Lollipop

Written By: Israel Rose

I do not know what is going on but it is scaring me. It is scaring me so bad right now. This has never happened to me before and I think I am crazy. I should have listened to my mommy. She said not to talk to the old man at the playground because he is crazy, and that we won’t go there unless he is gone. So she told me to just play in the backyard but I went to the playground anyway because it was just across the street. And I talked to the man and he was nice to me, he gave me two lollipops, one was for me and the other one was for my dog. He said the brown one was a dog treat to give to my dog Bruce. So I ate my lollypop outside and before I went inside today I was going to give the other one to my dog. But I licked it once because I was curious and it tasted nasty so I threw it away. I didn’t want to give my dog a nasty lollypop. I felt really happy this evening because we were having my grandpa’s baked cookies tonight, and I thought it was the cookies but I felt happier than usual. And before I went to sleep I was seeing colors on the walls.

I woke up the next morning and I was getting ready for school but my mommy came to my room and told me that school was closed today. So I got happy and I changed into my normal outside clothes and got my kickball out of my closet. The old man yesterday told me that I could play kickball with him today whenever I could get to the playground again. I asked him if his knees would give in from trying to kick the ball and he got mad at me. That is when he gave me the lollipops. I can be mean sometimes but I don’t feel like I deserved all of this.

I went outside this morning and I started kicking my ball on the sidewalk because I also wanted to draw with my chalk, so I just went to the front yard instead of the back and the man was not at the playground yet. But when I was kicking my ball a green van drove by. I saw a buff bald man driving and he was staring at me, and in the other seat was the old man and he was looking at me as if he did not know me. I waved hi but they just kept staring at me and drove very slow past my house. Then they drove really fast after they couldn’t see me anymore. I didn’t know why the old man was acting so weird but I just started playing again. 

I accidentally kicked my ball across the street to the other side on the grass, and when I was on the other side of the street to get my ball the van drove back to me. They drove a little bit ahead of me and the buff man poked his head out to look at me again and he was smiling a little bit. I asked him why he was also acting so weird but he didn’t say anything. I thought maybe he was doing something called “peoplewatching” that my mommy told me about so I just didn’t ask any more questions and started walking across the street again. But when I was behind the van it backed up really fast and bumped into me. I fell on the ground and I screamed a little bit, and the man started laughing at me. I got up and ran inside of my house, I ran to my room and hid under the bed. But then I remembered that I didn’t even lock the front door so I ran back downstairs and locked it. They were still outside looking at me so I closed the window curtains and then ran back upstairs under my bed. I was really scared and I was trying not to cry, but I started crying anyway. I don’t know how long I was under the bed for until I came back out and it was darker outside. My mommy always came home at 6:30 but it was 7:04. So I got even more scared because I wanted her home even earlier than 6:30 but now she isn’t even here yet. I could not remember her phone number that she told me so I could not call her. I was too scared to look outside of the window again so I just sat in a corner in the living room and waited for mommy. But I was also scared that if the door opened it would be the buff man or the old man, so I hid under a blanket with my eye peeking at the door. 

I must have fallen asleep because the door started unlocking and I woke up really fast and almost started crying again, but when the door opened it was mommy. I ran to her and started hugging her and telling her what happened, but she just moved me off of her and started putting her stuff on the counter. She looked tired, or like she was thinking about something serious. I just woke up too and maybe I was talking too fast so I started thinking for a little bit, and then I started explaining what happened again but slower so that she could understand. But she didn’t even answer me again. She walked away and started going up the stairs. I started following her and asking her what was wrong. I didn’t know why she was ignoring me. 

But then my craziness started happening now. Or at least this is when I know I started going crazy. My mommy took the ladder stairs down and started climbing up to the attic. I was confused. I didn’t know why she was going to the attic, she never went up there. She said she would not go up there unless the man who kills bugs came to kill the spiders because she hated spiders. I didn’t follow her up there. She didn’t even turn the lightbulb on, I couldn’t see her anymore. I was just standing there for a little bit, looking at the dark attic while my mommy still didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even hear her breathing. I can always hear her breathing because she has asthma. I just walked away and went back to my room. I looked at my window and decided to be brave. I wanted to know if the van was still outside. And if it wasn’t then maybe it was not too big of a deal, maybe I was being scared for no reason. So I slowly walked over to the window and peeked behind the curtain. The van was still outside. But my mommy was outside too. She was talking to the men in the van. Before I could even get confused, it turned completely nighttime outside in one second. And the lights turned off in my room but my door was open and the lights were still on in the hallway. In the reflection of the window I saw a monster in the doorframe. I couldn’t turn around in time to see what it looked like but it was a body shape that wasn’t my mommy’s, or any human I have seen before.