” the little boy said, going for my iPad again.
I looked to my mom for help. “Be nice, Mickey,” she said. “This is family. You have to learn to share.”
My mouth dropped open. I shared! With Max. That was enough. Before I could protest, that little troll grabbed my iPad and the next thing I knew, it fell face down on the ground. . .and onto a rock. I screamed and dropped to my knees when I saw the large crack across the front.
“Oopsie!” the little boy said.
I swear, I’ve never had a real fight before but at that moment, I wanted to tackle that little kid to the ground! As the tears filled my eyes, my mom raced to my side and kneeled next to me as I scooped up my iPad. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll get this fixed.”
“Not ’round here, you won’t,” Aunt Nola said. “Nearest place that fix computers is an hour away. But don’t worry, you won’t need that contraption anyway. ’Round here we play outside.”
I looked at my mom, begging with my eyes. I didn’t do outside.
“It’s gonna be okay, Sweetie,” my mom said.
Before I could tell her the only way it would be okay was if we got back in the car and headed back to Texas, the screen door swung open and my grandmother came out. She’d come to visit us a lot before she got sick, and I always loved her vibrant spirit. But today, she looked worn out and tired. She was walking with a cane, her gray hair was pulled back in a bun. She smiled when she saw us.
“My family is here,” she said with a huge grin.
We all exchanged hugs and within minutes, Grandma said she had to go back in and lie down because she was tired. My cousin – one of the Juniors – quickly went to her side.
“Come on, Gram. I’ll help you back in bed,” he said, taking her arm and leading her back inside.
“Mama, can our cousins help us slop the hogs?” one of the other kids asked once they were gone.
Max finally spoke up. “Ummm, why do y’all slap hogs.”
All of the kids started giggling. Laqueesha said, “Boy, ain’t nobody said nothin’ about slapping a hog. She said slop. Slopping the hogs means we go feed them.”
I wasn’t about to slip, slap, or slop a pig. In fact, I was about to get back in the backseat of my parent’s car and refuse to get out until we pulled back into our driveway. But before I could move, Laqueesha grabbed my hand and all but dragged me away.
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” she said.
As another cousin grabbed Max, I could tell, this was about to be the longest month of my life.
Chapter 4
Max
My parents were really about to do it – they were about to leave us in this time warped country town!
For the past two days, both me and Mickey had been crying, begging and pleading with them to let us go back home with them. At first, I thought we’d gotten through to them. But now, as they prepared to pull out – without us – I knew we were doomed.
I mean, the whole slopping hogs thing had ended up being fun. Well, at least for me. Mickey all but refused to “get in mud.” But I still couldn’t get used to the idea of a whole summer without Wifi and my laptop and my cell phone and Netflix. (I found out my cousins didn’t even know what Netflix was.)
Mickey and I stood at the window of the car. “Mom, please?” Mickey said.
“Please?” I r
epeated. “It’s so hot here, insects are all over me and this is the worst thing ever!”
“Plus, Gram is sick. And it’s like five-hundred people living in this little house. They don’t need two more,” I added.
“Your grandmother has been staying up the road at Uncle Buddy’s,” Mama said, referring to her brother, who we’d met yesterday. The first thing he’d done when he saw us was pick me up and dangle me from my feet like it was funny. Now I understood why we never visited here. These people were crazy.
“But we got a chance to see Grandma, now we can go,” Mickey said.
“You guys need to bond with your cousins,” my mom said.
“I don’t want to bond with them!” I protested.
“Max, we talked about this. You’re never going to get what you want if you act that way,” my dad said from the driver’s seat. “Think about this as a new adventure. Your cousins seem like fun.”
“Dad, their idea of fun is hide and seek!” I said. I couldn’t believe they’d played that, some other game called Freeze Tag, and Simon Says, all day yesterday. What are we, first graders???
“We’ll be back in exactly one month,” my mom said. “We just want to expose you to a different way of life.”
“You just want to torture us,” Mickey mumbled.
“Watch your mouth, little girl,” my mom said.
I let out a long sigh.
“You two will be fine,” she added. “Goodbye, we love you.”
Then they pulled off, leaving us standing there looking stuck on stupid in a cloud of dust.
Chapter 5
Mickey
So much for our refusal to stay in this country town. We were here and my parents were long gone without us. Both Max and I had cried like crazy, but my parents weren’t trying to hear it. They’d left us here to rot.
The first week passed by like wind. We ate so much corn and chicken with biscuits, I don’t ever want to even look at it again. And when I saw Uncle Buddy chop off a live chicken’s head with an ax, I was done. And when that headless chicken got up and ran around the backyard until it fell over and died, I became an instant vegetarian. Max thought it was funny, but it was disgusting to me.
When I wasn’t watching them abuse animals, I spent all my time trying to get my personal hotspot to work.
“Girl, what are you doing?” Aunt Nola asked when she saw me walking around outside with my hands outstretched, my cell phone in my hand. “The kids said you out here roaming around like a zombie.”
“I’m trying to get my personal hotspot to work,” I said.
“That sounds nasty,” she said.
“No, Auntie Nola. It’s the way I can connect to the Internet.” I haven’t seen my Clash of Clans town since we left, for all I know everyone in the town is dead. As a matter of fact I think we should be suing AT&T for false advertisement about the personal hotspot, it says “works anywhere anytime, just like a charm.” Anywhere should include here.”
“I told you, you don’t need to worry about that Internet out here.”
I sighed as I realized it was useless.
“Come on inside,” Aunt Nola said. “We’re about to watch a movie.”
Finally, something I could get with. “Cool.”
