Chapter Three
Doom and Disaster
“Gross!” Eric makes gagging sounds as he watches me transform carrots, apples, and ginger root into a frothy orange drink. He grabs a soda for himself and the bowl of popcorn he just popped.
“Don’t worry,” Uncle Karl tells him. “You don’t have to drink it. And we’ll have Mort eating regular food soon enough.”
Don’t count on it, I think, taking a swallow.
Uncle Karl pulls on his beard and eyes my glass. “Just don’t spill it in the pit, all right?”
“I won’t,” I tell him.
“And remember not to get too near the screen,” Uncle Karl calls after us.
“We won’t, Dad,” Eric promises. He shakes his head and tells me, “He must have told us a hundred times, after all.” He drops his voice and mimics his father, “That setup cost a fortune, boys, and I don’t want you getting fingerprints on that high resolution screen, or worse!”
He’s uncannily on target, and I laugh and follow him out of the kitchen and into the pit.
I guess they call it a pit because of the way the floor slopes down, all the way around. The room is bigger than most family rooms, with seats that face the big screen. The screen itself is huge—almost as big as a medium-sized screen at the mall multiplex where I used to go with my parents. Well, maybe not that big. But way bigger than any big-screen TV I’ve ever heard about anybody having in their house.
Eric sets the popcorn bowl on one of the tables between the seats as he chatters relentlessly about which movie we should watch. I see some DVDs lying loose on another table and try not to wince. They’re family movies, of us all together during the summers, and some more recent ones that Dad must have sent Uncle Karl. I turn away, not wanting to think about them. Eric is busy rummaging through the shelves along the back wall and doesn’t notice.
I don’t offer any movie suggestions. I’ve looked at the collection before, and they’re all doom and disaster kinds of movies where lots of people get killed or eaten by monsters or drowned by tsunamis or something.
“This one’s awesome,” he announces. He loads it into the DVD player and dims the room’s lights.
I guess it’s awesome if you like horror films. In this one, a kid named Roger persuades a group of friends to help him summon some sort of underworld power force that they plan to use against this gang of bullies. But instead, the force takes over and destroys Roger’s house and kills his family, and then goes after the other kids and their families until Roger finally figures out that the force can be stopped by trapping it inside a ring of saltwater. The hard part is tricking the force into staying on the right spot and then sealing the ring around it, but Roger manages it just before the force takes out the last of his friends.
Eric sighs happily as the credits roll. “I love the way that kid outsmarts the monster in the end.”
Privately, I think the whole thing was Roger’s fault for calling the evil force in the first place, and if he was going to take it out, he should have done it before it killed his folks. I stare at my empty glass and take a handful of cold popcorn.
“So,” Eric asks, “want to play on my Wii for a while?” He’s got all the battle and shooter games. Normally I like them—they’re a great change from the puzzle games I’ve got on my computer. But just now I don’t really feel like more killing.
“Maybe later,” I tell him.
He looks at me like he can’t quite figure me out. I remember when his mom died. We were here for the summer, and I was talking with Aunt Daphne in the kitchen when she collapsed. I don’t know where Mom and Dad were, but Uncle Karl was with us, and he ran over and tried to help her, but there wasn’t anything he could do except stand there crying. I think it was some sort of brain tumor. Maybe Eric misses her, so he knows how I’m feeling but doesn’t know how to talk about it.
Maybe I’m way off base.
Anyway, I tell him, “You go on, though. I’ll clean up here.”
Eric’s face brightens. “Thanks!”
I take another handful of popcorn, and the player automatically starts the movie again. Why do so many characters have to die before the hero figures out about the saltwater? Roger should have done it sooner so he could have saved his parents. I should have done something to save my parents.... I’m sick of people dying. Why do guys like Eric think such a huge body count is so cool?
I watch Roger being picked on and coming up with his plan for teaching the bullies a lesson. If he only knew! Suddenly I wish there was some way for me to warn him. Surely he wouldn’t raise the evil power if he knew what it would do.
I watch him talking his friends into helping him, and I want to shout, “No! Don’t do it!” But it’s just a movie, and there’s no way to warn them.
I hardly realize I’ve gotten to my feet. I’m walking closer to the screen. I’m saying, low, under my breath, “Come on guys, stop. Don’t say the incantation. Don’t finish it. Don’t-”
Then the power force rises out of the center of the kids’ circle, in a flash of green and blue light. It swirls around the group and disappears into the ceiling. It’s off to destroy the bullies before it starts on the kids and their families. Two of the girls are screaming. I reach out to them, wishing I could do something.
And my hand goes through the screen.
– End Chapter Three –
