“Mum? Can I go over to Robbie’s house?”
“Hmm? ... oh, sure honey, just promise I’ll get you back in one piece” Mrs Hanson replied.
Zac considered this point carefully.
“Umm ... well, I can’t promise that, but ... I’ll try” he said
Mrs Hanson laughed at his response.
“Just don’t go get ripped apart by screaming girls on the way there” she compromised, laughing.
“Oh, but mum, you know how stunningly gorgeous I am! I can’t help it if girls can’t resist me!” he said, flashing a cheeky smile that his mother couldn’t argue with.
“Ok, then, don’t be long!” she called as he dashed out of the house.
It was Friday morning, just before midday. Zac had grabbed the first opportunity to get out of the house when his friend, Robbie had rang.
“Guys, that was my friend, Robbie, I’m gonna go over to his place...” he had said after hanging up.
“Friend?” was the teasing response from Isaac.
Followed by a confused “Robbie? Wasn’t that the filthy guy that was cracking onto me, cos he thought I was a girl?” query from Taylor.
“No, Taylor, that was Jacob... or was it Mitchell, Luke, Derrick, Jamie or Ryan? ...” Zac had said before collapsing in a fit of laughter at his brother’s misfortune.
He received a cold scowl from Taylor.
And now Zac was tearing off out through the front yard, staggering slightly due to dropping a lamp on his foot earlier.
“Oh, and it’s Hanson out in front! ... yes Hanson is leading them all!!! ... I think it’s gonna be another Hanson victory ladies and gent .....” he heard a voice commentate, and he turned his head to see who his tormentor was and ran straight into a tree - or at least he thought it was a tree.
“Oooo ouch!! Looks like Hanson’s taken a bit of a fall, and will not be today’s champion after all ...” the voice said before bursting out into a fit of taunting laughter.
Zac started to get himself up from the ground and brushed himself off. He looked up and saw Robbie’s red face laughing at him and he felt anger, but then Zac turned to face the obstacle he’d crashed into and found he’d knocked over an old lady. He felt fear.
“AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!”
And began to run again.
“Zac! Wait! I was only joking!” Robbie yelled after him.
But he didn’t realise the old lady he was helping up had a certain obsession with Barney ...
***
“David, if you’re going to stay with us for a while you’re going to have to help out with the housework, instead of just lazing around and eating junk all day” Mrs Hanson lectured her nephew.
“Yeah, and it’s not like you need any of that extra fat anyway,” Taylor put in.
“Taylor!!” his mother scolded “That’s very rude of you!”
David was prepared to fight his own battle with his obnoxious cousin.
“Well, at least I’m not just a bag of bones like you, Tay” he said.
“I’d rather be a bag of bones than a bag of ...”
“TAYLOR!”
Mrs Hanson was red in the face. She sighed.
“Both of you get out of the lounge room, I have to do the cleaning” she said calmly.
Neither one moved.
“Go on, MOVE! Or I’ll make you both clean out the toilet!”
That got them moving.
“No, I think that was pretty thoroughly done yesterday, Mum,” said Isaac as he entered the room.
“You too, Ike! Out!” she said, ignoring his comment.
He put his hands up in surrender and backed out of the room.
“Hell-oo?? Are you deaf? I said I get the strawberry ice-cream from the Neapolitan!” Taylor yelled at David.
After a minute they’d settled on opening two containers of Neapolitan ice-cream and each ate the strawberry section. A few minutes later, another argument broke out.
“Uh, yuk, look at your hair, it’s hanging all in the ice-cream,” David insulted.
“Well, at least I have healthy hair! You dye yours all the time ... and ya know what? You’re gonna go BALD some day!!” Taylor shot back.
“Healthy hair? Um, no. Your hair’s so greasy that people come to you when they’ve run out of oil for their car!” David said.
“DON’T TALK ABOUT MY HAIR LIKE THAT!!” Taylor hissed.
“Ya know, Taylor, there’s this thing called Shampoo ... you might wanna try it sometime ...”
