Chasing the Stars

These Stairs Are Exhausting

--------Isaac's POV--------

CRASH!!!!! Has your day ever started with a Brachiosaurus flying through your window? No? I didn't think so. The plastic dinosaur broke through the window around 7:30 in the morning and promptly hit me in the face. I looked out through the window to find a 9 year-old boy smirking up at me. He even had the nerve to ask me for the plastic dinosaur back.

"What happened to your face?" Angelina queried. As she saw the most unusual scene, me standing amid a pile of shattered glass with a Brachiosaurus shaped red mark covering my face.

"A flying dinosaur happened." I retorted.

"Maybe lose the attitude and explain the whole situation." She replied snippily.

After a few minutes of story telling and a few more of convincing that I wasn't lying, she finally broke into hysterical laughter. I glared as she finished her laughing fit by collapsing onto the floor.

 Lidewij came through the door and announced, "We're going to the Anne Frank house!"

"For what?" I asked.

"For the last part of An Imperial Affliction of course," she explained. "Well, if it's there, and I'm asuming it is there."

"Sounds good," Angelina replied for the both of us.

I peered up the stairs at the Anne Frank house. The passage was narrow and the stairs were steep. Angelina had no qualms against moving me out of the way and bounding up the stairs. With a great, dramatic sigh, I followed her.

"UGGGGHHHHH THESE STAIRS ARE SO EXHAUSTING!!" I whined at Angelina when we finally reached the top of the stairs.

Lidewij, Angelina, and I search high and low for the piece of paper that held the next part of the story, which earned us some odd looks from other people. We paused once in a while to actually look at the house itself and not just the little crevasses for the story, because why go somewhere like this and not apreciate it?

"It's not here," Lidewij said, walking up to me.

"What do you mean it's not here?" I asked. I followed her eyes down to the little scrap of paper in her hand. She held it up so I could see what it said.

Funky Bones --Gus

Angelina came over and read the paper. "To funky bones we go!" she cheered and headed for the exit.

My parents and I packed our bags and left for home in Indiana. Because of obvious reasons, Angelina and Lidewij had too come along too, and since Lidewij was Angelina's legal guardian, everything worked out fine. 

It was kind of exciting to be able to show them my home town, but then again, it could also be extremely boring compared to the Netherlands. Luckily, Lidewij and Angelina really enjoyed seeing Indiana.

We landed at around 9:30 at night. After all the times I'd flown, you'd think I'd be a little more used to it right? Not exactly. I was exhausted. I was glad to be home again, but hadn't slept well on the extensive plane ride. As soon as I plopped down on my old bed, I was out.

The next morning, Lidewij, Angelina, my parents and I headed out to Funky Bones. As usual, there were kids everywhere climbing up and down each bone. We obviously joined them. We'd run and jump up and down on each bone all while in search for the evasive story.

I stood on the skull piece and looked over to where Angelina balanced herself on the femur, her arms spread wide for balance. I couldn't help but think back to every single adventure I'd had while in search for the bits and pieces of After An Imperial Affliction that Gus had written and hidden across the world.