Chapter Three
After they sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Aunt Tina, the kids came back downstairs and the boys went back to playing their game. They played the way Uncle Johnny taught them for a bit, but before long they went back to beating up the monsters instead of sneaking around them. Haley watched for a little while, and every time they tried to attack the monster, she could see a way to sneak around it. She tried to tell them, but they had their ‘Girl Ear Filters’ on, as they had called them once, and couldn’t hear her. How many times would she be shown how silly boys can be?
Haley felt tired, and it got worse when she saw both Gabby and Jillian sleeping on the couch. She sat next to them, telling herself that she wouldn’t go to sleep, just rest her eyes a bit. Jack and Braden, frustrated with the game, sat on the couch across from her. They looked pretty sleepy too. She closed her eyes and felt the darkness wrap around her like when she went to bed. She fought to stay awake, shaking her head every time her eyes closed. She couldn't remember ever feeling so tired. She felt herself falling faster and faster and struggled to fight it.
Luckily, her brother and cousin helped out.
“Uncle Johnny!” they yelled and yelled, trying to get him to come downstairs to help them with the game again. It seemed they could never leave him alone, Haley thought.
She opened her eyes, looking around the room, and rubbed them. They felt itchy like when she woke up in the morning, but she hadn’t even been sitting down for five minutes. She could see the clock on the cable box, so she knew she wasn’t crazy. Everything else around the room seemed the same, the couch, the television, Gabby and Jillian sitting next to her. Yet, something felt different. She couldn't figure out what.
“Can anyone hear us?” Braden asked. “We’re having trouble with the game again.”
Braden had said that pretty loud, but no one answered. That wasn’t normal. It didn’t take much noise for someone to come downstairs. Braden yelled again, and Jack joined him. They screamed, stomped, and made as much noise they could without breaking something.
Nothing happened.
Haley started to worry, but she didn’t want to let the rest of them know it. As the oldest she had to keep her cool, even if inside, she felt anything but. She tried to think what kept the adults from hearing them, then remembered that Uncle Michael had brought over a video from the last vacation and the adults upstairs were probably watching it in the kitchen and couldn’t hear them.
Still, the TV in the kitchen had to be pretty loud, and she didn’t hear anything coming from upstairs at all. She strained to hear something but couldn't. The adults had to be up to something. Maybe they wanted to scare the kids, like they did every once in a while. One time they had all hidden and it took almost an hour for the kids to find them. That was scary. She wouldn't let them get away with that again.
“Where is he?” Jack asked. He walked toward the stairs and called out again. No one responded. Had everyone gone outside? It didn't make any sense to Jack.
“I don’t know. Maybe they are busy upstairs,” Haley answered, trying to sound like she believed what she said, even when she didn’t. She figured her parents did that a lot.
“He must be sleeping,” Braden said.
“But Uncle Johnny only falls asleep on Christmas Eve,” Jack said, “He never does it any other time.” Haley thought about that. Uncle Johnny had only fallen asleep once on Christmas Eve after working all day. He hadn't been working that day, so he really couldn't be tired. Of all the adults, he had the most energy. Everyone said he was more like a kid than an adult that way.
“He could be tired,” Braden said.
Haley wanted to argue that but decided to keep quiet.
Jillian sat up. “What’s going on?”
“We can’t get Uncle Johnny to come downstairs. No one is answering,” Braden answered. Haley wished he hadn't said that. She didn't want Jillian to get scared.
“Is that all? I can get him to come down here.”
Jillian jumped off the couch and ran up the stairs. She got to the top and was knocked back, like she ran into a wall. The wall wasn't hard, but it did throw her back a little and her elbow hurt where she made contact. Looking again, Jillian noticed she could see the hallway, but couldn’t go past the top of the stairs. She reached her hand out and felt something push back at her.
“Ouch,” she said, rubbing her elbow.
“What?” Haley asked.
“Something’s in my way.”
“Huh?” Haley asked. What could be in her way, she wondered.
“Yeah, I can’t get past the stairs,” Jillian said. She tried with her hand again and was pushed back like before.
“Is the dog gate in the way?” Haley realized it was a silly question right after she asked it.
“I would have seen that.”
Of course she would have, Haley thought. "Then what could it be?”
Haley went toward Jillian, and she got there quicker than she would have expected to. She actually glided through the air. She didn’t really notice it until Jack said something.
“Wow,” he said.
“Wow what?” Haley asked.
“You just like floated through the air,” he said.
“Through the air? What are you talking about?” Haley asked.
“Yeah, you floated. How did you do that?”
Haley had sort of felt that, but she didn’t think it was anything. “I don't know what you mean.”
“Neither do I. But it was cool."
"I saw it too," Braden said, "Can you do it again?”
“Um, no," Haley said, a little confused about what was going on. "I have to see what Jillian is talking about.”
Haley made it to the top of the stairs and put her hand out toward the hallway. Before she could get her hand past the top step, she felt something push her back. It wasn’t hard, like an invisible wall, but instead more like trying to stretch a rubber band further than it could go, only this didn’t snap. It just pushed back with a gentle force.
“That’s weird,” she said, looking at Jillian. Jillian just shrugged her shoulders. She did that a lot. Right then, Haley wished she hadn't left her cell phone at home. At least then she could call her parents and ask what was going on.
Maybe, if she had that phone, she could play a trick on them. “I can’t get upstairs.”