“That’s IT!!!” Taylor yelled, and jumped up from his chair, “Ya know, your bald head is gonna be so freakin’ oily and sweaty that you’ll have your very own waterfall!”
The angry Hanson brother jumped up from his chair. Isaac ran to hold him back.
“Woah, Tay! Calm down”
Taylor took a deep breath and backed off.
“I’m going for a walk,” David announced gruffly.
“That might be a good idea, Dave” Isaac agreed.
His cousin left the room and a few seconds later, they heard the front door close angrily.
***
Mrs Hanson finished dusting the mantelpiece. It seemed she was constantly cleaning the house over and over again. Dusting ... done. Wiping ... done. Sweeping ... done. Vacuuming ...
“Right, clear under sofa first” she instructed herself.
She got down on her hands and knees and felt under the sofa. What was this? A bag.
“Ah! That girl DOES have a surname” Mrs Hanson grumbled.
She picked the bag up and placed it on the armchair, assuming that Amanda must’ve left it behind when she came to do the housework. As it landed on the chair, something fell out ...
“Ooops,” Mrs Hanson exclaimed as she noticed, “Hmmm ... what’s this?”
She picked up it thing that had escaped Amanda’s bag, even though she know she shouldn’t have. The object was a packet. A packet of photographs. Developed photographs.
“Hmmm ... these look like they were taken around the time of those music awards ...” she said aloud.
Out of sinfully tempting curiosity, she couldn’t resist but take a look at them. As she sifted through them, she smiled at pictures of her sons and other stars at the awards. Then she approached some different photos and frowned.
“What is that?” she said to herself, squinting at the picture, “It ... looks ... like .... our TV set...”
As she looked through more of the photos, she begun to realise their purpose, and her fury rose.
“I WILL KILL THAT GIRL!!!” she yelled.
Isaac came running in from the other room.
“Mum?”
Mrs Hanson sighed and closed her eyes angrily.
“Taylor’s little girly friend will not be coming over anymore, Ike” she said.
“Huh? Amanda? Why not?”
“IN CASE SHE SUDDENLY DECIDES TO RUN OFF WITH OUR FURNITURE AND MAKE A PROFIT OUT OF IT!!” she screamed.
“Calm down,” Isaac said reasonably, “Now tell me what happened...”
After Isaac was informed he understood, but still wasn’t too worried. He was thinking about something else.
“Mum ...”
“Yes, dear?”
“It’s getting late, where’s Zac? Isn’t he home yet?” Isaac asked.
Mrs Hanson stopped to think.
“Oh, god. He was supposed to be home 2 hrs ago! I’ll kill him too!”
“I’ll ring Robbie” Isaac suggested.
He did so, but Zac wasn’t there. Now, they started to get worried.
“Should we ring the police if he’s missing?” Isaac queried.
“No, no. The police probably have us on the ‘insane’ list...” she replied.
“Is there really an ‘insane’ list??” he asked.
His mother ignored him and pointed to the door.
“Come on, Ike, we’re going for ride” she told him, determined to find the puzzling little boy she called her son.
Part 9 ... Bald Waterfalls and Oily Car Hair
Zac had informed his brothers where he was going.
He shot through the gate and out onto the street, running full pace and doing his best ‘Carl Lewis’ impression. As he was getting up considerable speed he turned a corner and tore off down another street.
With the recognition of the old lady, Zac screamed.
He walked in the direction Taylor and David had gone - to the kitchen.
As he entered the kitchen, he was just in time to witness yet another cousin-to-cousin argument.
Taylor and Isaac looked at each other. Neither of them knew what to do about this disrespectful cousin of theirs who was abusing his privilege of staying with their family.
Mrs Hanson groaned and picked up the vacuum cleaner and dragged it over to the middle of the room.
Mrs Hanson pulled out the bag and observed it. After a bit she found a name tag, it read: Amanda Wilkinson.
Mrs Hanson studied the outside of the packet.
Tell me what you think :) -- weirdokat@mailexcite.com