Animal Theater

The Floating Orphan of Rainbow Ridge

The Borando kids had no parents, or rather, the parents they had weren't much use to them because they were dead. This would be bad enough but they lived in a town in northwest Oregon called Rainbow Ridge, a town that was under quarantine. Lizzy Borando had just learned from her older brother Mike what the word quarantine meant, and although she had misunderstood somewhat, that didn't keep her from explaining what it meant to her stuffed monkey Squiggles.

"The object of war is for people to kill each other," she said. Her sister Fiona made an annoyed sound. She didn't like listening to her little sister's nonsense. "They're always trying to find new ways to kill each other. Sometimes they use fire or bullets, or little tiny robots, so small you can't even see them. That's what got mommy and..."

"Shut up!" Fiona shouted.

Lizzy picked up Squiggles by his long furry arm and went behind the couch, where she continued her explanation in a whisper. "So the war-fighters are always looking for new ways to kill each other..."

"I can still hear you." Fiona said.

Lizzy stuck her tongue out at her sister even though her sister couldn't see her. "And the people who are fighting against us, the bad guys, they invented a new way of killing. It's so new nobody even knows what it is, or how it works. They can't let anybody leave until they figure it out." Lizzy looked closely at Squiggles's glass eye to be sure he understood, but she dropped him when her sister screamed.

"Spider!" Fiona shouted. "Mike, kill it, kill it quick!" Mike slammed his foot down on the bold arachnid, squashing it dead. "Oh I hate spiders," Fiona said, "they're just awful."

"That's the fifth spider I've killed since Monday," Mike said. "There never used to be so many spiders in our house. Maybe we have a nest somewhere."

"Oh don't say that!" Fiona shouted. "Just that word, 'nest.' It makes my skin crawl."

Lizzy couldn't resist. "Nest!" She shouted from behind the couch.

"Shut it Lizzy!" Her sister yelled. "I'll slap the freckles off your ugly face!"

"Squiggles wants to know when the quarantine will be over and we can go live with Gran."

"Soon." Mike said.

"Don't tell her soon, you don't know that." Fiona said.

"The man at the checkpoint said it would be soon." Mike said.

"Yeah but you said he was dressed like a spaceman, you said they all were. They don't dress like that for the fun of it. They don't even want to breathe the same air as us."

"It's probably just a precaution." Mike said.

"Where does Gran live again?"

"Lizzy I told you already." Mike said. "Santa Monica. It's in Southern California, right by the beach."

"And we'll go soon?" Lizzy asked.

"As soon as it's safe." Mike said.

"They're probably just waiting for us all to die." Fiona said.

Mike gave Lizzy the look that said not to listen to Fiona, and Lizzy smiled. When she was little she'd wished Mike had been closer to her age so she'd have a brother she could play with, but now that mommy and dad were gone she was glad he was older.

There was a knock at the door and Mike held his finger up to his lips and got their dad's scatter gun off the table. He pointed the gun at the ceiling and leaned over to take a peek out the front window. "It's just Barfo." Mike said. He put the gun back and opened the door. "Get in here before someone sees you." He said.