“We better call someone,” Braden said.
With that, everyone starting yelling for their parents, and no one answered. Gabby had woken up from all the noise. She looked at everyone. Jack stood closest to her, and when he looked at her, he felt like he couldn’t look away. It felt like Gabby had control of his eyes and wouldn’t let go. He felt himself being pulled into her, like she had a power over him.
“Gabby, stop it,” he said, but she just smiled at him. Jack felt the urge to get something for her, but he didn’t know what she wanted.
Haley looked at Jillian and said, “We have to do something.”
Jillian looked ready to cry but she held herself together as best she could. Haley put her hand on her shoulder. Normally, Haley would want to cry too, but for some reason she felt a calm feeling come over her, something telling her she had to take control and everything would be okay.
“We just have to think, Jilly. Think.”
Jillian closed her eyes and squeezed them shut, like she thought about something really hard. Haley thought she looked funny doing that, but she closed her eyes and did the same thing, so if Jillian opened her eyes for a second, she wouldn’t feel bad, like they all did it together.
Jack still felt trapped by Gabby, not in a bad way, but he couldn’t look away. He could tell now that Gabby wanted a doll. But it wasn’t just any doll, it was a particular doll, a doll he had seen before. A picture came to his mind.
Then, he knew what she wanted: Baby-Wets-A-Lot.
He looked around and couldn’t find the doll, but he felt like he really needed to. He looked on both couches and under the old wooden table
in the center of the room. He found a football they had been looking for, a couple of Lego’s, an empty Capri-Sun, but no doll.
“Just try to think of something that can get us out of this,” Haley said to Jillian, both of their eyes still closed tightly shut.
Braden stayed quiet through all of this because he had noticed something but didn’t know how to tell everyone else. When he looked at the Playstation controller, it moved. He thought perhaps he moved it himself. He couldn't be certain, but felt pretty sure about it. He wanted to try it again, but the whole idea scared him. No one could move things by just thinking about doing it. He saw stuff like that in the movies, not in real life. At least, everyone told him it worked that way.
He stared at the controller again, but it didn’t move. Maybe he had just thought he had moved the controller the first time. There was no way to know. Maybe he had to do something special to make it work. He really had no idea and there was no way to know for sure. He kept focusing, willing the controller to move.
“Hey, did anyone see Baby-Wets-A-Lot? Gabby wants it” Jack asked. He wondered if anyone would ask how he knew that. He hoped they didn’t. He didn't have a good answer.
Jillian and Haley didn’t respond. Jack could see they had their eyes closed like they thought about something. Jack felt another nudge in his mind from Gabby. She was getting impatient and really wanted Jillian’s doll, the one that went wee-wee all the time.
“I see it,” Braden said. He pointed to a spot next to the TV, and Jack walked over to grab it. Before he got halfway there, the doll lifted off the ground and floated over toward Gabby.
“What the--?” Jack asked.
The doll kept floating across the room and landed softly on Gabby’s lap, like it followed Braden’s finger.
“I did that!” Braden said.
“How?” Jack asked.
“How should I know? I just did it, that’s it. I did the same thing before with the game controller.”
“When?”
“A minute ago.”
“I didn’t see that,” Jack said.
“You don’t believe me?” Braden asked. He really didn't believe it himself so he could hardly blame his cousin for doubting him.
“I just said I didn’t see it.” Jack said.
“But you just saw me do that with the doll, right?” Braden asked.
“Well, I saw the doll float across the room.”
“Yes. I did that!”
Haley opened her eyes. “What are you guys talking about? We are trying to think of a plan here.”
“Braden said he made Jillian’s doll fly and that he made the Playstation controller move without his hands,” Jack said, the sound of his voice making it clear he didn't believe it at all.
“What?” Haley asked. She wondered what crazy thing would happen next.
“I did it, I swear!” Braden insisted.
“Come on, there’s no way you did that. That’s like, magic or something,” Jack said.
“I did it.”
“No way.”
“Yes way.”
“Guys, guys, you’ve got to stop arguing if you have any chance of getting out of here,” a familiar voice said. Everyone looked around the room to see where the voice came from.
“Who said that?” Braden asked.
“Doll talk,” Gabby said, smiling.
“What?” Haley asked.
“Doll talk. Doll talk,” Gabby said again.
“Doll talk?” the familiar voice said, and it sounded like it came from Gabby's direction.
“Uh-oh,” Jillian said. She had an idea why the doll talked.
“Uh-oh what?” Haley asked, looking back at Jillian, who opened her eyes.
“I think I did that,” Jillian answered.
“Did what, made that voice?”
“No.”
“Then what?” Haley asked. Things got stranger as time went on. What in the world had happened in those five minutes she had fallen asleep?
“Yeah, what’s with this ‘Doll talk’ stuff?” the male voice asked.
“Doll talk,” Gabby said, laughing. “Uncle.” It sounded like she said a name after uncle, but no one understood what she said. She had only started talking a few months ago.
“You told me to think of something, Haley, so I did,”
Jillian said.
“What did you think of?”
“Well, I thought of my Mommy and Daddy first, but not too much. Then I thought about something Uncle Johnny said today, and it made me laugh. Then I heard Jack talk about my doll.”
“You're saying Uncle Johnny is talking through your doll?” Haley asked.
"I think so," Jillian answered.
“Oh boy,” Uncle Johnny’s voice said.