Alone on the Lawn

Grandma announced that in the coming day, she would be allowing the families in the temporary tents outside, to move back into their apartments in the Castle. After what Legolas had told everyone about the improvements, there was a great deal of excitement and when this announcement spread through the camp, there was a regular carnival feeling. Mothers and fathers started boxing up their things, folding clothes, wrapping dishes and glasses in cloth, children bundling their things into little piles. Everyone was looking for boxes and containers. Grandma had the Genie Home Depot workers pass out tons of boxes for everyone and soon the atmosphere was completely focused on packing and moving. The creatures rushed through the cafeteria line at lunch with their take out boxes and hardly anyone stayed to eat at the tables. They left in clumps munching on their food as they rushed out and back to their packing; everyone, except Isaac and leafy Nospompos. You see, in remodeling the castle Grandma had to completely knocked out some walls and in the process, Isaac and Leify’s room was completely dissolved into the other apartments which, as you can imagine, were much bigger than before. But the Nospompos room was no more.

“Not to Worry!” Grandma had said. We’ll find you a great place to stay.

The Nosompos boys weren’t too sure about that and when Grandma told them they would have to stay in a temporary room until she figure out where they would be permanently, well…it kind of burst their bubble.

All the other children were talking about what color they were going to paint their rooms, and where their furniture would go and how they would set up their toys and stuff, Isaac and Leify sat quietly by their tent, not even wanting to pack.

The next day there seemed to be many more Genie Home Depot workers than ever before. At the crack of dawn the mothers and fathers were up through the cafeteria line for breakfast and already scurrying around the camp pulling their tents down, putting their tooth brushes and other last minute items in their bags and lining up near the table that Grandma had set up near the back door to the castle. She had made copies of maps of the castle and outlined exactly where everyone would go. She assigned the Genie workers to a particular family and made them wear that color shirt. The room and the path to the room of each family as also colored. I’m sure that a clever reader would be able to guess what some of the colors are. Now let’s see, purple monster and his family had a __________ path on the map to a room that was colored_________ on the map. And all the Genie workers that were to help Purple monster and his family had _______colored shirts on. Now try and guess what color scheme Pink Fuzzy monster had. Here’s a tricky one—Patrick and his family had a _____ colored path to a ______colored room and were helped by Genie helpers in _____shirts. You are guessing right but I’m sure there are some you won’t be able to guess. You probably guessed that the Black Leather family had a black path with Genie workers in black shirts (they got really hot during the day by the way). You may not have guessed, however, that the Horned Creature family used the color brown and the fairies used turquoise.

The fish didn’t really need a path but they did need some sort of direction in the moat to their particular dwelling so Grandma had one Genie worker (a fish worker) direct traffic down there. The wizard did most of the work for the moat anyway. It was a huge task of magic but he did it. He began by swirling the water in the huge pool. It started spinning faster and faster and just as it looked like it would spill right out, it did! It didn’t spill out and down though, it spun out and up, up, up and over the castle, around the castle once and then twice and then again lower and lower and closer to moat each time. Slower and slower it spun until it gently sloshed into the colorful clean bright cheerful moat. The sun reflecting off the many colorful rocks in the moat was nearly blinding at first and all the children watching the magical feat cheered and laughed and jumped up and down.
“Can we go swimming with Pigaletto?” Lavendar asked her father
“no, no, no honey,” he answered. Pigaletto has a lot of unpacking and organizing to do and so do we.

One by one the tents and stuff disappeared off the lawn and into the castle. Mothers and fathers were busy instructing the Genie workers where to put this couch or that lamp, this bed or that desk. By 17:00 the lawn looked pretty deserted. The huge swimming pool was even disassembled and stored in the castle garage. The Genie workers began mowing the huge lawn and cleaning up all the debris from the 3 month-long camp out.

There was still one tent out there though. It was just a little one for two boys. Two orphaned boys; two orphaned and now homeless boys!

Soon it became dark and Isaac and Leify could see the bright lights of the castle. Families were still organizing drawers exploring their new appliances and getting ready for bed. Maybe some of the kids had even gone down to get in the hot tub. Isaac and Leify Nospompos acted like they didn’t care. They crawled in their sleeping bags and watched as one by one the lights of castle turned off. Not until nearly 00:01 did the last light in the last little fairy apartment turn off. They knew it was Bonny Fairy up late talking with her parents. She loved to talk with her mom and dad.

Soon it was very quiet outside. Isaac and Leify were just fine (for a while). They were soon very drowsy and began to drift off when they both stiffened in their sleeping bags. A low howling had come from the woods. There they were, in the middle of the lawn, and the woods were just on the edge of the lawn. Isaac gulped and said “Leif, did you hear that?”

“Why did Grandma forget about us, how come everyone left us here all by ourselves?” Leify started whining and a little tear of fear fell out of his eye.

“I have an idea” said Isaac.

Soon the two boys were scurrying around their tent throwing all their stuff into bags and back packs. They loaded up all their gear on their backs and in their hands, took one last look at the tent to make sure they had it all and with their flashlights in their mouths they peeked out of the tent.

The house-that-could-be-anything was about 50 yards from their tent. It would be a long scary dash but if they could just make it there, they would be safe for the night. Isaac nodded to Leify and they cautiously stepped out of the tent looked around and began scampering toward the house-that-could-be-anything. They were kind of awkward with all their stuff and certainly slower than normal. The moon was bright and although Isaac had told Leify not to look back, he did. There was the wolf--right on the edge of the woods with his hungry eyes on the two scaly boys. Leify gave a yelp that was muffled by the flashlight in his mouth and he sped past Isaac who was already very tired and slowing down. Isaac sensed something was wrong and began running faster with Leify. The wolf started in a dead run straight across the lawn at the two boys. Isaac was nearly to the house when he could hear the pounding of the wolf’s paws on the ground. The boys nearly fell into the house and all their gear spilled all over the place. Isaac jumped back up and slammed the door shut barely in time to hear the wolf splat against it.

The two boys were breathing hard and lay very still for a while until they heard the wolf finally limp away. Isaac didn’t waste anytime. “House, be our old bedroom” Isaac commanded. With a swirl of magic, and house was all of a sudden their old bedroom in the castle. All the stuff on the floor floated to the places it had been stored in their old castle bedroom and their beds were suddenly soft and inviting. They both washed their hands and feet and faces and climbed into their soft comfortable beds and were soon asleep.