Chapter 2

I felt someone poking my tummy. When my eyes opened, I saw Jesse, my babysitter, sitting on my bed.

"Wake up, Keith," she said. "It's morning."

Her pokes turned into tickles. She clawed her fingers into my ribs, and I squirmed around, trying to hit the college undergraduate with my little seven-year-old hands. With all the force and effort I exerted trying to hit her, I fell right into her arms and she hugged me and carried me downstairs for breakfast.

Jesse is a devout Christian college student who would rather spend her free time babysitting children than partying with friends. I liked Christians. They tend to be nice people. I've heard a lot about evil Christians in my history class, but I've never actually seen a mean Christian with my own eyes.

Jesse carried me downstairs. Sherwin was already at the kitchen table eating. Jesse put me down and went to the stove to prepare pancakes.

"I have a physics assignment to hand in today," said Jesse. "Would you two kids be able to take care of yourselves or should I bring you along like before?"

I hated going to university. "No, I wanna stay home."

She finished the pancakes and served them. "Remember not to open the door for strangers, okay? I'll be back in an hour or two." She went upstairs to get her papers. When she came back down again she wore more colourful clothes.

When Jesse left, Sherwin and I played cricket in the backyard again. Sherwin bowled and I batted. After five minutes, the ball went over the fence and landed in Wayne's backyard.

"Oh, man!" said Sherwin. "You hit it over, so you have to get it."

"I don't wanna get it."

"Are you afraid of the ghost that lives there?"

"No."

"Then why don't you climb over the fence and get it?"

"Fine then!"

I dropped the cricket bat and walked up to the fence. Sherwin pulled a trashcan near the fence for me to climb on. With my feet on the trashcan, my eyes went above the fence. I looked into Wayne's backyard, which looked so foreign, like a different planet. Wayne's backyard was less neat. There were more gardening utensils like spades lying around. In the middle of the backyard was a pile of black ashes.

Using all my upper-body strength I pulled myself up till I balanced on the top of the fence. Then, without warning, I fell. I felt my little seven-year-old body dropping two metres to the ground. I got up with small scratches and bruises on my arms. I looked up and saw my pants on top of the fence. I then looked down and saw my little willy in between my legs. My pants must've got caught on the fence as I fell.

"Sherwin! Get my pants."

I saw Sherwin's head bobbing up over the fence. "They're all ripped up. Just throw the ball back and climb back over. Quickly."

"Can you go inside and see if there are any spare pants?"

"Alright then. Wait a minute."

Although I couldn't see him through the fence, I heard Sherwin running off into the house. I found the cricket ball without a problem and threw it back into my backyard. The only problem was getting back over. When I climbed over the fence before I needed help from a trashcan. But since there was no trashcan on the other side of the fence, how do I get back? I couldn't. I had to find a way to get to the front. I found a gate that separated the backyard from the front garden. This gate was covered with thick plants and fern. Unfortunately, this gate was locked with a giant padlock. The only way I could get to the front was through Wayne's house, assuming that his back door was open. And to make things harder, I had to do all this without any pants on.

After turning the doorknob, I pushed and pulled the back door. It opened when I pulled. Inside was a dark laundry room with a rusty washing machine and a bucket filled with dirty clothes. I rummaged through the dirty clothes, trying to find spare pants.

I heard someone singing. The voice was low--it vibrated through the walls. I froze and stayed that way for a minute, afraid of making any sudden movements. The singing was more like chanting.

Most of the clothes in the bucket were too big for me, which made sense considering Wayne was an overweight old man while I was a little kid. But after searching for a while, I managed to find pink underwear that covered my hip region well. I also found blue Nike shorts that were small enough for me.

The chanting stopped. I stayed still and listened to footsteps. Someone was climbing upstairs. This was my opportunity to try get to the front door.

I tiptoed out the laundry room and entered the living room. The walls were mostly clean, but every now and then grey streaks appeared. In the corners were spider webs. A swarm of ants started to tickle my bare feet. Although liveable, this house was quite a mess.

Very strangely, the living room had no television. Instead, the couch faced a white wall. On the white wall was a giant dollar sign painted in gold, a giant "S" with a vertical line down the middle.

I heard footsteps coming from the stairs. Someone was coming down! I had to hide. My head scanned the living room quickly. I ran towards a large, thick pot plant at the corner of the living room and hid behind it.