Chapter Two
Five Kids +A Basement=Trouble
Haley sat on the couch in her grandmother's basement, in charge of keeping an eye on her younger brother and cousins, who always found a way to get into trouble. All the adults sat at the dining room table upstairs, talking about whatever adults talk about. This time, they talked about the family golf trip, where all the men went to Pennsylvania to play golf while the women planned a trip somewhere else nearby. It usually led to some sort of argument. Haley wondered why they always told the kids to get along when they had a hard time doing it themselves. The other kids didn't seem to care much about it. They had other things on their minds, like playing video games.
Her brother Jack and cousin Braden played a game called Sly Cooper. Jack had the controller in his hands, pressing the buttons as fast as he could. Jack was eight years old, with blonde hair. Normally, he did pretty well at the game, but at this moment, he had trouble getting past one of the monsters. He tried to jump left and got hit by the monster hard, killing his character and causing him to have to start over again. He tried again, and the same thing happened. He couldn't figure out the right strategy. Braden stood up quickly from the couch.
“I know how to beat that monster. I did it last week. Let me show you,” he said, reaching for the controller.
Jack pulled it away. “No. It’s my turn. I’ll get it.”
“But you’re doing it wrong,” Braden insisted. He knew the right way. It frustrated him to watch Jack keep making the same mistake.
“I got it.”
“No, you don’t. You’re gonna get killed again.”
This time, Braden was right. Jack tried to jump left again and the monster grabbed his character out of the air and slammed it to the ground with a thud. Jack wanted to throw the controller on the floor but he had gotten in trouble two weeks ago for doing that. Throwing controllers wasn’t a nice thing to do.
Instead, he handed the controller to Braden. As much as he didn't want to say it, he thought he might learn something. He couldn't stand the frustration any more. “Okay, it’s your turn.”
“It’s about time.” Braden took the controller. He would turn eight soon himself, but unlike Jack, he had dark brown hair, a little bit longer and curlier than his cousin's. He wore a camouflage flannel shirt and tan pants, one of his favorite outfits.
He went toward the monster. It came at him with a big hammer and swung hard. Braden jumped right and avoided the swing but didn’t see the next one coming. The monster clonked his character on the head and knocked him out cold. It didn't make sense. He'd watched Jack play and saw the behavior of the game's intelligence. Braden thought he had the right strategy but still couldn't defeat the monster. He did something wrong, but couldn't figure out what. If he could only remember what he did last week to get past it. Sometimes games were too easy and sometimes too hard. Even knowing the cycle of the enemy in the game didn't guarantee victory. Braden got frustrated just like Jack had.
Haley played with Jillian and Gabriella, her two younger cousins. Gabriella, who was only two years old, played with blocks and Jillian, five years old, helped. Haley wanted to play something else but she knew Gabby couldn’t play along so she decided to keep Gabby happy. After all, Gabby kept quiet, which was what the adults liked. Sure, Haley didn't get to do what she wanted but none of the adults bothered her either.
She really wanted to tell someone about the dream she
had a few nights before and the vision on the basketball court. What did they mean? She'd head that same voice, telling her the time was coming, but what time? She wasn’t scared because it wasn’t scary, and in the dream she felt stronger than she ever had before. She felt like she could leap high into the air easily. She just wanted someone to explain it. The problem was, before she woke up, she heard a voice tell her not to tell anyone about it. That familiar voice she just couldn't put a name to. She wondered if maybe one of her cousins ever had a dream like that. She wanted to ask really badly but she figured the best thing to do was listen to the voice. Plus, her cousins were younger than her. She was almost eleven. No way would they understand.
She figured everyone would just think she was crazy anyway.
“You got killed again,” Jack said to Braden. “We’ll never get past this monster.” He fell onto the couch, frustrated.
Why did some parts of games have to be so hard?
“I know one way we can,” Braden said, smiling.
Together, they yelled, “Uncle Johnny!”
Haley and Jack’s mom came to the top of the stairs.
“What do you guys want?”
“We need Uncle Johnny,” Jack said.
“He’s eating.”
“Oh,” Jack and Braden said at the top of their lungs.
“Do you want me to come down there and turn that system off?” Haley and Jack’s mom, Aunt Tina, asked.
Braden and Jillian’s mom came to the stairs too. “What are you doing, Braden?” Aunt Lisa asked.
“We were trying to beat this monster and couldn’t so we wanted Uncle Johnny to come downstairs and show us how,” Braden said, as nicely as he could. He knew better than to sound angry. Moms had a way of making that end badly.
“Didn’t Aunt Tina say he was eating?”
“Yes. But I thought everyone finished eating already,” Braden said.
“Uncle Johnny got here late.”
“But—“
“Stop it or both Aunt Tina and I will come down there and turn the television off, do you want that?” Aunt Lisa asked.
“No—“
“I didn’t think so.”
“But—“
“But nothing,” Aunt Tina said. “I’ll ask Uncle Johnny to come down, when he is finished eating.” The last few words sounded sort of angry, Haley noticed. Not angry-angry, like when someone broke something or lied, just angry, like if Braden and Jack didn’t give in, angry-angry would come next.
“Okay,” Jack said, and plopped down on the couch. Haley thought he might say something else back, but she was happy to see knew better. Braden went back to playing the game. Jack was pretty smart, but sometimes he didn’t act that way and they got yelled at for something she didn’t even have anything to do with.
When Aunt Lisa and Aunt Tina left, Jack said, “Parents can be a pain.” Haley knew he said this as a joke but he still shouldn’t have said it. Sure, there were times when she got angry at her Mom and Dad, but not too many times. She wanted to tell Jack to take it back but she didn’t. He probably wouldn’t listen anyway.
“Oh no,” Jillian said.
“What?” Haley asked.
