It was a quiet Thursday afternoon in the Silver Spring neighborhood and most kids were inside on this very hot day. And in one house there were two kids, two kids who were about to have a very big secret...
Robert casually reached for the closet door and a look of fear covers his face as he examines what's inside. After he takes it in he screams.
“Robert, why are you making all that noise! I actually have homework to do, and a life!” His sister's best friend, Nora yells from the kitchen. “Sorry, it's just so disturbing,” he whimpered as he closed the door with a horrified
expression on his face. “What did you do to the closet? It looks like it's been to hell and back!”
“I really don’t care what’s inside the closet as long as it's cleaned out by the time my mom gets home. I promised her I’d do it!" Nora yelled back at him.
“You're paying me right?” he asked uncertain about his decision.
“Yes, as long as my face shines in it by the time you're finished, you get two grand.”
“Really?” he asked hopefully.
“Nope, you get ten bucks.”
He sighed. Robert didn’t really enjoy Nora’s company and neither did she enjoy his but when his sister Rebecca had violin lessons they had to compromise. So he did work for money and they stayed away from each other as much as possible the rest of the time. They both wanted to spent time with Rebecca but now she was too busy most of the time with all those after school clubs she was doing.
Robert went to the shed and got out gloves for gardening. He would need them for the job he was about to do.
Robert slammed the door to the house and got the rest of his cleaning supplies out of the bathroom. He hesitated as he turned the knob of the door and when he opened it it seemed that it had revisited hell again. He noticed a stench that he hadn’t smelled before and resisted the urge to hurl. Robert got to work on the closet at first spraying Febreze which by the way did not give him any fresh air at all but it was better than before. He started to move the objects from the shelves, coming across some very weird objects including an old diaper and and a long peacock dress with ketchup stains on it. He found a football that had a cool silver stitch on the sides of it from the closet and instead of throwing it away he dusted it off and shoved it into his backpack. “Why waste a perfectly good football? It's not like anyone else wanted it anyway,” he thought to himself.
Nora finished her homework and decided to text Rebecca.
thewonderfulnora: U done with school?
thecrazbecca: in about 20min
thewonderfulnora: About time,dn b L8.
thecrazbecca: btw how is Robert?
thewonderfulnora: he's having fun cleaning the forbidden closet. Dun dun dun..:>
Thecrazbecca: lol,c u later !
thewonderfulnora: bye!
Nora searched through apps looking for a game to play while she waited for Rebecca. She smiled as she tapped on a game that she had downloaded because Rebecca loved it and it was something that they both found fun but most of all addicting. Crossy Road! She scrolled through the characters and found her favorite... It was Emo goose! Nora loved this game. Robert came into the room carrying two trash bags. “Robert wasn’t kidding, they smelled!” she thought.
“Hey,” he said as he walked by.
“It’s done.”
She pulled out a ten dollar bill from her pocket and gave it to him.
The Football of Doom
By Marika Payen