Usuki Singing Stars #49: Patricia's Ghost

     “I’ll do it in the bathroom,” said Alan. The blue Shoyru quickly licked his fingers before running away. His Puppyblew Marc barked and followed him.

     “Great.” Patricia collapsed into a chair. With their mother gone for the afternoon, Patricia was left babysitting her younger brothers. She watched her youngest brother, Brayden, slam his oatmeal-caked hands on his high-chair tray. The baby Shoyru squealed happily as Patricia wiped his face and hands clean.

     After placing Brayden in his playpen in the living room, Patricia returned to the kitchen. The first thing she noticed was that all four chairs were pulled away from the table. “That’s odd,” she remarked. The chairs were quickly replaced, but then a cupboard above the refrigerator flew wide open.

     “Aflagoo!” Brayden shrieked.

     “What is it?” asked Patricia, rushing into the living room. She saw Brayden was pointing at a houseplant on the opposite side. “Oh, it must be watering time,” she mused.

     Brayden waved his rattle at the plant. “Kababloo! Goobagoobabla!”

     “Hang on a sec... I’ll get you out after I’m done.” Patricia filled a watering can and placed it on the counter. After Brayden was placed on the carpet, a loud crash erupted from the kitchen.

     Patricia gasped: the watering can was on the floor! Her immediate thought was that Alan knocked it down. But how could he? Alan was too short to reach the counter, and Patricia could hear him laughing outside. Okay, now things are getting freaky. Patricia picked up Brayden and hurried away.

     ***

     “I’m so exhausted.” Patricia flopped onto the sofa and groaned loudly. Cleaning up the kitchen and finding Brayden’s missing block tired her out. She looked down and smiled as Brayden built a three block tower. Just as she was closing her eyes for a quick nap, loud footsteps sounded from above.

     Marc barked as he chased Alan through the living room. “Ha! You can't catch me!” Alan taunted, urging the Puppyblew to follow him underneath the table.

     “Alan, stop running around. You’ll hurt yourself,” said Patricia. “You were loud enough upstairs, so be careful.”

     “But I wasn't upstairs.” Alan stopped. “I was outside with Marc. We were playing fetch.” Marc barked in agreement.

     Patricia sat up. “Wait, so you weren't upstairs just now?” she asked.

     “Nope,” said Alan. Marc barked again, and Alan chased him to the kitchen.

     “Hey, no running in the kitchen,” Patricia called to him. Then she cautiously tiptoed to the stairway. Another round of footsteps thudded above her. If Alan was still in the kitchen, or possibly outside by now, then who was upstairs? It couldn’t be Mom, since she hadn’t come home yet. And Brayden was too little to climb the stairs by himself.

     Brayden crawled to Patricia and began waving his rattle around. “Kababoom! Flagooga!” He pointed up to the second floor.

     “Are you sure you wanna go up there?” asked Patricia.

     “Trifo.” Brayden threw his rattle at the bottom stair.

     “Um, alright then.” Patricia picked up Brayden and carried him up the stairs. On the second floor, she set her brother down and scanned the hallways for any intruders. She peeked into her bedroom and then Alan’s, finding nothing out of place. Whoever's up here hasn’t disturbed anything yet, Patricia mused as she peeked into Brayden’s room.

     Brayden crawled into his room and picked up a ball. He squealed happily, throwing the ball across the room. When the ball began rolling back to him, Brayden hurried back to Patricia. “Kapagoo!” he shouted, pointing back to his room.

     The ball rolled out of the room and began bouncing down the stairs. Patricia’s eyes grew wide when the ball began bouncing up towards her; whoever was dribbling it threw it back into Brayden’s room. This can't be happening. It’s like there’s some kind of invisible ghost in the house! She was panicking. How could she protect Brayden from an invisible enemy?

     Laughing loudly, the stranger ran back down the stairs and threw the front door wide open. Clutching Brayden, who was squirming fiercely, Patricia cautiously descended the stairs and headed outside. She watched Alan and Marc run by, but the invisible stranger didn't seem to be anywhere. Then again, somebody who was invisible would always be hard to see! How would Patricia be able to find them?

     Alan threw a mud ball past Patricia. “Is it snack time yet?” he asked.

     “Why did you throw mud at me?” Patricia demanded. “You could have hit us!” Brayden waved at Alan.

     “I wasn't aiming at you,” Alan snorted. “When’s snack time?”

     Patricia set Brayden down. “Fine, I’ll get right on it. Watch Brayden for me.”

     Back in the kitchen, Patricia was surprised to see the pantry was open and a bag of cookies was discarded on the floor. Knowing Alan, she knew her brother couldn't have scarfed down an entire bag in one day. And whoever the cookie thief had also spilt a bit of flour in the pantry. “Great, more sweeping,” Patricia grumbled.

     Just as Patricia stepped out of the pantry, something bumped her hard. She stumbled as loud footsteps thudded around the kitchen. Thinking fast, Patricia grabbed the flour canister from the counter and began throwing flour in front of her. The invisible being was running faster now, and they were laughing at her! “Oh no you don’t!” Patricia sent a fistful of flour forwards.

     “Aw, you got me!” The silhouette of a Skeith appeared, the head and shoulders dusted with white flour.

     Patricia set the canister down. “Who are you?”

     “There you are, Wendell.” Alan ran to the Skeith, who was a few inches taller than him. “I've been looking all over for you! Were you hiding in the kitchen again?”

     Wendell laughed. “I was just getting something to eat. But then your sister began throwing flour at me, so I had to get away.”

     “Wait, so are you invisible??” gasped Patricia.

     “Yup. Aren't I the coolest?” Wendell boasted.

     “But you’re not wearing your sweater,” said Alan. “Didn't you say your Mommy knitted it for you?”

     Wendell stamped his foot. “I’m not a baby, Alan. I don’t need a crummy sweater. It wouldn't be cool!”

     Confused, Patricia shook her head. “Alan, did Mom know you had a playdate with an invisible Skeith?” She glared at Wendell, who was shaking flour off his head.

     “I don’t know,” said Alan. “But Wendell’s been here all day.” He giggled. “He even threw that flowering pot on the ground after I double-dared him!”

     "I was also hiding behind that houseplant," said Wendell, "but I had to leave when that baby noticed me."

     “Oh really?” Patricia crossed her arms and looked down at the spot she assumed Wendell was standing. “Were you the one I heard running upstairs? And who I saw messing around in the kitchen?”

     “Don’t forget the cookies.” Wendell and Alan burst out laughing.

     Patricia sighed. She surveyed all of the spilt flour on the floor. “You two better start cleaning up. There’s so much flour around here-”

     “Hey, that’s your fault!” Alan protested. “We’re innocent.”

     “Yeah!” Wendell and Alan ran out of the kitchen, laughing loudly. Marc followed them, barking.

     Patricia stared at the Puppyblew prints in the flour and groaned. “Now I have to clean all this up too,” she moaned to Brayden.

     “Gabloo!” Brayden crawled up to her, covered in flour from head to toe.

     “Okay. I’ll clean you up first,” said Patricia with a laugh. “At least now we don’t have to worry about any more invisible guests!”

     The End.