We actually did shriek at one point in the night, but only because the fire alarm vibrated through the walls. I went to investigate, and found that the source of it was coming out of my brother’s room.
As we walked into Jacob’s room, we saw him hurriedly stashing his hand held blow torch underneath the bed. There were new scorch marks on his already badly burnt floor. He liked making homemade rockets that he could launch in the nearest field.
“Hey, that’s the second time this week you’ve set off the fire alarm. It’s your turn to try and figure out how to turn it off.” Our fire alarm wouldn’t turn off for about twenty four hours-or until it was satisfied with the headaches it had caused. It didn’t matter what we did, it wouldn’t turn off. Each of us had tried pushing the button, opening all of the windows and turning on the fans to air the house out. We’ve also tried taking out the batteries, carefully detaching some of the wires that were present. Nothing worked.
“What were you trying to do this time?” I asked as I plopped onto his bed. I sat up a moment earlier because I had sat on a really sharp screw. I decided to stand after that.
Lili, Elizabeth, and Taylor sat down next to me and pulled Jacob’s blankets around them to block out the noise. They were here often enough to have developed a formula to block the noise. They had also witnessed all of our attempts to shut it off, and some of the very colorful cursing. We all learned a new word each time the alarm went off.
Each time, the fire alarm went off for a new or different reason, because Jacob was always trying to do something new.
“I was trying to melt down some pennies so I could use the melted metal to fuse other parts together. Did you know that even though a penny is made out of copper, once it’s melted, it turns out to be a silver color?” He was one of the weirdest bug brothers ever. But I loved him with all of my heart, despite what I might lead you to believe.
As I looked closer, I noticed little cooling drops of melted silver. Some of them were so small; he probably wouldn’t end up picking them all up. As per usual. He had a number of different projects going on at once.
“Oh, well good luck. Tell us when your newest project is finished so we can launch it together.” Said Lili. Even though we were all interested in his attempts, Lili was the one who was most interested and invested in it. Probably because we actually bet on the outcome of each rocket, weighing the independent variables. Some of the things we had to take into account included: wind speed, rocket weight, launch speed, and other weather technicalities that might hinder the rocket. It was a very…profitable indulgence.
Mom padded past Jacob’s door, not even checking to see what all of the commotion was about.
“Mom, can you drive me to school tomorrow?” I asked her. She didn’t look over. I tried talking slightly louder. Oh gods. The zombie apocalypse is starting with my mother.
After a few moments of analyzing everything in the room that could be turned into a weapon, when I noticed she had wax in her ears. Candle wax, not ear wax. Phew.
“Alex, I can’t hear a word you’re saying and I’m not taking out the cotton! It’s the only way to block out this infernal noise.” My mom yelled, forgetting that just because she can’t hear us, that we can hear her perfectly. Moms. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
“Since we’re already awake, why don’t we do something fun? What say you?” I asked, already bouncing with energy.
“It’s three a.m. What could we possibly do?” asked Lili. Not out of spite, but just general curiosity.
“Well, there is a world of possibilities. We could go outside and watch the sun come up, or we could pool all of our money and go to the nearest 24 hour arcade.” I provided them with two very decent choices.
“Ooh! I know! Pick me, pick me!” Yelled Taylor, startling all of us with her outburst. Her fists were punching the air.
“Since no one else has any ideas, we should just go back to sleep.” Taylor was jumping up and down, squealing and waving her arms like she was trying to fly.
“Are you blind or deaf?!” Taylor screeched then huffed with impatience.
“All right. My idea is we should take our sleeping bags outside, and sleep on the beach right outside your door. We can build walls so sand isn’t flying everywhere!” She finished, beaming with the brilliance of her plan.
I decided to play her a little, and took a couple of moments to confer with everyone else. We huddled into a corner, psyching her out.
“Okay, we have agreed to do this on two conditions. First, we use air mattresses, or no deal. Second, you have to carry everything outside.” We stood shoulder to shoulder, arms crossed, daring her to deny us the simple pleasures of a bargain.
“Okay, no prob.” Taylor replied coolly, satisfied she had gotten her way.
In the end, I carried one of the inflated air mattresses and some of the bedding we used for sleeping on the beach.
We picked a spot right in front of the house, about one hundred yards away from the ever changing tides.
Taylor was in charge of making sure everything was in order. That included inflating one of the four mattresses.
“Screw it!” She yelled after a couple minutes of trying to decipher the Japanese instructions. She just threw them away and did her best to properly inflate them.
Elizabeth, Lili, and I were in charge of building walls on either side of the beds. Sand is not a very compliant medium, to say the least.
Needless to say, the walls collapsed every few minutes. Always on me. Every stinking time. I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Finally, finally, we finished building the walls. I had had the brilliant idea of placing seashells in the rocks so that it had less of a chance of falling over. Hauling sand back and forth can make for quite a workout. The walls were about three and a half feet tall.
I lay down on the green nylon mattress. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. My bed deflated a bit as I snuggled deep into the light covers, curling into a ball.
