A series of short stories about the Hanover House’s smallest residents.
A boy of five walks into a closet on the second floor of the Hanover House, and shuts the door. There is fiddling in the dark. The sounds of plastic being turned over, and then the door opens again to admit another one into the closet.
“Hurry, gets in the here, quick!” The second boy goes to close the door, and the first one shakes his head.
“Make up your mind Kevin. Do you wants me to open or close the door?”
“Waits till I finds the on button. I can’t sees anyfing when you shuts the door. It’s dark in here, Sammy.”
Sammy rolls his green eyes and looks back at Kevin, “Well it is a closet. Clothes don’t needs to see.”
Kevin puts down the digital recorder and glares at Sammy, “I knows that, smarty. I just need you to crack the door till I can find the on button to this fing.”
Looking over one more time, he finally finds the power button and nods to Sammy to shut the door. Kevin raises it to his mouth and begins.
“I was three when it happened.-“
“I thought this was spossed to be our missions logs, Kevin.”
“Shhh. Now I has to start over. Dey needs to know how it all starteds.”
There is a rustling of clothing on the carpet. Then a soft click can be heard as he hits the button again and clears his throat.
“I was three when it happened, my first taste of the goodies. A chocolate chip cookie was placed low enough where I coulds reach it.”
“And you say you don’t needs to takes Engwish.” There is a small growl from Kevin.
“I speaks it jus fines. I don’t need to takes it when I turns six. Now, shhh, or I’s neber gets this done.” He clears his throat once more, but forgets to rewind the recorder, “I reached for the cookie and putted it in my mouth. That’s when I knowed I was in troubles, or woulds be for the rest of my lifes. I had to finds ways to get dem when I wanted, and that meaned I hads to aboid Nigel.”
“Don’t you means all the guards, Kevin?”
“Nigel is the worsetest,” he turns back to the recorder, “Nigel is one of the peoples that keeps us safe. He is also this guy with a funny accent-“
Sammy sighs,”Miss Robin says he’s British and that’s a Cockney accent, whateber that is.” They both get still and not say a word as they hear heavy foot falls outside the closet. The feet stop as they reach the closet.
“I know I saw the little blighters come this way. Where could they be?” The door knob makes a rattling sound, and the boys scramble to hide in the rear of the closet. They slide a secret panel in the back open and crawl in just in time to hear the door open. They see a sliver of light go through the crack at the bottom of the panel. It goes from right to left and back again before it disappears and the closet door shuts.
“Dat was close! Kevin?”
“Yeah?”
“Getting the fudgies is not going to be easy.”
“It never is, Sammy.”
“Yeah, but he’s aking like he already knows.”
“What else is new? He always aks like dat. We’ve got to be specially sneaky. Let’s get the crew togever.”
“Right.”
There is a click and the recorder stops.
Later on that day in the same secret room, there are now four boys looking over a crayon rendering of the house plans with a scribbled parts for the ventilation system with a child-sized flashlight. Kevin is pointing to different locations with an oversized pencil.
“Dis is our qwarry.” He points to a picture of a square of fudge, “Mrs. Randall has baked her bestest fudgies, and we have to get it first.” The boy sitting across from Kevin tilts his head to one side and looks a little confused.
“Why?”
“Cause it’s quality controls. We has to make sures the fudge is as good as ebers.” Pointing to the kid across from him, he looks at Sammy, “Who’s he?” He whispered.
“Dat’s Ralphy, he’s new.” Kevin squints one eye and leans across the papers.
“What’s are you good at, Ralphy. Eberybody heres has a fing dey do. What’s yours?”
“I makes stuff.”
“Like what? Ralphy reaches in his backpack and pulls out a walkie-talkie that has been attached to wire head band. He proceeds to place it on his head, points to it.
“Hands fwee.”
“You still has to hit the button to talk.”
“Nu uh. Watch dis.” Ralphy turns it on and speaks. The red light blinks indicating that it is transmitting.
“How many of does you gots?”
“Charlie tolds me to makes four. I gots three more in here.” Pointing to the backpack. Kevin looks at Charlie.
“How’s inbisi, inbisi, I can’t see you potion coming?”
Charlie looks down at the floor and scrunched his lips together, “I had bunny ears for two hours. I have to work on it more.”
“How about the potion that turns off the sound so dey can’t hear us?”
“Remember when I missed school because of a cruddy stomach?”
“Yeah,” Kevin’s eyes get wide, “Oh! Keep dat recipe. I cans gets out of class on test day when I gets older with dat.”
There is an audible slap as Charlie palms his face, :You haven’t’ even started school yet, and you’re already planning skipping?”
“It’s neber too early to starts planning.” Charlie shakes his head.
“We are here.” He points on the map to where the room is, “And the goody is here.” He moves the pointer to the fourth floor of the drawing.
Sammy looks at the picture, “Why are dey on the fourf floor? She usually makes the fudge on the fird.”
“She finks dat Mama Leone is goins to help guard it.” Smiles like a bird-fed cat, “Dat’s where Charlie comes in. He is going in first.”
Charlie nods, “Yep. I’ve skipped breakfast. This is so I can walk into Mama Leone’s kitchen on the fourth floor and tell her that I am hungry and that I missed breakfast.”
Ralph looks up, “What’s that gonna do, Kevin?”
“Mama is Talian. She’s isn’t going to stand for Charlie missing a meal. She’s gonna start pulling lef-overs from the fridgedator, heating dem, up, and walking wif Charlie into the lunchroom to make sure he eats.” The others nod.
“Wow, how much food will she give you?”
“Enough to put me in a food coma for the rest of the day.’ He looks over at Kevin suspiciously.
Raising his hand Kevin smiles, “Don’t worries. We’ll saves you some. You are taking one for the team!”
Stay tuned for the next part!
House of Geek 