The House That Had a Gentle Heart - Part 7

Jekyll and Hyde slithered about in Rusty’s backpack until they fell upon the open box of Hot Tamales - Rusty’s favorite candy.

They dived in with mindless abandon and gobbled quite a few of the red-hot, chewy delights. Then settled back to digest. It didn’t go as expected. Within moments the fiery sensations on their tongues caused the two-headed cobra to frantically squeeze its way through a narrow opening at the zipper’s end.

Once they hit the ground at the foot of the Miller’s coat tree they perked up their heads and sniffed the air in search of water. It didn’t take long for the cobra to find its way down the main hallway and into the Miller’s guest-bathroom, where it doused both heads into the cooling waters of the toilet bowl.

“Well, that movie stunk,” said Rusty.

“What?” said Gentle.

“Finding Nemo 3D. It sucked eggs. Talking fish? Have you ever tried talking under water?”

“No,” said Gentle. “But I can hold my breath for a whole minute.”

“Exactly,” said Rusty. “Because you have to hold your breath or else you’d end up looking like an inflated cow. Try saying more than ‘How do you do’ underwater, and they’ll be scooping you out with a net. But these movie fish just blab, blab, blab away and not so much as a cough. The whole movie smelled like rotten fish.”

“I get it,” said Gentle. “You didn’t like the movie. What do you like?”

“You said we could play hide-and-go-seek,” said Rusty. “How about we play that?”

“Fine,” said Gentle.

“Great,” said Rusty. “I’ll hide and you go seek.”

“Who says you get to hide first?”

“Well, it’s not fair if you get to hide first. It’s your house. You know all the best hiding places. I’m at a disadvantage. I’ve neve been here before.”

“Fine,” said Gentle.

“Okay,” said Rusty. “You close your eyes and count to one hundred real slow while I go and hide.”

“A hundred!” said Gentle. “You could be in China by the time I’m done. What happened to counting to ten?”

“Again, Gentle,” said Rusty. “I have to get familiar with your house. It’s gonna take time.”

“Fine,” said Gentle. “I’ll count to a hundred. But no fair leaving the house. And you better not try to scare me. I don’t like being scared.”

“Deal,” said Rusty. “Let’s start.”

Gentle put her hands over her eyes and started to count. Rusty watched her as she began shouting out the numbers. He wanted to make sure he’d be able to make a clean cut of her ponytail without her knowing it. Then he’d grab his belongings and run home.

Satisfied he’d be able to pull it off, Rusty headed straight for his the backpack, where he had put his mother’s hair-cutting scissors.

“Now where’d I put them?” said Rusty. “They’re in here some place. Jekyll and Hyde? You guys eat the scissors? Jekyll? Hyde?”

Rusty shook the empty box of Hot Tamales and pulled out the empty pouch where he had placed the pet cobra.

“Uh, oh,” said Rusty.

“One hundred!” shouted Gentle. “Ready or not, here I come!”

“I thought I said to count slow!” shouted Rusty.

Geez, thought Rusty. What do I do now?

Out on the back deck, Bent and Soggy Bristle felt an enormous amount of heat on the top of their heads. The sun had broken through the clouds to announce that, yes, it was still ruling the day.

The Bristles removed their night-vision goggles to figure out the source of the sudden heat and found themselves face to face with the Miller’s, who were on the other side of the picture window.

“Uh, oh,” said Bent Bristle. “What do we do now? And don't you dare say the hokey-pokey.”