A Tank Full of Sharks

An excerpt from a piece I wrote for Novella Class.

Age 10 – Michael’s House

Michael and I went over to his house at about three just after school and he stopped just before turning the front door handle and told me to be quiet. I had a cold but I held it in the best I could and we snuck through the dark-wooded front hall. It had an old green shag carpet and Chinese vases but it smelled really strange, like plastic. The floor creaked which I guess happens a lot in big old houses like Michael’s and I heard a noise from the back room.

“Mikey? That you?” It was a scratchy woman’s voice and it pricked my ears like pine needles. It was weird. Michael looked wide-eyed at me and then shouted yes.

“Well, can you come back here for a second? I’ve gotta show you something.” Michael motioned me up the stairs while he shuffled through a heavy wooden arch with carvings like trees. I made my way up, trying my best not to let the stairs creak although it was very difficult being fat and walking up old stairs. I reached the top, keeping my eyes fixed on the stairs so much that I ran head-first into a large white belly. It belonged to an old guy who had grey hair and his face was painted like a clown. A sad clown who used to be crying. He burped and looked at me blearily. I saw a can of beer in his hand and tried to brush past. He groped at me and said in a fuzzy voice,

“Hey, boy, you gowat de pwa—” but his face looked like he lost interest and he stared funny at the can in his hand for a second, then tried to put it to his lips and missed, spilling foam all down his prickly grey chest. I brushed past him again and he didn’t stop me and I walked all the way down the hall until I saw a bathroom and went inside and closed the door.

Michael came up after a little while and we went into his room until the sun went down. He had some new army men figures and also a whole chest full of legos. I made a battle ship and we put the army men on it. It didn’t work because army men are too big for legos, but it was still a lot of fun and I won twice and let him win the last time so I could keep coming over.