looked at Grog and then back at Mike but remained seated.
“Come on, Abbie. Go,” Tony said.
Abbie remained seated. Grog went to Abbie and began pulling her by her collar. “Come on, Abbie. Come on.”
Abbie was resisting moving away from her spot in front of Mike as much as she could. Tony went over to Abbie and grabbed some part of her collar and began pulling along with Grog. Abbie pulled against them, whimpering and making horrible gaging noises as she choked herself against her collar trying to remain at her spot. But Tony and Grog prevailed and managed to pull Abbie from the room.
“Bye, bye, Abbie,” Mike said, waving and grinning his sinister grin as they pulled Abbie out of the room completely and shut the door before she could run back into the room. Abbie immediately began barking and scratching at the door. Tony and Grog looked at each other then at Mike and shook their heads at each other.
Tony was on his way down the stairs when he heard a knock at the door. He quickly walked to the door, opened it, and there stood his little sister, Charlotte. Charlotte was two years younger than Tony, but she was as tall as he was with a slender build. She had thick, light-brown hair that went all the way down her back, and she had it tied back in a ponytail that sat on the top of her head. Charlotte had a heart-shaped face and with a pert, upturned little nose in the center of it, and her pink lips seemed to be in the shape of a wide heart. But Charlotte’s most prominent feature was her eyes. Charlotte had cat-shaped eyes that were the color of a sunny blue sky that were surrounded by thick, black, super long eyelashes like Elizabeth Taylor. Tony’s mother always called Charlotte “her young beauty” and was very protective over her, which was why she insisted on Tony being with her a lot.
Tony held the door open for her, and she sauntered in. Charlotte was not too much of a morning person, and she was not happy about having her Saturday morning slumber interrupted to go spend time with her brother and his friends.
“Charlotte, good morning to you too,” Tony said sarcastically.
Charlotte looked around. “Doesn’t Grog have parents?” she asked as Grog and Mike started coming down the steps themselves.
“My parents are considering going into business with some guy, so they went to observe his business and talk to the guy today, so they won’t be back until dinnertime at the earliest. And if they’re not back by dinnertime, I have more than enough money to order delivery,” Grog said.
They sat around and tried to think of something to entertain Charlotte and fill up their Saturday. Abbie was lying on the floor at the feet of Grog and Tony. “How about we take Charlotte upstairs and show her what we found yesterday?” Mike suggested.
“What?” said Charlotte.
“Yeah. What?” said Tony with a hard edge to his voice.
“Let’s show her. Let’s show her what we found yesterday,” Mike said. “Come on.” Mike stood up and began walking toward the stairs.
Grog shrugged and stood to follow. “Why not? She’s probably going to find out anyway,” he said.
Tony stood and waved his hand at Charlotte in a follow-me gesture. Charlotte stood and followed them up the stairs.
“Look,” Mike said, gesturing to the two meteorites that they had found.
Charlotte looked at them nonchalantly. “What are they?” she asked.
“They’re meteorites,” Grog told her with a tone of disbelief. “We’re going to sell them to a museum and become rich,” Grog continued.
Charlotte nodded and appeared to be mildly impressed. “Oh, that’s cool,” she said.
Mike picked up the dark red meteorite and held it out to her. “Hold it,” Mike said, his eyes gleaming. “It’s surprisingly light.”
Charlotte was reaching out to it when Abbie started barking viciously. They didn’t know that Abbie had also followed them up the stairs. They had all jumped. Mike gently put the meteorite down and then walked aggressively toward Abbie.
“Get out of here!” Mike said and stomped toward her.
Abbie barked at him with even more aggression. Grog stepped in between them, and the anger was obvious on his face. “You get out of here, man. You don’t talk to my dog like that! What is the problem with the both of you today?” Grog was yelling at them and pushing Mike and Abbie out of the room.
Tony was trying to push Mike and Grog apart and trying to speak to deescalate the situation between Mike, Grog, and Abbie. It was a noisy jumble of talking, yelling, and barking as they backed out of the room. Charlotte shook her head and wondered if they were always like that. Then Charlotte saw something out the corner of her eye. It was bright red and round. Charlotte realized that it was a second meteorite, and she was almost mesmerized by the bright light-red color of it.
She remembered Mike’s words that the meteorites were light, and she actually wanted to touch and pick up this meteorite. Charlotte picked it up, held it up, and looked at it all around. It was surprisingly light in weight but felt like it was solid. Then she heard Tony yell out, “Charlotte!” Charlotte put down the meteorite, and she saw a very tiny, wiggling, bright red worm. She opened her mouth in a silent scream of disgust and violently shook her hands trying to get the worm off without having to touch it. The worm was flung into her mouth and went to the back of her throat, and she instinctively swallowed it.
As soon as she swallowed it, she felt the change and welcomed it. She knew. She knew everything, including what she needed to do and how to go about it, but for now she needed to appear normal. She went downstairs. Tony had managed to get Mike and Grog to stop fighting, and even Abbie had calmed down.
“Man, where is Charlotte?” Grog asked.
They walked into the living room. Abbie was lying at the bottom of the stairs, and Charlotte was crouched down in front of her looking Abbie straight into her eyes, and Abbie was looking back at her.
“What are you doing?” Grog asked Charlotte.
Charlotte appeared startled as if she had been interrupted. “Oh, I was just making sure that she wasn’t going to attack me,” Charlotte said.
Grog and Tony shook their heads.
“I don’t know what is with her,” Grog said.
Charlotte looked at the clock. “It’s almost lunchtime. Why don’t you, guys, take her for a walk and I’ll make us some tuna fish sandwiches,” Charlotte offered.
Tony, Grog, and Mike all nodded and agreed that it sounded good. Just as they were turning to head out the front door with Abbie, Grog turned back to Charlotte. “How did you know that we had tuna fish?” Grog asked her.
“Oh…” Charlotte glanced at Abbie. “Doesn’t everybody have tuna fish?” Charlotte asked him and gave an exaggerated shrug.
Grog thought about it for a moment and then nodded, seeming to be satisfied with her answer. Then they walked out the door.
Charlotte immediately got started on making their sandwiches. When Charlotte laid out the bread, she looked up. She had a plan, and it was time to put her plan into action. Charlotte ran upstairs to Grog’s room.
