Mama always told me how lucky we were to have such wonderful helping hands that look after us and take care of us the way they do. Our neighbors who live across the street don’t get visited by their helping hands half as much as my family does. My family is special— or at least that’s what Daddy tells me.
Mama is a beautiful woman with curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks. She’s slightly plump and usually wears garden dresses with aprons. This is so that whether she needs to cook, or work in the garden, she’ll be prepared. My daddy is a hard working man who is ‘tall, dark, and handsome’, like my mama says. The one thing that’s strange about Daddy is that, when he tells us he’s going to work, all he does is drive around in the van (with the help of the helping hands, so that he doesn’t get into a car accident) then stays parked in the driveway for a few hours. I’m not sure how that’s considered a job, but I’ve never had the guts to question it. My 7 (and of course, ¾) year old brother is usually rather annoying. Wallace is a messy-haired, snot-nosed child who just needs to grow up. But Daddy’s always good at disciplining him. I, on the other hand, am a 4 foot 8 inch tall girl with shiny, golden hair that curls in little ringlets. I guess you could say it’s a younger, more energized version of my mama’s hair. The only outfit you’ll ever see me in is a light pink sun dress with fluffy white ruffles. It’s the prettiest dress I’ve ever laid my eyes on.

Brother and I go to school almost every single day of the week. We get up early in the morning, eat breakfast, and then get on the big yellow bus. Oddly enough, Brother and I are the only children that take the bus. There isn’t even a bus driver. Somehow (again, with the help of the helping hands) we end up driving around for a while, and then staying parked somewhere far away from our home. After a few hours, the bus drives us back to our house, and Mama greets us at the door with, “How was your day?” We both give her the same answer each day—a shrug of our shoulders and a flash of a sweet smile, just to make her feel satisfied. I wonder if she knows what we do while we’re supposed to be at school. Don’t she and Daddy live in fear of what we could be doing without their supervision? I mean, one of Mama and Daddy’s main rules is for Brother and me never to leave the house, and never to step outside the front door unless it’s to get on the school bus or into our van. And once we’re in a vehicle, we’re never allowed to get out of it under any circumstances unless we are safely parked in our own driveway, getting into our house. Long story short, my family cannot go outside at all except for getting from a vehicle to the inside of our house.

That rule may sound strange to you, but I know that once Mama and Daddy are set on a rule, it must be obeyed. The only reason why I don’t disobey their rules is because it’s never done anything but good things for me by obeying them. However, I do sometimes get rather curious about why we can’t go outdoors. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt just to look around a little bit…
then again, maybe it’s so terrible that I’d be better off just following the rules that I’m supposed to be following…
aww, come on! A 10 year old girl should have some adventure in her life! Don’t you think?


A few days have passes since I last thought about disobeying Mama and Daddy. I’ve come up with a plan. I’m going to tell Mama that I’ll be catching the bus for school, but then I’ll actually sneak behind the bus, and go explore what’s around me. Sounds good, right? Well, I’ll try it out to see how it works.

“Sweetie, it’s time to get up and ready for school!” Mama is calling me down to start the day. Here goes nothing!

“I’ll be right down, mama,” I call. Rubbing my groggy eyes, I walk over to my closet and put my little black shoes on. I looked at my clock—it’s 9:00?! I slept way too late this morning! The bus will be here any minute.

“Hurry up! You’re going to miss the bus!” Mama yells.

“Coming, Mama!” I cry, racing down the stairs, two steps at a time. Wallace is already putting his empty cereal bowl in the sink.

“You haven’t got time for breakfast,” Mama says, “Just take this with you.” She holds up a nutrition bar and an apple, and then hands them over to me. Just as I take a nice and juicy bite of the apple, Brother screams, “THE BUS IS HERE!” causing me to nearly choke on the bits of apple in my mouth. Brother and I get our kisses from Mama, and then run out to the bus. Just before I walked behind the bus, I looked back. Mama was standing at the front door, waving me on to the bus. I half-smiled, then I slowly walked onto the bus. Well, so much for that plan…


As a 10 year old girl, thinking of exceptionally intelligent plans that are supposed to out-smart someone more than 3 times my age, isn’t exactly a walk in the park. So I’ve decided to stop wasting my time coming up with plans, and to just do it. Tonight, during dinner, I’ll make the great escape. I’m going to excuse myself to “use the bathroom”, when really, I’ll be running out the door and into the unknown!

As soon as Daddy calls me down for dinner, my heart starts to race. At the dinner table, my hands shake and my palms begin to sweat. I can’t tell whether I hate or love the rush of adrenaline I’m getting.

“You look awfully nervous tonight. What’s the matter with—?”

“Nothing! It’s uhm… it’s nothing,” I answer, maybe a little too quickly. Mama raises an eyebrow at me. I ask to be excused to ‘use the restroom’. I want to get this over with as soon as possible. Daddy nods his head, giving me permission. Here I go…

My heart is beating so fast, it amazes me that it’s not protruding through my chest. I take slow and steady steps out of the dining room and towards the front door. Stay calm, you can do this, I think to myself. Carefully, I pick up my walking pace, until I am almost running to the front door. I hear utensils clinking with the plates in the dining room. Opening the door quietly, I look back and catch my daddy’s eyes.

“Where do you think you’re going, young lady?” Daddy yells in his scary, mad voice from the dining room. I walk out the door and slam it shut behind me. I can picture Mama, Daddy, and Brother all coming after me. I’m almost out of my driveway when I hear the front door open.

“Come back here, right now!” Mama cries, sounding more concerned than I’ve ever heard her before. I almost feel bad for disobeying them like this.

“Do you know how much danger you could be in?” yells Daddy. Trying to block out the sounds of their voices, I lift my right foot, getting it ready to step off our property. Closing my eyes, I jump completely off with both my feet. I can no longer hear the voices of my family. I open my eyes and turn around, only to find my Mama and Daddy standing completely still at the doorway. It’s almost as if they’re not real.

Suddenly, the ground rumbles, getting louder and louder each second. I can tell something is coming. I can tell something is near. My stomach churns when I see what the rumbling was caused by. A colossal, fluffy dog prances in front of me. It looks exactly like any other dog, only about 100 times the size of one. A glob of spit the size of my head drips from the tip of the dog’s longest tooth. Disgusted, I turn away. But what I see is even more astounding than the dog. It’s an enormous, and I mean ENORMOUS version of a bed. Then I realize something. I’m in someone’s bedroom. But what kind of massive giant would own such a room? And why would my house be inside of it?

Out of no where, I feel something strange in my neck. The dog has bitten through it! Terrified, I thrash myself all over, trying to get out of the dog’s grasp. I fall to the floor, which causes both of my legs and my right arm to detach from my body. The dog picks me up again, still keeping my neck between its big, yellow teeth. I try to catch my breath, but as you can probably imagine, it’s a little hard to breathe when there’s a huge tooth going through your neck. Someone whistles for the dog. Its ears perk up, and he drops me quickly, making my head and left arm pop off of my body. I glance over at all of my destroyed limbs, and wonder why I ever even thought about leaving my house.