“It’s my doll. She went wee-wee again.”
Jack stuck his head out from the side of the couch. “Your doll did what?” He did all he could to not laugh.
“She went wee-wee. I gave her too much water again. When she has too much water, she goes wee-wee a lot. Now I have to change her diaper. A mommy’s work is never done.”
“What kind of doll goes wee-wee?” Jack thought he'd heard of every silly thing a doll could do. He thought dolls were silly to begin with, but one that went wee-wee was the silliest he had ever heard of.
“Baby-Wets-A-Lot,” Jillian said. “I brought her and three other dolls with me today. Baby-Wets-A-Lot drinks water and then either goes wee-wee or cries. Sometimes she does both.”
“That’s stupid,” Jack said.
“Don’t be mean,” Haley shot back at him, wondering why he had to be mean sometimes. Boys liked being mean. Haley would never understand it.
“It’s okay, Haley. Jack, you go wee-wee and cry and I bet when you were a baby you did both at the same time,” Jillian answered.
Everyone laughed, except for Jack of course. Jillian was right, everyone did that so why not make a doll that did? Haley didn't think she would want a doll like that. That was more work than it was worth, she figured. Well, she had other things she wanted. She wanted a laptop the most. That would be cool, to have
a laptop, so she could play games and go on websites almost anywhere. She didn’t think she had much of a chance of getting one, but that wasn’t going to stop her from asking, that was for sure.
Braden and Jack tried to beat that level of the game a few times. They replayed the same part over and over, always getting killed by that same monster. It didn't take them long to get bored with it. They grunted, exhaled, and made a lot of other noises of frustration. They did their best to keep quiet so their parents didn't come down, but had a hard time with that. Haley wanted to try the game herself but she didn’t think she’d have a chance and she didn’t want to fight to get a turn. Those two could get crazy when it came to video games. Silly boys.
Just when it seemed like Jack and Braden would give up, Uncle Johnny came down the stairs. “I hear someone’s having trouble down here,” he said.
“We can’t get past this monster,” Braden said, “We tried going left and right but he keeps getting us.”
“I even tried jumping,” Jack said, “just like you showed
us but it doesn’t work. Maybe the controller is broken.”
“We haven’t been throwing the controller, have we?” Uncle Johnny asked with a smile.
“No,” Jack said. “I thought about it but remembered I am not supposed to do it, so I didn’t.”
“Good. Now, what part are you stuck on?” Uncle Johnny sat down on the couch between them. Haley wondered how he stayed calm and didn't get angry when dealing with Jack and Braden, who could get to be a bit much when it came to stuff like sports and video games. She watched Jack break three controllers playing video games. She never understood why he broke his own stuff. It meant he couldn't play the game anymore, and he usually got in a lot of trouble for doing it.
Jack and Braden showed the part they couldn’t beat and Uncle Johnny remembered it, the same one they had a problem with the week before. It was pretty tough, but Uncle Johnny knew the trick and showed it to them again. Uncle Johnny knew a lot about video games.
“You have to jump and swing at the same time. That throws the monster off balance so you can sneak past him on the right. Sometimes you don’t have to knock out the monsters to beat them. Sometimes you have to use your smarts and beat them that way. Fighting isn't always the best thing to do to win.”
“You don’t have to beat them up?” Braden asked. This did make sense to him. Sure, he had recognized the programming pattern, but he didn't see the strategy to beat it. Now that Uncle Johnny pointed out how to win, it became clear.
“Not all the time. A lot of these monsters are bigger than your character. Your character is smarter than them, and so are you. So use that. Avoiding a fight sometimes is a lot better than winning one.”
“I like beating them up,” Jack said.
“So do I,” Braden agreed.
Uncle Johnny turned and looked at Haley. “Silly boys.”
She wondered if he read her mind. “Uh-huh. I am the one who has to be around them all the time,” Haley said, rolling her eyes.
“Maybe you should show them how silly they are sometimes.”
“Oh, trust me Uncle Johnny, I've tried. Silly doesn't see silliness.”
“That's a good way to put it. Okay guys, I got you past this part. Think you can take it from here?” Uncle Johnny asked.
“Sure,” Braden said, “it’s my turn so I can take it.”
“No, it’s my turn,” Jack said, trying to take the controller from Braden, “you remember, you died last.” He pulled at the controller and Braden pulled back.
“But I still had one more life left,” Braden insisted.
“No, no. You got killed twice. Every two lives we change turns.”
“Enough,” Uncle Johnny said. “I don’t care whose turn it was. If you guys don’t stop, I’ll keep playing, and you know it will be a long time before I die.”
“Oh!” Braden and Jack said.
“Do you guys want to keep playing?”
“Yes.”
“Then learn to get along. I could tell you who goes next but I want you to solve this yourself. You guys are cousins, right?”
“Yeah,” they answered.
“And friends?”
“Yes, but—“
“Hey, what’s rule number one?” Uncle Johnny asked.
Haley smiled, and said along with Jack, “Listen to Uncle
Johnny.”
“And rule number two?”
“Listen to Uncle Johnny.” They'd been taught that years before when Uncle Johnny took them to McDonald's. If they didn't follow the two rules, he said he would take them home. They listened. Now, it was more of a joke than anything else. After all, they had grown up since then.
“Okay, then. So, like I was saying. You are cousins and friends. You shouldn’t fight, you should be nice to each other. You guys figure this out. I am coming back down here in a minute and I want to see you guys getting along, not fighting over something silly like whose turn it is. There are more important things than that.”
Haley agreed. Getting a laptop was certainly more important than arguing over who got to play some stupid game first. But, like Uncle Johnny said, they were silly boys. Haley wondered how silly Uncle Johnny was when he was a boy. Probably pretty silly, she thought.