I walked in and Max was sitting on the floor playing some kind of stupid knuckle game with Big Junior. All the other kids were strewn about the living room. It looked like a gigantic slumber party. I still couldn’t believe all of these people lived in this little house. There were only three bedrooms. Aunt Nola was in one, all the girls were in one and the boys were in another. Big Junior and Junie stayed up the street in a trailer with Uncle Buddy and Grandma. Max and I had been sleeping on a blowup mattress on the floor. I so missed my bed.
“What movies do you have?” I said as they pulled out a large book that looked like a gigantic photo album.
“Everything,” Miles said, jumping on the couch.
“Can I pick the movie?” I asked.
“Knock yourself out,” Mellie Sue said, handing me the book.
I didn’t understand why they had all their movies in a photo album but I just opened it and started looking for something to watch. All of the CDs had the names of the movies handwritten on the front.
Max stopped his knuckle game and walked over and looked in the book with me. “Oooh, let’s do Avengers. I saw part one and can’t wait for part two that’s coming out this summer.”
“That is part two,” one of the Juniors said. (I couldn’t remember who was who.)
“No, that doesn’t come out until July,” I said.
“It doesn’t come out for y’all until July. We got it now.”
He slid the disc out and popped it in the DVD player. It was then that I noticed he had lots of movies that weren’t even out or had just come out!
“We’re going to jail,” I mumbled, sitting the book down next to me. “We’re all going to jail for bootlegging movies.”
For some reason, my cousins found that hilariously funny. As they stretched out across the floor in the small living room, everyone turned their attention to the movie. How they could even concentrate, I had no idea. The picture was shaky, like someone was filming it. Then, halfway through the movie someone got up and walked across the screen. It was the craziest thing I’d ever seen, just as crazy as seeing the room full of my cousins, stretched out, some laying on each other, the others snuggled up under a blanket. They didn’t seem bothered about how crowded it was, or how hot it was, or even the fact that they were watching this janky movie.
Max was watching them, too. I don’t know what he was thinking but he suddenly scooted closer to me.
“Ugh, would you scoot over? You’re in my personal space,” I snapped, pushing him away.
I don’t know what was getting into my brother, but he knew, even though we were twins, he did his thing and I did mine. And that’s the way we needed to keep it.
Chapter 6
Mickey
My brother had officially lost his mind. That’s all I could think as I watched him dig in the dirt.
“Got one!” my cousin, Justin yelled, holding up the nastiest, squiggliest worm I’d ever seen.
“Me, too,” Max yelled excitedly. He came racing over to me and held that dirty thing in my face. “Look, Mickey, I got a worm.”
“If you don’t get that thing away from me!” I yelled, stepping back.
“You know you don’t get to fish if you don’t catch any worms,” Miles said.
“That’s the point,” I replied.
“You’re gonna be sorry,” Miles said.
The only thing I was sorry about was that this “vacation” wasn’t over. I had yet to get to the fun part. But my brother, on the other hand, had fit right in with this basketball team and was acting like he was one of them. Yesterday, he went ‘cow tipping’ with the older boys. And no, cow tipping wasn’t where they left some money for good service for the cow. They really did tip the cows over. They snuck up on the cow while it was sleeping, and pushed it over. The cow then, apparently, couldn’t get up and his legs just started flailing. It was the most horrible thing I had ever seen and if I had had my cell phone, I would’ve called PETA and turned everyone in. But Max had fallen out laughing like it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. Weirdo.
My brother had also gotten all clingy. At home, Max didn’t bother me and I didn’t bother him and that was cool. We didn’t like the same kinds of games so he played his video and computer games and I played mine. But in the two weeks we’d been here in Arkansas, he all of a sudden wanted to be up under me.
“Y’all children ready?” Uncle Buddy appeared on the porch in dirty overalls and a belly as big as Santa. He was chewing on what looked like a piece of hay. “I don’t usually like going fishing this late.”
Late? It wasn’t even nine o’clock in the morning. Oh, did I mention no one around this place slept past seven o’clock. As soon as the sun came up, that stupid rooster in the back yard sta
rted crowing or howling or whatever it is that roosters do, waking everybody up in the place. Then, all the kids had to do chores before they could even watch TV! And don’t get me started on TV. They only had six channels! That was lower than basic cable. Aunt Nola said they didn’t need cable, which I guess was why they had all those movies.
“I don’t understand why I have to go fishing?” I said. I didn’t even play the Go Fish card game, I for real didn’t want to go and try and catch some real fish. But around here, there didn’t seem to be any debate about anything. When an adult said you had to do something, you did it. At least at home, I could reason with my parents and try to get them to see my side. I was about to do that one day last week and Mellie Sue stopped me and showed me the gash on Big Junior’s head.
“You see that?” she said. “That’s the last time anyone tried to debate mama.”
So my cousins abused animals and my aunt abused her kids? What kind of place had my parents sent me to?
I was actually looking at that gash on Big Junior’s head right now as he walked out on the porch. He saw me looking and laughed.
“I heard Mellie Sue tell you about this last week,” he said. “Mama didn’t do this. I busted my head running through the house.”
I rolled my eyes at Mellie Sue and she just giggled like something was funny. Even still, I’d seen enough to know that Aunt Nola might not have done that to Big Junior, but she definitely wouldn’t hesitate to do it.
“Little Junior, grab my cooler,” Uncle Buddy said sitting down and trying to remove his ankle bracelet. It took some squiggling but he got it off and tossed it on the seat. I don’t know why he wore that thing anyway, it wasn’t even a cute bracelet. “And give me a beer out of there while you’re at it.”
Little Junior opened the cooler. He pulled out a can that just said ‘beer.’ I heard a beeping noise and looked down at my uncle’s ankle.
“Uh, Uncle Buddy, your bracelet is beeping.”
“Dagnabit,” he said, putting the beer down and trying to put the bracelet back on his leg real fast.
The Perfect Summer Page 5
