Ch. 7: Who do you listen to?
- Ch. 1: I’ll go in if you go in.
- Ch. 2: Like a cat’s eye at night. But it wasn’t night … and it wasn’t a cat.
- Ch. 3: Into the The Heart of Parkness
- Ch. 4: Do we stay or do we go?
- Ch. 5: Just Give In
- Ch. 6: Do we dare dig ourselves even deeper?
- Ch. 7: Who do you listen to?
- Ch. 8: Lu Goes First: Aliens, Farting, and Pepper!
- Ch. 9: Li Goes Deep: A Maze, Spiders, and Pepper
- Ch. 10: Last In, First Out?
- Ch. 11: Fright at the End of the Tunnel
- Ch. 12: Hi honey, I’m home!
- Ch. 13: It’ll be our Secret
How can a thing be in three places at the same time?
“I heard it here!” Li shouted.
“Me, too!” Lu said excitedly.
“I did, too!” I said quickly. “But it came through my tunnel,” I said.
“No, it came through mine,” Li answered back.
“No,” Lu said defensively, “it came through mine.”
We all were silent. In the shadowy darkness we all looked at each other.
“Pepper is in three pieces!” whispered Lu and looked at us sad and worried, but still kidding.
“No,” consoling as best I could, but I doubted he was serious. “Maybe all of the three tunnels meet at the same place.”
“Pepper!” Li shouted through his tunnel.
“Pepper!” Lu yelled.
“Pepper!” I called through my tunnel.
We all waited. Nothing but our breathing in the musty air of the dark cave. Then came the yelp, but it truly came from all three tunnels. They must meet somewhere deeper in the cave.
Lu spoke up first. “We need to all go our own ways,” he said as if he were 50 years older than his 7 years, wise in his ways, experienced beyond his time, and knowledgeable about our next steps.
Somehow, as if brainwashed by adventure and untouched by laws of parenthood and rational behavior, I needed to agree. We were going to split up and it was going to be OK. I didn’t know it was going to be OK, but at this point I felt it more than I knew it and I didn’t need to rationalize it or explain it.
“OK,” I said, “Let’s split up.”
[hr]
Author’s “Meta” Note, not to be read to listeners.
Dear Reader,
This next decision defies all logic, parenthood, and even good editing. But it’s going to happen. I might regret it, but I just have to follow the story as accurately as I can. I wanted collaborators in the story (Li & Lu) and I have to listen to at least some of what they suggest. What Lu suggested will get me in trouble with respectable parenting groups, my peers, and probably anyone who has even heard of kids. But I want to follow his lead, I want this to be partly what they wanted, what they suggested.
The Author
